Suggestions for remaining skill point placement on strafer

[Mistress Sersi]

I am currently lvl 83, a PvM strafer. I have maxed strafe. I have:

61% critical strike
8o% pierce
12/10/8 in d/a/e ( 5o/56/44))
lvl 26 valk with harmony
lvl 21 decoy

I have 11 skill points left, what should I put them into?

Multi & GA are at lvl 7, 430 dex & base life ( around 580 with charms & such)... I use a faith bow , andys helm, 1 ravenfrost, war trav boots. I have some +2bow skills/20% IAS/+16 AR/+30 cold resist/+25% MF gloves & a pair of krafted gloves that give 20% IAS, Cb & life steal,Lite ressit 24%/+15% MF NO skills. I also have 3 max dam/AR charms & a zon torch.

[NASE]

strafe perhaps?

10 chars.





Just get one point in freezing arrow - assuming that strafe and multi have the points needed - and then just dump the points where-ever you want. There simply aren't enough skills for a pure bowazon to put points in without getting diminising return.

[Mistress Sersi]

Strafe is maxed.

[chien]

Make your Multi ~lvl15 :) You'll love it in open areas assuming you have insight merc around.

Chien

[Mistress Sersi]

I am trying out a pair of soul drainer gloves. Gives me good life & mana leech, PLUS I LOVE the ctc lvl 8 confuse! werks well I think.

PLUS I krafted a nice pair of +2 passive gloves that I use to pre buff valk to lvl 27. :largeevil:

Still have 11 skills points to use! LOL :tongue:

I do not have an INSIGHT merc. My merc uses an eth obedience stick PLUS fort. Combined with lvl 15 Fanat, he does over 10 300 damage! :thumbsup: :yikes:

[slayer37]

I say dump 'em on Penetrate. It looks like you have all bases covered anyway. More AR can't hurt.

How do you deal with PIs by the way?

[Mistress Sersi]

for PIs, I use magic arrow. I have about 19,000 to 20,000 AR..... 450 dex! :shocked: :smile: :mask:

[Mistress Sersi]

I am thinking of making Enigma for this zon when I get a JAH rune. My question is, should I use a 3 os loricated mail ( 521 def, 5% en. def.) OR
a 3 os dusk shroud 459 def for this runeword?

[KremBanan]

Oh no! Do NOT use an Enigma on a physical bowazon. Total waste imo. If you can afford an Enigma, go for Fortitude instead.

[DH Amazon]

Oh no! Do NOT use an Enigma on a physical bowazon. Total waste imo. If you can afford an Enigma, go for Fortitude instead.

I agree with KremBanan that dont use Enigma with all dex, 300...500 life bowama.

LONG OFF:
But its still one of the best armors if you build char around it.

I borrowed friend's enigma and made bowama around it. Its not THAT bad armor for bowama. Can clear all typical tc85 areas just fine with 300MF fast and safely with 1-2 players setup. Can't use torch in full games, so this was made for low player settings anyway. I even use rogue merc, might merc is kind of useless when you have enough damage already. Rogue still uses wws, but uses faith eventually. Then full games should be possible.

This char is pure bowama, but not pure physical. Actually its freezing arrow/multi arrow zon with little higher life than normal bowama. And its not typical freezing arrow either, after lvl73 I have used windforce. No more massive mana bottle drinkings after that. I made this for 1-2 players games, so full dex (I aim for around 400dex) is not needed. And lvl31 freezing arrow with windforce kills just fine, more than fine.
Haven't used any life leech so far, (2x20dex raven) enigmas 14 life per kill keeps red full just nicely. 2nd raven helps with freezing arrow damage and gives more ar to leech even better.

