Witchyzon armor choice for budget

[konfeta]

I am building a glasscanon witchyzon, strafer, with might merc; however I am still trying to figure out exactly how should I achieve 86% breakpoint or should I go for the 105% point.

Weapon: Upgraded Witchwild String (2 Shael for 40% IAS)
Helmet: Tal Rasha's Mask (Jewel with 15% IAS)
Armor: Lionheart - Hel-Lum-Fal (25 Str) / Twitchthroe (20% IAS) / Treachery (45% IAS) ---- +15% IAS from Jewel.
Belt: Razortail
Gloves: Lavagout or Hitpower (20% IAS)
Boots: War Travelers
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: Ravenfrost
Amulet: Cat's Eye (20% IAS) or Atma's.

Bolded are my final equip choices for those slots, so the question is how should I use the rest of my gear to achieve the strafe breakpoints.

Version 1 - 2 Shael for 40%, Headjewelslot for 15% IAS, Gloves 20% IAS, Cat's Eye 20% IAS. Armor slot is used by Lionheart. 86% Breakpoint reached.

Version 2 - 2 Shael for 40%, Headjewelslot for 15% IAS, Gloves 20% IAS, Twitchthroe for 20% IAS, Chestjewewl slot open for other stuff to put in. Amulet slot is used by Atma's. 86% Breakpoint reached.

Version 3 - 2 Shael for 40%, Headjewelslot for 15% IAS, Gloves 20% IAS, Twitchthroe for 20% IAS. Cat's Eye 20% IAS. Chestjewel slot open for other stuff to put in. 113% Breakpoint reached.

Version 4 - 2 Shael for 40%, Gloves 20% IAS, Headjewelslot for 15% IAS, Treachery for 45% IAS. Amulet slot is used by Atma's. 113% Breakpoint reached.

Those are the four versions I am looking at (WWS is already shaeled), which one would expirienced Amazons will suggest to be the best? This Amazon will have two tanks and constant decoy spam and is pretty much there too kill stuff in Pits/Chaos/WSK for runeword quality non-magical armor and weapons.

How much improvement will I see for going from 86% to 113% breakpoint?
Is it worth it in order to go down to 86% IAS and lower chance for Amp damage proc?
Or should I go with version 4 to reach both 113% Breakpoint AND higher chance of Amp damage for lower other stats?

*Edit - modified in light of Yogirat's revelation.

[YogiRat]

Unforunately, the 8/2 break is 113IAS. (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=183692) Still very doable though.

[maiku]

I am running a similar setup on my Witchyzon right now.

Upgraded WWS w/ 2 shael (40% IAS)
Helmet: Tarnhelm socketed with perfect topaz (65% mf), if I need more leech and life, etc., I can switch to a Tal's Mask or if I want extra IAS I slip in Mav's Diadem (30% IAS) to compensate for other equipment changes. Because I'm using her mostly for magic finding and item hunting, I stick to Tarn 95% of the time. El cheapo.
Belt: Goldwrap when doing runs, Razortail when I'm not so concerned about MF and want more damage.
Gloves: Sad to say it, but I'm using Cleglaw's gloves. I put a pair of Lavagouts on her, and I like the Enchant and fire damage from them, but I find myself getting swarmed if I have no knockback and slow to mess up enemies. With Cleglaw's on, I almost never die, and my Valk and Might merc beat slowed baddies to death quickly. Very useful for runs, because I don't like to die and lose a lot of gold or experience. Makes me a mad zon.
Boots: War Trav's that I found with her on a Pit run. :smiley:
Rings: 7% Manald & rare 5% life leech ring with resists.
Amulet: Cat's Eye. I like the faster run, 20% IAS, and +25 dex. That's a hefty damage bonus and makes my zon so much more mobile. I really value mobility, since my life and defense are low.
Armor: Treachery. I had Twitch on before, but I find the Venom, Fade, and 45% IAS from Treachery to be lovely for its price.

So let's see, my current setup gives 40% from bow, 10% from Goldwrap, 20% IAS from Cat's Eye, 45% from Treachery = 115% IAS. I barely am past the 113% breakpoint.

