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PapirovyCert
03-12-2005, 01:06
Hi, after some time playing (and duelling) with my 200fcr fber I decided to write a little guide. My gear is not uber-gosu-pwnage nor dream one, but I hit 200fcr break point while dealing 15-16K firedam. Iīm gonna list here my stats, items and some strategies for PvP. Hope itīll help you.


Current lvl: 89

Stats point allocation:
113 str
37 dex
100 vita
270 energy


Skills
20Fb
20Firebolt
20Mete
14Mastery
20Telekinesis
1Static
1Tele
1warmth
1firewall (pre-req)
1inferno (pre-req)
1blaze (pre-req)

Equip
Helm: Rare circlet 2fire/20fcr/19res/16energy/5dr/1sox (firefacet 5/5)
Ammy: Crafted 2sorc/10fcr/58mana/10%mana regen...
Armor: Viper 34res 11mdr (will be upped and faceted soon)
Ring1: 10fcr/20str/9energy/19mana/21pres/7cres
Ring2: 10fcr/15allres
Belt: Arach
Gloves: Mages
Shiled: Spirit with 35% fcr
Weapon: Wizzy with 5/5 firefacet
Boots: Waterwalks
Switch: 3/2/4 CTA + spirit
Inventory: Soso torch 11/15, Anni 12/18, 9 naked fire sks, 9 20lifers (no resists)
Stash: 8ES memory staff for prebuff, storm (although I donīt often use it), shako for certain types of duels (explained later)

Whole equip costs +-13 ists (itīs not that much, is it?)
Ofc dream equip would be much better and much more expensive, this is my opinion:
3fire/20fcr/2sox circlet (VERY expensive, we are talking about hrīs)
Fire eschuta 3/25/-5 (quite expensive)
Crafted amu 2sorc/20fcr/res/mana/life (VERY expensive, hrīs again)
Viper 35/13dr/1000+def (ist+@)
Other items stay the same.

Spells and Life/mana after bo
Fireball 16300-17700
Meteor 32000-33000
Warmth 318%
ES 72% sorb (not too much but remember, you will be rarely hit)
Life 969
Mana 1800 (quite enough since your mana regenerates like 120mana/sec)
Res 80/75/75/75

Iīam not gonna post here where and how to lvl, because this guide is mostly aimed at PvP, not leveling. This build is also not suited for PvM since there are many immunes in Chaos Sanctum or Throne.


How to be succesful PvPer:
1) You need ood hardware (since d2 is not very performance-demanding), 95% of players have pc good enough
2) You need ood net connection (lag means death in PvP)
3) You need lot of time to practise your aim
4) You need to learn that every PvP char (even our gosu-soso ^^) can be pwned

Now lets proceed to most important part of this guide. Iīll tell you how do I duel my enemies (although it might not be the best way to duel them). Iīll not advice you to use sorbs since it in fact denies purpose of duelling, which is giving your enemy CHANCE to kill you. (I donīt mean letting him hitting you, but if he hits you, he should do more than 50 dmg to you).

PS: I expect that every char listed here (except sosos,javas and smiters/chargers/zealers, shapeshifters) has an eni, if they donīt, they are often toast.

PS2: This guide is written for dueling with equip I listed above, with dream equip some duels can be easier.

AMAZONS: In fact, there are two main types of zons (ofc they can be hybrid, Iīll include them)

Bowzon: Those can be very harde as well as very easy duels.
If I wanna be BM, just put on SS, Shako and she will be having terrible time killing me, since I can tank her. If I wanna have some fun (and I want), I stick to my main equip. I can often take 3 or 4 hits till ES collapses and that is plenty time to kill her. Just donīt wait for anything, tele straight to her an spam balls, you will win 75/25.

Lightning java: Those arenīt so hard to kill, just keep teleing and fire balls at her. If she is running in circles, tele under her (but not directly) and shoot onw or two fbs and tele out of her sight. If she has eni, itīs a bit harder, but you should not loose to those.
- Plague java/guided arrow: Those are really pain in the butt. They throw jav on you, they get you to 1 life VERY quickly and then they fire bunch of arrows at you. There is only one advice: NEVER get hit by plague jav, if you do, uīre dead meat. Threat them as a light javas.

ASSASSINS: Oh yes, those little short-haired women with deadly traps/claws.
There are three types of sins.

Trapper: One of the hardest duel. Their traps can really hurt and they just stand in the middle of trap field and casting mind blast on your head. SPEED is the key to win here. Pretty effective strategy is trying to snipe them. Traps wonīt shoot at you when you are off the screen, but your FB travels through 2 screens. You can get some lucky hits (in fact those lucky hits often kills).
If you want to play offensively, try shoot-tele-shoot-tele strategy, it works fine. But still your chanes are 50/50, maybe even slimmer.

