Dragon Cult Incantations | Elden Ring Wiki

i'd like to cite a comment here that answer to why this item doesn't have any dex scaling (while lighting usualy scale with dex)
"dex boosts cast speed, that's too much value out of a single stat for a caster, it would be way too overpowered and nobody would use any other seal as a result, and every build for both pve and pvp would be a 60 dex hybrid caster (because remember, dex is also a melee stat) with everything else in vig/mind/end"

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WITNESS ME

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There is no good reason why Gravel Stone Seal doesn't have Dex scaling.

Clawmark's Seal has Str scaling.
Dragon Communion Seal has Arc scaling.
Golden Order Seal has Int scaling.
Frenzied Flame Seal has mixed scaling in 4 stats if that's what you're into.

But if players want to easily make a lightning build with 1 offensive stat? Naw **** that I guess.

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hmm, i have a high arcane/faith build that uses the communion seal for the dragonclaw/maw but also has a good amount of cult spells too, would i get more mileage out of a gravel seal even if i only have one (i think) or should i keep with the communion seal?

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To newbies, especially, NEVER challenge these spells plus two Gravel Stone Seals, up-close. You're very much likely to one-shotted by Death Lightning or Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike if the caster actually remembers to use near a puddle or in the rain. Fortissax's Lighting Spear and Frozen Lightning are also handy if they're casted over a safe ledge/platform.

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As much as I love ancient dragon lightning strike, it should be nerfed. That fp cost is way too good for how it deletes even medium sized enemies. The haligtree knights duo at the Elphael inner wall site of grace are difficult to deal with the rest of these spells, but adls deletes them with a good aim, something that isn’t diffficult to achieve. And you guys have seen how it trivializes bosses. It’s even good against malenia and radagon who are almost player sized. The first time you see this is actually funny but then it feels like other high damage spells are useless

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Miss the lightning stake :(

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Argh! Give me the sunlight spear already Miyazaki

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Swag

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truly the magic of all time

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Seems like the hovering spells (frozen lighting, Lansseax, Fortissax's,..) ignore your poise during the intitial cast. I noticed that with other spells, low poise attacks like daggers or whips would not interrupt my casting. But those same attacks or even a single throwing dagger will interrupt the initial cast of the hoovering spells before the hyperarmor takes in, while having the same poise. The game probably cosiders the start up of those spells as jumping and thus zero poise and knock back. Gotta test if stacking more poise makes a difference.

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Wish there was a death lightning armament to make death blight builds able to compete with everything else. Adds death blight buildup of 50 and adds a buff identical in power to electrify armament, but costs higher FP to make up for the added death blight buildup.

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Why did you not post my question? Thats not right. Your description is not good enough. I find that reprehensible. I should report whoever moderates people's submissions. But im not like that unlike your moderator. I use your site for lots of information but I'm reconsidering the site i use from now on.

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So with 2 gravel seals which hand do i put the max level one?

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There should be Water Pot, a pot filled with simply water, that you can throw at people to make them wet. When they're wet, lightning does more damage and fire does less. Could be fun.

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Stats and guide for my full dragon cult build.
Class Vagabond (lowest starting arc/int)
lvl 150
Vig 54
mnd 30
end 22
str 20
dex 40
int 9
fth 47
arc 7
Armor: Malformed dragon set but with Crimson good
Right hand: Bolt of Gransax, Dragon King's Cragblade
Left: Gravel stone seal
Talismans: Jar arsenal, Lighting scorpion, dragoncrest great shield, radagon Icon.
Progression
I like to kill the Putrid avatar and Greyoll at the start of each playthrough. Between those 2 with pickled feet you'll be around lvl 50. Use the catch flame incant with flame shrouding cracked tear for the avatar.
15 str, 16 dex, 20 fth, 15 mnd, 13 end, rest vig
Kill the knight for the prayer book and farm the vulgar militia if needed to buy the incants. Farm the knight if you want some drip or just buy the knight's set. Either will get you through till Malformed Dragon set. Main hand weapon will be the Great Epee(grab lighting slash for it if ya want). Use Finger seal till gravel stone seal.
Make sure to grab Frozen lighting spear sooner rather than later as is great crowd control before getting Lanseax's glaive frostbite is great. Also it melts fire giant later on.
By lvl 100 you'll want 20 str and 40 dex. 25 mnd and 47 fth are doable if you're okay with a low heath pool witch, given this is a ranged build, should be fine.
Level that spear up for far ranges and good melee dmg even at minimal stats.
Make sure grab the ancient dragon book asap and that you have the 22 end by the end of farum azula to medium roll with all your gear.
Personalize to your liking of course though!

