This skill is a prerequisite for Firewall and Meteor. Blaze is, hands down, the most tactically intricate skill in the game. The skill does only one thing: it sets fire to every terrain cell your character moves through. How complex can that be? Well, considering that you can "stack" those flames without limit, and that both the length of time the flames will be generated AND how long they will burn AND how much damage they do per second are all increased with added skill points, you can reach a point where you could sign your entire name across the blood moor with one casting of blaze -- yeah, it can get VERY intricate indeed.
What often happens with players, though, is that they try blaze at skill level 1, where the flames last only a couple of seconds... they find that they can only kill one or two monsters, and in multiplayer they can't hardly kill anything at all with blaze... and they decide that the skill is a loser. That's understandable, but it's also a misinformed impression. Few skills in the game show even a fraction of the increase in effectiveness per skill point invested, as blaze does -- and you need to see the skill in action at slvl 5+ to begin to realize the depth of its potential.
Since Blaze leaves fire in your character's wake, it can never be targetted onto a monster. It can never be targetted out of the field of play. There are many foes against which Blaze is ineffective, and a few against which it is useless. There are several against which it can be made to work, but other options might get the job done more quickly and safely. Then there are the rest of the monsters, the other two thirds... against which Blaze is quite simply an Uberskill.
Vanquishing opponents with Blaze involves ten key components, all of which must continally be evaluated and applied in real time, tailored moment by moment to the situation:
1) The terrain. (How much "safe" room do you have to work with? What terrain features might help or hinder your cause? If you get pressed too hard, where is your escape hatch?)
2) The behavior of the enemy AI (where is the opponent going to go, and can you influence it?)
3) The health, along with the fire resistance, of each enemy unit you are engaging. (How much damage will it take to get the kill?)
4) The speed of the enemy. Also your lag to the server if you are playing multiplayer.
5) The threat level of the enemy's offense (how much damage can they do to your sorcie in one hit? How many such worst-case hits can you sustain before you MIGHT be killed?)
6) The number of enemies that have engaged you.
7) The strength and duration of your flames.
8) The speed, stamina, and available run-time of your character (run time is how long you can run continuously without running out of steam).
9) The possibility of enemies being raised from the dead by "shamen" or newly generated by "mother" monsters.
10) Your available options besides just Blaze, including weapons, other skills, minions, allies. (Some skills that can work well with blaze, just to name a few: Frost Nova, Teleport, Blizzard, Static, GS, Hydra, Meteor. Also, it is important to keep in mind that Blaze cannot cure everything, and you should stay alert for situations in which other skills or other options would be more effective).
That may sound daunting, but it's not that bad. You can be effective with Blaze even if you are able to evaluate just a few of these components. However, the more you are able to factor into your situational awareness, the more likely you are to choose both a safe and efficient tactic, moment by moment.
So how do these ten points affect your Blaze tactics?
1) Terrain is the second-most important factor, and the one that will continually shape your available options tactically. You cannot maneuver where the terrain does not allow. Neither can the monsters. You will have to be aware of how much room you have to work with. Getting a "foothold" in tight quarters is the most dangerous and difficult time. Once you have cleared some of the area, you have more room and a safe retreat zone. Making sure you do NOT trap yourself with a poor maneuver that costs you all of your retreat options, is one of your highest priorities.
2) Many opponents have a simple charge-you AI. They will, upon spotting you, move directly toward you to attack at close range. These are the easiest to manipulate, and the ones against which Blaze is the most effective. Some who charge have AI that will lead them to break off and retreat once wounded. Some have AI that lead them to attack you from range, but they will pursue if you move out of range. A few have a hit and run strategy where they will engage, disengage, re-engage. Others will never pursue you. Knowing the particulars of each enemy AI is vital to maximizing your use of Blaze. Also, in multiplayer, you need to account for the AI reactions of monsters to the other players, and this can greatly impact your tactics.
3) Knowing EXACTLY how much fire you need to kill a particular opponent is invaluable. You may not always know in advance, but you must pay attention, as this is the third-most important concern. The more health+resistance the target has, the more flames you will have to use, and the more aggressive you will have to be in terms of hustling and being crisp.
