Flash of Light - Kiting while blinding

As far as I know I am the biggest proponent of this spell on the forums, so it only seems appropriate for me to respond at some length here.

Flash of Light is, in my opinion, one of our best and most under-utilized spells. It's a life-saver when soloing, it's a ghetto fear spell, a ghetto mez spell, a fast-casting taunter, and a fantastic "get the hell off the caster, you!" spell, all for almost no mana and very little casting time.

I'll cover each of these points one by one.

1. 1. Life-saver when soloing
   As mentioned in the post above, if you need to run away because the warder is dead (or not yet summoned) then a quick FoL (easily cast between blows) and two steps back out of melee range will cause the mob to take off running, giving you plenty of time to head for the horizon yourself. Just make sure that the fear-pathing that the mob is using isn't the same direction you're taking... kinda defeats the purpose if you and the mob both take off in the same direction.
   


2. 2. Ghetto fear spell
   Sometimes if I'm soloing a particularly tough mob that I can't normally beat (Gorgul Paclock of Burning Woods, for example) this works great. It's just like fear-kiting, only you have to keep re-casting FoL to keep the highest aggro.



To explain: When a mob is blinded, it will run away as though feared *IF* the person who is #1 on it's hate list is not in melee range. If you cast FoL and the mob doesn't run, that means the #1 hate target is still fighting. If that person steps back the mob will immediately run until FoL wears off.




So to fear-kite, you must make sure that your warder is NOT out-aggro'ing you... and the best way to do that is to keep re-casting FoL. You could also toss in a DoT or two, but it's difficult to get off a spell with a long casting time while the mob is running away from you with no snare.




One last tidbit... if you cast FoL on the mob and it keeps hitting someone else, re-casting FoL a few times will often get the aggro on you, and if you're standing back while casting that means the mob will head for the hills.



3. 3. Ghetto Mez
   You will get adds. If you have a competent enchanter, no problem. If not, using Flash of Light to keep the adds entertained is a great way to relieve the stress of corpse recovery. Just keep re-flashing them as they come running back until the main mob is taken care of.



If someone in your party has Root, FoL is great for getting the mob away from the party before it is rooted.



4. 4. Fast-cast Taunter
   While there may be other spells that taunt better, none of them cast as fast and for so little mana as FoL. This is important when trying to maximize your own melee output... you want to miss as few swings as possible. This will become even more effective when they fix our swing-timer being reset when casting.



The other advantage of using FoL as a taunter is that if the burn-happy wizard nukes the bejeezus out of the mob while it's blind, it won't turn him into tomato paste. Instead it will take off running.



5. 5. "Get the hell off the caster, you!"
   This has saved the lives of many, many casters in my groups. (Heck, even saved the lives of a few tanks who were less than a bubble of health).



If the poor s.o.b. is running from the mob, it's easy. FoL will make the mob turn tail and run instantly because the person he's chasing is already moving back out of melee range.




If the soon-to-be-hamburger guy is just standing there, accepting his fate, then you need to flash the mob and then quickly say "Back up!" Once he backs out of melee range, the mob will wander off at his best speed.




There may be more uses for this wonder spell that I haven't discovered yet, but the above alone rates this spell a permanent gem-slot when I'm playing.