What about Hellrack?

[DarkReignn]

It seems to me to be the better choice over buriza for physical immunes. What are your thoughts? Yes, it has high str req, and not as fast, but a shael and hel could cure that in the 2 sockets it comes with. Im still trying to figure expac out.

[Sokar Rostau]

Welcome to the Forums.

Hellrack is a very deceptive weapon. On first glance it is an awesome bow but in reality, for a zon at least (its pretty good for a Wolf Druid) it cannot do the same damage as a mundane Buriza. The main reason is the Dexterity bonus and the scaling damage (not to mention the pierce and freeze target) provided by Buriza. Dexterity adds damage for an Amazon and when I first got a Hellrack to replace my then 165%ed (?) Buriza the crappy Buri did a whopping 250 more damage. When upped it is even more.

You have Magic Arrow and Guided Arrow to deal with Physical Immunes.

[maxcaty]

ya , I had someone just flat out give me a near perfect Hellrack , built a strafer around it but man . Dissapointing bow in high levels , it's just too slow . Sad but true ... it does look awesome on paper tho

[Shandrakor Deathstalker]

Been lurking for 2 months; howdy all.

Sokar, I'm terribly curious as to the utility of the Hellrack xbow as regards wolf Druids. I just picked one up for a Hel, and since the consensus seems to be that it's fairly stinky for a zon, would you please explain/post a link as to an example? If you have time, I'd be most grateful if you'd give me a sample build. (I think it's to do with the frame count?)

Shandrakor

[itsPizzarific]

some guy really wanted to get rid of his so i got one free, could a i get p wws for it? (i think i could easily if the guy didnt know much, as the hellrack's elemental damage surprised me a lot also at first glance)

[QuicksandSlowly]

Yeah... Helrack is too slow. If you want a damage comparison vs. Buriza or even Windforce go here: http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-articles/bowcomparison.shtml

Yeah.. I kinda lost confidence in bowazons in general tho, they never seem to do enough damage even if you do have l33t equipment. :cheesy:

[Sokar Rostau]

Apparently Hellrack can be put to good use by a Furydru as a kind of upgrade to a Buriza. The Str req and speed isn't such an issue for Druids as they are generally strong enough to use it and Werewolf form (or Fury...I forget which) gives IAS which takes care of speed. I think Buriza is still preferred because of freeze target. There are better weapons for a Furydru though. Mine is currently using an Earth Shifter for physical damage and a Buriza for PI's (I don't have a Hellrack on ladder this season), the best reason to use a xbow is Iron Maiden.

IMO there are no useless items in this game. Certainly some are more useful than others but it must be remembered that rushing is not a part of the game and 1.10 has gone a long way to fix that issue. Some items that were previously considered useless are now often thought of as essential for any account, like Sigon set. Low level items are wanted now so people can survive in Normal difficulty and even beyond (my Frenzy Barb used Biggin's Bonnet from the time he could equip until Arreat's Face became useable). Other items, most notably Dragonscale but many others including Hellrack, are niche items that require thought to use properly and cannot be used just by any build. I'm sure that, given enough thought, there is a build, other than Fury, out there that can make Hellrack a fine weapon. Come to think of it, I might give it to my ranged Venom Assassin when I get one as Burst of Speed should help a lot. A Skellymancer could probably use it to good effect too as artillery for his army (don't laugh, necros already have Pus Spitter for this very reason), but said army would be necessarily weakened by the lack of wand and shrunken head.