Bow-Assassin?

[Updawg]

Is this viable for dueling?

Skill point break down:
20 venom
16 Fade
20 Shock Web
20 Lightning Sentry
20 Charged bolt sentry
1 Death Sentry

1 Mindblast
1 blade shield
1 Shadow Master
1 cloak of shadows

10 Pre Reqs


Equip:
Wep: Edge Bow (on switch cta/spirit)
Body Armor: Bramble
Helmet: Andy's Visage 5/5 Psn Facet
Belt: Verdungo's
Rings: 2x P-Bk's
Gloves: Trangs
Ammy: Highlords
Boots: Shadow Dancers
Charms: 9x Shadow Charms, Anni, Torch, life charms.

Stats:
Str: enough to wear equip
Dex: enough to wear equip
Vit: Everything else
Erg: None

Strategy:
Precast Fade, Blade Shield, Master, and Venom on cta/spirit switch. Lay down all ls traps around you - switch to bow and have mind blast ready.

You'll have level 30 thorns from bow and bramble, and if an enemy gets close and they hit you their is the thorns penalty plus the blade shield carrys the venom over.

To fight a caster throw on a widowmaker and cast cloack of shadows to drop their defence real low and start layinging out guided arrows while using the traps as defence.

[mephiztophelez]

first thought: your IAS will be through the toilet.

most 'sins that use a bow, use a widowmaker rather than an Edge, and most of them only pull the bow out for specific matchups (i need a cats-eye and a 15dex fcr ring to pick mine up). socket with a Nef or an Um. i don't think the Edge idea is a good one, if you get hit by a baba, you'll probably be killed before your thorns kills them.

with 0% block bowside, and wearing a Bramble, i doubt you'd want to run fade. you'll need the mobility & ias of BoS.

i rekon 48% (or whatever the BP below 65% is) FCR would come in very handy, you'll still want to throw a lot of MB around.

now, one suggestion: given you won't have the "double application" action of the %psn damage from Trangs going (being ranged rather than melee), perhaps pre-cast venom with 'trangs then switch to Dracs for OW damage. but that makes any appreciable fcr that much harder to get.

in all: i like having a widowmaker handy on my speederlander'sin, but i wouldn't run with a bow as a primary weapon.

[yelopen]

first thought: your IAS will be through the toilet.

most 'sins that use a bow, use a widowmaker rather than an Edge, and most of them only pull the bow out for specific matchups (i need a cats-eye and a 15dex fcr ring to pick mine up). socket with a Nef or an Um. i don't think the Edge idea is a good one, if you get hit by a baba, you'll probably be killed before your thorns kills them.

with 0% block bowside, and wearing a Bramble, i doubt you'd want to run fade. you'll need the mobility & ias of BoS.

i rekon 48% (or whatever the BP below 65% is) FCR would come in very handy, you'll still want to throw a lot of MB around.

now, one suggestion: given you won't have the "double application" action of the %psn damage from Trangs going (being ranged rather than melee), perhaps pre-cast venom with 'trangs then switch to Dracs for OW damage. but that makes any appreciable fcr that much harder to get.

in all: i like having a widowmaker handy on my speederlander'sin, but i wouldn't run with a bow as a primary weapon.

Btw, on that note, is Widowmaker crucial?

Also, I believe wizadept is a bow/kick hybrid. You can look up "Zaiychik" on google video.

[CaptnSparrow]

Well, without Guided Arrow the Attack Rating will be kinda... bad.

[mephiztophelez]

Btw, on that note, is Widowmaker crucial?
i wouldn't say it's 'crucial', just very, very handy against desy hammerdins and barbs.

what is crucial is that you pick it up with a bare minimum spend in dex. like i said, i add in another +40 dex when i want to use it. if i ever do another rebuild, i'll hel it AND use the ammy/ring.

[yelopen]

i wouldn't say it's 'crucial', just very, very handy against desy hammerdins and barbs.

what is crucial is that you pick it up with a bare minimum spend in dex. like i said, i add in another +40 dex when i want to use it. if i ever do another rebuild, i'll hel it AND use the ammy/ring.

What's the dex req on it?

