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Everything you could ever want to know about using the Charged Bolt skill in Diablo I and Hellfire. Original guide by Moriah in 1997, archived in this wiki with some grammar and formatting fixes in February 2009.
==Introduction==
...so how does CHARGED BOLT really work?
Glad you ask, my friend, because here is the answer.
This discussion will deal only with Diablo, is only tested in multi
player and and is designed to give people a better understanding of
the use of the spell during gameplay.
==What exactly is Charged Bolt?==
Charged Bolt belongs to the Lightning based spells, which also include
Lightning itself, Chain Lightning and Nova. Charged Bolt is the ideal
Lightning based spell for a Sorceror for all occasions. They start off
with a staff of Charged Bolt. All dungeon levels up to and including
level 15 have monster types which are susceptible to Charged Bolt and
at all the difficulty settings. [[Jarulf's Guide]] v1.20 tells us it does
damage between 1 and 1+(Magic/4), has 3+slvl number of bolts and
always costs 6 mana points to cast from your spellbook.
==Where can you find Charged Bolt, and in what form?==
Charged Bolt can be found on a staff and as a spellbook. Abundant in
the Church and the Catacombs, you can quickly raise your spell level
if you have the magic requirement for reading the books. The witch
Adria will also sell you books of Charged Bolt for 1000 gold pieces.
Sacred shrines will raise your Charged Bolt spell level by 2, up to a
maximum of 15, but at the cost of a permanent mana reduction. Avoid
raising your Charged Bolt spell level this way. Enchanted Shrines will
lower the level of 1 known spell by one and raise all the other known
spells by 1. This works most of the time for raising the spell level
of Charged Bolt (up to the maximum of 15). In addition to the
character's own spell level, other wearable items can raise the spell
level even further, up to a maximum of 20. Although not officially
excluded from scrolls, Yours Truly has never encountered Charged Bolt
as a scroll.
==Who uses Charged Bolt?==
Sorcerors mainly. Usually early on in the game, when the character is
still at a low level, But, sadly, they "forget" about the usefulness of
the Charged Bolt spell when the other more powerful Lightning based
spells become available to them. This post hopes to show that
high-level Sorcerors can make effective use of Charged Bolt as well.
Rogues have a limited use for Charged Bolt. Warriors almost none. If
these character classes want to use a Lightning based spell, then a
medium to high level Lightning or Chain Lightning is much more
prefered than Charged Bolt.
==What monsters do you use Charged Bolt on?==
As stated before, Charged Bolt can be used on any level except level
16, but the Lightning spells really come into play at the end of the
Catacombs, when the new Sorceror starts to encounter Magma Demon type
monsters. These include Magma Demon, Blood Stone, Hell Stone and Lava
Lord - all of which are fully susceptible to Lightning based spells.
Later on you may encounter Balrog type monsters, which are Slayer,
Guardian, Vortex Lord and Balrog. These too are susceptible to
Lightning based spells. The Slayer and Guardian being fully
susceptible, while the Vortex Lord and the Balrog are resistant to
Lightning, but never immune.
Other monster types to use Lightning spells on, rather than Fire
spells, include the Hiddens (apart from Lightning as a spell by
itself, Charged Bolt and Chain Lightning will hit any Hidden type
monsters in range and stalking you) and Spitting Terrors.
To round things off here, Lightning spells are also used on specific
monster types, like Steel Lords and Hellspawn in Hell difficulty, more
on this later.
==How does Charged Bolt deploy itself?==
This is a widely misunderstood process. Let Yours Truly enlighten you.
A character will cast Charged Bolt. 3 Bolts flow forth from the
caster. 1 Bolt will travel in the direction to where the mouse pointer
was clicked for at least 2 game-squares. The other bolts come out
either side of the main bolt. These side-bolts will also travel
straight for at least 2 game-squares, though diagonally away from the
middle bolt.
Notice that this will develop 2 blind spots 2 squares away from the
caster. This corresponds to the moves a Knight in a game of chess can
make. A very annoying feature as Balrogs seem very adept at occupying
these unreachable squares.