Trapper/WWer: Even more dangerous than trapper, trappers often use shield (only the best ones can afford two 3ls 3traps claws), so they cant block your fbs, while those lay their traps, switch to dual chaos or chaos and fury (or chaos + anything), tele on you and do one or two wws, since they got plenty of OW and poison, your ES is worthless. Strategy is keep teleing and shoot random fireballs, those duels are really hardest and longest of all duels you will encounter. Chances to wind against good trapper are very low, 25/75, maybe even lower.

WWer/Kicker: Same as trapper/wwer, even though those arenīt so dangerous, they still means big threat to you. Hard duel. Never try to tank them. Just donīt stop teleing and try to get some lucky hits.

BARBARIANS: Huge life, high damage, small brain. Any questions?
Any barb build without enigma: Easy, thereīs not much to do, just hit them with fireballs and keep teleing, they should not even hit you.

BvC, BvA: No doubt, this is the 2nd hardest opponent you can encounter. They dish out HUGE dmg, they hit you 95% of the time, and they can take several fireballs till they hit the ground. You can either put on SS with shako (45%dr),but you loose 200fcr (which is not good) or you can stick to your original equip and keep teleing, I really mean KEEP TELEING, never release right mouse button and try to snipe them out. Really f***ing hard.

Singers: Underestimated build, VERY underestimated, but they can hurt. Your main advantage is speed, so they should not even catch you.

Thrower: Those can be easily tanked, not much to tell about that.

DRUIDS: Duels with druids are ranked from easy to impossible.

Shapeshifters: Those are one of the easiest duels. They can never get to you (or at least they should not ^^). Just spam fballs, they are often one or two hits KO.

Fire-elemntalists: Keep teleing, volcano can really hurt. Those have no cyclone armor, often 1-hit KO.

Windies: WORST, definately the WORST opponent you can met. While you stand a little chance against BvC or trapper hybrid, you can NEVER win to skilled windy , NEVER. They can easily sorb two fireballs (and then recast their armour in 0.003 sec), they got huge life and the can dish out huge physical damage. SS helps a bit, but you loose 200fcr (and you loose anyway). I just pass those duells.

NECROMANCERS: Kings of the PvP in 1.09, they are still pretty strong in 1.11, so watch out.

Bone: Those arenīt so hard as they look, the do ~800PvP dmg (you can take 3 hits into your ES, while they can often tak one or two fbs) which is pretty low compared to other chars but still, they can hurt. Just keep teleing in circles, then straight to necro and spam FBs. Those duels are medium-rated.

Poison: These guys are really deadly. They can get you life to 1 in one sec and then the stupid orange golem burns your @ss. Very embarassing to lose duel in such way, isnīt it? Key is not to get hit by nova, try to snipe those, or just tele directly to him and throw balls into his ugly white face.

Summoners: Many people say: LOL a summoner, but those can be very dangerous (especially if the summoner uses skellies only as meat shield and fires spears and spirits at you). Never let him get close to you and snipe his skellies out, if he runs back to town (or to some location to make new skellies, just pass the duel)

PALLIES: One of the most versatille char, many builds that can be played.

Zealer/smiter/charger: In fact those three builds are the same. They charge on you, then switch to their main attack (smite for smiters, zeal for zealers, charge for chargers ^^) and kill you. They often desynch, so never trust your eyes (you know what do I mean), never stop tele and spam balls in random directions, because they can be everyvery. In fact those are pretty hard duels, but you should win at least 60/40.

Pure FoHers: Those should not be big problem, since ES ignores resistances (positive as well as negative), so you take about 1000PvP dmg in your shield, chase them and spam balls. You should win 80/20

Fohers/smiters(V/T or T/V). Those are in fact smiters, since FoH does almost nothing to you. Threat as smiters.

Hammerdins: Another hard duel, never let them tele ON you (means never let them namelock you). Only way of beating them is to constantly tele all over the screen, they will have terrible time hitting you. Two fbīs are often enough.

Avengers: In fact I have never duelled one so Iīm not able to give you any tips.

SORCERESS: Fast, handsome, powerful. A soso.
Light: There are only a few lite sorceresses with 200fcr, so you got huge advantage over them. If they are very lucky, they can 1-hit KO, but you should win to these at least 60/40

Frozen orb: Ultimate caster-killers, their problem is that orb has 0.5s timer and during that time they canīt cast (not even tele) and you must use this against them. Wait till she fires orb, namelock her and just spam balls, in the monets when she stops teleing to cast orb, she is dead. 80/20

Blizzard: Pretty easy, since they donīt benefit from mastery, PvP damage they deal to you is 2000 (if they are average) which means one hit till ES collapses, BUT they should not even aim at you, your speed is key to win. 80/20 maybe even higher.

