Resurrecting a 1.09 BowaZon, is it worth it?

[someoneNew]

My first serious D2 char ever was a cookie-cutter (pre1.10) Amazon who used a Burrito (Nef), GA, Pierce, and some old bug to absolutely decimate monsters back in the day. You could have something like 4 GA's ripping through a monster at the same time continuously.

She stopped at clvl 81 after getting me enough S/U from NM Meph to start a pre-1.10 WW Barb to do serious MFing and create a D2 addiction that has lasted the better part of this decade. I haven't made a serious Zon since.

Keeping in mind that she's a first character, and 1.09, I don't know if it's worth it to get her going again Stat/Skill wise but thought I'd run it by some of you Zon vets.

I've got a decent chunk of the grail, and most of the Zon Elite items (WF, Titan's, etc. no Mav's set though). I'm hoping there is a good Bowazon strategy out there that would let me use my WF (for the first time!). Also, I've only completed the first 3 Acts of Hell, so I've got at least Tyriel's quest to gain some extra Skill points other than leveling. I've taken a look at a WF guide in the Zon forum: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=487121
This looks doable, but I'd like some SPer first hand experience here.

Is Rosey worth starting back up and finishing the game for fun (not going to be MFing or anything), or is she so senior-citizen that I need to leave her in the old folks home?

Name: Rosey
Level: 81

Stats:
Unused = 65
Str: 110
Dex: 185
Vit: 120
En: 15

Skills:
Unused = 30
Jav/Speak skill tree:
None

Passive/Magic skill tree:
Critical Strike = 8
Dodge = 12
Penetrate = 1
Pierce = 5

Bow/XBow skill tree:
Magic Arrow = 1
Fire Arrow = 1
Cold Arrow = 1
Multiple Shot = 9
Ice Arrow = 1
Guided Arrow = 20
Freezing Arrow = 1

[xduckster]

You haven't screwed up your build at all. GA is the boss killer of zon physical skills. Just put your points into strafe and the rest into valkerie and you'll be set.

You said you have most of the items from the guide, so you should be fine item wise too.

Even if you had messed her up she would still be doable, albeit requiring a little more patience!

edit: If you're worried about IAS from not having the mav set, throw on a treachery armor [Shael + Thul + Lem]. 45 IAS and a ctc fade and venom. I don't remember the break point that you should try to aim for with WF. But putting a sheal in the WF + treachery + LoH is already 85 IAS.

[moo-cow]

also on the IAS side, there is some new evidence that a 2 frame strafe doesn't actually exist, meaning you'd only need 90 IAS for a 9/3 attack.

[yiuman]

You'll probably want to put some points in Valk too (if possible enough to get to lvl 17 after plus skills) as she is pretty darn useful in 1.10+. More points in penetrate never go amiss either. With regards to your stat points, if you are HC, put the points in Vit, if you are SC put them in dex.

Also, think twice before putting lots of points in strafe. Granted, strafe is a great skill and much more used than MS, but MS is such a cool underused skill you'd get serious style points for sticking with it as your primary killing skill. Add to that the fact that (IMHO) more points in strafe don't add that much (as long as you have enough +skills to get to 10 shots per volley that is) - the damage increase is negligible (each point=5 points in dex) and the increase in minimum number of arrows, whilst useful when finishing off packs is not the be all and end all. If you have the mana for it, I'd consider putting more points in MS rather than strafe. You'd certainly have a more stylish (if not necessarily the most perfect) build.

The final point is - do you really want to bring her forward? If you haven't used her in 1.10+ yet, and you are open to the idea of playing more than one patch you could keep her in 1.09 for some cow relief from time to time and finding some of those nifty 5%FRW small charms.

[colony]

also on the IAS side, there is some new evidence that a 2 frame strafe doesn't actually exist, meaning you'd only need 90 IAS for a 9/3 attack.

Have you got a link for that? I thought the breakpoints were well defined from independent sources. I had a very brief glance at the stats forum and didn't see anything from the last day or so, though I didn't look very hard.

[Xdeathfire]

I don't know, the 2 frame strafe might exist for SP.

Basically, there was a threa on Amazon Basin that said that you can only get a 2 frame strafe client side since the server side can only have a max of a 3 frame strafe

[zarfen]

But this is the single player forum no? :wink3:
Who is this Mr. Server you are talking about and why can't he have 3 frame strafe, is he out of sheals?

