Torch 4, to throw or not to throw and axe vs sword for FB?

[Nowaki.2136]

It kinda bugs me how the one skill that make us throw blue fire in a cone doesnt burn.... it makes way more sense than even zealot flame ._. Honestly i only use the skill when waiting out of combat cuz the animation looks hella good, thats it.

[LetoII.3782]

Nothing saying it has to proc as many times as it does. 9 is too much but maybe one a second? Or two at the start and two more on completion.Maybe a variety of effects as the skill proceeds. It wouldn't be rediculous to have spitting fire cause burning, for instance.

[Dark Schneider.7841]

I use torch 5 skill sometimes as a finisher tofinish of some foes (mostly humanoid foes)because sometimes they stay covered with flames and scream in agony when they die

• And I like that

[Esquilax.3491]

@Dark Schneider.7841 said:I use torch 5 skill sometimes as a finisher tofinish of some foes (mostly humanoid foes)because sometimes they stay covered with flames and scream in agony when they die

• And I like that

Rofl this is the first time I've been compelled to thumbs up a post on the new forums.

[RabbitUp.8294]

@Dark Schneider.7841 said:I use torch 5 skill sometimes as a finisher tofinish of some foes (mostly humanoid foes)because sometimes they stay covered with flames and scream in agony when they die

• And I like that

Now that's an argument I can't refute.

[Rennie.6750]

@FnkyTwn.3875 said:

@RabbitUp.8294 said:Forget Torch 5 exists, it's a kitten skill.

Why do 95% of Guardian/Firebrand builds seem to include it then? I'm a new player. This isn't a sarcastic question.

It's a relevant skill in pvp only, other than that it's a channeled powered based spell that does very little base damage and is mixed with a condi spell on slot 4 so both skills have 0 synergy. Torch is meh for that reason. It's really a bastard weapon and very much situational at best on a dragonhunter/base guardian and quite relevant on firebrand, but only for torch 4.

[Ahlen.7591]

@RabbitUp.8294 said:Against multiple enemies, you can throw it at the last moment (you can watch the buff in your bar to time it). Then again, I don't like torch in open world, even for condi builds, for that exact reason. You get no survivability and only single-target damage.

Cleansing Flame is bad for damage. Against 3+ enemies and with Permeating Fire is the only time it's not completely useless, and even then you might get better numbers with the axe auto.

As for what weapon to choose, sword, axe and scepter are all really close to each other. Sword is one of the best, if not the best weapon for solo. If gold is not a problem and you can afford having multiple condi weapons, they will all prove useful. I've seen qt's benchmark use scepter/axe (but camping scepter primarily) and another benchmark using sword/scepter. The damage is roughly the same.

...Pretty sure torch 4 pierces, and the self burn is 3 target AoE?5 is basically useless but 4 is pretty much the bees knees.

[draxynnic.3719]

@Kerivek.5740 said:I always wondered that myself. Why does the large cone of flames not cause any burning? Since FB came out I don't think I've used the skill once, prior to that I used it on rare occasions when the condi removal was useful.

I think the theory is that it has so many hits that it'll proc VoJ a few times... assuming the passive is up.

Torch 5 was a good situational skill before they gave it a target cap, if you clumped up enough enemies. They really should have let it still hit 5 targets, however, like the elementalist equivalents such as Drake's Breath.

A self-cleanse would also be good. 9 cleanses probably would be overkill, but they could make it self-cleanse 2-3 conditions over the course of the channel and that would probably be reasonable.