City of Heroes Coldfront (CoH, CoV)

This is a guide to controlling with Fire and Bubbles, in my experience one of the far less common fire controller builds. If you spot any mistakes please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed. My first time so please be gentle

What I'll be covering:

Fire & Forcefields - How compatible are they?
Fire Control Powers
Forcefield Powers
Standard Pool Powers
Ancillary Pool Powers
A useful bind for bubbling
My Build

Fire & Forcefields - How compatible are they?

I have found Fire & Forcefields to give a very nice balance between control, damage (later on), and defense (far moreso for your team). If you have come to fire control looking for a carnage machine you are far better off looking at Kinetics or Radiation or even Storm as a secondary as none of forcefields' buffs will increase your imps' damage potential as those others will.

Forcefields is an extremely team-friendly secondary to take - especially for the earlier levels when you will most be needing that teaming to level at a sane rate and it will generally allow you to play very safely or for your team to take on more difficult (read rewarding) mobs. It only has a select number of 'must-haves' and plenty you can ignore which can allow you to concentrate primarily on controlling and give you some more power pool options if you want them. One important thing to note is that unlike most other controller secondaries, forcefields has no endurance recovery/mitigation and can be quite endurance intensive to run so be aware of that early on and plan for it.

Although you will be able to solo safely and easily once your pets are slotted up, forcefields as a secondary is very much geared towards team play - even once you do have pets. Soloing before pets is a very bad idea with forcefields as a secondary, given that 2 of your most useful bubbles can only be cast on allies and there is nothing to speak of to enhance your already weak damage output. I'm sure you could solo a fire/ff to 32 if you really wanted to by dipping heavily into the pools for attacks but if you are after a solo guide then this isn't it.

As well as being a good balanced build for virtually any situation, Fire/Forcefields also gives you some very nice power combinations for specialist situations too - the Respec trial in particular springs to mind and I will mention it later.

So - onto the powersets...

Fire Control

First off, Fire Control is a very capable control set; Imps are by no means the be all and end all of the Primary - and far from it, particularly given the secondary we as bubblers are taking. Other Control sets may offer more in terms of raw control but you will find very few situations as a fire controller that you cannot handle very well once your toolkit is complete - and you will have impressive (although not uber) damage capability to clear up mobs easily and safely, once you have your pets on board. So what are the powers?

Ring of Fire (single target immobilize)
Available at level 1

Ring of Fire is very rarely still in a fire controller's build late on in the game and it often never features at all. This is basically because it doesn't prevent enemies from attacking you or your teammates, and that is primarily what you want to be doing as a controller. It merely stops a foe from moving and most of the time, if it's attacking someone, it won't be moving anyway. Char is vastly superior from a control point of view so take that instead. The only good thing going for it is its damage - but as Fire/FF you shouldn't even be thinking of soloing pre-32 and so rely on your team-mates for damage.

Char (single target hold)
Available: level 1

This is one of your bread and butter powers and you really should take this as your starting power. It renders your foe unable to move or attack and offers ok damage early on. You will be using it in every single fight throughout your career to help lock down bosses and other things your AoE's missed. You will be wanting to slot this with accuracy, hold duration and recharge reduction and have it 4-6 slotted. How much you slot for recharge depends on how much your endurance can cope with it.

Fire Cages (ranged aoe immobilize)
Available: level 2

At first glance this may seem like an equally bad choice for a controller as ring of fire is - since it doesn't prevent enemies from attacking (in fact it will actually generate a lot of aggro which is precisely what you want to be avoiding!). The reason no fire control build should be without it however, is that combined with Flashfire in a few levels time it will form a very effective combo ranged hold (effectively speaking anyway). It has a fast base recharge so there is little need to slot it with recharge reduction - 2 accuracies minimum and then probably 2 immob duration will suffice.

Smoke (autohitting ranged aoe accuracy and visibility debuff)
Available: level 6

Smoke's main use is for avoiding premature aggro - the visibility debuff allows you and your team to get into position (or slip past) unnoticed. The accuracy debuff is ok but if you really want to notice it you will want to six slot it. You will get more benefit from a defense point of view by slotting up your bubbles instead though. It's a take it or leave it power really - allows you a bit more safety but as bubbles secondary it is something you are already very good at.

Hot Feet (PBAoE damage, slow, and panic)
Available: level 8

Hot feet creates an aura around you that burns and slows mobs around you and causes them to attempt to flee. It got a damage boost in Issue 3 but it still costs a lot of endurance to run and given that your secondary costs a fair bit of endurance as it is, and has no endurance recovery/mitigation power I wouldn't recommend taking it.

