In the grand spirit of Hotfoot, my prototype Hot Babe (Fire Skills ONLY Sorceress), I have decided to play a new Hot Babe with a special skill set and some particular restrictions. Her name is Ember, and she is Hardcore. Due to her particular nature, I plan to retire her as a Duchess after defeating Diablo in Nightmare... if she survives that long.

Ember will have only three skills, ever: Firebolt, Warmth, and Fire Mastery.

In Normal Difficulty, she will not raise her Strength at all at any point, not even through the use of magical items. Further, she will not wear any headgear and will use her starting staff through the course of the game.

If Ember survives to become a Countess, I will increase her strength to 12 and allow her to use any equipment that can be worn with a Strength of 12. Strength adders will be wearable (for example, +Str on an otherwise desirable rare) but she may not use any gear that would rely on this added strength. 12 is her max. Further, I will use her Normal Imbue on her staff (right after slaying Diablo) and hope that it comes out useable for Nightmare. If not, I will switch to another staff (likely the best +3 Firebolt staff I can find) and press on.

I will allow one exception to the skill restrictions I've selected: a Blaze staff is allowed for fighting Duriel in Nightmare. Only for Duriel!

Thus, my skill path plan for Ember:

2) Firebolt @ 1
DoE) Warmth @ 1
3-20, Rad) Firebolt increased to maximum
21-29, Iz) Warmth @ 2-12
30+) Fire Mastery
NM Quests) More Warmth (whenever it won't let me add to Mastery, I will increase Warmth)

To summarize what this means, Ember will put one point into Warmth early on, all the rest to Firebolt until it is maxed out. Skill points from Den and Radament will allow for earliest possible max in Firebolt, at level 20, under this plan. I will then add to Warmth, because it's the only eligible skill for Ember, until she can start in on her Fire Mastery at clvl 30.

Since Firebolt has a fixed mana cost of 2.5 per casting, Ember will not need much mana. I am thinking I will add to her Energy until it reaches 75 or 80, then add no more. Her mana costs will never go up, so it's just a matter of having enough to get by until the Warmth starts to increase and she approaches a sustainable level where she could stand and fire continuously for minutes on end, if not forever, without running dry.

Since mana is not much of an issue once a modest mana pool has been obtained, dexterity will never be increased, and strength will only be raised to 12 at most, that leaves only Vitality for the rest. Vitality will become her strongest statistic by the time she becomes a Countess.

And so it begins...

- Sirian

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