Arc Blade

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A blade somehow crafted from pure electricity. It arcs wildly between the wielder and their foes as it strikes. It occasionally unleashes powerful arcs of lightning upon striking a foe. These may arc to other adjacent creatures (including the wielder, but dealing reduced damage to them) before grounding out.

the +8 arc blade

+8 rapier
33.3% chance: Casts Static Discharge at 99 + 2d(100)/2 spellpower. (Average 150 power, above the usual cap)
rElec

Desirability

The arc blade has damage output that's a bit higher than a fully enchanted demon blade of electrocution, making it a strong weapon versus monsters without electricity resistance. It is particularly effective against crowds, as the discharge damage tends to spreads out, a useful effect if you can fight foes in a bottleneck.

Against electricity-resistant targets, however, this weapon is far less useful. Versus electricity-immune monsters, it's no better than a +8 rapier that happens to grant rElec. Carrying an alternate weapon is strongly advised, as electricity resistance is common later on.

Additionally, this weapon is not good to use near allies that aren't themselves immune to electricity, since they are not exempt from the weapon's discharges. You will at least receive a warning prompt if your attack could harm one of your allies.

Compared to the Static Discharge spell, the arcs from this weapon do more damage and arc more often to adjacent monsters due to the high spellpower used.

History

• Prior to 0.23, the arc blade would cast Static Discharge multiple times, and the spell would always hit the melee target, but at much lower spellpower, 75 + 2d(75)/2. The weapon's enchantment was +4.
• Prior to 0.16, it was a cutlass.
• Prior to 0.15, it was a +3, +5 weapon.
• The arc blade was introduced in 0.14.