The original bolts are supercharged. Since multiple bolts are cast in
lots of 3, they have the ability to split up after traveling a little
distance. Yours Truly has so far been unable to establish a pattern to
this breaking up. Even with the splitting of the bolts, blind spots
remain some distance out from the caster.
The directions of travel of the bolts seem to be within a 90 degree
arc, and will be if the outer bolts decide to travel in a straight
line. However, once the outer bolts have come inwards on the 90 degree
arc, they never turn against their original bounds, effectively
curbing the 90 degree arc to somewhat less.
Bolts will continue to travel until they hit a solid object like a
wall, a pillar or a cauldron. They will keep on traveling through a
spiked body, a sarcophagus and barrels. They will not harm you if you
walk through your own bolts, but will harm your golem and other
players.
==What tactics do you use with Charged Bolt?==
These are varied, and the reader is urged to try out a few things for
him or herself.
Charged Bolt is a good attacking spell from a distance, in that it can
cover wide open spaces very effectively and it can also inflict a good
deal of damage up close. Lets look at covering open spaces first.
The caster is asked to try for taking up a doorway or a corner of a
large room. Taking a corner, cast a couple of Charged Bolts towards
the diagonally opposite corner of the room. As the bolts dissipate,
they will hit the monsters present and either kill them or inflict
some damage. Those that survive the first wave are "woken up" and will
come to the caster.
Since the caster can see the bolts dissipate, s/he can see the
monsters who have come past the first wave. Quickly cast another 2-4
lots of Charged Bolt. The advancing monsters will be almost completely
exterminated, at the least literally decimated. (Note: this may not be
the case if this method is used in Hell/Hell on Steel Lords and
Hellspawn, but at least you will know about the monsters' presence and
switch to different spells and/or tactics. It certainly works in
Normal/Hell.)
If using this tactic from a doorway, be sure to stand in the door and
cast straight out, else the side-bolts will go to waste if the caster
stands behind the door. Follow this up with 1 step forward and casting
straight out to the sides of the room.
In any case, do not cast like a mad(wo)man until all your mana is
gone, rather cast the spell in small bursts for maximum effectiveness.
If there are ranged attackers on the level, then be prepared to step
back through the doorway and off to the side. Charged Bolt travels
slowly, so don't give the monsters a chance to get to you first.
It may seem at times that many monsters escape the bolts, however,
this is not so. They are merely weakened by every hit as the split
bolts deliver less damage per monster-hit at a distance than they do
up close, so let's look at the up-close tactics.
As noted before, make sure that the monsters are not standing in a
blind spot, so either they move or you move. The latter is recommended
when there are ranged attackers present on the level as well. It must
also be noted that sorcerors are very fast at casting Charged Bolt, so
as soon as a monster gets next to you, select the monster with the
mouse and right-click. The monster will now have to bear the full
payload of a third of the total bolts the sorceror has just cast. Say
the spell level is 15, that makes (3+slvl)/3 = (3+15)/3 = 6 bolts. For
a sorceror with 120 magic, that is a range of damage of 6*(1) - 6*(1 +
120/4) = 6 - 186 damage for the one hit. And you still have the
side-bolts which continue to spread themselves around.
There are other tactics for Charged Bolt, especially in conjunction
with other spells and weapons, but they are left for the reader to
find.
==Last notes!==
This post may now seem to end abruptly. That is intended. The author
will probably be trying out your patience from this point onwards, and
there is no better way to learn the effective use of the Charged Bolt
spell than to actually use it yourself.
The only thing to remember when using Charged Bolt is not to
right-click away like a lunatic, a tactic which may work for Fireball
and Lightning on occasion, but rather use some thought about its
deployment. Charged Bolt travels much too slow for immediate
high-impact, so be prepared to duck around a corner at times while the
bolts do the dirty work.
Yours Truly has successfully used the Charged Bolt spell at level 15
in Normal difficulty and cleared Hell/Church completely with a level
31 Sorcerer without using a Mana Shield, albeit with the help of Stone
Curse for various bosses and unique monsters.
Enjoy !~!~!
Moriah.
