Loving Fire

I've been lurking the forums for a long time and finally got motivated to post. I just want to say I love fire's new power interactions/AM. Running around and jumping while spamming Flame Cascade/Fireburst and Mass Detonation is a blast. I am having just a ton of fun with it.

Most of the reactions I've seen in the forums have been negative and I wanted to make sure anybody thinking of running a fire toon don't get discouraged by all the negativity. It is currently my favorite power to dps with and has caused me sorely neglect my main.

As far as the criticism for fire goes I've been seeing two main complaints:

1. Fire tanking still isn't as good as other power sets

and

2. Fire DPS still can't keep up with WM combos using the new mechanics.

I can't say much about number 1 as I haven't tried tanking.

To number 2 I can say this, I'm consistently at the top of the leader board for damage in the alerts and raids I run in. Often I'm out DPS'ing folks with much higher rated gear. I use powers almost exclusively. I only use WM combos if I happen to run low on power and need to charge myself up. I am currently sitting at CR 65 so maybe there just aren't a lot of people running T3 content using WM or maybe something else changes at higher levels but currently I can't see the new fire mechanic lagging behind on damage at all.

My current load out and rotation; wildfire, absorb heat, flame cascade, fiery weapon, mass detonate, 25% super charge (forgot the name). I take wildfire because it adds a cheap/fast burn in a large AOE around the target at great range. I then hit absorb heat to add thermal absorption PI and typically jump cancel it to go straight into flame cascade. Once I have volatility up I'll start spamming Mass Det if its a boss or high HP mob. If it's trash I usually keep hitting them with flame cascade to burn them down quick. I will try to keep up fiery weapon throughout assuming I have the power. I pretty much never run out of power unless I hit Mass Det and it fails to hit a target. Then I just combo back enough juice to get the PI going again. I also like super speed as my movement mode because has a great double jump that allows you to cast Mass Det or Fireburst while flying through the air.

Like I said this has been a super fun way to play and I am really enjoying fire now. Thank you devs. As an aside I would love, love, LOVE to see mass levitation and telekinetic bolt get this same kind of treatment.

It is always good to see a positive thread instead of a negative one. I am glad you are enjoying the power you have chosen.

Several questions:

1. Are you using at least some weapon combos in between?
2. How do you rarely run out of power?
3. Is this always assuming you have a controller?

Thanks!

Yeah I really do like this power now and haven't really seen any posts on the forums that seemed to get it. If all you care about is numbers then I guess maybe fire won't do it for you at the end game. For me I need to enjoy what I'm doing and like I said in my previous post I am really enjoying fire and I haven't seen anyone at my level out DPS me so I'm believing it can be done on end game content as well. In answer to your questions:

1. Yes I do use some weapon combos. If for some reason I run low on power I'll run up my hit counter to until power is back up. Also there are some trash mobs that will go down too quickly to make it worth setting up the power interaction. I'd say I use my powers about 90% of the time which is quite a bit.

2. That's the great thing about power now. You don't run out of power at all if you use set up the power interactions correctly and keep them going. I'll explain in detail below.

3. No I don't need a controller to keep my power up all the time. Just good target selection and timing with the proper application of thermal absorption.

Here's the basics you need to set up the Power Interaction a.k.a. Awesome Mechanic (AM). At a minimum you need Absorb Heat, Flaming Cascade or Fireburst, and a target that is burning. I use Wildfire to apply the burning but Meteor and Inferno are valid options as well. You need to apply burning to a target and cast absorb heat an then hit the burning target or targets with one of any four different powers. Here's how it works in detail.

Whenever you cast Absorb Heat you are given a status effect called Thermal Absorption (TA). There is both a visual and an audio queue to indicate TA is active. You will see blue flames on you toon and you'll hear a sound like sucking wind. As long as you see the blue flames it's active so the blue flames are the most reliable way of knowing TA is active. When TA is active, if you hit a burning target with any of the following powers you get most of your power back that you used for the cast; the powers are Absorb Heat, Flaming Cascade, Fireburst and Mass Detonation. Each time you land one of these powers while TA is active (i.e. the blue flame is present) you will recieve almost all of your power back for that you used for the cast AND you will refresh the burning status on the mob and TA on you. Remember Absorb Heat is the power that activates Thermal Absorption.

