PvE, Searing Flames Overrated?

I've played through the Factions and Nightfall campaigns as an Earth Elementalist. Sandstorm + Deep Freeze + Eruption + Churning Earth and things tend to die. So, in my attempt to (again) get to know Searing Flames (due to its in-demand style by DoA groups), I simply can't figure out what all the hubbub is about.

By the time High level mob AL is figured in, I'm spamming a 15energy skill for 20-30 dmg. Not to mention the fact that it locks you into one hell of a boring cast sequence... MoR, Liquid Flame, SF, gaze, Glyph... spam spam spam gaze... and all to simply see highly resisted damage numbers.

So, does anyone else share my opinion? Is this a skill highly overrated?

Searing flames goes berserk when you have 3 or more eles casting it. Even with the stupid AL of endgame mobs, you'll do around 60 damage every 3.75 seconds to everything in the mob, +damage from burning. MS, which is kinda secondary, is nice to keep the Kis interrupted for a short bit as well.

That being said, it's not the only option there, people are just kinda uncreative. Splinter + barrage is pretty sexy, to name one. However, as much as I like the ticking AoE combo in most PvE, it's probably not going to do enough damage in one spike to clear everything out, and if aggro manages to break out of it, it's going to quickly become impossible for you to kill anything while the SF guy continues happily spamming away. If there's any consistent thing I can say about all my DoA runs, it's that things tend to go all to hell at some point in them- aggro breaks, a lone monster shows up and refuses to lock on the tank, you'll mess up and cast at the wrong area, your piece of crap bipper decides he's bored, gets drunk while still on vent, then leaves. Better to have something a little forgiving, IMO.

After the nerf from 7 seconds to 5 seconds, you need atleast 2 SF to be effective.

Of course, if you have 2 SF, then it's crazy.

It IS boring as hell, but the sheer damage output alone means its not overrated.
After I finished NF with my elem and bought Factions, I took my team of triple SF elems(myself included)+ToF tank and proceeded to clear every mission on master in two days. It was pathetic. I'm looking forward to hard mode.

Quote: Originally Posted by Zinger314

obviously SOMEONE hasn't been grinding their lightbringer title.

searing flames, unfortunately, was poorly balanced. The skill is spectacular in groups with 3+ sf eles as the burning lasts long enough for the eles to get a couple cycles on it and do a couple hundred damage (before armor is taken into effect). Unfortunately with 1 or 2 eles the burning duration ends before you can get signficant damage on the mobs.

Ideally, the skill would be 15/1/1 and read "target foe and nearby foes are set on fire for 7 seconds. if that foe is already on fire, foe takes 5...80 damage instead." Thus preventing the skill from being a spike skill but allowing 1 or 2 searing flames to pressure and apply direct damage on a target.

Quote: Originally Posted by marmaduke I've played through the Factions and Nightfall campaigns as an Earth Elementalist. Sandstorm + Deep Freeze + Eruption + Churning Earth and things tend to die. So, in my attempt to (again) get to know Searing Flames (due to its in-demand style by DoA groups), I simply can't figure out what all the hubbub is about. I love you.
I played with a different combination. Sandstorm > Eruption > Dragon's Stomp. I take Razah with Earthbind. That combination kills most groups of Margonites in about 5-6 seconds (the casters anyway, leaves paragons and rangers at about 10-20% health - Nothing a Churning Earth doesn't fix )...for some reason they're stupid enough to stay bunched up. Oh well...makes my job easier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by marmaduke By the time High level mob AL is figured in, I'm spamming a 15energy skill for 20-30 dmg. Not to mention the fact that it locks you into one hell of a boring cast sequence... MoR, Liquid Flame, SF, gaze, Glyph... spam spam spam gaze... and all to simply see highly resisted damage numbers. So, does anyone else share my opinion? Is this a skill highly overrated? Personally I don't like Searing Flames, it's SO boring. That's not to say it doesn't deal a reasonable amount of damage...and let's not forget the Burning does hurt and degen due to burning ignores armor. Personally I prefer Mind Blast and Mark of Rodgort when I decide to play fire for the added (awesome) energy management. Some times I have been able to stand inside a "ward" by an Ether Seal and keep half my energy intact by the end. It's prety cool. I just feel that my Earth Magic is better in some respects...it has built in team support by blinding and knockdown (= mass interruption)...it just seems to "do" more than a SF spammer.

One of the most fun times I've had was taking 1 tank, 1 monk and 6SF Heroes through domain of fear. I'd run into a group and get them into a nice tight ball then myself then my partner would move the flags right to the edge of my agro bubble.

The torment creatures would all drop into call to torment at the same time then fall over 2 seconds later. Its a beautiful thing seeing 1-2 groups of the toughest creatures in nightfall killed in just over 4 seconds.

Quote: Originally Posted by cellardweller

So true Poison!

OP - As stated by a few people already, SF effectively needs 2+ eles to do big damage. But with those in the group they tend to rip through most anything

If you are just looking for a fun build, look at savanha heat (sp??)

If you think SF is boring, let the heroes take care of it. One of the reasons I love heroes is that they can play boring cookie cutters for me, like MM, or SF ele, spirit pooper and so on. Paired with mark of rodgort SF is still pretty devastating, even on a single ele ^^.

Quote: Originally Posted by marmaduke . Sandstorm + Deep Freeze + Eruption + Churning Earth and things tend to die. I simply can't figure out what all the hubbub is about. I played a similar Build, but I used Unsteady Ground+Eruption+Earthquake. I liked Unstaeady Ground due to it's defensive capability of keeping them knocked down...since AI don't run out of Unsteady Ground for some reason....

Quote:

Originally Posted by marmaduke I simply can't figure out what all the hubbub is about. Why would anyone play Fire Magic in the first place? It's so....boring. You can't frustrate anyone with Fire Magic! I dare that warrior to run and hit me....Icy Shackles + Mending=lose

Well, with the introduction of hardmode, I'm going to forego trying to like SF and be content with Earth for a while (now that the primary thing to do is not simply just DoA).

Possibly an Earth/Air hybrid for going up against lvl30 bosses that repeatedly spike your entire group for 300+ if it's relying on just SF spamming with little defensive capability.

Has anyone tried to see if the enemy increased movement speed in Hard mode triggers the KD from [skill]Churning Earth[/skill]?

When its just one ele using it SF is generally overrated. Its mostly used for a good amount of damage in a short time but its most attractive quality is the fact with Glowing Gaze and Fire Attunement you have great energy management. Add to that the fact its one of those builds heroes can easily run and its fairly reliable. Usually when I'm in a party with others I'll go SF nuker since thats what parties are looking for.

As for why people go fire, its the heavy damage of it that attracts people. Personally I've found the recharge and casting time of fire magic to be too severe to make it the best choice in general. I like the hexes of water magic, the spiking of air and earth for its great damage.

i think SF is the best damage u can get out of fire, sustained anyways

Quote: Originally Posted by Ishtar Serket

IMO SF has been overrated for a long time....I like to run SH, with MoR and Glowing Gaze. For earth, I like to run things like churning earth and etc, throw in ob flame if I feel like messing around (seriously hate the exhaustion off that, makes me angry). Course for PvP I like to run weird builds, E/A with dags, E/N with grenths balance.

I think a lot of people run as the only SF ele in a group when they try it for the first time and end up being relatively unimpressed. SF is a skill that really shines when ran in a group with multiple SF eles.

SF is most effective with 2 or more SF elementalists. In PUGs where you normally get an amalgamation of professions whivh are normally unstructured. Then a build not relying on another person tends to be superior.