Immozon first impressions

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

If you read
<http://www.theamazonbasin.com/~ak404/assassin/sin-02b2.htm>, you
might think that investing in Immolation Arrow is a bad idea. Well, I
am currently playing another Immozon (my last one was in 1.06) in SC
SP 1.10, and I like it.

She is currently at level 47 in NM Act 1 with a Kuko Shakaku. With
about level 26 Immo and about 8 real points in Exploding arrow she
does about 1200-1340 or so splash damage, which is good enough to kill
most monsters in NM Act1 and the normal cows with the splash damage of
one shot at "/players 8". With 100% pierce this results in an aisle
of death along the flight path of the arrow. Tactical hint: target
the farthest monster; it is the easiest to miss (if you don't hit it
or a monster or obstacle in the vicinity, there is no splash damage).

The main killer is the fire explosion splash damage. The after-burn
damage is relatively small, and I don't plan to invest points in Fire
Arrow to make it a little bigger.

The nerfed residual fire and vastly increased immediate damage
compared to 1.06 results in very different strategy: In 1.06 a L22
Immo produced 25s of residual fire with 130 damage/s per arrow, as
fast as you could fire the arrows; the immediate damage was only
150-270. So the tactics was to build a pyre, and keep the monsters
there. Nowadays I just go for the immediate splash damage, mostly
ignoring the residual damage (it's mainly an indicator of where the
arrow hit).

The timer (1s) on Immo is not nice, but often not so bad. I often
need that much time to see whether something survived and to acquire
the next target. It is only a hindrance in situations where the
monsters are so distributed that I know from the start where to shoot
next. Then I can alternate Immo with Strafe or Freezing Arrow.

Compared to a fire sorceress, an Immozon has the following big
advantages: She pierces (ideally resulting in overlapping splash
damage), she leeches, and she has a Valk and Decoy. Also, she can
deal physical damage whithout having to invest many skill points.

The Kuko is a very good bow (maybe optimal) for an Immozon, with its
+3 to bow skills, additional +3 to Immo, its piercing, and 40-180 of
fire damage (which gets added to the splash damage). The only problem
is that the physical damage combined with a 7% mana leech ring is
often not enough in NM to leech back all the costs of a high-level
Immo (about 19 mana for a level-26 Immo). As a remedy, I sometimes
alternate Immo with Strafe or ordinary attack for leeching back. One
could also try to raise the physical damage in various ways (e.g., by
socketing the bow appropriately; speed is not that useful for an
Immozon), or use higher-leeching equipment.

Also, one can make use of the synergy with Exploding Arrow, which
raises the immediate splash damage without raising the mana cost; in
some cases a point in Exploding Arrow raises the immediate splash
damage of Immo by more than a point in Immo.

One interesting property of Immo is that it apparently does not carry
any chill effect; of course not in the splash damage, but apparently
also not on the arrow, either, even though the arrow damage is shown
in blue in the character window. The monster hit by the arrow turns
green (i.e., the poison damage is carried by the arrow), but not blue.

The practical effect is that I shoot Immo at a pack, and if something
survives, I shoot a freezing arrow after it.

- anton
--
BillChin's Diablo II FAQ: http://www.geocities.com/wchin8/FAQD2.html

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Stephen van Ham <svanham@xtra.co.nz> writes:
>Keep us informed of her progress through the rest of nightmare and into hell -

Sure, will take some weeks, though.

- anton
--
BillChin's Diablo II FAQ: http://www.geocities.com/wchin8/FAQD2.html