you're kind of missing the burn-as-defensive-power aspect...buuut.. *shrug*
edit: to be clear, i do think /FA needs a boost of some kind, but I think people exaggerate the problems with it.
dude, just take fly! hover is your knockback protection, burn is your immobilize protection, what is the problem?
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
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you're kind of missing the burn-as-defensive-power aspect...buuut.. *shrug*
edit: to be clear, i do think /FA needs a boost of some kind, but I think people exaggerate the problems with it.
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i always believed the 7th tiered powers in most of the power set are what make and really define a powerset.
regen: instant healing
invuln: invincibility
da: cloak of fear
ea: energy drain
well most of the time it works. FA gets... burn... pretty much its only use now is giving immobilization protection, and making enemies run and switch to ranged attacks.
sure that making them switch to range would be nice but brutes really dont have ranged attacks outside of hurl/hurl boulder.
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you're kind of missing the burn-as-defensive-power aspect...buuut.. *shrug*
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And in this role I consider it of only the most moderate use. It makes foes retreat about 10 feet, at which point they simply turn and shoot at you. It does not last very long at all (less than most rain powers), meaning they will not stay at bay long.
I'm certainly not swayed by the argument that a power that might help me run away should be a good balance factor. :P
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
why would you run away? 
I just find it odd that, on my fire tanker, HF slotted 3 recharge, 3 heal comes up slower and heals for less than aid self slotted 3 heal, 1 interrupt redux, 1 recharge.
In the long run, aid self heals for more with less slotting.
FWIW, I also think that temperature protection should get immob and KB protection, even low grade like elec, so that FA folks don't feel quite so obligated to grab CJ / SJ / Acrobatics. There's no reason at all to keep immob protection in burn; it just doesn't fit there, and the power is otherwise too easily skippable.
if you need to use burn to get a mob off of you you have already lost. there is no way healing flames will keep you alive with it only healing 32% of your life back every 35 seconds.
If you can't increase the magnitude, I'd be happy if the recharge time of HF was reduced a bit. That would lead to more healing per minute, even though I'd have to fire it more often.
Just tossing out options.
Something to consider is that the Tanker version of Fiery Aura is even worse than the Brute version. Brutes can utilize Blazing Aura much more powerfully than Tankers since it deals some pretty respectable damage with fury. We also get shorter recharge on our Burn as well as patron power AoE immobs to couple it with in I7, plus there will be fury on Burn too. It may be late-game where it really starts to count, but Fiery Aura does serve up some added offense for the Brutes, whereas the Tankers are not getting the same level of benefit from the offense/defense trade-off.
If Healing Flames is moved to 25% I think I'd feel fairly secure defensively with the fighting pool and the leaping pool. I personally am not making any big sacrifices in taking these pools to fill the holes.
However, it chafes at others that their choices are so limited by the relative penalty they suffer for foregoing these pools. The resulting build involves 5 toggles, 3 pool and 2 FA(It takes approx 10 seconds to activate them all by the way, not a big deal until you fight end-draining enemies who force you to retoggle after every fight. Not counting Blazing Aura since it's an optional offensive toggle.)
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However, it chafes at others that their choices are so limited by the relative penalty they suffer for foregoing these pools. The resulting build involves 5 toggles, 3 pool and 2 FA(It takes approx 10 seconds to activate them all by the way, not a big deal until you fight end-draining enemies who force you to retoggle after every fight. Not counting Blazing Aura since it's an optional offensive toggle.)
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Wimp that I am, I only use one pool power toggle in combat... Hover. And that activates almost immediately, So my overall activation time only involves the two armor toggles.
I'm looking forward to the Healing Flames fix. I wonder if there's any hope that it will arrive in time for I7? Hot Topic could definitely use it. A healing boost on top of that would be even better.
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Agreed. I've PM'd Cuppa and Castle about it and am just asking for a straight up answer : "Are we going to see a fix for the base heal value of Healing Flames or not?"
EDIT : Per a PM from Castle, I believe there are further changes forthcoming. Do not deluge Castle with PM's. 
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Specifically, I said "One step at a time." The animation time was, technically, a bug I could fix (a number in the animation file was set too high.) The value of the heal on Healing Flames is a balance issue, which has to be dealt with as a team. So, we're looking at it, but no change is currently being made.
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A BALANCE ISSUE!? What the hell. You told us it was bug before. It used to be a 25% heal a long time ago to my understanding as well.
