1) It depends. A good tanker will keep aggro off of you. If you slot correct and for the right things, and you're on the ball, you should be able to handle the aggro. For example, my Fire/Kin is more than capable of off-tanking the ITF. In general, though, you always want Hotfeet on. It might not seem like it, but it is indeed your highest damage power.
2) Debuffing endurance on enemies is not all it's cracked up to be. Save Transference for when you need it - Fire/Kin is so active that you can't afford to be wasting that amount of activation time all the time. Transfusion, however, can be spammed on AVs for the regen debuff. Siphon Speed should be hit every time it comes up not only for the -rech debuff on a big bad but also because you need the +rech.
3) Flashfire is a Mag 3 disorient. It will disorient Lieutenants, Minions, and under - but not bosses. Lead with flashfires to disorient everything but the boss, then hit Fire Cages while they're still bunched up to keep them together, then hit char on the boss a couple of times to stack the hold, and you're golden. Flashfire + Fire Cages does a sort of improvised hold, where they can't take actions and can't move - which means you've basically turned your AoE immob and your AoE disorient into an AoE hold. It's awesome.
4) Herostats has a buff timer. You can use that, if you really can't see the buff icon. Google for Herostats. I highly suggest setting up keybinds so you can buff your whole team with SB quickly and easily.
5) Level 32 is a good time to start with IOs. At that level, common IOs give the same bonus as a +3 SO (IIRC - I may be a bit off, but it's close) so level 35 IOs will stay good for the rest of your career. I typically prefer to frankenslot until I hit 50, as I probably don't have all the slots to accomplish what I wanted to, anyway. I also tend to level things a lot faster than most people, though.
6) The enhancements you slot into your powers are added to your global damage buffs to calculate damage cap - if you've slotted 90% damage into a power, as most people do, then you've slotted too much any time you Fulcrum Shift to get above 210% global damage. I don't have any trouble getting up to 300% global damage bonus with Fulcrum Shift, your playstyle may differ - I suggest turning on monitoring for it. Click on your Powers tab, then click Combat Attributes. Bring up the Base section, then right-click on damage and select 'Monitor', and it'll show you your damage buffs. If you're typically hovering at or around 300%? You don't need to slot for damage at all.
7) On your Team window, there should be a word that says 'Pets'. When you click on that, it will bring up a team-like window that shows your Imps health, endurance, and buffs like any other team member, but in a separate window from them.
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Good Evening,
I came back from a CoH hiatus to my 23 Fire/Kin. Introduced to AE, I am now 37, on the cusp of hitting 38 and getting FS.
When I played this in the oldy moldy days, I built him with soloing large spawns in outdoor zones in mind. I had gotten to be ok at it, but that's kind of a days of yore mode. Nowadays, I find myself on teams, particularly AE and I have some questions to make sure I am on the right track. I have been scribbling these down as a I play, so I apologize if it's long-ish.
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Welcome back! Don't limit yourself to AE missions . . . There's a lot of fun stuff outside of the AE building. I prefer to run TFs and story arcs for the Merits, and I find the players to be more fun outside of AE. Croatoa, Rikti War Zone and Cimmeroa have good stuff.
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1) Should I be running Hotfeet on teams? I had it slotted up, due to its important damage role solo, but I am worried that on teams, its getting me unneeded aggro for relatively little return.
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I generally run Hot Feet most of the time . . . but my playstyle is such that I let others do their jobs, like letting the Tank grab aggro or the Scrappers run into melee first. I mainly turn off HF when trying to Stealth/Run Through an area quickly, or if I need to save endurance. Other than that, it is on most of the time.
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2) Should I popTransference every time it comes up for the debuff aspect, even if everyone on the team is max-ish endurance?
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Endurance Drain has much less value than it used to. Unless you have a teammate with -Recovery, it only provides limited benefit. Save Transference for when you need it to refill blue bars.
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3) Is there an optimal order to interweaving Fire Cages and Flashfire? I am worried that the disorient might be messed with by the immob, somehow. On "boss" style mishes, FF doesn't appear to be doing the disorient, and I assume that's from them being bosses resistant to the status change, but wanted to check.
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Flashfire (as described at City of Data) , like most AoE controls, is Mag 3 with a 20% chance of one more mag for a shortened time. That means that it will only stun bosses 20% of the them IF IT HITS, so the actual chance is lower depending upon the comparable level of the foes. So, your odds of stunning a Boss-level foe are not good. However, if you or a teammate have another Stun power, the mag can be stacked to stun bosses.
So check with your teammates. If someone else has a Stun, you may want to coordinate together. Otherwise, Flashfire may not be worth using on those AE Boss Only farm missions. On Regular missions with lots of Minions and Lts, Flashfire+Fire Cages is an essential strategy for any Fire Controller.