:hide:

edit: on topic; She seems like a fien tuned cannon to me! Slap the rest of your skill point in strafe and you'll have a nice strafe/multi zon with GA for bosses, maybe you might need a few more pts i npenentrate, but you can always make up for the ar on gear, sicne you seem to be pretty ok on that part :P

[Starlight_Wizard]

clvl85 isn't that hard to reach, and would give you 36 skill points total (30 + 2 from izzy's quest + 4 from lvl ups). You should spend them like this (imho):

1 Evade
1 Avoid (let +skills gear boost Evade and Avoid, hopefully to hit the 12/7/12 D/A/E bpoints - you already have enough in Dodge)
10-12+ Valkyrie (like others mentioned, aim for slvl17 with +skills gear. +5-7 to all skills is easy to reach, so aim for 10-12 base Valk)
+6 in Multishot - more points later on if you want to max this one
+4 in penetrate or pierce (depending on gear, if you use Razortail forget extra Pierce) - +skills gear will boost this one to >10, which is a nice compromise
10+ in Strafe - you can max this one rather than MS, but with +skills you don't need max Strafe. MS is a better place to put points in

Total: 32-34 points, which gives you a little flexibility for Valk/Penetrate if you don't have too many +skills, and a killer MS/Strafe if you do have them. Aim for slvl ~15-20 in both Multishot and Strafe, after +skills gear has been applied. *Do* get Valkyrie to slvl17 after all's been applied, and 12/7/12 in the evasive passives is nice to shoot for (again, with +skills gear).

[someoneNew]

Thanks for the replies.

• Glad to know the build isn't screwed up and I can still move on with it from here.

• Unfortunately I already "brought her forward" to 1.10 when it first came out (unknowingly brought all my chars forward without thinking of the ramifications).

• Most Bowazon guides I found that are PVM aren't SP, so they have crazy RW's I can only dream of, and therefore make them hard to follow. So I'm curious about gear (resists are awful in Hell), I don't have the gear that the guide recommends (Fortitude RW, pfft, I could barely cube a Vex if I wanted):
Helm: I have an Andariel's but what should I use till then (I have most all unique helms)?
Armor: I have a Lionheart RW, posters mentioned Smoke (don't have a socketable for that) or Treachery (I can make this out of Wire Fleece, Wyrmhide, or Scarab Husk), or is there a better unique in the meantime?
Gloves: I have LoH, and several Rares with +20 IAS & +2 C&B skills or +2 Passive skills (neither rare has resists). Any other good choices?
Belt: I have a razortail, is M'avina's worth it for the resists?
Boots: Gore Riders, any better choices?
Rings: Ravenfrost (234 Dex), what about the other ring? I have every ring but Wisp, plus a wealth of rare and magics. What stats do I want, +dex?
Ammy:Atma's, is it good for the Amplify? Cat's Eye? Again, I have every Amulet in the game except Metalgrid and Vidalias, is there a Rare or Magic one that's better, look for high Dex?

• Merc? I couldn't believe that I have a Act1 Merc with horrible magic items found in Normal :shocked: She musta died a long time ago and I forgot to resurrect her :undecided:
Typically I use an Act2 HF, is that the best choice for a Bowazon?

• Is 95% IAS what I want to shoot for in this build, the fastest rate?

• I'll bump Valk till she's clvl 17 after +skills

•*I'm SC, so I should bump Dex instead of Vit? Any certain level of Life to shoot for?

• I see 1 vote for focusing only on Strafe and the rest for a balance of MS and Strafe. I need to study these skills more, but since I have 9 in MS perhaps I should dump some in Strafe...

• "12/7/12 D/A/E bpoints" - interesting, I'll have to check these out but they sound helpful to hit.

Thanks again everyone, I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.
Right now, I'm mainly concerned about gear since I don't have the gear most guides call for.

[xduckster]

Just use your helm to make up what you don't have. Plus skills are only important for your passive skills. A few extra points in the bow skills won't really increase your damage by much.
Harly - You can never go wrong with a ton of life and DR.
Stealskull if you need a bit more IAS
Vampgaze for leech
Valkwing for frw and fhr
Lots of other choices here.

For the ring, the best would probably be a dual leech ring
A carrion wind is nice too. ll and twister on strike.

You might have resists problems with the gear you listed so you might just want to use the slots not dedicated to reaching your IAS breakpoint to resists.