I'm sorry, but this sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. No one really uses Burn anymore, yah there is Fiery Embrace but thats so late for Brutes/Tankers that it shouldn't be a real issue. And then Dark Armor surpasses Fire Armor in everything, it can go zero to full hp two times as often as Fire Armor can heal for 17.5%... Oh, and then Dark Armor has a Stealth power, it has an AoE Fear, and an AoE Disorient. So, how in the hell can it be a BALANCE ISSUE to fix a bug in Healing Flames!? I mean, yeesh. The way it sounds currently is just ridiculously insane. As other posters said, get someone in here to explain why its a balance issue. 'cause we ain't seeing it.
_Castle_ I really do love ya and all, but the dev choices going on with Healing Flames at 17.5% from 25% going from bug, to being "balanced"!? o.O It makes no sense at all. <Sighs> Ok, I'm done ranting. Its just not making sense to me. >.<
EDIT: And yes, as Liquid says, where are my manners as well lol. Thanks for taking the time to post, look up things, and actually fix balance issues and bugs for us. =)
Damage Proc Mini-FAQ
Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.
/signed
A bit off topic but, holy crap Deus_Furore is your avatar from equilibrium, that movie is teh awesome!!1!!!11!
Seriously though, one of my first characters was a fire/mace tank... of course both sets I picked were sub-par... go me! That character doesnt exist any more. I don't like stone, because of some of its annoying drawbacks, like needing to use teleport to move at all during fights b/c of rooted. I'm also not a big fan of ice just because of the way it looks, and that leaves firey and invulnerability. Well firey is weaker than the rest, so I'll just be another invulnerable tank, a dime a dozen. Don't just fix Firey Aura, but give us Energy or Electric or Dark or some other primary...plz.
IMO Plant Armor (yah thats really off topic)
Hello all long time lurker and all that... but anyway this was taken from the new patch on test:
Powers
Healing Flames Cast Time reduced
I didn't have time to jump on and check it out though.
Just one thing to note about Dark Regeneration vs Healing Flames, Dark Regen requires mobs around you and a to-hit roll. Yeah, 1 mob seems to be enough to bring you up quite a ways (about 1/3 of your hp bar?) vs Healing Flames' mediocre heal, but it's something to consider. Also consider the endurance cost of Dark Regen. Healing Flames may take heavy recharge slotting to bring it close to Dark Regen's recharge time, but Dark Regen takes quite a bit of endurance cost reduction enhancements to make it useable without bringing down your toggles. With the toggle drain from the other DA toggles, it wasn't something I used unless I REALLY needed it prior to stamina. I'm sure all that's been brought up already, probably stated more succinctly than I have, but I must have missed it.
Not saying HF couldn't use a boost, but these are things to consider if you're going to compare the two powers directly against each other.
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Just one thing to note about Dark Regeneration vs Healing Flames, Dark Regen requires mobs around you and a to-hit roll. Yeah, 1 mob seems to be enough to bring you up quite a ways (about 1/3 of your hp bar?) vs Healing Flames' mediocre heal, but it's something to consider. Also consider the endurance cost of Dark Regen. Healing Flames may take heavy recharge slotting to bring it close to Dark Regen's recharge time, but Dark Regen takes quite a bit of endurance cost reduction enhancements to make it useable without bringing down your toggles. With the toggle drain from the other DA toggles, it wasn't something I used unless I REALLY needed it prior to stamina. I'm sure all that's been brought up already, probably stated more succinctly than I have, but I must have missed it.
Not saying HF couldn't use a boost, but these are things to consider if you're going to compare the two powers directly against each other.
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Ok, let me put it this way then.
My Dark Armor brutes/scrappers, take Dark Regeneration, use it, love it, and no worries at all really on Endurance usage. I6 lowered its cost substantially, 3 end SO's is plenty, and more oft than not a buildup like power is available right with Dark Regen.
My Fire Armor brutes, I SKIP HEALING FLAMES, and I take Aid Other then Aid Self and use that over Healing Flames. I can't imagine using the brokenly stupid healing flames after using aid self. I can time aid self between dot ticks with ease (practice makes perfect, and I had aid other/self on my Trick Arrow defender for 38+ levels)
Damage Proc Mini-FAQ
Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.
