Test it yourself. Go solo PvE on the Algorithm mission and at the start, move as far away from the first minions as you can, then fire. Watch your damage numbers as the small minions walk towards you.
Whenever I see a Monty with a Firestorm setup, I do what I can to get close. All that heat and hate, only works as long as you’re under his crosshair. Since he has no slow now, I just juke to the sides, and you’ll spend more time spinning him than taking the damage the limited time Firestorm will be up. After that, he’s either overheated or cooking himself, and will be running or dying 
That’s what I save my lumberjack dash for to get the stun. I almost never run in a situation where a wall is near me as a tank, even as Kelvin. I’ve been frequently good at landing it for a stun. But then again I come from using Boldur as my main. with Boldur dash it is a lot harder to hit due to body size and less control.
I also go for mob clears often so I’m not hit by everything under the blue moon.
True, but now you’ve also blown your only escape tool. By this point in the fight, you’ve either decided to take me down, or are trying to stun me and run away. Turn your back to me, and you’re eating someone’s stun or slow. If you try and take me down, I can fairly well stall until I get backup, or I counterstun/slow you and swing momentum back in my favor.
Please understand, I’m not tryin to bash you. But you are giving up a LONG, sustained targeting slow, for a few extra ticks of damage…and that’s all it will ever be. In a melee fight, I have about 60% of the advantage, because you can’t slow me and stall me out. Montana’s quick melee and a flip to Hailstorm slowing me, keeps me from getting into melee range again easy. I have to blow a cooldown to do it, and even then, i could miss if you get off the trigger at the right time and strafe. But with Firestorm, even if you LJD-stun me, the second I come out of it I’m back in melee range with you. if I’m Shayne, I can actually stall out Firestorm by stealthing, If it’s Galilea or Attikus, hello stun. if it’s Caldy or Deande, massive headfake with grenades or a holotwin. And dear god…Mellka? Slow, DoT, Boost to Melee damage against you, and I’m probably flying OVER you at this point, getting shots on your back.
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That’s also implying that I don’t have players around me. I don’t over commit with Montana and am fine camping until a teammate is around me. No point in absorbing unnessary damage to risk a flank on the verge of a kill. I watch my map consistently, a tactic I pulled from using ghalt. If I am in a situation with Montana where I’m easily able to get flanked with no help then I’m not using him right.
I dunno, ive yet to go negative in the games I’ve used Montana and I’ve played a few premades and i use firestorm. But I also run health regeneration, attack speed and movement speed too so I get out of a few situations normal Montana’s don’t.
I can show pics of my current stats when I’m home tomorrow
No need. I don’t think you’re lying. I just think you’d do better with a chill Monty than you are with a hot one. You sound like a good Monty tank. But as much damage as you do with Firestorm, the extra damage is like the extra damage a support can do: fine in it’s own right, but not worth sacrificing a core mechanic of the class.
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I won’t lie you have peaked my interest so I may try it a few times and see how I like it
I just got Master of Montana, and I approve this post. I will add that even though I do a strict survivability build with all the frosty goodness I can cram, even using Swole Shield instead of Icicles, I still tend to top the DPS charts. It’s all about managing heat so you never have to stop shooting. 100% of the time I see a flaming Montana coming around the corner I smile, because the other team’s tank has neutered himself, and I tend to spend the entire round reminding them of the fact.
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I take it you fire in bursts? I try to manage my heat, but it isn’t always easy when the other team is pressing hard. Then again, the attack speed item I use probably isn’t helping much…I do use the cooler, barrel cooling, and Monty’s legendary. I may have to see if I can work in a low-cost cooldown item instead of the attack speed one so I can keep Hailstorm up more often.
During sustained team fights I’ll fire in bursts (Montana’s legendary helps with this as the bursts can be a bit longer due to lessened heat generation at over 85% heat), trying to go for weakened units or minions, then as soon as I can activate freezy bullets, I do. Early game in particular it’s tough to mitigate the heat without running away (it takes about as long for the gun to cool as it does for the shield to recharge anyway), but by level 7 I’m able to fire pretty much nonstop during sustained fights with little pause to the action (save for the need to heal or whatever).
Hopefully this helps! Unless you see me on the battlefield, in which case, gosh darnit I just gave away all my secrets!
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Bursting works great in minion clear but save the heat for your real targets; enemy PC’s. Try to manage a burst every five or ten seconds on the minions. Your goal isn’t so much trying to kill them(though that’ll probably happen) but it’s to make sure you get credit for them when they DO drop as an assist. Nothing fancy or elegant; just splash em all with a coat of damage, and wait a few seconds before doing it again or turning to an enemy. If it’s something you NEED to stop advancing(Bot or Thrall) give it a bit more priority, but save your Hailstorm for the last minute. Odds are, someone’s waiting for that to pop so they can go HAAM on you now that you gave up your slow.
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Thanks guys. I do pretty good with Monty in PVP, but any tips are appreciated.
Sooooo I tried an ice build and yea in almost every way its better for PvP seeing as minions are tougher. This has really started making me think of trying ghalt movement speed or no interruption instead of the fire. Maaaaan, I’ll prolly stick to the fire augment
For ghalt, he’s more damage focused. Id say to go attack speed, and a movement speed item, but save the helix for the flames. You’ll do better damage and get almost ad much speed.
Attack speed and damage is what I run. It seems the attack damage increases his base damage for his ultimate. I know attack speed effects it
Though I don’t play Montana I really appreciate the quality and depth of your post. Thanks!
Glad to help.
I think it does because his ult, is really just a modification of his base attack. and I don’t think GBX wants to try and parse how to make cooldown affect attack speed with an ultskill to be fair.
i play smart with montana so i could go either firestorm or ice but the first time ive used firestorm in a while ive went 22 kills with 5 deaths and 22 assists
Even though I prefer the ice (because I like getting in close) I can still do just as well with a fire build. It really depends on whether or not I’m the only “controller” on the team. For example with an Alani I can go fire while she locks people down for me.