Is there any use to Death Lightning?

[SoundsOfNight]

Esp bc the Dragon Lightning spells are only one slot each. Death Lightning legit seems like one of the worst spells in the game :X.

[Angel]

nope it's garbage use the other one instead

[CazadorDeLobo]

The philosophy of the variety of spells/incants/ashes has always been with multiplayer in mind, carrying tropes forward from past games. It inevitably leads to gimmick spells that range from being the most broken powerful, to the most broken useless.

A lot of the time, what the developers think will be an epic, easily-abused spell gets pre-nerfed to the point of merely existing alongside a large number of mid offensive options, often requiring end-game stats and other extra investments/gear to make a build that can use them effectively.

A lot of the time, the developers don't think about what does wind up being easily-abused, epic, and extremely difficult to replace. You know, like the Golden Halberd at the very beginning of the game, the kind of weapon that would lead you to learn bad habits and to ignore spellcasting/status for basically the entire game, that has the scaling/AR of 1.5 weapons in one.

[echo_ML]

I mean it has some use for quick area denial but otherwise yeah its mid AF. Still nog as bad as scarlet aeonia tho

[Imperator Ricardo]

Death Lightning is more of a failed idea of a PvP surprise spell.
But it does good damage for what it is, though the Deathblight buildup is useless.
Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike is far superior in almost every way as of right now, damage, range and requirements, everything is better. Except for potentially the visuals.
I enjoyed using both in any case.

[SoundsOfNight]

Yep we're wrong.

It's OP in PvP when it hits. I one shotted a few players today and took off about 1.2k on a full Havels poise tank. So yeah, trash for PvE, but one-shot material in PvP.

Maybe not the best or most efficient, but it's cool and hits hard in PvP.

[Toyosatomimi no Miko]

The spell hits hard but you have zero control as to where it's going to land around you. It's like a roided out heavenly thunder from DS2 but unreliable, so all the special use cases around that spell also apply to death lightning (like doing big damage against bigger enemies that can get hit by multiple bolts). The deathblight buildup is just an afterthought and you shouldn't be relying on it.