User blog comment:LionsLight/Sunfire Cape/@comment-3486816-20120113064804

I buy sunfire myself, but only when I'm backed into a corner where I'm short on cash (ie didn't buy HoG and can't afford Randuin's) and need a significant amount of Armor and Health. If I'm not backed into a corner, there's pretty much no reason to take this over a Warmog's with either FH, Atma's, or Randuin's, depending on how rich I am, who I'm playing, and who I'm playing against. The simple fact remains that anyone who this'll do noticeable damage to (ie squishies) won't feel its effects long enough for it to matter. If you're that close to them, it should be when your team is blowing them up anyways because you've managed to pin them down. If your team isn't blowing them up, for whatever reason, that aura isn't going to do anything -- AD carries or mages are GOING to have the tools to get away from you if they don't explode within the duration of your CCs (especially without a Frozen Mallet, which you COULD take with this item, but the point is that it'd typically be carrying the load - not your sunfire cape, as the damage aura takes too long to do anything in a conceivable situation).

tl;dr if you're within sunfire cape range long enough for it to make a significant difference, your team should have killed them already. In such a situation, it's likely your team died from your lack of peeling while you were trying too hard to play the anticarry role. It's not the worst item in the game, and as I said, it does have its place, but I really don't feel it belongs in anyone's core items.