Spiral Knights - Thinking About Ash of Agni

Thinking About Ash of Agni

13 replies [Last post]

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 04:33

Torikakae

For a Pure Bomber, in what aspect does Ash of Agni shine? It just seems that whatever Ash of Agni can do, there's another bomb that can do better. In terms of ranged damage, Dark Retribution seems to do a better job. AoA's damage just seems too slow for me. In terms of support, the damage it provides seems to pale in comparison to the utility of the other support bombs like Voltaic, Stagger, and Shiver (since if I'm playing support, my teammates already assumed the DPS roles).

In which situations does Ash of Agni do a better job that other bombs can't?

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 04:54

Zeddy

Ice Cubes. You can also stack an AoA with a VT since putting down two VTs in a row isn't going to shock the enemies even more.

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 05:36

Bopp

spread out enemies

Ash of Agni delivers a nice rate of damage against a big crowd. You can clear an arena wave pretty safely with it, for example. Voltaic Tempest may do more damage when the enemies are tightly packed (due to shock's area effect), but I think that Ash of Agni does more damage against sparse crowds.

I think everyone knows that Shivermist Buster can be disruptive, because freeze hinders kiting, knockback, shield-bumping, etc. To a lesser extent, shock can be disruptive. Except for oilers, fire is never disruptive. It just kills. Ash of Agni and Venom Veiler make a nice support combination.

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 06:37

Fradow

AoA + VT combo

I am a fan of AoA + VT combo, because it does very high aoe damage very safely.

It shines against non-elemental resistant mobs that also don't resist fire nor shock. The prime example is RJP, where DR will have trouble dispatching minis, and overall a lot of jellies will just go through. Also, as Bopp said, it's great in arenas.

The thing is, apart from shard, there is no real elemental damage bomb (Vortex is very dangerous in my opinion, and not really a damage bomb), and for shadow, DR have some short-comings, especially for smaller targets.

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 18:17

Nergee

get it. its sexy.

AoA was one of my first bombs and i absolutely adore it! i'd adore my nitro more if it didnt give me seizures, but it does.

others have mentioned the AoA/VT combo; it effectively renders enemies harmless as they slowly sit and die. if you want DPS, it is most certainly not a direct damage bomb (and dont treat it as such) but serves as an excellent support bomb that can save quite a bit of time. in IQ, it absolutely dominates when coupled with a disabling bomb like VT or Stagger. with VV, the jellies quickly become paste on the floor :D

truth be told, you can easily get by without an AoA, but it fills a niche that cant quite be done as well by any other bomb.

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 20:55

Sondrei

Ash of Agni...

Its pretty good for any situation and can kill almost any enemy in the game ( except for fire types) and can get out of a lot of bad situations (except for a really bad corner) so its pretty much essential that you get Ash of Agni if your a pure bomber...

Sat, 12/08/2012 - 23:35

Torikakae

Thanks for your inputs!

I think I'm understanding AoA a little more now. With limited weapon slots available, I sometimes wonder if bringing AoA was a mistake. My teammates never comment on how AoA is helping them. But maybe just because we don't notice it doesn't mean it's not doing a good job.

I'll experiment with the VT/AoA combo then. Does Bomb Damage from Armor/Trinkets affect the Fire/Shock Damage from AoA/VT? I think it would be very useful against enemies with shields (Trojans, Gremlins. Fire damage is Neutral, right?).

@Nergee
You said it dominates in Ice Queen. Do Ice Monsters get extra damage from Fire?

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 00:56

Fradow

The bomb damage doesn't

The bomb damage doesn't affect shock/fire damage, it only affects the tiny detonation of the haze, that's why it's considered not worth it for haze bombs.

Fire damage is not neutral : it's fire damage, and have its own table : http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Ash_of_Agni Note that "resistant" targets, such as gremlins, will not have as much as a resistance as from other damage type (the most resistant will take about 50% of the weakest target).

Ice cubes are the one which takes the most damage, yes, and the ones with spikes will melt and be transformed in less dangerous jelly cube without spike, and thus have less health and be less dangerous.

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 04:29

Zeddy

Fire is not worth it for gremlins and beasts, but combined with the haze blast it's not bad against trojans.

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 06:08

Irokwe

I like AoA

AoA is imo a very good all-around bomb, it's great for pretty much everything except FSC. It does more damage than shock against not tightly packed groups of mobs (the fire does).
For trolljans, I find it best to run around them with DBB (same method as with the old RSS), it's much more effective than fire imo. Also, I think they need to have their backs to the center of the bomb to be effected.

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 14:16

#10

Aureate

Processing Thoughts of You Always

@Zeddy: Actually, gremlins are the only monsters with fire resistance. Beasts aren't fire-resistant.

@OP: AoA deals good DoT to pretty much all enemies that aren't either a) fire immune, b) gremlins or c) Oilers. It won't cause any interference with crowd control (other than Freeze-inflicting weapons), and can be happily used in combination with Voltaic Tempest and Venom Veiler in order to soften up large numbers of enemies. It won't interfere with vortices, and it won't stick enemies in your allies' faces.

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 21:38

#11

Senshi

O Rly?

Not worth it? Hnnh, I like using my AoA to soften up the hordes in Deconstruction Zones. They catch fire often enough that when dozens are following you through a continuous succession of bombs, they all end up on fire. They also pop a health cap and run away in the end if you carry it too far, so it is softening-up, not a finishing move. (But, I'm not pure bomber I'm hybrid player. When they're soft enough I pull out umbra driver and each shot is a kill. Two if I'm lucky with the ricochet.)

I also like to kill trojans with my AoA if I don't have any health caps, but I only have AoA and Shivermist to work with anyway. AoA'ing trojans is slow but safe, but I would suppose any bomb that hurts trojans is equally safe to circle them with.

Fri, 12/14/2012 - 15:09

#12

Fropps

@Zeddy

I read somewhere else that fire only has a debuff against gremlins not beasts, fire resist is just a species quirk.

As far as I know...

Sat, 12/15/2012 - 14:40

#13

Aureate

Processing Thoughts of You Always

@Fropps: Actually, it's pretty logical if you think about it. Gremlins spend so much time playing with explosives and flamethrowers that it would be rather odd if they didn't have some kind of protection against being set on fire...

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Thinking About Ash of Agni