User:MEKK1
Flares are a common attribute that armor, shields, weapons, and runestaves throughout Elanthia possess. A flare can be anything that activates randomly to cause damage (traditionally), provide some sort of protection, or even transport the user. Flares can be determined empirically or through a bard loresong; however, scripted flares will NOT typically show up in an item's loresong.
For clarity's sake, 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.
They can cause between 1 to 60 damage, averaging about 20 damage per flare. It is estimated that standard flares occur at a rate of 1 in 4 for weapons and 1 in 7 for runestaves.
Check Item Properties for which flares are available to be put on a piece of equipment.
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.
| Flare | Description | Type | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold | Also known as "water" or "ice" flares, these flares are effective on fire-type creatures. See also rhimar | Elemental | Category B |
| Fire | Effective on cold-type or water-type creatures, as well as trolls and most undead. Most forms of trolls take double damage. See also drake and drakar | Elemental | Category B |
| Vacuum | Also known as "void" or "air" flares, these flares are found on coraesine weapons | Elemental | Category B |
| Vibration | Also known as "earth" flares, these flares are effective on earth-type creatures, such as pyrothags. See also gornar | Elemental | Category B |
| 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 | Category B |
| 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 | Category B |
| Mana +1-+2 | Returns 1 or 2 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells), depending on plus (+) | Runestaff | Category B |
Uncommon Flares
Uncommon flares include the remaining hybrid elements, spiritual-based flares, as well as mid-levels of mana and acuity.
| Flare | Description | Type | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acid | Category B | Hybrid Elemental | |
| Steam | Not heavily sought after due to an overall inferior critical table. Effective on undead | Hybrid Elemental | Category B |
| Disintegration | Similar to Disintegrate (705) | Sorcerous | Category B |
| Disruption | Similar to Mana Disruption (702), can be found in pure black ora weapons | Sorcerous | Category B |
| Holy water | Available only through Bless Item (304) and sometimes permablessing, these flares behave like acid on undead and (harmless but visible) water on living creatures | Spiritual | Category B |
| Plasma | Effective on undead, available through Consecrate (1604) | Spiritual | Category B |
| Acuity 5x-6x | Set bonus of +25 AS/+15 CS or +30/+18, depending on level (x) | Runestaff | Category B |
| Mana +3-+4 | Returns 3 or 4 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells), depending on plus (+) | Runestaff | Category B |
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.
| Flare | Description | Type | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crushing | Applicable only to rods | Mechanical | Category B |
| Piercing | Applicable only to spikes | Mechanical | Category B |
| Slashing | Applicable only to blades | Mechanical | Category B |
| Grapple | Tendril of force. Have a high potential to knockdown/stun targets with very little likelihood of fatal criticals | Force | Category B |
| Unbalance | Burst of force. Have a very high likelihood of knocking down a target | Force | Category B |
| Acuity 7x-10x | Set bonus of +35 AS/+21 CS or +40/+24 or +45/+27 or +50/+30, depending on level (x) | Runestaff | Category B |
| Mana +5 | Returns 5 mana upon triggering (even upon casting defensive spells) | Runestaff | Category B |
| Dispel | Removes a spell from the target | Dispel | Category B |
| Greater elemental | Weapon has the chance to flare naturally, flare the special scripted double-flare, or both at once | Script | Category B & D |
| Realm | Flares change based on the realm where the wielder is hunting | Script | Category B & D |
| Rotating | Give the wielder a choice of whatever flares are built into the weapon. | Script | Category B & D |
| Banshee | Shields and runestaves only. Imparts bonus TD and bolt DS to wielder | Script | Category C |
| Blink | Allows the wielder to infuse a spell they are capable of learning into the weapon. Flares cast the spell for no mana | Script | Category C |
| Blood | The flare of a Parasitic Weapon does slashing damage | Script | Category C |
| Briar | Stores wielder's blood to flare grapple damage | Script | Category C |
| Bubble | Provide the wielder with temporary damage padding for approximately one minute. Padding levels range from heavy to phenomenal. | Script | Category C |
| Chronomage | 15% chance to triple attack for additional 1 second RT | Script | Category C |
| Ethereal chain | Puncture-based flare | Script | Category C |
| Immolation | Script | Category C | |
| 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 | Category C |
| Knockout | Script | Category C | |
| 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 | Category C |
| 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 | Category C |
| Rot | Is compatible with some other Category D scripts so that an item can have both | Script | Category C |
| Shadowdeath | These flares do only blood-loss type damage, no wounds. Only found on "black alloy" weapons | Script | Category C |
| Vial | Produces a vial that returns a small amount of mana, health, or spirit (depending on the type) when triggered | Script | Category C |
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, 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 piece armor, through the Premium points system.