Runewords and Bows. A mini-guide.

[Wmeredith]

SEE POST NUMBER 23, BELOW, FOR AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS GUIDE


Runewords and Bows. A mini-guide.

There are many fine bows in this game, but nothing is quite as cool as the rush of holding your own self-made cannon in your hands. Or, actually, watching the little sprite that represents you on your computer screen hold your bow in it’s hands. Either way, there are a ton of Runewords in this game that can be stuck in a bow. So, without further ado...


Twink bows, or maybe, good untwinked bows, depending on how you look at it:

"Melody" / "Edge" / "Zephyr"
-These are good until you can afford to make a harmony.
-A "Melody" in a +3 zon bow nets you +6 bow skills over-all, this is great for twinking an Frost-Maiden in-the-making.
-An "Edge" bow may be the best demon killer (Read: boss killer) in the game you can get before level 39.


The rest of the pack: (In alphabetical order.)

"Brand"
-The 100% CTC Bone-spear may be the coolest looking effect in the game, it also sounds cool, or annoying, depending on who you are. (I actually had a buddy name his Boning-Strafer ‘Woosh’ during ladder season 2.)
-It’s a pretty powerful bow, with lots of nice mods, but pales in comparison to "Faith"
-Freaky-expensive.
-The +damage to demons should not be overlooked on this bow. Ladder Season 2, I had a dedicated Chaos-Runner that packed this bow with Laying of Hands. This combo yielded me +650% damage to demons. I know all about on vs. off-weapon damage, but on-or-off, +650% damage is nothing to sneeze at. She was multi/strafe/FA and her record for a Chaos Sanctuary clear, from the river WP, including big D, was 4 min. 55 sec. So, there.
-Note, this bow is SICK on an enchantress. Don’t forget it fires exploding arrows as a normal attack.
-This is great on an act 1 cold rogue, because when she isn’t firing her cold arrows, she’ll be fire exploding arrows, making nothing immune to her.
-It took a hard nerfing when they ‘fixed’ the "Marrow Walk Bug" for 1.11. :(

"Breath of The Dying"
-Just... no.
-It's a waste of a Zod.
-You have to put it in a slow bow.
-The poison nova is annoying/laggy and does futile damage.
-You could just pin a badge on your sleeve that says "n00b" and you would get a similiar effect.

"Call To Arms"
-Also a nice bow, but mainly for style points only.
-The mods are there to make it a good weapon, but it would better in something one-handed on switch; it just doesn’t stack up against the other cannons for the price.
-If you're rich, make one just to watch people freak in pubbies when you Bow (heh) them.

“Faith”
-Possibly the best bow for Multi-Zons.
-Also considered the Swiss-army knife of bows: it's soooo godly that any bow-based-build (zon or not) would be a force-to-be-reckoned-with when packing this gun.
-It’s very fast, even in the slowest bow, due to the Fanatacism aura it grants.
-Expensive.
-Equip this bow, grab a Might merc, and stick a “Pride” on him. See how that treats you.

"Fortitude"
-No ias: too slow for my taste.
-The armor version of this RW is second-to-none for a bowie, though.

"Hand Of Justice"
-This is a great bow, but, much like "Silence", it's day has come and gone, except for to a few specialized zon builds…
-This is probably the bow for an Immo-Zon. (see also: “Phoenix”)

"Harmony"
-This is the best bow in the whole effing game if price is considered as a factor in any way, shape, or form.
-Combine this RW with Lionheart/Treachery/Duress for deadly-on-a-budget. You'll be surprised.

"Ice"
-A Frost-Maiden (Frozen Arrow zon) carrying this bow is similar to gods own personal smiting tool.
-As you read down the stats, it just keeps getting better:
--The Holy Freeze adds cold damage that stacks on the area effect of FA .
--Plus the aura slows everything that gets close to you down to a crawl, which makes you very hard to kill .
--Also packs negative enemy cold resistance AND adds % to cold damage .
--The CTC Frost Nova occurs at the target. This is freak-nasty-looking on a Strafer with novas popping everywhere. It’s also practical, slowing down the crowd quite a bit before they even hit the radius of your Holy Freeze aura.
--This is all not to mention the deadly strike, the IAS, the AR boost, the ITD, blah, blah, blah; it's just awesome all over your face.
-An FA zon with this cannon in hand can destroy packs in the cow level just as fast as an LF zon (!).
-This was some Frost-Maiden-fanatic-who-works-at-blizzard's wet dream. They got their boss to put it in the game by holding their breath while on hunger strike.
-This is also good on an act 1 cold rogue for obvious reasons.
-Expensive.