{{Diablo items}}
[[category:D1 Strategy]]
[[category:Diablo I]]
==Introduction==
...so how does CHARGED BOLT really work?
Glad you ask, my friend, because here is the answer.
This discussion will deal only with Diablo, is only tested in multi
player and and is designed to give people a better understanding of
the use of the spell during gameplay.
==What exactly is Charged Bolt?==
Charged Bolt belongs to the Lightning based spells, which also include
Lightning itself, Chain Lightning and Nova. Charged Bolt is the ideal
Lightning based spell for a Sorceror for all occasions. They start off
with a staff of Charged Bolt. All dungeon levels up to and including
level 15 have monster types which are susceptible to Charged Bolt and
at all the difficulty settings. [[Jarulf's Guide]] v1.20 tells us it does
damage between 1 and 1+(Magic/4), has 3+slvl number of bolts and
always costs 6 mana points to cast from your spellbook.
==Where can you find Charged Bolt, and in what form?==
Charged Bolt can be found on a staff and as a spellbook. Abundant in
the Church and the Catacombs, you can quickly raise your spell level
if you have the magic requirement for reading the books. The witch
Adria will also sell you books of Charged Bolt for 1000 gold pieces.
Sacred shrines will raise your Charged Bolt spell level by 2, up to a
maximum of 15, but at the cost of a permanent mana reduction. Avoid
raising your Charged Bolt spell level this way. Enchanted Shrines will
lower the level of 1 known spell by one and raise all the other known
spells by 1. This works most of the time for raising the spell level
of Charged Bolt (up to the maximum of 15). In addition to the
character's own spell level, other wearable items can raise the spell
level even further, up to a maximum of 20. Although not officially
excluded from scrolls, Yours Truly has never encountered Charged Bolt
as a scroll.
==Who uses Charged Bolt?==
Sorcerors mainly. Usually early on in the game, when the character is
still at a low level, But, sadly, they "forget" about the usefulness of
the Charged Bolt spell when the other more powerful Lightning based
spells become available to them. This post hopes to show that
high-level Sorcerors can make effective use of Charged Bolt as well.
Rogues have a limited use for Charged Bolt. Warriors almost none. If
these character classes want to use a Lightning based spell, then a
medium to high level Lightning or Chain Lightning is much more
prefered than Charged Bolt.
==What monsters do you use Charged Bolt on?==
As stated before, Charged Bolt can be used on any level except level
16, but the Lightning spells really come into play at the end of the
Catacombs, when the new Sorceror starts to encounter Magma Demon type
monsters. These include Magma Demon, Blood Stone, Hell Stone and Lava
Lord - all of which are fully susceptible to Lightning based spells.
Later on you may encounter Balrog type monsters, which are Slayer,
Guardian, Vortex Lord and Balrog. These too are susceptible to
Lightning based spells. The Slayer and Guardian being fully
susceptible, while the Vortex Lord and the Balrog are resistant to
Lightning, but never immune.
Other monster types to use Lightning spells on, rather than Fire
spells, include the Hiddens (apart from Lightning as a spell by
itself, Charged Bolt and Chain Lightning will hit any Hidden type
monsters in range and stalking you) and Spitting Terrors.
To round things off here, Lightning spells are also used on specific
monster types, like Steel Lords and Hellspawn in Hell difficulty, more
on this later.
==How does Charged Bolt deploy itself?==
This is a widely misunderstood process. Let Yours Truly enlighten you.
A character will cast Charged Bolt. 3 Bolts flow forth from the
caster. 1 Bolt will travel in the direction to where the mouse pointer
was clicked for at least 2 game-squares. The other bolts come out
either side of the main bolt. These side-bolts will also travel
straight for at least 2 game-squares, though diagonally away from the
middle bolt.
Notice that this will develop 2 blind spots 2 squares away from the
caster. This corresponds to the moves a Knight in a game of chess can
make. A very annoying feature as Balrogs seem very adept at occupying
these unreachable squares.
