Ancient Dragon Lightning incantations all trash ?

[Buurt]

I have a hybrid faith character with 60 faith and I was testing around with some incantations and is it me or is 90% of the lightning stuff just trash in comparison to pyro etc. ?

on a enemy that has both the same fire and lightning weakness I deel like 400+ more damage with a normal blackfireball than I deal with the strongest and longest loading dragon lightning incantations....

It feels like besides lightling spear nothing is worth on lightning attacks, Lansseax's Glaive, Fortissax's Lightning Spear, Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike and Ancient Dragons' Lightning Spear all look very cool but underperform against the most easiest pyro spells and even against lightning spear.....
Takes like twice the time to cast and deals like half of the damage.

Am I missing something about those or are they just bad in this game for some reason.

and yes I am using the right seals to cast them, all max upgraded etc.

[Burns]

have you tried the right tools? With high arcane?

[Buurt]

Postat inițial de Burns:

have you tried the right tools? With high arcane?

I think you are confusing Dragon Communion with ancient dragon lightning stuff :) no need for my incantations to use arcane. its pure faith lightning stuff

[Burns]

you re right. sorry. but one of those incantations is the best in the game for big beasts

[Agravain]

Think it's more a personal preference, but yeah I too think most of the dragon incants are a bit underwhelming. Death lightning, fortisaxx's lightning spears, ancient dragon's lightning strike, are my favorites.

[Agravain]

Postat inițial de Buurt:

Postat inițial de Burns:

have you tried the right tools? With high arcane?

I think you are confusing Dragon Communion with ancient dragon lightning stuff :) no need for my incantations to use arcane. its pure faith lightning stuff

are you also considering the communion dragon incants, or just the regular ancient ones?

[Lord Bob]

Ancients Dragon Lightning Strike is the single most broken boss melter incantation on a dedicated build.

Make sure to equip a seal with high incant scaling for casting and a (unupgraded) Gravek Stone Seal, to profit from it's passive bonus to lightnint incants. Best would be one GSS that is max upgraded and one that is unupgraded.
Talismans: Flock's Canvas, Ritual Sword, Lightning Scorpion Charm, Godfrey Icon, for ridiculous amounts of damage per charged cast.

If you push your faith up to 80 you can use the Erdtree seal for even more incant scaling.

[Mei]

Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike shreds large enemies.
Fortissax's Lightning Spear has less uses and is hard to use, but can also hit extremely hard.

[causality]

Postat inițial de Alpharius:

Think it's more a personal preference, but yeah I too think most of the dragon incants are a bit underwhelming. Death lightning, fortisaxx's lightning spears, ancient dragon's lightning strike, are my favorites.

Stuff like Fortisaxx even gets hyper armor frames and with max casting speed you can easily trade with anything smaller than a colossal sized weapon. It's also extremely FP efficient since it hits twice and can stunlock cleave a lot of enemies in melee.

[Burns]

Postat inițial de Alpharius:

Postat inițial de Buurt:

I think you are confusing Dragon Communion with ancient dragon lightning stuff :) no need for my incantations to use arcane. its pure faith lightning stuff

are you also considering the communion dragon incants, or just the regular ancient ones?

I think he meant the faith-based ones. It was my mistake

[Agravain]

Postat inițial de causality:

Postat inițial de Alpharius:

Think it's more a personal preference, but yeah I too think most of the dragon incants are a bit underwhelming. Death lightning, fortisaxx's lightning spears, ancient dragon's lightning strike, are my favorites.

Stuff like Fortisaxx even gets hyper armor frames and with max casting speed you can easily trade with anything smaller than a colossal sized weapon.

Typically the ancient lightning incants work best/sometimes only when you're fighting something that's a lot bigger than you, fortunately that's most enemies in this game

[Agravain]

Postat inițial de Burns:

Postat inițial de Alpharius:

are you also considering the communion dragon incants, or just the regular ancient ones?

I think he meant the faith-based ones. It was my mistake

My point being that if you're also considering communion incants under your own personal definition of "Dragon incantations", then I'd say anything with a name on it is a solid choice, dragon maw and claw are also pretty solid choices

[Burns]

Postat inițial de Alpharius:

Postat inițial de Burns:

I think he meant the faith-based ones. It was my mistake

My point being that if you're also considering communion incants under your own personal definition of "Dragon incantations", then I'd say anything with a name on it is a solid choice, dragon maw and claw are also pretty solid choices

They are.

[Duchess Thy Strength]

Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike with the right tears, talismans and other buffs has the highest damage on any enemy imo. The problem is that you have to charge it and hope it hits the enemy. So, using it against big enemies has the best outcome. In PvP: pray it doesn't hit you

[Imperator Ricardo]

Most Dragon Cult Incantations perform decently well. There are only few that do not quite have concrete uses.

Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike is the non-plus ultra of the lot, being able to stack extreme amounts of damage on everything it can hit. Bigger enemies get hit multiple times, causing the reputation of a big-boss-destroyer.
Death Lightning works similarily, except the impacts do not spread out, and instead stay close to you. One would imagine it a PvP tool, due to the deathblight buildup, but it also deals significant direct damage to bosses - if you can cast quickly enough.

Fortissax' Lightning Spears has the advantage of increased poise, and while it has more utility during PvP, it can still perform quite well as a crowd control device. It is also just the upgraded version of Ancient Dragon Lightning Spear.
Similarily, Lansseax' Glaive has a very broad hitbox, though it only hits once. Still quite useful to secure a hit, and it has fashion appeal.

Moving on to the more basic incantations; Lightning Spear is a very fast-casting incantation that can deal a lot of damage when used right. It also has minor tracking, so side-stepping enemies may still be hit, although do not take this as a guarantee to hit input-reading enemies.

Frozen Lightning Spear is the upgraded version of Lightning Strike. It looks good, but the utility is limited due to unreliable hitboxes. Can still be used against big bosses and the like, but do not expect to make any use of the innate Frostbite buildup.

Last, but not least, Honed Bolt is the incantation-version of the Thunderbolt weapon art. It casts slower, but has the advantage of scaling damage. Mostly just a PvP tool in my opinion though.

All of these Incantations are buffed by the Gravel Stone Seal. Using two of these (provided you can obtain a second one) will stack the buff, although the seal itself is on the lower side of Incantation Scaling, you may want to use an Erdtree Seal in your main casting hand on very high faith levels.

To boost casting speed, you can use the Radagon Icon. Interestingly enough, you can also hold an off-hand Azur Glintstone Staff, and the casting speed buff will still apply, even if you cannot use it. Using both of these will max out your casting speed, though if you do hold the Glintstone Staff, you may want to use an Erdtree Seal to cast, to keep the damage high.

If you wish for further elaboration, do let me know. I shall explain it to the best of my abilities.

[Key]

Postat inițial de Lord Bob:

Ancients Dragon Lightning Strike is the single most broken boss melter incantation on a dedicated build.

Make sure to equip a seal with high incant scaling for casting and a (unupgraded) Gravek Stone Seal, to profit from it's passive bonus to lightnint incants. Best would be one GSS that is max upgraded and one that is unupgraded.
Talismans: Flock's Canvas, Ritual Sword, Lightning Scorpion Charm, Godfrey Icon, for ridiculous amounts of damage per charged cast.

If you push your faith up to 80 you can use the Erdtree seal for even more incant scaling.

I've seen this man over here kill bosses in barely a minute with a lighting build.