Fire Wave at a glance
Fire Wave is a members' spell with a 5 tick cast speed and no quest requirement. It is the strongest fire spell until Fire Surge at 95 Magic. Its base max hit is 20, raised by Magic damage bonus and by targets that are weak to fire.
Something many players miss: once you have 75 Magic, every wave spell shares Fire Wave's 20 max hit. Lower wave spells now scale up to the highest wave you have unlocked. So at 75 Magic, Fire Wave only beats Wind Wave when the target is weak to fire or when your gear boosts fire spells in particular.
| Spell | Level | Runes | Base xp | Max hit at 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wind Wave | 62 | 5 air, 1 blood | 36 | 20 |
| Water Wave | 65 | 7 water, 5 air, 1 blood | 37.5 | 20 |
| Earth Wave | 70 | 7 earth, 5 air, 1 blood | 40 | 20 |
| Fire Wave | 75 | 7 fire, 5 air, 1 blood | 42.5 | 20 |
| Fire Surge | 95 | 10 fire, 7 air, 1 wrath | 50.5 | 24 |
Cutting the rune cost
The blood rune is the expensive part of each cast; the elemental runes are what a staff removes.
- Smoke battlestaff or mystic smoke staff: supplies fire and air runes, so each cast needs only the blood rune, and adds 10% accuracy and damage to standard spellbook spells.
- Twinflame staff: supplies fire and water runes, adds 10% accuracy and damage on standard spells, and fires a second hit one tick later for 40% of the first. Fire Wave gets that extra hit; surge spells do not. You still pay for air runes.
- Staff of fire or staff of air: the cheap option, covering one of the two.
- Tome of fire: an unlimited fire rune source in the shield slot (see below).
Tome of fire and the elemental amulet
A charged tome of fire gives standard fire spells 10% extra damage against monsters and 50% against players, using one charge per cast. It used to give 50% against monsters too; that was cut to 10% in May 2024 when elemental weaknesses were added. Charges come from burnt pages or searing pages. Searing pages also raise your minimum hit to 10% of the max hit.
The elemental amulet, added in September 2026, adds 2 to the max hit of elemental spells before other damage bonuses. That is a big jump for a 20 max hit spell, so for wave spells it is worth testing against the occult necklace in a DPS check.
When to use Fire Wave
Use it on monsters that are weak to fire. Moss giants are a simple example: a Twinflame staff will even switch Wind Wave to Fire Wave against them automatically. The Royal Titans are another, where 75 Magic for Fire Wave and Water Wave is the usual recommendation, and the Twinflame staff itself is part of that boss's rewards.
For training, Fire Wave is not the most efficient way to buy xp. If you just want Magic levels, compare it with the cheaper routes in the Magic training guide or the splashing calculator for AFK xp. Fire Wave makes sense when you are killing something useful at the same time.
Fire Wave or Fire Surge
Fire Surge at 95 hits 24 at base and uses a wrath rune instead of a blood rune. Its max hit also pulls the other surge spells up, so Water Surge and the rest all hit 24 once Fire Surge is unlocked. Until then, a boosted Fire Wave with a smoke or Twinflame staff is the practical choice for fire-weak targets. Check exact numbers for your gear in the DPS calculator.