Slipknot0620

Well,first,stats....
Strength:150
Dex:80
Vitality:170 or above
Energy:50,no more,no less

Now,on to the skills....you get a total of about 110 skill points to use,98 with levels and the rest from quests

20 to fire bolt
20 to fire ball
20 to meteor
20 to fire mastery
7 to warmth
4 to energy shield
7 to chilling armor
1 to teleport

thats 99 points right there. use the other 11 to get the skills required before some of them

Now,for the items..im going to list good ideas and variations of items to use..everyones different,and preferrs different set ups

Weapons: Occy/Eschuta's/Wizardspike with a fire facet in it preferrably,or if ur rich,get a heart of the oak,and if u can,get a call to arms as a secondary weapon (for the warcries)

Shields: I really like the lidless wall and the stormshield a lot...most people prefer storm over lidless...although i like the 35% damage reduction on it...if u add a p diamond to it or an um rune itll be cool...but use whatever u can get ur hands on at the moment

Armor: Skin of the viper magi,arkaine's valor,que hegan's wisdom,corpsemourn,the gladiator's bane,silks of the victor,shaftstop,stealth archon plate/sacred armor,chains of honor archon/sacred armor...and i know a lot of you are wondering why i said stealth...even though most of the mods suck,it gives a great cast rate and run speed,but if you can find something better..than yea use that,i just havent seen any other armors with a faster rate than stealth or skins...

Helmets:Harlequin Crest all the way...2 to skills,10% damage reduction,life and mana bonuses,50 mf...nothing can beat that,its the greatest thing invented...if your character is an mfer,add a p topaz to it,if your character is a dueler,add a fire facet to it.
but if you cant find one or afford one,get a peasant crown unique war hat..it gives a 1 bonus to skills,but its better than nothing,or if u find a rare helmet (usually circlets) that adds 2-3 to fire skills,use that.

Boots: Silkweave,Infernostride,Waterwalks,Sander's riprap,Natalya's soul,War travelers,MarrowWalks,Shadowdancers....lots of good boots to choose from..just decide which ones u want.

Gloves: Magefists,caster gloves,frostburns,or chance guards

Rings:1 soj and 1 raven frost

Amulet: Mara's kaliedeoscope,or if u cant get that,id every magic amulet u get from late nightmare to hell mode,to get a volcanic amulet (3 to sorc fire skills),until you can get mara's

Belt: String of ears,snowclash,verdungo's hearty cord,thundergod's vigor,or a caster belt



Now onto which charms are good and which ones arent...The charms you should keep are:

10+ or up resistances small charms
7% faster run small charms
39-49 to life/mana charms(ones that add dual life/mana are great to have but rare as hell)
+1 to sorc fire skills grand charms (only get like 3 of them,dont clutter ur inventory up)
5-9% faster hit recovery small charms
And if you're tough enough to face the challenge,kill uber diablo and get an annihilus small charm..although i dont recommend facing him with a sorceress,unless someone has a conviction aura or lower resist curse,after all,he has 95 to all resistances..so it would be tough killing him with a sorc....i would prefer using a bowazon or a barbarian to kill uber...but then u could always transfer ur anni to ur fire sorc if u get it
and if u can find a small charm with multiple of these attributes on them,thats always good


Checklist:When you're done,ur stats should be something like this

Max life: 800-1600
Max Mana:600-800
Resistances:
Fire:75/95
Cold:75/95
Lightning:75/95
Poison:75/95
Damage reduction:35% - 75%
Fire ball damage:5k - 13k
Meteor damage:8k - 35k (yes,its possible,ive seen it before)



Extra tips:
If you have all the charms i advised,and have max resistances,try to find some extra lightning and poison resistance charms...
Why?
Because FOH pallys use conviction on you which lowers all ur resistances,and FOH is a lightning attack...its usually a 1 hit killer,but if u have extra lightning resistance charms,when the conviction kicks in,it will not reduce ur resistances by as much as it should.. because say u have 250 total lightning resistance from ur equipment and charms,even though your resistance to lightning is still 75..now,with all the quests,you get a -70 resistance penalty in hell mode(normally 100 but the anya quest gives u the scroll of resistance,its a very sweet item)...anyways,u have 300 overall lightning resistance,and conviction should knock off 90 of it... if you only had 145 total overall lightning resistance,itll be lowered down to -20%..and the bolt itself does like 4k usually,but it would be enhanced by 20%..instant death. now if u had 300,300 -90 is 219..so that means you should still have max resistances even with the conviction pentalty..and 300 lightning overall resistance IS possible,if you have on high resist gear,and have enough lightning resistance charms...

Now onto why get high overall poison resistance:
Poison necromancers with lower resist...
Their main attacks are poison nova and poison dagger..
they use lower resist to destroy ur poison resistances and kill you quickly..and the ones with enigma use teleport a lot usually,so poison dagger would be hard to avoid too..
but,lower resist isnt as deadly as conviction is,it dosent lower your defense so if they tele to you and try to hit you and miss (thats what the level 7 chilling armor is for) use that time to hit them with a fire ball..if they hit u with poison nova however...you would be screwed if your resistance to poison sucked..but if you have lots of overall poison resistance,it isnt reduced much,and they become easy to finish off..

One thing to look out for,is bone necromancers,
as you will most likely have 0 magic resistances,just teleport around and lay down some high damage meteors in random places as you go,hope he walks into one of them by accident and dies..their bone spells are poweful.

Starategies:

Vs Barbarians: stay ranged apart from them and shoot fireballs and meteors like crazy..a fun trick to do.. as theyre coming out of town to kill you,lay down some meteors where you are standing and stay inside the fire..if you lay down enough and keep on doing so,he cant come near you in the fire,it would be too strong if you had lain down enough of them and they are damaging enough per second.. if ur lucky hell walk into the explosion of it and kill himself..while inside the 'meteor shield' shoot fireballs at him until he dies,but make sure the fire stays up,if not then teleport away and start again

Vs all necromancers: never stand still and shoot,as they can use bone spells or poison attacks..teleport around and lay down meteors and shoot fireballs at him,but no matter what u do,keep teleporting,and never stop..because if you do,ur screwed..necros are more harder to kill..probly the hardest in the game to kill

Vs melee pallys: just follow the barb strategy and ull be fine..just watch out for charge and smite..a good counter attack to that is teleport behind him and shoot him with a fire ball

Vs hammer pallys: these are easy as hell to beat..especially with fire sorcs...all u gotta do is meteor and fire ball him until he dies,but just make sure not to get in the way of the spiraling hammers..the hammerdin uses a meteor shield type of attack,so ranged attacks are the way to go..and keep your distance,cause the hammers are kinda hard to see at times....summon a meteor cause they usually stand there and cast it like crazy,2 things can happen here: the pally runs,delaying his casting of the hammers,leaving him open to fireball attacks,or,the pally stays there and dies from the meteor...either way,you win

Vs FOH pallys: A pretty good challenge: FOH works like thunderstorm,its un avoidable mostly,but what you CAN do to avoid it is to shoot fireballs at him from out of his screen..if he cant target you,foh dosent hit,thus he dies..but those are rare occasions,cause everyone uses enigma now for teleporting (damn i wish i had one) well,they will teleport to you and cast the bolt on you,the best you can do against that is get great lightning resistances like i explained above and hope it dosent kill you.....just shoot fireballs at him and lay down random meteors,and do the best u can to finish him off FAST. theyre real dangerous at times..another way to avoid FOH that only works sometimes,not too often..just as hes casting it (he'll lift his arm up) it takes about a fifth of a second to hit you..use that to teleport off screen before it hits you and u might avoid it that way..or better yet just get high lightning absorbtion items,then you wont fear them at all...

Trap assasins: Yes,i know,theyre annoying,we all hate facing them,theyve ruined dueling,blah blah blah...well anyways...they will lay down traps (usually lightning or death sentry) to shoot lightning at you..and its quite powerful too..but if you have a good enough fireball,hit them with it as they are laying their traps down and kill them fast. when they die,so do the traps..but if they manage to lay down 3 traps...run for ur life..and by that i mean teleport far from them,wait for them to chase after you,and hit them with fireballs...they should die quick enough and everyone will now be happy that no one is nking..(all trap assasins nk)

Martial arts assasins: Use the same strategy as if u were fighting a barb or melee pally. just keep in mind,they run and attack a lot faster than most characters do,so be on alert..if they have burst of speed on,they should fall quickly,if they have fade on,youll have a little trouble killing them.. just keep a distance and shoot fireballs like crazy.

Shape shifting druids: Again,use the same strategy for melee characters,but keep in mind they have lots of life and their physical attacks are powerful-if its a werewolf then you dont need to worry about their damage too much,but if its a werebear druid,their damage is probly really high,so be cautious when fighting them

Cold elemental druids: They use hurricane and tornado. hurricane is like a wind shield on the druid,if u go into it,you will fall fast,and to add,they will shoot tornadoes at u,which cause high physical damage and both combined will kill you fast..but they have a drawback which makes the druids vunerable..theyre tornado goes in a random direction,so if ur careful u can avoid it,it never goes straight so theyll miss a lot,and think of their hurricane as a pallys blessed hammer only as automatic,they can run into u with it on,which is dangerous,but thats why u can teleport! teleport away and shoot him with fireballs and meteors.but be cautios of his attacks,they are powerful but very un accurate and slow..thats their weakness,but they do have something else though,they have cyclone armour which absorbs ur fire damage,just like bone armor absorbs physical damage,so as soon as u penetrate that,ur open to kill them..

Fire elemental druids:
They use armageddon,firestorm,volcano,and fissure..not too hard to fight against,armageddon is very unacurate,but its very painful if they leveled it right,volcano is the same basically,except that if u go on top of it,ull be physically damaged,and its more accurate,as it shoots more bolts in a closer area. firestorm is the same as tornado,it goes in random directions and has a low radius of attack range but is deadly at high levels...fissure is hard to see but easy to dodge once u see it..basically all u gotta do is dodge all of his attacks and shoot at him till he dies..

Bowazons: They will shoot at u with guided arrow,and its fast so watch out,and they also will use strafe which will hit u with multiple arrows and kill you....just keep hitting the zon like mad with fireballs,she will be stunned each hit (zons hit recovery sucks) and eventually die. they have one thing that can be devastating to u. slow missiles. if they use it on u, just stick with meteors for now and tele around until it wears off.

Javazons and spear zons:Theyll probly use charged strike,impale,fend,or jab on u. if theyre using a javelin they will use the above and plus lightning fury or even poison and plague javelins against u. just keep ur range from them and they should fall pretty quickly.and again,look out for slow missiles..

Other sorcs:
Fire sorcs:theyll probly do what u do,teleport,shoot fireballs and meteors..basically it becomes a matter of 'who has better defenses' than what strategy ur using,just try to get a lot of extra hits on the other one as much as possible.

Cold sorcs:The ones that use blizzard..blizzard is very easy to dodge,the only reason people die from it is cause they make the mistake of not moving from it,instead they keep shooting missiles at their enemy...just do the tele and shoot trick and they should die.

Lightning sorcs: They are more like the black souls in act 4 and the worldstone keep...they shoot lightning at u and its deadly..although their minimum damage is very low..if u have good resistance against lightning,it should be a piece of cake.

Classic Sorcs: Ah,yes,the classic orb/nova/ts/and lightning mastery sorcs...they arent very common nowadays,but if u happen to face one,just avoid frozen orb and nova..not much u can do about the thunder storm..just shoot them to death with fire balls



well,im done with this for now,i think ive covered everything that needs to be covered about fire sorcs. good luck in d2.

Puffen

well first off, the maximum res a sc can have to one element is 10%, and the max to all res is 5% so u should fix that

and the maximum frw on a sc i think its 3 now, but i might be wrong

The fhr on a sc is always 5% i think, but please check this up