I like Fireworks for rapidly prototyping designs. I don't really use the slice/export feature, but for prototyping before committing to code, Fireworks works perfectly for me. I've been using it for over 10 years now and have become extremely quick and comfortable in it.

Photoshop never felt right to me for doing prototypes that eventually iterate into an actual design spec. I need to crack open Photoshop a few times a year. I'm in Fireworks almost everyday. I'm sure a lot of it is my muscle memory, but for many of my graphic and photo editing tasks, Fireworks is so much faster.

Unfortunately, Fireworks has become less intuitive as its evolved and I suspect it's lost a lot of its luster to new users. Even though I'm only using Photoshop a few times a year, I still need to keep it around.

I suppose this change by Adobe will force me out of an old habit, but I'm looking forward to exploring some non-Adobe options.

I use to draw interface layout and slices for my games, to create art that mix vectors and bitmaps, to create sprites and pixel art, to rapid prototyping of game art, and nothing beats it when it come to design web stuff.

I am game dev, all the mentioned things are in that context.

Designing interfaces usually. It's a mixture of the vector and rastor editor and has a really simple to use UI. I'm mainly a developer but I could pick it up pretty quickly once the designers showed me the basics. Powerful but simple to use tool.

Quick image creation and editing. Backgrounds, resizes, taking incoming files from designers and making them 'usuable', in whatever meaning that word takes at the time. Prototyping design (i.e. "good enough until we pay a designer" design), etc.

User Interface design. I've tried pretty much every tool out there for UI design but I keep coming back to Fireworks.

Have you tried PaintCode?