Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike | Elden Ring Wiki

I'm genuinely surprised that From hasn't sledgehammered this thing to dust yet

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All the way in faram azula for a spell that requires 26 faith... By the time you get this the game is already almost over so lets just call it a NG+ spell

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Conquerer's Haki

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Oh, a boss killed me more than twice? That's it, I'm whipping out the ancient dragon's thermonuclear bomb

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The " i would rather sneak up and fully charge this, than use a backstab" spell

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Managed to land this incantation, when I was in "Invasion repelling mode" will fellow player on 2 guys and they received ~3k damage total (forgot to look at guy charging a powerful spell nearby). Other time guy somehow managed to fail to backstab and was catched by 3 bolts of those, which is a death sentence, unless you have absurd Lightning Resistance (which happens VERY rarely). Hard to land, but when you land you can easily count to deal ~1k damage with ease.

Note on the side - if you stand on a cliff, spell will land on surface below (test in near Four Belfires, this range is suprisingly huge). Used this once on some Crucible Knight fan chasing a cooperator and poor fellow got 1,2k damage in the back. Guess how that ended. :P

On par with Lightning Spear my favourite Spell in any FS game. 10/10 would cannon poor guys in PvP again.

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aka ancient dragons' big hurtbox killer

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For anyone that has trouble hitting/dodging this here's some advice: this spell is a mid range spell. What do I mean? If you're within breath smelling distance it'll miss because the first wave of lightning doesn't strike close enough. At far range the lightning strikes will be spread far enough to easily dodge by just moving out of the way. But right in the middle is the danger zone. Not only are the strikes close enough so that it creates a sort of wall but the next wave of strikes are close enough so that unless you roll forwards, you'll get hit by the next wave. That middle area is also where the most damage is done because if you get hit, the next strike is a guaranteed hit because you'll be stunned. Once you see it cast a few times you should be able to see the danger zone so try to avoid/aim for that is you're having trouble.

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Ive been a certified faith enjoyer since 2011 and I'm sorry lads but this **** needs a nerf lol. The second you find this in farum it's game over, oneshot the crucible knight, twoshot godskin duo and placidusax (killed him before he even took off). This is faith comet azure but costs 40 FP

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Kind of a luck based spell but if you get lucky enough you will gets **** ton of damage.

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Awww, heavenly thunder is all grown up now.

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I once used it fully charged in a 3v3 colosseum match, and a random guy in Lionel's armor who had just revived after kill got his 2k health vanished instantly. It was 46 faith/60 arcane glass cannon build and I did use dragon communion seal without any lightning buffs or Godfrey icon. It's either the incantation itself that is busted af, or dude was just double soreseal user.

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Use this to one shot gankers mid spawn immunity, or if you need to fire it point blank later, leaden hard tear and crimsonwhorl bubble tear will make you able to fully charge it in their arrogant faces. Enjoy!

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this **** just did 4.8k to astel with only 36 faith

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fun fact: you can't land this in pvp

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the one tap slot machine

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Hosts when being invaded be like “BLAST I MISSED! My next fully charged highly telegraphed lighting stifle will make the bad red man go away for SURE!”

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After doing some testing on the Albino bois at Mohg I can safely say this IS affected by the Godfrey icon.

80 fth Erdtree seal 353 spell buff no icon

1441 damage to the reds, 1730 damage to the greys

Same as above but WITH icon

1660 damage to the reds and 1997 to the greys

This being said there is a caveat: NOT ALL THE INDIVIDUAL BOLTS GET THE DAMAGE INCREASE

It seems 50/50 some do and some don’t, but without the icon all the bolts do the same exact damage.

FIX YOUR GAME FROMSOFT

Don’t believe me, then test it yourself

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why doesn't it get boost by Godfrey Icon? is it a bad?

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Not sure if this is obvious, stated somewhere ingame or everyone just knows this, but it appears this spell deals more damage than Death Lightning, since for whatever reason this spell is more likely to hit the same enemy multiple times. That's what I got from testing anyways, so there is an element of randomness.

