Bonfire (after Fire Cages) as a damage attack?

Anyone is using Bonfire as an attack?
I'd like to try that out since I'm often without any other power ready to use.
I'd use it after every mob is nicely fire caged.
Toon is a Fire/Storm lv 37 atm.
Also I wonder if PROCs would only fire on the initial cast since it's a pseudo pet.
Thanks in advance

A fire/storm really doesn't need bonfire for damage, they have plenty.

It works, but it's extremely taxing on your endurance bar. You have to refresh the cages every 12 seconds to keep things from being thrown from the Bonfire. I gave up the tactic after a few dozen tries.

I feel Bonfire itself is an underrated power, though. When I play ranged squishies and the Fire Controller remembers to throw out a Bonfire, thats usually where I go stand.

I have tried it with some mixed results. The first thing to bear in mind is that Fire Cages will only offer knockback protection for 12 seconds no matter how long the immobilize it offers. Spamming it to prevent mobs from being knocked out of the Bonfire gets to be pretty endurance intensive. The second Fire Cages that it caps at 16 targets. If there are more than that in bonfire's radius than someone is going to be bounced, also consider misses and bosses that will require two applications of Fire Cages. Finally, it's damage is spread out over its duration of 45 seconds. So it may not do quite the damage you would anticipate just looking at the numbers.

I liked it when solo. It did add a nice bit of damage for my fire/ff, but I was generally slower than what you would expect from a fire/kin or fire/storm I would imagine. On teams, the mobs generally fell before it could make a contribution. Also, some people will give you flack for using it even if you prevent the majority of knockback. Facing AV's it did have a chance to offer some nice damage and it's handy at the computer console in the ITF. Praetorian robots also have enough -kb to turn it into knockdown so it's all gravy.

Overall, it's highly situational. If you plan to run solo a lot, then give it a go. Just be wary of using it on teams.

Thanks all, yes the damage is a long duration ticks feast.
I've just tried it out myself and it's not so hot lol.
Was prepared for spamming cages since I let Tornados go in regularly, too.

My idea was to slot the 2 PROCs and some DMG,END and RECH and leave it at that for a little bit more OOMPF.
Probably getting Assault instead since I already have Maneuvers.

End is not your friend on a fire/storm.

I kind of like it too. I have a high recharge/high recovery build on my Fire/Storm. I have Fire Cages 5 slotted with Posi including the proc and the Trap of the Hunter proc.

I move in with Steamy Mist and Super Speed to just outside of Hot Feet range of the mobs. I open with Flash Fires (and detoggle Super Speed and Steamy Mist as it animates), Jump in with Hot Feet running and hit Thunder Clap to stun bosses as well, then Fire Cages, Tornado, Firecages, Freezing Rain, Bonfire, Fire Cages, Fissure, Fire cages, Fire Cages, Fire Cages, Fissure....... throwing in Thunder Clap every time it's recharged.

With the procs in Fire Cages and the defense and resistance debuffs in Freezing Rain most stuff is dead long Bonfire expires.

Bonfire would work much better as a damage power if it benefitted from containment. Sadly it doesn't.

I personally find Bonfire quite useful in this situation on my Fire/Rad; since I'm using Cages as part of my attack chain and to leverage maximum benefit from the Gravitational Anchor hold proc the KB is rarely an issue. I originally picked up Bonfire as an inexpensive KB protection mule with the Kinetic Crash set... after a bit of experimentation I found it was quite useful as part of my damage output... and slotting the rest of the Kinetic Crash set offered a nice bit of +recharge.

By pinning mobs in place on the Bonfire I can add 250 points of damage over it's duration... that's with ~70% damage enhancement from the Kin Crash set. Adding that to the 30 points of damage every 2 seconds from Hot Feet and an unknown amount (due to their A.D.D. mentality) of the monkeys and the ~45 points from slotted Cages and I'm dropping groups very rapidly. Don't forget that if you're dealing with a tough group (AV or the like) you can double or even triple stack Bonfire under them.

I typically run in with Hot Feet/Choking Cloud running, pop Cinders and Cages, Char a likely boss then Cages again followed by Bonfire. EF gets tossed on a boss/LT and all I have to do is keep Cages refreshed while Hot Feet, Bonfire & the monkeys kill the group.

I realize that a Fire/Storm would be a bit different, but aren't you spamming Cages anyway to handle all the KB of Tornado & Lightning Storm? I know it does conflict with Freezing Rain's KD though so that could be an issue. I slotted Cages with 5 Posi Blast and the Gravitational Anchor proc and while I can occasionally have end issues (Hot Feet/Choking Cloud/Enervating Field/Mind over Body/World of Confusion) they're manageable.

The way to totally abuse Bonfire is to run office maps. When you see an enemy group standing in a conference room, throw the Bonfire right in the middle of the table. The area is impossible to escape for most enemies and they will be stuck to the wall for most of fight.