galzohar
31-07-2004, 15:41
Intro
This is a guide to a PvM FA/MS Bowazon build based on my experience. This build was being very effective, eaching top 400 at lvl85 (where I got tired of the many, repetitive baal runs) during the first ladder season. This build should have no trouble with any cold OR physical immuned monster, and may be able to kill monsters immune to both.
This character is based on relatively low defensive abilities, so it means u need to control her well in order not to die.
Javelin & Spear Tree:
Nothing. You're a bowazon. You can, however, put 1 point in lightning javelin for the 100% conversion to lightning damage, if u have a good javelin, to deal with cold+physical immunes.
---
0-2 points total
Bow/Crossbow skills:
MS: 10-20 points
Freezing arrow + Cold arrow: 20+20=40 points
Guided arrow: 1
Magic arrow:1
Ice arrow:1
---
43-53 points total
Passive & Magic Tree (46 skill points)
Critical strike: 10-20
Penetrate: 5-20
Rest: 1 (8 total)
---
23-48 points total
Total 66-107 points. That means the last things you should max (from latest to earliest):
last few points in MS
last few points in crit/penetrate
lvls 10-15 in penetrate
lvls 10-15 in MS/crit
Skill details:
Critical Strike is very important. CS has diminishing returns, yet if u have the points at higher levels u can pump it beyond 10 and even max it, as every % of chance to double damage would be equivalent to several points in dex, especially if you have high dex. CS will help you mostly with MS, but will also increace the physical damage part of freezing arrow.
Penetrate IMO is important, at least for MS. With max penetrate I got a good chance to hit monsters, and hitting more means more damage with MS. With FA, however, I could have managed with way less than max penetrate, since it already adds some AR bonus. With both maxed, my FA did have a great chance to hit, but wasn't worth the max penetrate. If you can't get at least 8k MS AR without maxing penetrate, you should max it. Of course, take a careful look at what items that add to AR are likely to be at your reach before maxing it.
Piercing is very important. However, with 1 point u can quite easily attain max piercing, which is 95% chance.
Best way is to use razortail belt, which gives 33% piercing. That means you need to have 95-33=62% chance, which u get with lvl7 pierce. That's +6 to all or to passive/magic skills.
Another alternative is to use kuko unique bow, which gives 50% pierce. That requires you to get 95-50=45% from the skill, which means lvl4 - only +3 skills.
Last option is razortail+kuko, which requires no +skills at all. However, as you'll see later, you're very likely to have at least a few +skills, or at least +passive/magic skills.
Defensive passives:
Some people would say you should put more than 1 point in dodge/avoid/evade/valk, but I say it's a waste to put points in skills that have diminishing returns, only require a few points, and can all be boosted by 1 point (along with pierce, crit and penetrate) with just +1 to passive/magic skills. Don't forget that to get away with lvl1 pierce you already try to get +6 to that tree.
Freezing arrow is your main attack. It does significant AOE cold damage and freezes your monsters, especially if you line them up with a good % chance to pierce. Ice arrow, however, does not add any damage, and only adds a small bonus to the freeze duration, which can be easily increaced with items rather than wasting 19 skill points.
Multiple shot is your secondary attack, for cold immunes, leeching and off-screen shooting. If there are enough monsters, especially if some are off-screen, with good AR and with reasonable life/mana leech, multiple shot will leech significantly more life and mana than freezing arrow, so it can be used for that too. Also if you're afraid of getting close to monsters, or want to hit monsters before even triggering them, you can also use this skill. However, the main use of this skill is against cold immunes, as freezing arrow does more damage to most monster packs.
Guided arrow is a useful utility skill for killing monsters around corners (especially LEBs) and for killing bosses who are cold immunes or when your freezing arrow doesn't leech enough mana from them and u don't want or can't use mana potions at the moment. Only 1 point becaue we already have high mana leech for freezing arrow and the damage increace is really small. Besides, we don't use this skill often.
Equipment
I'll try to avoid specific items wherever possible.
Stats you want to look for:
+skills, especially all or passive/magic skills. A higher bonus to passive/magic is always better than +all skills if pierce is under lvl7. If it's already lvl7, though, +2 all skills would probably be better than +3 passives, as well as +1 all probably better than +2 passive, but +3 passives is probably better than +1 all. Don't forget passives add much to your survival, while +bow only add a bit of damage to FA, tiny damage and mana cost reduction to GA and 1 arrow to MS.
+cold damage, especially on small charms. Each second of cold damage adds the same amount to freezing arrow. With 4 cold damage small charms you can get a freezing of (4+2)/4=1.5 seconds in hell difficulty. Look at the arreat summit for the cold duration found on every item.
Mana and life steal, in order to keep using your skills and staying alive. Not much life steal is needed, as you need to keep yourself out of harm's way. With good damage and AR 12% mana steal can be sufficient, while with lower damage and AR even 20% may not be enough for FA.
IAS - 90% breakpoint for [10] bows and 70% breakpoint for [-10] bows pays off the most IMO - it doesn't require nearly as much sacrifice as 145/150 for [10]/[-10] bows and gives very good speed.
+% cold damage and -% enemy cold resist. Only effective sources for this I can think of is the elite unique helm that does that and cold facet jewels, as well as mavina's set.
+AR helps you hit monsters, and if you have enough of it, it may save you points in penetrate.
+dex adds a little AR and a little damage, so it's good but not as useful as other stuff, since u can't get lots of dex from items.
Resists, +life - always good to have, but not as important as the other stuff u need, since you're supposed to keep yourself safe.
Weapon:
Socket(s) - ED/IAS jewel is ultimate. I usually prefer an ED jewel over a shael since u can only increace the weapon damage from ED% on the weapon while IAS can be gotten from sockets in armor/helm and from gloves.
Lycander's Aim: Probably the ultimate weapon, topped only by windforce. Maybe. Of course upgrading it to elite is very important.
Windforce - Less freezing arrow damage but much more physical damage with both the arrow hit of freezing arrow damage and MS/GA. Requires more STR.
Kuko - requires less points in pierce and easier to get, requires much less STR even as elite, but does significantly less physical damage and less +skills.
Other high damage/fast/+skill bows can be good alternatives. Imbuing a matriachal bow (a low quality would work just as well, only Clvl matters) at high enough Clvl (usually if u can find one you're high enough as well) has a chance to yield a decent weapon, along with a tiny chance of yielding an incredible weapon. Pick up all rare bows in case they get very good mods so u can upgrade them later to elite.
Alt Weapon:
Either high damage javelin with high physical damage for CI+PI (with lightning bolt) along with a resist shield with reasonable block (your dex will probably make it 75% anyway) is 1 way to go.
Another way to go is MF items, good combo is gull dagger with rhyme or better MF shield, and switch to it when ur last GA is on its way to kill a boss.
Helm
The unique help that gives +2 skills and +% cold damage is probably the best. If not, helms with other useful mods (especially +skills) work. Socket with cold facet jewel or IAS jewel if u need it to reach the breakpoint, though I didn't need it there.
Another option is IAS helm, preferably with +life, but I find it better to get IAS from armor. You may need an IAS helm though, for some equipment combos.
Belt
Razortail is ultimate. If you can't get that just get one with as many of the useful mods I listed.
Gloves
Ultimate would be crafted 6% ll 3% ml 20% IAS +2 passive/magic gloves with resist(s) or +life. Of course gloves with some of these mods can still beat the unique/set gloves available, like laying off hands and sander's gloves, or sigon gloves combined with sigon boots.
Boots
FRW and the other useful mods is basically what you want here.
Armor
60% IAS +life armor, or just 60% IAS armor (very easy to get) is what I recommend to easily reach the 90% breakpoint.
If you have another way to reach it you can use an armor with the useful mods I listed above, socket with facet jewel(s) or IAS.
Amulet
Again, the useful mods. Amulet is one of the best places to get +skills and mana leech.
Rings
Raven Frost is a must imo. The Cannot Be Frozen, and Cold Absorb and +cold damage mods, the +dex, the AR and mana are all very useful mods. It’s just great all around.
Bul katho's is also a great ring, though life steal is a little low on that.
Rings are also a good source for life steal, and reasonable source for mana steal. If you're not using bul katho's, at least 1 of the rings should have high life steal, as that'll possibly be your only life steal source.
Charms:
The useful mods listed above. Cold damage (small only), +skills, +life and resist charms pay off the most.
Merc:
I like no mercs since they die so easily in hell, but if u think u can keep 1 alive, might for killing cold immunes faster or holy freeze to slow them down from reaching you is probably most useful. Might is more party friendly than holy freeze, leeches more life, but takes more damage and usually dies faster too, especially against monsters that u can't leech from.
Stats
Strength: Minimum to use equipment. 108 for upgraded lycander's or 138 for WF IIRC. I don't recommend putting more points to use items that aren't a weapon. If u go with kuko u need really low str. Take advantage of you bow's str req to use those points in dex.
Dexterity: Every point you can spare. More dex = more damage and more AR, and more AR also means somewhat (because it's only +5 per point) more damage.
Vitality: Minimum required to stay alive. The better you play, the less lag you have, and the better items (especially life and resists) - the less you need here, which means more points in dex.
Energy: None. Some +mana and +mana per level is enough when using mana potions against the occasional PIs and unleechables. Getting lots of points here will still not be enough to maintain mana against those monsters anyway.
Some playing techniques:
Fire a FA to freeze the monsters, then position yourself in the best spot that'll hit as many monsters as possible with pierce. That's why you need long freeze duration (2 seconds or more is good). If you don't have that much by the time u reach the good position monsters will unfreeze so after u refreeze them you'll have to move a bit to the side to line it up he best possible way again. Once the monsters are frozen and you lined them up, shoot them to death! If there are multiple packs, you have fast enough attack and long enough freeze duration, but can't line the 2 packs up, u can alternate between them, keeping both frozen.
If you know there are enemies in a specific spot off-screen, you can use multiple shot to attack them. If you see you're gaining life and mana, it means you're hitting them.
Valk/decoy - make sure u cast those in front of you, especially against cold immunes since u can't freeze them. You do need decoy since valk won't have incredible HPs but has a cooldown, while u can cast decoy as often as you want. Still putting 1 point in each should do with some +skills and recasting, not to mention freezing the monsters.
Another trick I use is to do the last hit of a boss with guided arrow, then switch to MF gear on weapon switch when the arrow is on its way, to get additional 125% or even more if u have better MF items.
Alternative build - full mavina set:
With this u can't use razortail, so u need to max pierce. That means you'll have less points in multi, penetrate and crit, as well as lower base physical damage. Also getting 90% IAS means either putting shael in bow, which would further lower your physical damage compared to an ED jewel, or IAS jewels in both armor and helm. Shael in bow gives u significantly more cold damage with facet jewels in armor and helm, while ED would help with the already-quite-low physical damage. An option is to make up for low penetrate and physical damage with damage/ar small charms.
The huge advantage of using this set, however, is HUGE bonuses to cold damage, even though you can't go much beyond 85% chance to pierce.
Hope this guide helps,
-GalZohar
This is a guide to a PvM FA/MS Bowazon build based on my experience. This build was being very effective, eaching top 400 at lvl85 (where I got tired of the many, repetitive baal runs) during the first ladder season. This build should have no trouble with any cold OR physical immuned monster, and may be able to kill monsters immune to both.
This character is based on relatively low defensive abilities, so it means u need to control her well in order not to die.
Javelin & Spear Tree:
Nothing. You're a bowazon. You can, however, put 1 point in lightning javelin for the 100% conversion to lightning damage, if u have a good javelin, to deal with cold+physical immunes.
---
0-2 points total
Bow/Crossbow skills:
MS: 10-20 points
Freezing arrow + Cold arrow: 20+20=40 points
Guided arrow: 1
Magic arrow:1
Ice arrow:1
---
43-53 points total
Passive & Magic Tree (46 skill points)
Critical strike: 10-20
Penetrate: 5-20
Rest: 1 (8 total)
---
23-48 points total
Total 66-107 points. That means the last things you should max (from latest to earliest):
last few points in MS
last few points in crit/penetrate
lvls 10-15 in penetrate
lvls 10-15 in MS/crit
Skill details:
Critical Strike is very important. CS has diminishing returns, yet if u have the points at higher levels u can pump it beyond 10 and even max it, as every % of chance to double damage would be equivalent to several points in dex, especially if you have high dex. CS will help you mostly with MS, but will also increace the physical damage part of freezing arrow.
Penetrate IMO is important, at least for MS. With max penetrate I got a good chance to hit monsters, and hitting more means more damage with MS. With FA, however, I could have managed with way less than max penetrate, since it already adds some AR bonus. With both maxed, my FA did have a great chance to hit, but wasn't worth the max penetrate. If you can't get at least 8k MS AR without maxing penetrate, you should max it. Of course, take a careful look at what items that add to AR are likely to be at your reach before maxing it.
Piercing is very important. However, with 1 point u can quite easily attain max piercing, which is 95% chance.
Best way is to use razortail belt, which gives 33% piercing. That means you need to have 95-33=62% chance, which u get with lvl7 pierce. That's +6 to all or to passive/magic skills.
Another alternative is to use kuko unique bow, which gives 50% pierce. That requires you to get 95-50=45% from the skill, which means lvl4 - only +3 skills.
Last option is razortail+kuko, which requires no +skills at all. However, as you'll see later, you're very likely to have at least a few +skills, or at least +passive/magic skills.
Defensive passives:
Some people would say you should put more than 1 point in dodge/avoid/evade/valk, but I say it's a waste to put points in skills that have diminishing returns, only require a few points, and can all be boosted by 1 point (along with pierce, crit and penetrate) with just +1 to passive/magic skills. Don't forget that to get away with lvl1 pierce you already try to get +6 to that tree.
Freezing arrow is your main attack. It does significant AOE cold damage and freezes your monsters, especially if you line them up with a good % chance to pierce. Ice arrow, however, does not add any damage, and only adds a small bonus to the freeze duration, which can be easily increaced with items rather than wasting 19 skill points.
Multiple shot is your secondary attack, for cold immunes, leeching and off-screen shooting. If there are enough monsters, especially if some are off-screen, with good AR and with reasonable life/mana leech, multiple shot will leech significantly more life and mana than freezing arrow, so it can be used for that too. Also if you're afraid of getting close to monsters, or want to hit monsters before even triggering them, you can also use this skill. However, the main use of this skill is against cold immunes, as freezing arrow does more damage to most monster packs.
Guided arrow is a useful utility skill for killing monsters around corners (especially LEBs) and for killing bosses who are cold immunes or when your freezing arrow doesn't leech enough mana from them and u don't want or can't use mana potions at the moment. Only 1 point becaue we already have high mana leech for freezing arrow and the damage increace is really small. Besides, we don't use this skill often.
Equipment
I'll try to avoid specific items wherever possible.
Stats you want to look for:
+skills, especially all or passive/magic skills. A higher bonus to passive/magic is always better than +all skills if pierce is under lvl7. If it's already lvl7, though, +2 all skills would probably be better than +3 passives, as well as +1 all probably better than +2 passive, but +3 passives is probably better than +1 all. Don't forget passives add much to your survival, while +bow only add a bit of damage to FA, tiny damage and mana cost reduction to GA and 1 arrow to MS.
+cold damage, especially on small charms. Each second of cold damage adds the same amount to freezing arrow. With 4 cold damage small charms you can get a freezing of (4+2)/4=1.5 seconds in hell difficulty. Look at the arreat summit for the cold duration found on every item.
Mana and life steal, in order to keep using your skills and staying alive. Not much life steal is needed, as you need to keep yourself out of harm's way. With good damage and AR 12% mana steal can be sufficient, while with lower damage and AR even 20% may not be enough for FA.
IAS - 90% breakpoint for [10] bows and 70% breakpoint for [-10] bows pays off the most IMO - it doesn't require nearly as much sacrifice as 145/150 for [10]/[-10] bows and gives very good speed.
+% cold damage and -% enemy cold resist. Only effective sources for this I can think of is the elite unique helm that does that and cold facet jewels, as well as mavina's set.
+AR helps you hit monsters, and if you have enough of it, it may save you points in penetrate.
+dex adds a little AR and a little damage, so it's good but not as useful as other stuff, since u can't get lots of dex from items.
Resists, +life - always good to have, but not as important as the other stuff u need, since you're supposed to keep yourself safe.
Weapon:
Socket(s) - ED/IAS jewel is ultimate. I usually prefer an ED jewel over a shael since u can only increace the weapon damage from ED% on the weapon while IAS can be gotten from sockets in armor/helm and from gloves.
Lycander's Aim: Probably the ultimate weapon, topped only by windforce. Maybe. Of course upgrading it to elite is very important.
Windforce - Less freezing arrow damage but much more physical damage with both the arrow hit of freezing arrow damage and MS/GA. Requires more STR.
Kuko - requires less points in pierce and easier to get, requires much less STR even as elite, but does significantly less physical damage and less +skills.
Other high damage/fast/+skill bows can be good alternatives. Imbuing a matriachal bow (a low quality would work just as well, only Clvl matters) at high enough Clvl (usually if u can find one you're high enough as well) has a chance to yield a decent weapon, along with a tiny chance of yielding an incredible weapon. Pick up all rare bows in case they get very good mods so u can upgrade them later to elite.
Alt Weapon:
Either high damage javelin with high physical damage for CI+PI (with lightning bolt) along with a resist shield with reasonable block (your dex will probably make it 75% anyway) is 1 way to go.
Another way to go is MF items, good combo is gull dagger with rhyme or better MF shield, and switch to it when ur last GA is on its way to kill a boss.
Helm
The unique help that gives +2 skills and +% cold damage is probably the best. If not, helms with other useful mods (especially +skills) work. Socket with cold facet jewel or IAS jewel if u need it to reach the breakpoint, though I didn't need it there.
Another option is IAS helm, preferably with +life, but I find it better to get IAS from armor. You may need an IAS helm though, for some equipment combos.
Belt
Razortail is ultimate. If you can't get that just get one with as many of the useful mods I listed.
Gloves
Ultimate would be crafted 6% ll 3% ml 20% IAS +2 passive/magic gloves with resist(s) or +life. Of course gloves with some of these mods can still beat the unique/set gloves available, like laying off hands and sander's gloves, or sigon gloves combined with sigon boots.
Boots
FRW and the other useful mods is basically what you want here.
Armor
60% IAS +life armor, or just 60% IAS armor (very easy to get) is what I recommend to easily reach the 90% breakpoint.
If you have another way to reach it you can use an armor with the useful mods I listed above, socket with facet jewel(s) or IAS.
Amulet
Again, the useful mods. Amulet is one of the best places to get +skills and mana leech.
Rings
Raven Frost is a must imo. The Cannot Be Frozen, and Cold Absorb and +cold damage mods, the +dex, the AR and mana are all very useful mods. It’s just great all around.
Bul katho's is also a great ring, though life steal is a little low on that.
Rings are also a good source for life steal, and reasonable source for mana steal. If you're not using bul katho's, at least 1 of the rings should have high life steal, as that'll possibly be your only life steal source.
Charms:
The useful mods listed above. Cold damage (small only), +skills, +life and resist charms pay off the most.
Merc:
I like no mercs since they die so easily in hell, but if u think u can keep 1 alive, might for killing cold immunes faster or holy freeze to slow them down from reaching you is probably most useful. Might is more party friendly than holy freeze, leeches more life, but takes more damage and usually dies faster too, especially against monsters that u can't leech from.
Stats
Strength: Minimum to use equipment. 108 for upgraded lycander's or 138 for WF IIRC. I don't recommend putting more points to use items that aren't a weapon. If u go with kuko u need really low str. Take advantage of you bow's str req to use those points in dex.
Dexterity: Every point you can spare. More dex = more damage and more AR, and more AR also means somewhat (because it's only +5 per point) more damage.
Vitality: Minimum required to stay alive. The better you play, the less lag you have, and the better items (especially life and resists) - the less you need here, which means more points in dex.
Energy: None. Some +mana and +mana per level is enough when using mana potions against the occasional PIs and unleechables. Getting lots of points here will still not be enough to maintain mana against those monsters anyway.
Some playing techniques:
Fire a FA to freeze the monsters, then position yourself in the best spot that'll hit as many monsters as possible with pierce. That's why you need long freeze duration (2 seconds or more is good). If you don't have that much by the time u reach the good position monsters will unfreeze so after u refreeze them you'll have to move a bit to the side to line it up he best possible way again. Once the monsters are frozen and you lined them up, shoot them to death! If there are multiple packs, you have fast enough attack and long enough freeze duration, but can't line the 2 packs up, u can alternate between them, keeping both frozen.
If you know there are enemies in a specific spot off-screen, you can use multiple shot to attack them. If you see you're gaining life and mana, it means you're hitting them.
Valk/decoy - make sure u cast those in front of you, especially against cold immunes since u can't freeze them. You do need decoy since valk won't have incredible HPs but has a cooldown, while u can cast decoy as often as you want. Still putting 1 point in each should do with some +skills and recasting, not to mention freezing the monsters.
Another trick I use is to do the last hit of a boss with guided arrow, then switch to MF gear on weapon switch when the arrow is on its way, to get additional 125% or even more if u have better MF items.
Alternative build - full mavina set:
With this u can't use razortail, so u need to max pierce. That means you'll have less points in multi, penetrate and crit, as well as lower base physical damage. Also getting 90% IAS means either putting shael in bow, which would further lower your physical damage compared to an ED jewel, or IAS jewels in both armor and helm. Shael in bow gives u significantly more cold damage with facet jewels in armor and helm, while ED would help with the already-quite-low physical damage. An option is to make up for low penetrate and physical damage with damage/ar small charms.
The huge advantage of using this set, however, is HUGE bonuses to cold damage, even though you can't go much beyond 85% chance to pierce.
Hope this guide helps,
-GalZohar