Version 1.1

This strategy no longer applies to the latest version of Diablo II. It remains here for archival use only.

Well, I am on about my 8th blaze babe now, and I think it is about time to post what I know about this particular sorc build. I have been playing a bunch of HC, and disconnection/lag deaths give me the luxury of replaying this class over and over with slight variants. Blaze is by far the most enjoyable and tactically rich spell in the game, and if you like more complexity in your game, you will like this kind of character.

The basic concept to this character is to use blaze for anything which chases you, and have a stationary spell for anything which does not chase. After static, blaze is the most cost effective killing spell in the tree for a sorc. The reasons are simple:

(1) When you run, things string out in a line behind you, which overlaps nicely with the killing zone of blaze.

(2) Blaze stacks- each time you double back you double the damage of blaze, so you can run over the same area over and over to create a super stack which will drop most anything. It is fairly easy to get a 300+ damage single layer of blaze at high levels.

(3) Blaze is cheap- you cast it once and it keeps running for its duration. Odds are you will easily recover its casting cost by the time you need to recast.

The Tank and Speed Runner Blaze Babes:

There are two basic varieties of blaze babe. I mainly describe a 'tank' version set up for a little slower running speed, but with high shield block. The tank blaze babe can survive in tight areas better and has a better chance to make it out of a bad lag spike. Shield block matters as you will have run toggled on and wear light armor, and all of your defense is derived from it. Shield block helps out against ranged physical attacks, and permits some closer maneuvers to the action. 3DTs (triple diamond socketed shields) in this combo grant substantial resistance, rounding out your defenses.

The other variety is a 'speed runner', who wears the lightest armor, fastest boots, Blinkbats form, and does not use a shield with any speed penalties (and may elect to use a staff). This latter type relies solely upon distance of separation for protection. She gains increased killing power of blaze at the expense of shield block. She puts all those points she would have spent on str & dex into vit and energy. As her entire defense is dependent upon evading by mouse skill incoming ranged attacks and maintaining a safe distance, it is more important for her to consider fast cast if she wishes to use static heavily.

ULTIMATE GEAR:

I begin with gear selections as this drives physical attributes. There are differences depending upon blaze babe variety, and my default assumption is for the tank.

1. Twitchthroe- use this for increased blocking and its +10 str/dex. You will be running through crowds and shield block is of prime concern. Since this is a light armor you get no speed penalty. Speed runners will go with Blinkbats instead, since it ups running speed by 20%.

2. Sigons, then 3DT shield- +all stuff is nice early game, and sigons is a pretty easy acquisition (easier IMHO than twitchy). Switch to a perfect diamond tower once you acquire twitchy. You will block 64% with sigons prior to twitchy, and 69% with the 3DT and twitchy. Yes I know there is a speed penalty of 10% from tower shields, but the increase in blocking is worth the speed trade. Speed runners pay attention to speed losses from shields (tower, large, and gothics all have speed losses) and typically select a bone or kite shield.

3. Culwen's point- decide for yourself if you want this. I like culwens for a few reasons- (1) the +all means a single point investment in lightning mastery, fire mastery, frozen armor, warmth, energy shield goes up by 1, and coupled with other +all items you can achieve a workable level of skill in all of these secondary abilities without having to pump them at the expense of your main attack spells, (2) I like the faster hit recovery- if you do get hit, you need to escape as a blaze babe and getting this on a sword frees up other slots for other things, (3) the poison length reduction gives you some defense against poison and lets you run through clouds of it without taking major damage, (4) faster block matters against spear cats which can stunlock you and prevent you from getting out of range on a chase. All of these abilities make this an ideal weapon for a blaze babe imho, and worth the dexterity investment. Furthermore an early investment in dex extends the length of time you can use your gemmed long bow, a plus if you are not twinking. Those who play in 8p games will find spectral shard desirable for its increased casting rate, or a drakes scepter of the magus even more desirable with its no dex requirement. High player count games really up the monster hp to the point where static amounts to significantly faster killing. Also speed runners who rely solely upon distance of separation will find casting speed to be an issue for static.

4. Tarnhelm- another +all item, mainly used for that, but also the find magic item ability is noticeable and you will find many more goodies in your blaze trails because of it. If you don't have tarnhelm, a nice resistance helm or perhaps Holwtusk are good compromises.

5. Magefist- two main reasons here, (a) +1 fire skills pumps your main blaze + warmth + perhaps your stationary finisher and fire mastery, and (b) the regenerate mana 25% is worth two levels of warmth, letting you only put one point into warmth and fare well your whole career. The fastest cast helps if you supplement with static field, and the fire damage helps if you twink it early and are using a bow.

6. Fastest run boots- early on vidala's or treads with their stamina abilities help you run all day long, which is a HUGE ability for a blaze babe, but later on when you have pumped your vit to a high level, you may wish to gamble for rare boots with fastest run. Your blaze damage directly scales with your speed, since if you are faster than your foe you can stack up blaze to higher level and you lay out a longer trail over the same blaze duration. Always put boot speed at the top of your consideration list.

