Surging Flame Feat: Better than I thought

[Stalker0]

I just happened to notice that I have been reading the text of this feat incorrectly.

Originally I thought that when I hit the target with a flame power, I got 5 extra damage.

Instead, its any fire power until the end of your next turn...so if a few party members have fire powers they all can benefit.

Learn something new every day

 

[Trainz]

I just happened to notice that I have been reading the text of this feat incorrectly.

Originally I thought that when I hit the target with a flame power, I got 5 extra damage.

Instead, its any fire power until the end of your next turn...so if a few party members have fire powers they all can benefit.

Learn something new every day

It's still only good against critters resistant to fire, so I doubt if anyone will take it.

Nothing beats lasting frost/wintertouched, and that's a shame because it would be fun to see what other elemental focuses would play like. Arcane strikers must go the frost way if they want to have a chance at competing with martial strikers.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Arcane strikers must go the frost way if they want to have a chance at competing with martial strikers.

Funny I n ever thought that.

IME, the only time the martial strikers keep up is when there is only one target to hit. As soon as there are 2-3 monsters on the field, the arcane strikers beat the martial guys hands down.

As for the feat, yes, it is nice, but still too situational for me, though I had not noticed what you jsut did. Good catch.

 

[Garthanos]

It's still only good against critters resistant to fire, so I doubt if anyone will take it.

Nothing beats lasting frost/wintertouched, and that's a shame because it would be fun to see what other elemental focuses would play like. Arcane strikers must go the frost way if they want to have a chance at competing with martial strikers.

My group allows re-typing damage at the time you take a power. So you can make Lasting Flame/Summertouched.

Feats are "for the heros" after all.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

I think the feat was mostly put there for folks who wanted a themed character. Since Fire resistance is the most common resistance in the game, it makes sense for it to be the one with the associated feat (although maybe we'll see more in the future).

The point at which this feat might really be good though is when you're running a Dragon Magic Sorcerer who has Fire as his Dragon Soul element. In that case, the guy is negating most, if not all, of the fire resistance in the first place, but because it's still on the stat block it will activate his Surging Flame and allow him and his allies to pile on more damage. I could see how this might be a fun combo in a fire themed party.

 

[Destil]

Psychic has the best effect, force has the most options, fire (at epic) can get around resistance the best and therefore be the most reliable and thunder is the best for mass AoE spam. Most of the options are interesting, but if you only care about pure DPR than go nuts with cold.

I really would love to see an area-only attack-roll lightning at-will. Lightning arc seems like it was made to transfer crits on minions to real targets, but there's no really good option for that at the moment.

 

[Stalker0]

I really would love to see an area-only attack-roll lightning at-will. Lightning arc seems like it was made to transfer crits on minions to real targets, but there's no really good option for that at the moment.

Energy Admixture (Lightning) Feat + Scorching Burst at will. Behold the power!

 

[DracoSuave]

Nothing beats lasting frost/wintertouched, and that's a shame because it would be fun to see what other elemental focuses would play like. Arcane strikers must go the frost way if they want to have a chance at competing with martial strikers.

Storm Sorcerers can do some -nasty- stuff. They can get damage bonuses just for being there that put Lasting Frost/Wintertouched in it's place, chain it to other monsters, ignore all resistance, do so in AoEs, hit with resounding accuracy, ramp up damage even more when bloodied, and once you're done all that....

....your critical hits automatically do maximum damage too.

Cold can... given them vulnerability 5... and... um... get +2 to hit them. No chaining, no maxed crits.

The only build question I have with them... is it better to go Daggermaster (crit on 18-20), or Lyrander Windrider (+1 to hit, +Con mod to damage).... both have tremendous upside.

 

[Destil]

Energy Admixture (Lightning) Feat + Scorching Burst at will. Behold the power!

But I want to add thunder to the the lighting at will. ... for, thematic reasons. Yeah, that's it.

 

[Trainz]

Back to the OP...

Sure, if you build a party around the feat, you'll be extremely efficient as a group against fire-resisting critters.

How many times do you think your DM will throw fire resisting beasts at you under these circumstances?

From my experience, the best build is quite often the less specialized build. A character that can add 3 times his level in damage against skeletons is actually quite weaker than a character with +2 damage all the time.