Shazel’s Fire Blast Guide
Last Modified: August 8, 2009
All power sets in CoH/V have secondary effects. Fire is a simply about damage. Your attacks do damage and the secondary effect is extra damage, usually DoT. Because of this, you can do some ridiculous amounts of damage and if you like to see massive groups of enemies dropping like George Bush's approval ratings, Fire Blast is for you.
Flares
Flares - Just take it.
 | Score |  | 2 of 5 |  |
Summary
| Unslotted Strength | | 200% of Brawl | |
As with all blasters, you actually want to take your weakest attack because of Defiance. It's one of the 3 powers you can fire while Mezzed and it also recharges quickly which helps to build your Defiance meter.
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | |  >  >  >  |  | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
| Unnecessary. You already have decent range so enhance it if you have a particular reason to do so or a Set bonus gives it to you only. |
Fire Blast
Fire Blast - Faster than flares and more powerful too.
| Score | | 5 of 5 | |
Summary
You toss a chunk of fire at the enemy. It kind of looks like throwing a wet towel, except that it's not a towel, and it's on fire, and…uhhhh. What was my point again? Anyway, it's fast and good damage. It's a solid power for use through the game. Get it and slot it well. | Unslotted Strength | | 281% of Brawl | |
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > > > | | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
| Unnecessary. You already have decent range so enhance it if you have a particular reason to do so or a Set bonus gives it to you only. |
Fire Ball
Fire Ball - Your first AoE power.
| Score | | 5 of 5 | |
Summary
Aren't AoE powers fun? You just toss this fun little hot potato over to the enemy of your choice and it explodes in his hands damaging him and everyone around him. Besides being fast and powerful, it's great in your AoE combo and it helps when hunting because you can drop an entire group of enemies that are several levels below you in one hit. | Unslotted Strength | | 384% of Brawl | |
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > > > | | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
| Unnecessary. You already have decent range so enhance it if you have a particular reason to do so or a Set bonus gives it to you only. |
Rain of Fire
Rain of Fire - Notice that they're all running
| Score | | 4 of 5 | |
Summary
Click the power then choose a location on screen to fire the power and an area effect begins that lasts for several seconds. It's a slightly different power in that it never misses anything doing at least 1 point of damage per tic (and each tic is less than a second in duration so the numbers pile on pretty fast). | Unslotted Strength | | 690% of Brawl | |
Note: You COULD leave it unslotted and it will work about the same, but if you use it in your attack chain (like I do), you should triple slot it for damage. Accuracy is unnecessary because it's autohit
How to Use
The three most important things you need to know about Rain of Fire are:
- It scatters enemies. This can really tick off your team so use it when you WANT the enemies to scatter, when they are held in place by someone else's effect, or when they're almost dead anyway.
- It slows enemies, if only slightly. This is the closest thing a Fire Blaster has to a mass control power. If you want to limit the enemies that come through a door or if you want to make enemies run from you so you have time to get away, Rain of Fire can be used for that.
- It can be enhanced with powers like Aim and Build Up and with inspirations
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > = | | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Sucks up endurance. Give it 50+ |
| It takes a while to come back so try for 50+ recharge if you can. |
| Unnecessary. You already have decent range so enhance it if you have a particular reason to do so or a Set bonus gives it to you only. |
| No point. Period |
Fire Breath
Fire Breath - I don't eat no mints
| Score | | 3 of 5 | |
Summary
The activation time is a little long so I know a lot of people that skip this, but it does great cone damage and works well in a combo if you do it right. | Unslotted Strength | | 495% of Brawl | |
How to Use
Because it has slow activation and it's cone based, you have to fire it at a distance for it to be helpful. I'll start battles with this or Rain of Fire and then move in firing my other AoE's point blank (Fire Sword Circle, Fireball, Combustion etc).Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > > > > | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| This power is lower range than most and the width of the cone is affected by the range so go ahead and slot for 20%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
Aim
Aim - Boosts accuracy and power
| Score | | 5 of 5 | |
Summary
The description says it "greatly" increases accuracy and "slightly" improves damage potential for a short time. In tests, it was a little more than 1.5 times normal attack power. If that's "slightly", I wonder what "greatly" is? | Damage Boost | | 165% of Brawl | |
It might just be me, but the duration of Aim seems longer than Build Up so if you have BU in your secondary, alwys fire Aim first.
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > |  | |
| More than anything, you just want this power to come back more often. Slot recharge before anything. 60%+ |
| Do it if you want, but this power is very low endurance to activate. |
| Not really necessary. Unslotted, you already get almost 40% buff. |
Blaze
Blaze - Short range, but devastating? Yeah, that sums is up pretty well
| Score | | 5 of 5 | |
Summary
In my test the power of blaze was better than any attack other than Blazing Bolt and even then it was only just behind. This is a great single target power. Just make sure that if you're firing an attack chain on an enemy who's nearly dead, hit tab to target another enemy who's got significantly more life before using blaze. | Unslotted Strength | | 595% of Brawl | |
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | > > > > | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| This power is lower range than most so go ahead and slot for 20%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
Blazing Bolt
Blazing Bolt - Probably the best snipe power I've seen... besides possibly Proton Volley
| Score | | 6 of 5 | |
Summary
The strongest single target attack you have. It has a shorter activation time than any other snipe I've seen and you don't stand in the same "snipe stance" that I've seen from every other character. Besides those, you create a beam of light between you and the target making the power really tangible. It's a very satisfying way to say, Hey you! You're toast!" For those reasons, it is, by far, my favorite snipe attack. | Unslotted Strength | | 611% of Brawl | |
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | >  > > > > | |
| Attack standard: 80%+ |
| Snipe standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 50%+ |
| Attack standard: 30%+ |
| Not deathly important, but slot it if you've already given some attention to End Reduction. |
| It's a snipe. Range isn't necessary unless you just want it for some reason. |
Inferno
Inferno - Your nova power
| Score | | 6 of 5 | |
Summary
So here's the thing. The first time I used this power, I was set to run from any survivors… but there weren't any. I'm used to a Defender nova which isn't nearly as strong so when everything went down, I was really shocked. There's just no substitute for being able to take down an entire group of enemies in one shot like this. Best of all, there's no knockback so if you used Rain of Fire just before this, it will continue to pelt anyone you missed or that was too high level to get taken out in the first shot. | Unslotted Strength | | 2095% of Brawl | |
Slotting
| Slotting Priority | | = | | |
| Nova standard: 80%+ |
| Nova standard: 80%+ |
| Nova standard: Not really needed unless you find yourself constantly trying to activate it when you're almost out of endurance. |
| Nova's don't miss often enough for this to be a problem |
Under ‘Fire Blast’ at the top of page 4 of Shazel’s guide, you have a line which reads “…if you like to see massive groups of enemies dropping President Bush’s approval ratings…”
The English Professor in me says you need to add the word ‘like’ between ‘dropping’ and ‘President’, so that it reads “…if you like to see massive groups of enemies dropping like President Bush’s approval ratings…”
The Neocon Tanker in me wants to thump you for the nasty Bush reference, but I’ll let it go because your site is so darned funny. But I’m watching you, Libby…..
[Jeremy: Thanks for the correction Professor
Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my fingers. As for the Bush thing, well... I just won't tell you about my other site then]