The Power of Pyromancy

Pyromancy is a kind of hated form of magic in this game due to people spamming it without any real skill or thought involved, so, I plan to get a bunch of ideas together from the community, put it together, then post it in the Archives to help newer players learn when, how, and where its best to use each form of pyromancy. So, to begin, I'll put each spell, and the community puts down any tips they know for any spell. I'll put my own if they aren't mentioned in the final topic in the archives. So here's the list

Fireball
Fire Orb
Great Fireball
Great Chaos Fireball
Combustion
Great Combustion
Fire Whip
Chaos Fire Whip
Fire Surge
Firestorm
Chaos Storm
Fire Tempest
Poison Mist
Toxic Mist
Acid Surge
Flash Sweat
Iron Flesh
Power Within
Undead Rapport

These tips can be fore PVP and PVE, so fire away Souls Lovers

All I know is that Undead Rapport is the best spell in the game. Use it all the time on everything. Everything.

For the AOE spells like Firestorm-fire tempest-Chaos Storm, use in close quarters, for PvP use AI as distractions, and (Disclaimer: I do not do this) One rather, unfair way is to start it after a BS.
These are excellent anti-turtle weapons, as most use a spear which can't break your poise to stop it.

Whip Pyros:
These are multi-hit and have longer range than combustion, use when enemies are charging you or distanced.

I never considered Pyromancy before untilI realised that (Acidic convinced me of this) Nito loves fire. Now I will go out and poison all before me!

ViralEnsign_ wrote:I never considered Pyromancy before untilI realised that (Acidic convinced me of this) Nito loves fire. Now I will go out and poison all before me!

I sometimes wonder if maybe i should have a general alliance with Gravelords in my Player Made Covenant in order to let the Gravelord Sword aid us in poisonous methods, but I still got a while before I finish up my covenant lol.

It was within you all along!

The tempest and firestorm spells are best used in pvp when you're hiding round a corner or such. Goves youtime to get through the long cast time and your opponent cant dodge them.
In PvE they can be hard to get right. They're best used against a ;arge group of enemies but its hard not to get hit while casting.

ChaosServantSpectre wrote:

ViralEnsign_ wrote:I never considered Pyromancy before untilI realised that (Acidic convinced me of this) Nito loves fire. Now I will go out and poison all before me!

I sometimes wonder if maybe i should have a general alliance with Gravelords in my Player Made Covenant in order to let the Gravelord Sword aid us in poisonous methods, but I still got a while before I finish up my covenant lol.

Hmmmm this might be promising but I refuse to get too buddy buddy with all the other user covenants. It prevents competition. However given your affinity for fire and poison I could see us potentially allying on several occasions. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Here's my advice/ opinions:

Orbs and Balls: Because of their splash damage, they are great when used with lock-on off. They are very easy to dodge for even remotely experienced PvPers, so use them and target them at the end of your opponent's roll. Know the range of your fireballs; it isn't very much, and it's very easy to roll back out of. When casting with lock-on off, remember to "aim with both sticks"--pretty much: left stick is horizontal aim, right stick is vertical (you want your character to face where you're aiming, and your camera to look there). For best effect, you can aim your body at the last instant before throwing the ball, that way you can catch your opponent even more off guard.

Combustion: great to thwart would-be bs-spammers. Also good to use when an opponent is getting back up (I would only say to use this if you're ill-equipped to take on your foe, otherwise it's a pretty low tactic).

Whips: Decent range and multi-hit, but be wary of opponents who have high poise; it isn't very strong, so they'll walk right through it and attack you while you're caught in the animation. Mostly, I see this spell as useful for distracting your opponent, baiting them, then using the bait to spring some trap on them. What the trap is, is up to you! (Another spell, a parry, a bs, etc.)

Tempest/ Storm: already well explained above, but I want to add a warning: be careful when using them against opponents who have ranged attacks--Mages especially. Those spells have a rather long cooldown after you've cast them, during which you can't move. Against melee opponents who will dodge by backing away, it isn't a problem. But if you're against any enemy who uses range, they can get a few free hits on you during this time--CSS is especially devastating!

Mists: I have practically no experience using these. I toyed with the idea of using them for visual cover while I cast some other spells, but haven't gotten around to testing the idea yet...

