I would consider this when fear kiting, where the aggro does not matter, or peeling off the casters where you really want the taunt to take. I average about 4 procs a fight with my luppy, call of sky or jolting blades, and this would add about 600 or so damage with no problems. In a large raid situation where I do not want to pull aggro off the main tank on a mob that quads for 300 a blow, this would be in the deepest part of my last pack.
I have been struggling with what to use. I am actively seeking a Fear Raid and (assuming it drops) I am wondering if this would pair best with any of these combos: 1). Primary: Frostbringer, Secondary: Fluxbladed 2). Primary: Fluxbladed, Secondary: Frostbringer 3). Primary: Lamentation, Secondary: Fluxbladed 4). Primary: Fluxbladed, Secondary: Lamentation Thanks for your help.
-Vanyarian Singollo-Ranger of Tunare "All that is gold does not glitter" "All that wander are not lost"
My view (see my post, just below this one), is that the usefulness of the Fluxblade is directly proportionate to your level of Dexterity. At 120 Dex, the weapon is only rarely anything other than a 7 22 weapon. If you have a higher Dexterity, you should certainly go to Fear, grab a Flux (they drop off of Samhains most commonly in my experience), and just play with each of the combinations you've mentioned, until you find a winner. Hell, that's half the fun.
=========== Edit 12/23/01
Recently while fighting in Luclin (in Maiden's Eye and the castle zone in ME, which I can't recall the name of right now) - a shaman decided to Dex me up, and an enchanter decided to turn me into a werewolf. Next time I looked at my stats, my Dexterity was soaring well over 200. Obviously I brought out the fluxblade and I gotta tell ya, what an amazing thing! It proced anywhere from four to eight or nine (!) times in every fight. That's like, nine times 150 - in the thousands of points of damage from a melee weapon! Suffice it to say, I was using Jolt all the time, but holy cow!!! The mobs (which are really rugged there), were falling left and right, and *quickly*. This flux axe is absolutely a BLAST if you can get that Dex up.
Had a good night in Fear tonight. Got Thorny Vine chest and this Fluxbladed Axe.
Now I just can't decide what to be using. I have Wurmslayer, Lammie, and Fluxbladed. I reckon if I did some comparisons I'd find in the end I might do about the same damage using a Wurmslayer and Lammie as I would usin a Flux (with dex around 120ish) and Lammie, but I'll need more play time to figure it out. With Jolt I'm not worried about aggro, but it would sure be nice to ditch that heavy (but powerful) Wurmslayer. We'll see.
I've had a chance to try out all the above combinations and I'm back to my Wurmslayer and Lammie. With my Dex at a lackluster 120, I'd say that about two out of every ten fights turns out spectacularly using the Flux. That means three or more procs at 150 each. Kind of rare. More common is the fight with no procs. I'd say that's been about six in ten. Which means that using the Flux means I'm using a 7 22 axe most of the time. Which is kind of a nasty thought. Particularly when soloing, this has been kind of ugly. I've found myself switching back to Wurmslayer halfway through the fight, just so I'll win.
Wurmslayer is ripped on a lot, it's very cumbersome, it's stamina-draining, it's slow. But it's also very, very consistent. And it truly does just lay out the damage in waves. It provides the ultimate partner to the speedy Lamentation. It allows the Ranger to see hits in the hundreds consistently. Until I find better, this combo is what I'm sticking with.
As for the Flux, I'm certainly hanging on to it. It's nice to switch to in heated multi-battles when the Wurm is wearing me out. And indeed there's nothing quite like the lucky battle where all you see is ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP over and over and the fight is done in like 10 seconds and all that remains is the reek of toasted mob.
If I had Dex around 150 or higher, this would be a far different weapon, a far different scenario (see some of the posts, below), and anytime I luck into a Dex buff, I switch over to this weapon, but until then, there's my take on it.
This thing is cool. I died in PoF on my first time there, I couldn't get my corpse for 6 days. Then I log on finally when I could, and sent a tell to the raid leader that was doing PoF that day, he got a monk to get my corpse, but it wasn;t there, so he said zone in, I got an escort to a necro that was on the raid, he did summon corpse, and I got my stuff back, I was so happy. Then I decided to stay and try to get some TV or a Flux axe. The first Samhain [sic] didn't drop it. The 2nd one had it in his hands. Guild leader did the roll, and bam, I win. It was a 50/50 chance hehe =) This thing rocks. The first time it proced was when I got a TL to GFay. I zone in BB and attack a skunk, and then BOOM! 150dd on him lol. This thing is really cool.
No TV armour, but then I didn't leave fear empty handed, so I won't complain ;)
At first looking at it, I thought "Hmmm, just looks like a Short-Sword of Morin on speed" - and put it away in my pack.
Now, after the raid a friend asks me to help with Lucan in freeport, so I figure "I couldn't really test out that axe in PoF, why not try lucan? We have plenty of tanks there, so my CSS won't be missed" - Having said that, I used the lammy in my main and the Fluxbladed axe in my offhand.
TWICE the thing procs for 150dd and stun during the fight, and I'm now thinking "Oh sheeeeet" as Lucan turns to face me and pummel the heLL out of me :)
Short version - Don't be fooled by the DMG DLY on this axe, I have a feeling the proc by itself will either save your ***, or put you so high on the aggro list you won't know what hit you ;)
As a lvl 52 ranger lammy in main hand and this in offhand. While this dly damg ratio really sucks:( There are some positives about this. My dex is around 130 and I have goten this to proc (No joke:) around 6 times in a period of 20 secs! I was so ******* happy when it happened and couldnt believe it. Basically with high dex this thing procs so many times its work it. I mean heres what I saw 23 damg Lighting arcs blah whatever mob staggers lighting 33damg from lammy lighting lighting 38 damg from lammy lighting 39 damg from lammy 28 damg lighting!!!! Basically I saw a constent blue around the mob at all times. It was so great basically with the procs this adds up to ..... 900damg off procs in a 20 sec period!!!! Now most the time with me I get 4 procs every 1min 30sec or so but remember I have 130 dex. Now Id have to say the coolest thing is when you double attack during this proc. That is basically what happened the first 2 times then the other 2 procs where seperate. Trust me this wep is NOT CRAP, The proc is so nice and with uber dex this thing is even nicer. Btw this spell is rarely resisted mabey once ever 1/10 times:) -Thanks for listening and I hope this helps someone
This Ranger only Axe is dropped in the Plane of Fear. Last time we cleared it, a Samhain dropped it. The effect (Chaos Flux) is a level 24 Enchanter DD which does 150 damage as well as a stun effect.
The damage delay ratio is fairly poor on this axe, but the effect is really nice, so you decide :)
This weapon rocks...with Shaman buffs or Werewolf form I do MAJOR damage with this...and as a ranger I have taunt anyway....so bring it on! I sometimes do 600+ damage per fight with this.