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mfs out here like "night comet op" or "stars of ruin op" then this thing exists

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Second time trying to post this, but summary is that with 80 faith and 80 int, with a +10 golden order seal, the damage on this can, with a perfect, full charge cast that hits every bolt, reach 403,452 damage, my test subject was the frost trolls in mountaintop, a single non-head shot, non-counter attack bolt with both flock talismans, lightning scorpion, and lightning crystal tear, hit for 4803, there are 7 bolts that each strike 12 times(3 in front, 2 on back left, 2 on back right, I did multiple casts and recounts to make sure I was right) for reference, a perfect cast of 403,452, is enough to overkill NG+7 fire giant approximately 8 times over if it was condensed into a single bolt, and to top it off, you can increase it further, easiest way is to offhand a gravel stone seal and proc other effects like lord of blood's exultation

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So, I got bored before going to sleep, I did the math on the max damage this spell does excluding crit bonuses and counter attack bonuses, my test subject was the ice trolls in the mountaintop with 80int+80faith and the talisman that scales with both, one bolt with the lighting crystal tear+both flock talismans+lightning scorpion hit for 4038 damage when full charged, there are 7 bolts (3 in front, two on your back left, two on back right) each one is recast 12 times. So, if fighting a boss big enough to get hit by every single bolt(example, fire giant), then the grand total is 403,452 damage from one cast...as reference, a NG+7 fire giant has somewhere around 49k health....soooo....if it was all that damage compressed into a single bolt, that would overkill the NG+7 fire giant around 8 times over

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Second time trying to post this, but summary is that with 80 faith and 80 int, with a +10 golden order seal, the damage on this can, with a perfect, full charge cast that hits every bolt, reach 403,452 damage, my test subject was the frost trolls in mountaintop, a single non-head shot, non-counter attack bolt with both flock talismans, lightning scorpion, and lightning crystal tear, hit for 4803, there are 7 bolts that each strike 12 times(3 in front, 2 on back left, 2 on back right, I did multiple casts and recounts to make sure I was right) for reference, a perfect cast of 403,452, is enough to overkill NG+7 fire giant approximately 8 times over if it was condensed into a single bolt, and to top it off, you can increase it further, easiest way is to offhand a gravel stone seal and proc other effects like lord of blood's exultation

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So, I got bored before going to sleep, I did the math on the max damage this spell does excluding crit bonuses and counter attack bonuses, my test subject was the ice trolls in the mountaintop with 80int+80faith and the talisman that scales with both, one bolt with the lighting crystal tear+both flock talismans+lightning scorpion hit for 4038 damage when full charged, there are 7 bolts (3 in front, two on your back left, two on back right) each one is recast 12 times. So, if fighting a boss big enough to get hit by every single bolt(example, fire giant), then the grand total is 403,452 damage from one cast...as reference, a NG+7 fire giant has somewhere around 49k health....soooo....if it was all that damage compressed into a single bolt, that would overkill the NG+7 fire giant around 8 times over

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Anyone else getting almost oneshot from this? I had 1975 vigor, about 17 lightning resistance and i was on dry ground, almost oneshot me with one hit.

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I sincerely hope they will never nerf it.
The only spell that makes faith build truly powerful

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Only thing in the game that makes me feel like I’m doing the boss’s damge

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bro i used this mf and created a build i one shotted godfrey i used it and it made go to phase 2 and idk how the strike still continued and went and killed him like bro its my fav incantation

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Insta kill large bosses

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This spell has a sweet spot where the lightning strikes hit close enough to stun the enemy and hit them again. It's around the 2nd or 3rd wave of strikes.

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Way too easy to get knocked out of charging. Should be given a bit more poise.

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Amazing pve spell, absolutely nukes bosses, especially the big ones. Easily does 3000-6000 damage depending on positioning. Wait for boss to get distracted by another player or your spirit summons, plant your face into their ass, and go to town. Worked for just about every boss in my first playthrough.

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perfect for when you need everything in a 5 meter radius to die instantly

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This is my dragon slaying incantation. Just stay under them and spam it.

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by far my absolute favourite spell in the game, I am in love. It just deals so much damage, even with only 50-60 faith. It can easily kill an entire 3 people party during invasions if everyone is close together. This never leaves my first memory slot.

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The ultimate roll of the dice. There’s a chance it won’t even hit the boss, but if it does, it absolutely mulches them.

