Fire Surge OP

So I was screwing around on my Darkstalker build, which, at SL55, has plenty of slots for pyro, and decided to try out Fire Surge, having never used it before, and I have to say I'm impressed. Wearing the Crown of Dusk it racks up damage fast, especially against builds with low fire defense, and has a respectable range. It also has a very decent number of castings for its purpose: punishing aggressive players.

Whenever I felt the opponent would try to attack me, I cant Fire Surge as they walked forward, and they often tried to poise through it to stunlock me, which resulted in 5-800 points of damage before I rolled away. When they tried to bs or dodge it by strafing faster than lockoff could catch up, I unlocked and led their movements for additional damage before they realized their bs attempts would get them killed. If they mid/fat roll, and try to dodge by rolling, you can catch them before and after the roll, essentially sealing their fate as you chase them. Even if they block, you can usually get a free 100 damage by firing into their shield for a few seconds, which probably adds up to 4 or 500 damage total if they try to tank the whole slot of FS. You can also combo a left hand FS to a right hand weapon, not with stunlock but because it's an unexpected tactic and they literally can't see the attack coming with all of the fire.

But the main reason this tactic is OP? People I bowed to and had a fair duel with started healing after I wrecked them with Fire Surge, in a greater number than the usual bow-heal losers. If I got people to throw away honor, it looks like I found a new OP tactic to use. (actually probably because it contributes to lag by boning the framerate).

Fire surge is so annoying, specially if you have a slow weapon. I usually use a xbow or do a plunge attack to keep people from using it, works fine for me.

I just counter fire surge with a bow, or my own pyromancy. Because as you said you can't see through fire surge well, therefore i can throw a fireball at you and there is a good chance you won't see it.

You don't say?
I demonstrated this at least 60 times on my pyromancer

I've been saying how awesome fire surge is for a while now. For all those reasons. Not OP by any stretch, but definetly a good spell to have.

Hmmm under the new forum rules you should have worded you post like this....

How can I counter being awesome with fire surge?

To which I reply, don't use it.

Oh and any pyro is strong at sl55.

I thought we knew how good fire surge was since like... week 2?

Jansports wrote:I thought we knew how good fire surge was since like... week 2?

Don't tease the man. It could be he just found Fire Surge, it isn't exactly lying in the open unless you explore all of the painted world, which most people use for priscilla's tail and scythe and for soul farming the phalanx.

Fire Surge is a good spell, and should be considered for a slot, but to call it OP is laughable.

I rarely see it do much in a serious PvP. I guess if someone really really focused their efforts into it they could get by with a lot more damage though. You'd need plenty of magic-boosting equips and perfect spacing/timing.

Excellent finisher. I use it a lot with str builds because it doesn't really need high dex to be effective.