As fans know, the Dark Souls franchise is not for the faint-hearted. Notorious as one of the most difficult series in recent gaming memory, FromSoftware’s action RPG titles take absolutely zero prisoners, as the player is assailed from all sides by all manner of nightmarish creatures. From a gaggle of mobs to a deadly boss, anything can take you down in a heartbeat around here if you aren’t careful.
Having said that, though, the player can certainly wreak some havoc right back. There are a huge number of formidable weapons and builds to employ, a popular one being the Pyromancy route. If ‘kill it with fire’ is your go-to tactic, you’ll probably appreciate a run-down of some of Dark Souls 3’s more interesting and effective Pyromancies.
Update by Chris Littlechild, July 3, 2020: On reflection, we could still expand a little more on Pyromancies and the unique options they provide players. After all, simple, effective fireballs and AoE flaming explosions always work super well (and you'll see quite a few of those over the course of this rundown), but there's a lot more to this branch of magic than that alone.
FromSoftware tend to do a great job making each of their spells feel distinct and different, allowing them to serve a variety of purposes. To celebrate that, we're expanding our look at Dark Souls 3's Pyromancies to incorporate more spells. Some chase foes, some even grab them and burn them from the inside out (charming), but even if they're not that practical for a competitive PvP point of view, they're all great in their own ways. Enjoy!
16 Fireball
Everybody has to start somewhere, right? If you’re a budding Pyromancer, you can’t just skip right ahead to unleashing a whole darn volcano on your opponent’s head. That’d be like hopping into an F1 car and trying to break the land speed record on your first driving lesson. Baby steps, friends.
To that end, here’s the first spell a new Pyromancer learns (the class has it from the start of the game, in fact). It’s a low-cost, decently damaging ranged spell that will help you out in all kind of situations. Naturally, though, it’s not going to be your big damage-dealer later.
15 Bursting Fireball
Is Bursting Fireball strictly an upgrade over the standard Fireball, as the name might suggest? Well, no, it’s actually a very different beast. Whether you get more worth from it or not depends on your build and playstyle.
Bursting Fireball, of course, divides itself into several much smaller flaming projectiles. While the damage is reduced as a result, this makes it much easier to hit with in a pinch. Especially against groups of foes in PvE, Bursting Fireball can help with crowd control and buy you a little time in ways that regular Fireball (and other similar projectiles) just can’t. It often won’t see much use outside of specific scenarios like that, though, meaning it’s outclassed by our other picks.
14 Seething Chaos
Seething Chaos, on the other hand, is a much more advanced spell. It sees the Pyromancer launch a hunk of the Flame of Chaos in a chosen direction, erupting a little like a firebomb on impact. With careful use, it can cause the highest one-shot burst damage Pyromancers can muster with their flames.
That’s all well and good, but getting that damage is another matter. It’s quite a slow and predictable spell, making it tough to get the best out of. Tricky players will know the best ways to trap foes in the explosion, but it tends to be at its best in PvE.
13 Sacred Flame
Granted, Sacred Flame isn’t the most practical of Pyromancies. It takes a long time to use and leaves the caster very vulnerable. In PvP, it’s tough to pull off. Still, like a flashy and powerful spike in Super Smash Bros., it’s very satisfying indeed to pull off.
If you guessed that your opponent was going to roll at that specific moment, a perfectly timed Sacred Flame grab will make them think twice about trying that again. Nabbing a foe and burning them from the inside makes a nice, horribly vicious change, and it can be deadly to a range of human and AI enemies. With its unwieldy nature, though, we couldn’t rank it any higher.
12 Black Serpent
A player’s mileage with Black Serpent, as with most spells, will vary. Of course, in high-level PvP, your opponent will tend to be familiar with the animations and properties of the spells you’re using, and will be well equipped to counter, avoid, or punish you for being careless with them. By the same token, those unprepared for Black Serpent will often fall afoul of it.
What sets this Pyromancy apart from lots of others is the way the flames move: across the ground, targeting enemies. Attacks that are able to home, of course, have an extra element of danger attached to them, and with some experimentation, you’ll find that it combines with other Pyromancies in hugely damaging ways. It does have its downsides, though, in that it doesn’t stack up damage-wise with some of the very top Pyromancies and its tracking can be unpredictable.
11 Fire Surge
The first thing to keep in mind about the classic spell Fire Surge is that it’s not very damaging. If you’re simply looking to immolate any and all foes in a formidable wave of fire, this isn’t really the spell for you. It doesn’t knock enemies back, either, which means its utility can be quite limited.
How did it make the list, then? Well, there’s one thing it does super well: prevent agile opponents from dancing around you forever. Fire Surge remains active for some time, meaning that rolls (often a get out of jail free option in PvP) will tend to get the enemy hit anyway. The speed of this Pyromancy makes it tough for opponents with low HP to disengage and escape.
10 Profaned Flame
Profaned Flame is a very different spell to Fire Surge, with very different utility. It’s certainly not a quick and ‘mobile’ Pyromancy, but that’s the thing about these spells: the best ones make for very nice multi-purpose toolboxes when paired together.
The veteran Dark Souls players among you will recognize this one as the previous game’s Flame Swathe. It can be excellent for crowd control with its explosion, but speedier enemies and watchful opposing players may be able to escape the bulk of the damage. It’s a powerful spell, but one that can be rather unwieldy to use.
