Could this build work?

[Immortal_King]

Ok so I'm planning on playing this game again.

Had the idea of using multi/strafe for packs and many enemies, the CB move (charged strike) on bosses and small toughies that my bow cant handle)

Is this a viable build? Or will the lack of passives/synergies hurt me?

Was thinking

10ish in penetrate
10ish in pierce
8 (1 in each other passive)
4 (pre-reqs for charge strike)
20 charge strike
1 magic arrow
1 guided arrow
10 multishot
20 strafe

I dont plan on doing much trading or magic finding, just playing the game. Is this doable or will I get owned before I can even make it far into the game?

[BAMFSpecialOps]

If your really wanting to keep the skill set like that. I would advise keeping strafe/multi and dropping the other, prolly drop strafe since the 'strafe lock' with little to no gear could be fatal. I might switch the skills up and go with more of lighting jav skills with LF/CS main and a bow with cold arrow on switch.

[tuxor]

I'm doing something like this, but probably completely opposite.

20 Strafe
10 Multishot
20 Lightning Fury
20 Penetrate
~9 in Pierce (hope to get a Razortail)
4/3/4 D/A/E
1 Valk

I figure since I'm not quite sure what gear I'll be getting, I'd make a hybrid and cover both just in case, as LF can kill pretty steadily with minimal gear, assuming you have enough mana. So if I can grab me a WWS, a nice source of leech, and a Razortail, I'll be pretty much set.

[Immortal_King]

I've put some points into passives and 9 into multi.

I'm now thinking of going frozen arrows and no java skills.

I dont think i have enough points to pump up multi a bit more and still get decent D/A/E and Pierce/Penetrate (those 2 sound so dirty). Which Frozen synergy is less useful?

[Hector]

Ok, you need to decide yourself or your zon will soon become a mess. Even if you are a bowazon, it doesn't mean that Multi/Strafe/Cold are all compatible, so be careful not to make a bowazon that is not fully commited. As a general rule, two types of bowazon are very Hell viable: pure physical (Multi/Strafe), or dedicated to Cold (Freezing Arrow) with Strafe as a backup for Cold Immunes.

First thing to get out of the way: the passive skill tree, so let's start. :coffee:

I can pretty much guarantee your bowazon will be fine with just 1 point into D/A/E. Get yourself a decent Valkyrie (aound Level 10 will work), learn to use Decoy, and let them take hits for you. If you find yourself dying much, it's not D/A/E that will help you - you're probably better off using those skill points to boost your offensive power than trying to boost passives that won't save you anyway.

Put just enough into Pierce so that if you get Razortail, you can add up to 100% piercing - this is specially important for a Freezing Arrow build. Remember you can have some +skills, so factor these too to not waste points - a Freezing Arrow amazon usually has enough +skills to get away with 1 in Pierce and end up with 100%.

Critical and Penetrate, leave for last. Place a few points, move on to finishing the rest of your build and add to these two last.

As for the bow tree, for the FA build, I'd max out Freezing Arrow, Cold Arrow - NOT Ice Arrow. Since you already have ~10 Multi, maxing Strafe is hard, so maybe stick with Multi but don't add more points to it. 10 is enough and higher amounts will result in too expensive Mana costs.

Some build outlines I recommend:

Freezing Arrow zon:
20 FA, 20 CA, 20 Strafe, ~10 Valk, 1 into all the rest of passives and pre-requisites. Let +skills do the rest of the job and place remaining points where you like the most.

Strafe/Multi pure physical zon:
20 Strafe, 5-10 Multi, 1 FA and all pre-reqs, ~10 Valk, as much Critical Strike as possible, Pierce and Penetrate dependant on bow/equipment/personal style.

Good luck. :thumbsup:

PS: I've read you don't MF much, and unfortunately bowazons are very dependant on gear - bow damage, IAS, leech. For starters, a pure Lightning Javazon can give you very good results with extremely poor gear.