Flashfire (ranged aoe disorient)
Available: level 12

Ah Flashfire, this is where your larger scale controlling career will begin. This power needs to be taken right now! You should use it to open with and follow it up immediately with fire cages. This will stop the mobs you just disoriented from wandering all over the place. Firecages has a slightly larger radius so be prepared to char mobs that are cuaght in cages but weren't disoriented by flashfire. The disorient will only affect minions and lt's so bosses will need to be concentrated on with Char's after casting flashfire/cages. Flashfire has a longer recharge than fire cages so it is worth adding in recharge reduction on top of accuracy and duration in order to have it cycling in about the same time as cages. Aim to 4-6 slot this power, depending on how often you want to be able to use it.

Cinders (PBAoE multiple target hold)
Available: level 18

Cinders is another absolute must have. It is your area affect hold and although it must be cast in the middle of mobs for maximum effect, it will lock down everything bar bosses and higher with one hit and allow a single further char to lock down the boss too. Fire controllers generally fall into two camps as far as aoe holds are concerned - some prefer flashfire/cages for its ranged element as it allows you to stay safer, and use cinders as a backup for when it is isn't ready. Others will prefer to open a fight with cinders and lock down more effeciently but risk potential incoming fire doing so. As a bubbler secondary you can generally afford to be a bit more bold and so my preference is to open with cinders. If you have taken smoke you can use that to allow you to enter the group undetected before hitting Cinders which can make it much safer. Either way, you should have both forms of aoe hold regardless to help contain any situation - relying on only one form of aoe lockdown is not a good idea for a controller. I strongly recommend getting cinders 6 slotted with 2 accuracies, 2 duration, 2 recharge.

Bonfire (ranged aoe knockback)
Available: level 26

Bonfire throws a ball of fire to your targetted location which then spills out into a large fire patch that will knockback any foes that are on it or that approach it and also bring down fliers that are above it (although only from a limited height). Many regard it as a take it or leave it power, but personally I love it and strongly recommend it. Some just don't find it useful in enough situations to justify taking it and it *is* situational, there's no denying that, but those situations it is useful for you will wonder how you could have considered not taking it. It is excellent for creating safe withdrawal routes (slap a bonfire down in a corridor between you and the mobs and if things go sour, just retreat behind the bonfire and the mobs won't be able to get past it), clearing mobs from a doorway (especially useful once you get imps), pinning mobs into a corner, and most importantly - for mobs that are knockback resistant, bonfire will give you effectively an additional ranged aoe hold as it will keep those mobs in a perpetual knockdown patch. You really haven't lived until you have seen dozens of praetorian clockwork continually bouncing away on a bonfire, completely unable to do anything - bonfire is worth taking just for that

Bonfire has a nice long duration and a low end cost. You will only need to slot it with a single Recharge Reducer and with Perma-Hasten you will be able to get a second patch out well before the first one finishes.

Fire Imps (pet summon)
Available: level 32

Ok - so you are blatantly going to be taking this power. After the long journey to 32 you finally get the ability to do some damage - and plenty of it. The little fire monkeys will happily tear through virtually anything you like and provided you lock the mobs down quickly, you will rarely see them die prematurely. With bubbles secondary you have the option of bubbling your imps to make them more resilient but to be honest you will get very bored if you try to do this with every cast of them - plus it will drain your endurance like there's no tomorrow unless you sacrifice some defense enhancements in your bubbles for end reduction, which you will want to avoid. If you are doing your job as a controller properly there should be little if anything attacking them anyway. I only ever bother bubbling my imps before fights with ArchVillains and the such where my ability to control is rather limited. You need these guys 6 slotted immediately - no question. If you haven't got tactics from the leadership pool you will want an accuracy in there and the rest should be a combination of damage enhancement and Recharge reduction. Personally I have them slotted for 2 recharge and 4 damage which gives me 2 sets out all the time (with perma-hasten) as I have tactics 6-slotted to take care of their accuracy.

Forcefields

Forcefields, unsurprisingly, specialises in defense and the 3 main bubbles form the core of virtually any build using the set. However it does offer a few extra crowd control type powers in the form of repels as well, should you wish to take them. Personally I haven't dabbled much in those and so I can't really speak with much authority on them - there will no doubt be plenty in the defender guides section if you want to know more about them. With Fire Primary you aren't short on control and I've never really found myself in situations where I missed having extra powers from the set. So - onto the powers.

