Swag

The only thing making my RL 137 Gideon cosplay viable in pvp. True combos into wrath of gold.

This has been a surprisingly useful attack for me against Godfrey with Max Casting Speed. Wish the explosion range was just a tad larger but it's great weaving a Bloodflame Talon in right after a dodge, and being able to dodge again right before the next attack hits and the Bloodflame explosion goes off at the same time. Other than that this really does feel oddly like a more defensive Incantation, though I suppose that is how Mohg himself uses it as well. Sort of a "Hey step back or Bleed" attack

The sad reality is that, for the majority of enemies you face, this incantation gets forced into the defensive role most of the time, due to its only damage coming a moment after casting. This property of it does make it quite good at that though, letting you answer overly-aggressive mobs — such as dogs — with an explosion to the face.
It has a similar role in your toolkit against other Tarnished, though due to how laughably non-committal any attack from a Tarnished is, you are only ever going to get hits by hard-reading your opponent.

On the offensive, though, Bloodflame Talons really shines against the larger, slower foes that aren't as able to evade its repeated attacks, such as Erdtree Avatars.
— Courh the Explorer

The explosion AoE is too small for my liking. You have to be at backstab range to for it to take effect. And the bleed build up is meh.

Ive been working this spell into my playstyle in pvp. Running an arcane build with communion seal +9. Ive found it to be really good against hyper aggro players who wont get off your back. The initial cast can be slow but the blast always causes a stagger which can set up a combo. Often these combos if your using elonoras, rob, anything with double slash or sword dance can kill an opponent outright. Its not good in every situation, (blood incantations in general are not) but man is it cool when you pull it off.

good for setting up combos with a bit of edgy flair

Lots of people hating on the fact the initial slash doesn’t deal damage. This is certainly a downside in many situations, but this encourages a very unique playstyle. Against slower enemies, cast this 1-2 sec before the target reaches you, then backstep or roll backwards to get out of range. Works great against shielded enemies.

Also in tight spaces, you can free aim this while hiding behind a corner/doorway, then have the enemy walk into the explosion. Niche, but very fun to use.