NORMAL

Hotfoot is my prototype "Hot Babe" -- a sorceress who has and uses skills ONLY from the Fire Tree. I consider this perhaps an unusual way to play, forsaking even utility and protection skills from the other trees, but this is certainly not a "crippled variant" by any stretch of the imagination.

A few observations may come to mind immediately:

* No Teleport means no quick escapes from danger, no easy maneuvering around restricted spaces, and a more careful approach in general.

* No Cold Armors or Energy Shield. Physical defense is restricted to blocking and whatever natural DR you happen to be wearing. As a result, carrying a shield would seem to be even more advisable than usual, as would be items with Fast/er/est Hit Recovery (which do stack together). Also, higher Life than usual may be in order.

* No chilling effects from spells means no help whatsoever from slowing/freezing effects, and no corspe destruction when chilled enemies shatter into ice shards.

* No help at all from Static Field. Every enemy must be slain with flames and flames alone.

* Blaze and Hydra are the only passive-defensive skills available, if you can call them that. The only solution to ANY threat that a Hot Babe has at hand, is to kill or to flee -- sometimes both.

* Fire Mastery, and also items that add to Fire Skills only, will be more effective (and important) than usual.

...

My goal for Hotfoot is to do a complete game, full-clearing each area, but only once, running straight through the game in single player through all three difficulties. I realized that the reality of life would mean I could not play straight through, nor leave my system running the game nonstop, and that the game would likely crash a few times, so there would have to be some repeat kills, but I would minimize this as much as possible.

I decided that Hotfoot would specialize in Hydra, Blaze, and a decent amount of Warmth. My goal was to get each of these to slvl 10, and Fire Mastery to slvl 8, by clvl 40. Included in this strategy was the intent to pump up both Fire Mastery and Hydra as soon as possible, so I decided that I would save 7 skill points by the time I reached clvl 30. This would include two points from Izual on Normal, one each from Den of Evil and Radament on Nightmare, and skill points from levels 27-29. So here was my skill-path plan:

2) Firebolt @ 1
3) Warmth @ 1
4) Warmth @ 2
DoE) Warmth @ 3
5) Warmth @ 4
6) Inferno @ 1
7) Warmth @ 5
8) Warmth @ 6
9) Warmth @ 7
10) Warmth @ 8

12) Fireball @ 1
12) Blaze @ 1
13) Blaze @ 2
14) Blaze @ 3
15) Blaze @ 4
Rad) Warmth @ 9
16) Blaze @ 5
17) Blaze @ 6
18) Firewall @ 1
19) Firewall @ 2
20) Firewall @ 3
21) Blaze @ 7
22) Firewall @ 4
23) Enchant @ 1
24) Meteor @ 1
25) Blaze @ 8
26) Warmth @ 10

30-36) + to Hydra and Fire Mastery each level
37) Hydra @ 8
Iz-NM) Blaze @ 9,10
38) Hydra @ 9
39) Hydra @ 10
DoE-H) Fire Mastery @ 8
40+) More into Hydra, Blaze, Warmth

...

I knew that I would not see any Hydra or Fire Mastery until well into Nightmare. So my plan for Normal was to make do on minimal skills and melee until I leveled up to get Blaze and Fireball, then rely on those until I could get to Firewall. By then, Blaze would be strong and have decent duration, and I'd be in business. I'd have some Meteor at my disposal, also, once I got to the end of Act 3.

So Act 1 was generally unventful. The plan went according to schedule, and I had slvl 3 Blaze taking on Andariel. I ran her in circles and she burned, despite her (buggy) max fire resistance. I leveled to clvl 15 finishing up Andi's lair and headed on to Act 2.

Taking out Burning Dead Archers with slvl 1 fireball was the first real "tough" thing I had to do. The meleers took more time, also, but they at least would burn up in my Blaze without arguing. I did manage to get some archers, and some of the mages down on level 3 of Sewers, to follow me into some Blaze, but many others I had to melee or kill with fireballs. Radament argued with me a bit, too. He laughed at my fireballs, and also at my melee attacks, smacking me hard and poisoning me when I tried that. So I ended up running around with Blaze and trying to get him to follow, and he did, but it took some time.

