Help me understand Fire Manipulation

I already took it out of my planned build for when I get around to doing a respec (which will likely be some time next year with next week looking like I16's Launch Date), and yet I'm still running short on slots. I'm looking to skip something else, but I'm not sure what that should be. I actually have my eye on Hot Feet, largely from experience using it. Yes, it's nice in the mitigation it gives, but it seems like my Fire Blaster just causes too much scatter for it to work, even with Hot Feet slotted for slow and working effectively. It's nice in conjunction with Rain of Fire, but Rain of Fire itself has pretty unimpressive danage. Or at the very least, I might drop my planned damage slots from Hot Feet. Its damage contribution is minimal, given how fast battles typically go. Anything that survives Fireball + Fire Breath + Combustion + Fire Sword isn't really worth running Hot Feet for anyway. Then again, I only really need two enemies to make the thing endurance-efficient, so I don't know.

I was thinking of dropping Burn, but that'll only earn me two extra slots (three damage, can't slot it for accuracy) and I've had a lot of fun with it. I had one mission where I got webbed up by Knives of Artemis literally once every fight, and every time I'd Burn my way out of it. And it looked AWESOME! I also saved myself from a bunch of Spines Protectors that way, burning through their immobilizing ranged attack before they could close into range and hitting them with Ring of Fire. Plus, as noted before, it's effectively damage for free. Can't really give that up.

Well, I guess I'm more angry that all the other ATs I like playing have a much easier time fighting bosses, and I'm usually excited when I meet one. When I meet a boss with a Blaster, it's more panic and inventing new curse words. Of course, the other ATs I play are Scrapper, Brute, Mastermind and Stalker, so I may be biassed. I tried my hand at Peacebringers, but Controller hit points and the lack of an inherent (I don't team much at all) ruined it for me. I tried new Dominators, but the lack of AoE damage and overal punch compared to Blasters, coupled with even LESS self-protection and my apparent inability to control the 5-6 opponents that my favourite difficulty spawned ruined it for me at around level 31. I could have waited for level 32, obviously, but the unreliable status protection mechanic and the reliance of control over killing just didn't sit well with me.

*edit*
That said, the "new" Blaster Defiance changes are pretty much the only thing that allows me to play Blasters at all. Before the changes, I got a Blaster to 34 on the bugged Smoke Grenade and found myself unable to play another one at all. Now, they have so much extra damage over everyone else that they're just about playable

*edit*
And you know what the worst part of Hot Feet is? It keeps getting shut down. I'm a Blaster. I don't HAVE status protection. That Mentalist over there? He won't fee a tick of it. Oh, hey, that group of Rikti over there doesn't have a mentalist, maybe... Stunned. Thank you, Headman Gunman, for your GOD DAMN 10 SECOND STUN!!! Freaks have sleeps, Devouring Earth have mushrooms, Rikti have holds, sleeps, stuns and immobilizes, Malta have... Everything, Carnies have stuns and holds, the Nemesis Army have stuns from time to time, it just goes on and on. I literally can't sneeze without having Hot Feet shut down, and if I DO manage it, it drops from lack of endurance. AND I have to land to restart it. Ugh...

*edit*
Sorry about all the edits, but I'm posting this as it occurs to me. For the bulk of this Council mission, I've not used Hot Feet. Council spawn too scattered for it to be effective, and even the ones I manage to tag with the fringes end up running away fairly quickly. That, and werewolves are all but immune to slows. I don't think I've gotten more than three-four ticks on any enemy so far. The one time I found a big and clumped enough spawn to use it on, they scattered as soon as I tagged them with Hot Feet and left within two seconds. I might end up dropping that, too. And that WILL give me all the slots I need.

*final edit*
After getting ganged up on once, I realised one VERY big difference between having Hot Feet and not having hot feet - the Avoid aspect. With it, when I dive into melee, everything runs. Without it, when I dive into melee, everything attacks me. I considered simply not slotting the power for damage (or accuracy, since accuracy only governs the damage components), but then something else occurred to me - I can get the same effect via Rain of Fire.

