Rebuilding, feedback wanted

[twelvebagger]

Greetings!

After reading a few posts in the zon forums I’ve come to the consensus that I too should rebuild my zon after maxing guide. I do like my zon and don’t have issues with her, but I’d like to try something different. (I play PvM exclusively)

Here is what I am considering, and my goal here is to use this build because it sounds fun, but I do want it to be effective. (I would be using a little bit of MF on this build, currently have goldwrap for IAS and travs).

I’m going for a FA/MS glass cannon build and am considering the following setup, and while I appreciate all feedback, I’m specifically looking at feedback for the following questions:

1) Would this build be pretty effective?
2) Please comment on skill distribution
3) Please comment on alternate gear.



Skills:
Bow:
Cold arrow: 20
Freezing Arrow:20
Ice Arrow: 1
Guided:1
Multishot: 15-20 (Most will say that this is way too high, but I’m doing this for the fun factor. My current zon is maxed in multi and I love it).

Total bow: 57-62

Passive:
Crit: 5-10 (?)
Penetrate: 1
Peirce: 5-10
Inner sight and the one below it: 1 each
Decoy: 1
Valk: 10ish
Dodge/Evade/Avoid (whatever they’re called) 1-3

Total passive: 35ish

Build wouldn’t be complete until about level 85 (12 skill points from questing).

Gear:

Faith GMB
Fortitude
Andy’s Viseage (ED/IAS) (2x ED/IAS giant skull an option?)
1xRaven, not sure with other ring…(2xraven? Rare with ml? BK?)
Belt: Goldwrap for IAS
Ammy: Cats Eye? Atmas?
Boots: Wartravs (caster boots if I can get mana leech?)
Gloves: Blood gloves, 10 IAS, dual leech. Looking to make hit power recipe with dual leech and IAS.


As you can see, I’m considering a few things with gear.

My current zon is max multi/guided and I loaded a few into various passives. Current setup is same as above with the above uncertainties chosen as follows:

Rings: Raven, Rare
Ammy: Atmas

And from what I can tell, I have just enough IAS to reach whatever breakpoint I’m at. If I take off the belt for instance, losing the 10 IAS on wrap, I drop to a lower BP, and I don’t want to be any slower than I am. One option would be to go with cats eye and scrap atmas, assuming that FA will suffice for phys immunes—This would free up the belt for IAS.

In closing, I’d have 4 to all skills using no skill amulet (2 from Faith, 2 from Andy), + 3 more from faith for the bow skill tab, and I also have 3 bow skillers and a torch, but I don’t think I’d use the torch simply due to all the lag it creates with an MA zon.

I’d plan on loading up with small cold damage charms for FA in exchange for no/little poison damage.

And Finally: How effective is an upped WWS? I’m sure it pales in comparison to faith, but it certainly looks like it’d be a fun bow (of course, I’d have to get one somehow). Comments?

[Humphrey]

I’m going for a FA/MS glass cannon build

Gauss cannon! It's Gauss cannon! Though glass cannon works as a pun on this I suppose.

And Finally: How effective is an upped WWS? I’m sure it pales in comparison to faith, but it certainly looks like it’d be a fun bow (of course, I’d have to get one somehow). Comments?

It's a lovely little thing. Not too expensive either. Quite versitle, so I imagine it'd be nice for this build.

[superdave]

only 1 in penetrate? even if you go full dex you may not be happy with your a/r....the a/r bonus on fa is bugged...i would recommend a few more points

[VoX Dei]

Multi is a matter of personal taste. I find slvl 9 (10 arrows) perfect. This is easily achieved with 1 point after + skills items.

Valk slvl 17 since at this slvl she will spawn with the best equipment (btw does valk slvl 17 after + skills items spawn with the best equipment or only valk slvl 17 with hard points?)

Critical strike 58% (IIRC slvl 9 after +skills items). After this diminishing returns kick hard.

Pierce 79% (don't remember slvl). After this diminishing returns kick hard. Or, pierce 99%, 66% (don't remember slvl) + 33% (razortail).

