Diablo 2 - Swirls [Smite/Shock Wave]

The effect of birds above your head (aka ~Swirls~) which is well-known from Assassin’s Mind Blast also procs from Smite and Shock Wave. The thing about these birds is that until they are circling over your head — any attack with any damage triggers Faster Hit Recovery animation. If not swirled, FHR will only take place when you get damage that takes away at least 1/16 of your hp in a single hit. The more the percent of taken hp is - the more is the chance, up to 100%.

So, to sum it up, while you are swirled, any damage will trigger FHR.

With skillful hands, we can use this trick when playing Druid, Hdin, and Smiter.

Druid [Shock Wave]

While DvN, Nec will run a lot. We need to predict his path, make a TP ahead of his way, turn into a Werebear, and use Shock Wave to stun Nec. It is worth mentioning, that the shock-waved-Nec won't be able to fly away from it or attack, no matter how hard he tries. He is able to run away from it with WSG and then fly away (once he is not in an SW radius), but to fly away or attack while in SW — no. Now, when Nec is swirled — we stomp him. We should have Hurricane and ravens pre-casted beforehand (delay between using Hurricane and Werebear — about 6 seconds). After stomping, Nec will be stun-locked from Ravens and Hurricane and will most likely die from a Tornado.

There is also a variation of this trick together with Volcano:

Volcano+Hurricane+Ravens will enter our poor Necro into a terrible stun-lock. Perfect use of this trick — about 75% chance to kill, but performing the trick together with Volcano is more complicated. Besides, there is a delay between using Werebear and Volcano — about a second. During this time, a decent Nec will probably run away from SW and fly away using C/T.

It's easier to use this trick on a running Necro. Of course, it's possible to do it right after Chainlock. However, there is no guarantee Nec does not trick you to fly into IBS. If you are playing aggressively, and you are sure Nec had no time to IBS — go for it.

This trick requires great skill and intuition. You should not attempt to do it too often. If you miss SW - Nec will put simply Spear you. The delay between Werebear and turning back into a Human is about two seconds.

So, this trick is useful in duels against Necro and especially ES Sorc.

Fat perf-geared 95% ES Fire Soso can only be killed by using this technique. The rule 1/16 HP doesn't work on ES, so she isn't afraid of the usual Druids stomps. She will shoot 2-3 Fire Balls that will go through your CA and take away some HP. She will then fly away and regen her manas. In the end, you lost, say 1/10 HP, and Sorc - nothing. After 10 similar situations, Druid dies without any chance to win. So without this trick, this duel is pointless. After catching Sorc in SW and getting her swirled— your Tornado will put the Sorc into a terrible stun-lock, so she won't be able to fly away and she will simply die.

Hdin [Smite]

Skill Smite makes your enemy swirled the same way as MB. This allows you to perform a trick: Smite>Throw>FoH>Teleport>Hammer+Concentration.

This trick is kinda hard to learn, but it's deadly once honed. If it's done correctly, we will land on our enemy just at the moment when FoH hits his head (or even a little earlier. our swirled enemy will get FHR'd after FoH'd, so there is about a 60% chance to hit him with a Hummer (which you will cast right after stomping). The trick is a little random and ping-dependent (will be explained after). It can be failed due to bad timing or weird server synch. When performed ideally, I would estimate the Nec's chance to run away as 40%~.

Now about the nuances of the trick. If you will try to do this trick as FoH>Throw>Teleport, you will find a delay between FoH and TP, about 1 second. During this time, your enemy can easily fly away from the radius of the stomp.

To perform it without delay a certain issue must be explained.

Some of you must be wondering why did I previously mention

Smite>Throw>FoH>Teleport>Hammer+Concentration

and not

Smite>FoH>Throw>Teleport>Hammer+Concentration

The thing is that if you try to do this trick in Single Player (no ping there), you won't succeed, no matter how fiercely you try. The game itself has an embedded 1-second delay after the FoH cast. So this trick is only possible on a server and for the following reason:

You need to press Throw before FoH. That way your game client will send an additional data packet to the server and sort of "confuse" it so that he will ignore the delay.

Pressing Throw after FoH is useless.

What we do:

Find a target, Smith it, click to a random place with Throw (LMB), and right after that (0.5 sec) we FoH (LMB) (btw it's not necessary to aim right at the nickname, it works even if you click closely). Right after that we stomp our target with Tele (RMB) and move the cursor under the knees.

You can even do a Chainlock (no need to aim and refresh Lock with RMB):

Smite>Throw>FoH>Throw>Teleport>Hammer+Concentration

The trick works better with high ping (120-130). Tier #1 players even connect to proxy servers to increase their ping (if it is too low. with perfect the trick almost never happens).

As in the case with SW and Nec, the trick is more effective when used on a running Necro (Smite better be used with Fanaticism. The difference in breakpoints is decent. Catching a Necro with Smite but not Fanaticism will be much harder). If you try to use it after Chainlock you can be tricked into the IBS train or accidentally hit Golem/Oak and catch all the missiles right in the face.

Hdin vs ES Sorc

As in the case of Druid, this trick is a must-have if you want to kill some ES Fire Sorc. However, a sly Sorc can spam you with Fire Balls and get you FHR'd (in the case of Dru, Nec can't attack while SW'd). If you make a mistake, you can get stun-locked and die.

It will be safer to run away a little with Vigor+Charge right after you hit with Smite and only after that do the Throw>FoH>Teleport>Hammer+Concentration.

Jeronimo! I would recommend making a Barbarian with Leap Bug* and to train this trick on him.

*Barbarian with unique Flamebellow sword casts Inferno (left skill bar). A half-second after Inferno he spams Leap (rsb). If your entire inventory (as well as potions slots) became red, that means it worked.