Personal Force Field (self +def, +res)
Available: level 1

You don't get any choice with this power - you have to take it. However that doesn't really matter as it is a pretty amazing OMGBBQ!! power. It offers very high defense (although you will still get occasional shots landing on you), but in addition it also gives 40% damage resistance to everything (including Psionics) so if anything does land on you it will hurt you far less than if this wasn't up. You can only use powers that affect yourself (except rest) while this is up so it is unfortunately nigh on completely useless in combat situations other than an escape power. I use it mainly for travelling through hazardous zones or if things have gone completely pearshaped in a battle. It does have some utility against very strong villains like AV's for absorbing alpha strikes so you can run past to have your imps aggro on them. For most any other fight you will be wanting to get the first shot in yourself anyway. I wouldn't recommend slotting anything other than the default slot as it is great out of the box.

Deflection Shield (ally +def(smash,lethal), +res(toxic))
Available: level 2

The first of your main bubble powers - get it and slot it. Ideally it should be 6 slotted, but not if it is at the expense of slots to your primary powers. Aim to slot with all defense buff, with possibly an endurance reduction if end is proving a problem. The toxic resist is a realtively new addition to the power and one that I'm not sure is actually working properly at the moment. I believe the intention is to make it a toxic +def rather than +res at some point. It has a very fast recharge time which is barely longer than the animation time. If you are casting both this and insulation shield then one will be ready to recast after the other one has which lends itself to a nice keybind which I will detail later.

Force Bolt (foe knockback, smashing damage)
Available: level 4

Force Bolt is not a major damage attack so don't start having delusions of premature soloability. It is basically just useful for knocking back a single foe. I didn't find it suited my playstyle although it might be useful for taking the heat off you or an ally as the knockback is pretty consistent. Recharges fast and so can be used to keep a mob off their feet while you wait the moment or two for Char to cycle. Only really worth slotting with an accuracy or two if you do take it.

Insulation Shield (ally +def(fire,cold,energy,neg energy))
Available: level 10

Second of the big 3 bubble powers. Exactly the same goes for this as for Deflection Shield other than you will probably want to slot up deflection shield first as smash/lethal is the most common type of damage - certainly early on. Certainly aim to still 4-6 slot this one though.

Detention Field (single target intangibility)
Available: level 16

This puts a bubble around the foe you target and prevents him from taking any action other than on himself - a bit like PFF. Great - another hold you might think? Unfortunately not really - the field also prevents you or your allies from attacking him too. Unless your team-mates now waht it is they are likely to waste end fighting enemies they cannot affect. It could be used as an emergency containment but to be honest Char is a preferable power to use and has such quick recharge makes this power pretty pointless.

Dispersion Bubble (toggle PBAoE (large radius) self/ally +def(all except psionic), +res(disorient, hold, immob))
Available: level 20

Dispersion Bubble completes the big 3 forcefield powers. It is the only one of them that benefits you as well as your team-mates so 6 slot it as soon as possible. It gives you very nice protection from most status effects (to cover the small window of opportunity mobs may have before you lock them down) and gives you a reasonable defense bonus. If you aren't individually bubbling your imps then you can often afford to stay close enough to them to give them benefits from the dispersion bubble. Feed it defense buffs and possibly an endurance reduction if endurance is an issue. Your only status effect weakness with this up will be sleep so be aware of that when fighting mobs with that effect and ensure you lock them down as a priority.

Repulsion Field (toggle PBAoE (melee radius) knockback)
Available: level 28

Another one I haven't actually taken personally. This basically performs the same function as Bonfire but bonfire does it far more efficiently. I really wouldn't bother with this power given your fire primary. If you want a knockback field, take bonfire as it can be targetted anywhere within range, has a larger radius and costs far less endurance.

Repulsion Bomb (ally targetted AoE repel)
Available: level 35

Another odd one. If your buddy is in way over his head, send this in his direction and all the mobs giving him grief will be sent flying and possibly disoriented. Chances are (again if doing your controlling job properly) that this situation will rarely arise. An easily skippable power.

