1.13 & firewall: viable?

Cake

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Dec 11, 2009
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1.13 & firewall: viable?

Hey,

I always had a secret love for the skill Firewall. Sure it's a little difficult to target at times, but practise makes perfect. Plus it's a wall. Made of fire! What's not to love?

Sadly, I only recently returned to this game, so as of yet I don't have a firewall sorceress yet, as I'd also like to try some other classes first :) And somehow I don't think a firewall sorceress is a good choice when trying hardcore for the first time!

But I was reading the 1.13 patch notes and saw that firewall now also gets synergies! So that got me thinking, would it be possible to make a decent firewall-sorc on the next reset when 1.13 comes?

What would that build consist of? Obviously 20 firewall and 20 warmth (the biggest synergy), but what else? are the extra points in Blaze and Inferno worth it? I guess Fire Mastery is a good candidate for another 20 points (or at least 1)

But having a second element would be nice, especially in dealing with Fire Immunes and this is what gives me the most trouble. Seeing as I just returned it is safe to say that I don't know anything right now about what would work and what wouldn't, especially in the higher levels. Personally I was thinking of some points in Static Field and/or Nova, but I'm not sure if this is a very good idea for the highter levels.

So I was wondering if anybody could help me out here? Because I could use the help :yes: It can be anything, as long as it would work!
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

firewall didnt need the synergies
as it is 20pts in firewall and FM gives 3377-3439 thats 42skill points for that damage!!
a max blizz with maxed synergys gives 2280-2476 costing 81skill points!!!
and yes i know CM will boost blizs damage over FW but for point cost the only skill that gets close to FW and still have has good damage is FO and Nova
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

firewall didnt need the synergies
as it is 20pts in firewall and FM gives 3377-3439 thats 42skill points for that damage!!
a max blizz with maxed synergys gives 2280-2476 costing 81skill points!!!
and yes i know CM will boost blizs damage over FW but for point cost the only skill that gets close to FW and still have has good damage is FO and Nova

The difference between Blizzard and Firewall that you "pay for" with those extra points is not only the higher damage you get at higher levels of CM, but also that Blizzard is much easier to target monsters with.
Blizzard is an area in which damage is applied, and the monsters will also be slowed by the cold, staying longer in the target area. The slow also makes you safer, the cold skills have always worked as the crowd control element.

Firewall sets up a wall perpendicular to your position, while monsters coming for you will move towards you and out of the fire instantly. That is probably the reason to why it has such high damage in relation to the points spent.
Also, the Blizzard damage is not per-second-damage.

If firewall has higher 'effective' damage output, I'm sure more people would use it. And I've always loved that skill. My first bnet character was a firewall sorc. :)



 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

But does the new synergies give it enough of an effective Damage output?
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

i made a frozen orb/firewall sorc for single player hard core, and managed to beat hell baal untwinked... that was before these changes.

so that build should still be viable, although i was more orb than firewall.

and firewall damage has always been fine even before these changes. People don't use it though because fireball is easier to use and does more dps fully synergized. with these changes, i'll definately be considering using a firewall sorc (although if i made a non-hc one, i'd probably go pure firewall + energy shield).
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

"Viable" is a vague word that I don't really like to see in Diablo II when discussing builds.

A Fire Wall Sorceress was viable pre-1.13. Any decent Fire Wall Sorceress in 1.10 to 1.12a could easily hit 10k Fire Wall damage. This *easily* takes out most non-Fire Immune monsters.

Now that Blizzard implemented some synergies for Fire Wall, a decently built Fire Wall Sorceress will hit anywhere from 20k to almost 30k Fire Wall Damage. It's a pretty hefty boost, as her damage in 1.13 is practically 2x/3x of what it was in 1.12a. Any non-Fire Immune monsters should easily get taken out.