Pits: faster than before and more mf. Multishot area.
Ancient tunnel: Easy to locate and faster. Freezing arrow area
Maggot3: Easy now, quite hard before. Freezing arrow
Travi temples: Easy with both freezing arrow and multi
Meph: Easy, but useless to run, because TC85 areas drops much better
Diablo: Easy and much faster than before. Both multi and freezing arrow works here
Ancient Q: Was easy too, but took time.
Baal: Its easy now, was almost impossible to run for typical all negative resist low life amas. Both freezing arrow and multi owns all waves.
Both act1 and act2 key runs are easy now, but going for des key after I get tired with pindle. In tower freezing arrow kills those PI and multi cold immunes, same with arcane.

Run faster (in town and field), more mf, enough tele speed. Havent get killed so far in hell, been soloing from 65 to 82. So far testing been more than success. Need to make my own when I return this armor. Hard to give up that safe and 'fast' tele after 2 days trying period. I am hooked with this armor.



Its not that bad for bowama, lets check typical tele side. Or does ama have typical teleside, but anyway.

Bow ama has huge dex -> gives max block with Spirit shield.
Low resist -> Wizpike at teleside and you can jump over soul areas. And jump over those immune mages at lvl3, that usually ruins baalruns for bowama.
And you can use this max resist, max block teleside while scouting, entering new room or lvl. Find that safe spot and start killing.

68 fcr gives 13 frame tele speed
99 fcr gives 12 frame tele ( I use 102fcr, and its fast enough, much faster than running with Enigma).
That 12 frame is not that bad, I soloed whole hell (started with lvl65 and ended lvl75 after baal was down), all Q while testing armor. And without any given wps, combined even that flail in act3. Teleing from act5 town to arreat summit takes time, but it was much safer than with my typical sorc.

So with max block, all ress max, 1000 life, 800 mana,+13 passive skills,so high evade, avoid etc., 18% damage reduced, lvl33 valkyrie, so its almost impossible to get killed during tele. BUT you need to build char around it, typical bowama cant use it safely.

Needed to kick razortail out and bring arach belt in for end game use. Its not that bad, gives one frame faster tele at teleside. And that +1skills gives damage for freezing arrow and some mana. With +13...15 passive skills, pierce is quite high anyway.

I tried that enigma too with 20 vit, lvl91 bowama with only 20fcr, it was painfully to tele, but still managed to tele middle of chaos (book empty) and back, but needed to use couple of purples. So BIG NO for enigma for pure dex builds. That 350 life was not enough.

[chien]

Nice.. tele zon? :)

I use nigma last season for my LF/FA hybrid as it provide +2 skill, mf and regroup the STUPID insight merc :P If you use the tele like sorc/hammerdin/barb/even summon mancer, you will want to cry :P It is SLOWW. LOL. It is great for reposition, definitely, especially when you need meditation or conviction aura from your merc all the time.

Chien

Oh.. if you want to see how slow it is, take out all FCR in your sorc (0 fcr), and tele @ 13 frame (even this, you'll need 68 FCR for zon, Oh,well).

[DH Amazon]

Nice.. tele zon? :)

Oh.. if you want to see how slow it is, take out all FCR in your sorc (0 fcr), and tele @ 13 frame (even this, you'll need 68 FCR for zon, Oh,well).

I use tele only from teleside, over 100fcr, so its 12 frame tele = sorc with 10 fcr ring :), not speedy but not that bad either.

Ama can kill all, so dont need to tele past monsters. Just need to locate TC85 area and start killing. No andy or meph for this char, I dont even run those with sorc, takes too much time to locate.

This char even opens all sinets and kill dia faster than locate meph from that random map. So no point running meph or andy.

I usually tele across river part when doing chaos. I tested just opening sinets, and killing those boss only. Ama is one of the safest char to do so.

And while doing baal, I tele past souls. Cannot kill them safely with -10 lightning resist.
And while doing pits, no need to open doors, just tele through.

And this is not hydrid, so I dont need 2nd weapon, so I can keep wizpike there all the time. With wizpike I have about 830 mana, and thats enough
for teleing.

