The Inferno: Red Hot Damage (Archetype Review)

[Shapes]

Hello Champions! If there's one type of hero you can count on seeing in some sort of superpowered universe, it's one that can control fire. Champions Online is no exception to this in the fashion that we can play as The Inferno, a completely fire-based Archetype (as well as The Blazing! But that is a different review) focused around damage. But is this archetype a bright example, or does it burn out like others? Let's find out.

The Inferno comes as follows;

Super Stats
○ Recovery (Primary, Level 6)
○ Endurance (Level 10)
○ Ego (Level 15)
○ The Inferno Innate Trait (+10 Rec/End/Dex, +8 Ego)

Powers
Energy Builder: Throw Fire (Innate)
Power 2: Fire Strike (Innate)
Power 3: Fireball or Fire Breath (Level 6)
Power 4: Fiery Form (Level 8)
Power 5: Heat Wave or Flame Prison (Level 11)
Power 6: Fiery Will (Level 14)
Power 7: Incinerate (Level 17)
Power 8: Fire Shield (Level 21)
Power 9: Thermal Reverberation (Level 25)
Power 10: Conflagration or Pyre (Level 30)
Power 11: Immolation (Level 35)
Power 12: Flashfire or Fire Snake (Level 40)

Specializations
○ Recovery (Level 10)
○ Avenger (Level 20)
○ Guardian (Level 30)

Lots of fire to play with, hope you brought your inner pyromaniac. While it tends to be overlooked, you can actually have your main damage for Fire right at level 6, but it takes some level investment to truly flourish, but with how the build's structured, things might feel pretty weak or clunky until level 14 or 25. Recovery isn't exactly a damage stat, after all. But let's take a look at these powers and what they mean to The Inferno.

Throw Fire is your energy builder. Initial strike has a chance to apply Clinging Flames, otherwise a completely normal energy builder.

Fire Strike is your Blast. This one is pretty unique for a blast and a power in general, as it's a single target tap attack that deals fire damage with no cooldown, only a 0.5 activation time, which means you can just hammer away with it for as long as you have energy; on top of that, it creates a unique buff (only shared with the Nova Flare power) called Fiery Escalation, a 6 second buff that can stack up to 4 times that increases the chance for Fire Strike to apply Clinging Flames. While that much isn't important here, the Kindling advantage makes your next fire power deal 10% more damage based on the number of Fiery Escalation stacks. There's a lot of purposes this power serves, but we'll get into that further down.

Fireball or Fire Breath is your first choice. Fireball is a charged AoE (10ft) that deals Fire damage, full to the main target and approximately half that damage to secondary targets, with a chance to apply Clinging Flames based on charge time, increased chance based on rank. Fire Breath is a maintained cone AoE (45ft degree) that deals Fire damage with a 10% chance to apply Clinging Flames each time it damages a target. This is essentially an AoE choice with Fire Breath being the obvious winner in that context, but Fireball shouldn't be overlooked--despite its slow charge time and small aoe radius, it hits incredibly hard. So much so that it can be built for to be your main damage, and it's hard to not recommend having it while leveling at least until you have Incinerate.

Fiery Form is your Passive. It increases the Elemental damage you deal (Fire, Ice, Toxic), increases your fire damage dealt for nearby enemies with Clinging Flames on it, increases your resistance to Fire damage and other Elemental damage by a lesser degree, generates energy whenever you're struck by Fire damage, deals minor Fire damage to enemies with 25ft every 2 seconds, and has a 20% chance to apply Clinging Flames to attackers when they strike you.

Heat Wave or Flame Prison is your second choice. There is very little difference between these two, they're both maintained fire damage Incapacitate-type powers with the biggest difference being that Flame Prison is AoE (15ft), while Heat Wave is not. Holding either power longer than 1 second will incapacitate targets, rendering them unable to attack so long as they aren't attacked for a short time, with each having a 10% chance to apply Clinging Flames each time they deal damage. While this seems like a no-brainer choice, Heat Wave has the Feed the Flames advantage, which heals you 3.5% of your HP each time it ticks. If you don't need sustain, Flame Prison is the better choice.