I got firewall in time for the last level of the maggot lair. Maggots are one of my favorite critters. They are big squishy teddy bears that spawn schools of pirannhas. Fireballing them is work, and they are one of the few critters in the game against which blaze is completely useless, but they die quickly to firewalls. I was happily calling out "Squishy! Icky! Gooey! Sticky!" as they burned. :) I love those squishies. :)

The second level of Viper temple was somewhat dangerous. I am used to having teleport there, and being able to blink away from a bad-looking situation. Not this time. But... I took a merc with me and I lived. He did not. :)

I started gambling, and managed to get a set of normal boots with 22 fire resist and fastest run. These would serve me for a long, long time.

Duriel required 3 stamina potions and lots of blaze, but he died like a good bug should. The bastard.

You might think I needed a lot of firewall to deal with the Fetish hordes in the jungle, but you'd be wrong. I killed almost all of them, even blowdarters, with Blaze. I'd use firewall only on the shamen, on enemies across the river from me, or on stragglers. One of the secrets of blaze in single player is that almost everything, even most ranged attackers, will chase you if you run far enough. I killed most of the vampire lords this way, with Blaze, and only used firewall in certain situations, usually either on huge mobs or stragglers, or things like the maggots that will never ever chase you.

I also learned that the following skills are USELESS against river stalkers: fireball, blaze, firewall, meteor. That left me with Inferno, which at slvl 1 was too short ranged, Enchant (in other words, a melee option), Hydra (which I did not have access to), and Firebolt. Guess which one I used. Yep. Firebolt! Amazing, but it got the job done. And since I am doing full-clears, it was essential to kill those swamp hydras, not pass them up. This is something every Hot Babe should know about. Firebolt power! :)

My ring from Gidbinn Quest was trash and I sold it. On the up side, Hratli sold me an Amber Great Helm of Tiger, 49 Lit resist, +23 Life. I finally had some lightning resistance, and I was in business. :)

Once I got meteor, I used that quite a bit, both as blaze supplement, and as cheaper attack against many types of slow-but-still-mobile foes. Here in Act 3 normal, Meteor slvl 1 was not yet underpowered. I still used some Firewall, too, but not as much any more. Nothing here presented me any troubles, not even the council members in Travincal or in Meph's lair. Of some note is that the most troublesome monsters I faced in Act 3 were the Tree Leapers in Lower Kurast. Their fire resistance made them quite annoying and required me to do a lot more running. Meph dropped me a rare tower shield, which I stashed. It had 33 DR, and some cold and fire resistance.

In Act 4, I met the ultimate nemesis of the Hot Babe: Cliff Lurkers. That's right, leapers. Nasty little F-ers, those are. Their fire resistance is high, their speed is high, their numbers are large, they move at wacky angles and jump around and can sometimes run you down or even get ahead of you. In short, these things are dangerous. They are cold spell bait for sure. Some Gspike would shut them up nicely. But... I didn't have that skill. :)

Firewall was ineffective, so I stuck to Blaze, Blaze, Blaze, more Blaze, and some Meteor. I got some rather large mobs after me, and other foes in the Outer Steppes included both Doom Knights and Doom Casters, both of which are also fire Resistant. My my my.

I didn't really have any close calls, but I had to work and work quite a bit to clear this area. I got hit many times by the leapers. When I lot were chasing, I'd drop meteors slightly in front of me so that they'd strike just behind me as I walked/ran past, and hit the mob of chasers. Helped a LOT.

Finally cleared that nightmare scenerio out and moved on. Plains were easier, but not a cakewalk. Burning souls were smacking my low-resistant sorcie pretty hard. City of Depair was not quite easy, either. Lots of Abyss Knights there gave me some troubles. In fact, all throughout Act 4, I kept wishing I had Hydra.

Hephasto required a stamina potion or two, but he died without real incident. I leveled up to 26 somewhere in there and got my Str to 75, started using that tower shield.

In the Chaos Sanctuary, I had my only close call of this game: I got stuck inside the Grand Vizer's mob when I tried to run out of there. I had to rescue myself with Meteor and I drank a couple minor rejuvs waiting for those meteors to break me out. My health never fell below half, but this was a lesson learned: without teleport, I should not be taking chances with those Seals and boss packs.

Diablo burnt up in Blaze and Firewalls. And great news: De Seis dropped a rare ammy and Diablo dropped a rare ring, and together these significantly upgraded Hotfoot. Er... Dame Hotfoot, I should say. :)

No deaths recorded.

Next up, Nightmare Difficulty...

- Sirian

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