Bowazons and Resistances

[Rassler]

Hi tharr!

I havent really posted much here, instead Ive been reading a lot of the threads and making me way around the place. This time I need a bit of help though. >.<

My Amazon is now 68 (love her to death) and is currently doing Baal runs in NM. She is a Frostmaiden/Strafer but Im having a lot of trouble with my resistances in Nightmare. With Ice on, they go slightly under the 0 resists, and with Faith on, they hit 10 to all or so. Can't imagine what Hell will be like.

Im unsure of what to change in my equipment set up.. so any help would be great! Currently Im using:

Ice Mat Bow/Faith Mat Bow on switch
Nightwings Veil
Crescent Moon Amulet
Archon Plate Fortitude (28 all resists)
Crappy Gloves (Waiting to find a LoH)
Razorswitch
Raven Frost
Crappy Ring
Waterwalks

At 75 I'll have a torch so that's an extra 17 odd resistances... but it still won't cut it in Hell (I like to have fairly high/decent resists).

If you're wondering, Im on USWest Ladder.

Thanks!

[kingdryland]

I personally roam the game with resists in the 1x region ,with faith/forti. When I used windforce i had even less. And I don't have problems since I keep my distance to anything that can harm me (you've got to love kb,merc/valk and frw).

[crawlingdeadman]

maybe try highlords wrath, it's got 1skill/20ias and good light res... the torch will help as well as an anni if you have it too. other than that a lot of people think in terms of a bow zon "resistances what're those?" stay back, use decoy wisely, and fill up on some res charms. i've not personally made a frost zon but if you really want res go with coh. it's what i use on my jav/bow hybrid and it has the great res as well as 2skills and the oft over looked 200% ed vs demons and 100% vs undead which comprise much of the d2 world. has life leech too. hope this helps. i'm sure a frostzon pro will chime in and tell me i should hush so wait on them.

[Rassler]

Thanks for your advice. I was unsure whether many bowazons out there had huge resists in hell. While I havent died much because of my resists, I have always loved resists to stop those pesky casters, in particularly those Lightning Gloams, Act4 Oblivion Mages/Knights who throw those elemental balls at you and Meph/Diablo.

I'll wait for more replies to see how things turn out. Thanks again =D

[SSoG]

Ditch your boots and gloves and replace them with good resist Boot/gloves (at least 80% total resists on each). Fill your inventory with charms. Replace your junky ring with a less junky ring. Replace your amulet with Mara's or any other high-resist amulet. Consider replacing Nightwing with a great resist hat (ideally Kira's, so you can see the ponytail). If you wear Kira's take off your Ravenfrost (Kira's has CBF) and add another good resist ring. You can't expect your resists to solve themselves- you have to actively devote gear slots ot items that really offer nothing other than astounding resists.

Also, remember that every time you chug an Antidote or Thawing pot, it increases your poison or cold resists by 50% for 30 seconds, and the durations stack. Drink 20 pots before going somewhere with cold/poison damaging enemies, and you've got an extra 10 minutes with +50% Poison/Cold resistance.

[Virility]

Consider switching your fort for chains of honor. The extra skills will boost your cold damage, there will be a bump is resists as well.

Browse the trade forums for a replacement ring with leech, resists, ar, damage etc. They are not as valued as rings with fcr/str and can be had "cheap" (relative term)

Last suggestion and probably the more difficult is to hold resist charms in your pack. Multiple small charms with 5 lr and xxx mod give a very nice boost you could not manage in gear alone.

[Rassler]

Thanks heaps for your comments, it's made my job a lot easier when I know what to look out for.

Ive really been trying to look for a balance between damage and skill boosting (hence why Im using Nightwings for FA and Fort for Strafe/Multi) but because of that my resists sucked. Im highly considering a good 60-70 Kiras, keeping LoH when I can get one (its got nice 50% Fire Res), and I'll have to try and look out for a good pair of boots/rings/ammy.