And no mana problems = no insight merc, no need to safe merc or keep him/her near. Actually I never tele at bowside, no need to. Easier just hit weapon switch button and tele is there ready to use.

[chien]

DH Amazon:

Are you doing multi/FA combo? You use Faith? or Ice bow? BTW, both are pretty mana intensive @ high level. Even with insight merc, I still run out of mana if there is nothing to leech (undead, for example).

Chien

[DH Amazon]

DH Amazon:

Are you doing multi/FA combo? You use Faith? or Ice bow? BTW, both are pretty mana intensive @ high level. Even with insight merc, I still run out of mana if there is nothing to leech (undead, for example).

Chien

multi/FA combo, with 8% mana leech windforce (40ench+9min jool)
And that is my only leech source. I rarely run out of mana, still using
some bottles, but no need to buy them at town.

Still need to transfer 1/20/20/9 anni, but need to wait for friend to make transfer more safely.
My multi is quite low, but +9 from items gives enough arrows, and that anni
gives one more. And more life and mana too.

I use highlords amu and quite high lvl critical to get double damage almost always and penetrate is almost maxed too. Ar still only 8000 while using multi, but every lvl (almost lvl 84 now) helps a lot.

I still use rogue merc, changing to might should give around 800 max damage more. This is ama team, rogue, me and valkyrie.

Never used those bows, too expensive for me at least at the moment.

My mana pool is about 500 with zero point in energy. No BO used.



Actually this is testing build, I like to figure out IF

Enigma is viable bowama armor
I just run pack of death lords near baal, I get stuck there couple of seconds, but they barely could hurt. So far teleing going very safely. Can blind tele everywhere. 12 frame tele is slowish, but next break point is too far.
That 12 frame tele is ok, because its so safe, no need to worry about dieing.

Windforce gives enough mana leech to make freezing arrow more viable=no need to use bottles. And if it gives enough damage, lvl30 freezing arrow now.
So far going good, occasional bottles need to use, but every lvl should make change to hit better and damage too.

And no life leech, testing if enigma 14 per kill is enough.
This is actually quite good, even those undead gives life. But in full games much less leech. I have double leech ring in stash, but so far raven is in place.

And how fast can I kill diablo. Last run took under 4min, but I opened just sinets. Around 7min if killing all. By changing to faith rogue merc, or act2 might merc should reduce these a lot.
Still leveling, so not speeding yet. And this is mf build, around 300mf, so doing pure damage gives much better time.

Some errors so far, too much str, way too much, about 60-90 str too much.
Too much life, about 50-80 vit points too much. That extra 100-150 in dex should do little more damage.

[chien]

Very interesting build. I've put my WF in mule (even it is 6% mana) when I get my faith. What are the rest of your gears? I might be interested to make one later :)

Oh, come on, faith and ice is not that expensive if you have Nigma to test :P

BTW, what is "sinets"? forgive my English (not my first language).

Chien

[Mistress Sersi]

I wanted to use enigma for the +2 skills & MF, among other mods. Skullers ( which I have) only gives +1 skills, MF & not much else.

[chien]

So, according to HD Amazon, it is a GO if you know the strength/weakness of it :)

Chien

[DH Amazon]

Very interesting build. I've put my WF in mule (even it is 6% mana) when I get my faith. What are the rest of your gears? I might be interested to make one later :)

Oh, come on, faith and ice is not that expensive if you have Nigma to test :P

BTW, what is "sinets"? forgive my English (not my first language).

Chien

Sinets, I mean those five 'locks' that release those minibosses near diablo. When all open, diablo appears.

Still testing build, so not at final equipment yet. But currently using something like this:

Windforce 8%(40 ench 9min jool) WF(shael) is in mule.
Arach belt
LoH gloves (I need these for fire resist at the moment), helps with mana leech too (2 passive 20 ias + 2bow 20 ias in stash)
2x 20dex raven, both with quite high ar
Nature piece in stash. Just tried 5x nihlathak -> desperate need more fire resist, too dangerous at the moment.
And that Nigma (borrowed). I will replace this with treachery, until I made my own. That will solve ias problems until changing back to Nigma.

