Trailblazing Guide to Fire

Alrighty, I made a decent AM loadout that only uses a single bust damage power, and now I'm debating which to use as main one. Flame Cascade, Mass Det or Fire Burst. I'm only using ONE POWER as my main source of damage. AS it seems Mass Det can deal the most damage but isn't constant but I can clip it with a short weapon attack (Same with Fire Burst). Gets a little tricky to clip it with Flame Cascade since timing takes practice and it hasn't got a cast bar.
Which one should I pick?
This would be a no brainer if MD was constant but it doesn't seem like it will change any tme soon.

Fire Burst is medium range, has a longer cast time than MD, and has about a 1 second cool down. It hits about 20% harder than mass detonation, but overall your DPS will go down with Fire Burst even if you stay in range. Fire Burst does NOT build supercharge as of GU44 (my last testing of it).

If you use AM, Mass Detonation has to be your main source of damage. There really is no other option. In my experience, if you don't have flame cascade in your load out you will lose the power return mechanic often and spend a long time waiting for it to come back.

Flame Cascade: [Vulnerable to Interrupt] [Weapon Mastery Crit Excluded] Launch a barrage of flaming balls at your enemies, damaging and knocking them down.
[Power Interactions] Activates Volatility when used against Burning enemies increasing the damage they take. [Thermal Absorption] Restores power while you have Volatility and when attacking Burning enemies. Extends the duration of Burning, Volatility and Thermal Absorption effects.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets.
Power Cost:275
Base Damage: 4 ticks of 7-10 / 13-18 against burning foes or when Volatility is active.
Returns power immediately in AM. No cool down.

Fireburst: [Vulnerable to Interrupt] Unleashes a pyroclastic barrage against your enemies, damaging and knocking them down.
[Power Interactions] Activates Volatility when used against Burning enemies. [Thermal Absorption] Restores power while you have Volatility and when attacking Burning enemies. Burning, Frostbitten, and Electrified enemies take additional damage. Extends the duration of Burning, Volatility and Thermal Absorption effects.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 60% until the hit counter resets.
Power Cost: 450
Base Damage: 4 ticks of 12-19 / 33-46 against burning targets / 38-49 with Volatility
About a 1.5 second cast time before doing damage. About a 1 second cool down after the 4th tick of damage. Returns power with the first tick of damage in AM.

Mass Detonation: [Vulnerable to Interrupt] Detonates a damaging blast of flames on your target and nearby enemies.
[Power Interactions] Damage increases while you have Volatility. [Thermal Absorption] Restores power while you have Volatility and when attacking Burning enemies. Extends the duration of Burning, Volatility and Thermal Absorption effects.
[Damage Role] Increases all damage by 60% until the hit counter resets.
Power Cost: 450
Base Damage: 44-81 / 130-160 with Volatility
About a 2 second cast time. No cool down.

I just started using Fireburst in my am loadout and I have seen it crit pretty consistently at 4-6k for 3 of the 4 ticks while my mass det will crit 20k sometimes and 4k others...so I am using both...just me though

Yeah, that's what I hate about Mass Det.

I've been using this for a day:
Inferno, Fiery weapon, Burning Determination, Mass Detonation, Voltanic Calaminity, Robot sidekick
I clip FW and BD with Inferno, which triggers thermal obsorption (Spends a lot of power) then Mass Det into handblasters hold (Holding it at ~80% of MD cast bar gives an instant HB shot) then MD again, and again, then I recast Inferno with FW.

I dont think Volcanic Calamity is still a good choice.
Since the last change to "make it crit with WM" it became bad. Before that update, it crit 3 times for like 16k while having small dots. Now you get the first crit, wich is huge (around 20-25k) but then nothing happens, just small dots.

Now id rather keep the SC bar full and get the increased damage for it.

Did not know they changed VC....hmmmm may be time to tweak the loadout again lol

Cant remember exactly when it was, but it was not long ago.
The update notes only said that from now on, SC´s would get the WM critical "Ring". But after that...VC stoped hitting as hard as before.

Thanks for the info

Sooo, in the new dlc's preview Loche was not using FW in the AM loadout. That's new to me. I might later on test it to see if it's beneficial to Mass Detonation. However I have my doubts since Mass Detonations damage seems randomized.
Following that logic, I'll be trying out this: Inferno, Burning Determination, Mass Detonation, Wildfire, absorb heat (re-activating thermal absoprtion if BD is still on cooldown), Robot sidekick/VC.
Same rotation as I stated before. Inferno clipped with BD into MD at ~80% cast bar of MD I clip into HB ranged hold, repeat MD into HB until inferno is back-up. Wildfire for new adds, previous loadout had a flaw, only inferno could inflict burning and Absorb heat is meant for reactivating TA, which is jump canceled.

Good day Pyros!
Theory proven wrong, Loche's decision to not use FW was not wise, FW increased MD critical hit damage by 2k. 98 cr trinket by average of 2-3k.
With 112 cr I achieved:
15,4k crit on burning targets (no boosts)
17,4k crit on burning targets with FW
21,2k crit on burning targets with FW and 98cr trinket

Still, the MD hits aren't consistent. Lowest hits are bellow 2k mark. With HB solar flare (No Mastery unlocked) the lowest I've done is 3k (summing first and second hit). That's not right.

