User:VANKRASN39/flare sandbox

The official GemStone IV encyclopedia.
< User:VANKRASN39
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Flares are a common attribute that armor, shields, weapons, and runestaves throughout Elanthia possess. A flare can be anything that benefits the wielder functionally in combat either offensively or defensively that is NOT manually activated by the wielder via a verb trap. Flares can be determined empirically or through a bard loresong; however, scripted flares will NOT typically show up in an item's loresong.

This article is organized to align with the Categories in item properties.

Category B Flares

Category B flares, as officially defined, are categorized into three groups: common, uncommon, and rare. Common and uncommon flares can be found on items in the treasure system, while rare flares are typically only offered through special merchant services at festivals and pay events. They might also be called "traditional" or "standard" flares, for which presence of the flare means an item cannot be blessed.

Flares can injure a target for between 1 to 60 health points, averaging about 20 per flare, and typically causing minor (level 1) wounds.

Common Flares

Common flares include all flares that can be obtained via Elemental Blade (411) and low level mana and acuity runestaff flares. They are also the most likely to be sold off-the-shelf in an event merchant shop. Common flares have a standard rate of 1 per 5 (20%) for weapons and 1 per 8 (12.5%) for runestaffs.

Flare Description Type Loresong ID
Cold Also known as "water" or "ice" flares, these flares are effective on fire-type creatures. See also rhimar Elemental Power of an ice elemental
Fire Effective on cold-type or water-type creatures, as well as trolls and most undead. Most forms of trolls take double damage. Also may be referred to as Heat. See also drake and drakar Elemental Power of a fire elemental
Vacuum Also known as "void" or "air" flares, these flares are found on coraesine weapons Elemental Power of a dark substance
Vibration Also known as "earth" or "impact" flares, these flares are effective on earth-type creatures, such as pyrothags. See also gornar Elemental Power of an earth elemental
Lightning Effective on most creatures, but when used in water-filled rooms, may conduct back to the user. See also feras and zorchar Hybrid Elemental Power of a lightning bolt
Acuity 1x-4x Set bonus upon triggering of +5 AS/+3 CS or +10/+6 or +15/+9 or +20/+12 depending on level (x) Runestaff Focus their magical prowess for a single cast
Mana +1-+2 Returns 1 or 2 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells), depending on plus (+) Runestaff Infused with mana

Uncommon Flares

Uncommon flares include the remaining hybrid elements, spiritual-based flares, as well as mid-levels of mana and acuity.

Flare Description Type Loresong ID
Acid Hybrid Elemental Power of a corrosive substance
Steam More effective on undead Hybrid Elemental Infused with a steaming substance
Disintegration Similar to Disintegrate (705) Sorcerous Infused with a disintegrating substance
Disruption Similar to Mana Disruption (702), can be found in pure black ora weapons Sorcerous Infused with a disrupting substance
Holy water Available only through Bless (304) and sometimes permablessing, these flares behave like acid on undead and (harmless but visible) water on living creatures Spiritual
Plasma Effective on undead, available through Consecrate (1604) Spiritual Power of a flaming substance
Acuity 5x-6x Set bonus of +25 AS/+15 CS or +30/+18, depending on level (x) Runestaff Focus their magical prowess for a single cast
Mana +3-+4 Returns 3 or 4 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells), depending on plus (+) Runestaff Infused with mana

Rare Flares

Rare flares include mechanical, force, high level mana and acuity, and dispel. The designation also included scripted flares from Category D that also take up the Category B property. The list of those flares is incomplete.

Mechanical flares also exist as a functional Category D script, which is NOT the same as these Category B flares.

Flare Description Type Loresong ID
Crushing Applicable only to rods Mechanical
Piercing Applicable only to spikes Mechanical
Slashing Applicable only to blades Mechanical
Grapple Tendril of force. Have a high potential to knockdown/stun targets with very little likelihood of fatal criticals Force
Unbalance Burst of force. Have a very high likelihood of knocking down a target Force
Acuity 7x-10x Set bonus of +35 AS/+21 CS or +40/+24 or +45/+27 or +50/+30, depending on level (x) Runestaff Focus their magical prowess for a single cast
Mana +5 Returns 5 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells) Runestaff Infused with mana
Dispel Removes a spell from the target Dispel Power of a strange anti-magical substance
Greater elemental Weapon has the chance to flare naturally, flare the special scripted double-flare, or both at once Script (Cat. D)
Realm Flares change based on the realm where the wielder is hunting Script (Cat. D)
Rotating Give the wielder a choice of whatever flares are built into the weapon. Script (Cat. D)
Snake A Special flare type with a pit-headed viper and fluff verbs Script (Cat. D)

Unclassified Flares

These are flares that are fairly unknown in regards to their properties and hence are listed as unclassified until further information is discovered to properly identify commonality.

