Fortissax's Lightning Spear | Elden Ring Wiki

Does this work by jumping and then casting like some other spells?

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Used this in the colosseum to dodge a Lansseax's Glaive sweep and counterattack as the two of us both swathed the entire arena in a red thunderstorm.

Most badass magic system I've seen in any action-RPG to date

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if it wasn't Godwin to not kill fortissax we won't have the best magic class in the game

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Ah yes, my melee weapon.

Pop an Endure, wind this up, and watch everything die.

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Too slow to be of use in battle. Even if you time it right to stance break bosses while using other spells or charged heavies to facilitate that bosses get back up before the second spear lands. I've only been able to land this on the Fire Giant and Elden Beast consistently and safely.


The only way to use this is to play the game for thousands of hours to get a feel for each and every bosses and enemies stance bar, and use it to stance break them to actually land it safely.

But you have like a 5-6 second window (such an odd number) before its regenerated so you need daggers to keep it from happening.

For enemies that stagger though its instant death.

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I wish each spear had its own FP cost. The amount of times I've casted this, thrown one spear, and then got staggered out of it is embarrassing. Paying the FP cost for 2 spears, and only getting 1 spear feels kind of unnecessary. A separate cost for each spear and then this spell will be perfect. Even if it remains the way it is, it will still be my favorite spell in the game. Hail the Dragon Cult!

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This **** is the ultimate elevator trap. Buff in advance, wait for the right moment, cast right when they have about 5-7 feet left to go up the elevator, and YEET THE LICHDRAGON'S FURY DOWN ON THEIR HEADS! You'll two shot most players and the ones that do survive will only have a sliver of health left which you can easily finish with a fast weapon in your hand.

And it doubles as a "get the f*** off me" spell! It's just the spell that keeps on giving.

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does this have hyper armor?

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Doing a little testing; Lvl 60, 46 Faith, one Gravel Stone Seal +12, Lightning Scorpion Charm, Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear, against the Banished Knights in Farum Azula.

Fortissax's Lightning Spear does 2654 (upwards of 3k if an aftershock hits), Frozen Lightning Spear does 1831 (from the initial spear and a guaranteed follow-up strike), and Ancient Dragon's Lightning Spear does 1282 (couldn't get an aftershock hit).

On a larger target, you might be able to get the aftershocks to bring Ancient Spear up to ~1700, but then you could probably get multiple follow-up strikes from Frozen Spear to bring you to well over ~2k. I just don't see a reason for Ancient Spear.

Of course Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike is ideal against any huge target or group, but Fortissax's Spear and Frozen Spear take the cake against single human-sized to slightly-large enemies. Frozen Spear, albeit less efficient, seems to be the clear winner, considering how early it's available and the bonus Frost damage.

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WITNESS ME!

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If cast on a ledge, the spears will travel until they hit the ground. Great for ambushing in PvP

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In DS3, talismans (one of that game's version of seals) could be used to poise into attacks and a skilled player could do big damage by reading their opponent and casting, e.g., Sunlight Spear. When the game came out, I wanted to find a way of recreating that gameplay style. Visually, this incantation was my favorite, and it seemed clear that FS wanted it to fill that role once they patched it with hyperarmor. But even after it was patched, I was disappointed with it: even with Radagon's Icon equipped, a fairly average player would never get caught by this because of its slow cast speed.

But! I've been playing with a dedicated casting build that has max casting speed, and at that speed, I'm having the most fun I've had since the game came out. Even really great players who know you have this in the arsenal can get caught if you read them well. Would recommend giving this a shot to anyone who loves the Sunlight Spear trade from DS3.

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It isn't dragon communion and it doesn't play well with the dragon communion seal but I'll be damned if I won't let my dragon based to-be elden lord throw down red lightning like a real dragon lord would

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Really should be renamed to being a lightning stake, to allow for more lightning spear variations... that aside this slaps in PvP, people always seem to think they can outtrade it... they cannot

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Fortissax is one of my favorite bosses in the game, but holy, this spell is total BS. No way to evade spears at close distance, it completely stunlocks you and sends your 60 vigor to heaven. I wish it was this good in PvE, but for PvP it totally needs a nerf

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"Bulderstone"?

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why cant this be an actual spear? it's just a ground slam.
i admit it's a good ground slam but i want to hit enemies from mid-range sometimes.
the yellow lightning spear works but i hate yellow.

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positively annihilates the land octopi (underground along the secret path to haligree)! 6-9k damage per cast.