*runs off to the trade forum*

=D

[Yossarian]

Look into buying 2-4 all res GC. You can get 12-14 ones for very little. That can add 45-50 all res there.

[Immortal_King]

You could use CoA with 2 cold facets. You'll lose some dmg but gain alot of durability in combat.

[crawlingdeadman]

this is the second time ive had to say something like this "what bow zon in their right mind has 174 str?"

[Rassler]

174 str is insane. Ive got about 85 base str which I thought was too much (needed 103 to wear Archon Plate - but I love Archon xD).

Ive just done a bit of calculating, and I think I should be fine with a few adjustments to my gear as people have previously said.

Faith - 15 Res All (-15 Res All if I switch to Ice)
Fortitude - 28 Res All
Kiras Guardian - 70 Res All
Torch - 17 Res All
Anni - Minimum 10 Res All
--------------------------
140 Res All (+40 Res all in Hell mode - easily acceptable)

By doing Anya in Normal and Nightmare, I can get that to 160 Res All (+60 in Hell mode) and with my 2 rings/boots/amulet/gloves I should hope to max out resistances in Hell, even if 1 of each has a different element resistance.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out, I'll see how this goes in terms of damage/survivability and change accordingly.
=D

[Immortal_King]

this is the second time ive had to say something like this "what bow zon in their right mind has 174 str?"

It takes another ~30 str, so you lose 30ED worth of dex, but then you're putting in ED/sias jools (maybe) and getting all sorts of other goodies. Probably not for a frostmaiden but it's not that bad of a deal as people think.

[Eilo Rytyj]

Your build is a Frostmaiden. The best armor for a Frostmaiden is Chains of Honor, not Fortitude. That's an extra 35% to 45% resist right there. The +2 skills helps your Freezing Arrow by heaps, as well as your Passives, Valkyrie, and it's another 10%ed on Strafe, too. Change it if you can.

Highlord's will get you that Lit Res, failing that, there's rare +2 Amazon skills amulets you can MF, which can spawn with resist. You really want +skills on your gear with a Frostmaiden to get your cold damage up. Mara's is another choice if you have it.

You want your gloves to be +2 Bow/20IAS rare gloves, not LoH. +2 Bow skills means more Freezing Arrow damage. They can spawn with resists too.

A second Raven Frost boosts your Freezing Arrow damage (15-45 cold dmg adds to FA splash), and almost negates your need for cold resist.

Keep the Nightwing's, the +2 skills and +cold dmg% is important for Freezing Arrow damage, and is more worth it than Kira's or CoA. A Cold Facet belongs in the NW socket, or a 15% IAS jewel if you need it to reach 8 frames.

Load up on Bow GCs too. With CoH, Torch, and some random res SC/LC/GC's, you should have near-max resist. Max resist isn't needed on a Bowazon, because you have Decoy instead. More damage is all good.

[Enigmers]

I myself am planning to use kiras + CoH to get my resists into the positives, then 50% on the LoH, some poison on Sandstorm trek, some light on Highlords, and cold absorb on Ravenfrost make you somewhat more durable to the elements.

Also consider the fact that if you chaos/baal to get exp, there will often be two hammer pallys there, so one can use Concentration for both of them while the other switches to something party-friendly, like salvation.

[emar]

Also consider the fact that if you chaos/baal to get exp, there will often be two hammer pallys there, so one can use Concentration for both of them while the other switches to something party-friendly, like salvation.

Wow you have some unwarranted confidence in pub games/gamers. Salvation? Please... Cleansing is rare...

Re. Resists: FrostMaiden should be sitting at max or very close to.

[Rassler]

At the moment I've switched to Kiras until I can find suitable resists elsewhere (Rings/Ammy... need resists + leech) to put my Nightwings back on. This of course is only in Hell mode. In Nightmare and Normal resists are maxed with Nightwings on.

In Hell mode, my fire resists are maxed, and poison/lightning/cold sitting at 53 with Kiras on. Of course Im losing about 400-500 damage with FA due to the loss of Nightwings (which sucks) but in terms of survivability, Im liking it so far.