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i can't believe they added the spear of longinus to elden ring

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I kind of wish ancient lightning sounded different from normal lightning, like more rumbling of something

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Lightning spear is the ranged version of Beastial Sling, do need damage NOW? use radagon Ican and it casts almost instantly allowing for fast damage at a good range.

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Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Spear
Probably one of the most solid spells in the game.
The spear itself hurt
The waves hurt
It hurt
Nuff said

Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Strike
GIANT KILLA
Charging this gives it more range than you might think.
Does a LOT of damage.
Looks really cool too.

Death Lightning
This is one of the strongest things in the game.
Some mathematical guy on the Death Lightning page did some calculations and this spell does unbelievable damage.
Personally, I have killed so much with this spell. Players and normal enemies. Super strong.
Death blight on this is pretty bad but it is certainly a deterrent.

Dragonbolt Blessing
A godsend
Makes one handed weapons bounce off.
Pair it with poise and you kill kill death murder

Electrify Armament
Water+Lightning=Murder death die kill kill

Fort of Saxophone’s Lightning Spear
Two Lightning, Double Damage.
Also longer cast time so be careful you don’t get iced while casting.

Frozen Lightning Spear
This spell looks so cool.
Pun not intended.
Cold brrrrr
Look, it’s just cold lightning and it looks cool nuff said again

Honed Bolt
Looks cool hurts more
It is a smite
Sickness

Lan Shrek’s Glaive
SWEEP
Crowd control is really good on this
Can be used in hallways too.
Really good

Lightning Spear
OOOOOOOOOOOHHH YEEAAAAAAAAH

LIGHTNING IS THE BEST
(You are epic if you get the reference)
(You are still epic if you don’t)
Strong. Fast cast when not charged.
This goes great in the middle of combat. Super reliable.

Vyke’s Dragonbolt
Red lightning weapon.
Red lightning tarnished.
Red lightning.
Status resist.

Lightning Strike
This is my favorite lightning to use. Very fun.
Cone strike lightning.
Rapid cast.
Looks cool.

Can we just agree that lightning is cool?

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I want to make a faith build just because these look cool

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yeah other incants are better but have you considered: there's something just very cool about whipping lightning at stuff

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Faith is not easy because casting time and FP cost sucks. There isn't a full armor set for faith either that scales up damage (there is for intelligence). All but one melee weapon deals holy damage for faith scaling. I prefer something different so I wish they would add more stuff for faith builds/ every build in general when DLC drops.. but hopefully faith because thats what I main. Faith/Dex.

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Intelligence builds are better

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I’m just going to say it, all lightning should scale with Dex, and there should be a Dex seal like the clawmark. God knows it needs to pick one stat to scale with and faith has enough going for it.

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Death lightning buff when

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Controversial take:
You don’t need any of these if you have Dragon Lord’s Cragbolt and Bolt of Gransax.

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So it said the gravel stone doesn't buff electrify armament. It doesn't have the same clause for Vyke's dragonbolt.

I'm assuming it's the same anyways but any chance it's different?

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Three words: frozen lightning spear

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i'm still crying because of the missed opportunity to make the dragonclaw shield's weapon art a stronger, more heavy duty honed bolt like the draconic tree sentinel uses. make it scale with faith too and you have something really cool going.

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There are several problems with this incantation school:
1. Most hard hitting incantations of it requires high casting speed to be even semi fast.
2. The fp to damage ratio on most high tier incantations (beside ancient dragon lightning strike and death lighting) is very poor to the point of almost reaching fp cost of regular dragon breath 28 fp while remotely not achieving same amount of damage and having wierd hit boxes.
3. The hardest hitting incantations being a roulette game against anything smaller then a truck.
4.Having second or third best incantation scaling amongst pure faith seals.
5. Having poor incantations scaling in general. (Look, I understand that some people would say that it reaching into 290 scaling with 60 faith on 15% damage boost seal would be too much, but we can casualy get over 300 scaling on both Dragon Communion and golden order seals while having 15% boosts and Clawmark Seal reaching 288 even on 50 str 45 faith with reliable melle weapons and beast incantations boosting knife and beast incantations being buffed by flame grant me strength while also being dirt cheap...)

