Introduction:I'm writing this guide because IMO the fire wall sorc is the best overall 1v1 and tvt character if properly geared + decent inventory, and atm it's still underappreciated, with only 1-2 per realm it seems. The difference between a well-played firewall sorc and a bad one is dramatic due to the type of skill it is...with firewall, it's either right underneath you or it's pretty much no threat. If the sorc isn't great at namelocking, and has to stop teleing/run to get namelocks, the build isn't nearly as good. But when the sorc doesn't have to slow down at all and theres a firewall underneath you forcing you to keep moving every 2 seconds, the duel becomes impossible for most builds. Add the fact that you have ES and max warmth, and this build can routinely win team duels by itself against most builds.
Skills/Stats:Max Warmth (20)
Max Fire Wall (13)
1 into Fire Mastery
3 into Telekenisis
1 into Teleport
1 into Frost Nova
Str: enough
Dex: Max Block
Vit: The rest
Gear:Helm: +2 Fire circlet with as much life/mana as possible, you don't need fcr, so you should be able to get a pretty good amount. Socket w/ perfect gem of your preference.
Amulet: +2 Fire, same as circlet, life/mana.
Armor: Vipermagi, nothing else. Socket w/ perfect gem of your preference.
Weapon: Spirit, 8 MA is important.
Shield: Visc, 9/15 jewel.
Gloves: Eth frostburns.
Rings: Sojs.
Belt: String.
Boots: Crafted boots (rep or mana are both good options) or Sanders.
Switch: Any staff/orb with +ES, +Chilling, and +Enchant. It doesn't take too long to shop a staff at nm or hell Akara with the cow portal. The enchant isn't completely neccessary, but with max warmth it adds over 200 damage and 110% AR to your party, which is a pretty good buff for most chars. A leaf staff with these mods would be awesome
Charms: Lots of life/mana
a few notes: w/ fcr on circlet or just a different circlet you can switch to magefists and respec to fb and switch back and forth (I planned on doing this when I bought my circlet, but I love fw too much to change now
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The only time frw and fhr ever comes into play is against trappers and fb sorcs, and then it's just a preference. Get enough so that you feel you can safely WSG + tele out of traps and get away from a fber if you get stomped. I play with 0 frw and the 60 fhr breakpoint.
on the switch weapon, you should have 2 options, one with +1 es, and one with +3-5 es, I'll cover this more down below.
General Strategies/tips:Damage glitch:From certain angles, fire wall will do 1/3 damage. Assuming the druid in this picture is the enemy, walls casted from the bad ranges will do 1/3 damage, and ones casted from the good range will do full damage.
This shouldn't affect too much, as the corners provide the full damage, and most people should be used to going to the lower corners for the longest range anyway. Don't hesitate to drop a wall on someone from the bad range, they still have to move and you'll be casting another in 2 seconds anyway. It can also screw people up sometimes, if they accidentally stand in a 1/3 fire wall, they might think they can actually tank your damage, and if they stand in a full wall the next time they're screwed
C/t Walls and Invisible Walls:Using tabs to extend your range on firewall is extremely effective in team duels when you're fighting a team that sticks together. You don't have to get close and take on their full team's damage, and you don't actually have to get a namelock. A fire wall through a group of 4 people will pretty much always hit someone, and everyone will start moving.
Using c/t is also a great way to use invisible walls. When you cast a wall when someone isn't on your map, they won't ever see it. This is incredibly effective in team duels and 1v1s. The method I generally use is as follows:
find your opponent(s), then move back until you are just off the map:
Open up a tab in their direction and cast to the corner:
In the last ss I moved forward to show how close the walls can be to your opponent while staying invisible. Just stay back and keep casting walls, as soon as they come on your map, don't cast another, because that 1 will be visible and on the same spot as your invisible wall, which defeats the purpose of an invisible wall
most people will run right through your 2x stacked invisible walls which will do a good bit of damage, and if they run paralell to your walls or just walk forward and stay in them for a second, they'll take huge damage.
ES Level:A lot of times you don't actually need a high ES level, and having it at unnecessarily high levels will drain more mana. With Vipermagi, SoE, and Spirit, you have 15% DR, 28 MDR and 8 MA, and you should be making the most of it. Against elemental damage (trap, fb etc.) use low ES. The point of ES against fbers is to not let them fhr you, with a lower ES, it accomplishes this and it will take the least amount of mana per fb. The extra 10-15% from a higher ES increases the amount of mana taken a lot because of the 0% resist w/ ES. Against trappers, a low ES and all your magic damage/absorb is enough to make their damage pretty much null. You should use high es against phys/magic damage, because it doesn't hit your mana nearly as hard, and with max warmth, even if they drop your mana to the bottom, it still replenishes enough to absorb some of the next hit, so you want it to absorb as much as possible.
Specific Class Strategies:Cast fire wall on people. (I just wrote a lot up above and don't feel like writing this atm, post if you want any specific strategies and I'll get to them)
Questions/Comments/Discussion go!