Burning Blood

[NoLimHoldem]

I'm thinking of swaping out DD for Burning Blood. I tried it a little when the spell was first released and didn't care for it that much, now I'm looking at it again and the thought if doing 28d8 damage sounds sweet! You guys that have it, how usefull is it at lvl 14? I use DD quite a bit.

[Prinstoni]

It gives you nasty agro and doesn't do near enough damage to kill an enemy before he kills you.

It is fun for pvp though :)...

[NoLimHoldem]

I get the aggro part but how is that any different than casting Chainlightning doing 14d6?

I have the insta-kill down pat, I'm looking to increase my overall DPS.

Scorching Ray
Fireball
Ball Lightning
Chain Lightning
Wall of Fire

Scorching Ray is great but has a high SP cost when you MAX/EMP. If I can do that same damage with a regular spell then all the better.

[amysrevenge]

It's different because the chain lightning has a chance to kill the mob instantly (who cares if you have a dead mob's aggro?), while burning blood will take, what, over a minute to do its damage? That's plenty of time for a mob to beat the **** out of you.

[Aspenor]

I'm thinking of swaping out DD for Burning Blood. I tried it a little when the spell was first released and didn't care for it that much, now I'm looking at it again and the thought if doing 28d8 damage sounds sweet! You guys that have it, how usefull is it at lvl 14? I use DD quite a bit.

Burning blood will never do 28d8 damage.

It will do 1d8 damage, and the only thing caster level affects is the duration.

[Fennario]

You should swap out DD though, if not for Burning Blood, then something else. DD is one of those spells that you just carry a stack of scrolls instead of using a precious spell slot.

[redoubt]

Where are you getting DD scrolls these days?

[underlordone]

It works wonders on scorps since they can't dogge it.

[Fennario]

Where are you getting DD scrolls these days?

They stopped selling them? I didn't know that. I just came back to the game recently after a 3 month long hiatus. I have about 200 scrolls in my inventory. Well if thats the case, thanks for the info, and disregard my previous post.:o

[Alavatar]

Scorching Ray is great but has a high SP cost when you MAX/EMP. If I can do that same damage with a regular spell then all the better.

After the new Metamagic system is implemented you might as well use nothing but Max/Emp Chain Lightning or Cone of Cold or something. More SP efficient to cast Max/Emp higher level spells, especially if you have the Improved Max/Emp enhancements.

[NoLimHoldem]

I have learned my lesson. I decided to swap out for Burning Blood. That spell just plain sucks arse!!! Even MAX/EMP it sucks. All it does is make the mobs hate me even more.

I will never again question the wisdom posted in these boards!!!

[MrWizard]

You taint a living creature's blood with a hot, corrosive infusion, dealing both 1d8 points of acid damage and 1d8 points of fire damage per round per caster level. A successful Fortitude save negates this effect.

At 14th level you will damage for 14 rounds. (this works on velah by the way, the acid part.)

1d8 + 1d8 x 14rds if they do not save. (firewall does 2d6 +14)

Max (doubled) = 2d8 +2d8 x 14 rounds. (firewall does 4d6 +28)
Max/emp = 3d8+3d8 x 14rds. (firewall does 6d6 +42)

(not sure how many 'rounds' firewall lasts..spell does not say exactly)

Assuming max damage, BB = 48 pts every round for 14 rounds, firewall does 72 for unknown time period. Firewall is stationary so if target moves you will do nothing. BB will stay on after save for 14 rounds.

14 x 48= 672 points of damage

You would probably want to heighten the spell as it has a save, so the cost should increase to a seventh level spell.

672 points of damage over 14 rounds....48 pts per round, 24 of each type per round, maxxed empowered...

(Using 50% for easy math)

What about an acid item (50% bonus lets say)
What about acid enhancement (50% bonus lets say)
What about acid crit (x2 lets say?)

48 pts per round of acid, 48 points per round of fire.
1344 pts of damage over 14 rounds..
times 2 crit makes it....
96 pts per round of fire, 96 pts per round of acid,
2688 damage over 14 rounds..1344 pts of damage to velah by the way...

Hit em and run real fast...they die.

Pro-
a ton of damage, covers two different types in case of resistances.
Monster cannot run out of area of effect.
Fun spell in PvP. If a crit you could do over a hundred pts of damage a round over the resistance of a player...bye bye..
Speccing for acid/electric allows for some direct damage uber style...chain lightning can do some big time also.
Speccing for acid allows otehr seldom used acid spells to do major damage also.

