Fire, a blessing or a curse?

RE other factions that "do fire better." Imagine these are Menoth casters instead.

Horgle: Like any Feora or Malekus, he's fire-immune. He lacks any ranged weapon, while all the Feoras and Malekus have one or more. And these ranged attacks are sprays (ignoring most defenses against ranged, including concealment, cover, and shield guards, and intervening models). So by default we are better at range than Horgle already. Melee is a bit more of a toss-up. Horgle is MAT7 PS12 1" reach with fire and chain attack ignition. Feora1 and 2 only have crit fire in melee and no chain attack, though Feora2 has 2" reach and Righteous Flames, and Feora1 has Engine of Destruction, so melees far harder than Horgle. Feora3 has Flame Trail and a mount, and ps14. She's just better. Malekus is worse. But on the whole, it's a risk to melee with any caster. That said, all the Feoras are far, far superior on personal threat and range than Horgle can ever hope for.
Horgle DOES hand out immunity to BG, but all of you just told us how useless fire is vs heavies. so this is a mild buff at best, only good if enemy have fire-based shooting. Free charges are good, but you need a pyre, Horgle's spells, or a unit to cause those fires first. Im confident that if we had this ability, say on Feora2 or 3 (in fact we do with HoJ) we'd hear complaints about Skornergy of having to cause fire first. Feel free to deny it though.
On the ability front, Feora2's Caustic Presence allows her to hang and 15/19 in the mid-field and build fires that wont go put, so that she can guarantee 7-10 fires pretty easily when she feats. Transfering fires also lets her auto setup free HoJ charges, or snipe key support, while establishing a large camp, or assassinating from 14" out. You really need to evaluate that vs free charges in BG from a really limited fire-causing selection. Malekus has Ashen Veil, so enemies require fire-immunity to bypass this. Mild but a solid ability.
On spells, Horgle is fury6 and has Fire-starter or a nuke that costs half his fury. So many people have complained about Scourge, where Malekus easily has access to effectively 9 focus that Ill be entertained by arguments that Consuming Flames would be good. . Feora2 also has Fire Starter. Feora1 has Wall of Fire and Blazing Effigy, as well as Ignite. She has Immolate, but the other 3 are some of the best fire-based spells in the game. HoJ only makes it better, with pow15 BE and POW14 wall of fire. Feora2 equate Consuming Flame with Cleansing Fire. Both have Firestarter. But Fire Step makes her spell list superior in the sense of "doing fire better." Feora3 reall has no fire spells, beyond fire-step. Similarly, Malekus has Ignite and Immolate, so not exciting for fire.
Really, all Horgle has is a feat. It's good, but requires: a, that enemy models be in his 12" CTRL. And b, they be set on fire. So you get pigeon holed on Horgle's builds. If you satisfy both conditions, it's a great feat. But it was written in context of a faction with very mild fire themes. Feora1s feat is great vs dudespam and support, and shes more durable than Horgle. Feora2s feat is far more flexible, and enables assassinations, including last-ditch fire rolls if you burned through a camp but did not seal the deal. Feora3s feat spreads fire almost as well as Feora1, and gives a free Incite. Malekus is roughly equivalent, giving an additional die vs double boost, lacking an accuracy buff (though he has Scouge) and allowing more damage output.

If you think Horgle "does it better," Id say thats pure grass is greener thinking.

Don't forget giving feora 2's passive bond to durgen as a field marshal while making her pay focus for it....


I still think the Purifier needs to be our immunity answer, or if not that, a buff against everything else. Given our general level of available damage, shields are just not enough of a problem to make us take it over a Dervish. PP needs to give it a real niche.