Through Norm with a Trapper

[Rataxes]

Yeah, but by the time Frenzytaurs are *tightly* packed, your body is littering the floor.  Actually, I haven't used the new range against Frenzytaurs yet, but it should be alright.

Frenzytaurs were scary. Even in normal they took a lot of Fire blasts to bring down (heavy fire resistance?), and they'd chop up my merc in no time if I fought more than 2 at once. The fact that they're so fast and hit so hard makes it more or less impossible to kill them without stalling them somehow.

A 'Leaf' short staff gives 12 frame Fire Blast at slvl 23, for 124.5-159.5, or 142 avg dmg. So the scimitar is +33% faster, but the staff does +43% dmg, just slightly more damage over time.

Interesting, but I have to hit and run quite a lot with Fire blast vs Boss packs and champs, and this is so much harder with a slower attack animation, so I think I'll stick to my 20% IAS Blade talons :) Do you by the way know what fps that puts me in? I have Blade Talons with 20% IAS, Lvl 1 BoS, and Arctic mitts which give 10% IAS. I tried the speed calculator at the German D2 site, but the business with the left claw gave me some confusing results that I didn't know what to do with.

Hmm, I'm not sure if Shock Web is any good now or not. Before, if you threw a bunch of them at the same target, it would still only take damage from one of them. I.e. it wouldn't stack. Fire Blast gives it a ton more spikes, but the spikes are all so tiny, I don't know if that really makes much difference.

Yep, you're right. It's useless really :D Tried it out against a few Fire enchanted bosses in Act 1 NM in Players 8 and even though the boss was practically walking on a solid white carpet of lightning, it's regenerated far quicker than the Shock webs were damaging him. Still, ít gives synergestic bonues to most traps I have considered using, so maxing it wasn't a waste anyhow. Lightning sentry looks far more appealing, at slvl 3 doing 1-250 dmg, and that's with only one of it's synergy skills maxed. Slvl 3 LS took care of those Fire enchanted bosses quite nicely actually, which bodes well for the future :)

I've now left Act 1 NM and the first impression of NM is good. I remember Act 1 in Nightmare and Hell mode being a pretty boring place. The XP rewards used to be pathetic considering the level you're supposed to be at when you enter. Not so now, I went from lvl 41 to 47 just going from the Blood Moor to Tamoe Highlands, not even bothering to clear out all the dungeons. And the difficulty curve actually makes sense now, with Act 1 NM being slightly more difficult than Act 5 Normal. Whereas in v1.09, Act 1 NM had been a push-over compared to the act you just completed. Fire blast, now at 270-400 dmg, still works like a charm in Players 8. Only ever had problems with Fire enchanted bosses or Boss packs with naturally fire resistant monsters, but Lightning Sentry takes care of those nicely. Monsters hit exceptionally hard, a nice example being a Returned One hitting me for 170 points while I was Amped. Packs of Fallen can kill you very fast if you happen to get caught in the middle, though you can kill them even faster with Fire blast :)