4) The speed of the enemy is paramount. THIS is your primary concern, and is magnified if you are playing multiplayer, due to lag and potential desynchronization between your client and the server. The MOST important aspect of using Blaze is perpetually maintaining distance between yourself and all targets. The faster a target happens to be, the fewer options you have available for engaging them. Lag can also force you to maintain greater distance from targets, and increase the threat level when you get close, which can reduce your options also. An opponent who is FASTER than your character, under laggy conditions, and capable of slaying you in one or two hits, is just about the worst-case scenerio for a Blaze user.
5) How threatening the opponent might be if he lands a hit, can dictate that risks be minimized by opting for safer tactics. In particular, the Cursed and Extra Strong boss abilities are dangerous, but also tough can be the Might aura, Spectral Hit, any elemental enchantment, and Multishot. All of these increase threat to an extreme level in Hell difficulty, particularly in combination. Even general monsters, however, will pose different threat levels should they hit you, and you need to be aware of that.
6) The number of opponents is a concern, not so much by itself, but in combination with those first five points of concern. More opponents when conditions are already pressed, can be a BAD thing, and it will certainly impact your maneuvers.
7) The skill level of your Blaze greatly impacts your tactical options. At skill level 1 there are only a few maneuvers you can pull off, and the flames will be very weak. That's plenty of power if you are still in Act 1 Normal, but irrelevant by the time you are reaching Nightmare. If you are using slvl 1 blaze just to tide you over until you get to Firewall or Meteor, that's fine, but don't expect to be able to continue to make blaze work for you after that point. On the other hand, if you have chosen Blaze as one of your primary skills, then knowing how much damage you can do with it, how often you need to refresh it, and how long those flames are going to last, will impact your tactical maneuvers. Fortunately, this is one of the easier points to gain hold of and even to master. The higher level your Blaze, the more the skill itself helps you out.
8) At lower character levels, or without FASTEST run, or if using both a tower shield and heavy armor, your speed and stamina will be important. Keep an eye on them. Also, when fighting act bosses such as Andariel, Duriel, Izual, or the council down on Durance 3, stamina potions should be considered unless you have an artifact such as Treads of Cthon or Vidala's Fetlock. Never place yourself in a situation whereby you are being chased by dangerous and speedy opponents and going to run out of stamina! Keep in mind also that Blaze is NOT distance-related; it's time-related. Therefore, the faster your character moves, the more cells of flame can be generated per second, as well as per casting. More speed flat-out means MORE blaze damage!
9) Fire does not eliminate corpses. Special tactics may be in order against monsters that can be raised from the dead, or against creatures that spawn offspring.
10) Never become too comfortable with Blaze's power. Pride goeth before a fall. The best use of blaze comes when you recognize its limitations and switch to other options when appropriate. At higher skill levels, blaze may not need to be refreshed more than three or four times per minute, so it can continue working for you in the background while you switch to other attack options.
These are the concerns you must factor moment by moment, evaluating the situation and every new factor in the situation. Blaze factors are so complex, frankly, that one needs to "train" in the use of them. The options need to be known, and more importantly, which options work best in which situations needs to be known also, so that one need not sit there and try and think it through, but rather to choose an effective move by reflex, as soon as a situation presents itself, and to switch immediately if factors change. In other words, it will take practice to become fully efficient with blaze. The more you use it, and the more you learn about particulars, the safer and more efficient you will be.
So on to the strategy...
The FIRST point of concern about blaze is viewing it as a passive skill, which is kept running ALL THE TIME the same way you would use Thunderstorm, Shiver Armor, or minions. At very low skill levels, this is not possible, as the amount and duration of the flames is simply too short. If you have only skill level one in Blaze and won't be getting more, you have about 5% of the skill's options available to you.
If you WAIT until an enemy has engaged you to cast Blaze, you are already behind the curve and have missed out on potentially vital damage. At the least, you will have to work a little harder for that kill.
After about skill level 5, mana ceases to become a concern at all with Blaze. The only sorceress skill that can compare at all to Blaze in per-mana damage potential is Static Field, and only then at comparable skill levels AND if there are huge numbers of opponents, or extremely hardy opponents, within range. So from a mana perspective, there is no reason not to keep blaze running all the time.