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absolutely WRECKS land octopi! i'm avging 5-8k damage with this sexy cast along the hidden path to haligtree

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Not good for groups my brown eye, Im literally using this to farm runes because Its pin point directed better than ancient dragon lightning strike because I havnt got it yet.
Its somewhat better than ice lightning spear as the initial impact causes stagger and ice doesnt until the lightning strikes happen .
Dont get me wrong its a great tool in the toolbox but to say this is worse is just ignorance.

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ive been using this in my Colesseum duels and its VERY useful. Cast as your opponent is approaching you. He will see you casting a spell and will probably think its a good time to strike, only to face hyper armor and a respectable damage.

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This should have been another deathblight lightning spell. Why did Fortissax even use red lightning during the Lichdragon fight? He should have just used a ton of black and gold death lighting, would have been so much cooler.

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This thing one shot me at 60 vigor holy. I was trying to do the funni unendurable frenzy and decided to play chicken.

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One of the spells you just pull out in PvP and Co-op to look cool

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Sorcerers after wearing a goofy ahh face helmet thing of an old man and reading books for 10 years straight: "Finally, I can cast a slightly larger rock spell. Once again sorceries are proving to be superior."


Prophets after slaying the mightiest ancient dragon that's fighting off death within the dream of a demigod's bloated corpse and using its remembrance to learn how to summon and catch red lightning spears in their hands to use as weapons: "Neat."

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So just to clarify what the other guy meant to say, the initial throw manifests as vertical projectile. This means you can throw the bolts off the side of a cliff onto an unsuspecting enemy, and the bolt will land on top of them. Although the application may seem niche, it is often a safer way to take out a dangerous enemy that you would otherwise use a risky jump attack on.

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funny that fortissax spell requires fortysix faith….

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Still needs some love for the risk to reward ratio but it's so fun to use

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Switched it up from Bonk to Faith with 1.07 and found this incantation. The hyper armor is amazing while you're in the air and it does really good damage. One of my new favorites!

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Ah, Fortisaxx's lightning spears my beloved, may we share the battlefield together for eternal.

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I like this it has nice damage and I've never had any trouble using it on multiple enemies. It can buy time and despite what it says here you don't need to be standing right next to the target to see good damage from it.

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Fun fact: this and ancient dragon's lightning spear are technically projectiles, but move horizontally rather than laterally. Helpful in some situations to huck this thing straight down off a cliff or down a hole.

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Oh it's a twin lightning because he has a twin, Lanseaxx

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This wiki can be really poorly designed at times. Like why is there no link to Lichdragon Fortissax here? Like to get there from this page, I have to click on the remembrance link and then click to the dragon page. Like there is 8 mentions to Fortissax on this page before getting to the comments. No thought to link on any of those? I know I'm nitpicking at a good and free use wiki, but it's kind annoying at times.

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I remember when elden ring came out and i saw people use this spell and i thoughtt you do this spell by dual wielding seals and casting ancient dragon lightning spear with both at the same time.

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Endure AOW helps with getting knocked out of the start up of the attack before the extra hyper armor kicks in, helps immensely with trading

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it's pretty good as a follow-up attack if you manage to stagger someone before using it, otherwise anyone fast enough will either knock you out of it or kill you right away before you even finish casting the first bolt, because the initial cast is quite long and leaves you wide open for counter attacks.

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no spell in the game is as fun as baiting people with this for duels, so many people are so stupid and just try to attack you while casting then it can hit for crazy health and poise damage. Helps that the duel meta is in the wettest area in the game too lmao

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This page says "Stamina Cost: 52". It costs FP, so that's a typo.

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This thing kicks ass now. Become a faith bro by using this awesome move instead of the cop-out honed bolt incantation. you will always win the trade. PRAISE THE SUN!!!

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Intelligence check IRL. Melee only users will basically always try to run you down and knock you out of the casting animation the instant you start it, only to get hit for 75% of their health since it has poise armor. They will then also almost always proceed to not at all learn their lesson and do the same thing over and over again until they use up all their healing and die. Absolutely amazing incantation, top few best offensive incants in the game

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It’s like the games trying to say “Glintstone or die”

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Need a grounded, ranged, thrown ancient dragon lightning spear. Basically sunlight spear but red. Give it little hyper armor so it doesn’t occupy the niche of the close ranged ground-stabbed ones.

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Can you dual wield seals making the incants stronger?

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The item description and name make it sound like it’s some special technique that makes Fortissax special, but you see dime a dozen ancient dragons using this spell at Farum Azula. Same thing with Lansseax’s Glaive. They should have just made the unnamed ones use ancient dragon lightning spear.

