Nightmare Strafe gear help

[Ax2Grind]

Currently running a 2Dex/3Vit-per-level physical/poison strafer who had almost 500Life before starting act five at CLvl31 (didn't have ideal supplemental items to go with Arctic Gear). Now CLvl36, she'll be ready for ultra-low strength gear, wearing Endlesshail (58RStr) and any similar heavy items with charms and other assistance. I'm giving my Blessed Aim mercenary Hwanin's Majesty, so I'll probably wear the belt, at least. It gets a bit complicated from there on, especially for skills. Strafe, Inner Sight, and Penetrate should give me 90% or higher against everything, Magic Arrow (for ItPs) should probably reach 95%. Avoid is necessary since the ranged attacks while attacking are the real danger, assuming I having forgotten how to play, but everything else I'm a bit fuzzy on.

Which gear can get me to CLvl68/69 (early hell) so that I won't have to worry about transferring for 33 levels?
What is the generally accepted maximums for Avoid and others, as well as the minimums (SLvl17 Valkyrie, if I'm not mistaken, but I have to find out where to take the points from)?
Are there better gloves than +2Skill/20%IAS/3%MS at RLvl35, and would Peace be better than spending 14-16 additional points in Valkyrie?

[YogiRat]

Hmmm, where to start. While I really like low str bowzon builds, your stat placement seems peculiar to me, you are not putting enough points into dex. Is this a hardcore build?

[GotFriana]

Hmm its not clear what is your aim with the build when she s done. As said you may be rather high on life already. I assume you will compensate the base str later with torch and anni and other +str items? I d not invest more than 1 point in Magic Arrow, no more than 4-5 points in avoid. The equip is a bit progressive during NM you may not find something to take you all the way easily. If you are going strafe then razortail is a good belt, Riphook is a bow that can take you all the way until mid NM, you dont need +bow skills so much. Check all the rares you see it may happen you find one much better than any unique you could use. Unless you are desperate for AR switch your merc in Nm as soon as possible for a might merc, but the gear you listed has no Life Leech which he ll need. Max penetrate, going pure strafe will leave you spare skill points even after maxing Valk that you could use to spend on Guided Arrow for bosses. If you are going to use poison then I believe you dont have to worry about IAS so much. Armor Lion Heart or Twitchtrow.
I m not sure what you want so I m going a bit blind on my recomendations maybe this is not what you had in mind.
Edit: dont forget life leech and mana leech on yourself.

[Ax2Grind]

Not at all. I believe 2Dex/3Vit should easily allow me to meet the RDex for any bow and then some, while the life makes sure I don't die - that's worked so far as people all around me have been dying while I rarely come close to juvie level, but that's B.ent. If you're suggesting I count on leech to keep both bulbs full, then I can alter it to 2.5/2.5, or even 3/2. I realize, unlike other builds, that Strafe can be totally dependent on dexterity for attack rating, damage, and requirements (especially since no other bow skill really is), but since I've never averaged more than 2Dex per level on any build - previously playing balanced - I thought better safe than sorry early on.

[GotFriana]

The bowzon is a ranged attacker, playing in public games you have a disadvantage: you are not front line and you lose first dibs on drops. Yes you can make a high life bowzon and tank a bit but then you will not kill as fast later, and in hell you will need that. You said it yourself maybe it d be time to switch your play style a little in this build, you have the advantage of being ranged you can kill them off screen without them even seeing you, so you don t really need high life or even high resistances. Yes no matter what amazon build you do your best option is to keep your bulbs full with leech. And you mentioned poison, that s not a bad idea, its shoot and run so even more reason to not worry so much about life you should not get hit in first place, but you need high AR to actually hit.

[Ax2Grind]

Missed that post in the middle, so I'll respond to it after some sleep. As for stats, I do plan to reconfigure for 3/2, and that means going 5/0 for some time. This is probably a perfect point to do it, since nightmare needs the damage to start rising. As for poison, I'm not talking about as many 313s as I can get, just enough to keep regeneration a non-factor with high physical resistants. So, I'll be questioning the Pierce/Guided Arrow over the Penetrate/Magic Arrow with a build that's designed to do most of its damage as physical.

