I am thinking of putting a flare on my lance at duskruin and just don't know enough about the different types to make an informed decision. I like lightning (maybe greater elemental eventually), plasma, grapple, dispel and polearm flares. What do you guys think would work best long term (post cap) and would fit my setup/needs that I'll talk about below?
My current lance...7x, player forged, 2 certs crit weighting, x1 ensorcelled, blessable, 215 project difficulty
I am in Voln and really want to be able to continue to bless my lance and eventually have it sanctified up to T5 (hopefully to add the holy fire flares). I want the new flare to be able to hit undead as well (I read that plasma can but I'm not sure about the other flare types). Lastly, I want to enchant it a bit more to 8x and hopefully ensorcell it to T5 as well.
Any help is appreciated!
Thx!!
RARJR
OM1E5GA
Re: Flare questions/help re. my lance
01/08/2022 07:37 PM CST
<I like lightning (maybe greater elemental eventually), plasma, grapple, dispel and polearm flares.>
Lightning prolly hits the harder over-all then the other elemental flares, but you're not going to want to use them in any hunting area that has water in the rooms since the water will conduct the lightning back to you. Plasma is a good all-around flare that has no real drawbacks. Grapple isn't going to damage critters as much but will keep them on the ground, if you kill mostly by attrition you'll likely appreciate them but if you mostly crit kill your maneuvers/spells are likely keeping things on the ground long enough anyway. Dispel flares are great when hunting anything magical. Finally, polearm flares are essentially more crush flares and grapple/unbalance flares combined if you have enough MOC training for them.
Generally, flares on weapons aren't going to make or break a build. They can kill occasionally, but they're usually just giving that extra little bit of damage to drain that last few points of HP from a critter when they do. The more your build is centered around getting crit kills, the less you're going to notice any sort of advantage. On the other hand, if your mostly focused on quickly draining your foes HP you probably will notice you're killing things a swing or two faster on average. Of the ones you listed, I'd be most inclined to get grapple, dispel, or polearm flares (depending on what you see yourself hunting and how much you want to spend) cause they're the ones that will best set-up critters for future hits to deal more damage.
<I want the new flare to be able to hit undead as well (I read that plasma can but I'm not sure about the other flare types).>
As long as the critter you're fighting isn't specifically immune to the damage type the flares deal (ex. most wights are immune to cold), any flare will hit undead. It used to be that flaring weapons couldn't be blessed unless they were one of the scripted flares, but the recent changes to blessing made it so almost any weapon can be blessed now (and any weapon can hit undead even if it's not blessed, for that matter. it just deals less damage if it's not blessed). If you want to see what all the changes were, they're on this Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dHwFm8BQidYis6DwsLSR2Ue3CkzXjHOaFh_PObdJQJc/edit#
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
Lightning prolly hits the harder over-all then the other elemental flares, but you're not going to want to use them in any hunting area that has water in the rooms since the water will conduct the lightning back to you. Plasma is a good all-around flare that has no real drawbacks. Grapple isn't going to damage critters as much but will keep them on the ground, if you kill mostly by attrition you'll likely appreciate them but if you mostly crit kill your maneuvers/spells are likely keeping things on the ground long enough anyway. Dispel flares are great when hunting anything magical. Finally, polearm flares are essentially more crush flares and grapple/unbalance flares combined if you have enough MOC training for them.
Generally, flares on weapons aren't going to make or break a build. They can kill occasionally, but they're usually just giving that extra little bit of damage to drain that last few points of HP from a critter when they do. The more your build is centered around getting crit kills, the less you're going to notice any sort of advantage. On the other hand, if your mostly focused on quickly draining your foes HP you probably will notice you're killing things a swing or two faster on average. Of the ones you listed, I'd be most inclined to get grapple, dispel, or polearm flares (depending on what you see yourself hunting and how much you want to spend) cause they're the ones that will best set-up critters for future hits to deal more damage.
<I want the new flare to be able to hit undead as well (I read that plasma can but I'm not sure about the other flare types).>
As long as the critter you're fighting isn't specifically immune to the damage type the flares deal (ex. most wights are immune to cold), any flare will hit undead. It used to be that flaring weapons couldn't be blessed unless they were one of the scripted flares, but the recent changes to blessing made it so almost any weapon can be blessed now (and any weapon can hit undead even if it's not blessed, for that matter. it just deals less damage if it's not blessed). If you want to see what all the changes were, they're on this Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dHwFm8BQidYis6DwsLSR2Ue3CkzXjHOaFh_PObdJQJc/edit#
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
RARJR
Re: Flare questions/help re. my lance
01/09/2022 09:15 AM CST
Thx for all the info Starchitin. It's helped me narrow it down to dispel or polearm. Dispel seems appealing in case I just can't hit magical critters bc of their DS. But then I have other options to get them on the ground and lower their DS (tackle, weapon charge, etc.), so maybe dispelling them will not be needed. I like the polearm flares mostly bc of the chance at 2 different flares and I have plenty of MOC.
KRAKII
Re: Flare questions/help re. my lance
01/09/2022 10:44 AM CST
For what it's worth: creature status "prone" comes and goes, but "taking a spell off" is pretty much forever. I almost never see anything cast a defensive or buff spell nowadays, since they started genning with everything on right away.
MALMUDDY
Re: Flare questions/help re. my lance
01/10/2022 10:44 AM CST
The question of which flare to get is largely up to you. There are slight advantages for some over others, but most are fine, and largely dependent on what/where/how you hunt.
Assuming you plan to use DR to add flares, I generally suggest adding flares to something last, if at all. Adding flares adds to the gear score, which makes adding enchants, ensorcells, and weighting more expensive. More than once, I've made the decision to forego the flares, as the weapon I've created hits like a ton of bricks without them. And that's especially true for a heavy weapon like a lance.
Assuming you plan to use DR to add flares, I generally suggest adding flares to something last, if at all. Adding flares adds to the gear score, which makes adding enchants, ensorcells, and weighting more expensive. More than once, I've made the decision to forego the flares, as the weapon I've created hits like a ton of bricks without them. And that's especially true for a heavy weapon like a lance.
LEAFIARA
Re: Flare questions/help re. my lance
01/10/2022 06:38 PM CST
>It's helped me narrow it down to dispel or polearm.
For the sake of clarity, in this case it's possible to have both since dispel flares take up the flare slot (AKA ability slot) and poleaxe flares take up the script slot.
Still, as Malumuddy was saying, the additional gear difficulty from even one form of flares, never mind two, is a real drawback. With your stated goal of eventually getting T5 Ensorcell and T6 Sanctify, I agree with Malmuddy that I wouldn't add any flares for now or it'll become very difficult (and expensive) to find players to do the last few casts of Ensorcell or Sanctify. Alternatively, scale back expectations to either forego Sanctify or leave Ensorcell at T1, which would create space to add flares (even two sets) and still be in workable range for capped clerics and sorcerers.
For the sake of clarity, in this case it's possible to have both since dispel flares take up the flare slot (AKA ability slot) and poleaxe flares take up the script slot.
Still, as Malumuddy was saying, the additional gear difficulty from even one form of flares, never mind two, is a real drawback. With your stated goal of eventually getting T5 Ensorcell and T6 Sanctify, I agree with Malmuddy that I wouldn't add any flares for now or it'll become very difficult (and expensive) to find players to do the last few casts of Ensorcell or Sanctify. Alternatively, scale back expectations to either forego Sanctify or leave Ensorcell at T1, which would create space to add flares (even two sets) and still be in workable range for capped clerics and sorcerers.
