Is /fiery aura only good when trying to make an AoE type build?

[cprice]

I see it often on Brutes that run that fire/spines build, but could it work out on a scrapper WITHOUT SPINES? I don't particularly care for the looks of spines. I never ran a spine and I probably never will. As good as people say it is, thematically and aesthetically it does nothing for me. So, could /FA work one something else? I would like to try DM/FA or Kat/FA, but I'm afraid of the survivability aspect. Any thoughts?

[MunkiLord]

Fire won't be as survivable as many of the other sets, but it'll still keep you alive. Especially if you pack in recharge and defense with sets. I was able to solo and ITF with it back on live, but final Rom did kill me a few times and I had to use inspirations.

 

I'm not familiar with Katana, but Dark Melee will pair nice with it. Siphon Life is an additonal heal to go with the one that is already in Fire, and using Soul Drain to help power up Burn and the damage aura will help a ton to make up for Dark Melee's poor AoE.

 

Now that I think about it, making a DM/Fire Scrapper sounds like a lot of fun and I may try it as well.

[Hopeling]

/Fire is a solid set for general use. It's the classic "offense is the best defense" secondary. Blazing Aura, Burn, and Fiery Embrace are still good powers outside of a farming map. Katana and Dark Melee should both pair well.

 

It tends to work better on a brute, for the resist cap and so enemies won't run from Burn, but it's hardly bad if you really want to play a scrapper.

[cprice]

Fire won't be as survivable as many of the other sets, but it'll still keep you alive. Especially if you pack in recharge and defense with sets. I was able to solo and ITF with it back on live, but final Rom did kill me a few times and I had to use inspirations.

 

I'm not familiar with Katana, but Dark Melee will pair nice with it. Siphon Life is an additonal heal to go with the one that is already in Fire, and using Soul Drain to help power up Burn and the damage aura will help a ton to make up for Dark Melee's poor AoE.

 

Now that I think about it, making a DM/Fire Scrapper sounds like a lot of fun and I may try it as well.

 

That what my train of thought was with DM/FA and soul drain. Seems like an interesting combo on paper. I'll give it a go and see how I fare out. Let's hope I don't crash....and BURN!  Ok, I'll see my way out.

[Seroster01]

Fair warning: it's been a fairly long time (even in the CoH scope of timeframes) since I played a /Fire anything, so my input may be outdated.  But for my 2c: My experiences at the time would weigh in that /Fire's survivability is decent. Not great, not terrible... just decent.  Bear in mind  that there was a round of IO balancing after I quit playing mine that made resistance set bonuses actually useful, & the Winter IOs are also pretty strong for adding survivability, so this part could be the most outdated.

 

Something you'll kinda run into as a /fire Scrapper is that one of the main advantages for the other classes with /fire, Burn, isn't usually super useful for you without something to keep the mobs in the patch (the other 2 get Punchvoke).  As a second note, a lot of /fires survivability comes from the self-heal, so make sure you devote some slots to that early. 

 

You may already know all about this but I'll go over it anyway cause it's important: you'll need to devote some build space to knockback (and probably immobilize) protection.  Used to be this was working Combat Jumping & Acrobatics into the build.  CJ is probably still worth it, cause it's a pretty good power by itself, but nowadays KB resistance is usually more optimally gained by setting aside a few enhancement slots for KB resistance IOs/set bonuses.  Each unique is worth 4 magnitude of protection, though nowadays there's also some set bonuses with different #s from these.  Usually you want either 4 or 12 mag worth of protection, which would be either 1 OR 3 uniques worth of resistance.  Lots of folks say 1 (mag 4 protection) is plenty, and it will certainly prevent the vast majority of KB/KD from mobs. Personally I like to slot 3 IOs worth (mag 12), cause I don't want to be getting ragdolled when I need to pop a self-heal.  In any event, there's no real reason to stop at 2, because there's not much that 2 would stop that 1 wouldn't.  On the other hand, if you get to 3 that'll prevent almost any KB in the game.

 

Other than that, trying to stack some defense from set bonuses/uniques/powers is about the best advice I can think to give.  Since /Fire is almost purely a resistance set & includes a solid self-heal, building at least a moderate level of defense into the build will be the best way to get your survivability up.

 

That's about all I can think to say this time of night.  Some of it may have come out wrong cause I'm getting sleepy... Anyway, I hope it helps, & GL.

[Nightmarer]

DM/Fire is an awesome combination, especially if you softcap your scrapper to s/l def,, which is not really hard.