Flamethrower is basically an AoE Goring Blade.

...Where you have to stand still.

And you're losing 10 seconds of heat generation, so you're probably netting less DPS than just scattergunning into auto crossbow.

They definitely need to buff the damage--the Bio Blaster idea is cool. Something where it generates heat, or does far more damage but *spends* heat wouldn't be bad either. It's kind of funny that a fire based attack has zero interaction with a heat mechanic, don't you think?