[moo-cow]

the testing was done in the past week or two, most clearly with an amazon with enough IAS for a 2 frame strafe. game was modified for strafe to shoot 100 arrows and a modified charm with 100% CTC teeth. I can find the youtube link, but I can't link the thread, forum rules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSQc9LHSXp8

[Drystan]

How exactly was that tested? I mean, it seems like he's on a server (b.net - cause he's testing out a bug in relation to a server.) But how did he get those items that are clearly hacked (Charm that casts teeth?) In addition, he modified Strafe to cast 100 arrows, and that surely can't be done on Blizzard's servers. Let alone a zombie with 0 movement and full immunities? :dizzy:

Maybe I'm just very confused. The idea is that Strafe is bugged on a server because the servers have a maximum attack of 3 frames per second. We don't deal through Blizz's servers in SP, so would that even affect SP?

[moo-cow]

he modified, or hacked, his copy of the game for testing purposes, the charm so it is clearly visible how often the game considers his "2 frame strafe" to actually shoot, and the zombie so he doesn't accidentally kill his test subject. My understanding is that the 2 frame strafe would also not exist in SP since it is a game mechanic and not directly related to how Bnet treats different attacks.

[Drystan]

Yes, I know it's modded for testing purposes, but from what I've gathered, he's trying to test a server side bug (2 frames per attack is actually 3 on a server,) in single player. To test it properly, wouldn't he need to be on the server?

Also, it may be a game mechanic, but the servers are different to SP. Non-ladder monsters are different to Ladder (& SP) monsters. It could be a server side thing to avoid too much spamming of arrows(?). Also, uber AI's are server side only.

[muzzz]

Also, it may be a game mechanic, but the servers are different to SP. Non-ladder monsters are different to Ladder (& SP) monsters. It could be a server side thing to avoid too much spamming of arrows(?). Also, uber AI's are server side only.

Many games with MP capabilities use a client/server model for SP as well. And even when they don't directly use a server for SP, there's generally a lot of code reuse between the MP server and it's SP replacement. So even though there are obvious differences between BNet and SP or TCP/IP, there's a reasonable chance that attack speeds are handled by very similar code.

@moo-cow: does that other thread mention if the testing was done in SP, TCP/IP, or something else?

[stephan]

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=635851

I think the testing was done on SP, certainly not on bnet, although I don't think it really matters in this case.

[someoneNew]

I've got her setup this way for now:
-Kira's (Um) (CBF makes RavenFrost expendable)
-Treachery (Wire Fleece)
-LoH
-Razortail
-War Travs
-WF (Jewel 15% IAS/+24 LR)
-Cat's Eye
-Carrion Wind Ring
-Rare Ring (+12 Dex, Resist All +7) Looking for a better one of these...

-max resists in Hell (with many charms + Kira's)
-120 IAS (which I understand hits one of the better BPs for WF)

Gear/Skill Thoughts:
Anyone think the Kira's is a bad idea as a helm? It doesn't have +Skills or IAS, but it does have CBF (freeing up a ring slot) and +79 RA.

I do have some rare gloves with +20 IAS and +2 Passive/Magic skills (but I'll lose the damage to Demons from LoH), better to stay with LoH? Keep in mind I have no +skill items (my only charm is for Jav skills), so if I need these skill points in the Bow/Xbow tree perhaps I should forgo LoH for these rare gloves to help me in the Passive/Magic tree?

This build has no +skill items (a first for me) so if this is indeed end game gear for me I need to really be careful with my skill points.

I have 2 Grand Charms, each with +120 something AR and cheesy second mods (+4 Dex or +6 Life).
Are these a waste of space in my inventory?

Stat Thoughts:
I do not know of any other items I may need that will require me to dump more points in Strength (110). So can I dump the remaining 51 into Dex, and all new points into Dex?

clvl 81 (11 unused skill points <just finished Tyriel's quest>)

Stats (Naked):
Unused = 51
Str: 110
Dex: 185
Vit: 120
En: 15

Skills:
Unused = 11
Jav/Speak skill tree:
None

Passive/Magic skill tree:
Critical Strike = 8
Penetrate = 1
Pierce = 5
Dodge = 12
Avoid = 1
Evade = 1
Inner Sight = 1
Slow Missiles = 1
Decoy = 1
Valk = 10

Bow/XBow skill tree:
Magic Arrow = 1
Fire Arrow = 1
Cold Arrow = 1
Multiple Shot = 9
Strafe = 6
Ice Arrow = 1
Guided Arrow = 20
Freezing Arrow = 1