Fiery Will is your toggle form. Gives a stacking buff that increases your damage by a percentage every time you apply a Burning effect. Lasts 20 seconds, new stacks refresh it and gives energy, can only gain a stack every 4 seconds, and stacks up to 8. The damage buff and energy you gain from every stack scales with your Recovery. Burning effects are Clinging Flames, Pyre Patch, and Fire Snake.

Incinerate is your main* single target damage. A maintained single-target fire damage power that applies the Unstable Accelerant debuff for as long as the power is maintained, increasing the damage of Burning affects on the target. This boasts the damage-over-time capabilities of Fire, as combining each Burning affect while having this deal damage makes things take a significant amount of damage over the duration of the maintain.

Fire Shield is your block upgrade. It increases the damage mitigated by your block and gives a chance to apply Clinging Flames to any target attacking you while blocking.

Thermal Reverberation is your Energy Unlock. This grants you a buff whenever a target nearby has Clinging Flames on them that generates energy every 3 seconds. While the buff duration is 6 seconds, it'll continue to reapply itself as long as something with Clinging Flames is close by, but energy will only be generated every 3 seconds. The amount of energy scales with your Endurance.

Conflagration or Pyre is your third choice. Conflagration is a maintained fire damage AoE (15ft) with a 10% chance to apply Clinging Flames every time it deals damage. Pyre is a charged fire damage PBAoE (25ft) that has a chance to apply Clinging Flames to all affected targets, increased chance based on rank, and if fully charged, leaves a Pyre Patch at your location. This is a second AoE choice and more up to personal preference, both powers leave you rooted while charging/maintaining, both can apply Clinging Flames, both can leave a Pyre Patch. The biggest difference is that Pyre requires you to be closer to enemies than Conflagration does.

Immolation is an Active Offense power. When activated, it grants breakfree damage to help get out of any Hold affects and applies a buff for 15 seconds that increases your damage dealt by a percentage and reduces the cost of your powers. While the buff is active, attacking enemies have a 25% chance to have Clinging Flames applied to them. Also while active, if you have the Kindling advantage on Fire Strike, Fiery Escalation will not be consumed by your fire attacks.

Flashfire or Fire Snake is your final choice. Flashfire is a tap power that applies Clinging Flames to the target and leaves a Pyre Patch on their location for 16 seconds. Fire Snake is a tap summon power that creates an untargetable fire snake that moves towards your target, dealing fire damage to anything around it and applying your main debuff, Engulfing Flames, to them. Lasts 16 seconds. Both of these essentially function as damage-over-time powers, Flashfire being an immobile, stronger DoT with a guaranteed application of Clinging Flames, while Fire Snake can move and apply the fire resistance debuff as it goes through targets. As the incapacitating powers from prior can also apply the Engulfing Flame debuffs with an advantage, I would recommend Flashfire.

Obviously, the main damage to deal here is Fire, but another vital part is having and spreading Clinging Flames. Other burning effects are a bonus to this, and given there's so many means to apply Clinging Flames, you don't have to choose between them much. Bearing all this in mind, how would I build the Inferno? Well there's actually two ways to build the Inferno, one focusing on Incinerate and another focusing on Fireball, and they give roughly the same DPS. As before, I'll give both their own segment.

Talents
Take your superstat talents for each setup.

Powers (Fireball Setup)
Energy Builder: Throw Fire
Power 2: Fire Strike (Fan the Flames, Kindling)
Power 3: Fireball (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 4: Fiery Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 5: Heat Wave (Feed the Flames, Engulfing Flames)
Power 6: Fiery Will
Power 7: Incinerate
Power 8: Fire Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 9: Thermal Reverberation
Power 10: Conflagration (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 11: Immolation (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 12: Flashfire (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations
Recovery
○ Gear Utilization (3/3)
○ Staying Power (2/2)
○ Super Charged (3/3)
○ Efficient (2/3)
Avenger
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Round 'em Up (3/3)
○ Preemptive Strike (3/3)
○ Surprise Attack (2/2)
Guardian
○ Fortified Gear (3/3)
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Find the Mark (3/3)
○ The Best Defense (2/3)
Recovery Mastery

Gameplan
In single target scenarios, start off with Heat Wave, hold as long as it'll let you, then use Flashfire, follow that by using Fire Strike then Fireball repeatedly. Use Flashfire whenever it's off cooldown and you're not charging a Fireball. Use Immolation whenever it isn't on cooldown and you don't need to be blocking for a long time, but make sure to use Fire Strike 4 times to have 4 stacks of Fiery Escalation to maximize the damage benefit of Kindling, repeat Fire Strike into Fireball and Flashfire when off cooldown. In AoE scenarios, pick whichever target is closest to other mobs and use Flashfire then hold Conflagration repeatedly. If the enemies are very close together, use the single-target method. If you're finding yourself under pressure, hold block until it's safe or Heat Wave a target to incapacitate them while healing yourself, or if just to heal yourself in general.