"Passion"
-Actually pretty nice for the price.
-I haven't seen one of these in a long time, if ever.
-Hmmm... I might make one of these tonight...

"Phoenix"
-No ias is the big negative here, for something this pricey no ias just isn't acceptable in my book..
-Probably really nice for an IMO zon.
--She's on a timer anyway so the lack-of-ias is less of an issue.
--Plus -fire res.
--She would also have no mana problems with Redemption going and HUGE mana leech on the bow.
-OMG-this-is-costing-alot-expensive.

“Silence”
-A fallen hero of a RW.
-It's mods are godly: it’s got huge res all (75!), fhr, ias, blinds target, good dmg, causes monsters to flee, MF, and huge Mana Leech, yipe!
-A very nice mix of an offensive/defensive weapon. This would be nice for hardcore.
-You are, however, forced to make it in a slow bow, because of socketing options.
-By the time you are at a level where you can equip it, this bow will blind 100% of the monsters able-to-blinded that it strikes.
-In offense, it is outshined by nearly all the newer RW's, and most would agree, just not worth the price nowadays. In it’s time, though, this was an awesome weapon. On a Strafer, this bow offers crowd control only a Necro or Singer-Barb can match.

“Venom”
-See: “Wrath” below.

"Wrath"
-Sucks any way you slice it: you get almost no-bang-at-all for your buck. It may be cool for someone extremely rich bow-collector with some weird build, but what build that would be, is beyond me.


My Bow-Pick for some of the more popular builds:
These are my picks. Your picks may be different. This is OK.
-Strafer: Windforce / “Faith” Ward
-Frostmaiden: +3 Matriarchal “Ice”
-Multizon: +3 Matron “Faith”
-Immo-Zon: “Phoenix” Great Bow
-Guided Arrow PvP: +3 Grand Matron “Faith”
-Guided Arrow PvM (Assasin): +3 Matriarchal “Faith”
-Proc’-Zon: “Brand” Great Bow
-Effect-o-zon: “Silence” Gothic Bow


A few more RW/Bow tips.

-Keep in mind that you cannot equip amazon-only bows on act 1 mercs.

-I always like to put my RW's in -10 speed bows. (Once again, this is personal taste.) If you can't bear to go to such lengths for speed, try a Ward Bow, they're a nice compromise between speed and power, and they look Badass.

-Ignore min/max damage when picking a bow, avg. damage is what I look at first, then I look at speed, then at min. damage, then at max damage. Consistent damage and speed will pwn a big max damage number on the LCS with slow attack speed any day.

- Some of the cheaper RW's, like Harmony/Passion are worth re-rolling to get a good ed%.

-These are my opinions only. You will develop your own opinions after you've played lots and lots of bow zons and hybrid zons, like I have. Until that time you may borrow my opinions to get you started.

-If anyone has a comment or question about a Runeword Bow (This means no WF vs. Faith flame-war, please. There are 15,420 other threads already dedicated to pages of this crap, search one, and post in there if you’re interested) feel free to respond in this thread. I’ll try to answer, if it's a question, or I may comment on your comment.

Runeword Recipes (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml) (Arreat Summit)
Bow Info (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/bows.shtml) (Arreat Summit)


I hope this helps anyone pondering how to spend a hard-earned rune.

-peace

[Evrae Altana]

Excellent guide :thumbsup: ! This should help a lot of people.

[Sherlock]

Excellent guide Wmeredith, well done mate !!! Hehe I realy enjoyed your comments on ICE, it was great :clap: !