Edit: How could I forget Iron Flesh and Power Within?! Iron Flesh I've never been a huge fan of, but power within was love at first cast for me! The latter is great in almost any situation, except maybe when you get summoned by an inexperienced player who won't think to flask you while you're wailing on the boss for them and your HP is getting low. Be sure to cast it with an un-upgraded pyro glove, though. It can also be used with the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring to slow the rate at which it drains your HP. Iron Flesh used to be alright for some bosses, but it's been nerfed... And it might once have been borderline-usable for PvP (only against fools who would try and hit you head on) but now everyone knows to either backstab you to oblivion, or just taunt you from just outside your melee range because you move like a turtle!


Final note: while casting any of these spells, always be wary of turning your back to your opponent. You don't want to get backstabbed from a mile away while you're casting Fire Tempest!

I did find a good use for Iron Flesh actually. Keep Firestorm, Fire Tempest, or Chaos Storm on you. Get the upper hand in combat, back your enemy into a corner or stuck in a small space. Use Iron Flesh, then start casting one of those spells. To put it simply, you are casting a god powered pyromancy and are borderline unstoppable due to the ridiculously high poise. The enemy will most like be hit and unable to do a single thing about it.

I see most of them have been explained decently, so I'll drop a bit on mists.

Like Thrown Spells, never lock on. Lead targets, use this especially for spacing. You never actually want to use mists to do damage, instead you use them to force enemies in areas or obscure their vision. Need to split two people up? Spray a mist at your feet. Need some breathing room, do the same. See them cornered? Spray just outside and force them to have to defend themselves as you come out of the cloud to attack, don't try and get them to run out. Want someone to move back, or stop backing up? Spray past them, or spray right in front of them. This is a really useful tool in that people never realize, "Hey, this damage is actually nothing at all." Most just see it and think, "Ah damage, run!" As well the higher you aim the further it will go as it slightly arcs. So you can use this to lob clouds pretty far. You can also always use a cloud as cover, wait inside of it and cast CSS, catch someone completely off guard and nuke them. Wait in the cloud setting up Tempest and come out blowing them into the air with fire. Mists really do have a lot of uses.

Also I'll be adding this to the Resources Thread.

Awesome, was kinda hoping you would notice Tolvo. I'm just collaberating the ideas for now, but I'll have it all together on a thread in the archives by the end of the week.

Then I'll probably be adding that to the Resource Thread when it gets made haha.

Maybe one should be made for Sorceries and Miracles as well.

My specialties are only in fire, poison, and pyromancies, so I would not be the guy to do that lol

You make a thread about Pyromancy and don't invite me?! I feel so offended.

I kid I kid. I found that quick fire sword swings mixed with combustion will lead to both quick stunlocks and a heavy load of damage. Mix it with poison knife while they charge in to disrupt them and you got yourself one spiced, charred enemy to feed to Alvina

Pyromancers of any kind are invited Yeki. Anyone have any tips on the use of Fire Surge?

Use fire surge to pressure opponents. Its high uses make it semi usefull, but only for people with an extra attunment slot.

Imagine stacking 6 slots of nothing but fire surge. I think I'd just casually walk through the burg while incinerating everything nonstop.

Pyromancy can go through shields, so using it on turtles is a good reason to have it. Has a similar range to the whips and it's a continuous stream of damage.

keep an eye out for bk shields or the black iron shield as they can practically negate pyromancy. firesurge has a weird hit box in pvp and some people have found ways to use that (not me, i;ve just seen the effect) also firesurge is really powerful if you can keep a bead on your target for a second or two as the damage really stacks up. also very nice against s&o

Watch out for Iron Round Shields as well. A fully upgraded Fire Iron Round Shield has 86 Fire Blocking.

For those shields, use a kick and burn method, kick their shield, and burn them when their defenseless

What the deal with the Chaos Spells? I tested Great Fireball and Chaos Great Fireball and both do the same damage with 10 humanity. Is the only benefit of Chaos the trail of lava it leaves?

I think the blast zone of chaos spells are larger than their regular counterparts

The Lava and blast radius is the advantage. In fact if you are really good you can stagger someone with the fire, lava, then hit them again while they are staggered. But, it pretty much requires 45 Dex.

I love Chaos Pyromancy, it's amazing. Is it true that ranking up in Chaos Servants increases the damage of Chaos spells?

Something to test!...For someone else, I don't feel like wasting humanity.