Holy smite or searing light?

[jsaving]

Hi everyone, I am wondering whether people generally use holy smite or searing light at low to mid levels? If you only had room for one in your build, which would you pick? And, are either of them still useful at high levels?

[BracchusBridgeburner]

smite

[Irinis]

smite

Why?

[Twerpp]

Neither one is that great. Smite has a nice blind effect on a failed save but only 6 seconds. Searing light is a decent ray attack for when you need to deal some no-fail damage quickly or have mana to burn. You need maximize and empower for it to be worthwhile and its a big chunk of SP at low levels.

Divine Power/Divine Favor, a base 14 str and a good weapon are easily SP better spent.

[LAWPRE]

Your choice will come down to what you value more. General DPS or Foe Specific damage.

Holy Smite works best on Evil Outsiders (read Demons, Devils, Efreeti and such does a d6 per level) and does d8 per 2 levels for any evil. So, it does 6d8 at 20th level for evil and 12d6 to evil outsiders at 20th. This is a 4th level spell. As such, it does 4d6 at 14th level

Searing Light works best on Undead but will affect constructs and any enemies It does the same d8/d6 dam BUT it is limited to 5d8/10d6. So, this spell maxes out at 14th level. This is a 3rd level spell.

Both spells do not state whether or not the levels START at 6/8 or backcount and start at first. So, these spells could do more dam than listed aboved but the general principle is still the same. Searing light does less dam but will do it against ALL foes and do MORE against undead. Holy Smite does more dam but works ONLY against Evil (so any neutral foe would take no dam).

[BracchusBridgeburner]

Neither one is that great. Smite has a nice blind effect on a failed save but only 6 seconds. Searing light is a decent ray attack for when you need to deal some no-fail damage quickly or have mana to burn. You need maximize and empower for it to be worthwhile and its a big chunk of SP at low levels.

Divine Power/Divine Favor, a base 14 str and a good weapon are easily SP better spent.

I strongly agree but I'm still finding it hard to be convinced that 14 base str is a better investment than 12 base just for the extra +1 bonus when I already will have divine power raising me to a fighter's BaB and will be getting most of my damage from casting which tends to overshadow melee dps from levels 10-20 (unless you're a pure melee dps class)

[jsaving]

Most of the FS builds I see (and group with) use holy smite and searing light fairly regularly, but I was having a hard time justifying both of them for my own FS. Now I'm wondering whether I should skip both, which would certainly free up some space for situationally useful spells like remove blindness or remove curse (3rd) and dismissal or deathward (4th).

[Magictones]

Id stick to wand use for remove blindness/curse.

[PurdueDave]

I still use searing light every now and again at higher levels. It makes it into the rarely used "kill by mana" cast chain and delivers some purple damage every now and again. Mainly for soloing and killing something I'd rather fight at range and that doesn't move around.

[BracchusBridgeburner]

I'm more and more inclined to agree with Twerpp's assessment. Divine Power comes at the same level as Holy Smite, however more to what he said, DP+ a good holy longsword has given me way more damage for my SP than smite ever could, and I run with a base 12 str. You're level 8 when you get DP or smite, and only 4 levels after that you'll be using blade barrier. You'll likely be shelving smite at that point but you'll never shelf DP. I'd replace smite with your next cure spell because I was asked a lot to be a main healer when a cleric couldn't be found (on an offensive caster build designed aroound BB and beyond) on hard/elite at those levels and trying to do that with just CMW is just awful. For a level 4 spell list I'd end up with DP, fom, recitation, and CCW.

I've tried numerous times to be an offensive caster FvS before getting BB and every time ended up coming back to a holy longsword and DP because it's just far more efficient and effective. After level 12 is when I switch gears. As far as Searing goes, Mass Aid, Prot from Energy, Remove Curse, and prayer are all much less situational than Searing. The only reason is won't use wands for rem. curse at later levels is I don't want to be wand-whipping to get rid of a curse in the heat of the battle.

[Impaqt]

I'm more and more inclined to agree with Twerpp's assessment. Divine Power comes at the same level as Holy Smite, however more to what he said, DP+ a good holy longsword has given me way more damage for my SP than smite ever could, and I run with a base 12 str. You're level 8 when you get DP or smite, and only 4 levels after that you'll be using blade barrier. You'll likely be shelving smite at that point but you'll never shelf DP. I'd replace smite with your next cure spell because I was asked a lot to be a main healer when a cleric couldn't be found (on an offensive caster build designed aroound BB and beyond) on hard/elite at those levels and trying to do that with just CMW is just awful. For a level 4 spell list I'd end up with DP, fom, recitation, and CCW.

I've tried numerous times to be an offensive caster FvS before getting BB and every time ended up coming back to a holy longsword and DP because it's just far more efficient and effective. After level 12 is when I switch gears. As far as Searing goes, Mass Aid, Prot from Energy, Remove Curse, and prayer are all much less situational than Searing. The only reason is won't use wands for rem. curse at later levels is I don't want to be wand-whipping to get rid of a curse in the heat of the battle.

Protection from Energy can get replaced with upgraded versions.

You can Use Remove Curse Pots as well. DOnt have to switch out anything in your hands and pots cant be interupted.

[twix]

Wow holy smite is bad ass at low to mid levels depending on your fvs build.I took it as soon as i could with my fvs. If your built for casting dps this spell will own most midlevel mobs in one shot and if it doesnt they are blind and die shortly after anyways. Im pretty sure at midlevels my fvs was owning kill counts just by using holy smite. and when i say owning i mean me having majority kills and other party members having less then half of what i had.Even at lvl 19 i still use it.If your trying to mellee then might not be the best choice but then neither would searing light.


If you have max and empower take holy smite.Try it out with a potency item mid level and watch all the mobs die by the dozens at a time.

[BracchusBridgeburner]

Absolutely but I guess I should have cleared up that I was thinking from a solo perspective. an 8-ish level FvS (where you pick up 4th lvl spells) isn't giving me enough SP to use smite often enough to be worthwhile, especially maxxed/empowered between shrines on large quests when soloing. I find Div. Power and a good weapon (currently using holy longsword) along with my other self buffs gives me much more mileage for that annd rips through the mobs quite effectively. I don't exclusively solo, but do so quite heavily so I've gotten kind of used to not even thinking about that when I post, sorry for any confusion.

[Timjc86]

I have not tried Holy Smite personally, but a buddy with an evoker build can demolish groups of things with it at level 12.

Personally, I would not give up Searing Light. It's some handy unresistable, no-save damage that works on literally everything.

Edit: grammar.

[Darkrok]

I only find holy smite really useful solo or in a group that's going to zerg through and pull groups to kill. I don't have searing light but after reading this I might use it instead of Remove Curse when I get my next level 3 spell at level 11. Just nice to have some ranged damage that will hit pretty much anything.

[bcgone]

Most of the FS builds I see (and group with) use holy smite and searing light fairly regularly, but I was having a hard time justifying both of them for my own FS. Now I'm wondering whether I should skip both, which would certainly free up some space for situationally useful spells like remove blindness or remove curse (3rd) and dismissal or deathward (4th).

I've got a 12 FvS, I carry deathward because it helps in alot of areas. I'm considering dropping it at some point, but it has gotten me thru alot of high xp runs where the group needed the protection. I personally am having great success with deific vengeance, critting for great damage. However, holy smite's ability to hit masses of mobs even at a distance or at least partial separation from the melee is very helpful. I recommend both of these as mana dps dealers.