But here are two things which are shame for us bowazons, so Blizz should consider these :uhhuh: :

1. Finaly add 6 sockets to GMB and/or Matri ;)
2. Allow Grief RW for all weapons ! Imagine the 5 sox Superior Matri/GMB with +3 skills and with this combination in it :

Grief 5 Socket Swords/Axes
Eth + Tir + Lo + Mal + Ral
35% Chance To Cast Level 15 Venom On Striking
+30-40% Increased Attack Speed (varies)
Damage +340-400 (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
-25% Target Defense
+(1.875 per character level) 1.875-185.625% Damage To Demons (Based on Character Level)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
-20-25% To Enemy Poison Resistance (varies)
20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+10-15 Life After Each Kill (varies)

Wow, imagine GMB with +400 on damage, shud be like 414-472 !

The posion strafer with Trang Gloves, Bramble armour and some Poison facets will be the way to go here !

And no, I dont think Griefzons would be overpowered in this game :lol:

Well, everyone has its dreams, cheers all !

[Wmeredith]

Excellent guide Wmeredith, well done mate !!! Hehe I realy enjoyed your comments on ICE, it was great !

But here are two things which are shame for us bowazons, so Blizz should consider these :uhhuh: :

1. Finaly add 6 sockets to GMB and/or Matri ;)
2. Allow Grief RW for all weapons ! Imagine the 5 sox Superior Matri/GMB with +3 skills and with this combination in it :

Grief 5 Socket Swords/Axes
Eth + Tir + Lo + Mal + Ral
35% Chance To Cast Level 15 Venom On Striking
+30-40% Increased Attack Speed (varies)
Damage +340-400 (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
-25% Target Defense
+(1.875 per character level) 1.875-185.625% Damage To Demons (Based on Character Level)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
-20-25% To Enemy Poison Resistance (varies)
20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+10-15 Life After Each Kill (varies)

Wow, imagine GMB with +400 on damage, shud be like 414-472 !

The posion strafer with Trang Gloves, Bramble armour and some Poison facets will be the way to go here !

And no, I dont think Griefzons would be overpowered in this game :lol:

Well, everyone has its dreams, cheers all !

Yeah, I'd like a couple of Grief rings, and a BoTD ammy, while your at it....

(Then I would just use my shael'd riphook, ;) )

[cassurai]

Nice sticky!!

[nickedoff]

Allow Grief RW for all weapons ! Imagine the 5 sox Superior Matri/GMB with +3 skills and with this combination in it :
Everyone'd make guided zons. Good bye creativity.


Very nifty runeword bow thing.
I wish there was some way to make good use of brand; freakin' blizzard has to ruin all of our fun with their 'patches' :\

[ConF]

-I always like to put my RW's in -10 speed bows. (Once again, this is personal taste.) If you can't bear to go to such lengths for speed, try a Ward Bow, they're a nice compromise between speed and power, and they look Badass.


Keep in mind however that Shadow Bows (elite long bows) deal slightly more average damage at the same speed (37 avg vs 36.5 on wards), plus, everyone uses ward bows... shadow bows are much sexier! :/

I only wish Shadow Bows could have silence in them though, would make a very nice combo (I'm not much of a fan of the impossible-to-find-runewords).

[Wmeredith]

Keep in mind however that Shadow Bows (elite long bows) deal slightly more average damage at the same speed (37 avg vs 36.5 on wards), plus, everyone uses ward bows... shadow bows are much sexier! :/

I only wish Shadow Bows could have silence in them though, would make a very nice combo (I'm not much of a fan of the impossible-to-find-runewords).

-Touche, ConF, that's a very good point. I made my first Faith in a Ward, so I guess I'm nostalgically biased. :uhhuh:

-A silence in a Shadow bow is fanatstic, I had one last ladder season. On my Medusa (blind/slow/knockback) zon.

[fredsta54]

-Touche, ConF, that's a very good point. I made my first Faith in a Ward, so I guess I'm nostalgically biased. :uhhuh:

-A silence in a Shadow bow is fanatstic, I had one last ladder season. On my Medusa (blind/slow/knockback) zon.


Great guide, i love the commentarys on these bows.

I agree, although brand is way overpriced, and faith is a better bang for your buck... i still prefer brand =P

How did you make silence in a shadow bow? They have max soc of 5, and silence is a 6 socket rw

One last question, how did your medusa zon fare and what did it use?












