Kill it with fire - B's guide to a Fireshield focused build

mmmm, fire



i think i know a decent amount about FS since it's been my goto for 18+ months but if anyone has any tid-bits they wanna add, speak up



firstly, and i cannot stress this enough, FS is a defensive opener, and the build reflects this. you need to be hit for it to work, so you need to do as much as you can to stay alive even if you're copping a beating from ur opponent. for that reason alone, i believe in magus blood. i'll explain more later


the build

low path:

staff - you wanna use items with juicy stats yeah?

staff focus - taking less damage is important to surviving while still getting enough FS procs in to kill them before they kill you.

mind amp - extra int boost = more FS damage.. also means the odd hit you get in will hurt more, especially when you have fights that require a different opener. it's the same with staff focus above

item amp - we all want extra stats right?

magus blood - even if it isnt what it used to be, it still usually gives me an extra 800 hp in a 10 turn duel, which can mean sustaining another 4-5 hits, and therefor extra FS procs. i cant stress how much it's helped me out in those close matches, or given me a massive win against another FS user w/o MB


some of you may be wondering why clarity or shimmer were not chosen. clarity reduces their resist, which it kinda meh considering FS eats their resist anyway. sure, you may get 1 or 2 extra FS procs early on against a high resist opponent, but 5 points in magus blood. shimmer is a waste cos FS requires being hit, so extra dodge is pointless. again, points are better spent on other low paths



high path:

i'm running blood mastery/hold person/fireshield, but i have seen other FS permutations that use gremlins or energy drain. i'll outline why i picked BM/HP over the other 2 below


Blood mastery - i use this for facing ice storm. simply use this and a high resist loadout, and you'll have more resistance than the other guy (and sometimes health too), and you'll usually see them kill them self actions can make this even better for you

Hold Person - seeing as you have 2 really defensive openers, so having one that is really aggro to race other fast openers is a must. TT is the other option, but it's really underperforming currently. also, because of HP, having staff focus and mind amp is great, cos you'll be hitting for huge also when resisted, they get an armor nerf, so clarity is again not that useful.

Fireshield - the focus of the build


now for why i believe in the openers above, and not the ones below

gremlins - it's actually a pretty awesome opener, but you get raped against high resist openers, and you'd also be left with no sure way to beat ice storm, other than drain (at the cost of HP) is's also a mid to late game winner that is outshone by FS on the most part

energy drain - it is pretty cool to drain people stats and then hit them back with ur ilgotten stats, however it's an opener for the long term, so no go imo.

Talek's Transformation - was pretty good back in the day, but now it's simply outdone by HP. i hear it's getting a change though, so it may soon become a more viable option.


so all up, you have 1 point left over, to pop into wands for the odd surprise loadout.



anyway, that's the build itself, now for:




stats


personally, i believe all your points should go into int, bringing it to 150. it's what lets you do damage both with FS and staff hits, so yeah, it's pretty important, and you can boost other stats with gear.

for FS itself, it's basically a case of stacking int and stam. int to do damage, stam to survive the hits. my default has 720 int and 340 stam.

in the case of HP, i recommend getting speed and perception to around 200, and then squeeze out as much int as possible. having a little extra perception isnt too bad because of the extra chance to crit on those turns when HP is resisted, or it's past turn 5. i'm running 210 speed, 260 per and 580 int in my default and it gets me some pretty nice hits.

blood mastery is basically stack stam and resist. extra int to boost hit damage is nice, but not necessary. i have 350 int, 330 stam and 510 resist. this has me on the resistance cap (90%) so i could lower seeing as i get a boost from BM, but i havnt found the need to do that as of yet.


of course, the above are just defaults, and i have openers with different stat distributions to suit different opponent openers, be it more stam, resist, speed, crit, etc.

an example is for gaze matchups. i have my resist slightly above my int, so that while i lose all my resist, i still have lots of int for FS damage, and stam for survivability.



gear


note: i'll go through staffs a bit more at the end

for blood mastery, spellbreaker and voidcloth are fantastic. staff of mekalek is lovely (and cheap) too. tbh, i dont know of cheaper substitutes as i havnt needed to go resist gear hunting in a long time

hold person requires not just int, but speed and perception, so martyr shepherd wristguards are high priority. speed is easier to get than perception, so try to get perc gear in before adding speed items. some bits i recommend are vision sheperds mantle (perc and int ) and adventure pants (speed and int) and i throw in a tower staff too for the great int and speed boosts. other gear to look for includes gloom reaper shoulders and crystal focus, but i havnt got any to compare to the other stuff i mentioned. if your after cheaper gear, stuff like amarian scout or shard raider gear is great.


fireshield is int/stam stacking on the most part, so stuff like [u]darlock mantle[/b] and gortad's breeches are fan-bloody-tastic, although if you're after cheaper stuff, crimson candescence gear is good. capes to look at are earthmender drape and soul embalmer cloak. there's also the CC one to look for a cheaper alternative. trident, vallo and staff of mekalek are the staffs to look for in FS imo.


basically, general gear includes crimson candescense, mysterium magus, darian commander (not so much the speed ones) and getting tricing gear all round. an extra 390 power is awesome, and the -6% dodge is actually useful for FS




staff detail:

staff of mekalek - affordable, and pretty good for your FS and BM. the -2% dodge also means u get hit a little more, and the -2% hit is useful for those FS/FS mirror matches. the lack of damage and -ve stats isnt an issue cos ur using it in matches where you need the opener to do the damage. oh, and u can use it in epic ladder matches

Trident - i love this badboy. gives you a packet of armor and good boosts to stam and int. again, not crazy damage, but that isnt too important.

vallo - good armor and stam boost, although expect FS damage to be a little down

tower staff - great boosts to speed and int for some good HP hits good armor too

crystal focus - havnt used one yet, but it's another route to more perception, and the percentile boosts are great, especially the bonus to crits.

deadworld - if u got it, use it...but you already know that




general matchup advice


druids

gayze - fireshield with some healing and burn actions are good. dont bother with impede too much cos they will have their stat gone (or recovering) the the action slot is usually best used for another one. i recommend using resist as a dump stat, so get it just a tad above int.

insects - open with HP. get in as much damage as possible. some impedes and extra attack actions are recommended

shakes - go HP and spam attacks. look out for roots though. try and hit it with voids

ice storm - go with blood mastery. make sure to void their mends and spam lower resist everywhere else


mages

gremlins - FS with a splash of resist usually does it. just some int based damage actions (burn), vamp bolts and impedes works.

drain - usually high int HP is the go. try and kill them before you're drained too much that you couldnt even hurt a fly. vamp bolt and extra attack actions are the way to go.

HP - go with high int, high stam FS. throw in some healing and impedes to survive the HP crits, then hopefully let FS roast them once they are hitting at more sensible levels. pyromania after turn 5 is good to lower their crit chances also, they'll usually have much less health than you which is nice.

TT - just go with FS and use some voids and impedes in the early turns.

IP - FS with some lower resists is good. try to use a vamp bolt after using lower resist to have a better chance at stealing their health. some burn and impedes are nice too.

FS - just use lots of impedes, pyro and healing. staff of mekalek for the lower chance to hit them, and greater chance for them to hit u is almost essential imo.


warriors

arms - FS with some impedes is the way to go. ppl using high resist arms (grr, cosmo sabers) are a pain in the ass though and may require some lower resists.

BBC - go with FS and spam the lower resists

shield slam - use FS and avoid the slams. i used to use the same actionset against SS as i did SS cos most warriors using one, also had the other, and the set worked nicely against both. lower resist no longer self stunning makes this no longer viable, so i'm going to see how poison gassing myself works to avoid the slams.

FA - use FS, some impedes, vamp bolts and pyromania and ur set.


sins:

apo - FS is usually instant win

DED - HP has the best chance of survival, but ded is the worst matchup for this build. if you can find something better than HP attack spam, let me know!

boosh - HP with some extra attacks is good

precise strikes - see above, but also try to void their talismans of spellbreaking. i've lost matches in 1 turn from crazy crazy hits



for just about all the openers i didnt list, a generic FS loadout with impede/pyro/bolt is the way to go.



um, that's enough typing from me... time for bed. hope this helps someone i can go through stuff in more detail, especially in matchups if anyone likes

oh, and i'm voting argh! too much text cos typing this up gave me a headache....

great work B Lan, I really need this coz I'm planning to build a FS mage. thanks a lot!

lendell wrote:great work B Lan, I really need this coz I'm planning to build a FS mage. thanks a lot!

You always steal my ideas!


Great work here, B!

thanks glad it helped

I clicked I knew everything since I wanted to seem a know it all. But it's a nais guide. Too bad I'm doing a Gremlins/HP mage .

I'll probably have a few idea's of my own to add, one very important one is that High stam (500+) FS is best against insects.

hmm, havnt tried that. i run 200-300 resist against bugs and open with HP. works most of the time, unless i'm against pure perception bugs.


oh, and i must say, it was mega who showed me the way of blood mastery for anti IS goodness.

I find that Insects usually expects HP against mages, and so they use talisman, yesubs, gas, talisman, gas, and that guarantees 2 of your turns are gone, even being unlucky, they will have another turn from one of the 50% things, and therefore you will only hit for two turns, likely only 3 hits for you to count on. This is not enough to kill them. Meanwhile, their insects will do 500 per turn, and on non-gas turns, they'll probably get 200-500 weapon damage, for a minimum of 3k damage by the end of turn 5, which will murder you.

FS however, against the same action set, works VERY well. Since they expect to stun you for 3+ turns, they will think that they need much health, and therefore will have 1400-2000 (at very most, depending on how many arti's they have), and most of them use a wand. Using an impede, vamp, healing potion, impede action set, you will have very good chances, so long as your FS loadout has about 3500 health and no wand. NOTE:I haven't tried making a 3000 health FS loadout with the same int (around 450-500) and stacking up some resist. It might be something to look into, but right now, what I have works for most insects.

gas only stuns yourself now.



i run 2k hp in my usual insect loadouts. resisting 1-2 turn, and hitting them with an impede works well. if they aint dead by turn 7 though, 99% you lose. wanded insects is kinda brutal too, and the reason i 1st looked into resist HP

Hmm, okay, the forum about the update was REALLY unclear on that issue, and with that change, it might actually be worth it to try HP sometimes.