Flare Description Type Loresong ID
Air
Magma Infused with a molten substance
Water Deals water themed crush damage to a target. Mechanical
Psychic Unique flare found on low steel items

Category C Flares

Category C Flares consist of flares added via bane weapon services. The bane flares will only trigger against certain creatures or groups of creatures, and be in the form of a Category B flare, the exact one being the service winner's choice and also dependent upon on what the service options were.

Category D Flares

Category D flares, as officially defined, are item scripts, also referred to as "specialty flares." See above Category B rare flares for Category D scripts that will fill both categories. All of these are considered rare services and unlikely to appear outside of pay events.

Flare Description Type
Banshee Shields and runestaves only. Imparts bonus TD and bolt DS to wielder Script
Blink Allows the wielder to infuse a spell they are capable of learning into the weapon. Flares cast the spell for no mana Script
Blood The flare of a Parasitic Weapon does slashing damage Script
Briar Stores wielder's blood to flare grapple damage Script
Bubble Provide the wielder with temporary damage padding for approximately one minute. Padding levels range from heavy to phenomenal. Script
Chronomage 15% chance to triple attack for additional 1 second RT Script
Ethereal chain Puncture-based flare Script
Immolation Script
Ironwright Gives holy flares when an item is blessed (no matter the profession) as well as a selection of two or three other flares (for example, acid/impact/web). The other flares are activated by casting a related spell at the weapon after it has been blessed (e.g. Hurl Boulder for impact). The flares last until the bless wears off. This flare occupies the script slot, not the flare slot Script
Knockout A Script
Poison Temporary poison flares, which flare occasionally, and the kind of poison flares that flare every hit. Also, there are serpent flares that can have special effects when poisoning the target Script
Polearm rebalance Also known a "poleaxe flares." They inflict a critical from the crush table as damage when they flare, and have the potential for a second "flare" which trips the target. If you have 50 ranks of MOC and the flare activates, you have a 33% chance of also doing the second "flare". If you have 100 ranks of MOC and the flare activates, you have a 66% chance of also doing the second "flare". It is possible to bless weapons with this flare (that would be blessable without it) Script
Rot Is compatible with some other Category D scripts so that an item can have both Script
Shadowdeath These flares do only blood-loss type damage, no wounds. Only found on "black alloy" weapons Script
Vial Produces a vial that returns a small amount of mana, health, or spirit (depending on the type) when triggered Script

Methods of Obtaining Flares

Flares can be added to weapons that do not previously have flares by a variety of methods. There are some methods that do not require a merchant, such as the paladin spell Sanctify (1625), the cleric spell Bless Item (304) (when cast by a cleric with 40 or more ranks in the Cleric Base), or the minor elemental spell Elemental Blade (411). Each of these spells have restrictions on which weapons they can be cast on and still add the flares. To add flares to a weapon that is magical or non-blessable, one would require the services of a special merchant. A merchant might add standard flares (which would be heat, cold, vibration, lightning, or acid flares). Very rarely will they add other, non-standard flares.

Premium subscribers can add one standard flare from awarded Premium points at a cost of 300 points + 300 points per item enchant. For example, the cost to add acid flares to a 5x (+25) longsword would be 300 + (300 * 5 ) = 1800 premium points.

Armor Flares

Flares can be added to armor and armor accessories, often referred to as reactive flares. Generally, these flares are considered defensive in nature, as they only react when the character is struck by an attacker. However, certain combat maneuvers will implement these flares in an offensive manner, such as Sweep, Bearhug, and Shield Bash. Reactive flares can be added to full armor, shields, and piece armor (leg greaves, helmets, etc.). It is believed that all armor flares are both reactive and offensive in nature, in that they may flare when the wearer of flared armor is struck, and they may flare when a combat maneuver that can use armor flares is used. Piece armors will only flare when the body part they cover is struck or the combat maneuver makes contact with the covered body part -- for example, when a character uses Sweep, the legs make contact with the enemy, and therefore if the character is wearing flaring leg greaves, it has a chance to flare.

Reactive flares can be added to shields and armor, but not armor accessories, through the Premium points system.

Resources