I would like to suggest that flamers or rather pyromaniac got a particular buff, I have spoken to various people that also agree that flamers need a buff including Voland. I am going to start off listing the disadvantages off flamers/improved flamers and I will not even bother writing the advantages.
Disadvantages:
-High ap requirement like all other BG's but with other BG's you will usually do a burst of bullets that create a balance with the AP requirement.
-Low damage within its range compared to any other BG (rocket launchers have 40 range and always knock back and knock down so they are out of the picture)
-Terrible range (5 hexes) this makes it very hard to get people and you may say that other BGs have about a 6 hex effective radius for close bursts which is true, but they can also fire from longer distances which is not as effective but it is still better than maximum 5.
There are more unlisted disadvantages, but the fact that you need sneak to get to 5 hexes without them running away or shooting before coupled with the sneak penalty renders sneak for flamers useless.
If you do a specialised 2 burst flamer build that is also ineffective as between those bursts they can shoot you and not even 3 bursts will kill with pyromaniac against a toughness CAmkII char.
My proposal only makes improved flamers a viable option when considering a gun and this is it.
Flamer fuel MkII: -15 DR
Pyromaniac: +20 damage -25 DR
Pyromaniac+: +20 damage -25 DR
Improved/normal flamer always knocks down on hit.
This means if you DO get into range and HAVE wasted skill points to make sneak 300% (sacrificing 2 perks for skilled) and making it specialised SACRIFICING 5 more perks on BroF ABx2 and Pyromaniac (rendering the build useless for any other gun compared to BG minigunner builds) you may actually get a kill or close to it.
This is the buff flamers need and I would like to hear your criticism please.