I played BW again today, and afterwards noticed an interesting thing: No matter how I used Fire Walk, it always felt like I wasn’t utilizing it well. If I use it with the LV25 Talent as venting, it allows me to keep casting for a little while longer immediately, but it’s down if things get too tight and I can’t use it to make space or as an escape. If I use it to make space, I won’t get any advantage of the movement range and far less of the venting. If I use it to move, the push aspect is wasted, and again it’s likely in a situation where my heat is already low. The situation escape aspect also suffers from it needing aiming and a sudden displacement, both requiring your attention momentarily, meaning you need a little space to begin with (defeating the purpose of “panicky escape”), and your attention is momentarily away from the combat.
Later edit: So it’s hard to use as an escape for its need for aiming and disorienting nature; it can’t be used for damage as enemies don’t stay in the flames to receive anything significant; using it to simply make space is inefficient as the push strength and area is small (and still requires taking aim off enemies for a moment); and using the option of venting (the best lvl25 Talent imo) is sporadic and short-lived help at best. In short, repeat of my observation: No matter how I use it, it feels inefficient. It possibly tries to be a bit too many things, with no clear purpose to it.