Immolation Arrow (none or maximum)

Clvl: 24
Prerequisites: Fire Arrow, Multiple Shot, Exploding Arrow.
Effect: Enchants an arrow that does fire damage and explodes into a patch of fire on the ground. Creatures passing through the flames take additional damage.
Properties: Can be blocked (but the fire wall effect will still hit the target), dodged, doesn't work with Critical/Deadly Strike, does work with Pierce, steals life/mana, elemental portion always hits, can be resisted/negated/absorbed via fire resistance/immunity/absorption, three-second duration, two yard fire radius, 3.3 yard explosion radius, add physical damage to exploding arrows.
Synergy from: Fire Arrow: +5% average fire damage per second/slvl, Exploding Arrow: +10% average fire damage/slvl.
Synergy to: None.

Immolation Arrow (hereafter referred to as "Immo") launches an exploding arrow that leaves a small patch of burning flame whenever it hits an enemy. When it's used against individually strong and slow enemies or large groups of slow-moving monsters, Immo is very useful, as it causes more damage per second per mana point spent than any other bow/crossbow skill. Immo can be compared to the sorceresses' Fire Wall skill; it causes less damage but it's less situational and easier to aim. Immo's splash appears to have a range of somewhere between 2 and 3 yards, and like all blasting skills, its effectiveness climbs with Pierce.

…or would, if it wasn't crippled by a three-second duration and a spell timer. This is a terrible combination because the spell timer lasts a second, and the patch of flame lasts for three, which means this skill can't be stacked. Given the healing rates of monsters in hell, and this skill's weak fire damage (even with full synergies) Immo is a joke.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea behind this skill, I loved using this in Classic, and it still has a lot of potential (as soon as it's cleaned up), but in LOD, Immo suffered a series of hopelessly unsuccessful "improvements" to balance this skill against the fire skills of other classes, presumably balanced by people who had no idea how damaging skills were supposed to work. Most damage skills fall between small to medium-sized amounts of damage very quickly and no timer (like zeal or strafe) or a huge amount of damage in a single shot, perhaps with a short timer (like fire wall or berserk); Immo combines the worst of both worlds, using small bits of damage in a single shot with a timer.

Immo is also a one-way skill: it demands synergies, but gives none in return, so instead of actively trying to pump this skill up, you'll be using +skill items to boost it while you're buffing up its synergies, which ultimately slows down your advancement. (To be fair, Valkyrie does this too, but Valkyrie is actually useful.) Immo's synergies give some room for customization: you use Exploding Arrow if you want Immo's blast to cause more damage (up to +200% fire damage), and you use Fire Arrow to power-up Immo's patch (up to +100% fire damage/second). There's just one problem, and that it's ass-backwards: there's no reason at all to pump the Fire Arrow synergy to buff an already paltry fire damage/second, and anybody who uses Immo is going to need something to use while the timer's up and the skill that most matches Immo is Exploding Arrow. But because Exploding Arrow doesn't operate on a timer and it's affected by IAS, its damage/second might just catch up with Immo, which is on a timer that effectively kills out any advantages IAS might have given it. Say we have a slvl-20 Immo with a fully-synergized Exploding Arrow for 1,080-1,110 fire damage at 15.5 mana per shot. Compare this to a slvl-20 Exploding Arrow with a fully synergized Fire Arrow for 438-506 fire damage at 14.4 mana per shot. OK, it's going to take up to three Exploding Arrows to catch up to one Immo (counting the patch as well), but in the span of time it takes a bowazon with 120% IAS to fire one Immo, she can easily sling out three Exploding Arrows, and if she's got mana leech, she's not going to feel the bite. Unless you blow another 20 points for Fire Arrow, a skill that obsolesced by Exploding Arrow, then Immo loses out in the end. Is it worth the 20 points for a slight improvement over an already-expensive investment? I think not.

OK, enough hatin' on the Immo. Let's talk about the good stuff.

Along with what you've applied to blasting skills, the tactical uses of Immo make themselves apparent right away: you don't use this skill in wide open spaces, and unlike Fire Wall, the ideal targeting situation (with Pierce) is a straight line coming towards your character, not a straight line laying across from your character. For the bowazon, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out how to get a bunch of monsters locked into a straight line. Immo is best used in tight areas without a lot of maneuvering space where the flames can be absolutely devastating (like the narrow corridors of the Maggot Lair or Chaos Sanctuary), when they're locked in place by something, or in situations where many targets are concentrated around a single point (like your hireling, valkyrie, or decoy) so the fire and blast can get them all at once. Then, while Immo's spell timer is being applied, use Exploding or Freezing Arrows in between delays to inflict further damage.

As the difficulty levels climb, so will the target's fire resistance, so if you intend on using Immo as a secondary attack, max this skill as soon as possible. As it's, however, this skill is arguably the least effective elemental attack the bowazon possesses. If you're bound and determined to make this skill work, be prepared to write off 60 skill points, and you'd better have something up your sleeve when you run into your first fire/physical immune.

If Immo is chosen, an assigned hot key is highly recommended. A high-level valkyrie is also recommended, as you'll need her to survive a massive beating from the targets she will be holding back while Immo takes full effect. Some exceptionally good strategies for using Immo can be gleaned from the Fire Wall section of VenomousVixen's Complete Sorceress Guide.