CB for poor mans strafer?

[MammaMu]

Hi all,
a couple of weeds ago I started playing again after a 6-month break. My mf:ing skellienec hasn't had much luck yet with finding good tradeables, but I'm gonna start building a strafer this weekend as it seems like a fun build and I haven't played one yet in 1.10.

Main bow will be Lycander and according to posts here it does too little damage to cut it in Hell, BUT the nec has found me a pair of Gore Riders and a Guillames Face. My question to you ama gurus here is: will the CB on boots and helmet kick up the killspeed enough to make it playable, or should I wait a while until I can get myself a WF?

I mostly play 2p-games with the ball-and-cha...my beloved wife, and don't need an uberfast baalchewing deathmachine, just a fun char to play through the game with.

[Wmeredith]

Welcome to my favorite character! Strafe-azon's rock. Who-ever told you that you need a WF to be effective is full of crap. You can make a sweet strafer for cheap gear. Like you said: something fun to play, not a Baal-Chewing-deathmachine. We'll just settle for deathmachine.

CB works well with a Zon, but not as well as with melee. It gets nerfed. On a melee character CB takes away 1/4 of their current HP at the time of the strike. On a ranged attack this is changed to 1/8 instead of one fourth, but you'll still notice it, especially in hell. I wouldn't sacrifice all my gear for it, but it's nice to have. (CB gets nerfed even further when fighting champion, uniques, and bosses; 1/20th BTW.)

Some zon tips from someone who's built a few:

1)Remember to pump your DEX and then remember to pump your DEX. A 'zon gets a 1% enhanced damage bonus for every point in dex. Everything you can should be poured in here. No Mana, just enough STR, and around 100 VIT is where I like to be before gear is on. You shouldn't get hit much anyway. If you play a zon well, and have a high-level valk (17+ is a must), you should be able to always recast her where you want her. (Which is between you and the bad guy. Don't be afraid to recast your valk a lot.) BTW at lvl 17 your valk will get to spawn with her elite Rare Warpike, so she'll actually help you kill, instead of just being a meat shield.

2)If you can Up you Lyc you will love it. I used this bow for about 6 months (Up'd) and if you have less than 4 in a hell game you'll be cool. I switched it out recently for my up'd WWS with 2 shaels in it. Woot!

3)Another highly recommended piece of cheap gear for a strafer is Laying of Hands gloves. They're from a set, I think 'The Disciple.' They're cheap and amazing. They have 20IAS and +350% Damage to Demons plus massive fire resist. BTW, about 40% of all montsers in the game are demons.

4)My last piece of advice. Remember that speed is king. Zon's are low damage characters. They make up for that with brilliant speed.

Good Luck, Have fun! :thumbsup:

[cotton]

I agree, Lycanders is viable, and it is more than viable upped. Wmeredith covered most points, but i'll add a couple of other suggestions. First, don't forget points in critical strike. Second, knockback can give you some room to make sure you get the next volley off. Third, elemental damage can help alot, even in small doses. A lot of poison rocks, but even a little will stop regeneration, and a little cold can buy you some more time. Finally, dex is king, no matter what the source. +dex modifiers on items and charms for a zon are cheap ways of getting enhanced damage. Hope this helps!

[Kaptain_Insano]

Just to note though that if u use a WWS u won't need to put points into Critical Strike due to its built in deadly strike.

[skygoneblue]

Well, Deadly and Critical Strikes CAN both trigger. Why not use both?

[Wmeredith]

Well, Deadly and Critical Strikes CAN both trigger. Why not use both?

They cancel each other out.

Basically, only one can trigger per individual strike. Having higher percentages of both helps insure that at least one of them does trigger on every strike, therefore, doing double damage. However, they can't both happen at the same time, or 'stack' so to speak, giving you quad :uhhuh: damage. So sad...


For Example:

I have a WWS @ lvl 88. So I get 88% Chance of Deadly Strike, right? So 88% of the time I'm doing double damage. During these times the game just skips my Critical Strike Roll since I already hit with DS.

Well, 12% of the time, when I don't get a Deadly Strike, the game then rolls my Critical Strike. Well if my CS chances are 50% then half of the time I miss with DS I'll hit with CS.

So, in this example, I actually end up doing double damage 94% of the time.

(BTW I actually use Highlord's Wrath Ammy, giving me 108% chance to DS. :uhhuh: I have 2 points in CS for good measure, though, so I'm not tied to my WWS.)

If anyone cares to correct me go ahead, I know that this is how it basically works although I may have simplified it a bit. I didn't want to use formulas to explain it b/c when I see formulas in a post I usually start skimming. Also I'm not sure if it calculates DS or CS first, but the overall idea would be the same either way.

[MammaMu]

Thanks for the answers,
I stick with the Lycander then which is nice, I got a sweet spot for the Lyc bow after the gazillion hours of playing bowazons in .09.

Wmeredith: I got a pair of LoH in stock for this ama and speed...well, the wife stuck a plain 15ias-jewel in the Guillames for her frenzybarb, I guess it will do the ama some good as well :xrollseye

I'll do some harvesting with the nec to come up with upgrading runes, but these days I can't really get into the mf:ing spirit. It's more fun to play the game and try out new builds, even if the chars tend to be a bit item-impared.

Thanks again and happy gaming!