In fact, the ONLY reason to go light on blaze is if you are cooping in multiplayer. Blaze can eat up the frame rate. It is worse, I believe, for D3D users than Glide users, and worse still for those using software rendering. If you are going to use Blaze in coop situations, you need to be aware of the down side and how to manage it. Blaze is not as hard on framerates as firewall. It takes several times the amount of flames from moving around with blaze active, to equal the same hit on frame times as firewall eats. Stacking even a few firewalls can make for more of a hit than you will see from blaze, even with maximum flames onscreen, because you can only cast one blaze at a time, ever, meaning there is a cap to how many flames can be generated with blaze that in no way even begins to approach the amount of flame that high level firewalls can produce. Blaze is also lighter on the frames than blizzard or frozen orb. Blizzard and firewall are the worst, because they can be recast and recast, concentrating EXTREME amounts of animations in one area, which can EACH persist for up to half a minute. Blaze and Frozen Orb, though potentially bad and possibly unworkable on some players' machines in a coop situation (I personally get frame loss much worse from Orbs than Blaze, but YMMV -- Your Mileage May Vary) are not quite as bad. Even so, coop is the one situation in which it may sometimes be to your benefit not to be running blaze nonstop. If your party is aggressive (and lazy) and never takes advantage of blaze trails you lay down, and never needs to retreat from a fight, then you can skip the blaze (for the most part) and rely on your artillery skill(s) -- using blaze only if the party gets pushed back or killed off.
One thing to keep in mind, is that much if not most of the framerate loss from Blaze (and other fire skills) comes as a result of those ridiculous blood spatters. Monsters taking damage from Inferno, Blaze, Firewall, Meteor's splash flames, and Hydra... are constantly spewing blood spatters that show that they are being hit. Those blood spatters each eat up some frame time, and in large quantities can chew up even as much as 80-90% of your framerate. The good news is that all you have to do to clear the blood spatters is move off the screen. The blood will be wiped out. For a Blaze sorcie, this is generally no problem, and is one reason why Blaze can work so much better than firewall even in the framerate department. Rare is the situation, when working alone, that blaze will build up too many blood spatters. However, in coop, it can be a problem, particularly if your allies are too lazy, too inept, or too uncaring, to operate in a mobile way that takes advantage of what Blaze can offer them in the way of assistance. This means that Blaze can be at its least effective in random Realm games, where many players are lazy, inept AND uncaring. :) Even so, if you get some smart partners, blaze can work wonders nearly as well in multi as it can when soloing. If your partners are having framerate problems, let them know about how to clear blood spatters off their screens, as this should help the situation for them. In some cases in public games, however, you will not be able to reconcile fps differences, and then it becomes a matter of leaving if you joined someone else's game, or letting them know that they can put up with you or depart, if it is your game.
The SECOND point about Blaze is understanding the principle of stacking the flames. Taken individually, a cell of blaze really does only a pittance of damage. Even at high skill levels, and boosted by Fire Mastery, a single cell of blaze is not impressive. Damage is half of what the same fire cell would do from a firewall. The real damage from blaze comes when a target is continually exposed to flames over a period of time, such that it is always taking damage. This leads to three fundamental possibilities: flight, retracing, and ambushing. Flight is simply running away, in which only a single fire trail is applied to the target. Retracing is flight that crosses over areas already travelled, that are still on fire, and there are many ways to accomplish this, more so at higher levels. Ambushing is preparing a blaze zone of concentrated flames that enemies are lured into for swift annihilation (or high damage, if the opponent is particularly strong or resistant).