You should find that once you hit the 86% breakpoint that Amp fires off pretty regularly on packs using Strafe. 113% IAS is better, because it would help with more damage and getting Amp off more, but I do worry a bit about your lack of knockback and other things to hamper crowds moving toward you. If you have more life or a lot of cold charms, this may not be a problem. For my high dex Witchy, any enemy near me = death. She only has 550 health mainly from charms. Swarms are bad especially in the Pit or Tower. Pit isn't as much a nightmare, because you have more open space to shoot and drop them, but the Tower, with its tight spaces, corners, and doorways where enemies suddenly surge out in numbers can be a real danger. With knockback and slow, enemies bounce away like ping-pong balls and try to crawl back toward you with their feet stuck in mud. I find that invaluable right now. I wonder if you will notice the same when or if you are in hell difficulty. Decoy, Valk, and your merc will be your good friends...with knockback and slow, I sometimes forget to cast my Valk because nothing gets close to me.

All of these options are pretty good. I do question stacking Atma's 5% amp on top of WWS's 2%, because both of them should fire off regularly if you have fast Strafe. That's why I took a Cat's Eye as my final choice, because I rely on WWS to give me amp. I can see why you would want amp to cast 2.5 times more often...but I wonder if it's worth the loss of 20% IAS, faster run, and 25 dex from Cat's Eye in this build. For physical immunes, anyway, I find myself switching to my Harmony to dispose of them through elemental damage. Then I go back to WWS as I do 90% of the time.

My suggestion is that you get to hell difficulty and give all these equipment setups a try and find what works for you the best. I had to do that before I settled on my current equipment setup, and I drove my friends crazy on our runs because I was trying new gloves, helms, etc. to find the right fit.

Your equipment should also fit your play style. I play a very mobile Witchyzon, always positioning myself for better shots with Strafe or moving from danger when I see something coming. Knockback and Slow give me plenty of time to do this. My other friends who have Amazons sometimes run up close to the enemies and think they can shoot them all dead before they start hitting. This gets my friends' bowazons killed a lot. Also, they don't realize that Multishot functions quite differently from Strafe and requires a different play style.

[CaptnSparrow]

I'd use 20ias/KB gloves, myself. They're not expensive to attempt at making, I personally got pretty lucky and hit a pair on my first craft attempt. If you have your Cat's eye and use Treachery, you could also use 10ias/KB gloves.


If you have the 20 from Cat's eye, then I'd go 10-20 gloves, 20 ammy, 40 bow, 45 treachery, which is from 115 - 125 total. That way you can pack a nice rare belt with resists and life, both of which any bowzon is dying for.

[AnimeCraze]

IMO there is no point in going for the 113 strafe breakpoint, as it shaves off 1 frame from what, 27 frames? The most I will go for is the 8 frame multi/guided with a WWS.

Another thing, why 2x shael the bow + cleglaw's gloves when you can do shael+nef on the bow and use laying of hands? The ED to demon is just sweet in areas like the pit and chaos.

What I did last ladder was:
Treachery (45) + LoH (20) + Cat's Eye (20) + shael/nef WWS (20) = 105.

Everything changed though, after I acquired a WF.

[konfeta]

Well, thanks for all the write ups, but I am specifically interested in those 4 equipment variants. It's why I put 'em there. I will have knockback from Hitpower gloves, and the bolded items are there to stay and have been chosen after careful consideration. And I am not doing Tower with this character.

The main question, is once again, is if the 113% is worth going for (this will help me shave off half the variants) and specifically how often the 2% Amp procs while strafing, i.e. does it affect every pack I fight. Having double damage on every group is considerably faster killing speed then double damage on every other group.

So, it boils down to: 86% BP/No Atma, 86%BP/Atma, 113%BP/No Atma 113%BP/Atma. The idea is that to achieve the higher speed or to achieve atma I lose out on bonuses of Lionheart, so I am asking if it's worth losing the Lionheart to achieve a guaranteed Amp proc on every group or higher breakpoint or both.

*Anime, it says that it goes from 9/2 to 8/2. So all it means that it starts fires the first shot slightly faster but the actual strafe speed that determines DPS remains the same, am I correct?

If that is so, then I think it boils down to Lionheart + Cat's Eye verseus Twitchthrone + Atma's.

[AnimeCraze]

*Anime, it says that it goes from 9/2 to 8/2. So all it means that it starts fires the first shot slightly faster but the actual strafe speed that determines DPS remains the same, am I correct?Yes. Do note that the 105 BP for guided will make killing diablo himself easier though.