User:WBURKE1/Turnip Farmer's Guide to Flares

"What kind of flares are the best?" is a pretty common question on the Discord, so I thought it might be useful to summarize some thoughts about things that can go in the ability slot of an item, aka Category B or "flare slot" effects. This will look only at the ability slot - effects that work like flares but don't compete with other ability slot effects, or scripts that stomp the ability slot, won't be covered, because that would be apples and oranges.

The Flares page explains in detail the mechanics of flares. For now, the quick version is that they can go on weapons, shields, armor, or armor accessories, and they have a 20% chance to fire off each time the item they're on is used in combat (or 12.5% chance for runestaffs). Standard flares have a streakbreaker system to mitigate randomness, meaning that you usually won't have streaks of flares firing much more or less often than they should.

TL;DR

• What's the best common flare type for killing things? Lightning.
• How much difference is there between lightning and the worst common flare? Not that much. If there's a particular flare type that feels right for your character, you won't be giving up a lot by using it instead of lightning.
• What about dispel? It's better, but maxing it out is very expensive.
• What about acuity or mana? If you're using a runestaff, high-tier acuity flares are probably better for you. They also cost more.
• What about really rare or expensive flares? Are they a lot better? They're a little better. They're also a lot more expensive. If you're asking questions like "what flare type is the best?" then you are probably not at the point in the game where you should worry about getting a rare flare.
• I'm a paladin. Are 1604/1625 flares better than other flares? Yes, unless you have something really expensive.

Ability Slot Effects

Flare Type	Effect
Stats (AS, DS, TD)	Some items just directly provide statistical bonuses in the ability slot. These items are extremely rare and absurdly expensive as a result. They're also always on compared to the intermittent value of a flare.
Standard damage flares (fire, cold, acid, disintegration, disruption, plasma, vacuum, impact, water, crush/slash/pierce)	Despite the wildly varying rarity and cost of these flares, all of them are pretty much the same. When they fire, you get a random, usually medium-rank critical from the appropriate critical table. Some of these may work slightly better against certain enemies or have a slightly better chance to kill, but in the end they all do about the same damage.
Lightning	Lightning is a standard damage flare, but stands out because of its chance to target the enemy's nerves, which produces a higher proportion of instant kills. As a result, it's widely agreed that lightning is the strongest standard damage flare. When it doesn't instantly kill, it's basically the same as any other standard damage flare.
Disabling flares - grapple, unbalance, air	These flares use critical tables that do less damage, but stun and knock down much more frequently. As a result, they're not good at killing enemies, but they're very good at disabling them for you to kill. Unfortunately the intermittent nature of flares means that this is not a reliable way to disable enemies, but you might want it anyway if extra damage doesn't appeal to you.
Steam	Steam is a standard damage flare but deserves the unfortunate special note that its critical table is just worse than other critical tables to no apparent benefit. It's not that big a difference, but there's just no reason to choose them if you can choose something else.
Guiding Light	Guiding Light flares are only available to paladins. They're plasma standard flares that have a chance to fire off a second plasma flare when they fire. They're straightforwardly better than any standard damage flares.
Acuity	Acuity is only available on runestaffs, and has a chance to give you increased AS/CS for your next spell. It has up to 10 tiers of effectiveness. Stat bonuses are powerful, and acuity is a stat bonus, even though it's a flare. At lower tiers, it's not impressive, but a high-tier acuity flare is either the best or a very strong option for any pure caster.
Mana	Mana is also only available on runestaffs, and has a chance to give you mana when a spell is cast. It has up to 5 tiers of effectiveness. Mana is important, but there are a lot of other ways to get mana, so these tend to fall off for most characters as mana becomes less of a limiting resource.
Dispel	Dispel flares attempt to dispel a number of spells off the target. They have up to 5 tiers. If the target doesn't have any spells, they make an SMR attack and deliver a disruption critical if successful. There's also a combo mechanic that can cause damage, which is totally random for dispel flares. The most important characteristic of dispel flares is that, on weapons, they act before the spell or attack roll, meaning that the target will be dispelled and possibly damaged before your attack is resolved. This is a very powerful effect, and dispel flares are extremely popular as a result. Note that dispel is NOT preroll for armor, and so it's notably less valuable there.
Magma	Magma flares apply a fire critical and also inflict roundtime on the enemy. Roundtime is a disabler, but it's pretty short-term. Ultimately, though, magma is "a regular flare, plus something extra," so it's straightforwardly better than a regular flare.
Terror	Terror flares immobilize, stance down, disarm, and inflict roundtime. It's a disabling flare, but the target is very, very disabled, such that it'll be a while before they pose a threat again. The sheer magnitude of disable makes these pretty powerful.
Death	These do what they say on the box. Yes, these are the best flares.