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Still trash compared to sunlight spear good luck hitting against any smart player

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They better not have done that intentionally, the “46” faith you need for this infant sounds similar to Fortissax

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While I don’t have enough stats to use this, i think it’s worth it over the regular ancient dragon lightning spear because it allows for one follow up attack, meaning you should be able to combo it like theodorixs magma

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The double version of Ancient Dragon Lightning Spear; per spear it does about the same damage compared to its single brethren. The difference is that this version has a lot longer cast time, deals more damage in total because of the double hit, and has two spreading aoe waves.

The stabs can also be free aimed somewhat, so in pvp you can turn around mid-cast and hit people trying to roll behind you, especially with the second stab.

Deals absurd damage if both the stab and lightning aoe hit; mediocre damage if the stab doesn't hit. On direct hits with the stab, it will knock down humanoid enemies and players, but only on the second spear. The single spear version, Ancient Dragon Lightning Spear, knocks down by itself.

I'd recommend having both the single spear and double spear versions on, as alternating between the two can be a decent mixup in pvp. If you land a direct hit and get a knockdown you get a pretty good okizeme situation on your opponent, as these spells are pretty scary to roll away from after you've been knocked down.

Highly recommended to have Radagon Icon and some decent poise on. The hyperarmor doesn't start until after the 'crest glow' animation, so you can be hit out of the startup cast and fall flat on your back.

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Dex/fth build: Dragonking Cragblade AoW -> this spell. Combos fairly well due to the knockdown on AoW and the reduced recovery time / cast times.

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Dex/fth build: Dragonking Cragblade AoW -> this spell. Combos fairly well due to the knockdown on AoW and the reduced recovery time / cast times.

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Dex/fth build: Dragonking Cragblade AoW -> this spell. Combos fairly well due to the knockdown on AoW and the reduced recovery time / cast times.

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Standing in water + raining + this spell = bonker damage

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Difference between this and the ancient dragon one?

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Cast speed & recovery is not actually increased. Hyperarmor starts up in 833 ms at max casting speed.

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Cast speed & recovery is not actually increased.
Hyperarmor starts up in 833 ms at max casting speed.

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The hyper armor is so good

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Now it's one of the best Incants in the entire game. Praise the sun!

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This is amazing after the patch now, use Glaive to knock down enemies then transition into this on top of them - easily handles those duo haligtree knights near inner wall.

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From one of the worst, to one of the best. Hope they buff death lightning tho.

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Costs 45 fp now

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Finally viable as a trade option in 1.04. Mix this up with ancient dragon lightning spear

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This now slaps in pvp. Thank you FS for making lightning great again

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Finally got hyper armor in the new patch,

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People in the comment section never tried this in PvP. If someone charges at you instead of running away when you cast this they are dead.

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Is it just me or would the return of poisecasting make a lot these endgame damage incantations useful.
The damage is good. The windup would be reasonable if we could get a form of hyper armor.
If anyone at fromsofy reads this. Please add hyperarmor to dragon lightning spells, a knockback like placidux(butchered te spelling I know) breath attack. If not hyper armor, an ash of war to add poise casting. Even if it costs 25% or even 50% more like some sorcery staves do. It would make them viable for trading or setups.

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malenias stupid ass katana attack having more poise than this gives me conniptions

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Useless spell, why they gave so many lightning spells the throw at the ground treatment is beyond me. Give some mid range/long range options.

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Some of these high level Faith spells should work out a lot better. Hopefully they add more hyper armor.
I just keep coming back to the basic Lightning Spear.

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If you find yourself at the top an elevator and your opponent is on his/her way up, through these babies right down on them. Very situational but not impossible to set up.

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Visually, absolutely one of my favorite spells in the game. After beating Fortissax I immediately dupe'd his remembrance, and got Death Lightning too, hoping to use those a heavy amount. The cons of both of these spells however, are way too much of a problem to enjoy using them for very long. No hyper armor, longer casting time, very short range. If the spells even had 2/3 of these issues, I could look past and make do, but having all 3 makes them frustrating to use against nearly any enemy in PvE, and seemingly near impossible in PvP if the enemy doesn't panic. A single dagger hit is enough to knock you out of the animation 9/10 times, and then you fall flat on your back looking towards the heavens thinking "Why didn't I just cast Wrath of Gold?" Wearing the Beast Champion armor gives 60 poise, which I thought was a decent amount until that happened one too many times.


Damage is definitely higher end of the Incantations, but considering I could do the same with two Lightning Spears from a much further range, and much quicker cast, leaves me wanting on these spells. Love them visually, and great damage, but the initial 'WOW' factor drops off significantly when you realize it can be very difficult to use them.