Penetrate, for any bowies must be high level/maxed.

D/A/E, are usually 1 point wonders because + skill items take them to the range of 40-50ish% where diminishing returns will kick hard.

edit: I don't really think atma's is the best choice here. You'll be killing PI's fairly well with synergized FA. So no need for the ctc amp on striking. Instead, you could use highlord's, meaning + FA and physical damage and an extra 20% IAS. This setup would allow you to lose both golwrap and your current 10% IAS dual leech blood gloves to use something like mavina's tenet (5% ll, 20% FRW) + souldrainer gloves (up to 7% dual leech). I put ml as a priority in this gear suggestions because the blue orb tends go down fast with FA and you want to use high level Multi.

[Omikron8]

Get that penetrate up or you will be shooting at air when you run into champions/uniques.

[twelvebagger]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I rebuilt this weekend and unfortunately clicked on the wrong skill TWICE due to sleepiness, putting two extra points into frozen arrow (the one in the middle that adds to freeze length :( )


How high should I take penetrate after skills?

I do like the idea of highlords, that's probably what I'll go with, good suggestion.

I'm using razortail instead of goldwrap, and was using cats eye to make up for the IAS, will switch to highlords and try that out.

I'm 77 now and I have spent all skillpoints out of my rather stupid desire to max multishot. I'm planning on taking this zon to at least 85 or 90, so I can still add to penetrate.

If I'm calculating right, one I am high enough to use the andy's viseage I can free up my glove slot provided I'm getting 20% IAS from the amulet. . . . . .

Maybe a hit power recipe with ML would go nicely?

[Omikron8]

Nothing beats LoH for pvm bowazons :)

massive fire res + 20% IAS + 350% demon damage

if you have any desire to run the pit you will love that last mod very much

[VoX Dei]

@ Omikron8, your suggestion of LoH is great. Plus it offsets Andy’s -30% fire resist. This combo would be perfect for a WF/Nefed bow user, however, it doesn’t allow a Faith user to have knockback. Anyway, I don’t think knockback is a must in a FA build, so LoH + Andy + Faith remains as the top choice here.

@ twelvebagger, i’ve revised carefully your build. Again, you won’t really be needing knockback with FA. So, you can go without a hit power recipe. ML is another issue. I may be wrong but a major problem I see with this build is getting enough ML% to offset the high mana cost of maxed FA/Multi.

My advice concerning Penetrate was wrong. I didn’t take into account that Faith alone adds something like 400% bonus AR. So, for this specific build 1 hard point in Penetrate will suffice.

I’ve noticed that you will not reach Multi/FA’s last breakpoint (7 fpa) with your current gear which provides 85% IAS max. You will need 95-100% IAS to reach last breakpoint with Fanaticism from Faith GMB. If you desire to reach last BP without the armor slot (Fortitude, has no IAS but IMO with the huge ed% it’s perfect to go with Multi) your choices for helm, belt, gloves and ammy slots will very conditioned. Instead, i suggest that you go for 8 fpa (50% IAS). You are already at 8 fpa with a IAS surplus, so this means you have a lot more freedom in gear choice.

Without trying to make your character mine, these would be my gear picks:

Bow:
Faith GMB

Equipment:
Andy’s
Fortitude
Razortail
LoH (top choice as suggested by Omikron)
Wartrav

Jewelry:
Highlords (I’m glad you liked it)
Ravenfrost
Manald (only way of getting some ML, still only 7% seems too low)

Charms:
at least 1 good poison damage sc (to get a little OW effect)

edit: btw Andy's socket is open.

[Omikron8]

7/2 strafe for GMB faith is overkill in terms of equipment sacrifices. It makes it near impossible to use fort (have to use sigon's combo for 30% IAS). An 8/2 strafe offers much more flexibility because LoH + nos coil + cat's eye/highlords reaches the necessary 50% IAS.

[twelvebagger]

@ Omikron8, your suggestion of LoH is great. Plus it offsets Andy’s -30% fire resist. This combo would be perfect for a WF/Nefed bow user, however, it doesn’t allow a Faith user to have knockback. Anyway, I don’t think knockback is a must in a FA build, so LoH + Andy + Faith remains as the top choice here.