The THIRD point about Blaze is that you will do a great deal of maneuvering, often playing it fairly loosely with dangerous foes, and a misclick that will leave your character inadvertently swinging her weapon at an opponent at inopportune times can get you killed. Therefore, if you are using Blaze on a regular basis, I strongly advise that you map an usuable option to your left mouse button. Generally, this means mapping the Throw to your left mouse. Your sorcie cannot throw her staff/wand/melee weapon, but you can map Throw to the left anyway. If you then click on a monster accidentally while trying to maneuver, you will get no response (or an "I can't" verbal message) instead of your character actually taking a swing. So while mapping "nothing" (in effect) to the left mouse button may be nonessential or even undesirable for most characters, it becomes rather important to the Blaze user, who will in the course of using blaze, encounter many more chances to screw up and misclick, perhaps leading to an untimely death. Consider yourself warned. :)
So on to the Tactics...
There are four basic maneuvers, all of which can be used at any skill level of Blaze:
1) The LINE: cast blaze, walk (or run) in a straight line away from target. Target pursues, burns. This one is the most basic application of the skill, and at times it may even be your only viable option.
2) The LURE: cast blaze (or have it running already) and walk (or run) in a straight line TOWARD a target, then as you get near (how close depends on enemy speed, strength, and your lag situation) double back on the flame trail and lure the target into the double-strength (2x) blaze. This maneuver is always preferable to the LINE, if the situation permits. If the 2x blaze is not sufficient to kill, or there are multiple targets, you may end up transitioning into a LINE as you retreat beyond the range of your original trail.
3) The WALL: cast blaze and walk back and forth, sideways to the approach of the enemy, to create the rough equivalent of a Firewall between you and the targets. This tactic can be effective against larger numbers of particularly slow or weak opponents, such as fallen one types, skeletons, and other foes with light amounts of health or resistance, particularly when Blaze first becomes available or all the way through Normal difficulty if the skill is continually boosted with more skill points and damage from blaze is way outpacing enemy health. This is primarily a low-level blaze tactic and gives way to more complex maneuvers at higher skill levels or against tougher foes. As the enemy arrives at your wall, you will have to switch to another maneuver or else fall back some distance to raise a new wall.
4) The CUTBACK: this tactic is the most effective from the basic arsenal and never grows obsolete. You can only apply a CUTBACK to an opponent who is SLOWER than your sorcie. If the target is as fast as you, or faster than you, you cannot cut back, although you do still have other options besides the LINE unless your Blaze is low Skill Level (slvl). The CUTBACK works like this: you are retreating from a target, creating a LINE, and as you outrun the target, as you get ahead of them, you cut back on your trail and run TOWARD them again, stopping short of allowing them to hit you, then resume retreat on the same line. This creates a stretch of blaze that is triple strength, or 3x. This tactic is most useful against rather speedy opponents (against whom you cannot use more complex moves) who are still slow enough not to force you into an all-out retreat. Getting triple damage for a stretch may not seem important, but in practice it makes a great bit of difference. Consider that for the same kill, you shave off TWICE the distance of your cutback length from the total distance you would have to run to get a kill. If you have unlimited space, it may not matter, but in reality you often have space considerations, and the CUTBACK maneuver makes ideal use of the space you do have available. It also leaves you in a stronger position against extra enemies coming on the heals of your main target. Even at skill level 1, there is enough flame duration to allow for use of the cutback.
There are four intermediate maneuvers, all of which require at least intermediate slvl Blaze, which are also extensions of the four basic moves:
1) The SPRINT: running for your life from an opponent as fast as, or even faster than, your sorcie! The more dangerous or numerous the opponent, the farther and harder and more determined the SPRINT. In this move, straight lines and stacking your blaze cease to be a vital consideration, or really much of any concern at all. Your only thought is to stay ahead of the enemy, whatever it takes, so long as you don't run yourself into a trap nor wake up even more opponents. Some opponents that can force you to sprint include melee cats in Act 2, melee fetishes and particularly undead fetishes in Act 3, Hephasto, Balrog types, and most particularly bosses and minions with Extra Fast ability. Leapers can also force you to sprint unless you have a better option available. Sprinting can lead to disaster if you make mistakes, so be careful. If you are forced to SPRINT in a tight situation, where you have little room to work and particularly if you might be cornered or forced into uncharted territory, you should be ready willing and able to bail out. Lag is your worst enemy here above all else, because even a moment's lag, causing your character to hesistate, could mean death for your character. Use of cold-tree spells can help here, if that is an available option. Teleport can get you out of some jams, or help put an impassible terrain feature between your sorcie and the target(s), but keep in mind that it takes some time to cast Teleport. Be careful. Hot Babes in particular must be effective sprinters because against the fastest monsters, this is often their only available option. Use of Tempting Fate may allow you to sprint at a walk, in some instances.
2) The STAND: making a STAND is the next logical extension of the LURE. A STAND is a patch of highly multiplied blaze, stacked along the same direction as monsters will be approaching. A STAND in some cases will be only one unit wide. In other circumstances it might be widened to two or even three units, but always with the cutbacks used to make the stand running the same direction as monsters will be approaching from, so that their exposure is maximized. A stand is used most often at or near choke points, such as doorways, bridges, passes between wilderness areas, stairs (stairs in one area, not between game-loading zones) -- pretty much any tight space in which monsters would be forced to pass through to reach you. A stand can also be made in the wide open, but often the SHIELD (discussed next) is better in these situations. One can stack flames 4x, 6x, 8x, even as high as 20x at a STAND, creating a killing zone that only the hardiest, most resistant foes can penetrate, and even they will be weakened significantly. The STAND is, at its heart, a defensive tactic, often used to keep melee enemies at bay while you work on ranged attackers, or minibosses who can resurrect minions -- or even just really really large mobs -- with your other skills. If sorely pressed by numbers, you can keep a STAND running on a slow-retreat basis against slow opponents until the enemy has been thinned. The STAND is one of the staple tactics in the Blaze arsenal and only grows more and more effective with more skill points in Blaze.
3) The SHIELD: is the next logical extension of the WALL. The SHIELD is similar to a STAND but is used not at choke points, but in rooms or wide open spaces. As with the WALL, the SHIELD is used primarily against larger mobs of weaker or very slow opponents. With your Blaze active, you zigzag back and forth in wide or even wider arcs and lines across the path of the oncoming horde, creating a WALL, then another immediately behind that one, then another behind that one, and so on, that you end up with a rather wide patch of blaze that is 2x or stronger, wide enough to swallow the whole mob and deep enough to kill them all before they can reach you. The SHIELD makes for impenetrable defense against swarms of maggot young and flesh beasts, packs of fallen ones and all skeletons except for Burning Dead. The SHIELD will eat up many fetishes also, although their raw speed may force you to SPRINT in retreat at times. But the SHIELD will catch and kill many of the blowdarters as they zip around, and that can be invaluable. Once your SHIELD has been constructed, you may gradually be forced back by swarms -- never expose yourself to attack! -- but once a wave has suicided in the blaze, you can advance again and renew the flames. This happens naturally as you dodge ranged attacks. If your blaze is running, a SHIELD forms on its own as a consequence of your defensive movements. Even in 8 player games, when enemy health has by and large rendered the SHIELD unusable against most opponents because they simply have too much health, it is STILL impenetrable when it comes to fighting those swarms of maggot young and flesh beasts, neither of which have any fire resistance. In this regard, Blaze beats even Glacial Spike for defense! You must see it in action to fully appreciate its power. The SHIELD is also extremely useful in very tight spaces. You can build a shield quickly in the Halls of the Dead and even the Tombs, to take care of skeleton hordes even inside rooms or tiny hallways. And a SHIELD can turn into a STAND, or vice versa, with a little maneuvering to change the orientation of the battle. The SHIELD is not used all that often, because it is ineffective against robustly healthy opponents, but in the right situations, correctly applied, it can clear entire mobs in a very brief span. This is one tactic in which it is crucial to know the health of the enemy and how much fire you need for a kill. If you underestimate, you could end up swarmed by a mass of half-dead critters, trapped, and killed. This tactic takes practice, but once you are confident with it, you can work some incredible victories.
4) STACKING: is multiple use of CUTBACKS to maximize damage to distance ratio. When facing robust opponents with some or even a lot of speed, who can penetrate a SHIELD or even a STAND but are not quick enough to force you to SPRINT, you are left in the middle ground. You are left with STACKING. You will not be able to hold your ground here. Instead you will have to retreat, and you should be running the whole time. You execute CUTBACKS until you get the kill. So what's new here? Why is this listed as an intermediate tactic? Well, with low level Blaze, the flames die out and you are left to start over against the next target. But with higher level Blaze, your flame trails and cutbacks are still burning. You refresh your Blaze spell and advance along the line, gaining another layer of Blaze until you encounter the next target. If that target was already chasing you, you start making new CUTBACKS on top of the old ones or wherever you have room to do so, and now the flames are 3x MINIMUM, and more often 5x, 7x, 9x strong. The higher slvl your Blaze, the longer those flames endure and the longer you can go without needing to refresh. So after the first target is down, the next one is much easier to kill, even if it was right behind the first one. You end up saving space and not needing to retreat nearly as far, along with using your STACKING to get the rest of the kills more quickly. Only massive mobs or extremely fast and tough opponents can prevent you from STACKING your Blaze. At the very highest slvls, 18+, you can create extremely brutal stacks that end up transforming at some point into a STAND, beyond which you will not have to retreat unless playing multiplayer with the hardiest, speediest and most resistant foes, such as H/H Venom Lords, or facing Fire Enchanted or Magic Resistant bosses like Geleb, Grand Vizier or Hephasto.
Beyond these eight primary tactics, there are advanced situational tactics for dealing with particularly healthy, resistant or dangerous opponents, or certain very specific situations. Most of these require high slvl Blaze, although all can be attempted with some degree of success at moderate levels:
A) The LOOP: this is a SPRINT variation. The LOOP can be effectively employed against tough and very dangerous bosses in moderate-sized rooms or wide open spaces. You cast Blaze and, well, you run in circles. Sounds easy right? Sometimes it can be. The circles need to be wide enough to maintain a safe distance at all times. Against Andariel, the safest Loop location is usually the front room with the large blood pool. Just run around that, and each time around, retrace the previous loop if you can, so that flames are stacked 2x, 3x, perhaps even 4x high, as you retrace your route round and round. The same tactic will work equally well against Duriel. You can trace a sort of semi-oblong loop around his chamber (careful not to trap yourself in certain corners) and just keep looping round and round until he keels over. A LOOP is also useful against strong Lightning-Enchanted Bosses (LEBs). The loop action keeps you ahead of most, if not all, of the sparks, and the stacking action helps get the kill more quickly. This will even work against Bremm, although his healing ability combined with random extra resistance in NM or Hell can put a damper on your ability to kill him in some situations. The key to making a LOOP work against Andariel and Duriel is having STAMINA potions available (preferably on your belt, at least one column's worth). Against Bremm you will have to eat some sparks as you turn the corners at the ends of the room. Carry max lightning resistance if you can, and use healing potions to restore health nibbled away by sparks. Against other LEBs, open up wider LOOPS if you can. Against Hephasto or any other Cursed boss, well, just be really really careful. :)
B) The LANE: this is a SPRINT variation. You can use the LANE against anything that is extra tough and also too fast to allow effective CUTBACKS. The LANE is pretty much a back and forth LINE, only at the end of the LANE, you run a small loop to avoid the target as you run around it, then back along the Blaze trail. If your LANE is short, you may get the flames to 3x. More likely they will be 2x most of the time. You will generally end up running your LANE the full distance of the available safe area, up to and including across the full length of an outdoor area. You take a small risk each time you have to turn around, when passing by the target, so minimizing those risks is important. In some cases, it will make sense to run a slightly shorter LANE and get an extra stack on your Blaze, once you see how the timing on that is playing out. Use a LANE against Hephasto if there are no safe places to run a LOOP, and you can use a LANE against Izual, against tough champion packs or bosses, or against large mobs in outdoor areas -- although if the mob is too large, they might force you to run a LOOP instead. A LANE can also be used in some indoor situations where a LOOP is simply not possible. One such situation is in the T-shaped layout for Act 3 temples, you can run a LANE across the top of the T without waking the main chamber. You can also run LANES in narrow indoor areas like the hallways in Halls of the Dead and Act 1 caverns. Any time you need to SPRINT and you don't have enough room to run a LOOP or just keep on retreating more and more, a LANE might get the job done. If not, you may have to bail. Note: for both the lane and the loop, stamina becomes an issue. Against Andariel and Duriel, and perhaps on Durance lvl 3, you will know in advance what you are going up against, and you can be prepared with Stamina potions. Against all other opponents, you will have to manage your Stamina very carefully, and this can be done against all but the fastest opponents by switching back and forth between walking and running. Practice will reveal what I mean by this.
C) TEMPTING FATE: this involves deliberately allowing monsters to close to melee range and take a swing at you, then moving out of range (or attempting to) before they can land the blow. There is a delay between when a monster initiates its attack animation and when it can actually hit you. There are only two reasons why you might deliberately opt to TEMPT FATE: when facing monsters that will retreat when wounded (most particularly the finger mages from Act 4, who can flee beyond the confines of the playfield and escape you entirely), or when EXTREMELY pressed in tight quarters and needing to squeeze out every little bit of efficiency you can possibly manage from the little bit of ground you have available. Causing a monster to stop and run through its attack animation, while it is in your Blaze trail, means that for the full duration of that animation, it will be standing still and taking damage. If you can time it so that this happens while they are standing in a CUTBACK or even STACKED section of the trail, all the better. Keep in mind that your machine may have to stop and load new sounds and graphics when you do this, so make SURE you know what you are doing before you try this in a truly dangerous situation. Also of note is that when SPRINTING away from opponents who are genuinely faster than your sorcie, that they WILL catch you, over and over, and your only hope of escape lies in the possibility of running out of their range before their attack animation runs its course and lands the blow. You can Tempt as much as you please. The more comfortable you get with the enemy, and the more precise your tactical execution, the more Tempting you can do.
D) TEASING: many ranged attackers can be lured into your blaze if you are willing to manipulate them. The easiest opponents to kill this way are the vampire lords. Sometimes you don't even have to tease them; they will often try to close to melee range. You work a TEASE by retreating out of attack range of a ranged attacker, who will then often attempt to close to attack range once again, and may end up walking through your blaze to do so. Both rogue archers and skeleton archers can be teased with a fairly reliable success rate. Skeleton mages are harder, but it's possible to tease them, too. Greater mummies can only be teased if you slay all of their skeletons AND destroy the corpses -- something you can only do with cold spells or help from coop allies. Spear cats can be teased, but they have a strange AI in which they pick a spot, then move to it, and if you can get in front of them with your blaze you can kill them that way. They are tough to tease otherwise. Oblivion Knights are the same way, only more dangerously so. They are tough to tease. Better to rely on more direct attacks, and simply consider any tease kills against them as a bonus freebie. By contrast, the Abyss Knights are more aggressive, and can be teased with great success if you are even a little bit patient. They can only be teased if they have a direct line of travel to your character, though. If caught in some niche, they will happily stand there forever, shooting their magic at you. Fetish blowdarts are easy to tease, but they are quick little suckers and won't pursue you directly, so even a successful tease may end up with them taking no damage. Fortunately, they are only a serious threat in large numbers, and when teasing many at one time, some will surely burn up chasing you. Flesh Spawners are one of the easiest to tease, because their AI leads to be much more aggressive when their children are being slaughtered -- as your Blaze will easily do. Fallen Shamen, Fetish Shamen, Zakarum Priests, and all Maggots, are impossible to TEASE, and so these are the opponents against which Blaze is virtually useless.
E) CIRCLE THE WAGONS: involves running a loop around and around a stationary target. This is pretty much a misuse of Blaze, in that other skills and approaches would be more effective, but even so, you CAN make Blaze work here. The only time I would use this when soloing is to surround a maggot egg with blaze, while low on mana, expecting it to hatch. A shield would work just as well, though. This is much more of a multiplayer maneuver, and generally not the most effective, at that, though it has its uses. Surrounding an allied player with blaze while they are engaged, means that if more foes are to engage, they must move through the flames. If the enemy has a retreat-when-wounded AI, you can do some damage. You also offer the other player the chance to move and stand inside your blaze when the current fight ends. Generally this move is less effective than more direct forms of attack, but it may well be an attractive option when you are low on mana and don't want to spend a potion or don't have one to spend.
F) POINT LURE: a specific use of the LURE move in multiplayer where your sorcie takes the point and directs the action, perhaps in conjunction with Hydra skill for scouting. With Blaze active, you advance into uncharted territory, LURE the next monster or mob, and your allies wait for the opponents to come to them, through your blaze, and standing in your blaze the entire fight. Requires cooperative effort, and is generally less effective in combination with minions, which will not wait to engage, but otherwise can work wonders. Can be particularly effective in combination with cold spells, AI-affecting curses, or in tight quarters.
G) RESERVE STAND: in multiplayer, constructing a shield or stand behind the front line held by minions or melee players. Gives players a place to fall back to, or can offer insurance in case minions get swarmed. With some practice, you can figure out when this might actually do some good, and when it is almost surely a waste of time. :)
H) the ZIGZAG: the zigzag is, for killing purposes, inefficient. Killing is not always the priority, though. Some foes are too speedy to let you construct a SHIELD, but not dangerous enough to force you into an all out SPRINT. So at times it will make sense to zigzag, or tack (the way a sailing ship tacks back and forth at 45 degree angles to the wind during a race), so as to stay in range of certain targets that you are using more direct attack skills against. Remember, blaze is a PASSIVE skill, and sometimes it just sort of is there, as a secondary effect, while your attention is focused on primary threats like Abyss Knights, greater mummies, or Fallen Shamen bosses. The ZIGZAG can also be a sort of metaphor for all non-tactics, meaning that in that moment you aren't working to get a kill with Blaze, but rather with a more direct attack skill, and your Blaze trail comes out rather inefficiently, sometimes even comical in its absurdity if you stop to look at it. And that's just fine. If you are left standing in the end, and the enemy are all dead, you won. :)
That completes my listing of Blaze Tactics. There are probably some more possibilities, but these are the ones I use on a regular basis. Lok has made an effort to catalogue the most obscure Blaze tactics. You may find his advice useful if you are looking to specialize in Blaze without support from more direct attack skills.
One more thing to understand about Blaze is that in practice its use is not a crisp, chesslike tactical execution of maneuvers. Effective use of Blaze is fluid, constantly adapting to the changing situation. A LINE may give way to a SPRINT. A LURE may evolve into a STAND. A WALL automatically becomes a SHIELD at higher levels. CUTBACKS will mature into a STACK. The instinct to multiply your points on target will naturally lead to LOOPS and LANES and variations therein. And moment by moment your priorities will shift and change. A LURE becomes a STACK, which turns into a STAND, which you move around to the side of to use as a SHIELD, then back to another LURE. On and on it goes, and the only concern is not how pretty it looks, but laying down just enough flames and doing just enough work to stay safe and get the kills. If all you need is a LURE, you don't waste time building a SHIELD. But above all you must learn just how much Blaze you need for EVERY situation, because the one thing you don't want to do is underestimate and end up dead.
When soloing, even in Multiplayer, Blaze is an Uberskill. In a coop situation, the balance shifts away from defense and more toward offense, lessening (but never eliminating, never close to eliminating) the power and importance of Blaze.
Blaze is so versatile, you can use it effectively in combination with almost any other sorceress skill. Blaze as a finisher in combination with high level Static Field and some emergency chill/freeze power, is awesome. You need a second finisher for the few monsters against which Blaze is ineffective. Blaze can work with any other skill in the Fire Tree, for Fire Sorcies and Hot Babes. Blaze can run as a passive while you run-n-gun with lightning skills, glacial spike or Frozen Orb. Blizzard and Blaze together make one of the strongest skill combos in the game. The possibilities are limited only by your own knowledge of the ten factors I listed, your imagination, and your own personal style preferences.
One final warning about Blaze. It is not safe to use against undead flayers. You are better off, if possible, to tempt them somehow, then get some distance and attack from a safe range with other skills. Even better, interpose some water or other obstacle between you, and attack from range. If you use Blaze on undead Flayers in Hell act three, expect to take some serious hits as they expire at unwelcome moments.
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