Fred

[superdave]

How did you make silence in a shadow bow? They have max soc of 5, and silence is a 6 socket rw

i can answer that one for him because i was just on his account looking at that very bow...he made it in a hydra.

[Wmeredith]

Ah, thanks SD. more on that medusa zon later...

[Wmeredith]

Ah, thanks SD. more on that medusa zon later...

It's in the sig...

[logoutzero]

What makes "Brand" SICK in an enchantress?

As a sorc she won't have any way of firing 3075108753013 bonespears per click, so playing a Morrow+Spear enchantress in 1.10 doesn't seem to be it...

Enchant only adds 1/3 firedamage to ranged attacks, so I doubt it's the added firedamage from Enchant, now the AR, is good?

The only thing I can think of is that there is some kind of way to beef the Exploding Arrows that come out of "Brand" using the sorc's Fire Tree?

Please explain!

[Wmeredith]

A few things about your post...
-As a sorc she won't have any way of firing 3075108753013 bonespears per click, so playing a Morrow+Spear enchantress in 1.10 doesn't seem to be it...
A) Not sure which char can do this, but I would like to check it out.
B) The marrow 'bug' has been fixed.

Enchant only adds 1/3 firedamage to ranged attacks, so I doubt it's the added firedamage from Enchant, now the AR, is good?

Yes the added fire damage from enchant is good. Why else woul you play an enchantress? The AR is also good. More AR is always needed especially on a sorc that is using any sort of physical attack.

The only thing I can think of is that there is some kind of way to beef the Exploding Arrows that come out of "Brand" using the sorc's Fire Tree?
The Fire Mastery boosts the damage on the exploding arrows, which is nice.

So let's say I have a ranger enchantress with +5 all skills on equip. I would say that is about avg. (Maybe even conservative: no skillers.)

DMG: +735 fire dmg per arrow. All of that will be carried over into the splash dmg each arrow causes. Add a little piercing here (Razortail) and she's a nice pack killer.

AR: She'ss also recieve a combined AR boost from the bow, her enchant, and the exploding arrow mod of 429%. Not too shabby. The bow also packs Ignore Target Defense, which is nice, but face an champ-packs or bosses and you'll be glad you have AR to spare.

Yes the fire dmg is nerfed on a ranged attacker, but if you're making a ranged enchantress, this is the bow to have. Many enchantress-rangers carry a Kuko bow; a Brand is better than a Kuko (ignoring price). I would venture to say it would be the best bow to have on a ranged enchantress. You do give up some piercing on the Kuko, but compared to what you gain from the Brand: It's just about a toss-up and would come down to personal taste. Considering all of that, I would say that a Brand bow on an enchantress would definitely be 'sick'.

Now for fun, let's stack her deck:
My setup (Your ideal maybe be different, THIS IS OK)
Perf Shako (socketed with 15ias/15 all res)
Highlord's Wrath
Treachery Dusk Shroud
Razortail
Laying of Hands
'Brand' Blade Bow (Going for speed here)
SoJ/Ravenfrost
Perf War Travs
8 Fire skillers

With this setup you get 1074 fire dmg per arrow.
+472% AR boost
33% Pierce firing at 10 frames per arrow.

Not too shabby. The point is that simply because of the fact that it fires exploding arrows and has lots of other killer mods, it would be awesome on a ranged enchantress. I would almost go with Faith, but the exploding arrows give her the splash damage she needs for crowd control.

Anyway, I hope that helps. :thumbsup:

[logoutzero]

A) Not sure which char can do this, but I would like to check it out.
B) The marrow 'bug' has been fixed.

a) Just referencing the Sorceress' lack of Multi/Strafe, slight exhaggeration on my part, it's a flaw I enjoy
b) Note: "in 1.10" Yeah. marrow's been fixed, but I'm one of those Single Player types, I can still play the marrow bug



Yes the added fire damage from enchant is good. Why else woul you play an enchantress? The AR is also good. More AR is always needed especially on a sorc that is using any sort of physical attack.