Mass Detonation needs increased high hit chance, 10k being the lowest on burning targets and increased base damage, in order to achieve hits in the 30k/40k range.
Here's why: In the time frame a player casts MD it is posible to squeeze in two DW>Explosive shots which has a higher chance of acheving damage above 10k, more frequently than Mass Detonation which is (a) Vulnerable to interrupt, (b) Casts a long time - major drawback in the new raids and LaW since blocking on skulled targets is mandatory in order to survive.
Also it would be good to take into concideration to increase Thermal Absorbtion's timer to last additional 5 seconds. Since Reapplying the boosts and TA takes too much time. Mass Detonation to inflict burning to the surrounding area.

Given the risk/reward factor which is in some power AMs these changes should be made to Mass Detonation in order to bring Fire's AM in line with other competitive powers.

Also for now, to my knowledge, the loadout of choice would be: Inferno, BD, FW, MD, Absorb Heat, Wildfire.
Inferno clipped with FW, BD into MD clipped with HB solar flare. Wildfire on non burning targets and AH in order to reactiveate TA if BD is still in cooldown or you're low on power.

You should note that you only have ONE way of activating the AM with this load out. Absorb Heat requires Flame Cascade or Fire Burst to complete the activation of the AM. Instead try

Inferno/Wildfire BD MD AH FC RS

If you choose wildfire instead of inferno you're not using ANYTHING in the Immolation tree leaving lots of power points for mostly useless iconic intrinsic powers. Actually, this is a good way to go at low CR when +100 health is noticeable.

Quick comments about GU47:

+ Did anyone notice in the HOP2 preview that Mass Det. looked like it had character control? They kept falling over themselves a little too much when Mass Det was hitting. I also didn't notice any dud numbers. Maybe this was a hint that we're getting a little update after all.

+ Escalating Might V gives you 3% of your Might. "Might" be worth looking into full Might modding again.

+ Reserve Tank - 25% increase in Power Pool. But is it fixed?!!?

Haven't formally re-tested MD, but I did the AF2 Solo as CR109 Fire today. The Crowd Control on MD worked a couple of times. It's honestly very hard to tell because of all the other changes that are in. The health of the enemies seems greatly decreased-- especially the drones and the braniac amazons at the very end.

I'll hit some sparring targets at CR0 tomorrow and try to see if there are any damage changes.

So please share with us anything useful u find out.

I saw Tunso using AM- the FW buff. But damn if he wasn't getting juggled in that preview lol.

Can you run some tests on Fireburst too. I'd love to see if it's doing a little more with the increased might boost. Lastly is inferno< FW still bleeding us dry of power on test? I read something about powers costing less but honestly haven't kept up with all the Dev Posts lol.

Not using Fiery Weapon seems an odd choice. What was his load out?


So far I've been playing mainly with legends and weaponization.

The only changes to Fire's base power cost are:

Wildfire was 200 is now 250
Mass Detonation was 450 is now 350

All other base (cr0) costs are the same. Including Inferno and Fiery Weapon.

Base damage of the various powers seems unchanged.

Using a summoned meteor as a weapon at CR34 now does 250-320 damage. It used to be 70-90. It's a bit higher at cr106, but I didn't test extensively to find out the exact range.

Thanks LT,

And during the Livestream, Tunso went Inferno< Burning Det straight into Mass Det. Almost certain i didnt see FW on his bar. He was netting more high-end crits with Mass Det as well and that made me wonder if FW is what has been throwing mass det's crit range out of whack. {tested this on my own and my Mass Det's hit for less but i still got the same range of crits}

I wonder why the increase in wildfire's power cost? Nothing to get worked up about im sure.
I'd much rather them lower inferno instead of Mass Det. That move refunds the power if used correctly so i am not sure how it helps any.
I guess that its a step in the right direction getting some of the power costs lowered. Maybe after we see all of these big changes some disparities with the earlier AM's can be addressed.

Well I hope that fire is in the works. As of right not fire am is garbage. I am just recently switched to fire to try out the tanking of it. And yes a pull would be nice for tanks. But as far as the dps it isn't that great. Some stated that md hit for 20k crit, which might not be bad but when other powers are criting for more than double or triple that it is not good for us fire dps. Just plain and simple fire in total needs some work.

Can someone post me a link to the most recent fire tank changes..

Haven't been fire tank since AF1 and I know some things have changed..

Thx

Not sure what Game Update pairs with AF1. Here are the major changes since GU39:

Heals from Stoke Flames and Burning Determination have been buffed fairly significantly.
Activating any power increases your restoration by a flat amount that depends on the gear you are wearing (starts at CR81 gear)
Eternal Flame lasts a bit longer, and is a 50% supercharge
Burning Determination activates Thermal Absorption, so juggling using flame cascade costs no power when it follows BD
Absorb Heat activates Thermal Absorption and returns power when used against a burning enemy.

Not sure what has happened to Flight Boy but LT does great work. I sent him my login information if he wants to make changes to the main page.

Love all my fire nation brothers.