Ravenclaw and Hellcast

[zioth]

I've noticed that Ravenclaw is a surprisingly effective bow all through Normal, even in the hands of a sorceress. I imagine that an amazon could make it quite powerful. This is well-known, and a lot of starting characters use Ravenclaw.

So, then, why does no one use Hellcast, which seems like the grown-up version of Ravenclaw? More powerful explosions (level 5?) and higher damage (around 50) make it seem like a reasonable bow.

The obvious answer is that, if you're high enough level to use Hellcast (24?), you'll soon have access to much higher-damage bows.

But has anyone actually used Hellcast? How did it work out?

[goomba]

by level 24 many characters are either rushed to nm (and/or beyond) or rapidly thinking of getting rushed.

on nonladder, there are still very rare prepatch rclaws that if I recall correctly were lvl 30 explosion... those, combined with a chant, or for example on a "ranger" using something like holy fire, or getting crazy fire rates via fana were supposedly surprisingly lethal pvp.

else, the majority of folks looking for an rclaw also either have a chanter, or know someone with a chanter, and they're used soley for rapidly leveling new characters.

as you stated, hellcast's clvl requirement means that one is already cowing to level.

rclaw starts at clvl 15 or 16? toss it and twitch on - get chant, and go do canyon runs and in short order you are lvl 20 - with chant clearing norm cows easily.

if I recall correctly, another issue with hellcast is a slower frame rate vs. rclaw?

[fledgeling]

my 'bnet friend' used to have a holy fire palladin that utilized hellcast

I think there were some problems with the lack of IAS, but he said that he used the bow to level up some characters when he didnt have a chanter

he somehow liked hellcasts and collected them, I think this was the first unique he found or something (mine would be the salamander staff, which made my first bnet sorc rock : ) )

[phool]

exploding arrow does pitiful damage, completely dwarfed by enchant, and has the same radius regardless of level so attack speed is king.

There used to be someone here, spf probably, who collected digglers, they probably had 100s of them.

[Fearlessone]

exploding arrow does pitiful damage, completely dwarfed by enchant, and has the same radius regardless of level so attack speed is king.

Yes, but if you are enchanted you will want to use exploding arrows to do the most damage. Well, you could use strafe or multishot with any old bow, including rclaw. But using the skill exploding arrow allows you to take advantage of your enchant and the flexibility of using a high damage, high speed bow such as a rune bow or gothic bow. And that physical damage is useful against fire immunes.

I've been experimenting with this with a new zon, it hasnt been going well, and I have yet to dump alot of skill points into anything. I was hoping to strafe, but that skill seems to really use attack rating. Well, maybe leveling up this zon will increase her ar against much higher hell monsters. I'm not an expert with all this bowazon minutia, having only a lvl 85 as my best ever, so any help would be appreciated. How do u get a max enchanted lvl 80 zon not to suck? Mine is 55 now, fighting lvl 80 monsters. I might have to get alot of frozen arrow as a backup skill, although I don't like using that skill near necro's.

[phool]

I meant attack speed is more important than the level of the exploding arrow, I'd rather have the aoe than the attack speed. Pierce would be very good too but unfortunately isn't an option in classic without sacrificing the aoe on a non zon. An enched zon with strafe/multi is ok, a lot more mana intensive obviously, but can be really effective - works better at lower levels in lod with some tir'd gear (2 mana per kill).