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My only criticism with this school of incantations is that there is no decent drip for them.

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Ancient lightning armament when?

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They really did the lightning incantations dirty, they should have made all of the spears throwable or at least have some sort of range. It feels like the only way I can get reliable ranged damage is by using the lightning spear, but it would have been SO COOL to throw a red/blue lightning spear

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As a strength and Faith User, I feal as though the clawmark seal is still better to use rather than the Gravel Stone Seal. Could just be me though. Also Radagon Icon is basically almost a must have with my build currently.

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Hey guys, as a dragon cult main, i'd like to share a little bit of a build (I won't specify stats since i'm RL 315 and i'd be unable to give the stats for PvP players) : starting off we get 2 gravel stone seal for double the boost to dragon cult, for your wonderous flask, take the lightning shrouded tear (duh) and the charged attack one, now for talisman, it's Godfrey icon for the boost to charged cast (lightning spear and ancient dragons' lightning strike mainly), lightning scorpion charm (more lightning damage dealt but it decrease your physical absorb) and either both canvas talisman or just the flock and the old lord talisman, now i tested some and a good incant to buff your dmg is golden vow (it works surprisingly) and maybe (just maybe) commander's standard (to be tested). As an exemple with (most of) the buffs, i scored a 2k with a charged lightning spear on a wolf at sol castle. Now go my lightning childs ! Spread your thunder and reign supreme in the Land between ! (Sorry for the mistakes and errors, i'm french and just wanted to share this build ^^')

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A zeus build might be fun

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Can anyone help me, now i have 50 dex and 50 faith, if i rescale to 40 dex and 60 faith will i cast this spell better or no?

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These fall off a huge cliff in terms of damage the further you go beyond NG. Especially compared to madness and giant/fire monk. But hey, at least the look cool lol

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I kinda miss the grounded animation of Lightning Stake from DS3. It was a good mix up with Great Lightning Spear, and personally, I think it looks like possessed more "power" than floating up into the air and throwing it down. Perhaps they could have kept Ancient Dragon Lightning Spear like Lightning Stake and left Fortissax's as the only floating one. Additionally, they could have had a ranged red lightning spear that was an upgrade that costed more FP, so as to keep the mind-games from DS3. It could've been just named "Ancient Lightning Spear", like the Skill on Bolt of Gransax, so as to not be confused with the current "Ancient Lightning Spear". And no, it wouldn't have been considered redundant or confusing with the Skill on Bolt of Gransax, as the Devs already have a bunch of Ashes and Spells that share the same name e.g. Thops Barrier, Carian Retaliation, Glintblade Phalanx, etc.

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The fact that these are all combat orientated, originate from the once-enemies of the Erdtree, the ancient dragons, and are primarily if not exclusively worshipped by only the military members of Leyndell (Source: Lansseax's Glaive) makes me think that this is an in-game allusion to the Cult of Mithras, a religion practiced within the Imperial Roman army that worshipped the Persian god, Mithras.

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Vyke’s dragonbolt>all other dragon cult incants

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Step one aquire dragon communion seal and gravel stone, level them. Step two, forego all stats save for vitality mind faith and arcane. Level those. Step three, become the Chad god: Zeus. *Applause*

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The only thing we needed was at least one dragon-themed faith-scaling weapon with lightning damage to perfectly complement any Dragon Cult builds, which would be so goddamn awesome. Why they decided instead to make all dragon-themed weapons either dex-scaling sniper rifles or a mediocre katana in a world of good and broken katanas is a mystery to me.

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The choice to turn lightning into a weakness of the Dragons into their strength was excellent. The lore for these spells is so much cooler than DS imo. Especially when you see Fortissax, Lansseax, or the other ancient dragons use some of these spells.

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Reallllly want the lightning claws that the dragons use....

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pretty please add the spear of gransax's ash of war as an incantation. It does incredible damage but doesnt scale with faith at all :(

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Magic but for chads. None of the pebble bullshit, we're throwing spears and bolts here.