Healing Flames isn't the only power that needs to be improved. Fire could use a boost in multiple areas. It is horrible...in PvP. I wasted 39 of my first CoV levels on a dark/fire brute. 
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Healing Flames isn't the only power that needs to be improved. Fire could use a boost in multiple areas. It is horrible...in PvP. I wasted 39 of my first CoV levels on a dark/fire brute.
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Ironic because Dark/Fire levels very quickly. With an endurance drain power in primary and secondary you've got almost no downtime. I believe the first Brute to 40 was Dark/Fire.
~Gabriel
Dark Regen is the best self heal power in the game by far. Healing flames is much weaker. Healing flames has a minor perk of not needing a mob nearby. However, in 99.9 percent of situations, Dark regen is literally ten times better than healing flames. The test server notes today say healing flames will have a faster cast time, and that's a desperately needed fix for healing flames.
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Healing Flames isn't the only power that needs to be improved. Fire could use a boost in multiple areas. It is horrible...in PvP. I wasted 39 of my first CoV levels on a dark/fire brute.
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Ironic because Dark/Fire levels very quickly. With an endurance drain power in primary and secondary you've got almost no downtime. I believe the first Brute to 40 was Dark/Fire.
~Gabriel
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So true. If you think you wasted your first 39 levels in CoV on your DM/FA the brightside is you didn't waste much time.
DM/FA Brute is definately not a waste of time, while not a god in PvP like it is in PvE it can hold its own.
Natsuke:
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A BALANCE ISSUE!? What the hell. You told us it was bug before. It used to be a 25% heal a long time ago to my understanding as well.
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Chill the hell out dude. If you read other posts before screaming in _Castle_'s face you'd have seen:
GenericVillain:
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As I recall, he thought it was bugged, but checked with some other devs and found out it was working as intended.
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Here is the exact post I recalled (had to go view _Castle_'s old posts to find it)
Here
Basically, they removed the AT mod a LONG time ago, and it's not a bug, but it was intended to be removed... looks like it was in the pre-i5 days when maybe it was overboard compared to the unnerfed defenses.
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Healing Flames isn't the only power that needs to be improved. Fire could use a boost in multiple areas. It is horrible...in PvP. I wasted 39 of my first CoV levels on a dark/fire brute.
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Ironic because Dark/Fire levels very quickly. With an endurance drain power in primary and secondary you've got almost no downtime. I believe the first Brute to 40 was Dark/Fire.
~Gabriel
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Indeed. My DM/FA Brute made level 40 inside of a month with 180 hours of play time. It's a great combination. It sounds like the poster was complaining about PvP which, for lack of a better term, sucks.
Sign It : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
If it wasn't for the soon to come dark/electric, and the fact that I have a fire/fire, I'd probably make a dark/fire. Soul Drain + Firey Embrace + Lots of fury? (or the other way around if you want the SD to do more damage) 2 end drains? 2 self heals? Possibly trapping enemies with ToF and Burning them while they are helpless? It's like I can have my cake and eat it too.
Hey Castle, is there any chance we could also get an animation speed enhancement made to Regen/Reconstruction? PWEEEEZ?
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Specifically, I said "One step at a time." The animation time was, technically, a bug I could fix (a number in the animation file was set too high.) The value of the heal on Healing Flames is a balance issue, which has to be dealt with as a team. So, we're looking at it, but no change is currently being made.
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Castle, I would really love if you could nudge someone with the big picture behind that balance to us here so this could be explained to us.
I say that because I am really missing why Fire "deserves" a lesser self-heal than other sets with a click heal.
*) Fire has the standard "holes" - no Psi and poor toxic resistance.
*) Fire lacks toggle knockdown and immob protection (KD is something it shares with Dark Armor, but DA has no comparable resistance gaps, and DA has immob protection)
*) To run its actual armors, FA is one of the cheapest defense sets outside of Regen, mostly because all its armor and status protection is in two toggles. However, it also lacks layered defensive capabilities of other sets with more toggles and effects to choose from.
*) Fire Aura does boost offense. Burn is now a fairly moderate and very conditional offense boost (and its real value is still debated). Fiery Embrace is very nice but again conditional.
*) Fire Aura lacks a tier-9 "ultimate" armor.
Given these things, both individually and in sum, I'm just not seeing why FA's overall balance calls for a lower self heal scale, even when all FE's other attributes compare to Regen/Reconstruction. I'd love to have someone explain it.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA