Hybrid Witchyzon question

[Tiger_Spirit]

Hi all :howdy:

I'm new here and I need some information before getting further with my first withyzon. I am lvl 45 (HCL) with 1 in every magic and passives skill and 20 strafe and using, of course, a WWS (perfect one)

So now I want to know what to developp? I was thinking of doing an hybrid ama with strafe/charged bolt/lightning fury (20 points each), Valkyrie (17points, dunno yet) and pierce (9 points), that's a total of 103 points (finished at lvl 92 with all skill quests).

Now i wanna know if this hybrid ama will be good on doing some MF runs, and if its killing speed will be good.

My equipment (at the end) will be:

Head: Tal's mask
Weapon 1: upg WWS with shael
Weapon 2: Titan's revenge
Shield 2: Mosers or tiamat or whitsant
Body: Lionheart
Gloves: Laying of hands (the 350 ed on demons are just amazing :thumbsup:
Boots: Dunno yet, but certainly Gore rider cose i'm not very rich
Amu: atma's scarab or cat's eye
Ring 1: Raven frost
Ring 2: A rare with good mods

Stats:

Str: enough for gear after +stats items (like lionheart)
Dex: enough for max block with ss (I hope to find one) after +stats items
Vit: All the rest
Ene: NOTHING

Mercenary: Act 2 NM Offensive (might aura)

So I need your advice of what your thinking of it, and your suggestion (of course for mf setup I will another equipment)

It's also my first char in HCL, so don't tell me uber gears like WF, SS and other :innocent:

P.S: My english will be bad sometimes cose I'm from France :uhhuh:

[LuUcIoUs]

First of why why charged strike, you will need to put points into penetrate to hit as well as have some in pierce. My character as uses:

Lionheart (Mageplate)
WWS (Upped/shaeled)
Shako (ias)
goldwrap
20 ias knockback gloves
travelers
Duel leech ring
Raven Frost
Cats Eye

on switch i use a Titans w/ tiamats

Skills Pt Distribution
20 Strafe
20 LF
20 Penetrate
20 Pierce
rest to Valk

I don't have real issues killing with her. She is also very fun to play with.

[Tiger_Spirit]

Well, I was thinking of using CS for the end act bosses, and the monster that were bigger than normal size, cose the big monsters has générally a lot of hp, and I would take them down quickly, so I think CS will be not bad idea.

But just a few minutes ago, I saw this post: http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=251623

and now I don't know if I'm going to put points in it, cose I haven't good DR and in HC it can be fatal.

Anyway I am on the way of maxing LF.For the pierce, razortail rox :uhhuh: , so I will wear 100% pierce and save 11 points.

But penetrate intrigus me, I don't really know if I need it at high lvl or not. Some advices?

[Shanksie1337]

hi there, and let me say welcome to the amazon boards.

Skillwise i'd agree with Luuci - drop the 20 ChS, for a couple of reasons:
1. You will need some points in penetrate, but more on this below
2. ChS is a close range skill, and by using this you add the need to get more resists and PDR on your char. As a ranged zon (LF/Strafe) you can get away with much less/no PDR, and lower res's as you are safer behind your minions- Merc/Valk/Decoy.
3. Strafe IS perfectly capable of killing Act bosses, let your Valk/Merc hold them still whislt you strafe from a safe distance.
4. The bonus to LF from ChS is pointless.
5. I don't play HC, but from i have read you'd be better advised to put a few more into D/A/E - hopefully Det/Liessa or some other HC weeny will elaborate.

Penetrate - kinda vital for a strafer, you will need a good chance to hit (cth). To find this hover your mouse over your strafe damage on your character screen. Imo above 70% is a must, i prefer as close to 95% as i can get, but it's personal preference here.
You could just save your points and add them to penetrate as you feel is needed, or you could use a Demon Limb and cast Enchant on yourself, which lasts a good 11 minutes. A combo of penetrate and Enchant will get you hitting a lot more often.
Atoetd there is little point strafing if your arrows don't hit :D

You can save 2 points from Valk and leave it at slvl 15 - then cast when wearing titans for the +2 All = slvl 17 Valk. (If you really wanted to, you could gamble/trade for a +3P&M ammy and save a further 3 skill points and just prebuff your valk somewhat).

Gearwise:
Well you want to mf, yet i don't see a single mf item, but as your are HC i know surviving has to take priority.
I'd swap the boots for War Travelllers, not only will this add mf, but the +damage, +stats are an improvement over the Gores, as the mods on the gores aren't really suited to zon's.
The Shield selection is wide open for you aswell, depending on how high you are going to pump dex, as high dex will not only increase your strafe damage, but it will also grant you 75% block with any shield you choose.

Assuming you put 2 shaels in the bow, you have 60 IAS including the LoH, so you need another 20 IAS to get to the 80 IAS bp for strafe, so in my book Cat's Eye / Highlords is a must. I'd guess that for HC the L res on the Highlords make it the better choice, tho the DS is wasted, but on the plus side the extra +skill will save you a point in your passives.

I have to say this build does seriously rock, i made a pure dex wws/titans LF/Strafe hybrid and see solos anywhere :D.

[urban savage]

dont worry about dr, you should be able to take a few hits with around 800-1000 life+ which u should get with all the vit points, around 100 base vit is good even for hc and the rest into dex, there you will end up with about 800 health + with a few life sc's.

strafe is terrible to take down act bosses and the charged strike idea works out very well because you have a shield up (hopefully mosers for the 63 res all)

with razortail you can almost get by with only 1 point an a few +skills (well titans gives 2 to passive) it will give you a reasonable pierce 80% or so which is fine.

penetrate is pretty important though but if you've got a stong enough merc ie (reapers, shaft/duriels, and gaze) then you can get by with 1 into valk if you play cautiously.

screw mf! hybrids work incredibly well in lvl 85 areas, pits ect and the most profitable things that come out of lvl 85 areas are socketed and eth elite items that you ofcourse go an sell to the rich. sure you can find a tal armour once in a blue moon an get an um an pul for it or sell eth cb's zerkers, 3 soc armours an get an ist for them.

so why bother mfin

unless your against trading

oh yeah you must hit the 86ias point for strafe (2frame)

ias the tals mask, use a razortail, knockback gloves would be great or nef shael the bow.

20 stafe
20 lf
1 pierce
15+ into charged strike (do that last)
15-20 into penetrate
1-5 into valk

just some things to consider there

[Xiamet]

How neccesary is it to this build to upgrade the WWS? I just started ladder a short while ago, and while I have most of the end-game gear for just such a build, I don't have the neccesary runes to upgrade my WWS.

If the LF/Strafe is a good as people here claim, I should be able to solo WSK/Baal, no? If so, let's hear some strategy suggestions for such an area, as I find that with the exception of my IK barb, none of my other chars do very well in these areas...

-X

[Arith-Matic]

How neccesary is it to this build to upgrade the WWS? I just started ladder a short while ago, and while I have most of the end-game gear for just such a build, I don't have the neccesary runes to upgrade my WWS.

If the LF/Strafe is a good as people here claim, I should be able to solo WSK/Baal, no? If so, let's hear some strategy suggestions for such an area, as I find that with the exception of my IK barb, none of my other chars do very well in these areas...

-X

Well, it's not AS easy or simple as some people claim it is...you won't clear out hordes of monsters with unblockable damage like a hammerdin or wipe out lines of monsters like a wind druid but you'll kill groups like no other. Usually I find myself running around the WS level 2 trying to gather up as many monsters as possible and if i see gloams, then I run!! A couple of LF's should kill any group of non-LI's on P1 but you'll have to throw a lot more on P8, nonetheless, you'll get it done eventually. For the gloams/or dangerous ranged attackers, I usually creep forward with my decoy and as soon as it gets hit with a lightning, i recast my valk in front of it and she starts poking away at the gloam and i'll start my strafe. An upped WWS is NOT necessary - i use a regular WWS (Nef+Shael) and I kill just fine.

The same strat applies in WS3 and in WSC, I run past everyone till I get through the throne room and then I carefully wipe out the monseters there. For each minion wave, I cast a decoy right where they land and then cast inner sight, and then slow missile (ALWAYS - cuz you never know and it takes like 3 seconds) - by now your merc and valk should be poking away and I'll cast another decoy near my merc to get some heat off of him and then start a wave of frozen arrows to freeze or at least slow the pack and then strafe away. If the group is non-LI's, then after the frozen arrow, I'll chuck some LF's and finish them. Baal is kinda annoying, but not hard - get a decoy, a valk, and your merc in front of him and you should be fine.

Hope this helps....

[Xiamet]

Hi Arith

I've had some decent success with my FA/LF/ChS zon in the Throneroom itself, as FA tends to make short work of Baal's minions, and whatever CI's might pop up, LF takes care of easily.

I find most of my troubles come on the way down, especially when Gloams are around...even with maxed resists, and a T-God's for some Lightning absorb, the damage is just too much for my zon to handle...and I tend to put more life into my zons than most people, who prefer dex over vit.

I've never soloed WSK or the Throneroom or Baal with a Strafer, let alone with a WWS...hence my questions.

thanks,
-X