Force Bubble (toggle PBAoE (very large radius) repulsion field)
Available: level 38

Force Bubble is a bone of serious contention amongst bubblers. It's our final power and it's... well, generally speaking rather dissapointing for many. Well that's perhaps not really fair - it has great uses in some situations and could be great in many more, if it wasn't for its utterly insane endurance cost. I'm not absolutely certain, but I think this is the biggest end hog in the game (to my knowledge, rivalled only by Mind's Telekinesis or Repel from Kinetics but I don't think even those are quite as bad). You have to slot it heavily eith end reducers to break even with endurance (and this is with 6-slotted stamina) and that's before you try running any other toggles, let alone try to use other powers - which as a controller are already a big drain on your endurance reserves. It also generates aggro from every foe it affects.

So what does it do? It basically creates a gigantic repulsion field centred on you that very few mobs can enter. It has great uses if you want to keep foes away from specific areas (although again, bonfire can create a similar effect only with far smaller radius but for a fraction of the end cost). Blasters will in general love this power as it keeps enemy melee'ers well out of harms way - it can also, with a bit of practise, be very effective at herding mobs into corners for AoE team-mates to go to town with. Scrappers and tankers on the other hand will often have a hard time with this power if it is keeping mobs at maximum distance as they will have to get to the edge of the force bubble in order to fight and since force bubble's radius is so much larger than dispersion's they will have also left the protection of that - of course the same is true of your imps. Everyone will hate it when you use it and send mobs they are trying to engage flying around corners and out of range of their attacks so make sure you use it carefully. It can have a number of imaginative uses but endurance will always be a major concern - unless you have a means of mitigating it by way of team-mates or ancillary pools. By all means take it, but be aware that it can be tricky to use effectively and will be very difficult to run for any length of time with other toggles and powers. It is often worth treating it as a 'pseudo-click' power - only keep it on for a few seconds at a time in order to accomplish a particular manoeuvre and then shut it down. Of course one very good reason to take it is to pwnzor all the lowbie bubblers who think dispersion bubble is 'the big bubble'

Standard Pool Powers

You can choose from a maximum of four of them and I would suggest that two of them are a foregone conclusion (I'm sure you can guess which ones). I would highly recommend leadership for a third and maybe a different travel power for the fourth if you aren't taking superspeed or want an additional one.

Concealment - This power pool is one I haven't actually had much experience with but one I wouldn't particularly recommend for fire/bubblers as you can already emulate many of its powers through your primary and secondary. Smoke offers an effective stealth ability to allow you to get past dangerous mobs or into position for Cinders, and cycles fast enough to be used quickly again and you your bubbles completely eclipse the defense that grant invisibility will ever manage. PFF is also a close second to phase shift for an OMG[Censored] power and costs a fraction of the endurance. Other pools are far more worthy of your attention.

Fighting - Again, not really so useful for us bubblers as we already have plenty of defense and in an emergency PFF outshines both Tough and Weave even unslotted. The only reason to really consider this pool is for if you are insisting on solo-ing pre-imps and you want to take boxing. If you do I seriously respeccing out of it later.

Fitness - Controllers, in general, are big endurance users, and while some secondaries have endurance recovery powers, forcefield doesn't - in fact forcefields only add to your endurance problems! Stamina is going to make your life soooo much more bearable. Please take it and six slot it. It doesn't really matter which 2 of swift, hurdle and health you take - My health isn't normally a concern so I took swift and hurdle for the increase in both horizontal and vertical movement speed.

Flight - Flight is definitely a good contender for a travel power for the fire controller. Group fly can be used quite effectively with Imps and hover is nice as an additional defense buff on top of dispersion bubble. Of course Air Superiority can be a solo tool if you must - It actually has a higher brawl index than boxing in fact.

Leadership - Ahhh - tactics, sweet tactics. This is a great pool for you to take. 6-slotted tactics is like an extra accuracy SO in all your powers and allows you to take out that acc in your imps and replace it with damage. It also benefits all of your powers and those of your team-mates meaning they will miss far less often. In order to get tactics however, you need to take one or both of assault and manoeuvres. Since assault cannot be enhanced it might be better to go with Manouevres as it enhances the defense you offer further and is beenficial for those outside your dispersion bubble as the leadership buffs have a larger range. Vengeance is also a very nice buff but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly

Leaping - This is a great travel power to take. Your imps also have a very high leaping ability so you will have trouble reaching places they can't (although they will be a fair bit slower) Combat Jumping offers you a small jump buff that can be useful early on and also a nice defense bonus. The immob protection is largely overshadowed by dispersion bubble but it's still not bad. Jump kick can be a nice attack power for those solo-inclined. Acrobatics is again largely pointless given dispersion bubble although the resistance to knockback and hold will stack with it so might be one to add later in the build.

