Here is my first mini guide to one of my favorite Torch Bearer builds.  I plan on making another one shortly as well.

The Burst Bearer

The burst bearer is your typical full fire TB.  He focuses on doing lots of damage in a small window of time using fireball, circle of fire, and fire nova.  Just using fireball-nova-fireball will take a ton of your enemies life (especially at level 7 and beyond) even against health stackers.  With this build you should know what your burst will do, for instance at level 7 fireball-nova-fireball will do 2100 damage not counting any auto attacks, creeps attacks, or if you were able to lay a circle of fire.  Know your burst and it will keep you alive.  Do not engage or let melees get on you unless you know you can force them to run or burst them faster than you.  Pots and enemy healers/shielders change things so don’t let them get close to you till you are ready, and you should have teammates too J

Here is my typical build order with some comments:

1. Circle of fire – Why?  Because with circle I can generally get an early flag even in a confrontation with another demi.  I run up to a little past flag, lay down the circle.  Now they have to run into my creeps and me, or a little back, either way I am closer to the flag and can get the cap.  This doesn’t always work, but it’s a strong area denial.  Even if they can get the flag first, Im burning down their creeps while mine generally can push past and they have to deal with that as well.  Fireball 1 can come next which is fast enough anyway.
2. Fireball1
3. Fire Aura1
4. Fireball2
5. Fire Nova – Get this right away, but don’t go blasting it unless you are really trying to get a kill and pretty sure you can get it.  This costs a lot of mana and you may not have your vlemish yet.  This is great for clearing waves of creeps but unless I’m near full mana I usually will just use circle for that.  I love this ability and sometimes you need to clear creep waves like right now!  But anyway bottom line, get this, love this, but use it at the right times.
6. Fire Aura2 – I’d rather have the speed boost than ring.  In fact, the lower damage lower mana ring is better still at this time.  I can use it more often and it costs me less, the rank 1 still does enough damage to clear creep waves.  Plus this allows me to better chase for runners with that last fireball hit.
7. Fireball3
8. Fire Aura3 – Again I go aura, now I’m at max speed.  Should I be able to get some auto attacks in they are hitting harder.  This plus a wand of speed (or boots should you prefer) allows me the ability to get away from some bad situations pretty easily.
9. Circle of fire 2 OR Save Point – Start building up your aoe damage, or save to get Fireball4 plus FireNova2 at level 10, a lot of times I save the point but not always.
10. Fireball 4
11. Fire Nova2 - if you didn’t get them both at level 10.

This is the basics of the build.  From here I usually start filling up my circle of fire, saving the 14 point and getting fire nova3 and inspirational flame at 15.  Then I’ll just get stats boosts a lot of games.  Alternatively you can decide to maximize fireball by taking deep freeze from 11-14 so you can get fire and ice at 15.  It makes fireball that much beefier but I’m not sure that its better for my pure fire build than just getting the other stuff.

Items are of course dependent on the game, your cash, who you are playing against.  But I’ll list some basics I usually follow and the order I try to get stuff in with this build.

Favor Items

Heavens Wrath is my favorite, I’ve scored countless fireball>Heavens wrath kills where they got away with a couple hundred health and the lightning scored the kill.  It also allows me to level up super fast, or clear lanes of creeps without mana.  One thing I don’t do with it, do not blast your teammates lane of creeps if he is farming them and you are not in that lane, you don’t want to steal half of their xp, they need to level up too.  Use it smartly, clearing creeps that no one is in at the time, scoring assists on teammates kills, getting your own kills, clearing your own lane.

Blood of the Fallen is a good choice, extra hp is always nice for confrontations.  I find if I play smartly and stay back with good positioning I don’t need this, but its still a great choice.

Staff of renewal I don’t get, I don’t find the reduction enough.  It could be nice on certain maps or combined with a sedna for super fast fireballs I suppose.  Its pretty rare though.

If/When they fix it so Fire TB can auto attack and chase properly Mards Hammer might be a nice choice, as it stands the way Fire TB is now I wouldn’t worry about auto attack at all, you’ll only hit people closing on you, you’ll almost never hit them when they run from you.

Anklet I don’t need, it’s a nice item, positioning and buying the wand or boots is usually enough with your aura.

Regular Items

Usually out of the gate I get Banded armor and save my money.  Alternatively on big maps I’ll sometimes get Banded + TP + Health pot.  First item I always go for is Unbreakable boots, massive boost to your health and mana pools, yes plz.  After that depends.  I like to get my vlemish if I can by level 7.  If you are going against heavy auto attackers or armor debuffers like (UB, Reg, Ereb, Queen) Nimoth armor is usually the way to go, I mostly get this anyway but sometimes opt for the Hauberk instead.  At some point you’ll want a wand of speed to make sure you can get away from bad situations or chase to hit that kill shot.  These are all basic items and you can have most of this stuff pretty early, especially when farming with Heavens.  If you’ve got a ton of money to blow you can get a Heart of Life, I’ve actually found that by playing smartly I don’t need it for this build, I’d rather upgrade to a Narmoths ring or something else, mostly after those starter items above I focus on getting upgrades at the cit and saving up for purchasing priests>cats.

Tactics

First off, if you want to chase an enemy demigod to get the kill (and you will) do not right click on them.  Your TB will jerk around staying at max distance trying to cast a auto attack that will never fire.  Click past them where they are going till you can get in fireball range, then hit fireball and go for it.  Know how much health they have and whether u can finish them with a fireball>wrath if you have it or its up.  If you can’t finish them might be better to save the mana (unless teammates are nearby trying to finish them too, then your shot might make the difference).

You should Aim to stay out in battle as long as you can between going back in.  This gets you maximum xp and gold before purchasing.  This is just in general, there are times when getting an item or upgrade is important.

Switch forms when not doing anything else (or even when you are sometimes).  Early game you can lay tons of circles of fire by putting one down, switching forms as you run towards your side, then switching back.  I often switch a couple times between creep waves to keep the mana regen buff up, this is huge to be able to do since I am not getting a helm for so long.

Don’t waste mana until you can afford to.  Early game before level 4 you probably aren’t going to make anyone run with fireball 1 (if they are good at least).  Don’t blow your mana on it unless they are already low and it will force them to run, or it will help you control a lane you otherwise couldn’t.  Don’t always cast a circle of fire on every creep wave, but do use it often when you have a decent enough mana supply or a enemy demi to keep away.  Use Heavens if you picked it to help even more with mana conservation.  Even later don’t blow your fire nova senselessly or just lay circles and fireballs on everything, you want to have the mana to burst someone down when you need it.

For bursting someone this is my general order.  Hit them with a fireball as they approach, cast circle of fire (sometimes this gets interrupted if they have one, no biggy), fire nova, fireball again.  Then chase them and finish with fireball>Heavens if needed or you have it.  Auto attack if you can while they are close and if you have time.  Once again please note, if you aren’t sure you have a good chance to win the confrontation don’t start this combo!  Instead maybe fireball and run, or just move back.  Don’t let a melee on you when you aren’t going to win.