PvP Fire Druid (without being a town camping whore)

[Aeonios]

So, recently I built a PvP scythe barb built mostly as traditional BvC. It was a big disappointment, since the dmg on the scythe doesn't compare to 2 frame attack dual wielding and the 5 range on my ebotd Gthresher really didn't seem any different than a range 3 zerk. So, my next non-cookies char of choice is a fire druid. I figured while I'm waiting for a grush I'd post here and see if anyone had any suggestions or insight from previous experience.

Here's the basics of my build:
3ele/20fcr/2os circ w/2x fire facets
mara's
hoto
enig
eld SS (max block @ lvl 90)
mages
arach
soj + bk
treks
7x ele fhr GCs, 2x lifers, 10x life/mana scs

This will hit the 99% fcr and 99% fhr breaks, and give me lvl 48 fissure.

Skills:
20 firestorm
20 fissure
20 volcano
1 in rest of ele tree
20 oak sage
1 raven, spirit wolf, dire wolf
rest in nado to synergize cyclone armor.

SP testing has shown somewhere around 5k fissure dmg.

Plan for pvp is basically tele around with dire wolf stack, ravens, and geddon and spam fissure at people. Well, fissure for general use, volcano to stunlock/kill anything that teleports, and I throw a big fat moulten boulder rock in the face of anything that tries to charge lock or teleport on me, then cast a fissure so they get knocked into it. I need to test boulder and volcano to make sure they'll work well enough, and I need to test everything vs pallies because their 2 frame block makes volcano near useless vs them. If it stops them from teleporting though, it can be a valuable tool to buy me time to fissure them.

EDIT: Oh, and my big question, is 5k fissure really going to kill people? I mean I know it hits a LOT if it doesn't put people into fhr, but 5k still kinda makes me wonder.

[respawned]

5k is a decent amount of damage, it can kill most likely if it hits more than once without them teleporting out or running away.

[Aeonios]

If they teleport I volcano :P. Fissure is mainly used on things that don't tele, like fagadins.

[hmw]

You might want to switch out maras with some 2dru/20fcr...etc, this will allow you to use ravenlore(sockedet w/ a fire facet) instead of your circlet and still hit the 99 fcr bp.

[superjayson]

you know fcr isnt that important for fire druids, right ? id stay with the mara's for + skills and res

[Aeonios]

I want the 99 for tele and breaking charge lock with moulten boulder to face. Also, ravenlore has nothing vs a 2x facet 3/20/2, since I'd be up 10% dmg as opposed to 5% with one facet. Also mara's helps use the SS and gives res and bo points, which are hard to come by. Any time you use a class skill ammy you lose 2 points of bo.

[Soepgroente]

Fair points.... are you sure -req/resist jewel isn't better than eld ss tho? Totally depends on the stats on your torch/anni tho. If they're perfect you might reach the 156 already and you're right about the eld (tho maybe UM would still be a better choice, you seem very low on resists with that setup if you wanna duel in hell)

[Aeonios]

Don't know yet. If anything, I could always um the circ. I did work out the stats for using SS already though, so I shouldn't have any str problems.

[hmw]

I want the 99 for tele and breaking charge lock with moulten boulder to face. Also, ravenlore has nothing vs a 2x facet 3/20/2, since I'd be up 10% dmg as opposed to 5% with one facet. Also mara's helps use the SS and gives res and bo points, which are hard to come by. Any time you use a class skill ammy you lose 2 points of bo.

This is ofc. personal preference(did i spell that right?:shocked: ) i just thought the -25% fire res +5% fire dmg would be better than -10% and +10%. but i could be way off:rolleyes:

[Quietus]

This is ofc. personal preference(did i spell that right?:shocked: ) i just thought the -25% fire res +5% fire dmg would be better than -10% and +10%. but i could be way off:rolleyes:

Overall, you'd be correct, against anyone who doesn't stack. In general, in pubbies, I'd imagine the ravenlore would be better, while facing experienced duelers who stack ~30 at all times the 3/20 would be better.

[Aeonios]

Meh, you forget that EVERY pub smiter will salv vs any elemental, making the ravenlore pretty worthless.

[Quietus]

Meh, you forget that EVERY pub smiter will salv vs any elemental, making the ravenlore pretty worthless.

I haven't seen any smiter do this yet. Particularly since a fire druid is seen as underpowered most times. In fact, the vast majority of pub smiters I'VE spoken to, don't suggest salvation, and suggest just getting maxed resists.

[Aeonios]

Well about half the ones I fight with my melee sorc salv vs me, so maybe you just fight a different crowd than I do. Either way, I'll take the damage over the -res any day, plus using ravenlore would sacrifice a lot of other things as I said before, 2 levels of bo and it'd drop me down an fcr bp. If I were stuffing the char full of facets, I'd just use the ravenlore, but I'm not making a town camper so that really doesn't benefit me much.

EDIT: oh, and some other points on this. Most of the people I know either stack resists like a mofo or use eshield (and 'good' people on ladder are using bmanas more frequently now) and the extra -res doesn't do ANYTHING in those two situations. Also, a lot of people will go get the hotspurs out of their stash the instant a fire char shows up. Hotspurs alone will cancel even a perf ravenlore if their resists are any good to begin with.