War Trav 35MF boots, Waterwalkers+65 life is other option
Highlords amu
Shako(ias jool) at the moment. I dont need that 15 ias at the moment from shako, so perhaps time to made another with pure ench jool. Or mavina with ench jool for next break point. 56IAS and 89IAS are break points for 10fpa and 9fpa.

Lots of 7mf charms with another mod. Gheed 38. Torch 19/18, Anni (soon) 20/20,mana charms with faster run,5allress5fhr sc, some 3max faster run sc. Some large mana+life charms. One bow skiller with 20life.

Found all, thats why so odd combinations and not perfect items. I have plain bow skillers, but they just take so much space.


Harmony bow(vigor aura),Threachery and Kira/Shako is planned setup for rogue merc. Gives more running speed, its good for speedy solo runs. Faith should be optimal bow for merc, need to test that some day.

[Mistress Sersi]

But you cant use a FAITH bow on your merc, you said you use Harmony! :scratch:

[DH Amazon]

But you cant use a FAITH bow on your merc, you said you use Harmony! :scratch:

Of course faith is possible for act1 merc, if made non ama bow. Like great bow, or blade bow etc...

I just tested harmony with merc. Ama runs quite fast. I liked this setup. More running speed is always good. Easier to place ama to optimal firing position, so pierce/splash or multi cover more monsters at once.

[BobCox]

evade ten char

[BobCox]

Harmony Great bow or Wraith is sweet merc back up.

[Mistress Sersi]

Wrath om a merc? great bow?

[DH Amazon]

Finally got my own nigma.

Lvl87 ama now, stats without merc
+10 all skills +1bow skiller
Guided 609-3449
Freezing arrow lvl31, 575-3133 + 1923-2027 cold part, 19k ar
Multi (lvl12) 431-2349 11774 ar

218 str (is too high, at least dagger damage is little higher)
364 dex
198 vit
55 ener

1078 life 518 mana at bowside, 90 faster run
1144 life 860 mana at teleside, 103fcr -> 12frame tele

170 mf from items and 86 mf from charms, total 256MF. Dont want to use plain 7mf sc, so getting much higher is hard.

Killing baal is still little problem, easy to kill but takes time.

Haven't tried with dagger yet, any experience, does it work?
Is Fleshripper dagger any good to kill baal with ama?
I have around 12k ar, and enough life to survive melee. 70ias gives fastest 7frame attack.
I can borrow merc armor (duress and guillaume helmet), so max crushing blow is 75%, but I dump guillaume if that not needed.
Just noticed that wizpike has same speed, but no crushing blow, need to test with that if its faster than with bow.

edit: 1st test with wizpike went smoothly, baal went down only little faster that with bow, but mana burning didn't hurt at all, because basic attack
And it was only 40 ias->8 frame attack with dagger.
In both test, bow and dagger, guillaume helmet was only crushing blow source. Time to test later with ias jooled fleshripper. Another ias jool in guillaume helmet gives exactly that 70ias->7frame attack

[Mistress Sersi]

ias jool!
I own joo dude!

why use wizzy? dats 4 elemental driuds!

[DH Amazon]

ias jool!
I own joo dude!

why use wizzy? dats 4 elemental driuds!

For resist and for 50fcr, that other suicide branch is not so good.
And angry woman stabs, so it suits for a theme *)
*) DH = My ama, rogue, valkyrie and decoy, four females and they are desperate :)

Fleshripper was about double speed as wizzy and combined slows target from fleshripper and arach belt (20+10) keeped baal nicely at same place. I test with duress and fleshripper setup. Now I can drop guillaume to charsi, I have heard that she collects those.

[Mistress Sersi]

is one of teh angry women called Medea?:laugh: :smile: :astonished: