Precision is only possible in inverse proportion to the blur of lag. Responding to what your client screen is showing you, while playing a Realm game, cannot be precise. You must extrapolate from that, past the lag, to what is really happening with the game mechanics. Some players view this blur as added difficulty, but I see it only as dillution. Yes, it's harder, but the way in which it is harder is meaningless: a hall of mirrors through which you are attempting to perceive something taking place hundreds of miles away, inside the guts of a battle.net server. This is not part of the game, per se. You must cope with it, but you will be better equipped to do so if you distinguish between what is the game and what is blur.

As such, I cannot advise you on matters of precision in relationship to Realm play. There is only one precision, that between you and the game mechanics. The same things that work in single player, work in multiplayer, too, minus whatever response time and inconsistencies are imposed on you by lag. Since D2 is a real time game, your effectiveness will be reduced by the lag blur, and the more blur you suffer, the worse things get. Even so, the solution is to understand the true game mechanic, to base your tactics on that, then to add buffers of lag tolerance from there. You will have to figure out how to do that on your own.

There are several key areas of precision:

1) Targetting. There are two forms of targetting: targetting an opponent, targetting an area. In Diablo 1, to master the bow rogue, you had to master targetting tiles on the floor to get the specific angle you needed, rather than targetting enemies directly. In Diablo 2, this is ineffective. The tiles are smaller, the "width" of shots is less generous, so it is much more important to target enemies directly, particularly with projectile skills like firebolt or fireball. If you highlight an opponent and target them that way, in Realm play, the server will shoot at where the target really is, not where he appears to be on your screen. This approximation factor, this "extrapolation" of enemy position by your client, only makes the blur factor that much worse. The only reason you don't notice it so much is this direct targetting. While this makes it generally inadvisable to target the ground in multiplayer, you still don't want to be doing much of this in single player, either. The exceptions come in situations where you have a bottleneck (such as a door) that you can target, or for the Inferno skill, which will stop firing (and force you to restart) if a targetted critter is slain.

2) Mana efficiency vs Safety. Firewalls, Meteors, and Hydras require a lot of mana. Learning how much you need for a given situation is part and parcel to your tactical success. If you use fewer castings to secure a kill, you can extend your length of time in the field, reduce down time for mana recharge, or be able to invest more into vitality. On the other hand, you need to know when a serious threat has been encountered. You do not want to die with a belt full of potions because you were too stingy to cut loose when you needed.

3) Passive dodging. If you are running blaze, or have laid down firewalls, meteors or hydras, and enemies have engaged you, you will often find yourself in a position of needing to maintain distance from enemies, but not too much distance. You may need to keep them in a blaze or firewall stack you've lain, or keep them in range of your hydras, or help out your falling meteors by leading targets to where the meteors will drop, or keeping them in the area of the afterflames. Against some of the speedier opponents, the best way to keep them in check is making use of Tempting Fate, a tactical move designed to turn the enemy's strength against him. Tempting has such wide application, I will cover it in its own section. Tempting is not the essence of close-range tactics, though. There is no need at all to tempt slow-moving or ranged opponents, and many opponents are better handled in other ways.

4) Active dodging. When enemies are chasing you, and you are trying to cast spells, you get caught between the conflicting needs of maintaining distance and pausing to attack. Use of cold tree or teleport can turn the tide, but Hot Babes do not have these options. When raw foot speed is all you have, you must learn to make do on that alone. If your offensive output is high enough, or you have plenty of room in which to work, you can accomplish almost anything. In tight spaces or with weak offense, you will be put to the test. The enemy WILL reach you, and against speedy opponents, you will end up tempting them (intentionally or not) or you will die. Slower opponents can still pose a grave risk. You cannot afford to be cornered. Above all else, you must maintain situational awareness. You must not walk into places in which you will be trapped with no way out.

5) Use of terrain. Using terrain against the enemy is the best way to turn things to your advantage. Break up mobs into smaller pieces. Interpose a barrier between yourself and your targets, if possible. Pin leapers against obstacles or walls. Secure loop tracks where you can safely play pied piper to larger or faster mobs.

