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[Crystalion]

Well, I got  a 6k damage fireball sorc, and a (listed) 4k damage ranged/melee enchantress combo as well. It came as a surprise to me (well, I did not think about it THAT hard), but the enchantress kills crowds a LOT faster than the FB sorc (she uses demon and razor for shooting btw).

This is why I say my sorc is closer to a subclass zon... it is the power of piercing that makes the EA blasts so powerful. Bear in mind that the LCS™ is correct for melee damage, but is misstating your EA damage (the Fire Mastery, by testing, is not applied a second time *ranged*, but the screen shows the damage as if it does).

Therefore it is likely that you meant: 6k fireball, 4k melee, much much less than 4k ranged (although sometimes the "correct" figure would be doubled, when both the arrow and splash hit a single target).

But the power of teleporting to play keep away and line up good piercing opportunities really magnifies that ~2k EA (can hit for 2k, splash for 2k, miss the immediate next target, but splash for 2k, doing 6k to the first target and 4k to the second, just as a modest e.g.).

Some people have claimed that the blast radius for EA is bigger than that of Fireball. I don't know, myself, not having tested it (I mistrust mpq/code reading for matters of fact that can fairly easily be tested).

I am under the impression that a "sick" +fire build for Fireball or Meteor gets insane damage compared to the same "sick" Enchant build. The "Sorc" skill calculator for example, gives ~3700 fire damage for a no+skill 20skill/20mastery/40max_synergy FB build, leaping to ~15k when you manage +20fire skills, whereas it lists (incorrect for melee, correct afaik for ranged) ~600 for 20skill/20mastery/20max_synergy for Enchant leaping only to ~3k with +20fire skills.

In other words, the comparision you're making is valid at "sane" levels of +fire equip (i.e. Enchant demon/razor appears to win handily vs. FB, using a lot fewer skill points to boot), but probably isn't a fair comparision for someone who can reasonably expect to get a whole lot of +fire gear and GCs.

+12 fire on the body equip is very very easy/cheap to obtain on ladder (3 head, 3 ammy, 3 hexfire, 1 shield, 1 magefists, 1 torso). An extreme build picks up five more points there, iirc. Then you can have BO, shrine, Anni, 10 GC for up to 14 more (afaik, iirc). Hypothetically you can beat the Mang Song via the elusive perfect Leaf staff (+3 fire, +3 Enc/Fireball, +3 Fire Mastery).

Realistically anyone that wants to can probably manage ~+12 without trading by time they're high enough level to gamble +3 tree circ/ammy (not very high, iirc).

For reference the +12 figure is: FB ~9600; Enchant ~1700.

In other words, the Fireball build is easier "solo" to achieve higher damage (i.e. assuming no trading, playing by yourself for +fire/skill items) and it only gets more lopsided in favor of extreme FB damage if you allow extreme +fire gear.

But the Enchant build is fun, and very party friendly. And in players 1 at least, the Enchanted demon/razor damage with not much over +10 fire seems to be more than enough to get the job done (apart from fire immunes, which FB sucks even worse at, because demon at least has physical and can carry PMH type effects).

Still, I partied once with a Meteor sorc for a short while in hell durance 2... constant rain of meteors ahead of the party and nothing non-fire-immune survived it. There is a lot to be said for such "hammer of god" power, eh? :)

Of course once a doll got next to her before the meteor nailed him, and his death nailed her. So YMMV :D