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i got up right in rykard's face and did almost 25K damage. WTF IS THIS SPELL

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Screw unendurable frenzy *this* is the faith equivalent of comet azur

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Fyi- As of patch 1.07 this incantation is NOT boosted by Godfrey Icon. If you are looking for max lightning damage without jelly fish shield buff- use faithful & flock camvas, lightning scorpion charm, and lord bloods exultation (pair w/white mask for 30%bleed buff). Now proc seppuku. I use dragon communion seal and faith knot+lightning dmg tear as well. Cast with dragon seal while offhanding gravel seal for 15% more. Ive hit almost 4200 dmg off gatefront knights and over 1800 hp in 1 strike pvp at lv 105 with 41 arc 36 faith unbuffed. Enjoy - Ang3lR1pp3r

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It took me a while to get the hang of this one after using LTN strike for a big chunk of the game. The comment by the explorer explains why. It isn't just dragons that can take direct hits from this without any damage. The cormorants for the pinion feather farming can as well, sometimes taking multiple casts in a row before it actually kills them.

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When you want to nuke a boss but are too lazy to aim.

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This incantation causes six bolts of roughly evenly-spaced lightning bolts to strike several times in all directions away from you. Despite what the bolts may suggest, they only harm targets that intersect with the bolts' points of impact on the ground.This quirk means that beasties with have narrow feet and huge bodies suspended above the ground can miraculously escape damage without making any apparent sense.
Dragons and Ancient Dragons are especially notorious for escaping the wrath of this incantation, often completely unscathed.

When using this, take time to memorize its exact pattern, and then position and angle yourself accordingly for maximum devastation.
— Courh the Explorer

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I don't mind that fith incants are slow compared to magic spells when things like this existm.. save a slot for endure caestus. All trades are yours.

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Use when you dont feel like dealing with the camera bs for colossal bosses like astel,dragons/dragonkins,fire giant, ect.

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Man charge this up while a gank squad is rushing you and you vigor check anybody with less then 2k health

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everything dies

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does the damage scales up with dex too or just faith?

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2 6 f a i t h

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Another good incantation for farming the albanurics. With the right set up it will oneshot even the red ones.

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this thing made Placidusax a joke, he died before i even realized it. the only attacks he could use were his phase transitions

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People really underestimate the range on this. They'll tend to just stand around outside what the think is the effective range on this only to get hit for 1k. The bolt's hitbox is also bigger than you think it is. I've gotten hits on people who were next to where the lightning struck instead of right on top even outside water.

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meta for oneshot build

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This can hit Elden Beast while it flies up doing the ring attack?

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This incantation is disgustingly effective against placidusax killed him before he could even teleport.

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should have a WAAAAY higher faith requirement for the havoc this thing can cause, literally one-shot me at 41 vigor.

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4s cast time with 50 dex. Thanks fs.

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Surprisingly effective against abductor virgins. You can cast it on higher ground or from a safe spot, if you don't wanna engage directly, and they will take a few strikes.

I melted one at volcano manor with minimal faith.

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it's not that easy to land in PvP, but when it does it's gonna hurt a lot, possibly one-shotting people at 50+ Faith if they don't have enough Vigor or some Lighting protection.
the charged attack is pretty much a death sentence to anything that walks into it.

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This thing is absolutely insane in PVP. I manage to oneshot people with 2500 hp with double gravel seal+25, flock canvas, godfrey icon, scorpion charm, 80 faith. I'm not even gonna mention people who don't level Vigor... It melts ganks, melts bosses, melts everyone. absolutely amazing spell!

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I'll echo some of the comments on this page about the spell's viability in NG+(++). Absolutely shreds huge bosses, deals amazing damage to medium-sized ones. Almost leaves me wishing bosses below NG+7 had more HP!

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I did not understand the power of this spell until I realized its two equally devastating uses: one, absolutely melting gigantic bosses like Fire Giant, Dragonlord Placidusax, Elden Beast, Magma Wyrms, etc. and two, as a powerful but risky attack after a boss performs a move with a large punish window, akin to a charged attack. This works best on medium-sized humanoid enemies like Godfrey and Radagon, where you're highly likely to land at least one and possibly two bolts.