Powers (Incinerate Setup)
Energy Builder: Throw Fire
Power 2: Fire Strike (Fan the Flames, Wild Fire)
Power 3: Fire Breath (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 4: Fiery Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 5: Heat Wave (Feed the Flames, Engulfing Flames)
Power 6: Fiery Will
Power 7: Incinerate (Rank 2, Rank 3, Burninator)
Power 8: Fire Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Power 9: Thermal Reverberation
Power 10: Pyre (Rank 2, Burning Sun)
Power 11: Immolation
Power 12: Flashfire (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations
Recovery
○ Gear Utilization (3/3)
○ Staying Power (2/2)
○ Super Charged (3/3)
○ Efficient (2/3)
Avenger
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Round 'em Up (3/3)
○ Relentless Assault (3/3)
○ Surprise Attack (2/2)
Guardian
○ Fortified Gear (3/3)
○ Ruthless (2/2)
○ Find the Mark (3/3)
○ The Best Defense (2/3)
Recovery Mastery

Gameplan
In single target scenarios, use Heat Wave and hold it as long as possible for 3 stacks of Engulfing Flames. Follow that by using Flashfire, fully maintain Incinerate, tap Fire Strike, then fully maintain Incinerate again, tap Fire Strike again, repeat while using Flashfire and Immolate when off cooldown. In AoE scenarios, move yourself around enemy targets while using Fire Breath, or charge your Pyre if they're close enough to you, using Flashfire on whichever target is closest to others. If under pressure, Heat Wave can heal you and incapacitate an enemy, and fully charging Pyre will leave a healing rune on yourself for a little bit of sustain.

Travel Powers
Might I suggest one of the many fire-themed travel powers? Either way, rank one of them to 3.

Gear
Starting:
○ Critical Severity Primary Offense with Recovery mods and a Gambler's Lucky Gem
○ Greater Health Primary Defense with Recovery mods and a Growth Amulet
○ Efficiency Primary Utility with Recovery mods and a Gambler's Lucky Gem
○ Ego/Critical Secondary Offense, End/Ego Secondary Defense and Utility (Acclaimed)
Ending:
○ Distinguished Offense Gloves with Recovery mods and any variation of one Gambler's Lucky Gem, Soviet Guard's Resolution, or Severity Core
○ Distinguished Freedom Armor with Recovery mods and Growth Amulets
○ Distinguished Efficiency Helm with Recovery mods, Qwyjibo's Fury, and a Gambler's Lucky Gem
○ Critical Belt of Determination with a Rec/Ego mod or Cosmic Fang of Rage with a Critical or Severity Core (depending on how much Critical you have on your Primary)
○ Onslaught Fitness Tights with a Rec/Ego mod (Bolstering Heart of Determination if unavailable)
○ Onslaught Efficiency Helm with a Rec/Ego mod (Efficient Eyepiece of Determination if unavailable)

Other notes
Recovery prime leaves the Inferno rather vulnerable before they have proper endgame gear, be sure to use your block regularly whenever you're being attacked in group content to minimize the amount you need to sustain. While both methods of damage here use Heat Wave, you can use Flame Prison if you're comfortable without the sustain to instead incapacitate groups of mobs that'd otherwise threaten you all at once.

Overall, my opinion of the Inferno is that despite it's very questionable superstat arrangement, it manages to pull off some impressive damage when built right--as long as it isn't being attacked. While it has two methods of dealing damage and they have their own distinguished style, with how close they are in DPS, I wouldn't recommend making two Infernos just to try it. Nonetheless, this is a solid damage Archetype, and if you're looking to set your foes aflame, look no further than the Inferno. Just be careful not to burn out, yourself!

As before and always, thank you for reading.