My rotation is usually Wildfire to Absorb Heat to Flaming Cascade. I spam Flaming Cascade until volatility (another new power interaction) is maxed and then move to Mass Detonation. I can post more about volatility and how it works but suffice it to say it is a damage modifier that is added when using the above mentioned powers. A lot of people have been using Fireburst then Mass Detonation but I like Flaming Cascade better. It is quicker to cast and doesn't get interrupted so its easier to keep Thermal Absorption active with. Fireburst has a tendancy to get interrupted and by the time you pick yourself off the floor you don't have much time left to land another power to keep TA active. The TA window is six seconds. You can even do a short combo in there if you want to but I like to just spam Flaming Cascade. That's what is cool about the PI is you get to freely use your powers so take advantage of it. Plus Flaming Cascade will juggle multiple targets. It does about the same amount of damage in the time frame that it takes to cast Fireburst so if I have to choose between the two I'll take Flaming Cascade for its reliability.

The only time you loose power is when your casted power doesn't land on a burning target. The actual target doesn't have to be burning either if you're hitting a group with an AOE. As long as at least one target in the group is burning TA will stay active and you will get the power return. Once you finish a group quickly run to the next cluster of enemies and hit them with wildfire to apply burning then continue your rotation. If TA runs out you can cast Absorb Heat again to get it going. I like to jump cancel Absorb Heat since it is a long channeled cast and doesn't leave a lot of time to get in your next power after it finishes. Plus the quicker you go to Flaming Cascade or Fireburst the quicker you are doing AOE damage which increases your overall damage output significantly.

I'm going to wrap up this post since it's overly long but I'm happy to answer any more questions.

Hey im glad to see a post thats positive feedback on a power for once lol. I have been going over the Fire abitities at first i didnt really give it a try but after reading this im thinking giving it a shot i love the idea of being able to use my powers to do the dmg and not just WM combos and maybe 2 actual dmg powers hehe. This seems like a lot of fun but i was curious as to what weapon you are useing,me honestly am a fan of the 2h and i like to melee but with this build you posted have a feeling its a range build as most of from iv been seeing about using the new fire AM it requires being range. So i was curious on your opinion on what weapon to use?

Doing well with WM is heavy on Skill Points, and at T3 you won't be seeing many players who have enough to use it effectively. The players who complain that the AM doesn't keep up with WM are evaluating it from the context of someone with 100+ SP. And there is almost no reason for such players to run T3 content anymore. I'd wager that most players who are really good with WM are at the Mark of Triumph cap, and since the Marks are useless they will only run T3 stuff to help out someone lower CR. I haven't run anything T3 for my own benefit in months now, not since AF1 introduced a flood of MoT into the T5 rewards.

Regardless, I do like playing with fire using its powers for damage, and your comments on that are useful. Thanks for posting that mini-guide to the interaction setup.

I do feats just to get to the first WM combo (43) when I make a new toon. It helps so much with power usage. Honestly I do not see enough people using WM. I am glad that they are making it possible to be effective without it if necessary.

I am a little green at this game and just hit 30 on my first toon. I am also running fire, and while the road to 30 was pretty easy,I feel like I am getting to get smokeed with post 30 content. This game has a lot of ins and outs. In regards to fire tank, what should I be looking for as far as my stat ranges? And in re to gear, should I hold out for drops, or try the marketplace?

I'm currently using staff which has always been one of my favorites. I change weapons often depending on what mood I'm in. If a better weapon drops than the one I'm using that usually motivates me to switch as well . I think all weapons are viable especially for PVE and you should feel free to use what you enjoy.

Don't feel bad. As with any MMO there is a lot to take in. If you look through Oracle's Database on the forums I'm sure you'll find a great guide to fire tanking which should answer your questions about gear and stats. In general I will just say don't get too hung up on having the top notch gear. The difficulty level of the game doesn't require you to always have cutting edge gear to competently clear content. Understanding the gameplay mechanics is much more important imo. If you're using stuff that drops and supplement that with gear from NPC vendors for what you're lacking you'll be fine. You may want to buy whole style sets for feats but that's a whole other discussion entirely.

Start by finding a T0 PVE vendor in the watchtower. There are three to choose from and any one will do. Stats are the same just a different style set at each one. You'll need to run solos to earn enough faction points before they will sell you anything but by the time you have a good enough faction standing you'll probably have enough Marks of Triumph for two sets. After that look for T1 PVE vendors. At T1 level you can start buying tank specific gear.

Th

Thanks for the input. That makes since about the higher skill points and WM.

Thank you for the advice. I have been reading the guides, and I have been trying to implement them into my play style. I was concerned that what I was doing < 30 wasnt going to work > 30. I think i was able to purchase some t0 gear from the Mettalo(sp?) but I am not sure. Sooo much info in this game it can make your head spin sometimes.

Thanks for the reply i eventually decided on dual pistols just cause its a range iv never tried and looked fun . As i was looking over my powers this morning this descriptions are really vague and i tried to search the forums but sorting through the mess is hard i checked couple of guides but none really explain it. What is exactly is volitility and how does it work? Also the thermal absorption that is activated by absorb heat does any power that you have that hits a burning target give power back or only certain powers? Sorry this maybe something im just misreading or not understanding just little confused on it and would appreciate any info/advice and i thank you for your time in answering .