The original bolts are supercharged. Since multiple bolts are cast in
lots of 3, they have the ability to split up after traveling a little
distance. Yours Truly has so far been unable to establish a pattern to
this breaking up. Even with the splitting of the bolts, blind spots
remain some distance out from the caster.
The directions of travel of the bolts seem to be within a 90 degree
arc, and will be if the outer bolts decide to travel in a straight
line. However, once the outer bolts have come inwards on the 90 degree
arc, they never turn against their original bounds, effectively
curbing the 90 degree arc to somewhat less.
Bolts will continue to travel until they hit a solid object like a
wall, a pillar or a cauldron. They will keep on traveling through a
spiked body, a sarcophagus and barrels. They will not harm you if you
walk through your own bolts, but will harm your golem and other
players.
==What tactics do you use with Charged Bolt?==
These are varied, and the reader is urged to try out a few things for
him or herself.
Charged Bolt is a good attacking spell from a distance, in that it can
cover wide open spaces very effectively and it can also inflict a good
deal of damage up close. Lets look at covering open spaces first.
The caster is asked to try for taking up a doorway or a corner of a
large room. Taking a corner, cast a couple of Charged Bolts towards
the diagonally opposite corner of the room. As the bolts dissipate,
they will hit the monsters present and either kill them or inflict
some damage. Those that survive the first wave are "woken up" and will
come to the caster.
Since the caster can see the bolts dissipate, s/he can see the
monsters who have come past the first wave. Quickly cast another 2-4
lots of Charged Bolt. The advancing monsters will be almost completely
exterminated, at the least literally decimated. (Note: this may not be
the case if this method is used in Hell/Hell on Steel Lords and
Hellspawn, but at least you will know about the monsters' presence and
switch to different spells and/or tactics. It certainly works in
Normal/Hell.)
If using this tactic from a doorway, be sure to stand in the door and
cast straight out, else the side-bolts will go to waste if the caster
stands behind the door. Follow this up with 1 step forward and casting
straight out to the sides of the room.
In any case, do not cast like a mad(wo)man until all your mana is
gone, rather cast the spell in small bursts for maximum effectiveness.
If there are ranged attackers on the level, then be prepared to step
back through the doorway and off to the side. Charged Bolt travels
slowly, so don't give the monsters a chance to get to you first.
It may seem at times that many monsters escape the bolts, however,
this is not so. They are merely weakened by every hit as the split
bolts deliver less damage per monster-hit at a distance than they do
up close, so let's look at the up-close tactics.
As noted before, make sure that the monsters are not standing in a
blind spot, so either they move or you move. The latter is recommended
when there are ranged attackers present on the level as well. It must
also be noted that sorcerors are very fast at casting Charged Bolt, so
as soon as a monster gets next to you, select the monster with the
mouse and right-click. The monster will now have to bear the full
payload of a third of the total bolts the sorceror has just cast. Say
the spell level is 15, that makes (3+slvl)/3 = (3+15)/3 = 6 bolts. For
a sorceror with 120 magic, that is a range of damage of 6*(1) - 6*(1 +
120/4) = 6 - 186 damage for the one hit. And you still have the
side-bolts which continue to spread themselves around.
There are other tactics for Charged Bolt, especially in conjunction
with other spells and weapons, but they are left for the reader to
find.
==Last notes!==
This post may now seem to end abruptly. That is intended. The author
will probably be trying out your patience from this point onwards, and
there is no better way to learn the effective use of the Charged Bolt
spell than to actually use it yourself.
The only thing to remember when using Charged Bolt is not to
right-click away like a lunatic, a tactic which may work for Fireball
and Lightning on occasion, but rather use some thought about its
deployment. Charged Bolt travels much too slow for immediate
high-impact, so be prepared to duck around a corner at times while the
bolts do the dirty work.
Yours Truly has successfully used the Charged Bolt spell at level 15
in Normal difficulty and cleared Hell/Church completely with a level
31 Sorcerer without using a Mana Shield, albeit with the help of Stone
Curse for various bosses and unique monsters.
Enjoy !~!~!
Moriah.
{{Diablo items}}
[[category:D1 Strategy]]
[[category:Diablo I]]
