About Magezons..

[Rassler]

Ive read the few Magezon guides around the place, but nothing is quite up to date with gears and things. Is this build still viable for playing? Ive been using a Frostmaiden for a little while now, and Ive always wondered about Immolation Arrow and the right side of the Bow and Crossbows skill tree, but never actually went there.

Ive thought about a proper Magezon to look something like this.

20 Immolation Arrow
20 Freezing Arrow
18 Cold Arrow (FA Damage Synergy)
18 Exploding Arrow (Immo Damage Synergy)
17 Valkyrie
Rest in Prereqs
1 Point in: Pierce, Penetrade, D/A/E, Bow skills etc

Equipment (Can someone say expensive?)
Weapon: For FA: +3 Ice Matriarchal Bow/ For Immo: +3 Phoenix Matriarchal bow
Armor: Chains of Honour/Vipermagi/Enigma
Helm: Shako (Skills, Life/Mana), Nightwings (for Damage + Mods), Kiras (for Res)
Boots: War Travs/Treks
Rings: SoJ/BK, Rare Leeching Ring (Not essential thanks to Redemption)
Gloves: Magefists/LoH/Frostburns
Ammy: Maras
Belt: Razortail/Arachnid (Maybe?)

My priority is +skills as much as possible, considering the majority (if not all) the damage is coming from the elemental damage of the arrows, and not the arrows themselves. As for the Merc, Im considering Infinity, though Im not quite sure what aura I want him to have. Ice has Holy Freeze already, and Might won't help too much (I think), so my best next guess would be Defiance.

I'd love to try and build one as a side project, though Im a bit hesitant how it'll go in Hell mode.

Oh, and regarding the "so called dramatic Immolation 1 sec delay", it's not too bad if you alternate your skills. Immo > Freezing > Burn > Strafe?

Let me know any of your thoughts (both positive and negative would be nice).

[Yossarian]

Might won't help too much (I think), so my best next guess would be Defiance.

Might will help mana leach if you go that route and you should have some. FA uses mega mana and redemption don't work till stuff is dead.

You have no IAS which is fine if you go the Immo route but you'll shoot hellaslow with FA. Lots of blow charms are also likely needed. I'd also fully boost those syns for fire. A thought might be.

20 FA for freezing
20 Immo
20 Exploding
20 Fire arrow
1 Valk
Rest into Cold arrow

Use Peace

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

That will give you a solid valk to hide behind with little point investment and +2 skills.

Spam FA to hold monsters still then burn them.

[Hector]

Looks really interesting; I thought of something similar but I'm the kind of player who cannot stand Immo's 1 second timer.

I'd like to mention that with your gear, you'll probably have a lot of +skills, so a base level 17 Valkyrie seems a lot, max the synergies instead and go with a lower Valk as she will get to 17 after Anni, Torch, etc. You'll need as much damage as possible.

For the merc I would go with Might + Infinity (Insight for a while to sort out Mana problems). Or, get a Rogue with a Faith (we're not considering prices anyway). She'll make you shoot so much faster, and won't need much IAS from your gear so you can load up on +Skills and mostly ignore IAS (I think with a Level 14-15 Fanat Aura you'll need only 45% IAS for a Matriarchal Bow to reach max speed, I'm not sure but it can't be too far off). Careful on the Mana though, you'll most likely run out REALLY fast.

Gloves, try getting a magical +3 Bow skills, 20 IAS. That would be neat, and much better than the ones you list there. :) Or a rare +2 Bow skills, 20 IAS, 3% Mana Steal, +Mana, etc.

Boots, I'd go War Travs for the 15-25 extra damage that adds quite a lot for a Matriarchal Bow.

Belt, you are locked to Razortail because you can only place 1 point into Pierce and you'll want 100% Pierce. Lv 1 Pierce +8 from skills = 100%.

A +2 Amazon amulet with Mana Steal and other mods would be better than Mara's IMHO but quite hard to find. Same for helm, if can you get a rare +2 Amazon circlet with Mana Steal. Andy's visage would do good too but it's so fugly... :laughing:

[Rassler]

Thanks for the input. Just realised something regarding the gloves, Laying of Hands' effect of 350% damage to Demons, it doesn't work with the Elemental side of Immolation/Freezing Arrow... right? If not, then I'll scrap them for some +skill gloves.

It's really tempting to make, but Im not sure if I want to sacrifice that much to get the gear required, as it is quite gear-dependant. Im making a Light Sorc for MFing and things, might put this off for a little while until I can find some better suited equipment for her.

Oh and... is it viable? In Hell at least.

[Hector]

Thanks for the input. Just realised something regarding the gloves, Laying of Hands' effect of 350% damage to Demons, it doesn't work with the Elemental side of Immolation/Freezing Arrow... right? If not, then I'll scrap them for some +skill gloves.

It's really tempting to make, but Im not sure if I want to sacrifice that much to get the gear required, as it is quite gear-dependant. Im making a Light Sorc for MFing and things, might put this off for a little while until I can find some better suited equipment for her.

Oh and... is it viable? In Hell at least.

The extra damage to demons from LoH applies only to physical damage. So it does not benefit your elemental damage at all, just the physical part of the arrow.

With such crazy gear, for sure it must be viable, i.e. beat Hell solo if you wish. My guess is it would kill slower than a Faith/WF pure physical built, or a Frostmaiden/Strafe build.