Guild Wars 2

This is one of those utility skills that I rarely find use for. In fact, I don’t even know what it’s there for. I can use other utility skills to remove conditions. I can use weapon skills/dodge to get out of the way of mobs. Why do I need this utility skill?
When I first got this skill I thought I could use it to teleport to platforms in jump puzzles like some of the other classes. But I quickly found out that, that was not possible. I can’t even port across a small gap.

So what’s the point of lightning flash?

AFAIK teleportation skills are behaving uniformly across professions. You cannot teleport to a place if there is no way to walk there from your location and the walk distance cannot be very long too. For example: there were some places for example in EB jumping puzzle (WvW) where you were able to skip parts of the puzzle by porting, but it worked also with Ele’s Lightning Flash.

Yes, Lightning Flash is useful in WvW/PvP. This game is not about PvE only and not every skill has to be super-useful there.

Lightning Flash can be used as a gap closer or gap maker. You can use for example with Burning Speed or conjured Fiery Greatsword to maximize damage on a target. You can use during channels to get to safety out of line of sight and be able to finish channeling in safety (full duration Meter Shower during sieges, Churning Earth channel). On top of that it is a stun breaker and with cantrip builds it gets multitude of other benefits.

Just grab a dagger offhand, walk into some mobs, channel churning earth and see yourself die.
Then grab the same dagger, walk next to the same mobs(far enough, so you don’t get aggro), channel churning earth, and just before its finished, flash into the mobs and see THEM die.
Then see the difference.

Interesting since I do not PvP. And am mainly a staff ele.

Lightning flash is also a stun breaker, mostly useful in pvp/wvw

Lightning Flash is pretty much stapled onto my bar, even in PvE.
It’s a stunbreaker that also teleports. If you get into trouble, you can quickly be somewhere else. This really helps if you need to get out of a red circle in a hurry. There’s a great number of times this skill has got me to safety, both in dungeon parties and solo.

lightning flash is great. i use it to get in and out of sticky situation in WvW and PvE.

my primary use for it though is initation with churning earth. i can crit around 9k – 10k with churning earth. you charge up CE, then use lightning flash to get into position right before i goes off.

Depending on your traits (because it’s a cantrip), Lightning Flash may also give special benefits such as might, regeneration, vigor, etc. As others have stated, it’s a low cooldown stun-breaker that also gives distance.

I never leave home without it. Every weapon set has some use for the skill. Even a staff ele can cast Meteor Shower in front of themselves to attack somebody running towards them, then flash to the other side when they have been reached in order to make the opponent run back through or avoid your shower, though this is not the only use a staff ele would have for it.

Leuca.5732:

I never leave home without it. Every weapon set has some use for the skill. Even a staff ele can cast Meteor Shower in front of themselves to attack somebody running towards them, then flash to the other side when they have been reached in order to make the opponent run back through or avoid your shower, though this is not the only use a staff ele would have for it.

go the extra way of throwing that crippling wall into the mix before channeling meteor… They will have to walk through that twice.

Instead of a close range air 5 or earth 4 with offhand dagger, you now have 900 range ones.

naphack.9346:

Leuca.5732:

I never leave home without it. Every weapon set has some use for the skill. Even a staff ele can cast Meteor Shower in front of themselves to attack somebody running towards them, then flash to the other side when they have been reached in order to make the opponent run back through or avoid your shower, though this is not the only use a staff ele would have for it.

go the extra way of throwing that crippling wall into the mix before channeling meteor… They will have to walk through that twice.

You can also utelize lightning 5 stun twice if you uste it correctly. in staff it is basically avoidance and not so much used offensively.

if you want to be really pro you use Fiery Greatsword 3 and then teleport back into the target for even more damage.

personally i rather have someting else on my bar – and i play a condition damage focused ele. where it is pretty usefull.. the timer is just too long

Asmodal.6489:

if you want to be really pro you use Fiery Greatsword 3 and then teleport back into the target for even more damage.

lol never even thought of that
“advanced advanced tactics!”

Speaking about Fiery Greatsword. You can use skill #4 untargetted with the Lightning Flash for pretty nice damage.

Demonstration: http://youtu.be/hoAWsEZbXG4?t=15s

Untargeted Fiery Rush is pretty crazy ( http://youtu.be/wPZaIWJfn6w ).

Lightning flash can be used for movement during any channeled skill, including FGS3, churning earth, and meteor shower. This is where I personally find it is most useful.

If traited for it, it is also a cantrip which can have quite a few different benefits.

Used as an escape tool, it is very handy. In the same way, it can essentially be used as a “dodge” as well as to introduce confusion in a fight by changing where you are on the field in a “flash” (hehe).

Lightning Flash is a great skill, it’s not on my skill bar all the time, but combined with channeling skills it is very strong in PvP / wvw also it’s great for mobility if I am trolling people all over the map in WvW.

bottom line:

if you do not trait cantrips there might be better stuff to pick.

personally i feel that glyphs deserve a small boost.
inscription is very nice with the heal glyph but for example in fire it should give additional 3 stacks of might instead of one – or at least two just to be in line with cantrips (which are to strong at the moment – but hey! )

You know those annoying crystal cages Subject Alpha and The Shatterer put you in? Guess what gets you out of them instantly.

I really depends on what you’re playing.

I can see how people find it useless in PvE, PvP on the other hand is a completely different story. On a D/D Ele I’d even say it’s one of the best skills in the entire game. It closes gaps, it creates gaps, breaks stuns and lands your Burning Speeds/Earthquakes/Churning Earths exactly where you want them, pretty much without any chances of dodging (Burning Speed and Earthquake at least; Churning Earth is a different story due to its long channel time and most players getting used to it being Lightning Flashed).

Personally, ever since I first put that skill on my bar I’ve never left house without it again.

Lightning strike , is for wvw only. If you dont wvw then its useless

Fuzzion.2504:

Lightning strike , is for wvw only. If you dont wvw then its useless

u wot m8

Lightning Flash is useful anywhere. sPvP and PvE. In PvE it’s more for D/D but in mid tier level FotM (18 atm) and in CoE it’s very handy too have.

Very useful trait, especially if you’ve traited some points into Water.

It functionally works exactly the same as mesmer’s Blink. A 900 range teleport that breaks stun.

However, if you trait for cantrips to proc regen and vigor, it’s arguably better than the mesmer’s ability (though the mesmer can trait for theirs to go a bit farther).

Out of the 4 cantrips, I almost always run Armor of Earth, Cleansing Flame, and Lightning Flash. In PvP, mist form is not so good, since you can’t cap points while invulnerable. I swap out Lightning Flash for Mist Form for the Spirit Watch map tho, since you can mist form with the orb, but can’t teleport…

kekuso.5837:

Out of the 4 cantrips, I almost always run Armor of Earth, Cleansing Flame, and Lightning Flash. In PvP, mist form is not so good, since you can’t cap points while invulnerable. I swap out Lightning Flash for Mist Form for the Spirit Watch map tho, since you can mist form with the orb, but can’t teleport…

…Which will change with the next build, causing you to drop the orb when becoming invulnerable.

I can’t live without Lightning Flash.xD