Vixen, Mistress of Hydras

Vixen is a v1.10 single-player sorceress specialising in Hydra and Thunderstorm. As well as her somewhat underpowered skill choice, she was untwinked, had no mercenary, and insisted on using a staff.

Vixen went through normal using a "Leaf" runeword staff, and fire ball as her main attack. At level 30 she switched to using hydra and thunderstorm exclusively, and started shopping for a nice volcanic staff (and at the end of the game, she was still looking!)

Through to the end of nightmare, Vixen was boringly powerful. Her hydras gobbled up everything that wasn't fire-immune, and thunderstorm dealt easily with the monsters that were. I was starting to think I should have chosen even weaker skills :)

Then she arrived in hell.

In the Den of Evil, her first encounter with hell fallen. Her hydras were useless, and the shaman would resurrect dead fallen faster than thunderstorm killed them off. She had to lure all the fallen away from their shamans, kill them off, then go and deal with the shaman (and then go back and re-kill the fallen that had somehow managed to get resurrected several screens away).

Vixen progressed slowly through hell. With just two elemental attacks she was forced to park some bosses that were immune to both fire and lightning, but she killed everything else. She also had a wand of lower resist, using the lower resist charges to break immunity on some of the otherwise-invulnerable bosses (there were 30-odd double-immune bosses, of which about 10 she was able to kill using her wand).

Hydra remained fairly effective against anything not fire-immune all through the game, but did require some nifty footwork (or teleport-work) to use. She had no mercenary to tank for her, so her preferred strategy was to lead individual (or small groups of) monster(s) to a safe corridor, cast hydra in front, run or teleport back around the monster, cast another hydra on the other side, and repeat, keeping her opponent in the fire-zone between the two hydra stacks.

Thunderstorm, however, became increasingly ineffective as Vixen progressed through hell. Fire-immune monster packs had to be broken up to allow her thunderstorm to focus on an individual target, and even then it sometimes required assistance from her lower resist wand before the thunderstorm was able to damage the monster faster than it regenerated. It was, on the other hand, very easy to use, since it would auto-hit anything in range, and didn't require continual recasting.

For exactly one monster through the entire game Vixen became a tri-elementalist. Having spent several hours navigating the River of Flame and clearing the Chaos Sanctuary, she released the seal bosses only to find that the Grand Vizier was immune to both her attacks. Lower resist did break the lightning-immunity, but he would still regenerate faster than thunderstorm could damage him. She parked him at the River of Flame waypoint, went back and killed everyone else, and then went shopping.

A battle staff of blizzard turned out to be just the thing Vixen needed. With level 4 blizzard charges, aided by lower resist and +1 cold mastery on the staff, Vixen was able to defeat the Vizier, and go on to face Diablo and (eventually) Baal.

Stats and Equipment

Vixen almost-full-cleared all three difficulties, completed all the quests, and killed Baal in Hell at level 83. Her skills:

• Fire Bolt, Warmth, Enchant - 1 each
• Fire Ball - 4 (synergy for hydra)
• Hydra - 20 (+9 from equipment)
• Fire Mastery 20 (+7 from equipment)

• Charged Bolt, Static Field, Telekinesis, Nova, Lightning, Chain Lightning, Teleport - 1 each (Static Field was never used)
• Thunderstorm - 20 (with a max of +8 from equipment)
• Lightning Mastery - 20 (max +6 from equipment)

The most powerful thunderstorm Vixen could summon did 1273-1719 damage.

Equipment at end of Hell:

• Staff: Vixen's Volcanic Battle Staff (socketed with a poison resist jewel, one unused socket)
  +3 to Fire Skills • +2 to Hydra • +1 to Blizzard • +1 to Glacial Spike • Poison Resist 10%
• Secondary staff: Powered Gnarled Staff
  +3 to Lightning Skills • +2 to Thunderstorm
• Helm: Volcanic Circlet of Fortune (socketed with Ral and Thul runes)
  Defense 27 • +3 to Fire Skills • Cold Resist 30% • Fire Resist 30% • 17% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
• Armor: Vixen's "Stealth" Studded Leather (runeword armor)
  Defense 39 • 25% Faster Run/Walk • 25% Faster Cast Rate • 25% Faster Hit Recovery • +6 to Dexterity • Regenerate Mana 15% • +15 Maximum Stamina • Poison Resist 30% • Magic Damage Reduced by 3
• Gloves: Vixen's Magefist unique Light Gauntlets
  Defense 25 • +1 to Fire Skills • 20% Faster Cast Rate • Adds 1-6 fire damage • Regenerate Mana 25%
• Boots: Fiend Tread rare Chain Boots
  Defense 14 • 10% Faster Run/Walk • 10% Faster Hit Recovery • Lightning Resist 23% • 9% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
• Belt: Imp Chain crafted Sharkskin Belt
  Defense 46 • 7% Faster Cast Rate • +55 to Life • +11 to Mana • Regenerate Mana 9% • Lightning Resist 29% • Fire Resist 10%
• Amulet: Entropy Heart (crafted)
  7% Faster Run/Walk • 1% Life stolen per hit • +14 to Life • Cold Resist 43% • Lightning Resist 10% • Fire Resist 10% • Poison Resist 10% • Damage Reduced by 1 • 10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
• Ring 1: Skull Whorl (rare)
  +85 to Attack Rating • +50 poison damage over 3 seconds • All Resistances 9% • Poison Length Reduced by 25% • 6% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
• Ring 2: Storm Spiral (rare)
  +62 to Attack Rating • 6% Life stolen per hit • +38 to Life • Cold Resist 11% • Lightning Resist 11% • Fire Resist 11% • Poison Resist 16% • 37% Extra Gold from Monsters

• Charms: Lapis Grand Charm of Frost, Viridian Grand Charm of Thunder, Garnet Grand Charm, Russet Large Charm of Flame, Amber Large Charm of Incineration, Burly Large Charm of Inertia, Garnet Large Charm, Jade Small Charm of Winter, Tangerine Small Charm, Small Charm of Vita, Lapis Small Charm, Small Charm of Balance, Russet Small Charm of Greed, Tangerine Small Charm of Frost, Lapis Small Charm of Flame, Beryl Small Charm of Good Luck, Small Charm of Good Luck

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