On second thought, playing a Bowchantress would pretty much highly accept any additional damage per shot, so I retract



The Fire Mastery boosts the damage on the exploding arrows, which is nice.

So let's say I have a ranger enchantress with +5 all skills on equip. I would say that is about avg. (Maybe even conservative: no skillers.)

DMG: +735 fire dmg per arrow. All of that will be carried over into the splash dmg each arrow causes. Add a little piercing here (Razortail) and she's a nice pack killer.

AR: She'ss also recieve a combined AR boost from the bow, her enchant, and the exploding arrow mod of 429%. Not too shabby. The bow also packs Ignore Target Defense, which is nice, but face an champ-packs or bosses and you'll be glad you have AR to spare.

Yes the fire dmg is nerfed on a ranged attacker, but if you're making a ranged enchantress, this is the bow to have. Many enchantress-rangers carry a Kuko bow; a Brand is better than a Kuko (ignoring price). I would venture to say it would be the best bow to have on a ranged enchantress. You do give up some piercing on the Kuko, but compared to what you gain from the Brand: It's just about a toss-up and would come down to personal taste. Considering all of that, I would say that a Brand bow on an enchantress would definitely be 'sick'.

Now for fun, let's stack her deck:
My setup (Your ideal maybe be different, THIS IS OK)
Perf Shako (socketed with 15ias/15 all res)
Highlord's Wrath
Treachery Dusk Shroud
Razortail
Laying of Hands
'Brand' Blade Bow (Going for speed here)
SoJ/Ravenfrost
Perf War Travs
8 Fire skillers

With this setup you get 1074 fire dmg per arrow.
+472% AR boost
33% Pierce firing at 10 frames per arrow.

Not too shabby. The point is that simply because of the fact that it fires exploding arrows and has lots of other killer mods, it would be awesome on a ranged enchantress. I would almost go with Faith, but the exploding arrows give her the splash damage she needs for crowd control.


1k dmg + splash on a regular shot seems pretty appealing. Then I guess if she made it far enough, she could play the marrow card too

Thanks for your points! Exactly what I was hoping for. **fires up 1.10**



Edit::
By the way, due to my lack of playing experience over the last few years, I never got a chance to "exploit" the marrow 'bug' so it has a pretty high level of interest to me. I just got my strafe zon to 24 last night, and, noticing how crappy-weak level 1 strafe with white/blue bows is, I found your post on RW bows, which made me smile. A strafer that shoots Bone Spears would be pretty friggen cool, even if it is outdated. And, a Sorceress that shoots Bone Spears seems pretty cool too. Matter of fact, any class shooting Bone Spears would be pretty dang cool, but I think a Zon with Multi/Strafe and some good Pierce would do it best. So, that's just a little about me.
::tidE

[superdave]

AR: She'ss also recieve a combined AR boost from the bow, her enchant, and the exploding arrow mod of 429%. Not too shabby. The bow also packs Ignore Target Defense, which is nice, but face an champ-packs or bosses and you'll be glad you have AR to spare.
:thumbsup:

i wonder if the elemental AR bug has been fixed...i heard from a reliable(somewhat) source that it had...to be safe, i have pumped penetrate anyways....i wonder if rtb has heard anything regarding this old bug.

[Wmeredith]

a)
b) Note: "in 1.10" Yeah. marrow's been fixed, but I'm one of those Single Player types, I can still play the marrow bug



I'm jealous... :eek:

Good luck!

[Dacar92]

This guide has been added to the Build Guide sticky at the top of this forum. It can be found in the Useful Info section.

[IAmHotshot]

Nice guide :)

[Wmeredith]

TRY THIS OUT. (http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english)

[IAmHotshot]

TRY THIS OUT. (http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english)

Not sure if my edit was made before your post was, but yeah, I found that on the very same topic of useful stratagy links that I posted up on my site :lol:

[Wmeredith]

I'm glad you found it one way or the other. That's a really useful link. I can't remember how many times I've been there.

[Wmeredith]

Runewords and Your Bow. A mini-guide.
V 1.1
Last Updated 3/10/2006

There are many fine bows in this game, but nothing is quite as cool as the rush of holding your own self-made cannon in your hands. Or, actually, watching the little sprite that represents you on your computer screen hold it's own self-made cannon in it's hands. Either way, there are a ton of Runewords in this game that can be stuck in a bow. So, without furtherado...


