My one response post is to quote this:
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wanted to explain the reasons for changing Burn...
It became apparent that Burn was the trump power...with it, a Tanker needed to do nothing else. He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.
The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration). And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, Statesman, but I don't see it. A tanker has to make choices evaluating two questions:
(1) Does this make me stronger for a group?
(2) Does this make me stronger solo?
The answer to question (1) for Burn is an unequivocal no. Most fire tankers take CJ, so the immobilization aid is marginal. Burn drives enemies away from you, causing you to 'spread aggro' around and potentially getting your teammates killed. Moreover, the amount of damage Burn does on a team is fairly minimal unless your team is VERY defensively oriented. My experience with Burn was that it was fun to lay down here and there, but by and large, only sped things up ever so slightly; that's very different from the solo experience where Burn was my bread and butter vs non-bosses.
The answer to (2) is an even MORE unequivocal no. Fire/Ice tankers might answer in the affirmative; they are the exception, rather than the rule. As a Fire/EM tanker, for example, there's very little point to Burn.
A. I cannot hold anyone
B. I cannot immobilize anyone
C. I can stun enemies, but they walk dizzily out of the Burn patch anyhow (or, despite being stunned, they JUMP out)
So with stuff fleeing away, it makes no sense to bother. I have precious little room in my build for fluff; it makes more sense to just take whirling hands sooner, and then take buildup or fiery embrace rather than taking Burn at all.
I've analyzed Fire Tanks and tanks in general at length, so you can review my previous comments; I'd like to add, however, that it is key to note that Fire Tanks have no resistance to knockback, which means to be a strong defensive tank, we need our 2 main shields, plus 5 pool powers - 3 to get Acrobatics, 2 to get Tough; and then the toggles are so expensive, we need Stamina to be able to use them. So that's a 10-power defense, basically, and that's not counting healing flames or burn itself. So their "strength" was their offense; but Burn, frankly, adds almost nothing. When it's useful (teamed), you don't need it, especially now that it has been nerfed; when you're solo, it's just useless.
I suggest you just scrap the power entirely, and come up with something balanced that doesn't conflict with the AI. In fact, if you want to REALLY do something nice:
(1) Change burn to a straight DoT or damage effect; make it whatever damage you feel is appropriate for a power in the slot.
(2) Add +res(knockback) to it.
You're golden. Just start from scratch, make it balanced, make it useful. If you add +res(knockback) even as it is, it might be worth it - after all, better a primary than a pool, and damage is a bonus.
If you leave it as it is currently, you are making a terrible mistake, I feel. And I am not much for saying the sky is falling; I have 11 characters on 2 accounts, from L6-L50 across all ATs. I was fine with most changes. I really think you need to re-address the changes to Ice Tanks and the Burn issue. I know that Burn was too good before. Rather than making it a useful shadow of its former self, start from the ground up and think outside the box a bit.
[/ QUOTE ]
[removed]
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
[removed]
[removed]
Are you serious? Making burn have a fear factor? Why, you call them buffs but there not. There not helping us, 80% of the people in the game would like burn to stay the same, 20% are babies who just hate how we can kill guy's faster. You guys do this all the time like 15 players who whine come on the boards and say " Hammios are un fair it's impossible to fight them in the arena!" Why not just ask them how many hammios they have? (Of course they could lie, but then you just wont face them in the arena any more) I have two 50 tanks with the burn power adding the fear factor will make me ask for a respec so i can get the burn power out of my set.
Don't listen to the minority of people who think burn is un fair!
Come on people don't just use your head for saying "yes" or "no" without having to speak!
removed
You can kill faster. A tank. A tank with "kill" anything is beyond me. Now dont sit here and say "Oh well, you are just complaining as another AT part of the minority." No, I have a lvl 45 fire/axe tank. And burn is a complete joke. Do you know what tanks are for? Killing? Wrong answer. We are here to protect our teammates. So them nerfing burn---geez...now we cant kill 200 guys at one time...in about 10 seconds.
removed
removed
Cheebs i have to ask how many slots do you have on burn? Burn is a joke when you only have one or two slots on it but once you 6 slot it with damage its a tanks best friend. And why shouldnt a tank be able to kill something? I as a fire/ice tank only have three attacks so burn was a big part of my success and now they are taking it away from me. Am i pissed about the changes, yes, but im going to try and work around them as best i can but you were semi-right about something Cheebs burn is a joke...on test anyway.
removed
Maybe not herding as it is on here but luring them into a trap all Scooby-Doo style...poor villans they were ganged up on cmon 5 vs 1 that's a little unfair..