Interestingly, both powers scare enemies in different ways. Hot Feet casts 4 seconds of mag 3 "Afraid" every two seconds (though it doesn't self-stack), which is the old Fear mechanic before Terrorize became the order of the day. Rain of Fire, on the other hand, casts 0.75 seconds of mag 5 AVOID every 0.5 seconds (which also doesn't self-stack), which is an entirely DIFFERENT mechanic as found in things like Burn, Ignite, Caltrops and so forth. So Hot Feet is a fear power, whereas Rain of Fire seems to be just a power to avoid. I'd need to know more about what that actually means, but for the time being I think I'll do just fine casting Rain of Fire over myself and sparing myself five extra slots and two thirds of my total recovery in endurance cost. While I'm not dropping it yet, I intend to play without Hot Feet for a while.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

I have no idea what you are talking about

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Honestly, if you intend to open most fights with Breath+Ball, Hot Feet becomes very suspect. The end cost on it is so obscene (but I am not saying its not worth the high end cost) that I hate to have it and not be using it every second I am actually engaged in a fight. The end cost is also hard to maintain without IO bonuses, although without Blazing Aura or Tough or the leadership toggles or Stealth, you are in a much better situation than I have ever been with Hot Feet and endurance.

Are you the type to stop playing a character when you get to 50, or do you continue playing after 50?

I am very surprised you enjoy Combustion so much. Very few do and even though I leveled to 50 with it on my first blaster and even though I have it on my AR/Fire, I still can't say I am fond of it as far as effectiveness is concerned (but I really, really like the way it looks, I kind of wish I could make FSC look like it does).

Inspiration consumption tactic pics from one of those gimmicky (and by gimmicky, I mean awesome) AE missions with massive ambushes that essentially aggro-cap you til you eliminate the monsters. Sure, the critters are less dangerous (no mez, no def) than your average standard content, but they are all (even-con) fire-wielding lieutenants.



On a blaster not built ideally for this business with only SOs--even (shudder) a few yellow SOs.



The same blaster respec'd with virtually nothing but AoEs and frankenslotted with IOs. I solo'd this mission probably a dozen times and died only once. Level 40 inspiration capacity should make it even cinchier.

Although I suspect the density of i16 regular mishes won't quite approach this level, with a mix of minions and lieuts you'll be receiving a non-stop supply of skittles.

Thanks for getting me interested in this blaster again, by the way. 9 bubs from Hot Feet!

Honestly, it's just more effective for me. Has always been. Both the damage on the powers and the AoE range Fireball and Fire Breath are better, and I can do cast them out of range of those nasty swords and fists. Fire Sword Circle, specifically, is barely 10 feet, and I'm almost never able to hit many things with it, whereas Fireball hits are quite a bit easier and Fire Breath is just obscene. Besides, after a Fireball + Fire Breath combo, running into melee and dropping a Fire Sword Circle will kill most things, thereby saving me from the aggro.

I will still admit that I will miss the limited mitigation granted by Hot Feet, but the power's cost is just too back-breaking and, ultimately, I have to go out of my comfortable playstyle to make use of it.

As opposed to grinding for Inventions? I would have to say I'm the former. I won't delete my characters, of course, no will I abandon them completely, but when I DO play my 50s, it's because I enjoy taking them out for a spin from time to time to take part in all the content that has been added since they hit.

I like Combustion because of its AoE range. Fire Sword Circle is faster and hits harder, true, but its range is so small it usually misses a lot of the enemies I'm aiming for. Combustion, on the other hand, almost always hit.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Rise of and all the other self rez powers in the game aren't much use on Master of X TFs...............

I knew there was a reason I only did Master of badges occasionally!

Rise of the Phoenix was actually a power in Fiery Aura at launch, before Epics were introduced in I3, which were then largely put together from existing powers with minor alterations.