"Twink" bows

Or maybe, good "untwinked" bows, depending on how you look at it. Basically these bows are dirt-cheap, but still serve a purpose in this crazy post 1.10 uber-runeword world:

"Melody" / "Edge" / "Zephyr"
-These are good until you can afford to make a harmony.
-A "Melody" in a +3 zon bow nets you +6 bow skills over-all, this is great for twinking an Frost-Maiden in-the-making.
-An "Edge" bow may well be the best demon killer (Read: boss killer) in the game that you can get before level 39.


The rest of the pack: (In alphabetical order.)


"Brand"
-The 100% CTC Bone-spear may be the coolest looking effect in the game. Especialy when you've got a 2 frame per arrow starfe going on. Spewing white magic-damage-death-that-pierces all over a pack of monsters is always fun. It also sounds very cool, or very annoying, depending on who you are. (I actually had a buddy name his Boning-Strafer ‘Woosh’ during ladder season 2.)
-It’s a pretty powerful bow, with lots of nice mods, but pales in comparison to "Faith"
-Pricy.
-The +damage to demons should not be overlooked on this bow. Ladder Season 2, I had a dedicated Chaos-Runner that packed this bow with Laying of Hands. This combo yielded me +650% damage to demons. I know all about on vs. off-weapon damage, but +650% damage is nothing to sneeze at noi matter how you slice it. She was multi/strafe/FA and her record for a Chaos Sanctuary clear, from the river WP, including big D, was 4 min. 55 sec. So, there.
-Note, this bow is SICK on an enchantress. Don’t forget it fires exploding arrows as a normal attack.
-This is great on an act 1 cold rogue, because when she isn’t firing her cold arrows, she’ll be fire exploding arrows, making nothing immune to her.
-It took a hard nerfing when they ‘fixed’ the "Marrow Walk Bug" for 1.11. :( Note they did not fix the fend bug, just the bugs people liked...

"Breath of The Dying"
-Just... no.
-It's a waste of a Zod.
-You have to put it in a slow bow.
-The poison nova is annoying/laggy and does futile damage.
-You could just pin a badge on your sleeve that says "n00b" and you would get a similiar effect.
(This bow is not all that bad, but in terms of style, grace, and general 1337ness, it effing blows. It's kind of like wearing an Armani tux that's mustard yellow. It was expensive and fits well, but we're all pretty sure you're imparied in some way.)

"Call To Arms"
-Also a nice bow, but mainly for style points only.
-The mods are there to make it a good weapon, but it would better in something one-handed, on switch; it just doesn’t stack up against the other cannons for the price.
-If you're rich, make one just to watch people freak in pubbies when you Bow (heh) them.

“Faith”
-THE bow for Multi-Zons.
-Also considered the Swiss-army knife of bows: it's soooo godly that any bow-based-build (zon or not) would be a force-to-be-reckoned-with when packing this gun.
-It’s very fast, even in the slowest bow, due to the Fanatacism aura it grants.
-Godly mods stacked on godly mods...
-One mod I feel is often overlooked is the chance to revive. Well the revives are TOUGH. And it should bring a tear to the eye of any glass-cannon to see little tanks popping up out in the crowd as she mows Bloodlords down from a distance...
-Expensive.
-Equip this bow, grab a Might merc, and stick a “Pride” on him. See how that treats you, you rich, rich bastard.

"Fortitude"
-No ias: too slow for my taste.
-The armor version of this RW is second-to-none for a bowie, though.

"Hand Of Justice"
-This is a great bow, but, much like "Silence", it's day has come and gone, except for to a few specialized zon builds. The fire tree is still viable, while mostly forgotten in post 1.10.
-This is probably THE bow for an Immo-Zon. (see also: “Phoenix”)

"Harmony"
-This is the best bow in the whole effing game if price is considered as a factor in any way, shape, or form.
-Combine this RW with Lionheart/Treachery/Duress for deadly-on-a-budget. You'll be surprised.
-It's also a fanatstic utility weapon with it's valk pre-buff and a speedy auar to boot.
-Suggestion, put on a 40% frw boot, a Cat's eye and this bow and you can outrun some teleporters. Just not through walls...

