Perpendicular Pyromania

Diablo II	Notation	Basic	Class	Skill	Item	Ally	Quest	Area	Monster	Tale

Perpendicular Pyromania - How to use Fire Wall effectively

One of my current Sorceresses is using Nova and Fire Wall (FW) as her two main spells. Some people seem to have to hard time understanding and learning how to use FW. So, I've tried to take some helpful screenshots of the spell in action. I hope I can help some folks with the screenies and my experiences using the spell.

Damage

FW is a very high damage spell. Although 1.13 gave it synergy bonuses from Warmth and Inferno, it doesn't really need them. For this reason, it's a good "backup" skill. You can spend 20 points in FW and 1 in Fire Mastery (FM) to get decent damage to deal with immunes to your primary element, especially given some +skills.

I'm still maxing my FM, so FW hasn't even reached its full damage potential yet. It still does around 3,000 displayed fire damage per second with minimal +skills, which is quite sufficient for late Nightmare where my character currently sits. I've seen people state figures of 7,000 FW damage, which doesn't surprise me at all. I have a +3 FW Leaf staff that I'm not using anymore. The damage and range of FW go up dramatically when I pop that thing on. You can shop these from Drognan in Act 2. A +3 Fire Wall Leaf staff is an excellent twink staff if you are waiting on level 30 skills.

Pre-1.13 skill description.

Timer

FW also has a long timer (1.4 seconds - Meteor is 1.2, Blizzard is 1.8 for some comparisons). So, you need to have good FW placement in order to make the spell effective. If you miss all the monsters with your first casting, you have to wait 1.4 seconds to cast again. That's a long time to let monsters go unharmed.

Range

Contrary to what some people may think, you could call FW a ranged spell. The skill description displays that it is 30 yards long (so 15 yards on each side from the point where you click) at level 20 (although it is actually 2 2/3 yards longer than displayed). Add +skills and this figure keeps on going. There are ways to hit monsters well off the screen using this spell as you'll see in the screenies (they're coming I promise I'll stop talking soon).

Merc selection

I picked a Holy Freeze merc. It's the logical choice for my particular build (FW/Nova). Barb mercs have knockback, so they can knock monsters out of your carefully placed FW. Thus, I recommend the Holy Freeze merc or an A3 Cold merc. The A3 merc can freeze them in place while you fry them. However, most sorcs prefer (or need) a tank. So, Holy Freeze is the best choice in my mind.

Cons

It can be a little difficult to master/control. You may be really good at using FW in solo games, but party play can move quickly, so you may struggle to use it well in big parties.

There are also some monsters that you won't be able to hit with Fire Wall. The Lurkers that surface from pools are one example. Any monster that can fly/hover over water will be unreachable, also. (Succubi in Frozen River, Suckers in Act 3).

Also, watch out for LEs and MSLEs. FW makes the bolts fly out continously.

How FW works

First of all, you must remember that your character always stays in the middle of the screen. Also note that you need an uninterrupted line-of-sight to the casting point of the FW.

Ok, there are two relevant lines that we are going to discuss. The first is the "character line." The second is the "FW line." The character line extends from your character (the middle of the screen) to the point wherever you click to cast FW. The FW line then extends perpendicularly from the click-point.

The character line and the FW line will always be perpendicular to each other.

So, with this knowledge, you can aim your Fire Walls. In these two shots, I want a vertical FW.

I must click somewhere on the red horizontal character line to make a vertical FW.

Now, I click to the right on the character line, producing a vertical FW perpendicular to it.

You can use this method to cast FW ahead of you and make it "ranged." So, doing a vertical line like this lets you attack monsters that are coming from the top of the screen. You can cast it ahead of you to clear out hallways since you know there will be monsters in that direction.

As you can see, my mouse pointer doesn't line up exactly with the intersection of the character and FW lines. That's mostly bad Painting™ on my part, but it is hard to tell where the game considers the center of your character to be. It seems to vary based on which direction you are facing. Below is a montage.

The leftmost shot has better Painting™. It appears that the center of my character is at my feet for the left and middle shots. However, in the right shot, my center seems higher.

Anyway, the real point of the montage is to show how a slight movement of my mouse up or down can create a slanted Fire Wall instead of the desired vertical Fire Wall. It takes some practice to consistently place FW in your intended direction.

Doors

Here are two screenies that show how to position a FW so that it "blocks" a doorway and continues through the room.

Starting on the bottom left of the door. You can see the glow of the FW on the other side of the wall.

View from inside the room.

Durance hallway example

This is a good spot to show how I proceed through hallway-type places. My technique usually does a good job of clearing things out before I have to move in myself.

First, fill hallway with fire length-wise.	Check out the range!
Then do the same with the hallway perpendicular to the one you started with.	This is a "bonus" pic from that run showing how FW can be used against stupid monsters that line up along an edge. The flayers in A3 lining up along the river are prime targets for FW.

The crossover

If a monster is charging at you, cast a FW immediately to your side. Then, move to whichever side of the FW will make them run through it to get to you.

Ideally, your merc stops them in the middle of the FW to fight with them.

Corners

These next four screenies show how to kill monsters safely from around a corner. I've added red lines to show the line from me to the point where I clicked. Then I added a perpendicular line that goes with the FW itself. Circles are points of interest - usually dead monsters.

The FW is receding in this pic, so you can see there are dead monsters around the corner where I circled. These monsters never "woke up" because they never saw me. So, they were dead before they could endanger me in any way.	Merc is engaging flaming monsters.
Monster caught on a wall.	Dead succubi.

Open areas

These next four screenies show how to tackle packs of monsters in open areas.	Cast a FW right next to you, so that it extends towards the monsters.
Step into the path of your first FW (so the monsters will crossover into it) and cast another at the spot you just left.	Your mercenary finishes the job.

Merc clusters

Monsters usually gather in a little cluster around your merc. Just cast a FW right in front of him and you'll usually tag most of them.	Crispy critters.
A job well done.

Source

ThePlatypus, Perpendicular Pyromania (D2 Sorceress)