Personally, I enjoy self-rez powers. I wouldn't mind it if every set had one. I don't understand why people keep complaining about them. Yes, they are powers that you can only use when you die. Well, you WILL die sooner or later, no matter what, so it makes sense to have a power to use them. It's kind of like complaining about heals because getting damaged means you're weak and not surviving well enough. Personally, when I die I'm angry because I've failed and because I have to walk back from the hospital. With a self-rez power, I'm not actually defeated until I'm dead AND I can't use my resurrect power, and the situations when I die twice in a row or twice very fewquently are quite infrequent. And especially with Rise of the Phoenix doing so much damage, I have to say I like the power.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'm in agreement with Samuel on this one. I have no problem with self-resurrection powers. I liken it to automobile insurance.

I can complain that the only time to use automobile insurance is when I get in a car accident... but if/when I DO get in an accident, I'm sure glad I have it.

The only time I don't like having a self-resurrection power is when I fall in the middle of the mob where they normally stand. If I know I'm going to die, I do my best to run as far as I can away from their standing point so that when I use the power, I don't stand up within their aggro range. (Especially if there is no teammate with Recall Friend).

Ah, but here's the thing - a COOL self-rez you WANT to use in the middle of a big spawn I haven't yet used Rise of the Phoenix, I got a great kick out of Soul Transfer. I always wanted to use it on as many enemies as I could, not for the heal, but for the fun of sticking it to whatever killed me. Honestly, having a violent self-rez makes me more willing to die. Instead of running or healing, I will die, just so that I can get up and keep going. It's like an extra life

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I liken it to building an automobile without safety belts, air bags, and crumple zones so that you have to have insurance.

If I had those things I wouldn't need the insurance except in those rare cases when I drive off a cliff while doing a stunt or those times when another motorist hits me and pushes me over the guard rail.

Haha, this is very true! Hadn't thought about that.

Being able to 6 slot stamina was about as good as stamina+miracle+numina+perf proc and cost about 400 million less

If /fire manip had the kind of survivability/mitigation that say /ice manip has you don't think that would raise any eyebrows? None at all?

Old defiance isn't as powerful as new defiance, but it was about 16x more fun. If I wanted to play a brute with fury I'd play a brute with fury, hence why I deleted both my high level blasters with new defiance in play and am now just getting back into the AT.

The old team may not have always had the same idea of fun as me, but it was pretty clear they strive for "fun". The new team strives after making sure the excel boxes all line up in neat little rows. If "fun" occurs then great, but it is probably about the 5th most important thing to them.

Finally, IMO self rezzes are awesome on blasters and I wish each epic pool had one.
Munitions - resurgence
elec - electrical version of RotP
cold - something similar to energy absorbtion, but instead it rezzes you
force - Revive

Renewal of Light/"Snow Angel"

Perfect, it already exists. I'd forgotten the temp powers from the winter events.

Um... Car insurance is also there to pay for the damages. Once your crumple zone crumples, that's where insurance kicks in even if you didn't get hurt. And besides, City of Heroes isn't really like driving on the roads with a safety-built car. It's more akin to, say, driving at high speed while doing stunts as flying mutant aliens shoot at you and Mad Max is constantly trying to run you off the road while you're trying to disarm a bomb on the passenger's seat. You could probably try to ensure everything will go right, but chances are something will go wrong, and having an extra continue always helps.

If I would be making a comparison, it's like playing a video game and scoffing at extra lives because, if you're good enough, you won't need them.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Ah, good old Diablo 2... Was there ever a worse game that was still so damn popular?

Yeah, I remember the Hardcore option in Diablo 2. I heard you had a better chance for unique drops with a Hardcore character or some such. Me, I never had a use for it. I died all the time. Of course, that's because my characters were gimped, but then the game really did invite gimp builds with its unsupportive system.

