firelock: hoto or obedience ? (can't afford Mang Song's Lesson)

I think Obedience is strictly better than hoto. Though hoto is muuuuch cheaper to make. So probably you'll end up using both over time.

I'm dumb, thought you were asking about Obsession, not Obedience.

Mang Song's Lesson
(for tooltip )

you have to do some calculation, buy probably a weapon with FCR and + Skill (like Spirit, Heart of the Oak) will be better than a weapon with just -X% To Enemy Fire Resistance

Obedience (or Phoenix - that have "-X% To Enemy Fire Resistance" too) are not even listed as recommendations on guides (Leaf and Spirit are - among the cheaper options)
https://maxroll.gg/d2/guides/fire-warlock-guide

fredkid wrote: 4 months ago

Obedience (or Phoenix - that have "-X% To Enemy Fire Resistance" too) are not even listed as recommendations on guides (Leaf and Spirit are - among the cheaper options)
https://maxroll.gg/d2/guides/fire-warlock-guide

Come on, who cares about guides. Honestly lots of maxroll suggestions are weird or suboptimal, or not really thought out, or require insane budget (like having 20x 32020 charms, or 10x520 as a workaround for no res/ar) ; p

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I'd go with
- Obedience
- Flickering Flame
- Fortitude (or Stealth if budget - for that 25% FCR)
- 2x10FCR rings
- 15-20FCR amulet
- Measured Wrath socketed with some minus fire res jewel (or Ars Al'Diabolos)
- Horazon's Legacy (cannot be frozen)
- Magefist (20FCR, +1 fire skills)
- Arachnid Mesh

Total budget cost: Vex + Ist more or less (unless you are making Fortitude )

That would give you 125 FCR breakpoint (the highest), decent res, some affordable gear, +9 to fire skills, and -45-50% fire penetration

imo res are not critically important, bc Ring of Fire pushes enemies back, and Apocalypse has insane range

Even if you use Flame Rift, you would still have ~50+% fire res

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/ky4go0ry

That's why I said "you have to do some calculation"
(if you have other sources of 'X% enemy fire resist' its effects on the overall damage is lower as all of them are additive, and Apocalypse have a natural -X% enemy fire and Flickering Flame have it too and is a good and reasonable cheap option for fire build; FCR enough to reach higher breakpoints may have huge a impact on overall damage too)

mikelessar wrote: 4 months ago

fredkid wrote: 4 months ago

you have to do some calculation, buy probably a weapon with FCR and + Skill (like Spirit, Heart of the Oak) will be better than a weapon with just -X% To Enemy Fire Resistance

If you only look at damage, I disagree, -enemy fire res is massive. Obedience with -25% enemy fire res is much stronger than +3. But sometimes, especially during leveling, you want more than just strong damage, Spirit and Hoto offer much more defensive stats than Obedience.

I use Obsession but also use Ars Al'Diabolos and Flickering Flame for the minus enemy fire resist. Even before using the book, it was pretty damn solid. I do have a sunder charm as well, however, which obviously helps.

fredkid wrote: 4 months ago

you have to do some calculation, buy probably a weapon with FCR and + Skill (like Spirit, Heart of the Oak) will be better than a weapon with just -X% To Enemy Fire Resistance

Unless you spam Ring of Fire, FCR isn't that important. It's nice to have, also as QoL for Teleport, but both Flame Wave and Apocalypse have casting delay, which diminishes the impact of FCR.

Heart of the Oak/Phoenix? seems better than Obedience/Spirit imo

Obedience seems like a good option if you're using Ars Al'Diabolos offhand