Flame Surge

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Sheriff_K wrote:

It is purely a utility single-target alternative for builds that utilize Burn

...duh?

Eh, I'm finding Flame Surge plenty good. Searing Bond takes care of the trash & Flame Surge gives me a way to quickly eliminate with harder enemies relatively easy - high damage & shock stacks via 3 Dragons. Incinerate wouldn't really work in this setup since Incinerate wants you to stay in one place but the advantage of Searing Bond is that you can keep dealing damage even while moving around.

This is useful as a trap. Even if it has very small aoe, it still AOE, Not to mention it has low mana cost

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waraw wrote:

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Sound is extremely unsatisfying to use, sounds like I'm slapping someone with a wet washcloth.

Cannot unhear, sigh. I like the skill, though.

I'm sorry

Good damages, god awful AoE. I don't expect many people to use it, too unpractical against mobs. Very effective against bosses though.

barrage cast on crit with gmp fireball. or coc ek cold to fire...avatar of fire. would require alot of spell crit. another utility is the desecrate dd builds.

3 dragons barrage, gmp, coc, ek(hatred), arc, flame surge EE.

in most cases ek+hatred with a few aura nodes is far more cold damage than any other spell in the game+phys lol.

I have been using this skill with my trap build and utilizing crit and burn to maximize the effect on single target. Needless to say it is very strong and amusing to watch rares and uniques just fall over with ease.

I do find it very effective for how i utilize it and have it linked with conc effect, trap, increased crit damage.

Hey guys! I'm a combat caster who has been using Flame Surge since level 19, and it is anything but useless. I have made quite a few characters, and this is by far the strongest, cheapest and most successful of them all.

My Build

As I started in Invasion, I invested most of points in survivability nodes. The few points I spent on spell damage was enough to allow me to trivialize content all the way till Merciless Act 3. I also made sure to get every efficient cast speed node on the tree to make my character more mobile. In terms of Bandits, I helped Oak in Normal (+40 Life), helped Alira in Cruel (+4% Cast Speed), and killed them all in Merciless. My build is nothing special, nor has it been min-maxed, and yet, I have had very little difficulty playing using self-found/crafted blues and yellows. Below is a link to my build at level 73.



Damage

Starting at gem level 1, Flame Surge does tons of damage. Most white mobs in instances 3 levels higher than me go down in 1 or 2 hits. Inflicting burn on enemies is usually unnecessary; even blue and yellow mobs go down with relative ease. The extra damage from inflicting a burn on enemies comes in handy against bosses and yellow mobs resistant to fire. Many people have commented that burning enemies is a chore, I beg to differ. I use Fire Trap, augmented by Increased AoE and Multitrap to burn enemies. Half my screen is covered in burning ground in less than a second.

Mana Cost

The mana cost for Flame Surge starts low and ramps up to be quite high as it levels. I dedicated very few passive points into increasing mana and mana regen; with Clarity, the mana cost for a 5L Flame Surge has not yet been a problem.

Area of Effect

Many have commented that the AoE of Flame Surge is terrible. In comparison to other skills, I would have to agree. The AoE of Flame Surge remains almost unaffected by increases or decreases to AoE. This is a blessing and a curse; a blessing because Conc. Effect acts as a 'free' damage multiplier, and a curse because the AoE of this skill is basically locked in. The AoE of Flame Surge shines when mobs are bottlenecked through doorways or tight passages, or when kiting back in general. In contrast, using this skill effectively in open areas is near impossible. To work around this, I have built a good amount of cast speed to better position my self to maximize the amounts of enemies hit. If you consider that this skill was designed to be used like a shotgun for short range and high impact, the AoE it has been given appears to be more than fair.

Supports

When leveling, I used Flame Surge in a 4L with Conc. Effect, Fire Pen, and Faster Casting. Because of the huge damage this skill outputs, Life Leech is not necessary until Act 3 Merciless. At level 65, I bought a Rime Gaze and placed Flame Surge in it; this effectively functions as a 5L. At level 73, my Flame Surge is currently supported by Life Leech, Spell Echo, Item Quantity (or Fire Pen.), and Conc. Effect (from Rime Gaze). I've recently started mapping, and level 66 maps have been very manageable using these supports.

Reflect

Flame Surge outputs a lot of damage, and as a result the elemental reflect mod on a map can really hurt. To work around this, I cast Arctic Armour; in conjunction with Life Leech, reflect effectively does no damage when Flame Surge is cast against 5-10 monsters. With that said, I would like to mention that my character died to reflect in Invasion. I was running a map with the Fracture and Ele. Reflect mods. 10 monsters, which is usually not a problem, died in 1 hit and became 20 monsters. As I was running spell echo, you can imagine what happened xD.

Summary

In summary, Flame Surge is a great skill that has been well designed to fill a niche of short range shotgun spells in PoE. Its use is not limited to single target DPS, and it is one of very few spells that comes with an implicit more damage modifier. The mana cost of this skill is very manageable, the AoE shines in bottlenecked or tight passages, and one can work around its 'terrible' AoE in open areas by building cast speed to reposition your character. Leveling up with this skill has been a Flameblast (oops, wrong skill xD), and I look forward to seeing the community find ways to abuse the strong implicit characteristics of this underrated skill. Good job GGG!

After levelling a character almost entirely with flame surge to near map levels. I could see it's great single target potential, yet like most people here, I too am unsatisfied with the sound of the Flame Whip and the fact that the cone of AoE is mostly increased in lenght rather than getting wider.

Edit: Also it would be nice if the spell effect would reflect the size of the AoE. It's very hard to know where it is supposed to be hitting.

+1 to the last post. Everyone mentioned bad aoe (but probably that's done intentionally coz of quite high damage per shot, so I wouldn't complain) and sound which reminds me a lash. But one more embarassing thing is that I don't really see and feel surge's area so the situation when surge doesn't reach mob is very often.

PS Currently running quite close to known Incinerate build. The Three Dragons + Cloak of Defiance + Lazhwar amulet + Rathpith Globe + Cybil's Paw. Hope to get enough mana and manaregen to run highlevel AA.