The content of this article is not part of official Warcraft lore, but has nevertheless become part of the World of Warcraft culture or community.
A strategy for many fights, staying out of the fire is nonetheless an commonly overlooked habit of players. Depending on the fight, "fire" may be in fact several different kinds of effects, but overall refers to any negative effect, usually outright dangerous-looking, to the player that is solved simply by moving. A fight requiring this strategy is usually considered one step up from tank and spank as it only requires paying attention to a second aspect to the fight aside from the target itself.
As these are even more obvious visually than simple debuffs, the phrase usually implies the victim is a complete noob (especially if the effect IS fire, which is always negative) and deserves their fate. Healers waste heals and subsequently hate players who don't stay out of fire, while they tend to be even more fatal than a mob's usual attacks.
Less ignorant reasons for not staying out of the fire include players with long spell casting times (and thus cannot move while casting) or players with low graphical settings (making some spell effects more difficult to see). Melee, in particular, tends to either suffer or require them to dance around an enemy to continue attacking. Occasionally the effect is either randomized or occurs in a pattern requiring previous knowledge of the fight, and thus is easy or hard depending on the player, such as the Heigan dance.