Q on talents like Scion of Flame

[Hayashi.226]

I'm not sure how they work. My main character is a ranged cipher using a war bow. If I take this talent, will I automatically gain fire damage to my attacks? Or do I need a weapon that already does fire damage, for this to kick in?

[Boeroer]

Those talents themselves will add nothing if you don't already have a source of direct damage that fits (e.g. fire damage + Scion of Flame). They will affect the following: 

• Lashes on weapons (like a burning lash on your sword). The lash will gain a 20% increase. This means it will rise from 25% to 30%. It doesn't matter where the lash comes from (enchantment or own ability or chanter's phrase or whatever).
• Weapons which do elemental damage as primary dmg source. Examples: Firebrand (burn + Scion of Flame), Bittercut (corrode + Spirit of Decay), Stormcaller (shock + Heart of the Storm) and such. This means that they will get a general 20% dmg bonus that always applies, even if the secondary damage gets used. So for example Bittercut does corrode/slash damage and will try to use the damage type the enemy is weak against. If you take Spirit of Decay however, Bittercut will get a general 20% dmg increase even if it does slash dmaage to an enemy. Weird, but it's like that. Note that weapon which have elemental damage as secondary dmg type (e.g. Durance's Staff has crush/burn) do NOT profit. The elemental damage has to come first.
• This also means that if you have a weapon with elemental damage AND an elemental lash (e.g. put a corrosive lash on Bittercut) you will profit twice. 
• All spells and abilites that do direct elemental damage. Direct means NO damage over time (DoT). So - stuff like The Dragon Thrashed (Chanter) or Wizard's Corrosive Siphon will not profit from those talents. DoT means there's one hit roll and then the damage is applied iver the course of several ticks without further hit rolls. Pulsing spells though (Chillfog or Wall of FLame or any Beam spell) which do a hit roll every few seconds will profit.  

If your cipher's weapon doesn't do burn damage nor has a burning lash then you will not profit from Scion of Flame. Powers like Soul Shock however would profit from Heart of the Storm. Note that a cipher has no power that profits from Scion of Flame. Soul Ignition is a DoT and therefore gets nothing. So - usually Scion of Flame is a bad pick for a cipher unless you are using Firebrand as your main weapon. For a cipher with Bittercut or Stormcaller Spirit of Decay/Heart of the Storm are decent picks though.