some tips for magezon?

[Thrar]

My zon is level 80, with maxed freezing arrow, cold arrow, immolation arrow and almost maxed exploding arrow. Also 1 point in everything from passive/magic. The only +skill is a bow skiller, so +1 on that tree.

My problem is that damage is REALLY awfully low. Both ice and fire do about 1000 damage per hit, and thanks to that 1 second delay I find immolation arrow pretty weak in general. Now I suppose with some +skills one could get that damage up to maybe 2000, but still, that's not much. In addition, I'm really dependent on my prayer merc with insight in his weapon - without it I'd constantly be out of mana.

So what do you think? Is that build generally not viable? Did I miss some important thing? I don't think skilling just one element would be better, since the fire arrow synergy is pretty weak and on cold, there is no further synergy.
My items are weak, that's certain - but after all that's kind of a mage build, so I was hoping not to depend so much on them. It's not that I'm dying all the time, actually I don't have many problems with that (hell act 5), but it takes forever to kill something.

I'd appreciate any advice!

[Dacar92]

Can you list your gear for us? Can you list your stats, too? Then we can make suggestions for you.

[Thrar]

ok, here are some details:

STR 83 (needed for armor)
DEX 150
VIT 130
ENE 116
and about 40 points left, will probably go to VIT and STR if necessary.

which leads to:
Life 622
Mana 291
Defense 630 (like 80-90% hit chance for most ^^)
attack rating is like 2700 (like 60% mostly), but doesn't matter for the skills I use. Damage is 60-100 physical, and 1100-1200 for freezing arrow, ~1000 for immolation arrow.

Resists (in hell):
fire 23
cold 25
lightning 17
poison 0

Items (I didn't list small unimportant things):
Helm def60, 26% lightning res
Amu resists 24/51/17/17 fire/cold/lgt/psn
Xbow Ichorstring (50% pierce, 20IAS, 20DEX)
Armor def458, res 19fire, 27psn, req STR 83.
Gloves def14, 10IAS, 10DEX, 19MF
Ring1 15res fire, 22MF
Ring2 15res all
Belt def56, 10FHR, 16fire 20lgt res
Boots def5, 30MF

Charms:
GC +1 bow/xbow
GC 12FHR (throw away?)
GC 22life 26cold res
SC 1-2 cold dmg, 3 cold res
SC 1-2 cold dmg
SC 11 psn res
SC 4 fire res
SC 15life 9lgt res

Merc:
Helm def107, 20lgt res (req STR 103)
Armor def 492
halberd with Insight (46-139 dmg)

there you have it. Sucks big time ^^ but as I said, the main problem is the damage, and I don't know if that's so much item dependant.
I don't have much to trade, some low runes (shael and below), a shadow skiller and hexfire, if that's worth anything. Also halfway decent rare gloves for physical fighters, but would be hard to sell them.

Any tips?

[Evrae Altana]

You have way too much in energy. Amazons don't get much mana per energy point. Those points could have been better spent in dexterity. Things I would use:
Lycander's Aim (mana leech, decent damage, +skills, cheap)
Crescent Moon Amulet (insane mana leech, life leech, cheap)
Try to replace ring #1 with a Ravenfrost if you can. These items are fairly cheap and easy to find.

[Dacar92]

The rest of those points should go into Dex. Use a might merc (will up your damage) and put some points into valk. That way you can spam arrows from afar amd may not get hit too much. Your merc and valk will tank for you. Get rid of the FHR charm and replace it with some lit and/or other resist charms. Maybe even get rid of the other cold damage charms and get more resist charms. The 1-2 cold damage charms do nothing for you in hell. Maybe find a few more + life charms as well for added safety.

Where are you in the game? Getting to level 80 is not easy.

[Thrar]

Thanks for your advice!
So basically what you're saying is that even as a magic build I shouldn't neglect physical damage and get that as high as possible? How much is realistic for a zon with no skill damage bonuses (to physical damage)? AR would be quite high with immolation or freezing arrow.
By now I'm 84 thanks to a couple of baalruns - but the only thing I can do there is freezing the monsters and providing the auras my merc has. If it goes on like that I might even appear on the bottom of the ama ladder some time (playing on Asia).

I still need the quests in act3, rq and rescuing the soldiers in act5, apart from that I'm pretty much through the game. However, most of that was thanks to other players who got me there. I fought my way alone through the bloody foothills up to the first wp, and while it was possible, it was damn slow. As I said, my damage is way too low.

I will try to get some of the mentioned items, but I think it'll be hard since I have nothing good to trade. Those cold damage charms increase freeze duration if I'm not mistaken, that's why I kept them. If I'm wrong there, yes I should throw them away. Going physical would also mean that I'd need a way stronger bow, and only then leech would help me in any way.
If I'd find something good I'd certainly use it - it's not that I chose my equipment to be like that ;) ^^

Another thing is that by now I have maxed explosion arrow as well, and am thinking about what to improve next. To me it seems there are 2 possibilities: pierce or valkyrie. Both are at 1 at the moment, and I don't think it's realistic getting more than 3 or 4 more skillpoints before I won't level up any more. What do you think, where should I spend those?

[SelfBaisResistor]

You could also take a look at the new +2 skill runeword armor:

Peace (Amazon)
3 Socket Body Armor
Shael + Thul + Amn
4% Chance To Cast Level 5 Slow Missiles When Struck
2% Chance To Cast level 15 Valkyrie On Striking
+2 To Amazon Skill Levels
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 To Critical Strike
Cold Resist +30%
Attacker Takes Damage of 14

All the runes are cheap and you can put it into something like a Ghost Armor even with the 83 str that you have.

Lycander's, Kuko, and Buriza are relatively cheap bows/xbows that can greatly increase your damage.

Also getting a Razortail belt is key, if you do not use the Buriza. You want to line up your targets in a straigh line and get that arrow or bolt to hit as many of them as possible. For Helmets, a good cheap alternative is the Peasant Crown War Hat:

Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 20
Durability: 12
+100% Enhanced Defense
+1 To All Skills
15% Faster Run/Walk
Replenish Life +6-12 (varies)
+20 To Energy
+20 To Vitality

You should not be up next to any crowds so the low defense of this helm shouldn't matter. All the items that I mentioned, with maybe the exception of the Buriza can be acquired rather cheaply.

Also, I found the Freya's guide to be very useful for this type of build. It can be found here: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=129705