need help with bowazon

[Undies]

my question is, what kinds of gear should i aim to try to acquire first in order to get the most bang for the buck? my current gear is really crappy:

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3184/screenshot001ui9.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7382/screenshot003it7.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3382/screenshot005zt5.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8314/screenshot007al4.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3786/screenshot009sl8.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3876/screenshot011xz8.jpg
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/471/screenshot013xa2.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8920/screenshot015xc2.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6279/screenshot017ua4.jpg

my resistances are shown in hell

other equipment i can use is on my merc: endless hail double bow and Guillaume's Face

my things only worth trading are 1 pul, several thul/amn/sol/shael, 6-7 perf amey and other pgems (i believe 17 in total counting the ameythsts), unid lidless grim shield, 2 os arreats, ik boots, 5% ll crown of thieves

should i try to craft rings/ammy's and hope to get lucky and get something tradeable/usable or should i just trade what i have for some low zon gear and do runs in nightmare?

thanks

[Aiglos]

you can help yourself immensely on the quite cheap.

You have 17 Pgems and a Pul?

That should get you the following for certain:

Valk Wing
Kira's Guardian -- which is actually what I would opt for here, and socket it with a 15IAS/Secondary Mod jewel)
Rockstopper
Mav's Diadem

Cat's Eye
Mahim Oak Curio (though this would be a last resort)
Eye of Etlitch
Crescent Moon

Skin of the Viper Magi (+30 on the res)
Lionheart (this would be MY choice, but some folks like the +1 skils on Viper)
Smoke (GREAT bowie armor for NM and into early Hell)
Peace (especially nice if you don't have a Valk tank, but you'll miss the all res of the others)
Treachery (a little bit more expensive seeing as it will cost you a Lem, but this is AS GOOD as either Smoke or Lionheart -- the Fade will ease your res issues a great deal, and the 45 IAS is very welcome...just great mods all over)

LOH gloves
Cleg's gloves
Bloodfist
Magnus Skin

Raven Frost (you can probably get a crappy one for free)
Raven Frost (or a nice dual leech rare ring that you might come across, but two of these will do the trick for a long while)

Credendum belt
Nos Coil
Razor Tail

NOW...onto your bow...there are LOTS of bows that will do better than this.

WWS (Witchwild String)
Cliffkiller
Eaglehorn
Blood Raven's Charge
Riphook
Lycander's Aim

RUNEWORD BOWS:

Harmony
Passion
Melody (if you are a FA zon)

All of these are affordable, and for the price, well, I'd say go with Harmony. Especially if you have a tanking Valk.

And if you are an FA zon then you could probably get ALL of Mavina's kit for next to nothing (eh, you might struggle finding the headpiece).

But the earlier gear outlay will take care of your res issues, it'll up your damage output considerably, and you could probably score the whole kit for all your pgems (well, okay, maybe 20+) and that's without giving up your Pul.

If all else fails then stick with either full Sig's or full Iratha's and build from there -- those are both fully NM viable sets. Heck, you could probably even get away with using Arctic set if you had some means to increase the damage output...but I'd say Iratha's is probably your best bet if you're looking to improve on UBER CHEAP.

Now you just have to find folks to help you out, eh?

What kind of merc are you using currently?

[Aiglos]

WWS (double shael)
LOH
Credendum Belt
Skin of the Viper Magi
Kira's Guardian (shael or 15 IAS/second mod jewel)

This should really get your res moving in the right direction. Plus, with this setup you'll probably hit an 8 fpa -- which is reasonable here.

If you're looking to hit a lower breakpoint then you might want to opt out for the Passion Bow instead of the Harmony. Both would work for late Nightmare and into early Hell, I would think.

[Undies]

thx for advice, i acutally forgot to take a screenshot but my character is wearing valk wing at the moment

my skills are around 15 pts in valk, 15 in guided arrow, around 10 in strafe (i am going to put more in this) and around 6/6/6 in the dodge, avoid, and the last skill in which i forgot the name in and the rest of the pts spread around, some in penetrate, others in critical strike

i'm using a normal act 1 cold arrow merc; i've been reading a lot of guides and it seems that they suggest i go with a fire merc or a might act 2 merc but i dont know; also, does a holy freeze merc mean that if i kill a monster while under this aura, the body shatters and does not revive? i find that if i use freezing arrow, then i get that effect but if i just rely on cold dmg from my charms, they can still be reviven

also, if i boost my IAS, does that boost the speed in which i can complete one round of strafe and does it reduce cooldown of GA?

what is LOH? also, i see the bows with open sockets being traded are usually buyable with pgems, and i think that i am going to go with your advice to build a harmony, unless you think i can afford a better bow; but what bow should i build it in? i believe i have the necessary str to use any bow

also, i never knew some of hte runeword bows were that cheap :) i just figured that if i havent seen the rune before, its way out of my league

i think for now, i'm just gonna keep on making perf gems and using that to acquire the equipment you listed

[Aiglos]

If I were you...here is what I would shoot for immediately:

Treachery or Lionheart (preferably in a nice defense Dusk Shroud)

LOH (Laying of Hands -- gloves from The Disciple set -- 50% fire res, 20 IAS, and 350% ED damage to Demons)

Credendum Belt

Cat's Eye

Those should all be relatively very easy to come by.

If you can't locate the armors then start running NM cows and wait for a good two socket to drop then go make yourself a SMOKE.

As to the bows -- Harmony is Tir, Ith, Sol, Ko (CHEAP!!!!) and Passion would be (Dol, Ort, Eld, Lem...I think). Both are cheap. Ideally, you'll want to make them in +3 Matriarchal bows, but that could be a difficult find. Barring that, I would suggest that you make it in an Ashwood Bow. If you're just desperate and can't find a + skills bow...go with something fast -- Diamond Bow or something of that nature. Find something that will allow you to run a few high level NM areas. BETTER YET...find a setup that allows you to run Andy and the Pits...in early Hell with relative ease and you can start mf'ing in that way.

If you're just straight desperate then try to find one of the listed unique bows.

Actually, WWS is probably the best of the whole bunch next to Harmony. I would be hardpressed to decide which to use...

[squiggle]

Noone has mentioned this bow but..
Goldstrike arch.

It had 50 ias already unsocketed. And does decent damage. Enough to run pits with relative ease.



Also shoot for atmas ammy. To deal with phys immunes.

And dual leach rings :D