Fire: If they got less than 200% fcr, you should teoretically alway win. If they are 200% fcr, this duel is just about skill and luck. Keep teleing and try to snipe, good ones (not 200fcr, but highest damage as possible) can deal more than 3500PvP dmg to your ES (this mean instant collaps when counting with my 1800ish ES). chances 65/35 if she is less than 200, 50/50 if they are 200.

Hope it helps you a bit, I would like you to critise my guide, but not those brainless replies such as: Lol, U have never duelled good shapeshifter/blizzardes/... etc. and I donīt want you to correct my grammatic mistakes (I know I made a lot of them, Iīm just nooby diablo2 playa).

Freezing Rain
03-12-2005, 01:58
Don't fireballers have to stay in one spot and spam? It's easy for a decent blizz sorc to unsummon lock and drop a bomb on him while he's running...

StewieGriff_XLT
03-12-2005, 02:41
looks like a good guide! :thumbsup:

quick question....

as you said before, this will be strictly pvp, and you don't plan on getting hit very often.... why use an eshield build then? I understand that you WILL be hit once in a while, but if you plan on not getting hit, or rarely getting hit, why not just boost fire skills then worry about some es later?

just an idea, never made an eshield sorc before, but i know they can tank lots of damage...

i guess it comes down to mass damage vs. survivability...

CJ :clap:

PapirovyCert
03-12-2005, 10:10
Don't fireballers have to stay in one spot and spam? It's easy for a decent blizz sorc to unsummon lock and drop a bomb on him while he's running...

If you stay in one spot, itīs easy for blizzardess to land a blizzard on you and if you got hit twice by blizz, you are often dead. Iīll try to tell you how to duel blizzardes.

Blizzard is timered spell, which means that after she lands blizzard, she can not tele for a while (0.5s if I am not wrong) and that is time for you to strike. You just keep teleing and when you see she landed blizzard, tele very close to her (she will be teleing like hell but since NO blizzardes has 200fcr (or I havenīt seen any), you can catch her AND if you keep her teleing and occasionaly fire a ball on her, she will never be able to cast another blizzard). And if you chase her and she cast blizz, that 0.5s is enought to land two balls on her.

In other words, she just runs away from you because in 95% of cases ,she wonīt take more then one ball so she tele-tele-tele-tele while you tele-tele-fire-tele. Hope it helps.

PapirovyCert
03-12-2005, 10:21
looks like a good guide! :thumbsup:

quick question....

as you said before, this will be strictly pvp, and you don't plan on getting hit very often.... why use an eshield build then? I understand that you WILL be hit once in a while, but if you plan on not getting hit, or rarely getting hit, why not just boost fire skills then worry about some es later?

just an idea, never made an eshield sorc before, but i know they can tank lots of damage...

i guess it comes down to mass damage vs. survivability...

CJ :clap:

Thank you :)

Yes, as you said, I donīt plan to get hit very often, but problem is that some chars will always hit you at least once (bowazon for example) and you need ES for those type of duells, not mentioning that it helps when your enemy get a lucky hit on you. In fact, if you plan to use ES maxing telekinesis is a must.
And about boosting damage, if i had 20points in fire mastery (instead of 14), my dmg would be higher by 1k (and thats almost nothing since I do ~16k), while maxing TK helps your ES a lot.

ofc if you have godlike aim, perfect net connection and cat reflexes, boosting mastery first is better, but since I dont , I need maxed TK :)

Hope this helps.

lothars
03-12-2005, 10:30
Just a question when i use my blizzard sorc in a duel (which is rare)

I always spam one blizzard switch to ice blast and keep shooting as i teleport

maybe it's just me but wouldn't you have more problems with them hitting you with the ice blast

but i can see that since your firing so fast. hmm interesting sorry just a thought

it's all good though

one other thing when you say they don't benefit from mastery im confused?

my cold mastery is maxed as well as almost all my syngergies

but that's ok im just crazy, sorry if im messed up about it because I barely duel

PapirovyCert
03-12-2005, 11:22
Just a question when i use my blizzard sorc in a duel (which is rare)

I always spam one blizzard switch to ice blast and keep shooting as i teleport

maybe it's just me but wouldn't you have more problems with them hitting you with the ice blast

but i can see that since your firing so fast. hmm interesting sorry just a thought

it's all good though

one other thing when you say they don't benefit from mastery im confused?

