This skill is a prerequisite for Fireball, Meteor, Enchant, and Hydra. For virtually all characters, this is frankly the only reason to invest in this skill at all. The damage is low, very very low, and never gets much better.

The main strength of this skill is that it is immediately available. You have access to Skill Level (slvl) 1 right away, thanks to your starting short staff. That alone IS sufficient to carry you all the way to Character Level (clvl) 12 if you are patient and dilligent.

Another strength of this skill is its mana cost. The cost is a flat 2.5 mana per use, regardless of the slvl. One could find or opt to purchase a staff with +3 Firebolt and vastly increase effectiveness, because damage goes up but cost does not. Unfortunately, by the time you can afford to buy a staff like this, you are already more than halfway done using the skill. Still, it's an option.

If you are ever going to get Fireball, Meteor, Enchant or Hydra, then the time to put your prereq point into Firebolt may be immediately: at clvl 2. With help from the staff, this pushes Firebolt to slvl 1+1 and will help you get though the early part of act 1 more quickly. Even if you opt for Inferno as a prereq-only, there is still a use for firebolt there. You can switch to it for attacking at range, which may be desirable even over slvl 1 Inferno's higher damage when it comes to running from (and killing off at range) large mobs, or dealing with foes that may run from you (such as rogue archers). If you are playing a Fire Sorcie or Hot Babe, you will want to get yourself into the Fire Tree mindset ASAP, and this is a good opportunity: figuring out when it's to your advantage to use slvl 1 or 2 Firebolt instead of slvl 1 Inferno.

SPECIALIZING in Firebolt may seem like madness to some, but it's more viable than it may appear. Not to say that it will ever compete with specializing in any other skill in this tree -- because it won't -- still, it is possible to make the skill work for you all the way through Normal and well into Nightmare, especially in Single Player. Damage at slvl 20 is over 30 per shot, and the mana cost stays at 2.5, which means you won't need all that much mana. You could devote points to Strength, Vitality, even Dexterity if you want to supplement your Firebolt specialty with melee. If you are variant-minded or looking for a challenge, this is one option. Fire Mastery can push damage as high as 50, even 60 per shot, all at that 2.5 mana, and gathering fast-cast items could further help. What's more, Firebolt has extended range. The shots continue for a long distance even after leaving the screen, which means a specialist could fire "scout" shots in hopes of waking up targets one and two at a time or even killing some off-screen.

One of my larger claims to fame is the quest of Duchess Ember, my firebolt-only hardcore sorceress. If you have not read her adventure, you're missing out on an entertaining tale. All you could want to know about the minutiae of firebolt specialty is contained therein. Although firebolt is a very weak specialty, the low mana cost and simple elegance of the skill allow you to focus on the gameplay, rather on distractions like replenishing ammunition. If you try this vastly underpowered skill path, I wish you the best of luck.

So except for the variant-minded specialist, Firebolt is only useful until Fireball or Blaze come on the scene, right? Wrong. :) In Act 3 (through v1.03) there are bugs with two monsters that render other fire skills ineffective or even useless. River Hydras cannot be targetted by any area of effect skills, and these include Fireball, Blaze, Firewall and Meteor. Perhaps they will fix this in a patch, but if you are using an early version or it hasn't been fixed yet, firebolt is frankly your best option for killing these foes -- at least until Hydra comes along, but you won't have Hydra in Normal difficulty. Also, the frog creatures in the swamp can get "stuck" partially on the river, and may or may not be invulnerable to firewalls, fireballs and meteors. You can always target them with firebolt, though. Your character may have options from other trees that will work here (Lightning, Ice Blast) but for the Hot Babe, firebolt, hydra and inferno are the only options besides using weapons.

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