Like others above have mentionned, people preferred Fire Ball Sorceresses more, thus Fire Wall Sorceresses weren't commonly seen. The same thing will be true for 1.13 most likely. But is the Fire Wall Sorceress viable? Hell yes. Is the 1.12 Fire Wall Sorceress viable as well? Hell yes.
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

Hmmm, so it's perfectl possible to make a firewall sorc already?
Might be a good idea to get some practise. With some static field and/or nova and ES it might work. I guess :yes:
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

Sure but in that case you should prolly max FO instead of maxing blaze to get some crowd control.
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

Yes, with respecs available as well, I would expect most meph running sorcs that use the moat trick to invest in firewall, while using a more balanced build to clear out the three acts.
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

The only thing I'm not sure of is... if I'm going to spend 40+ points towards the Fire tree won't I still be better of with FB+Meteor?
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

Maybe but remember you will always have 2 FW running and sometimes 3 (for half a sec.).I
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

I played through normal to hell mode naturally with a firewall as a main, and it was really annoying (for me, anyway). I found it completely lacked the fun factor because it is just so hard getting those monsters to stand in that little band of fire. You're constantly hoping they all go after your merc instead of you. It's fun on bosses, but I just gave up because I wasn't having fun killing everything else.
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

if you want to make a firewall sorc you could always have IB or GS as secondary spell so there frozen for FW
prob max both to add to IBs frez lenght
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

if you want to make a firewall sorc you could always have IB or GS as secondary spell so there frozen for FW
prob max both to add to IBs frez lenght
It's not really a good tactic because it doesn't work against fire and cold immunes, which are more than half the monsters in the game.



 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

It's not really a good tactic because it doesn't work against fire and cold immunes, which are more than half the monsters in the game.

ya thats what mercs are for...
or just tele past them

i dont mean to sound mean or anything stephan
but all builds have there probs
light sorc = LIs fire = FI cold = CIs
duel trees can sort this but if you want to go single tree dont let the fact that you cant kill some monsters stop you from haveing fun



and anyway wheres the fun if you know you can kill everything with out a prob


 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

Firewall has always been one of my favorite spells as well. On the Beta HC realm I have respectable (given the time the realms been up) Firewall Frozen orber and while she's a little fragile with her 1K life, Her damage is considerable. Firewall has never been underpowered it's only hard to use without some practice.

I went
20 Fo
20 Ice bolt
20 Firewall
20 Fire Mastery
-100 from Cold Mastery (lvl 17?)
rest in warmth. (like 4-5 in tele to get the mana down)
She has 480 on her orb , 5K on her wall and that's with +4 skills

The key to being satified with your Firewall oriented sorc is all in the aiming, and once you start laying down "inferno like vertical walls" their true power is realized.


Picture a T , click just to your left or right and you'll lay a strip of death that enemies will walk in to get to you instead of going right through the horizontal ones. Then as your moving you can "walk the wall" this way.


click here in this plane ---wall--------------Gloam
I
I
SORCY



drawing's a little crude, but I have faith in your ability to ":get it"
Hope this helps. Long Live the mighty wall-o-flame!

:girly:
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

For the most part, I always found Firewalls targeting to be adequate. It's not great, but I never found it too bad.

The trick for me was mixing in teleport and a tanking merc. Since ~85% of the monsters are melee monsters, they like to charge in and attack. You counter thuis by teleporting a little bit away from them (to make some space) and then you stand still. Your tanking merc and the monster charge each other. You cast Firewall where the monster's standing while fighting the merc. Between Firewall and the merc, the monster will probably die very quickly. Rinse, lather, repeat.

The only problem with this tactic is it's sometimes harder to hit multiple monsters with one Firewall.

Personally, I find ranged-attacking monsters more frustrating to target with Firewall, as they're more likely to run away and make you wait out the timer to recast.
 
Re: 1.13 & firewall: viable?

ya thats what mercs are for...
or just tele past them
Then why do I need Glacial or Ice Blast to freeze them?

i dont mean to sound mean or anything stephan
You don't. I'm just pointing out that the freeze and burn tactic (it's often suggested for Magezons as well) simply can't be used that often.



 
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