Slotting Bonfire

Just to get the lay of the land, how do YOU slot Bonfire. I find it to be a super useful skill and was thinking of dropping a five or a six slot set in it.

I have three builds geared to three different specialties, so really ANY set would work in one of the builds, just looking for some cool ideas for the power itself, not the set bonuses. Get creative and make me smile for once!

I have been puzzling this out on my fire/mental/fire blaster myself and have reached the conclusion that, for a blaster, there really isn't much to slot but recharge unless you are going for a set bonus.

The problem with bonfire is that it does 2 things - mitigate damage to you through knock back and damage things. Since it does knockback instead of knockdown (roughly mag 6) nothing is going to stay in it long enough to take much damage unless you have a control of some kind that has -KB, which allows you do do damage but prevents the first purpose (mitigation) - and for a blaster the mitigation is really the more important feature, so slotting for damage enhancement is kind of a waste.

You COULD slot procs - it will take both the positrons blast % for energy damage and the explosive strike % for smashing damage proc. I am not sure if you will really gain anything here though - I suspect you would be better off slotting the posi blast proc in an AE that you fire off more often - it depends on whether bonfire checks for proc hits like an aura or rain (once very 10 seconds) or more like a regular pet (once per attack). I suspect its like a rain, which means its going to check at most on initial cast and then once every 10 seconds and the odds are pretty good things will have been knocked out of it after the first check.

I 6 slot Kinetic Crash.

Force Feedback +Recharge works very nice in it assuming your running against many mobs. As each mob hitting it has a chance to activate the proc it has a decent chance to go off. Since the AI of mobs is pretty much charge in to fight the player. It's almost like zombies trying to get at you to eat your flesh, they just keep on coming. After not having and having it, I start to notice when the proc goes off. You can also tell when it goes off by the the fact that Bon Fire is ready to use again before Bon Fire expires sometimes.

I've only ever put 1 recharge IO in bonfire. It recharges before it expires. I have 176% recharge/perma-hasten so I don't know how long it may take on your build.

If I had to pick something, it would be Range. 2 slots gives it 104ft range, and you can cast it around corners. One of my favorite tricks for Bonfire is to throw it just behind a group so they all get flung toward me.

I wouldn't slot KB because it ruins the power's occasional ability to convert into knockdown. I have only seen this happen with the robots in one of the level 50 arcs, but I can think of few things more overpowered than autohit knockdown every 0.2 seconds for 30 seconds.

I would honestly have a hard time 6 slotting it though. It's pretty efficient as a power. Are you sure there is nowhere else you can put the slots?

On my dp/fire/fire blaster i just slotted it with the Ragnarok proc just incase the enemy has some form kb resis they might just fall down.

Try throwing it under Romy's feet just after he rezes in the ITF. Hilarity ensues.

A lot depends on how you want to or will use bonfire.

As has been suggested above it can be used to make a safe zone to stand in, or fling mobs in a specific direction.

You can block off doors or hallways, or the really fun one is with corners or dead end corridors. With those you can arrange for mobs to get flung into the wall and bounce back into the bonfire. Quite amusing to lock down a spawn that way. It also can do some considerable damage even un-slotted.

On my fire/storm controller I have a single end redux in it. I keep planning to change that to a recharge. I mostly use it for area denial.

On my fire/kin (I forget how many slots) I use it more as a damage power. With the -kb in fire cages it can do some considerable chewing on a spawn.

For a blaster I would likely use it mostly to make a safe zone to stand in and the occasional nasty lock down on spawns as the geography permits. If your build has slots to spare it would a be a good place to put them, as mentioned above Kinetic Crash is a very good set.

If you are tight on slots it can be effective with one slot.

I'm just getting ideas here. I use the power frequently. I love recharge sets. I've five slotted it before. I've one slotted it before. It's a fun power. Just getting ideas is all.

I have mine 6-slotted for Force Feedback, but Kinetic Crash is good too.

So I slotted six kinetic crash. The why:

1. 3 points of KB protection let's me drop Karma from hover and slot a defense IO.
2. Moar recharge!
3. Bonfire is my circle of happiness when the mobs get thick.
4. I can now drop bonfire again before the first one runs out if I need to reposition.
5. KB and corners.

Every attack is still 5 slotted. build up is 5 slotted. Aim 3 slots. So...

I tested. It's super fun. Now, I have something to do between nukes when solo.

I've always just slotted 1 rech in it as I'd rather put the slots elsewhere in other powers. I love Bonfire, but what it does out-of-the-box is perfect for me and I really only use/need it for a safe haven or the many other reasons listed above.

To me, it's a situational power that doesn't warrant the need for extra slots--no matter what set bonuses I might/could get from it.