"Ice"
-A Frost-Maiden (Frozen Arrow zon) carrying this bow is similar to gods own personal smiting tool.
-As you read down the stats, it just keeps getting better:
1) The Holy Freeze adds cold damage that stacks on the area effect of FA .
2) Plus the aura slows everything that gets close to you down to a crawl, which makes you very hard to kill .
3) This also packs negative enemy cold resistance AND adds % to cold damage .
4) The CTC Frost Nova occurs at the target. This is freak-nasty-looking on a 2 frame Strafer with novas popping everywhere. It’s also practical, slowing down the crowd quite a bit before they even hit the radius of your Holy Freeze aura, which then slows them down more, if they can even move form being spammed with FA.
5) This is all not to mention the deadly strike, the IAS, the AR boost, the ITD, Monster Gold Find, blah, blah, blah; it's just awesome all over your face.
-An FA zon with this cannon in hand can destroy packs in the cow level just as fast as an LF zon (!).
-This was some Frost-Maiden-fanatic-who-works-at-blizzard's wet dream. They got their boss to put it in the game by holding their breath while on hunger strike.
-This is also good on an act 1 cold rogue for obvious reasons.
-Expensive.

"Passion"
-Actually very nice for the price.
-I haven't seen one of these in a long time, if ever.
-Hmmm... I might make one of these tonight...

"Phoenix"
-No ias is the big negative here, for something this pricey no ias just isn't acceptable in my book.
-Probably really nice for an IMO zon.
1) She's on a timer anyway so the lack-of-ias is a non-issue.
2) Plus -fire res.
3) She would also have no mana problems with Redemption going and HUGE mana leech on the bow.
-It's OMG-this-is-costing-alot-expensive.

“Silence”
-A fallen hero of a RW.
-It's mods are truly godly: it’s got huge res all (75!), fhr, ias, blinds target, good dmg, causes monsters to flee, MF, and huge Mana Leech, yipe!:jig:
-A very nice mix of an offensive/defensive weapon. This would be the holy grail for a hardcore bowie, imho.
-You are, however, forced to make it in a slow bow, because of socketing options, but in a self-preservation light, the mods are worth it.
-By the time you are at a level where you can equip it, this bow will blind 100% of the monsters able-to-blinded that it strikes.
-In offense, it is outshined by nearly all the newer RW's, and most would agree, just not worth the price nowadays. In it’s time, though, this was an awesome weapon.
-On a Strafer, this bow offers crowd control only a Necro or Singer-Barb can match.
-Pricey.

“Venom”
-See: “Wrath” below.

"Wrath"
-Sucks any way you slice it: you get almost no-bang-at-all for your buck. It may be cool for someone extremely rich bow-collector with some weird build, but what build that would be, is beyond me. Harmony outshines this crap bow and leaves you enough left over to get a Highlord's, War Travs, and Raven Frost compared to the cost of Wrath.
-Booo.


My Bow-Pick for some of the more popular builds:

These are my picks. Your picks may be different. This is OK.
-Strafer: Windforce / “Faith” Ward
-Frostmaiden: +3 Matriarchal “Ice”
-Multizon: +3 Matron “Faith”
-Immo-Zon: “Phoenix” Great Bow
-Guided Arrow PvP: +3 Grand Matron “Faith”
-Guided Arrow PvM (Assasin): +3 Matriarchal “Faith”
-Proc’-Zon: “Brand” Great Bow
-Effect-o-zon: “Silence” Gothic Bow


A few general RW/Bow tips.


-Keep in mind that you cannot equip amazon-only bows on act 1 mercs.

-I always like to put my RW's in -10 speed bows if possible. In fact, the only non -10 bow I would ever be caught using is a Faith or a Silence.(Once again, this is personal taste. Relax, big damage number addicts.) If you can't bear to go to such lengths for speed, try a Shadow Bow, they're a nice compromise between speed and power and they have the highest AVG damage of all 0 speed bows.

