why searing flame?

Ive heard alot of people lately saying searing flame is like da best skill. Is it really?

For what? Pvp, pve? For killing mobs or bosses? It all depends.

If you're going general pve against mobs, then it probably is best. Good damage, burning, undodgeable, nice aoe, built in energy management with GG, doesn't require a snare or your enemies to stand around like fools, and spammable as hell. Leaves about half your bar to carry whatever you want. What else do you want?

May do less damage against heavy armour, but almost all ele spells have that flaw. You get around it by casting more. Which is the best bit, you can get good synergy. Get as many eles as you can afford in the party. All SF. Carry a ward or two each. And cause its so easy to run, any ele you find can be expected to run it without any problems at all. Pve done.

id say yes with glowing gg and another burning skill its quite effective and rather easy to use. i think thats why so many like it. i think there are builds that you can make that do just as much and different elites but it is one of the most simple so is a good choice to have. as for skill to take with it id recommend immolate, tenai's heat and maybe rodgorts invocation along with fire attunement and maybe glyph of lesser energy.

Searing Flames is the best skill because a monkey could run it, it gets better in packs, and it causes substantial AoE non-scatter damage.

It's not the best...it's just the most popular atm because it's easy to use and it's the only kind of ele that groups look for in DOA.

If you wanna do DOA and you have an ele...it's worth while getting a SF build.

I'm sure another fire elite will come along in Eye of the North that will be the next "Searing Flames" and will be the only kind of ele looked for when farming elite areas.

Because it's a build that you can just mash buttons and get semi-decent results.

i dont like it, you wind up using it too much (recharge is so low) and abuse your energy supply a lot. id maybe use it pve but pvp i rather take something that will help me evade attacks as an elite (considering the only ele heal sucks) since ele fire damage is so high i can get away with this.

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Glad's Defense is fail on a Warrior, let alone an Ele. ZOMG THEY HIT ME I TANK WITH 60 AL. KITE.
And L-surge is an AWFUL elite.

Taking something to evade isn't essential in PvP. It's only anything near usefull if youre a halfwit who doesn't have the slightest idea how to kite.

To stay on topic, SF is the best AoE skill for eles in terms of sustained DPS. PUGs also like it because they heard it's good.

Considering this post is about an unblockable, spamable, half damage, half degen, fire-monkey elite, i think the discussion of the necessity of evasion of physical attacks in pvp is moot, not to mention off topic.

On topic: Searing flames can be very effective, especially in groups, and when coupled with a paragon using [card]"They're On Fire!"[/card].

In AB, where often survival whilst 1v1 is key, it becomes less effective as you can lose your team and find yourself having to apply the burning, hit glowing gaze then searing flames again - this relatively lengthy chain (when compared to the spike based AB builds eg. air eles, sins, some dervish builds etc) often leaves you open to many attacks before you can even consider getting a heal in there.

E/W is quite possibly the worst combination I can think of offhand unless you're running a reverse hamstorm build for giggles. I can think of a semi-decent use of all the other secondaries (maybe not paragon... never really tried though), but there is no reason to take a warrior secondary. First of all, the fact that you stand still and let people damage you screams newbie. Elementalists KITE. In case you don't actually know what that means, kiting refers to evading damage by MOVING OUT OF THE WAY. You can pre-kite by watching the movement of enemy warriors/dervishes or you can actively kite to reduce the overall damage you take while allowing your team to relieve some of the pressure. Stance warriors (aside from steady stance) are HORRIBLE even in PvE, Gladiator's Defense has been a gimmicky PvE farm elite since the beginning and ever since the general change of stances (lower duration/recharge) it's been much less effective at damage mitigation. You're wasting your elite slot on a blocking stance that doesn't even increase your run speed... You could bring Natural Stride if you were desperate...

However as an ele you always have an elite choice if you don't find a suitable elite in your elemental line of choice (i.e. your build sucks assuming you own all 3 campaigns) and that's Elemental Attunement. Saying that you're a "ranked gladiator" means nothing. I've gotten 5 glad points running a Healing Touch Ranger in RA... Pretty much the worst build ever. I've also gotten a point or two running a 55 monk. And to be perfectly honest if I ever wanted to go higher than my current rank (2) I'd just sync with guildees and farm glad points in RA, which is what 90% of the top ranked people have done.

By the way, as for methods of survival, as an elementalist you have blind, snares, run speed buffs, knockdown, and basically anything else you'd need to survive.

Summary: Learn2Kite

Back on topic:
Searing Flames is easy to use which is the main reason people like it. Simply pick a target and mash the button while using either GoLE/Glowing Gaze during its downtime. Combine SF with Mark of Rodgort or multiple SF eles and you have a constant output of high fire damage. This build has been nerfed multiple times... recharge on glowing gaze, energy cost of Mark, burn duration of SF, and damage of SF, and it still gets used all the time. The only real alternative these days in the fire line is the triple heat build.

Edit: Mind Blast is also a VERY viable alternative! (/facepalm)

I think you guys should just ignore populationcontrol. He's not gonna stop spreading his opinions and builds, no matter how bad they might be, no matter what you guys say. No need to snipe at him still, most people know that he's just an average player trying to make himself seem like an amazing one.

On topic:
I hate SF, to be honest. I prefer Mind Blast+MoR+RI to it any day of the week.

Okay, no more trolling and flaming, guys.

SF is popular due to it getting better in packs. One SF is nothing awesome. Two is okay. Three and it starts to get better.

And it's pretty much mash buttons on recharge, as well.

Single SF ele in a team is not very effective - use Rodgort's Invocation then coupled with a few more nuking spells & with Mind Blast to keep the energy up. Works like a charm...

the worst thing a moderater, judge or figure of authority can be is biased. not once during any of my posts did you delete some of the insults posted on my submissions (builds i posted not offend but to share). not to mention thousands upon thousands of attempts by strange love and my other stalkers to steer everything off topic deciding the conversation was about cats for instance, apparently thats why most of my hateful stalkers modified their avatar to a cats. i need to say this for closure, the build i submited which you say sucks defeated you, TWICE. that either makes my build good in the least and if you insist its bad what does that make the people i defeated? if you resent this find a more on topic way to voice your opinion.

as to searing flames i never use it because i wind up using it to often and have energy issues but thats just me. i understand im very unpopular here but i must say when you "kite" your not casting, while if you bring a stance you can cast and avoid attacks. also so many classes specialise in killing elementalists with no evasion skills by outruning or crippling you, rangers have to do neither. just a thought.

Yea but why would you need sustained pressure in PvE? You don't need to pressure monks because there are practically no monks....

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