Medicine - Well your secondary has no heals at all but that is mainly because prevention is better than cure. I didn't really feel a need for this pool personally given the defense of my secondary and the fact my primary should be preventing attacks in the first place.

Presence - Completely pointless for us so don't even bother. Let the melee'ers take the aggro of anything (if anything) you haven't held yet.

Speed - I have already mentioned having perma-hasten in my build earlier on and I strongly recommend it. Without it you will find it hard to keep things locked down efficiently and you will have far less imps to help you. If it goes against the concept of your character then get a new concept

Since you have Hasten already (you do, don't you?), Superspeed can be a convenient travel power to take.

Teleportation - Not really a great powerset to go for with the imps as they can't be group teleported. Recall friend can be nice to have but it does eat up an entire pool.

Ancillary Pools

You can only choose from one of them but they offer some interesting opportunities for us fire/bubblers for whom endurance has probably been a bit of an issue for 40 levels.

Stone Mastery - A decent single target attack in hurl boulder and the disorient from fissure could stack with flashfire to disorient bosses if they both hit. Each of the controller ancillary pools offer a toggle personal shield of some sort which is either a +DEF or +RES to Smash/Lethal and some have a bonus Resistance to other damage types. For us Fire/FFs they are a nice buff to our personal protection to the sort of level our team-mates have been enjoying from our deflection shield for 40 odd levels. Stone's rock armor offers defense against smash and lethal with no additional damage resistance bonus. Earth's embrace should hopefully be pointless for us as we shouldn't have been getting hit that much anyway given our primary and secondary.

Fire Mastery - Basically the one to take if you want to improve your damage output, thanks to fireball and fire blast. Consume also makes a terrific end recovery power which makes this a very attractive set for the fire/bubbler. Fire shield offers resistance to fire damage and small resistance to cold in addition to smash/lethal defense.

Ice Mastery - A decent single target attack and a shield that gives resistance to cold and small resistance to fire damage in addition to smash/lethal defense. When you would probably use hibernate, PFF would probably work just as well (and wouldn't render you immobile), although the recovery aspect of hibernate is very nice. Snow storm could be nice for slowing mobs that have managed to escape the clutches of your holds.

Primal Forces - An excellent candidate for a fire/bubbler due to two fantastic powers: Conserve Power and Power Boost. Conserve Power will pretty much eliminate any endurance concerns, while Power Boost will massively enhance the secondary effects of all your powers. This means that your status powers will last more than twice as long as usual, and your bubbles will be doubled in effectiveness. The great thing is that click powers that are activated while boost is up will remain boosted for their duration, not just while boost itself is active. Any deflection or insulation shields you cast while boosted will give your allies massively boosted defense for the duration of those bubbles. Temp Invulnerability gives 33% resistance (not defense) to smash/lethal (but no further bonus resistances) so with 6 +1 SO's you can hit the damage resistance cap of 75%. Power blast, although a decent attack, has a knockback that can be a blessing or a curse.

Psionic Mastery - In general, another great set for controllers to choose from, but for bubblers probably slightly less so. The two very tempting powers here are Indomitable Will which gives perma-able click status protection (including sleep) and defense from psionic damage, and Mind Over Body which gives 30% Resistance (as opposed to defense) to smash/lethal and 20% to psionic attacks, meaning that with 6 +3 SO's you can get to 71% resistance to smash/lethal and 48% to Psionics. The single target mental blast isn't great as it has a very long animation time, but Psionic tornado gives a respectable AoE damage attack with a knockup. No endurance mitigation power here but the combined defense/resistance to psionics and the status protection round out our defense very nicely indeed.

A useful bind for bubbling

I like to be able to concentrate on controlling during any given fight and so the easier I can make dishing out bubbles the better. I use the following bind to cast both deflection and insulation shield on an ally using a single key. It is slightly involved to set-up than simply entering a single /bind command at the interface but I have found it to be worth it and it means I can remove both those bubbles from my primary tray as I know they will always be ready to go.

You basically need to create a couple of text files in a directory you can choose. For this example I will use C:\bind but it can be anywhere you like really and I am using the tilde key (left of '1') for it's easy access in the middle of the action.

