Blinding Flash

General Information

Level: 10

Effects

Using this skill causes Dazed to occur on an enemy target.

Interactions

The Lore-master's Book Legacy Target Resistance (Debuffing Skills) decreases the resistance to this skill by up to 3608.

Equipping five or more pieces of the Armour of the Lady's Wisdom or the Armour of the Iordúr set increases the duration of the daze effect caused by this skill by 5s.

Tactical Information

Perhaps the most famous crowd-control skill of the Lore-master, Blinding Flash is mostly known for it's long daze that can be refreshed, thus keeping enemies locked down for an infinite amount of time. In normal circumstances, the duration of the daze is twice the cooldown of the skill, meaning that a Lore-master can even keep two enemies dazed at once as long as he or she refreshes it as soon as the skill comes off cooldown. If a daze is resisted this can be solved by using Call to the Valar to reset the cooldown or by temporarily using another form of crowd-control (such as the root of Herb-lore) instead.

How you trait and gear influences the effectiveness of Blinding Flash as a daze. With five or more pieces of the Armour of the Lady's Wisdom set equipped the daze lasts five seconds longer, making it easier to keep two targets dazed at once.

There seems to be a general misunderstanding of the difference between a daze and a stun. Leaders will often incorrectly call for a "stun" on certain enemies, while they in fact expect Lore-masters to daze with Blinding Flash. So when and on what to use this skill? As opposed to skills that stun, Blinding Flash is not affected by Temporary State Immunity, nor does it cause this effect. The skill works on every enemy type. Note that almost all bosses are immune to dazes (and other forms of crowd-control, for that matter), though.

There's more to Blinding Flash than the daze. Another important use is to interrupt enemies. Blinding flash will even interrupt the inductions of enemy targets if they are immune to dazes.

Lastly, there are some specific Lore-master Tactics in which Blinding Flash plays a part:

"Link break": if facing a target surrounded by mobs that are likely to assist, a cunning Lore-master can manage to fight just the intended target, and not any of the adds. Start out by casting Blinding Flash on one target from the maximum possible distance, then turn around and run. Once the adds have stopped pursuing you, return. After 30s have passed the dazed mob will be free and will attack you - but the adds will not follow.
"Daze against single target": even if fighting just one target, it can be useful to use Blinding Flash. In the 30 seconds that pass you can use Inner Flame to heal up, or wait for skill cooldowns to expire. Or if it comes to worst, run. Be careful not to leave a DoT (e.g. Burning Embers) on the target, as that will break the daze.

Lore

This skill is a reference to an event during the story of The Hobbit, in which Bilbo, the dwarves and Gandalf seek refuge in a cave while a thunderstorm razes outside. Unfortunately, the cave leads to goblin tunnels and they get caught while taking a nap:

"...they were all grabbed and carried through the crack, before you could say "tinder and flint". But not Gandalf. Bilbo's yell had done that much good. It had wakened him up wide in a splintered second, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrific flash like lightning in the cave, a smell like gunpowder, and several of them fell dead.

The crack closed with a snap, and Bilbo and the dwarves were on the wrong side of it! Where was Gandalf? Of that neither they nor the goblins had any idea, and the goblins did not wait to find out."

- "Over Hill and Under Hill." In: "The Hobbit", by J.R.R. Tolkien