my cold mastery is maxed as well as almost all my syngergies

but that's ok im just crazy, sorry if im messed up about it because I barely duel


Hi, in fact your mastery WORKS, but energy shield works with 0 resist no matter what, so when you land blizzard on me it works as if I had 0 resist ( actually you DO NOT benefit from cold mastery at that time). After the ES collapses, you mastery starts to work (and puts my resist to -xx%)

Well, you can fire iceblasts at me, but iceblast is a lot slower than fireball and it doesnīt do so much damage (not counting blizzardess rarely hit 105fcr breakpoint so they can cast 2 blasts while I can cast 3 fbīs).

Hope this helped

RetroStar
03-12-2005, 18:31
some things:

bow zons: bowzons arn't as easy as you might think. those are usually loaded with psn which bypasses your ES and drains your low life very quickly. then they can just switch to multiple shots and nail you down. try playing very offensive and teleing straight to her asap since guided arrows can't trvel in a 90 degree angle. i wouldn't stay far from them since you can easily be nailed with a ga then, tele very very close to them and force them to run. then it will be a easy kill.

singers: they have the same fcr frame rate as sorcs so they don't tele slower than you. could be a hard duel if they get namelock on you and spam since sorcs usually have low fhr.

anyhow, a pretty nice guide.

PapirovyCert
03-12-2005, 18:58
some things:

bow zons: bowzons arn't as easy as you might think. those are usually loaded with psn which bypasses your ES and drains your low life very quickly. then they can just switch to multiple shots and nail you down. try playing very offensive and teleing straight to her asap since guided arrows can't trvel in a 90 degree angle. i wouldn't stay far from them since you can easily be nailed with a ga then, tele very very close to them and force them to run. then it will be a easy kill.

singers: they have the same fcr frame rate as sorcs so they don't tele slower than you. could be a hard duel if they get namelock on you and spam since sorcs usually have low fhr.

anyhow, a pretty nice guide.

Thanks for giving me infos, I always thought babas does not have the same fcr frame rate as sorcs (and both singers Iīve duelled so far had obviously not 200fcr).

And about the bowzons, just yesterday I duelled one with faith, forti and (it seemed so) bunch of 3/**/** scs and 14/**/** gcs. She killed me with two or three shots, but then I put on SS and chances was 50/50, very nice duel though (what a pitty I donīt remember her name :/). Generally you are right about the bowzons.

Xenon[XoA]
04-12-2005, 06:58
Mm..

I would have to disagree with some of your strategy, and gear choices.

I would re-locate 6 pts from kinesis to fire mastery. You will need that extra damage vs the hotspurs ppl. And since resists /dr dont apply to eshield, it really wont make that much of a difference -_-

The main strength about 200fcr sorcs, is the insanely fast Tele. Even vs bvc barbs, you can outrun them. In no instance should they become close enough to name-lock / delay lock you for tele. Even with crappy fhr (for those that do small leaps to stun you), you have enough time btw end of the leap + tele-flash and them appearing next to your previous location, to get away.

Meteor vs hammerdins helps too. Cast away from you, then tele on top of it, before it falls. If they're not paying as much attention as they should, they will follow / tele onto you thru lock. And then 40k+ meteor hits. No hammerdin should be a problem (discounting 95res/sorb :p).

Also, It helps to use multiple skills on hotkeys - hotkeys which are accessible in an instant (not fkeys pleeeeeeeease.). Meteor + Firewall are good choices. Meteor since it's already synergized, and littering the ground with these (when there's opportunity- dont go out of your way), can catch random tele'ers, and drain their mana. or kill em if crappy res. Firewall can be locked. Appears under their feet. Mana drain. Also hides the fballs / fbolts.

Namelock'd firewalls vs runner zons are amazing. You can also tele on top of them, and just move them into fhr-lock / dodgelock.

as a General rule - for the love of whatever's holy, Do not chase casters directly backwards - invisible fbs / spirits / blizz's etc.

As to the gear - fcr /str rings are highly overrated. Sure, base str sorcies are appealing, but, 35+ life (equiv of 17.5+ vita) and mass mana / res/ fcr / str (as lower priority) rings are more efficient.

Fire facet.. Yeaah. The minor damage isnt worth it when it could be shaeled for 20fhr.

Crafted 15+ fcr ammies (or fletchs NL) will make a massive difference. Enables you to use eschutas (which has and end difference of about 200 fire dam over hoto), or a hoto - which has oak spirit + regen and comparable resists, and more damage than wiz. Yes, you lose mana. However, with all the + fireskills, warmth WILL be fairly high, and you will regenerate disgusting amounts of mana / second.

