Fine-tuning my strafeazon

[Zon2000]

I have a level 91 "pure-bow" strafe/multishot amazon. She does satisfyingly well against general monsters.

So the question is, "what's next?"

Right now the only bit of trouble I have is against act bosses - mostly Baal, although Diablo can sometimes give me some minor annoyances. It seems Diablo *always* targets ME with his lightning hose. Not my valkryie. Not my merc. As for Baal, he'll eventually clone himself and it takes forever and a day to kill him.

My first question would be - what's most effective against large-hp single targets? Guided arrow or strafe?

My second question is, what gear can I juggle around to maximize both plain monster killing and act boss killing? I don't want a separate stash of equipment to lug around and switch.

My current gear:
Stealskull + ptopaz
Scarab husk Fortitude
Razortail
LoH
War Traveler
Ravenfrost
Rare life leech ring with resists
Atma's Scarab (have been trying Highlord's... but it seems I kill significantly faster with Atma's)
13/1/3 Mat Faith
Alt bow: Harmony in a blade bow

Merc gear:
Andy's visage with ral
Ethereal duress
Ethereal crescent moon in an ogre axe

I also have access to a level 35+ BO and level 34 Enchant :grin:

I don't think I can change much on my gear, so that leaves my merc. Reaper's Toll for the decrep maybe? If I go that route I'd switch out the scarab ammy to Highlords. At the moment I'm saving up the runes to make a Pride polearm. Perhaps that would be more effective?

Edit: Hmm maybe a Wrath bow on switch just for bosses?



In case anyone's wondering my skill allocation (after all +skills):
Strafe - 27
Multishot - 13
Guided Arrow - 11
Freezing Arrow - 8
Valkryie - 24
Decoy - 24
Pierce - 9 (69%)
Critical Strike - 17 (65%)

3 free skill points remaining.


Thanks! :thumbsup:

[zarirazz]

not sure about meph, but a merc using upped eth kelpie snare (maybe even plain) can slow baal down to a crawl.. i've yet to see him cast his knockback spell or even clone himself=)

[maiku]

For bosses...

Decrepify or a source of Slow helps out mucho (Cleglaw's Pincers, Nosferatu's Coil, Clay Golem, Holy Freeze Merc, etc., and on Merc--or yourself--equip a Blackhorn's Face, Kelpie Snare, items that grant cold damage, etc.)
As much %ED against Demons as you can pack
Crushing Blow ("Duress," Goblin Toes, Goreriders, crafted Blood gloves, etc.) + Open Wounds

If hitting them with Crushing Blow, it should be done in conjunction with Amp or Decrepify, so that you can get the full effectiveness of CB undiminished by enemy %PDR. And I suggest you Strafe to trigger it rapidly and whittle down his life, because Strafe fires so fast and with so many arrows that it procs stuff like crazy. Even the addition of 15% CB from Goreriders can speed up boss killing quite a bit. This will require running around and repositioning yourself some to avoid boss attacks like Diablo's Lightning Hose of Death.

Slow is a godsend against bosses. It is obtainable from some items you could equip on your Bowazon and keep in your stash for boss killing. 20-30% Slow can make enemies and bosses move like molasses, and if this is combined with a Holy Freeze Merc, you might as well go on a trip, come back for tea, and pick up the fight again while the boss is trying to crawl ever so slowly toward your Bowazon. Summoner Necros use what they call the "Decrepify + Clay Golem" trick, and we ought to take a page from their book. I ran a Fishymancer last ladder and the Decrep & Gumby trick made it apparent how effective these are against bosses. Even on my Hydra Sorc right now I'm trying to use as many slowing and freezing effects as possible to make her spells more accurate and effective.

[YogiRat]

In case anyone's wondering my skill allocation (after all +skills):
Strafe - 27
Multishot - 13
Guided Arrow - 11
Freezing Arrow - 8
Valkryie - 24
Decoy - 24
Pierce - 9 (69%)
Critical Strike - 17 (65%)

3 free skill points remaining.

How many points into penetrate? What is your CTH? If your chance isn't that great, get some gear with CB and OW. Say, Gores instead of the Travs and a blood belt instead of the Razortail. (boss gear):wink3:

Edit: pwned by Maiku, some-what.:laugh:

[Zon2000]

Thanks for the responses, all.

YogiRat:
My to-hit is fine. The ignore target defense of Faith along with my level 34+ enchant (giving me with about 24k AR) gives me a pretty good to-hit rating. (I believe I have 5 points into Penetrate, after all the +skills... basically I just put 1 hard point into it)

zarirazz, maiku:
I'm going to try switching my merc to using a Kelpie Snare (since that's all I have right now; don't have Reaper's yet). I figure a Reaper's would be better, since it'll help me with more than just bosses. Not only that, it increases one's damage in addition to slowing, and breaks many phys immunes...

I figure there's three combos:

- Merc with Kelpie snare and my current config
- Merc with Reaper's and my current config (switch to Highlord's from Atma's; gives me a 7-frame ms and guided)
- Merc with Pride and my current config + Wrath as weapon switch (again, switching to Highlord's as I wouldn't want Amp to override Decrep) [the most $$$ obviously... and don't have the runes atm]

Also, I thought Holy Freeze doesn't affect bosses? From reading the boards here and my own personal observations, that's what it seems like, unfortunately.