-Ignore min/max damage when picking a bow, avg. damage is what I look at first, then I look at speed, then at min. damage, then at max damage. Consistent damage and speed will pwn a big max damage number on the LCS with slow attack speed any day. This is a very important part of the 'Zon philosophy to me. Most people like to see a big fat number on their character screen. I agree, that it's nice when it means something, but to a zon speed should be king. Think damage per second, not damage per arrow.

-Some of the cheaper RW's, like Harmony/Passion are worth re-rolling to get a good ed%.

-These are my opinions only. You will develop your own opinions after you've played lots and lots of bow zons and hybrid zons, like I have. Until that time you may borrow my opinions to get you started.

-If anyone has a comment or question about a Runeword Bow (This means no WF vs. Faith flame-war, please. There are 69420 other threads already dedicated to pages of this crap, search one, and post in there if you’re interested) feel free to respond in this thread. I’ll try to answer, if it's a question, or I may comment on your comment.

Runeword Recipes (Arreat Summit) (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml)
Bow Info (Arreat Summit) (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/bows.shtml)
Weapon Speed Calculator (http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english)


I hope this helps anyone pondering how to spend a hard-earned rune.

-peace

[DeMarki]

- Some of the cheaper RW's, like Harmony/Passion are worth re-rolling to get a good ed%.

Sure dude! :wink3:

[Wmeredith]

Sure dude! :wink3:

What does this mean?

[icyman]

ok im confused i have a frost maiden and wut bow is the ice could u break this down for me plz im not completely sure on ho i see people making the bows 12 times better i understand like the gems and RW but theres other things on how people are making there bows better not sure if this makes any sense to you but its not making any to me :)

[Epheira]

Ok somebody call Ali G, we found his kid

[Dacar92]

Ok somebody call Ali G, we found his kid


Who the heck is Ali G? I am not sure who that is, but I am sure I didn't like the comment. Let's keep it on topic, please. There is an OT thread for kidding and...not kidding.

[Epheira]

Who the heck is Ali G? I am not sure who that is, but I am sure I didn't like the comment. Let's keep it on topic, please. There is an OT thread for kidding and...not kidding.

Ali G is this rapper who talks like 'yez i iz da ali g come to me car yes'.

I guess it may be offensive, but i didn't think of it as such. I just dont get that someone on US realm cant talk/write descent english. Actually i'm not targeting the guy (who posted above my post, not the creator), but the education system in general. But politics are way off i guess...

Sorry :thumbsup: :hide:

Some OT nice guide, and nice that you added some low budget bows too. I know some guys that collect bows, its cool.

[Wmeredith]

-I Love Ali G, or more specifically Sacha Baron Cohen. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen)

-I also collected bows for sometime and I've been poor like everyone else who plays ladder, so I give respect to bang-for-your-buck cannons. I don't collect any more, though I just have a Brand and a Faith left (both Mats and both on my One Bad Bowie - McZon_NoCheese).

[nickedoff]

descent
Lol.

Anyhow, neato guide once again. I can't remember what I said before...but I thought I should just note that Phoenix isn't bold. It took me a while to find it on the list -_x!

Just a little mistake, though.

[Wmeredith]

Thanks for the compliment...:smiley:

I wish I oculd go back and edit stuff like that, but I'm no mod and I don't feel like re-writing the whole post and posting it again.

[harley98]

nice guide!!!!!

i'd like to see more unique crossbows and some runewords just for crossbows. crossbows just dont get any respect:cry: .

[DIEnamic]

nice guide!!!!!

i'd like to see more unique crossbows and some runewords just for crossbows. crossbows just dont get any respect:cry: .

brings back memories of the ol' burritozons... :undecided:

[Wmeredith]

I've never been a xbow guy...

Burritos were devastating when GA pierced, but nowadays, there's just no reason to play a xbow zon unless you're after style.

[crawlingdeadman]

'Brand' Blade Bow (Going for speed here)
cho-ku-no and demon crossbow have -60 wsm so i think they're the best for brand on a sorc. this is why demon machine is great on a sorc.

[Wmeredith]

This guide has been updated, please go here for v1.2. (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=495941)

Please use the new thread for discussion pertaining to this guide.

Thanks.