825 vipers will suit you just as well as a 1037 -.- If cost is that much of an issue, go for the Um -cost ones :P

3-20-2os Fire circlets are amazing for MLD, but for hld, +2sorc, 20fcr, mass stat / life/mana/res circlets are much more efficient. 1 extra fire skill really isnt worth the loss of +2 to your lightning tree, and mass mana/str/res/etc. Rares can spawn 2os as well =)

It is also, very much worthwhile to spend a little extra time mfing / keyrunning to afford high-end annis / torches / circlets /ammies, as these are among the key parts of your gear. They have to support whatever other crap we use :)

I realize that this is based off of your setup, but as a guide, wider variation in gear tips might be useful, no?

Iirc, my sorc had.. 2.4k life, 1k mana, 21/21fball/fbolt @ 200fc, 43k meteor, 8k firewall.

Apologies for this seemingly random mess, but.. hope it helps ~.^

RetroStar
04-12-2005, 07:53
Xenon: did your sorc use spirit as a shield? the str req on that thing is pretty nasty. i always try to build my sorcs with base str.

PapirovyCert
04-12-2005, 09:40
']Mm..

Fire facet.. Yeaah. The minor damage isnt worth it when it could be shaeled for 20fhr.


Well, I shaeled my viper just yesterday, seems working better than ffed.



Crafted 15+ fcr ammies (or fletchs NL) will make a massive difference. Enables you to use eschutas (which has and end difference of about 200 fire dam over hoto), or a hoto - which has oak spirit + regen and comparable resists, and more damage than wiz. Yes, you lose mana. However, with all the + fireskills, warmth WILL be fairly high, and you will regenerate disgusting amounts of mana / second.


Ofc you are right, Iīve written this to "dream gear" but there is no chance of crafting ammy +2soso/15+fcr/*** under clvl 93.. Gonna baalrun a bit.





825 vipers will suit you just as well as a 1037 -.- If cost is that much of an issue, go for the Um -cost ones :P

In fact, when Iīm aiming for top-gear, why shouldnīt I have top-viper? :)



3-20-2os Fire circlets are amazing for MLD, but for hld, +2sorc, 20fcr, mass stat / life/mana/res circlets are much more efficient. 1 extra fire skill really isnt worth the loss of +2 to your lightning tree, and mass mana/str/res/etc. Rares can spawn 2os as well =)

True, but when aiming for dmg, 3/20/2 serves better.



It is also, very much worthwhile to spend a little extra time mfing / keyrunning to afford high-end annis / torches / circlets /ammies, as these are among the key parts of your gear. They have to support whatever other crap we use :)


I donīt know what ladder are you on, but on europe 1organ set is like mal :/.
Iīd be running keys whole day to get a mal . I was thinking of making forge-mules but it takes too much time for me to rush mule and I will never do mf runs anymore. When trying to get the gear I have atm, I was doing like 100 andy/pit/meph/baalruns and only decent thing I found was low griffon (-17/11) and a SoJ from andy.

And trading for annis//torches is pretty dangerous since I am not trusted on d2jsp and I donīt use d2jsp at all.



I realize that this is based off of your setup, but as a guide, wider variation in gear tips might be useful, no?

In fact you are right, seems I didnīt write any variations, but until you got top gear or you are insanely rich, you wont be able to afford even one thing of what you have mentioned (2soso/stats/res/life circlets, 2soso/20fcr/...). Iīve just written probably the cheapest setup (while focusing on damage a bit) you need to have to hit 200fcr. I realise that when you want to be succesful and good dueller, you have to have top-gear but since I am poor the gear I have is already top for me.



Iirc, my sorc had.. 2.4k life, 1k mana, 21/21fball/fbolt @ 200fc, 43k meteor, 8k firewall.

I think I can reach those numbers too (just switch mana for life) if I manage to craft myself 15+fcr ammy.


Well thanks a lot for criticising (bah what a word) my guide.

hmw
04-12-2005, 14:25
doesn't the -resi on facets help either? I would like to know before i socket everything w/ perf fire facets. Also if i wanna use cta on swicth, would ormus's robe w/ 3 tele be any good? (fcr doesn't really matter-i'm going to use wisthan(spelling) for max block)

RetroStar
04-12-2005, 20:14
-resist on facets help the most in fact. the +dmg is very minimal.

i'll take 3%/-5% fire facets over 5%/-3% fire facets.

and why would you want to use a +3teleport ormus?

hmw
04-12-2005, 20:32
i meant 3 es :lol: