BURST DAMAGE 101 - Sneaking Energy Bolts

There’s tons of different burst combos out there and in this guide I will go over essentially all of them. These burst combos will start out in their simplest form, and as we get to the later stages of this guide, the burst combos will become more complex, typically by merging multiple burst combos into one another. Once you master a few of these burst combos individually, you can chain them into one another. It's fucking sick honestly so lets get right to it.

First and foremost I will go over Energy Bolt sneaks. These come in many different variations, but we will start the most potent and reliable EB sneak - the MA EB weapon swing combo These are EB sneaks aided by a magic arrow and a weapon swing. This is my bread and butter honestly. I've won countless tournaments using this simple yet effective burst combo. Before I go over the specifics of how to pull off this burst combo, watch the video below to see it in action.

For context, the video above is from the semi finals in a tournament recently, against a strong opponent. I mention that to show that this technique can be used on anyone, in any scenario, no matter the stakes. People make mistakes at any level, and aggression wins duels.

Technique Breakdown

Alright as you can see in the video, the opponent started out at 83% hp. We both have around 40 mana. I run in for a hally smack. It chunks him down to around 50% hp. He gheals, I send an MA at his gheal, immediately followed by casting an energy bolt Now I want you to really look closely at what happened from this point on. A few milliseconds after I start casting energy bolt, he starts casting gheal within 1-2 tiles from me. He may not know it, but he just committed a potentially lethal defensive mistake - he is ghealing too close to me. And since I started my EB cast before his gheal cast, there is a very slim window between the time my energy bolt cursor is up, and before his gheal cursor is ready, where I can attempt a weapon swing to interrupt the tail end of his gheal cast. The weapon swing interrupt, after my EB cursor is up is the key. I want you to pause the video repeatedly and watch it frame by frame. Notice the moment I get the EB cursor up, I go for the weapon swing. In this case, an axe swing that landed for 21 damage. Now, hes at 20% hp and I have the EB cursor still up. I send the EB for the kill and its over. Just like that. 2 swings, from 83% to 0. Duel over. Now I also want to point out something critical - It only cost me 4 mana to attempt this burst kill Now you may be saying - Angus, you spent 24 mana there. This is true, but I ONLY sent the EB (20 mana) because there was a clear kill opportunity after my weapon interrupt landed. Let me explain - this is a common misconception about burst damage combos. People are reluctant to go for them due to their mana consumption. What people don't realize is, its very cheap to attempt a burst damage combo. - Key word attempt Put simply - its free to cast an EB. It only costs mana if you SEND the EB. Go back and watch the video - the burst attempt officially began the moment I sent the MA and started casting EB. At this point in the video, after I sent MA, I spent 4 mana. Opponent is at 41%, ghealing. I get EB cursor up and swing, now he's 20% and I send the EB for the kill. I want you to go over the same scenario, except I MISS the swing interrupt. What happens then? Well, if I get the EB cursor up, swing and MISS the interrupt.... he gets his gheal off, and I just cancel the EB cursor and we reset. In that exchange, I spent 4 mana attempting a KILL combo, and he spent 11 mana ghealing. I won that exchange either way - if my hit lands, I win the duel outright with a kill. If I miss, I won the exchange in terms of mana consumption. Don't you see? Essentially, I used 4 mana to attempt a kill, which works 50% of the time if your opponent gheals too close to you while you are casting EB. Take that all day long. You see, it is NOT a wasteful gamble. You don't use the 20 mana unless its for the kill, or you are absolutely swimming in mana and sending the EB will put your opponent on the fence. A true gamble would be sending an EB before your weapon lands, praying your weapon does land for the kill or the interrupt. That is NOT what is happening here. We are fishing for the weapon hit upfront, before we commit to spending 20 mana. Also notice, I start at only 40 mana - that's not much by most peoples standards. But once you master burst damage, you will realize 40 mana is a LOT of damage potential if used correctly, as you see here, I only needed 24 mana to take him from 83% to 0.

Why this combo works

Magic arrow has a damage delay. When you send magic arrow, the damage / interrupt is delayed to your opponent. So when I send out a magic arrow, I have a brief window where I can start my EB cast before the damage has even interrupted my opponent. Therefore, I get a head start on my EB cast. This is crucial, as the window between getting my EB cursor up, and swinging on their gheal cast is quite narrow. Every millisecond you can gain over the opponent here matters.

You need that second weapon hit to land in order for the enemy to stay interrupted Yes that sounds obvious but I just want to point out that if I just sent the EB without swinging, the EB will never interrupt the gheal there because the damage delay EB has. The weapon interrupt is critical

You already know how to do this

You know, most everyone reading this guide already knows how to use this tactic - you just don't know it yet. I see you all use this same technique when sending MA into Lightning. (MA, load spell, swing before sending spell) Almost every decent dueler does this constantly. You are cycling an enemy - they gheal, you harm them. They cast gheal again. You send MA and start loading lightning They gheal again. You get lightning cursor up, and SWING before sending your lightning Boom. Thats it dude. It's the same tactic with MA into EB - the window is just much wider with a lightning cast. The video below shows exactly what I mean - this is good practice to work your way up to doing the same tactic, except with an EB instead of lightning.

Oh yeah, also should mention that instead of starting with MA, You can start the tactic with any spell that has a similar damage delay : Fireball, Mindblast, and Energy Bolt in particular. Yep you read that right, Energy Bolt Now we are getting into some more juicy shit. Trade the MA out for an EB what do you get? EB --> EB

Now THAT is some burst damage. Its the same principle as MA --> EB You use the damage delay of the first EB to give you a window to sneak another EB load before the weapon interrupt like I showed above. Also it may be obvious to some but I might as well mention it: always swing the highest damage weapon you have available coming soon - Ill also include some videos of fireball EB, MB EB