[Ax2Grind]

People seem to think I type too much, but in reality they tend to miss the point I'm trying to get at when they tell me to summarize. Nevertheless, here's the short version:

If physical immunes are the bane of strafers, and I see no other build utilizing Magic Arrow to its full effect, why don't they max their damage and take advantage of the increased conversion and +skills to the x/bow page?

How can Pierce be more important than Penetrate for a skill with autotargetting, not only when not missing appears to remove the missile, but especially if it hits and monsters aren't grouped behind each other like cows are for Lightning Fury?

Even if Avoid does lose skill point value after five, doesn't the importance of it and Inner Sight (given you have the time with this build to cast it, and Blessed Aim mercenaries alike share a party benefit) seem lost on other builds?

Long version (skip if you understand what I'm getting at above):

Before starting a strafer I always look for specific equipment: Arctic Gear and RLvl2 Large Charms of Dexterity/Strength (preferrably with nice rare boots, helm and crossbow), Hwanin's Majesty and Endlesshail with associated charms and rares, and so on. That, though, was when I played
very close to the 1/1/1.5/1.5 vest with regards to stats, but as stated I'm going ultra-low strength and completely dependent on mana leech to keep me going. My experience has shown a physical/poison strafe build, using Magic Arrow for physical immunes, can easily survive on leech given the damage is so high and MA is free at a certain level.

The season before last, however, I had a perfect Endlesshail and Pus Spitter, and decided to upgrade them both. Well, for a Strafe bow the former just isn't built with that in mind, since a double bow has 58RStr and a Great Bow is insanely high - all that strength just isn't necessary when using that skill. I came to the same conclusion the guides did, in that
this is the ideal ranged physical design based on all the factors involved, even more so than a throwing Barbarian. So, although I'm planning to use ELH when I get her going again, I certainly can't have any gear above its RStr.

With companion skills I used logic to decide, so let's see where exactly that fails. Given this is almost a totally physical damage build, in as much as the poison is slow and meant to curb regeneration between hits, physical immunes are a real danger - to my mercenary as well as myself. For this
reason I believe Magic Arrow is perfectly suited, especially since I cannot name another build specifically adapted to use it and so many bows out there automatically shoot some form of of it or the fire branch. Add to this the limited bonus skills to the bow page, as the cold and fire branches get far more damage than Strafe or Magic Arrow do from skill charms, and it seems wise to spend the skill points making it a very high level.

Then I look at Passive and Magic abilities, which a Strafer tends to gain more from with +skills than Fletcher's Grand Charms. Strafe has no attack rating bonus, and it's the only bow skill dependent on it - Guided Arrow doesn't need it and Multishot doesn't need it nearly as much, as it shoots at a predesigned spaced wedge. Strafe automatically targets all, or all-beyond-the-first depending, and as such the arrows are usually along the tile of the individual monster it targets, rarely perfectly aligned with others. This means if it doesn't hit that monster it isn't going to hit anyone else,
and even if it does hit them it rarely hits anything behind it. Hence, one point into Pierce would seem to work fine, but more are needed in Penetrate.

Same is true for Avoid, assuming you play the build properly (not getting close enough to allow melee attacks to matter past your defense and Dodge and Evade). Perhaps, due to the diminishing returns, it's wasteful for a limited resource to place more than a certain amount of them into it, but Inner Sight goes a long way, as well. Combined with a Blessed Aim Desert Warrior, the type others rarely use, it can help significantly raise the chance to hit even the highest defense enemy, be it monster or player killer, and you should have the time and technique to cast it before monsters get close enough to make you regret it.

Slow missiles is somewhat wasted on this build, but a Decoy and Valkyrie take a lot of pressure off your merc, allowing him a better chance to live. This, of course, assumes they're a high enough level, and that's where the extras become important. Skimping on other skills may be acceptable,
assuming they're high enough as is. For instance, if +skills pushes Avoid to the proper curve position with only five points used, the other fifteen can be redistributed. Without getting into the synergy pattern I developed, which works well with other builds, a strafer really doesn't have synergies, so this kind of detail is necessary.