Personally, I don't enjoy playing games and fearing dying in them. I fear death and injury in real life, which makes me both a wimp and a coward. I enjoy being able to avoid being that in a game. In City of Heroes, I play the game like I have fun - just go for it and don't worry about anything. I enjoy being able to chance the odds, to go out and do stupid stuff, to skirt the edges of what's reasonable and, yes, even to flip out and kill stuff from time to time.

I could play Blasters strategically and carefully. I could pull, I could divide, I could hit and run. I could play them like squishies. I don't want to. I play my Blasters like I play my Scrappers - aggressively, offensively and with an eye for the kill. If I have a choice between pulling a spawn one by one and exploding the whole spawn at once (which is usually possible), I'll pick the latter every time, despite the fact that I WILL eat an alpha whenever I do that. If I die doing so, provided I died because I made a mistake, then that's how things go. If I can resurrect on top of that, all the better.

Mistakes will happen. They're half the fun.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I've been told RotP is part of my attack chain.

I look at RotP as a heal and +end power. If its recharged (and it usually is), I'll do things I won't when its not recharged. I've been disappointed by surviving on a few occasions, because I was so hurt and my end so low, that now I'd have to Rest, instead of continuing to play.

I have 2 controllers with Epics, neither has /Fire, but now that they are getting RotP, my Fire/Rad/Earth might become Fire/Rad/Fire (although I really, really like my footstomping, so probably not).

Just like in D2 people that are afraid of dying sit back and play really timid and generally contribute far less than someone going (pardon my french) balls to the wall. Having a self rez is exactly like having an extra man in other games - great analogy - it fits so well with blasters and is imo a real game changer for the AT as it allows a blaster to shed all/most fear and do what a blaster can do.

When I have rotp recharged I play like I do when I have a FF or decent emp on the team, which needless to say is about twice as aggressively as otherwise.

Yes, exactly. On the other hand, you've got me a little wrong on the support character versus blaster/scrapper front. This is my fault, though--I think I exaggerated a little in what I was saying. Let me clarify.

I don't suck. I'm not Ms. Fumble-Fingers. In fact, I'm pretty darn good--as long as you take into account the fact that I've never really played console games or shooters a whole lot, and that my reflexes are already on that long downhill slide . In fact, looking at the players around me, I think I'm better at positioning and movement than most of them. I'm just not top tier.

And I still can't pull off the kind of things that Strato is doing. Since I'm pretty sure it's not my situational awareness or my game knowledge that's letting me down, I think it must be those unpracticed old-person reflexes that are the problem. My contention here is that you have to be pretty exceptional in those areas to pull off the solo fire/fire blaster without a lot of faceplanting.

And I think that's unique to fire/fire at this point. All other blasters have some sort of mitigation powers, so that you're not totally dependent on damage alone. Those mitigation powers are often dismissed as insignificant, and when you're comparing to other AT's I can see that argument, but when comparing blasters to blasters they make a huge difference. The difference between a fire/fire blaster and a fire/ice blaster is the difference between a character I can't solo without constant frustration, and my favorite character in the entire game. /Ice provides just enough mitigation, slows down the action and incoming damage just enough, to bring it to the level I enjoy. The KB in Energy fulfills the same function--my energy/energy blaster is my other favorite character in the entire game. Get very much slower and safer than that, and we start to get into "this is kind of boring" territory.

So this isn't an either/or thing, is what I'm saying. I have a certain level of challenge that's enjoyable, but just a little more and it's too frustrating. Everyone has that level, and it's different for everyone. My ideal level for that is, apparently, a blaster with some control/mitigation powers to fall back on. Dominators, with their recent changes, might just turn out to be my ideal AT--I've been on a break from the game, so I haven't tried them very much yet, and I'm kind of waiting for Going Rogue anyway. But I think they just might.

Another person might find blasters in general to be too frustrating, while a third might only like the kind of frenetic play required to solo the fire/fire. It's a continuum of preferences. Good thing there are so many choices in the game, so there's probably one out there for everyone.

Yeah, I know it's a late reply. Sorry about that. Been busy, but I still wanted to respond.