Watch out for the squirrels..
removed
Sigh, and I just made my first tank, who happens to be fire. I was very exited with her because she was not like the other tanks. She cannot take nearly the damage, required massive pools and slots to make her able to keep up with the other tanks, but she did DAMAGE!
Now she is a second rate tank with higher agro then other tanks. Blazing Aura allows a fire tank to grab agro and dish damage at the same time, the theory behind burn SINCE THE GAME STARTED. Now she will just be second best. the poor little tank that cant. swing and a miss developers, time to delete her.
removed
well, my post was edited out, for some reason...
Please reconsider the 3 fold nerf of Burn. I can live with it all but the fear factor... This will make burn solo unfriendly for a tanker.
If nothing else just get rid of it and add the defense bennifits to temp protection. Then at least TP would be worth taking.
Welcome to the Monkey House.
Congratulations to the devs. Now that burn is nerfed, I can't think of a single effective AT you haven't hobbled. Reminds me of the old Kurt Vonnegut story, where everyone's outstanding abilities were handicapped so that everyone was equal because everyone was mediocre. Now that's "balanced vision" for you.
removed
removed
[ QUOTE ]
Wanted to explain the reasons for changing Burn...
It became apparent that Burn was the trump power...with it, a Tanker needed to do nothing else. He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.
The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration). And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's fine, we can accept it's supposed to damage, but not be the only damage power the fire tanks need. Thing is, why the ovverwhelming fear effect in addition to the lowered damage and recharge time? I think the majority of fire tanks will be fine with a lowered damge/recharge as long as the fear effect doesn't make the mobs run. At least, that's what I feel. I'd be happy with even longer recharge but the fear just makes the power useless.
Previously, I called burn, "Scatter Mob" and I still think that's what you should rename it to because that's all it does. I have many an instance on test where the mob scatters even before the damage starts to tick off.
removed
Can we get the same type of 'fear affect' like the dark defenders get? So they just stand there cowering only attacking every so often? Didn't think so.
They took the fear outta fear and added it to burn!? Ive asked before, does the burn from the /fire blaster line act the same way (the fear)? If so could my blaster get fear put into her lightning field? No? Didn't think so..
The Kronos has a hold n00b!
This is just great, now my Fire tank has such a difficult time soloing on heroic he is no longer a fun character to play. 
Yeah, out of all fairness if burn has a fear effect, ALL PBAoE DoT should do the same in the name of realism. but you prolly won't do that because that would add the one thing I5 does not have, a shread of balance.
Living Proof - Burn patch should punch-voke, not terrify
When I was 14, my grandparents' visit displaced me on Christmas Eve so that I spend the night on a couch in the porch, warmed by a nearby electric heater sitting on the rug. Somewhat miraculously I stirred from sleep at 3:00 am to witness rivulets of flame surrounding the heater in a 2-foot radius burn patch. Still half-asleep, I thought that if I turned off the heater, that would turn off the flames. So I reached over to the red-hot heater with my left hand and badly burned my fingers. That woke me up in a hurry!!! By then the smoke from the burning rug was choking me so that I couldn't breathe, so I scrambled out of bed to the door to gulp in some fresh air, then started hollering to wake up my elder relatives, who quenched the flames and called the fire department.
What does this have to do with City of Heroes? From my firsthand experience, one's first reaction when surrounded by a burn patch is to try and shut it off rather than to run. It's become a common-place claim that the Burn power should evoke fear (e.g. "well, wouldn't YOU run away if you were burning?"). But how does Burn differ in this regard from Blazing Aura (which also burns any enemy nearby but has the opposite punch-voke effect to taunt enemies closer)? Likewise, all the Fire/Fire secondary powers scorch/combust/incinerate/etc. foes with flames, and these all punch-voke rather than scare off enemies.
Think about it logically. Most foes would have no clue in the moment that the burning is coming from the ground - all they'd know is that the hero attacked them and now there's flames in every direction. The natural foe reaction would be to take out aggression on the hero who caused the problem, in hopes that by "turning the hero off" that would also "turn off the flames". That was my exact same reaction when surprised by a similar situation at age 14 - my first reaction was to "attack" the source of the problem.
Moreover, it terms of game play, it makes so much more sense for tanker powers to "draw in" aggression, rather than scatter aggression through terror in the direction of teammates whom the tanker is trying to protect!!! If the Burn power is corrected so that it attracts aggression towards its initiator, then the fire tanker will still need to stay and survive long enough in the burn patch for the power to have much effect - which again is appropriate behavior for a tanker.
By contrast, turning Burn into a fear power is "highly illogical" - especially coupled with the major damage reduction and recharge increase threatened against Burn for issue 5. Fixing things so that Burn attracts aggression not fear (similar to Blazing Aura) would mitigate these major effectiveness reductions by balancing the Burn power.