In your chosen directory, create a file called bub1.txt and put the following line in it:

tilde "+down$$-down$$powexec_name Deflection Shield$$bind_load_file C:/bind/bub2.txt"

Save that and create a file called bub2.txt and put this line in it:

tilde "+down$$-down$$powexec_name Insulation Shield$$bind_load_file C:/bind/bub1.txt"

Save that and then enter the game and enter this at the console:

/bind_load_file C:/bind/bub1.txt

Now, whenever you have an ally targetted, pressing down on tilde will fire off one shield and releasing the key will fire off the other. This allows you to rapidly rebub your party without having to press multiple keys to do it. Saves me time anyway so feel free to use it.

My Build

O.K. So this is my current build at level 50 - it suits the way I play and seems to work out pretty well. It is a rather endurance hungry build and so I try to team with empaths/rads/kineticists as often as possible although I'm not completely gimped without them - I just have to ration some of my powers a little and not have absolutely all of my toggles up (which I rarely do anyway).

Level 1 Char - Acc (L1) Hold (L3) Hold (L34) Hold (L39)
Level 1 Personal Force Field - DefBuf (L1)
Level 2 Fire Cages - Acc (L2) Acc (L3) Immob (L36) Immob (L39)
Level 4 Deflection Shield - EndRdx (L4) DefBuf (L5) DefBuf (L5) DefBuf (L7) DefBuf (L9) DefBuf (L37)
Level 6 Hasten - Rech (L6) Rech (L7) Rech (L9) Rech (L11) Rech (L13) Rech (L15)
Level 8 Combat Jumping - DefBuf (L8)
Level 10 Insulation Shield - EndRdx (L10) Defbuf (L11) DefBuf (L15) DefBuf (L17) DefBuf (L17) DefBuf (L37)
Level 12 Flashfire - Acc (L12) Acc (L13) Disor (L29) Disor (L39)
Level 14 Super Leap - Jump (L14)
Level 16 Swift - Run (L16)
Level 18 Dispersion Bubble - EndRdx (L18) DefBuf (L19) DefBuf (L19) DefBuf (L21) DefBuf (L23) DefBuf (L23)
Level 20 Cinders - Acc (L20) Acc (L21) Hold (L31) Hold (L37) Rech (L40)
Level 22 Hurdle - Jump (L22)
Level 24 Stamina - EndRec (L24) EndRec (L25) EndRec (L25) EndRec (L27) EndRec (L27) EndRec (L29)
Level 26 Manoeuvres - EndRdx (L26) DefBuf (L40) Defbuf (L40) DefBuf (L43) DefBuf (L46) DefBuf (L50)
Level 28 Tactics - EndRdx (L28) ToHBuf (L29) ToHBuf (L31) ToHBuf (L31) ToHBuf (L36) ToHBuf (L36)
Level 30 Bonfire - Rech (L30)
Level 32 Fire Imps - Rech (L32) Rech (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L34) Dam (L34)
Level 35 Vengeance - DefBuf (L35)
Level 38 Force Bubble - Rdx (L38)
Level 41 Indomitable Will - Rech (L41) Rech (L42) Rech (L42) Rech (L42) Rech (L43) Rech (L43)
Level 44 Mind Over Body - EndRdx (L44) DmgRes (L45) DmgRes (L45) DmgRes (L45) DmgRes (L46) DmgRes (L46)
Level 47 Psionic Tornado - Acc (L47) EndRdx (L48) Dam (L48) Dam (L48) Dam (L50) Dam (L50)
Level 49 Acrobatics - DefBuf (L49)

My build is very defense heavy - I have my bubbles and manoeuvres maxed out for team/imp benefit and have not bothered slotting out flashfire and cages beyond four each as I prefer to lead with Cinders and use them as a backup if required. I reduced the slotting on Char when I respecced into the Ancillary pools when I3 hit as I found my Imps taking most of the aggro and Cinders/Char rarely missed with Tactics and their Accuracy slotting so I didn't feel the need to spam them quite as often, starting out however, you will probably want more slots in flashfire/cages/char with the option of potentially reducing them in a later respec if you find you are covering all your bases later on with other powers. I went for the Psionics APP as it looks very nice and rounded out my personal protection very nicely and it was nice to have a multiple damage type output.

Summary

Fire/Bubbles is a great build for the team player and you'll certainly be needing them up until the mid 30s when you'll have your imps 6-slotted. The bubbles secondary basically allows your team to tackle nice high conning mobs relatively safely and so can be quite a buzz.

You can go the route I pretty much have and take 'just the essentials' from the secondary and flesh out your build with some nice utility pool powers, or you can add additional control in there from some of the less popular forcefield powers. The important thing of course is to have fun!