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If we ever get more of these, an electric dragon claw like Placidusax uses would be a cool addition.

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People afraid to use the red lightning spears for trading obviously weren’t faith-bros in DS3.

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Since dex is main stat for lighining damage, you dont need this stuff at all:
1: Thunderbolt is better replacement for Honed Bolt. It's faster, it has more damage, it costs less. You can aim it without targeting and its recovery time is much shorter then same incantation
2. Bolt of Gransax is Lightning Spear, but better. It's more stylish, has further range and solid damage
3. Dragon King's Cragblade is litterally just a king weapon.

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I use both groups of Dragon Spells exclusively and I love it so much. I feel like Fortisseax; a dragon in human form. I melt bosses with my breath attacks or strike them down with the lightning of Ancient Dragons and Dragonkin Soldiers.

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How does the wiki miss spells smh

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Thank you :)

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In PvP most of these can be great but in PvE the more lengthy ones are a bit too situational to justify having them slotted at all time. I feel like they could've made a better job than using lightning strike as the base almost everywhere like I don't know maybe a lightning spear that does a sphere of electricity on impact or have a ball that slowly follow the target (or just goes in a straight direction if nothing is locked on or even just start following the nearest target within a certain range) and act like the lightning balls in Siofra river well and quickly shoot 3 times before disappearing. I really want to be able to use more than lightning spear and honed bolt in a blue moon on regular enemies.

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Many of these spells are now in a much better spot thanks to the buffs. With some decent poise, you're now able to get off most of the spells whilst tanking 1-2 regular sized hits from enemies. Giving most of these the trademark of high damage, long casting time but natural hyperarmor was a good move. I'd place them in the upper B tier, maybe low A, if I were to mark them on a tier list of incantations.

Not half bad in pvp either. Alot of the spells combo into each other and/or flow with each other well, allowing for good mixups. Honed Bolt and Lightning Strike can chain cast off of each other; Ancient Dragon Lightning Spear (not a fan of the double Fortissaxx version) and Lansseax Glaive are good at roll catching; and Frozen Lightning Spear is good area denial. Both the lightning storms are okay; Death Lightning has a hilarious russian roulette property where it sometimes will not hit anyone even in point blank, but if it does hit its almost always a guaranteed ohko. Finally, this is probably the best version of Lightning Spear we will ever get, considering its fp efficiency, damage, its ability to be charged into Great Lightning Spear, and the insanely quick cast speed. (no wonder it got nerfed).

The Dragonbolt blessings are okay, I guess. They're niche use and other far better self buffs exist in the game. Electrify Armament is nothing special. Use it if you have the memory slot, otherwise you're not missing out on a whole lot.

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Placidusax's Ruin is missing

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the virgin "lightning is weak and other incants do more damage!"

vs

the Chad "It looks cool and I feel like ****ing Zeus. This is awesome."

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AoE Ancient Dragon incantations are especially useless. No poise buff on cast, cast time measured in minutes, and short range is a recipe for disaster. Vyke's Dragonbolt buffs your weapon, equip load (?????? lmao) and applies a decent lightning damage negation debuff.

Depressing incant set for being locked in a late-game area.

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Once I got the platinum in Bloodborne, I decided that it is more fun to fight and win on my own terms than to purely optimize just like any tryhard.

This stuff is dope as hell, and it's got so much cool lore and aesthetic.

I'm definitely using this stuff, and nobody can tell me otherwise, lol.

You can beat this game with stick. That means you can definitely beat anything with a spell or incant. It just takes a desire.

May the Grace guide thee, ye Tarnished

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Red lightning storm can 1 shot bosses (if lucky on hitting the uber small lightning hit box)

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people always say the spells and **** are bad but wait till you use the rot breath

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with equal investment in int, i could do far more dps with just pebble compared to a lot of these spells. really disappointing.

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i just use them because they're cool

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As you see, the dragon cult worships the dragons, the actual, ancient dragons. Their powers require a **** ton of faith for humans to wield. For dragon communions however, you are transforming to a dragon to use their power, so faith isnt needed that much and you need arcane for the transformation shenanigans

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Don't listen to the haters, electrocute everything. These incantations kick ass and look f***ing awesome, you just have to be smart and time your casts. Sorry, no peanut-brain spell spamming with faith, only galaxy-bain plays. If you wanted to just press R1 and fire the same attack 100 times like a dumbass, you should have made a sorcerer.

