So, I've finally gotten through with moving and getting internet and everything. Surprise, surprise, I've been sucked back into D2 after a ~4 month hiatus, as those of you who frequent the hell baals may be aware. I got myself re-interested via one of my favorite things to do in the game, unconventional builds, so I hereby present...

Patriarch BhutJolokia, Level 82 Fire Elementalist Druid

Str: 136 (156)
Dex: 30 (45)
Vit: 314 (356)
Ene: 20 (55)

Life (with BO and OS): 2617
Mana (with BO): 919
Resists (Hell): 75/75/75/75
Firestorm Damage (per LCS): 5494-6078
Fissure Damage (per LCS): 3745-3914
Molten Boulder Damage (per skill tree): 1260-1395 phys/1135-1257 fire
Volcano Damage (per skill tree): 877-884 phys/954-1046 fire

Skills:
Firestorm: 20 (40)
Molten Boulder: 20 (40)
Fissure: 20 (40)
Volcano: 20 (40)
Twister: 1 (20)
Raven: 1 (20)
Spirit Wolf: 1 (13)
Dire Wolf: 1 (13)
Grizzly: 1 (13)
Oak Sage: 1 (13)
Unspent: 5

Equip:
Ravenlore (Fire Facet)
Mara's Kaliedoscope
Skin of the Vipermagi (Um)
Magefist
Arachnid Mesh
Sandstorm Trek
Stone of Jordan
Stone of Jordan
Heart of the Oak
Spirit
CtA/Spirit on switch


This char is quite strong against anything that isn't fire immune. Fissure and firestorm were definitely my main attacks - fissure decimates crowds and firestorm is excellent for stragglers/bosses. Non-FI hell ancients went from full health to dead within a couple seconds of firestorm (as did baal). The first four waves of baal's minions went down like they do against a blizzsorc, but the tedium that was lister's pack more than made up for it. FI's are really annoying, not because they're particularly dangerous (I had no deaths that weren't easily avoidable carelessness, such as stopping to rearrange my pack in the middle of combat), but because they're tedious. Molten boulder can consistantly take down a single FI with two or three casts, but it's really difficult to hit more than one or two at a time because of how slow it rolls, and the fact that the knockback angle screws up multiple hits if you move after casting it. Volcano was also good against individual FI's when they were willing to stand still fighting with a grizzly or merc. Fortunately, I only encountered one PI/FI (a blood lord boss in A4hell), which I took down out of spite over the course of maybe 15 minutes with my ~20 damage twister and the ~15 cold damage from vampire gaze on my merc. I could see this being a relatively commonplace character if it weren't for the fact that FI's are everywhere.

So anyways, yeah, I'm back. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do next, though the RoF superchests are quite intriguing, so I'll probably spend some time there. We'll see.

Yay, diablo.
-CG