Question about Ignite and blade

Hey, im building a Paladin-esque character that uses a 2handed sword and Heavy armory.

Im working towards str/dex passives etc but im unsure about if Ignite Weapon would help in my build or if I should skip it and focus on Earth/Life/Blades for now.

Would love advice.

Also if someone else have a paladin. How does your build look? If you want to share ofc

Cheers

 

I use a two handed sword and heavy armour. I have ignite weapon and it definitely helps kill things quicker... but.. it's now got something like a 75% fizzle rate and on occasion I can burn through half of my focus just trying to light my damn sword!

 

75% doesnt seem worth it

 

You can keep spamming the key until you can successfully cast. The fizzle rate for this spell is no biggie since you don't need to cast it every other seconds.

 

It seems bad, but in theory it'll work 1 in 4 times... sometimes it'll light up first time, sometimes a lot longer. - I tested it out of curiosity and my worst record was something like 15 fails before a success... but equally, I had quite a few times where it lit first and second time...

I suppose the trick here is to have some self control with when you use it and spending your focus... e.g. only use it before engaging a mob and if it doesn't light up on the 2nd attempt, stop...regain focus and try again so you'll still have focus when you engage them. - whereas if you using in mid fight, I'd probably only try once or twice before giving up on it completely.

Personally, I love it and will happily try 4 or 5 times before I pause and recover focus and in a fight i'll try it twice before stopping.

 

I use chain armor myself as I find that the fizzle rate is alot lower (makes casting the higher level heal spells like Healing Grace & Healing Burst easier as well) so I find the spell quite useful.
If the Fizzle on Ignite Weapon is bothering you, have you considered Poison Weapon for a DOT? Although useless against Undead & quite expensive to use (eg a Deadly poison Potion costs 35gp to make if you use vendor brought regs) but if you can grow your own reagents and mix up your own potions, its quite a useful skill as there are various poisons with have differerent nifty effects (eg Slow, Paralyse etc). You don't have a fizzle chance and as your poison skill improves so does the Duration (25 secs at level 20). It does take longer to apply though, taking 2 secs to execute. Unlike Ignite weapon it also stacks upto 3 times, so it can do some nice damage. You can use the apply poison skill from the Utility bar (just drag Posion Potion to bar), so it means you don't have to use up a combat slot either.

 

I dual wield and my fizzle rate is 52% with ignite sword... I can't say I kill faster with it but I LOVE the freaking FX...

 

If you are trying to be a typical paladin tank.... you will need air, fire, water and earth for the resistances... so may as well take ignite blade... just be prepared to fizzle ALOT... I am also built as a paladin\tank. It definitely makes a difference for holding aggro... but with the changes to fizzke rate based on armor and not spell... it's painful.

 

I use this a lot, its a per hit dot that will keep on the target as long as your hitting it. Found that chain armor with a high + bear hat helm will lower the full plate fizzle so that flaming sword almost never fails for me and I can cast the fire rings at about a 30% rate. In full plate fizzle rate is to high have to go earth tree when using plate at least that is what i have run into so far.

 

Dont forget to work on the tactics as well. Blade, heavy armor,tactics. I currently am using fire, earth, life and air. And i can sort of tank quite well. I all those magic schools going up to last tier so casting an elemental is quite nice....Life i still have a couple things to raise up but am working on it. I still get taken down by archers pretty quick but i usually target one and body slam him to death. LOL. Currently using chainmal as my armor and using a crafted katana with some nice blade and fire buffs on it.
Pick a magic school you TRULY want to specialize in and get all your gear enchanted and such towards that. Also the blade you use try and get it mastercrafted with your chosen blade skill that works best for you. I got rend on mine. and I also have a percent change of ignite on it so often times i dont have to cast ignite weapon. Works pretty good. And the finishing move on blades is awesome as well.

 

I'd recommend putting some time into raising the Follow Through innate skill in the Focus Tree (bottom middle). At 75 skill currently I get -9.4% magic fizzle chance. If you're going to wear Plate armor, which I do, this helps a lot. Several patches back they made it harder to cast in plate and this basically puts me back to where I was before but it's not as low as I could be... LOL. In full plate with a 2H weapon and ignite weapon at 75 skill with 55.5% fizzle it's practical. But I tend to use only on harder fights, as the short fights where I'm fighting greens mining or such they're over faster than a DoT can proc much. If you're rich or spend the time and effort, you can use Obsidian Armor which has a lower fizzle rate than standard plate as well.

*** Edit: Justice devotional also gives magic fizzle reduction buff as well. ***