On a pally build I had a holy freeze merc + kelpie + blackhorns. Ultimate slo-mo machine there... Didn't really kill anything but it was amusing to see how slow the monsters got. Now if I had managed to get Decrep into that mix, they'd practically be frozen :prop:

[DH Amazon]

Right now the only bit of trouble I have is against act bosses - mostly Baal, although Diablo can sometimes give me some minor annoyances. It seems Diablo *always* targets ME with his lightning hose. Not my valkryie. Not my merc. As for Baal, he'll eventually clone himself and it takes forever and a day to kill him.

My first question would be - what's most effective against large-hp single targets? Guided arrow or strafe?

About same gear, dia takes that 5s max. Baal 20-30s. Longer if twin is around.

I have lvl90 ama, zero to vitality, str for gear, rest dex, low life fighting machine. Quite similair build, just using windforce.
Full game or single, dia goes down just nicely, need to chuck couple bottles, resist are not max.

I have 1 point in freezing arrow, I use it against bosses (only dia and baal).
For Dia, I run next to it and keep merc otherside. About 10 freezing arrows is enough for dia, because merc does 95% killing.

Because merc is totally safe, why not exploit that. Crushing blow is all you need for merc. I use guillaume helmet (not even socketed yet), duress armor and reapers toll weapon. If you run around, merc cant do his job, hitting helpless diablo at back.

I have tried strafe, but you cant move during animation, so with low resist and low life, too hard.

Guided is little better, takes time and while running around, merc gets killed.

Freezing arrow slows dia and baal a very little time, but its enough and when decrepify from weapons kicks in, well that only helps against baal, because dia dies too fast. And while using freezing arrow its easy to avoid diablos attacks if needed, I prefer tanking diablo and drink couple of potions.

Try that and tell how it goes, you dont need reapers toll (kelpie is just fine, or any polearm) for diablo. But against baal its nice, frozen baal has less time to bring his twin.

I use atmas amu because I took reapers toll away from merc inside chaos. He get it back to help with last wave and Diablo. I dont carry any crushing blow, about same gear as you, no faith or that fancy armor. Using WF and treachery (120ias with atmas amu). I use shako+iasresist jool, as bow has knockback already.

[KremBanan]

When I take on Diablo, I tank him. I go up close to him and just strafe, strafe, strafe. I have maxed my fireres and then its np. A full rev pot occasionally, but thats all. He goes down in matter of few seconds, even in 3pl game.

[Zon2000]

Well I equipped my merc with a Kelpie Snare and that seems to help a lot (at least with Baal... haven't tried it on Diablo yet).

It seems slowing Baal makes him a pushover. He even duped himself early on once and it wasn't a big deal.

Once slowed, Baal doesn't seems to a) clone himself, and b) teleport all over the place.

It still takes awhile to kill him but it's much easier now. I still want to make a Wrath mat bow as it looks to me more and more that Blizz intended this to be a boss-killer (20% crushing blow, hello? :prop: Yes I know cb is nerfed on ranged attacks...)

[lukefojut]

It still takes awhile to kill him but it's much easier now. I still want to make a Wrath mat bow as it looks to me more and more that Blizz intended this to be a boss-killer (20% crushing blow, hello? :prop: Yes I know cb is nerfed on ranged attacks...)

But it's also nerfed for Bosses, too - I believe CB will only remove 1/16? Also, while this might not seem too bad when the life bar is full, just consider how little life you'll be removing on the second and third hits etc. That said, it is very fast.

Keep Atma's Scarab on over using a Reaper's. I play a Fishmymancer and while Decrep is lovely for Baal, all other bosses were simply Amped before teleporting the minions on top of him. Also, I could swear that Amp will break physical resists more often than Decrep..

If you're considering a Wrath bow, have you thought about buying a really low Infi for your merc? 40% cutting blow, Conviction aura and will boost any lingering elemental charms etc. (+ chance for CL, would be like having a mini bow/Java hybrid team at times) :grin:

[maiku]

But it's also nerfed for Bosses, too - I believe CB will only remove 1/16? Also, while this might not seem too bad when the life bar is full, just consider how little life you'll be removing on the second and third hits etc. That said, it is very fast.


CB + Amp/Decrep in effect + very fast Strafe = death to most things, including bosses. For meleers CB takes off bigger chunks of enemy life, but no one can apply and spread CB around faster than a Strafer. (This said, doesn't mean you can skimp on loading up your Merc with a lot of CB and a nasty weapon to beat on the boss, too.)

[Zon2000]

Update:

Well I tried out a Wrath matriarchal bow and I have to say, for what I want to use it for, it's a dud. :embarassed:

Against Baal it's not that effective. You would think that a 30% chance to cast decrepify is a lot (and really, it IS) but the problem is Baal blocks. A LOT. Even with Strafe, there will be times that Baal won't be decrepified - enough for him to clone himself and cause all other kinds of mischief. On top of it, the dec is only level 1, so it doesn't last long.

So, you cannot strafe Baal with Wrath to decrepify him, then switch to a more powerful bow for damage, because the dec won't last long enough.

In normal pvm it's fun though... especially if you also have Atma's equipped. You'll have 3 curses going on all the time. Pretty neat.

The Kelpie Snare seems to be a better option; for some reason when Baal is slowed > 50% his chances to clone himself fall noticeably. Even then it took forever, so I'm shelving this plan of my strafer doing the bosses for now. Basically I just bring in my uber smiter and get Baal to a low enough health and switch to my zon for the killing blow (the zon has mf and I want her to get the xp).