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Placidusax's Ruin counts as a Dragon cult incantation but it's not in the page

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So a Gravel Stone Seal is most effective to use with dragon communion?

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I don’t know why people are hating on the dragon cult incantations. I’m literally destroying bosses with the erd tree seal that’s at level 9 right now then I combine my wondrous flask with the tear that boosts lightning damage and I also use the faith tear, run up to a boss and use ancient dragon lightning and I’m hitting for 2,000 damage a go if not more and my faith is only at 34 before using the flask

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Feels like lightning skills were the least thought out of. Every one of these spells should either be a chargeable spell or have chain casting. That would have helped a somewhat subpar incantation family. They also lack some consistency/terrible hit boxes.

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So most of the spells are unfortunately weaker in terms of usability. Lightning spear is solid in terms of range and cost, while Lightning Strike allows for some good dps when you continuously cast it. Other than that, the Ancient Dragon Cult spells suck, while some of the higher damage and flashier dragon cult spells come from later dragon bosses.

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a lot of these need heavy buffs

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Well....
At least Lightning Spear is good?

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They're very slow, maybe they're affected heavily by cast speed though? Lightning affinities scale with Dex, so maybe that's a hint from From that lightning needs dexterity to wield effectively?

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Anyone looking to trade for one of these? Missed it on my first playthrough just started new game plus. Can drop Id on PS if anyone is interested

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Been going full dragon cult for most of the game, and to anyone considering it, I say this. Don't.

The dragon cult incantations absolutely suck ass, with one exception: Lightning Spear.
Ignoring the general problems with being pure faith for the moment (can't use a sacred weapon and buff it with incantations, faith is the only stat with no secondary benefit, heals spells are insanely slow, incantations are slow in general given lack of dex, high need for talisman slots just to make incantations passable, etc etc...), the spells in this category are just plain bad.
Honed Bolt is okay if you expect that your target isn't going to just walk up and hit you while chain-casting it. They will, though. Might as well just throw Lspears instead.
Lightning Strike is a sort of combined LSpear + HBolt, and worse than both. It's slow, hard to aim to get multihits, and enemies that are fast enough can walk through it.
Glaive looks wicked cool but has a hilarious 4s casting time even with the casting speed talisman. Any hit will not just stagger you, but FLOOR you as you're in the air. It deals about a spear and a half if you hit up close, or about half that if you hit with just the sparks. It'd be a really good and fun crowd clearing spell if it casting with reasonable speed or you could tank a hit while casting. As such you're just gonna get hit out of the animation basically every time you want to use it. Fun fact: invader-type enemies can jump over the glaive and hit you with a jumping attack. They will.
Frozen lightning is similar. Stupid long cast time, get floored if you take a hit. The nice thing is that it at least deals strong damage against big targets, possibly doing 3~6 lightning spears worth if the target is huge and you land it just right. You won't, though, since enemies aren't stationary and the cast time is so long. Also enemies can sometimes just run through it and take no damage.
Dragonbolt's main benefit is more of a PvP one; if you want resists you generally use other incantations.
Vyke Dragonbolt is a crappier electrify armament + vanilla dragonbolt, but trades enemy-hit-rebound for equip load bonus. Who the **** wants limited duration equip load bonus.
The other spells come so late in game that they're basically nonexistent.

Skip this whole incantation category. Fromsoft hates Faith and hates these spells especially.

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In Dark Souls, this was the magic that destroyed the dragons. In this game it is now the magic used by the dragons. Case in point….





YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE! YOU WERE SAID TO DESTROY THE DRAGONS NOT JOIN THEM!

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I wonder if the damage from these spells, with a +20 Gravel Stone Seal is really crappy, or if I'm doing something wrong. I am level 105, I have 50 Faith +5 from talisman (and using the talisman that boosts Incantations), I hit enemies with the Lansseax's Glaive for like, 400 damage. There is something wrong, I don't know. Lightning Spear hits for about 700. Is this is? Or am I messing something here?

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Huh... I can't say I am shocked... I thought the Dragon Cult Incantations were the Dragon Spells.

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