I have seen videos before where someone used a plasma ball to help start hid lamps, but the one I have it doesn’t get an arc across unless the fly back is directly connected to the fly back. Anyone know a beefy plasma ball that actually allows you to start a hid without touching the contacts?

Neon-argon filled mains operated plasma globe, usually have enough leakage voltage to start and glow HID lamps.
I've a 4AA neon-argon filled plasma globe, which can't glow HID lamps.

Wrap some aluminum foil around your ball and try again. This will charge up from the entire ball surface and discharge at the first available spot. You may shape a sort of pin out of the foil to direct the electrical field to where you want

WARNING : I have never tried it myself, its just an idea. The foil may hold significant charge, enough to give a painful shock, and i dont know if it is damgerous (this would vary also with the size of your plasma ball). Discharge it with a grounded wire and remove it from the ball when you are done using it

(If left on the ball, it might slowly charge again even with the ball off, due to dielectric absorption charges dissipating)

I have tried that, and because it is RF it will not shock you, and any stored charge is pretty insignificant. But if you let it arc to your finger it nearly instantly gives you a tiny RF burn. Stinks like absolute hell.

For practicality's sake, i'd build a small plasma globe's electronics into a bit of PVC pipe with some GND tape/foil halfway down it and a ball electrode at the end which you can use to glow and start gas discharge lamps. Of course you shouldn't touch the output, it still won't shock you but the RF burn will be a bit worse.

I wrote this before, but I have a largish crappy plasma ball that has (1) a metal figural electrode inside instead of the usual internal Dewar glass pocket, and (2) a simple 1-transistor blocking (flyback) oscillator running directly off 230V line through a ballasting capacitor. That means that capacitive loading at the oscillator can be notably higher, and oscillator frequency depends heavily on this unlke the usual design.

If you touch this globe with enough hand area (say about 1/2 of the palm) the frequency drops enough that neurons get back the sensitivity to AC current (single kilohertz range) and you will feel some sensible jolt! First time I got somewhat surprised by this and thought the glass was just shot through, but no, everything remained intact. Plasma globes generate some 5-20mA of current, usually you won't feel as it runs through the body at ~ 30-40kHz while the current is distributed evenly by glass capacitance and you don't concentrate it with a piece of foil.

As for MH ignition. I believe commercial globes contain Ne-Xe penning mix at mostly neon, as it is much cheaper than pure Xe and also penning mix will have significantly lower ignition voltage and that fancy pink streamer ends. Lower voltage may be not enough to initiate discharge in a MH lamp. Adding a piece of foil will help to concentrate the current somewhat, but obviously won't increase the voltage.

Got a link to one you recommend?