Con -
only effects one over time, instead of many.
damage over time is great, but slower than things like wall of fire (if mob stands in it).
Heighten will make it cost a lot, but new meta will make it cheap to spam.
You probably are not specced for it and it sucks cause of that. If you were not specced for firewall, that spell is pretty useless too.

With other acid lore items and enhancements, you could probably get a real high chance of crits.
With acid enhancements and items, the damage should be comparable to the hottest firewall on one monster.


Speccing for acid/elec....

Acid cloud , 3d4 every 2 seconds per 3 caster levels....no save.
max/emp 9d4 (max at 36)...add the crit-damage-item enhancements and a no save spell doing hundreds per round with no save.

Shocking grasp - 5d6...hmm..not much....wait....15d6 max/empower...30d6 with the right mods....wait....a good crit makes 70d6...even more with the right build.....no save...


Melf's (remember this one?) - 2d4 and then 2d4 three more times over 6 seconds, no save...8d4 total....24d4 max/emp...48d4 with right mods, 96d4 with a good crit....

A lot of direct damage spells doing a ton of damage over time...sounds like a elec/acid spec might be worth a try....

What about acid fog...?
no save.
2d6 damage per round.. (wall of fire does 2d6 +14 at 14th level)..both spells have indeterminate end times but can both be extended.

Except for the extra 14 added for level, the acid fog can do almost the same damage as the feared firewall...

But a mob can move from both, acid fog they move much slower.. Easier to kite a mob through acid fog.
20% miss chance in acid fog too.
Very few mobs have acid resist.

A good case for trying a acid/elec build for sure....

However, just like a fire build, you would have to commit to teh build to get the massive damage. Try it out, you will be quite surprised once you get used to the lightning and acid spells.

Chain lightning is cool as it has no cap on damage, straight 1d6 per level, seems to effect three creatures, even though walls (great in PVP)
14d6....42d6 max/emp.....84d6 with items/enhancements....168d6 on a good crit.....and you may have other items to help that out.....how much is that on all three creatures?....1008 x 3.... In PvP you can say goodbye to all three toons...
Oh yea, if they make the save? 1/2 damage..so 504 pts..... This is instant death in PvP...I do it all the time with one of my casters....awesome. Of course I do not crit all the time, but the 250-500 works well anyway without it...I usally get around 400 or so...

This is all just off the top of the head, read below for any errors or ommissions....but before you give up on acid and elec, try to build for it once....and get an evocation focus or two...and an item...less saves then.

[Alavatar]

(not sure how many 'rounds' firewall lasts..spell does not say exactly)

Wall of Fire is short duration so:


Durations fall into one of three categories:

Short: 10 + (Caster Level seconds). Used for most lingering damaging AOE spells, such as Wall of Fire.
Medium: 15 + (3 seconds per 2 Caster Levels). Most lingering AOEs, such as Sleet Storm, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, and Cloudkill. This is the most common duration, by far.
Long: 15 + (3 seconds per Caster Level). Spells that are most effective when placed as obstacles, such as Solid Fog.

[Draclaud]

High magic resistant enemies do not get a magic resist roll on this. So the Flensers, and Raksashas are suckers for it. Also those darned burrowing scorpians keep taking damage even while bugged.

And the affore mentioned PvP.

It generates MASSIVE arrgo. I'd say this is more of a wizard spell, as with my Sorc I have FW, PK, Envenerate, and Cloud Kill. I couldn't find a spot for D Door OR Burning Blood.

[Draclaud]

Burning blood will never do 28d8 damage.

It will do 1d8 damage, and the only thing caster level affects is the duration.

It does 2d8(1d8 fire/1d8 acid) per round, at 14 rounds that's 28d8 damage. Extended it works out to be 56d8 Damage.

[Aspenor]

It does 2d8(1d8 fire/1d8 acid) per round, at 14 rounds that's 28d8 damage. Extended it works out to be 56d8 Damage.

I was referring to per-round.

[Jakylpops]

Burning Blood is awful, yes all that damage looks good on paper, but nothing lives long enough to take all that damage anyway.
All you're going to do is thoroughly agro the monster to the point where you have to cast another spell on it to kill it before it kills you, or the tanks jump on it and smash it to pieces before the spell has even gone for 5 or 6 rounds.

Maybe casting it on some huge hitpoint "boss" type monster right at the beginning of a fight would be a good idea, but this is just not enough reason to waste a precious spell slot on it.

[GeneralDiomedes]

The spell would be more useful if it actually did what it is supposed to in PnP - prevent actions by NPCs with low fortitude saves due to searing pain.