@ twelvebagger, i’ve revised carefully your build. Again, you won’t really be needing knockback with FA. So, you can go without a hit power recipe. ML is another issue. I may be wrong but a major problem I see with this build is getting enough ML% to offset the high mana cost of maxed FA/Multi.

My advice concerning Penetrate was wrong. I didn’t take into account that Faith alone adds something like 400% bonus AR. So, for this specific build 1 hard point in Penetrate will suffice.

I’ve noticed that you will not reach Multi/FA’s last breakpoint (7 fpa) with your current gear which provides 85% IAS max. You will need 95-100% IAS to reach last breakpoint with Fanaticism from Faith GMB. If you desire to reach last BP without the armor slot (Fortitude, has no IAS but IMO with the huge ed% it’s perfect to go with Multi) your choices for helm, belt, gloves and ammy slots will very conditioned. Instead, i suggest that you go for 8 fpa (50% IAS). You are already at 8 fpa with a IAS surplus, so this means you have a lot more freedom in gear choice.

Without trying to make your character mine, these would be my gear picks:

Bow:
Faith GMB

Equipment:
Andy’s
Fortitude
Razortail
LoH (top choice as suggested by Omikron)
Wartrav

Jewelry:
Highlords (I’m glad you liked it)
Ravenfrost
Manald (only way of getting some ML, still only 7% seems too low)

Charms:
at least 1 good poison damage sc (to get a little OW effect)

edit: btw Andy's socket is open.

Thanks to you and Omikron, this is most helpful.

Of your above list, I am almost using exactly that now, but I can't use andariels yet. My plan once I can, is to use andariels, and at that point my ring slots open up (currently am forced to use rares due to lack of leech). The only difference in my choice would be the manalds, which I'd switch out for a rare with ml and resists.

In regards to the gloves, laying of hands is certainly good, but I'm still not convinced that I couldn't craft a better rare (dual leech, 20IAS).

The demon damage is definitely nice, but I'm doing a lot of pit running and chaos sanct running (bringing in the paladin for diablo, I don't even bother with zon). Regardless, I'll try LOH and see.

In regards to the penetrate, I did add to it a bit, I think I'm at about 6 hard points or so, stopping here so I can put a few more into other things, like getting the valk up a bit higher.

The current setup, which is actually working quite well:

Helm: ED/IAS steelskull
Fort
Faith
Gloves(10IAS, 1/3 leeches)
2xrare rings, one with ML, one LL, both resists
travs
Razortail
Just added Highlords, haven't tested it.

I was only running a 3 player game tonight (me and my other two accounts), but she smoked the pit and chaos sanct, with no real leech issues aside from PI's.

I'll try LOH and see what happens.

thanks again!
-12-

[VoX Dei]

You are welcome and i'm glad getting enough ML didn't turn out to be a problem. GL HF :thumbsup:

[twelvebagger]

Bow:
Faith GMB

Equipment:
Andy’s
Fortitude
Razortail
LoH (top choice as suggested by Omikron)
Wartrav

Jewelry:
Highlords (I’m glad you liked it)
Ravenfrost
Manald (only way of getting some ML, still only 7% seems too low)

Charms:
at least 1 good poison damage sc (to get a little OW effect)

edit: btw Andy's socket is open.

Update: I'm now using the exact setup, only I'm using a rare with Ar/Ml/res all instead of manalds. I dinged 83 today and stuck andy's viseage on (ed/ias). From what I can tell, It's a good setup and I'd say it's "almost" perfect. It turns out mana leech is borderline without the 5% I had from steelskull. I'm not chugging pots like crazy, I have enough ML that I can leech back on mobs that aren't cold immune (with FA), and multishot keeps me full provided I'm facing several mobs at once.

The only thing I need to consider now, is whether atmas scarab would be an option.

I do like highlords, but I also miss having my amp.

LOH is definitely the glove of choice. Only thing that would possibly sway me would be a VERY nice crafted set.