If the Nefari Soul Torch has one crippling nerf, it'd be the fact that torch and fire acolyte clash together. Since we have this whole upgrade-ability swap thing going now, why not make them interchangeable abilities after level 2 or 3? Thoughts, people?
I think soul torch is more of an anti heal over fire. She doesn't exactly need fire acolyte or anything, it was probably just something thrown to her. Also don't see her in a fire BG since it torch affects all players, so she'd mess up your fire eaters and others with fire acolyte. all in all, she only works well if you're against a healing factor, otherwise shoebox for me.
I think the bigger problem is that Torch isn't really a great ability. It's literally 4 times the cost of Dark healing, yet hurts your own champions rather than healing them. In a fire BG, I generally have quite a bit of stuff with Fire Acolyte and/or Fire Eater (not to mention Quest: Kill Enemy) - and I'd rather not have those abilities work at 50% effectiveness because of one of my own runes. Hell, even outside of a Fire BG, I usually have enough healing that I wouldn't want to include it. Now, I guess you could move Torch to an upgrade path, but a) That kinda undermines her name, and b) she doesn't really bring much else. Personally, I'd rather Torch was made more worthwhile - e.g only affecting opposing units (which hardly seems unreasonable for an ability that's 4 times as expensive as Dark Healing).
It'd be awesome if they changed torch to only affecting opposing units. NFT could be a decent ranged unit in a Fire BG if they made it an option between torch and acolyte though, with the healing making it pretty hard to kill. What do you guys use in her place? I use the Flame Skitter and leave it at that.
Personally, I don't use anything 'in her place' because she's never has a place in any of my bgs in the first place. Also, place.
I recall Torch dealing half the heal amount as fire damage to allow Torch to inhibit standard healing while enhancing fire eater. If they reverted to that, it would justify the cost. Otherwise, making it only affect opposing champions is the way to go.
Worst sandbag in the game, honestly. It needs to go away and be replaced with a champion form of the FW relic Skull of Decay (all enemy healing is reduced by 50%. No stacking). Call the ability "Cautery," and you don't have to lose the fire flavor.