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don't sleep on this thing, it does a LOT of damage. literally melts bosses HP's, even more if they're big targets

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How does this stack up against pest threads?

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I call this - "Elden Beast deleter". Absolutely nuts even when it's HP is inflated by 2 summons. Just have to pray a bit for RNGesus for good lightning pattern.

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This one really tears big enemies into little pieces. It takes some time to charge, but deals a hell of damage. A little bit tricky to use and dont get hit, though. For incantation-users an absoulutley must-have.

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Hey i've got a question. Does this do holy damage?

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OK this annihilates end game bosses. With the mimic helping it nukes them. I was actually grossed out how easily it killed Malenia, Radagon and Elden Beast. Sure you have to run up and get close/under the bosses but if you are bold it will work.

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Absolutely bonkers against big bosses. Two casts can kill Astel in NG+ if it connects right. Even an individual Lightning Strike does decent damage, but it really shines against groups. Totally worth it, even if the casting time is kinda long.

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Charges too slowly, difficult to land, but it slaps if it does. Basically every incantation ever, lol

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Got bored one day and started killing every Lobster in Liurnia with this spell.

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Stack some buffs on this thing and you can nuke placidusax which is kinda ironic

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IT's a joke. It hits whenever it feels like it.

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This thing is literal gank killer in pvp can't tell you how many times I've annihilated an entire four man squad with just two shots of this at 80 faith it nukes everything lmao...

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Good RNG spell, it either misses and does nothing, it hits and does solid damage, or it just nukes something.

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Use mimic tear and unequip weapon and every spell except ancient dragon’s lightning strike. You’re welcome. :)

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it can catch people off guard in pvp especially in 1v3 situations

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This incantion is straight-up busted vs large bosses after the 1.4 patch. It creates several pillars of lightning that strike outward in a spreading motion. Thankfully, fromsoft made each pillar its own instance of damage, so each pillar of every strike deals damage. This means that it'll hit for anywhere between a slightly stronger Lightning Spear at 1 hit, to actually taking out a third of the boss' HP with a good cast that hits 6-10 times. I managed to make it deal 16k damage to Greyoll by lining it up proper, But you can probably expect between 2-6k damage in an actual fight depending on how large the boss is and how min-maxed you are for lightning damage.

You don't need to overcommit to lighting damage to destroy bosses with this - the Godfrey talisman that increases charged spells is excellent on this as well as numerous other spells and does not lower resistances. There is a bit of RNG involved but ultimately if you manage to get a charged cast off right next to anything that is bigger than a human, you'll likely hit unexpectedly hard. Send those Ulcerated Tree spirits to hell with this spell, but also bring a charged spell for single small targets like a Lightning Spear or one of the fireballs.

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can someone explain how someone at level 100 made this do like 4000 damage against the godskin duo? my strongest incantations at this level do like 800 damage :(

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Garbage incantation
Takes WAY too long to charge, complete RNG if you even hit something and when you do it's bad
Dont bother

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did 12k to the fire giant on ng+, id say its pretty good

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I'm using this against Fortissax for the lulz, and OH MY GWYN it melts him like this is Dark Souls. I hit him with a lot of pillars from a single cast and he lost like a quarter of his health.

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Killed dragonlord in 2 charged casts of this incantation on NG+3 with a maxed out gravel stone seal and 70 faith. Over 14k damage a cast with lightning scorpion charm, flocks canvas, and Godfrey’s Icon. It’s niche, since it will really only do huge damage on bosses that are large enough to be struck by the lightning multiple times, but still very satisfying to use in those niche situations.

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After the buff from 1.04, this thing does nearly 3500 damage when fully charged against the Omen in the sewer. Holy cow.

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Heavenly Thunder, O Heavenly Thunder

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When this thing hits, it hits like an absolute truck. In NG+2 it still one shots enemies. In pvp it will one shot other players if they aren’t expecting it.

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Doesn't seems to get boosted by Godfrey Icon, even though flame pillars get boosted.

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Holy hell does this scale with the rotten winged sword insignia? I did 2, 3, and then 4k worth of damage on a runebear...