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Very underrated incantation. Does high damage and if cast in midrange, forces opponent to flee, opening them up to long range attacks.

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It doesn't make any noise (PVE wise) until you actually attack, so it can be used as a replacement for backstabs.

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I don't know what all these noobs are complaining about. Probably one of the best and most stylish spells to get yourself killed.

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Its annoys me how people in this page are trying to justify using it instead of just calling it garbage. If I put the same amount of effort into lightning spear is get almost similar damage with a charged lightning spear with a whole lot more safety. Stop pretending this is good so incantations can actually get buffed they are no where near as good or as viable as sorcery.

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does the gravel stone seal increase its power, despite not being labelled directly as a dragon cult incantation in the item description?

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This may be one of the most slept on spells in the game. After some testing, I can confirm that this spell is immune to all grabs, which seems to be a unique effect to it. This makes it extremely good against grab-spamming enemies, since they'll still try to grab you when you cast it. Obviously, this just shreds through abductor virgins, which are weak to lightning already, but it also is extremely good against black knife assassins, as they don't do sufficient poise damage to knock you out of it even if they don't go for the grab, and ulcerated tree spirits to avoid their grab.

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Not worth your FP. Leave it out of your spell slots. Maybe on a couple niche fights like Maliketh phase one you can get some value but it’s really just too expensive for not all that much damage

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Everyone: "With massive poise, the right talisman set, and using ashes of war, you can actually pull this incant off with moderate damage!"

Me: Golden Slam does nearly the same damage with a slightly smaller AoE, without the need of stats, without needing a boss soul, using less FP, and the cherry on top? Golden Slam has super armor during the entire attack.

How is it that Ashes of war that I didn't build for, beat out my Faith build, using every armor/weapon/talisman for the slightest gain, every time?

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103 poise and you can cast it without interruption even against 2handed swords of knights in Haligtree.

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This on a propper build and u one-two shots some big mobs or even lidl bosses. All u need to do is to find some poise source. I use Endure ash of war. It lasts like 3 seconds, and the cast time of the spell is like 4. So its not a 100% cover, but for big enemys that not spam with attacks it works. For example I kill an ogre under the capital with 2 casts of it. First one with endure, second without, while he standing up after a knockback. So its like: kill/knockback/poise break the annoying big monster in a cost of all fp points and with style. Ill take it.

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Cool spell and it does impressive damage, but its timing is tricky to land in PvP, best to use this with the leaded crystal tear so you cant be interrupted. Overall stick with PvE with this spell.

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Other PvPer: Casts Lightning Spear, an ancient incantation told to have been the hallmark of ancient dragons
Me: Throws a dagger
>

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Other PvPer: Casts Lightning Spear, an ancient incantation told to have been the hallmark of ancient dragons
Me: Throws a dagger
>

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Imagine turning around on your patrol because you heard something behind you and there's just this guy floating in the air with two lightning spears in their hands. And then you just explode. Spell/incantation testing from a mook's perspective.

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Very hard to actually land, but if cast on an enemy that's distracted, especially a big one, it does decent damage. Sadly though if poorly timed or if the enemy is in the least bit intelligent you're gonna be on your backside real fast

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This really should have been allowed to be cast mid-air like the superior dragon incantations.

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looks like the lance of longinus in evangelion

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This spell makes you feel like an evil Zeus. That is all.

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Was seriously hoping for something more like DS3's Lightning Stake

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People are disappointed by this spell, I am personally loving it in addition to my dex build.

The dex for cast speed helps a lot, you can group up the enemies and have them chase you, then use the spell and turn around while casting and decimate whole packs of mobs.

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Extremely bizarre discovery: You cannot be grabbed while casting this. Tried it in the Dual Virgin boss, they could not grab me while the cast was going on. Really wild.

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Disappointed with either incantation you get from Fortissax. Both sound and look amazing, but don't have the damage or reliability to be useful. With this high of a faith requirement, you'd think it would be better..

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has niche use as a backstab followup, or if someone else has the mob's aggro. does pretty decent damage but impossible to use if anything's trying to attack you.

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"what if" gwyn allied with dragon & teach them lightning miracle.

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Simple way to make it good is to give it hyper armor during cast

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This does 2k+ if both spears hit with 60 faith and +25 gravel stone seal against non lightning resist enemies

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The damage is pretty mediocre, but it has excellent knockback

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Point-blank use, horribly disappointing damage even when fully charged

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It does look impressive. Sadly the range is quite short (basically only around you), the cast time is long and the FP cost is high. A breath deals similar damage from a much greater distance. No idea when I would use this skill. When I'm this close, monsters are going to interrupt me.

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