Auto attacking as fire lets you bust out that ownage fireball finisher when the time is right, though. Not to mention after you chase until fireball is ready, cast a fireball then you can switch in .5 to ice and drop a rain for even more damage.  Then slap a deep freeze on top.  Pretty nasty.  Can't wait to try it.

I always loved a full fire TB. I think the inverse of the OP though, I only put one point in Ring of Fire at the beginning (so that I can zone flags, take out a crowd while Heaven's Wrath is recharging, or work the first lane tower in Cataract in early levels), and then max out Fireball and Fire Nova. The reason is that it's a lot quicker to clear crowds of creeps with a Fire Nova than it is to hold a crowd until Ring of Fire eats through them.

From there, though, it depends on the situation as to whether I choose to place points into RoF or Enhanced Attributes. If there's a good Reg or UB on the other team, I won't waste my time on RoF since Reg will run right through them or shoot me out of range, and it won't even phase a well built UB. If I'm left to my own devices though, I'll invest in it in order to take out multiple towers or Rook farms faster, or to help out my mates if they're getting harassed (early game at least, since a fireball+burst makes a quicker impression).

To me, though, it's just far too situational to rely on. It's safer, arguably faster, and more mana friendly to fireball towers down out of range when I'm pushing towards a portal in cataract alone (not to mention a lot less detectable), and even better to have a faster attack speed when I have people helping me push. If I'm saving people or soloing a UB mid to late game, I don't have time for big casts when everyone has stun and/or people need my help quickly: I need high burst damage and a fast rate of attack. On top of that, Ring of Fire is easily detectable and can either push potential kills away if I have the advantage, and basically is offering a free kill if I have the disadvantage. Most of the time, it's asking for a death sentence rather than security.

On retrospect, it definitely seems to be the worst (albeit not "bad") skill Fire TB has to offer, and I rarely have reason to use it late game unless giants are at our doorstep. Whenever I do, the first or second level of RoF suffices since they're usually used in games of cat and mouse and rarely deal the entirety of their damage to an enemy demigod, and just the image of the cast can be enough to scare off weaker players.

Nobody uses BotS anymore??

I personally don't enjoy using BotS because when I run out of mana, it's not when I'm farming creeps, but when I'm going up against other demigods or working towers. If it's early/mid game, auto-attack while I'm being pulverized is not enough to restore my mana enough to stop me from visiting the health crystal, and a bar of mana in exchange for half my health against a tower doesn't feel like it's worth it.

I also never had health problems mid-late game to justify not getting helmets.

Do you have a replay of you using it? I'd really like to see it in action since I haven't had much luck with it.

You do realise that attacking while moving is only good if the enermy is running away. Apart from that hes just the same as before. Still has the longest interupt cast time of anyone(droping to ice for a deep freeze)/no stun, no late game and all the other lacking stuff thats the reson hes never played.

Im faily shure that there are number of counter to fire TB that no one has bothered to develop because he is shit and will loose you the game anyway. His main power is in the levels 4 to 7 where he gets his damage skills before everyone can get a good health stack, every demigod can stall all the other demigods (except maybe LE/UB/minion oak) untill level 10 and still be pretty even and then win the game when its 3vs2.5.

If fire TB was to get better i would think that UB could be played less but i think would think LE  having the 2nd  highest health would become even more played along with all the other generals. Occulas does what fire TB is good at much better anyway (can kill all creeps but giants at range) and he can also carry a monk idol.

Not untill health stacking/monk idols were nurfed will pure damage ever become viable or make the game more fun. (If his damage was buffed then everyone would be forced even more into health stacking).

TB is teh shits. He's the only DG I'll willingly play.

But Maff is right, newb give him a horrid name.

level 5-7 is acually the worst time for fire torchbearer because other demigods are strong enough to easily kill him but starting at level 8 fire torch gets two big advantages, the 1st is fire aura III which makes him able to outrun pretty much anyone who doesn't speed stack.  Also around level 8 is when citadel priests usally come into play which is a big help for torchbearer because his health regen is worse than terrable.