9 Power Within
Now, Pyromancy isn’t just about incinerating foes into piles of sad, defeated, ashy failure. It mostly is, true enough, but some Pyromancies focus on buffing the user’s damage output or resistances instead. One such spell is Power Within.
With this spell, the Pyromancer internalizes the concept of flame as power, gaining increased attack power in exchange for gradually dwindling HP (much like the super-powerful transformed Chikage from Bloodborne). It should only be used in short bursts as a result, and leaves the player vulnerable while casting, but the buff is substantial. A situational yet powerful technique.
8 Fire Whip
Now, Fire Whip is a bit of a mixed bag. Some players will tell you that it’s too slow, too costly to cast, Pyromancers have better options, it’s inferior to Dark Souls 2’s Fire Whip. Others will tell you that its knockback is very nice, it combos well with other tricks in a Pyromancer’s playbook and its damage can be great. Who’s right? Well, everybody really.
That’s the thing that keeps this classic Dark Souls spell here in the middle spot of our list. Pyromancers have a lot of options available to them, and perhaps Fire Whip just doesn’t stand out enough. That doesn’t mean it’s not effective, though.
7 Carthus Flame Arc
Carthus Flame Arc, too, is a tough one to judge. Dark Souls 3, after all, offers the player a lot of options in terms of weapons, equipment and general builds. Something that’s all but useless in one player’s inventory can be crucial to another’s success. Will Carthus Flame Arc be key, or will it be worthless? That’s entirely up to you.
When Pyromancers aren’t launching all manner of fireballs into their foes from a distance, they have some handy options for melee combat too. This particular Pyromancy infuses an applicable weapon with fire, which can be very nice with the right stats. It isn’t the most powerful weapon buff in the game, but it does have a nice duration. Another solid, middle-ground pick.
6 Chaos Bed Vestiges
Chaos Bed Vestiges is a Pyromancy that may have surprised a lot of newer players. The in-game claim that the spell “hurls chaos flame that scorches vicinity” is… well, not untrue, per se, but all kinds of misleading.
If it’s mass area damage you’re in the market for, you’ve come to the wrong place. Chaos Bed Vestige’s splash effect is surprisingly weak (though it can be useful), and its range is limited too. It may not be the greatest damage-dealer, but this spell is fantastic for mixing enemies up, throwing them off balance and such. If you mastered the art of parrying enemies who were trying to chug Blood Vials during Bloodborne’s high-octane combat, you’ll find that Chaos Bed Vestiges can work well in that capacity too.
5 Rapport
Speaking of situational yet powerful Pyromancies, let’s take a look at Rapport. As the name suggests, this spell has a simple effect: it’s a ranged ‘attack’ that will temporarily charm an enemy and make them an ally. Under its influence, the targeted foe will attack other enemies and unfriendly players in the vicinity, happily sponging damage for you until they die.
Needless to say, the efficacy of this spell completely depends on the situation. Invaders, bosses and such are completely unaffected by it, for obvious reasons, which really puts a damper on your fun. It has limited application, so we can’t rate it any higher, but it’s just so much fun! In the right areas in PvE, it can be surprisingly powerful too.
4 Great Combustion
Great Combustion, like Fireball, is another simple yet effective slice of Pyromancy. This spell is simply a great fiery explosion, which has excellent offensive utility and can also allow you to escape from sticky situations. After all, who wants to chase you straight into a fiery explosion? Nobody, that’s who.
Naturally, it has a good deal more damage potential than the humble Fireball, and we hold it in high regard as a result of these traits. However, it can be difficult to get the best from, as it’s much less powerful if you fail to hit with the explosion itself. Against more evasive enemies, that can be a real pain.
3 Boulder Heave
So, yes. Pyromancy tends to be about scorching foes with fiery projectiles and the like, but this class doesn’t limit itself to just that. Sometimes, a Pyromancer just wants to open their gaping mouth and launch a boulder from it. You know, as we all do at times.
Luckily for them, the Boulder Heave Pyromancy is on hand to help with that. This brilliantly ridiculous spell deals nice AOE damage, can mess with blocking opponents, and isn’t very costly to use. Its performance against other players lets it down, however, as it’s easily interrupted.
2 Black Flame
Often, to get the very best results, Soulsborne players will heavily specialize their builds. With the way the game’s weapons and magic tend to work, this will completely lock them out of all kinds of offensive options (a pure skill build, for instance, often won’t have the strength to equip heavy weapons at all).
As such, it’s always nice to have an option to diversify your moveset a little. Black Flame, a rare source of Dark Pyromancy, is great for that. It’s also very fast and messes with turtling opponents, but it has super limited range so just misses out on the top spot.
1 Great Chaos Fire Orb
As the name implies, this is a heck of a fiery powerhouse of a spell right here. It’s a simple enough concept: a big, angry orb of fire is launched at a target, exploding on impact and generating… well, more than enough fire to be getting on with. It’s flame-amundo around here. There’s even a short-lived pool of lava left in its wake, which siphons even more damage.
In terms of simple fire and forget destruction, Great Chaos Fire Orb is a great tool to have in your arsenal. Unlike Great Combustion, it doesn’t suffer in the damage stakes if your aim or timing is a little off.