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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinneus" data-source="post: 5626432" data-attributes="member: 48215">In my opinion, Flaming Sphere was balanced by the fact that it was party-unfriendly damage. On certain battlefields, it was difficult to deploy a Flaming Sphere without scorching your party, and monsters could seek refuge from the dreaded Sphere by pressing the attack and mixing things up in melee. Start of turn damage was the boon you got in exchange for party-unfriendly "collateral." Fountain of Flame was the other option. It was end-of-turn damage, which is weaker, but it was a completely party-friendly option. You could lay it down on top of your frontline and never worry about it again. There are other differences between these two powers; Fountain of Flame is stationary, but the Sphere can be maneuvered about. The Fountain sticks around even if you're stunned, but Flaming Sphere is going to be sucking up minors and moves all combat to keep it active. Now that Flaming Sphere is end-of-turn damage, but remains party unfriendly, it is (in my opinion, at least) the strictly inferior option. I know I'll personally be retraining FS for Fountain of Flame as soon as possible. Flaming Sphere is not, and never was, the perfect level 1 Daily. Sure, with good positionining, or versus a solo, it added up to encounter-long auto-damage, which is nice. But there were just so many ways around it... simplest involving stunnning or dazing the caster. Now, I think the fact that it's still ally-unfriendly damage will really hurt it. It'll be way too easy for monsters to use that to their advantage, shifting adjacent to a bunch of your allies and forcing you to choose between moving the FS next to your friends and endangering everybody, or just letting it go. Anyway, I once considered Flaming Sphere and Fountain of Flame to be neck-and-neck, with different things going for each of them. Now, though, Fountain of Flame has pulled pretty firmly into the lead, at least in my opinion.</blockquote>

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