Volatility as best as I can tell is just a damage modifier. When it's on a target it adds more damage. I don't know the specifics as to how it works on the back end. Maybe it adds might damage when using certain powers but that's just a guess. What I do know is that Flaming Cascade and Fireburst add Volatility to a target. There are three levels of Volatility. Flaming Cascade adds one level each time it hits. Fireburst adds all three levels in one hit. The only indication I've found that volatility is active on a target is a bright orange/yellow flash of fire you can see around your target when a power hits and the target as at level 3 (max volatility). This bright flash is very noticeable if you're looking for it. Mass Detonation does not add Volatility but it does maintain Volatility. It also seems to be the main power that benefits from Volatility.

If I land Mass Detonation on a target with no Volatility present I do approximately 350 damage. If I land Mass Detonation on that same target that is at max Volatility the hits land for about 1250. If I have fiery weapon up and a might trinket along with Max Volatility I hit for approximately 1800 with crits around 2500.

So you can see volatility increases damage potential exponentially.

In answer to your question about Thermal Absorption, only Absorb Heat, Flaming Cascade, Fireburst, and Mass Detonation get the power return.

Awsome tyvm for your reply this helped clear things up alot. Kinda stinks though that there is no way to tell how many stacks of volatility are on a target. I wish they had some more indicators in this game for things like that lol. Anywho jsut hit lvl 10 and so far really likeing fire and making things go BOOM. I cant wait to get to my other abilities farther down the tree,ill have to decide once im there on if i want Flame cascade or Fireburst. Also is snuff out not really a good ability to use its our finisher but from alot of read on others finisher most arent worth it. I plan on the loadout being Volcanic eruption (the SC), Inferno, Ignite Weapon, Mass detonation, Absorp heat, and either Fireburst or Flame Cascade. I had thought of changing out the SC for snuff out but wasnt sure which be more beneficial.

Anywho ty again for your info and help .

I forget the name of it but I'm using fire's 25% SC because it gives a moderate heal and most importantly it adds burning to targets so if I'm low on power I use that to apply burning and keep my TA going longer. As a 25% SC you can use it often.

Remember once you get access to the watchtower at level 30 you can respec your powers for just 500 credits so don't feel locked in to the powers you take now. You are free to experiment as much as you want.

The cost goes up each time you respec but goes back down after time. I think it resets every day TBH.

I'm not the best guy to answer questions anymore but you can often ask the guys over in this thread to get advice from experienced fire users:

https://forums.station.sony.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/trailblazing-guide-to-fire.632

A bit more detail on the Thermal Absorption power return mechanic. TA lasts for 6 seconds. If you get a power return w/in that 6sec, then it's extended for another 6 seconds... for so long as you can maintain it.

Weaving in long cast WM combos in between Mass Det or Fireburst can cause TA to expire. Either avoid weapon use completely, or go for shorter combos in between. Flame Cascade hits the power return faster, so can handle longer WM combos.

I haven't played my fire toon much, aside from the testing I did on test server. I loooooooved the mobility and the fact that I didn't have to use my weapon if I didn't want to. Would be fun to finally level him up and get into group content, but healing is my thing.

I agree completely...I am a fire tank..only t1 cuz I just started playing 4 days ago..im completely addicted lol...I too have read a lot of negative about fire buti don't see why lol.. so im fire tank with my gear half tank and halfdps...I love it..I have found an amazing damage out combo to the point where I can beat t2 builds with much hard work.

Hey again guys. So far so good loveing my fire guy lvl 19 now .Appreciate the details on TA and otehr info provided by all you guys. I have currently ran into a problem and i actually posted it on bug forums. So iv been doing some alerts and such were a cluster of mobs actualy exists and doesnt die in one hit lol and i do my rotation wildire (dont have inferno yet ot try it) into absorb heat then into flame cascade but every so often i get completly stuck in the animation for flame cascade it does its damage then im suck in the animation and all i can do is slide around liek a statue with my arm stuck out cant use weapon,other abilites,sodas,trinkets nothing. I can jump too but i stay stuck in that frozen animation state and i have had it last up to 10seconds + sometimes. I actually died twice in hive moon base due to it, at first i thought was just a one time thing but it seems to keep randomly happening and i dont know why i mean i know thermal has a long animation and i tested to see if thats what maybe i was seeing but its not. Any ideas or anyone else had this happen recently?

If you can capture video of it, send it to me and I'll get that passed on through the Testing Server Initiative. The bug forums are a hot mess when it comes to getting your bug reports noticed.