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4) Is there a good way to see if SB is on people other than the teeny, baby, tiny, lolz icons that grow to the right of the team screen? I have a 22" monitor and I cant hardly see those teeny icons to tell a boot from a what-have-you.
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As stated above, HeroStats can help. It is best just to buff your teammates on a regular basis, and a good set of binds really helps. I always bind selecting each teammate and giving Speed Boost to the number keys on my Keypad, allowing me to hit each teammate with one touch of a key. Then I have ID bound to "0" if I want to bother with it.
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5) When should I switch to IO's? This totally confuses me. I am getting SO's from tickets, but I am not sure when to get IO's. Do I wait to 50? I have 250-300 million from my last COH hurrah, and I want to save that for the big permanent IO's I get for the long haul.
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There are different beliefs on this. It is important to remember that IOs never expire, even though they increase in effectiveness as they go up in level. Slotting IOs keep you from having to buy a new set of SOs every 5 levels. Some people begin slotting IOs at 25, then upgrade at 35 or 40, and then go for a final build at 50. Level 35 is a great time to slot up with IOs before a final build at 50.
I generally use kind of a haphazzard way of doing it. If a recipe drops or I have a made IO in my base, I use it if it is better than the enhancement I have already in the power. I'm usually mostly full by 30, but I always make sure I am fully IO'ed out by 35. Because of ED, three level 25 IOs are almost as good as three level 35 IOs, but a lot cheaper in the long run (since you didn't have to buy two previous sets of SOs).
I usually start looking towards my final build at 35. Some desireable IO sets cap out at 35 or 40, and I try to get those as soon as I can. Some wait until level 50 and a final Respec.
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6) General Slotting... with FS, should I back off damage? Should I have damage on everything like char too? Is the ultimate goal to get recharge way down? I dont have hasten ATM, but I am going to respec into it. I know there is not a simple answer here, I guess my best way to say this is, what should be my guiding principle for slotting?
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I don't reduce my damage slotting because of Fulcrum Shift, because too often, I don't get full capped FS benefits. Not every spawn is a big group, especially if you want to solo at all. Sometimes I just use Siphon Power on single foes or small groups, saving FS for the next big group.
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7) Is there any way in the chaos to see if you have the full 3 imps out? I see an imps icon on my buffs, and sometimes it says 2, which I don't get, as I cant have it out twice.
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You have to enable the Pet window, which is set to disable by default. Why? I have no idea. Go to options, and look in the second grouping of options for the Pet Window option. Enable it. The go to your team listing tab, and on the upper left edge of the window, it should let you pull out the Pets window. I keep that out at all times.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
Good Evening,
I came back from a CoH hiatus to my 23 Fire/Kin. Introduced to AE, I am now 37, on the cusp of hitting 38 and getting FS.
When I played this in the oldy moldy days, I built him with soloing large spawns in outdoor zones in mind. I had gotten to be ok at it, but that's kind of a days of yore mode. Nowadays, I find myself on teams, particularly AE and I have some questions to make sure I am on the right track. I have been scribbling these down as a I play, so I apologize if it's long-ish.
1) Should I be running Hotfeet on teams? I had it slotted up, due to its important damage role solo, but I am worried that on teams, its getting me unneeded aggro for relatively little return.
2) Should I popTransference every time it comes up for the debuff aspect, even if everyone on the team is max-ish endurance?
3) Is there an optimal order to interweaving Fire Cages and Flashfire? I am worried that the disorient might be messed with by the immob, somehow. On "boss" style mishes, FF doesn't appear to be doing the disorient, and I assume that's from them being bosses resistant to the status change, but wanted to check.
4) Is there a good way to see if SB is on people other than the teeny, baby, tiny, lolz icons that grow to the right of the team screen? I have a 22" monitor and I cant hardly see those teeny icons to tell a boot from a what-have-you.
5) When should I switch to IO's? This totally confuses me. I am getting SO's from tickets, but I am not sure when to get IO's. Do I wait to 50? I have 250-300 million from my last COH hurrah, and I want to save that for the big permanent IO's I get for the long haul.
6) General Slotting... with FS, should I back off damage? Should I have damage on everything like char too? Is the ultimate goal to get recharge way down? I dont have hasten ATM, but I am going to respec into it. I know there is not a simple answer here, I guess my best way to say this is, what should be my guiding principle for slotting?
7) Is there any way in the chaos to see if you have the full 3 imps out? I see an imps icon on my buffs, and sometimes it says 2, which I don't get, as I cant have it out twice.
Thanks for any thoughts!