1) I don't know what muddle is. I knew that it mental jolted occasionally, suspected that it did -moral somewhere (there were rounds when it programmed EVERY time against Dwybaen towards the end of fights) - I thought it was kinda like STSF. Didn't know about mana drain, knew about fear.
2) Light, gave parting blow. The parting blow part was what really drew me. Fire giant + whip = no go. Doesn't matter if it's that whip from Teth - don't do it. Go flail for crying out loud. FLAIL!
3) I could've really capitlized on some of the side effects if I used power word despondence/aura of despair. But being a giant that never lands much, sigal + bash/lash is awesome.
4) Forgot who said this, but my success of lash had NOTHING to do with the whip (I swear, some of you guys are fucking stupid). Unholy slavemaster edge (which I took after getting the whip) - read it. After this experience, yes, always get unholy slavemaster if you are expecting to use a whip or flail. The edge increases chances of lashing easily, and might do some additional + lag (don't know or not).
5) Re: Avalusci's contention re: it never affecting him - yes, because you almost never got hit :P It progs only when it hits.
Oh, and one observation - they toned back the jarring effect of arcing touch EXTREMELY. It almost never progged - it does prog with lashes of the slave, but because it is so sparse, arcing touch is now primarily used for damage (not the lagging effect).
