World of Warcraft: Fire Mage PvP Post 3.1

Patches change things. We all know this, and we've come to expect it from playing World of Warcraft as long as we have. Back in the old day, PvPing a Fire Mage was unbelievable. Every good Mage was frost. That was just the way you had to do things if you wanted to win. Yeah, you had the occasional arcane mage, but you never saw a purely Fire Mage going head to head with Warriors and Druids. Fire didn't work because it had no way of controlling the opponent. Yes, it could do damage, but that Warrior is going to outdamage you if he gets close, which Fire failed to prevent. Thing have changed. Fire Mages rejoice. It's time to get into PvP.

Fire Mages are going to rock in Battlegrounds, but pretty much lose their capabilities in Arena. This is why I'm going to explain the cookie cutter Fire Mage spec right now. This is THE spec you'll need if you're going into battlegrounds as a Fire Mage. It's been carefully tested by a multitude of players and it's shown time and time again that it is the hands down best spec for Battlegrounds. Why? Well because it's fast, efficient, and it's going to give you a few extra tricks up your sleeve that you wouldn't be able to do with say....Arcane/Fire or just Fire alone. Without further delay, here it is:

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This spec maximizes all of your moves and tricks in the battlegrounds, including a heavy emphasis on AoE damage. While it's true that it's a fire spec, it also delves into the realm of frost to get the one and only Icy Veins talent. We all know PvP is about speed, so increasing your spellcasting by 20% with Icy Veins is nothing to brush off. I've seen it countless times. You're going to win battles solely because of this talent, it's just that good. Whatever you do, don't forget to get this talent. You can try and adapt this build to your own playstyle as much as you want, but DO NOT drop Icy Veins. Impact is going to give you a nice interrupt and stun to make up for the immobilizing effects you're losing in frost, and sometimes they work even better, especially if an opponent is up close.

Blazing Speed will help you get out of sticky situations, but still, you're going to have to be fast and already have your escape path planned. Planning is the number one thing that anybody can do in battlegrounds to survive long enough. I'm a professional logger, and before I go up to fell a tree, I always have an escape path planned in case that tree doesn't come down in the direction that I expect. So should you in battlegrounds. Always have a planned route to get out of a sticky situation. Blazing speed will make it a lot easier should you ever need to use this escape route.

The Firestarter talent is going to give you instant flamestrikes. That's right folks. This is where your AoE comes in handy. After you blast wave (to get out of the way) or Dragon's Beath, hit the ground with an instant flamestrike and you're talking some crazy damage. Impact is one of the key talents that makes this build work as well, along with Icy Veins.

The Final talent that adds the burst to this build is Hot Streak. It states that when you crit twice, you're going to have an instant cast pyroblast. Put all of this together and you've got a recipe for destruction. You can Fireball, Fireblast, instant pyroblast, blast wave, then instant Flamestrike your opponent. If they aren't dead after that, then well, they're badass.

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