Inner Flame is incredibly fun

[zasvid]

I last played Fire Elementalists when they still were long range napalm cannons, but today I checked out the 0.10 version (mainly because I have awesome names for DE Elementalists, so I feel compelled to win with one sometime). Once I've got to an appropriate level, I tried out Inner Flame and boy, I never had so much fun fighting early bands of orcs. I wish I could see facial expressions of all those orcish priests getting ready to smite my frail elf when their companions explode in a brutal and fiery fashion.

However, I also have a protip: innerflaming orc wizards are problematic if they turn invisible. They might get lethally injured while standing next to you...

Anyone got any fun stories about their usage of Inner Flame?

[BlackSheep]

A combo I see thrown around a bunch is Inner Flame followed by Enslavement. Hm, I'll have to try that on a Spriggan sometime. At least they can run away if something they Inner Flamed comes too close.

[eharper256]

So far, I always nuke myself with it. Sometimes you can't pump out the damage to kill that thing in the middle before something else gets in the way. Well, at least with the Arcane Marksman, anyway. Perhaps there should be a function to disable it as it has an apparently very long duration that you can't melee the enemy for. Maybe I just play archers wrong by switching to melee to polish things off rather than continually backpeddling (that's rather irritating).

It does become moderately effective and hilarious as a secondary detonation with a fireball, however. And Mephitic Cloud + Inner Flame + Ignite Poison is brutal.

[mageykun]

Inner Flame is incredibly fun

So very very true.

Yeah, I wouldn't use it on orc wizards. Blink, enough MR to maybe resist, and invs could all mean trouble. Target the vanilla orcs, or whatever the weakest type in the band is.

Inner flame is also fantastic as crowd control against the now more common bee vaults. Careful play can keep them walled in behind flame clouds and blowing each other up. Of course, bees are fast, so be careful that you don't let a flamed one get adjacent to you. And even with Vehumet, and constant explosions, you can have mp conservation problems when trying to contain a large crowd this way early on. Inner flame + wand of enslavement is also great in the early levels- especially for sending weak things on kamikaze runs against powerful uniques.

I've found inner flame hard to work against ugly things- they resist maybe 1/3 of the time, and move fast enough / have enough hp to sometimes close before exploding. Also works on undead (physical ones, like zombies and skeletal things, at least), but it can be pretty tricky to use effectively against things like skeletal warriors.

Later in the game it actually gets better, since damage scales with monster size. It's fantastic when you get enough spell power to drop inner flames in bands of big things like trolls, ogres, death yaks, elephant, yaktaurs... The one draw back is you have to limit yourself to things with lower MR.

Inner flame detonations do not circumvent mummy curses.

Experience based off my DrFE. Fast races might be able to kite more and better exploit, and races with better int growth or fire apps might be able to overpower enemy MR better.

For added fun, stack inner flame with other thing. Sheep pack + inner flame + sticky flame = panicked baa-ing terror running and exploding in all directions (which can be weaponized- they flee away from you, so you can get them to go towards something else). Fireball + inner flame + giant spore = 3 explosions in one turn. XD

[XuaXua]

The trick is to inner flame the weakest enemy (plain orcs), then enslave them and then 't' 'w' because they keep approaching.

If you have time, chain it by inner-flaming whoever is attacking the orc.

[rebthor]

The trick is to inner flame the weakest enemy (plain orcs), then enslave them and then 't' 'w' because they keep approaching.

If you have time, chain it by inner-flaming whoever is attacking the orc.

Which makes it hilarious but oh so tedious to to effectively.

[galehar]

I played a CeAM in the tournament and had a lot of fun with inner flame. I love it
Yes it can backfire, but it's the whole point and make it very tactical. Being a Ce, I had the option of kiting when I used the spell poorly. But there are other options to avoid melee, like using slow, confuse or blink. If you have rF+ and/or conservation, detonating it in melee might be OK. Especially at the entrance of a monsters' room for example.

• Inner flame monsters with reaching weapons, they won't get too close (although I might render that advice obsolete someday and give them a chance to close in. I don't like how they are trivial to escape with stairs).
• You'll learn to love fleeing monsters. As soon as they start running, inner flame them. When they get close to the fresh monsters who are just coming, finish them. In the mid-game, slime creatures are living land mines.
• It really shines for clearing monster rooms. I cleared a big undead room with it, it was awesome.
• Use a ring of fire to help you overcome monsters' MR and protect you in case you have to detonate in melee.
• The inner flame / enslavement combo works great and is really fun. It cost a lot of MP, so I think it's balanced. Be careful if you worship Oka, don't do it on summoners and chain reactions can end up with him blaming you for your slave's death.
• Keep pumping skills if you want to use it in Zot against draconians. They are known for their relatively low MR, but 21 int, 12 hexes, 10 fire wasn't enough, even with the ring of fire.

[Tiber]

Inner flame is so delightfully overpowered. I've used it to take out an orc warlord at level 10. Combine it with a demonspawn with the fire facet (ignite blood also gives you immunity to flame clouds) for extra fun.

[Southpaw]

gelehar, I think they are fine in regards to escaping via stairs.

Reaching weapons already "double" the amount of monsters that can attack a player (consider the increase in "scariness" gnoll packs had with the change) so its not an unreasonable trade off that the encounter is a little easier to escape from.

[BlackSheep]

Has there been an update to the "pack" behavior code (you know, what makes monsters of the same type try to surround you) to factor in reaching? In a corridor, will a gnoll with a spear walk all the way up to you to let the gnoll with a halberd behind him get a hit in on you?

[mageykun]

Just discovered inner flame works quite great in the shoals. The lowest tiers of merfolk are easily susceptible, and you can blow them up on the bands of javeliners, aquamancers, etc you encounter. Even better, the flame clouds they leave behind function as steam generators, chipping away at the health of the whole giant mob attacking you on Shoals:5, and blocking LOS all over the place, giving you cover from the constant incoming ranged attacks that are usually such a problem.

[mattlistener]

Sometimes you can't pump out the damage to kill that thing in the middle before something else gets in the way. Well, at least with the Arcane Marksman, anyway.

Good opportunity for Portal Projectile?

[eharper256]

Sometimes you can't pump out the damage to kill that thing in the middle before something else gets in the way. Well, at least with the Arcane Marksman, anyway.

Good opportunity for Portal Projectile?

You're not guaranteed to have that as an Arcane Marksman.

[XuaXua]

Sometimes you can't pump out the damage to kill that thing in the middle before something else gets in the way. Well, at least with the Arcane Marksman, anyway.

Good opportunity for Portal Projectile?

You're not guaranteed to have that as an Arcane Marksman.

I didn't think anyone is guaranteed that spell.

[mageykun]

Warpers are!

[XuaXua]

Warpers are!

You're a warper.