7. Nightsmoke- I like the +10% resist all and the 50% damage to mana. The mana bonus helps early particularly if you pumped vit more than energy in the early game. The damage reduction helps out in the early acts of normal. The main benefit to this item is that it cuts on the mana drain while you use energy shield. Energy shield is often the difference between life and death, and this item keeps your shield up longer.

8. Comments on jewelry- your jewelry slots are completely free with this set. Resistances are a good bet, as well as hp/mana adders. Triumphant rings work well surprisingly as you will be killing masses and the mana return off of them is significant. Also a triumphant return lets you know when whatever was chasing you is dead. +all on the amulet slot is pretty easy to get and combined with your other items gives you +4 fire/+3 all. When you start the game, you may want to go with life steal/mana steal with your bow until you reach blaze level.

STATS:

65 or 75 str- go with 65 if you get lucky and get twitchthroe early. Go with 75 if you get a great shield and want to use it right now. Pump str to at least 45 early to be able to use magefist. Going for 25 str in the early game asap lets you use longbow, an ideal non twink weapon for beginners. Speed runners can quit at 45 str.

25, (35 or 45), or 51- those who go with 25 dex wish to use wands/scepters. The 35/45 dex target is for culwen's point, where 35 assumes you have twitchthroe. 51 is for those who think spectral shard is worth the attribute investment over drakes/magus.

vitality/energy- ultimately I like about a 50/50 split here or maybe even 60/40 in favor of vitality. Pump vitality early as (1) you dont need the mana, (2) vitality ups your stamina and helps you run further, and (3) vitality ups your survivability for the early game. When you start to get your stationary finisher (18+) spell and energy shield (24) you will want to have some mana to cast and support energy shield, so keep that in mind. Once you assemble your +all stuff, you will have about a 35% mana shield, and your mana drain on hits will be noticeable.

Skills to get

1. Frozen armor/Shiver armor/Chilling armor- you should early on get 1 pt in frozen armor- it will save your life and it is not much of an investment. Ultimately shiver armor is better as it chills even when you shield block. Chilling armor also can slow the rate of ranged attack against you. However these higher armors require investments into ice bolt and ice blast, which may be wasted points or not. Ice blast in single player games can help you clear zones with reanimators like Radament faster- freeze your foes in your blaze and they shatter. But in mp games with higher monster HP, it is harder to drop foes with single point investments in these skills. My take- go with FA early, and later when you are happy with all other skills come back and get the higher cold armors.

2. Warmth- 1 point. You don't need much mana regen, and +all equipment + magefist will bring you to about 100% mana regen, sufficient for your needs.

3. Energy shield- 1 point here, and 1 point in each of the prerequisites- you will use teleport to get out of tight jams (just the other day an Urdar whacked me underneath him and I could not move in any direction, but TP got me out) and enable you to build blaze traps. Chain lightning/lightning is a good left hotkey for me, working on things like river watchers and acting as a stopgap stationary finisher if I am going with a high level stationary finisher (24 +).

4. Lightning mastery, fire mastery- one point in each is well worth the investment, particularly with your +all gear. Lightning mastery makes static even cheaper, and fire mastery really ups your damage even with just one point. I prefer maxing out blaze + stationary before going heavy into fire mastery.

5. Frost nova- 1 pt or nothing- in the early game when you have a bow, frost nova + bow is extremely effective. Later on when you face stuff faster than you, you can use frost nova to get a speed edge without compromising gear (IE you can get by without blinkbat and you can use a tower shield if you keep frost nova handy). In the nothing view, you say to yourself that your cold armor is going to keep the really fast stuff off you. I think it is worth it.

6. Blaze + inferno- 1 pt into inferno, then pump blaze when you get it. Get blaze up to at least level 5 to hit the sweet spot. It just keeps getting better with points though.

7. Static field- your choice here- if you go with blaze/firewall, that is one of the few combos you can use without static. If you want to powerlevel in mp games, static can dramatically increase your xp/second gain, and static will help you drop bosses faster. My choice here is 1 pt here when you hit level 6, then leave it alone until you have your blaze/stationary attack established.

8. Stationary finishers- there are many routes to go here, I will give my thoughts on some of them

a. Firewall- a mana hog, but it really drops whatever is camped fast. This spell rocks across rivers. If you go this route, my feel is to keep firewall level at roughly half your blaze level. This skill benefits from fire mastery, and you get the +1 from magefist on it as well. This spell also requires no other prereqs for your blaze build, leading to a very streamlined character.

b. Meteor- a great spell, allows for wiggle room of stationaries. Not as mana intensive as firewall, but it is a late bloomer, only acquired level 24+, and with more investment in fire tree prereqs. If you don't like firewall with a 1 pt investment, go for meteor. This spell doesn't lag your party friends as much (a plus for coop, a minus for pk defense- pks run in terror of lag if you lay a screen full of firewalls). The delay on the hit takes some getting used to, but for this application the delay is not a significant problem.