[mephiztophelez]

What's the dex req on it?
off the top of my head, err, 146? thereabouts anyways.

not a problem for a max-block-with-SS build, but frightening for a character whose claws have a dex req of 79*, eg: mine.

*idk, they're greater-talons.

[yelopen]

off the top of my head, err, 146? thereabouts anyways.

not a problem for a max-block-with-SS build, but frightening for a character whose claws have a dex req of 79*, eg: mine.

*idk, they're greater-talons.

I meant with a Hel.
I have one Runic and one GT, so dex shouldn't be too problematic.

[order]

to build a bowsin effective in today's pvp environment youll need to have a prebuff setup and an actually bow setup. i would recommend something similar to this

gear1:
3shadow ammy
3shadow circ (2x 5/5 psn)
high % bramble (dusk for low reqs since u'll use enigma for your main gear)
2x 3shadow claws (2x 5/5 facet)
trang gloves

gear2:
enigma (dusk)
widowmaker (umed)
20ias kb gloves
2/20/ sin circlet w/ 15ias/mod jewel
maras (maybe highlords im not too sure on the ias bps to shoot faster on a sin)
1 fcr ring w/ desirable mods
1 ravenfrost
shadowdancers
arachnid belt
torch/ anni
cta/ spirit
1x shadow fhr and 8x shadowlifers (make sure u get to the 48fhr bp)

with this setup you'll be able to achieve a high damage venom guided arrow and maintain a setup with enough fcr and fhr to get you out of most situations. fade would be the best choice to use on this build since youll have adequate ias from your circ and gloves altho bos would be much more useful against hammerdins and smiters.

[Queen Mebd]

20ias kb gloves
2/20/ sin circlet w/ 15ias/mod jewel
maras (maybe highlords im not too sure on the ias bps to shoot faster on a sin)

That'd be sacrificing a bit of gear just to get ias, not to mention giving up the Trang's for extra poison dmg. On my bowsin I ran 1pt bos, and with all the skillers needed only about 15ish ias elsewhere to hit the last ga bp.

Updawg, there's a guide by BigChief stickied in the guide sections explaining the build (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=584), have a look there for a little better idea of how to lay one out.

It's a little outdated though, and I'd recommend using an "enigma" over "bramble" as BigChief does. I think the setup I used with mine was something like this:

"enigma" dusk shroud
Widowmaker socketed with an um
Trang's gloves (25% poison dmg and 20% fcr are big here)
Arachnid mesh (20% fcr and + skill)
Highlord's amulet (all the ias you'd need, + skill and deadly strike for more on top of the widow's)
Ravenfrost (cbf if I ever take the Kira's off, 20 dex makes using the widow/blocking easier)
fcr ring (to bump up to the 42 fcr bp, think it also had life/mana/min dmg, aim for one with mana & dex)
Shadowdancer's (+2 skills help with more venom, try for 20+ dex to save points, the 30 fhr helps a bunch too)
Kira's guardian with an um against casters (20 fhr, resists are hard to come by bowside, if you wanted more resists and skills you could socket this with an ias/resist jewel and put on a Mara's, you could also go with this and a 15+ fcr amulet for the 65 fcr bp)
thought about using a Giant skull against melee for the kb, but never got around to it
torch, anni, "cta," "spirit," yadda yadda yadda
"Call to arms" was in a phase blade (which also allowed fast trapping when the bow wasn't out, it'll also let you easily hit the 65 fcr bp shieldside against casters) though often kept a stormshield in place of the "spirit," this is useful against melee if you need to block against melee should they get in your face
Also hit the 86 fhr bp via charms - I found that mobility and maneuverability were much more useful than straight venom dmg (though getting as high as possible is important)
Lastly, if you want some fun gear switches, knock off some fuzzy arrows then switch to a dweb to make the poison sting that much more, or a Fleshripper for even more ow


as far as skills went, maxed venom, lightning sentry, 2 points in mb (for the shadow to use more), 1 point into shadow master, prereqs and all the rest into light sentry synergies.

Hope that helps, luck with the bowsin should you make one. They're a lot of fun - though not overly powerful.