6) The right skill for the job. Unless you play a one-skill specialist, you will have two or more skills to apply to any given situation. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of each skill so you can maximize precision.

7) Divide and Conquer. This is basic principle for success in Diablo 1 or 2. If you can minimize the number of foes you engage at one time, you can win with almost any tactic, even with badly underpowered skills or items. There are more ways to divide and conquer than I care to list here. For some of the most vital ones, read up on Ember's Quest. That whole report is one long treatise on how to effectively divide and conquer. The more precision you have with this strategy, the more effective you will be when fighting enemies at full speed, where a battle is often won or lost based on your preparedness before you even take the field.

8) Speed. Speed is the most essential ingredient of them all.

You need foot speed. Lack of time to work your magic will be your biggest obstacle. More speed increases effectiveness of blaze. More speed allows you to dictate terms to more enemies. More speed means better dodging. Getting fastest run on boots should be a top priority (unless you wish to handicap your speed), and you should avoid heavy armor entirely: no scale mail, no plate mail, no full plate. I also urge you to avoid tower shields. The loss of speed is not worth 8% blocking, unless you are playing Hardcore Realms, where you need ability to survive a lag spike or disconnect, or to cope with the blur in general. A gothic shield still offers 36% blocking with a lesser speed penalty, and can save you fifteen points of strength. By the time you get to Hell difficulty, you also want to be using a light armor (Greyform, Twitchthroe, or a rare quilted or mage plate or such). Barring the consequences of lag, speed is your best defense in 98% of situations. The other 2%, use smarts. Even with lag, speed is still your best defense, but it cannot save you from big lag spikes or disconnects. In those situations, your speed drops to zero, which is VERY bad.

You also need endurance. Pumping your vitality is good not only for adding life, but also stamina. With enough vitality, stamina will cease to be a major concern. Combined with fastest run, high stamina will sustain itself for all but the rarest occasion, meaning you can go for a rare boot with fastest run instead of Treads or Fetlock. Along with that footspeed is the ability to sustain it over time. Going without stamina is a handicap.

Then there is recovery speed. For a Hot Babe, it is imperative that you wear at least one item with Fastest Hit Recovery. More is better (the effects will stack). Going without recovery speed is a handicap that may well get you killed. Speed is all but everything to the Fire Tree. Put priority on hit recovery.

Casting speed is not to be overlooked. If you go for a full tweaker setup, stacking fast cast items at every position, you can dramatically increase damage rates -- for the moment. In the expansion pack, they will be adding spell timers to several Fire Tree skills, which will eliminate this effect. However, even then, faster cast is still important. The longer it takes for you to cast a spell, the longer your sorcie will be locking into the casting animation and rooted to the spot. During casting, your foot speed is zero, and that's bad. Yet you must cast spells to attack. Faster cast items reduce your exposure. This is particularly useful against Duriel, Hephasto and other speedy opponents that may slay you in one hit. I urge you to look for Magefist not only for the bonus fire skill and mana regen, but also for the fastest cast. At the least, you should consider getting fastest cast on your weapon. Going entirely without casting speed bonuses is a handicap.

Finally, there is killing speed. In some situations, nothing else can save you. This is why Meteor is the strongest skill in the tree. Meteor can dish out the largest hurt to the most number of opponents with the least amount of targetting effort in the smallest period of time. Nothing else compares when you are in the crunch, cornered in some tight space like viper level two or the ruined temple. However, firewall, blaze and hydra can also dish out big hurt, and to a lesser extent, so can inferno and fireball, if you max them out. As such, opting not to specialize in one or two skills, but instead to dabble in bits of everything, would be a handicap. Fire tree does simply massive damage to large areas, but is vulnerable to fire resistance. I urge you to make a conscious choice about killing speed, because the choice you make in regard to the skills you use will dictate how important all those other speed factors will turn out to be.

Be precise with all aspects of speed management. You don't have to opt for the most speed all the time, in all areas, but you should at least understand how speed impacts your sorcie and her options.

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