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In NG+ I am dealing 2k+ dmg per strike with 30 faith/55 archane and a +10 dragon communion seal. It doesn't take long to cast, and even though the strikes are randomized, there are so many of them it almost always hits things around you. It's awesome for clearing out groups of enemies in a flash.

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this is going to sound insane, but this incantation kinda shreds godskin duo. its two big issues, cast time and the poor accuracy, actually dont come into play that much. you can cast safely from behind one of the pillars and because there are two of them, you are very likely to land a few strikes. on top of that, you can absolutely chunk their health if both get hit.

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The funny point of this incantation is you actually need to pray to lend lightning on the enemy.
It's so random that you can one shot enemy or miss every single shot.

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I have never put any comments online in my entire life, but I think this is too exciting for people who are really struggling to find a good lightning build for PVP. I have tried many builds to make flashy ancient lightning incantations viable in duels—from making poise monster with lightning, pairing lightning with endure, pairing lightning with 70 virtual dex, and so on (oh and for those that are confused if dex increases ancient dragoncult casting speed or not: they do. It's just that when you activate the incantations, they have two animations. The first animation when dragoncult symbol pops up is the casting animation that you can speed up with dex, the flashy animation that comes after it is the long wind up animation that you cannot speed up with anything. Amir made a video about casting speed on youtube). Sadly I could not find the builds that can compete with meta builds. The only one that I think has killing potential with 70 dex short wind up casting speed is death lightning that can deal more than 2k damage... or deal nothing at all because of the RNG hitbox. Basically it's a lightning russian roulette. Scott Jund made a showcase of it on youtube.

That is until I found out the strength of ancient dragons' lightning strike. While your enemy is in the distance, sure this incantation has not so consistent hitbox that can sometimes hit people rolling away. 4/10 consistency. But when you bait people to trade with you up close using this and pairing it with the ash of war Endure... I cannot believe that the lightning strike can hit your enemies multiple times. With 50 faith and gravel stone, 1 strike deals around 700-800, 2 strikes deal 1400-1500, 3 STRIKES (yes the lightning strike can hit your enemies three times. Either that or three of the lightning strikes hitbox can hit your enemies at the same time) can deal 2000-2100 damage. In my experience, this has 8/10 consistency, and this is coming from a person that keeps dueling all day with the same build. The only time people can dodge this is only if they decide not to trade with me when they see you activate endure. Even then, if they roll out in or to the direction of the scattering lightning strike, it can still strike them for 700 damage. This setup even applies to people using Bloodhound Step, the ash of war that Dark Souls veterans like Jeenine and Scott kept saying is broken because of its infinite i-frames that removes any skillcap.

So for all lightning lovers out there, this is your trump card. After you deal heavy damage to your opponent, the rest is for you to decide on how to finish the job, considering if they are not dead yet after tanking the lightning strikes. Hope you guys can find better lightning builds and hope for lightning incantations to get buffed in the future.

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Worthless as you can only get it end game area. Everything is OP in NG+ so it doesn't say much.

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Easily the best incantation. Only downside is the dodgy hitbox which completely misses sometimes

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All the dragon cult incantations are garbage, but this one is slightly less garbage than the rest. Cast time is barely usable (far better than the hilariously bad cult's usual cast times), and the sheer quantity of bolt means that bosses with large hitboxes take disproportionately damage. On the downside, you're relying on RNG hoping a lot of bolts land on the boss. Additionally, most normal human-sized enemies will straight up not get hit by bolts about half the time and get free hits on you; making this an unexpectedly crappy spell for crowds. It's just barely worth the slot it takes up.

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super inconsistent, but when it actually hits enemies, it does alot of damage

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Melts elden beast and other big bosses if you can just sit behind/under them and charge up this incantation fully. Does at LEAST a thousand damage on anything that isnt small or another player if you have a viable faith build.

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I just 2-shotted Rennala in both phases with this on Journey 3.

Slow to cast but great for bosses, especially with big hit boxes.

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i ****ing love red lightning dude, i dont even care if lightning incantations are considered bad or good i am going to be kool aid man and i am going to use red lightning

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By far the single best incantation in the game. 80 dex and 80 faith with dual gravel stone seals with golden vow and lighting physic you can strike for over 14,000 damage.

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