c. Hydra- you get this really late, and you will have to suffer through many levels of dealing with stationaries prior to acquiring this. You also need 3 prereqs- firebolt, fireball, and enchant. The prereqs can help in the early game. Hydra damage is not increased by fire mastery, and it is tough to dish out a lot of damage quickly with this spell without expending a gross amount of mana. There is some scouting value to it, but with blaze, you want stuff to chase you.

d. Glacial spike- an interesting combo with blaze, freezing foes in your trail. However if you want to drop a stationary, you will have to blow a boatload of mana with glacial, and you must have a direct monster free shot at it the whole time. I would stay away from this one except as a prerequisite.

e. Blizzard- another interesting combo with blaze, but again does not by itself deliver massive killing damage to a stationary. If you are going the chilling armor route, you will have fewer points wasted on prereqs with this. Personally I prefer firewall/meteor.

f. Chain lightning- the low minimum damage means multiple casts, and this spell is not increased by casting speed items.

g. Nova- a mana hog, and puts you in close contact with target, not a good choice.

h. Thunderstorm- because you are getting ES, you are almost there with TS in terms of prerequisites. The real bonuses of using this as your finisher are (1) it is cheap mana wise and lets you go higher into vitality, (2) it scouts out targets, (3) it works even while you are paralyzed by lag, (4) it picks out stuff out of your blaze even when you have trouble seeing it. However the main disadvantages make it not desirable as your stationary spell because (1) it does not target what you want, (2) its single hit damage is not enough to kill something outright in the higher difficulties, and (3) the interval between bolts is beyond your control. For these reasons I would not use it as your main stationary spell. HOWEVER, it is fantastic in the blaze package, and something to seriously consider at high character levels.

HOTKEYS:

I like remapping qwer and asdf for skills 1-4, 5-8.

left action= chain or ice blast or lightning

q=cold armor
w=energy shield
e=frost nova or thunderstorm
r= town portal

a=static
s=teleport
d=stationary finisher
f=blaze

STRATEGY:

Read Sirian's Fire Skills guide at the Lurker Lounge for excellent basics on use of blaze and other fire skills. Read that before you make any final decisions about your character.

In the early game prior to acquiring blaze, you want to get a long bow and put some gems in it. By level 4 you should have 25 str to use a long bow. This will easily see you through level 12 where you start to use blaze as your main killing spell. Even after you have blaze, you may want to hang onto that longbow until you establish your stationary spell. Manasteal and lifesteal jewelry work great with the bow for early game use. Pumping your dex to your culwens target early not only improves your attack with the bow, but also the damage, and permits you to use even more potent bows if you are going after some really high stationary spell such as Hydra which you will not see til level 30. Supplement your bow with other spells that you have gained as prerequisites. At some point in act 2 you will find your miss rate is huge with the bow and then it is time to either go with a staff or shield+weapon. Staff is a nice stopgap and can give you a stationary finisher until you reach a level where you can get your own stationary. Your earliest focus for purchases and gambles should be boots - you need that speed.

The basic way you play this sorc is to blaze into new territory activating monsters, and retreating back into blaze traps/stands killing off all the chasers. The more you activate, the better, as there always seems to be enough room in your flames for all of them. You then return and nail the stationaries with your stationary spell. In tight spaces with no room, you either run into virgin territory or run in a tight circle. Static is used while in retreat or on things in your blaze stack. You continually recast blaze, cold armor, energy shield, and if you have it, TS to keep them up. Good places to create stacks are in doorways or other choke points (but don't do this with things that can be reanimated, as all you will do is create a blockage you must teleport through).

Really tough bosses can be dropped with stacks on the other side of impassable barriers that you hurdle with teleport. This trapping burns the boss and puts you in safety. Alternately you can go in an all out run (with doublebacks if you have a speed edge) and stay out of the reach of say its charged bolts if it is an LEB or its death aura if it is a CEB or FEB. You can make blaze work in about 80% of your kills by laying down a large killing zone area then going offscreen- this will often force creatures which are stationary and firing ranged attacks to close in and die in your flames.

The fastest possible kill of Diablo involves luring him into a blaze stack and then using static on him. This is fairly easy to do.

For party play, tell people that to clear their lag they should go offscreen from your blaze and return. Blood spurt animation is cleared by doing this. Party play is a very different dynamic as people must take advantage of your stacks (which assumes some minimal level of competence, not often seen in public games) and your basic chase AI into blaze tactic is defeated by other characters/minions coming into combat range. Your natural position in such a party is to take point - this is good because (1) any idiot can follow you since you have this big flame trail indicating where you went, and (2) odds are they are standing in your flames when you return with a howling pack chasing you. The best role for them to take is one of attracting creatures into your stack, or to be one of the guys who dispatches the stationaries. You are limited in this regard to those with decent video cards - people with 2D cards will not like grouping with you at all.

Well that's all I have to say for now. Enjoy the blaze babe, and I hope to see you out there.

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