ballista zons

[shadowlrkers]

are these still popular? i am making a zon who will use a ballista using strafe for faster attack speed. hopefully 30ias from deaths 20 ias from twitch and 20 ias on the crossbow will be fast enough. i am also making her a hybrid with freezing arrow

gear:

howltusk
ballista
twitch
rare zon ammy
2rare ring
death glove
death belt
rare boot

skills will be:

20 freezing arrow
20 cold arrow
20 strafe
16 crit
1 in all the other points
4-5 in all the dodge/evade etc skill

i wont have many points to go into the passive skills but i have a -35 res wizendraw and wanted to experiment with freezing arrow

if you can tell me how good strafe with ballista and freezing arrow is on classic it would be much appreciated ty.

[WarlockCC]

I have a balistazon and she does work. My balistazon is based largely around Freds glass cannon bowzon build in the sense that I got as much dex as possible, but I deviated by getting 100 vit.
She has maxed valk and maxed decoy, this allows the monsters to gather around my valk, enabeling my bolts to pierce and hit more targets, because they are close together.

[Monzee]

I have a balistazon and she does work. My balistazon is based largely around Freds glass cannon bowzon build in the sense that I got as much dex as possible, but I deviated by getting 100 vit.
She has maxed valk and maxed decoy, this allows the monsters to gather around my valk, enabeling my bolts to pierce and hit more targets, because they are close together.

Interested in balista 90-168dmg?
10ias
175ed
17max
187ar
1-2fire dmg

[WarlockCC]

if you have it on Ladder, that would be great to make a ladder version of her, but on non ladder I have this one :
http://wlk.cc/img/d2mine/blood_harp_ballista.jpg

[HegemonKhan]

quick question(s) about phys damage strafe zons (i'm trying to make one also, still need a godly weapon...i would love the ladder balista..monzee...but i play west, sc, ladder..and i'd rather get my own, not really into trade...)

*these are more specific questions (than the usual general questions i usually ask)

1. IAS (death/sig glove + 1 other of set item, twitch, hopefully 20% IAS near max damage gothic or balista):

1Q. does the 10% ias on goldwrap unique belt (would have to use sig glove + sig helm or sig boots, no death and CBF=cannot be frozen) reach the next bp (break point) ? and/or other gear combos (do u need 20% ias on twitch, 10% ias on goldwrap, 20% ias on weapon, or 30% ias from death/sig glove?) ?

2Q. is death (glove and belt) and its CBF vs sig (glove and helm or boots) vs iratha better?

3Q. is gothic or balista better? (balista gives more damage but slower, gothic faster but less damage) ? speed (reaching next or significant bp's) vs damage

4. valks work pretty well, long as you aren't in a rush game, and play correctly (slow/safe and staying well back from valk and out of monster targeting/activation).

*like in cs run games...i really should just put on resist gear so i don't die as i try to keep up with sorc and pal for exp as they race seal to seal...instead of pretending i can help kill stuff with my very fragile glass cannon/dex zon...not having resists and low life and if i was using a valk, is not too good for staying alive in a cs run game. valks don't help when your chasing after a chraging paladin who leaves all the monsters for u to try to not die from as u try to chase after him to stay within range for exp

4Q. but in terms of elem spells from monsters and elem resistance in general, what do u do? do u go max IAS/damage gear with little resists or less with more resists? how do u balance, on gear, resists vs ias/damage ??? in terms of ias bp's (break points) could u use iratha instead of sig/death glove's 30% IAS, and go with 20% ias and much more resists from the iratha? or is iratha not good gear for zon?

5Q. biggins helm for (30% enhanced damage), worth it ? (or is sig helm or howltusk or face of horror better or coif de glory?=blind helm=if it works with ranged weapons or rare for helm?)

6Q. if u don't need twitch's 20% ias, whats best armor? (goldskin for resists, rattlecage for CB and flee, boneflesh for OW and 5% LL, rockfleece for -10% phys damage reduction, etc...)

7. skills

7Q. what's best skill placement for pure phys damage strafe zon?

what i'm using/doing:

20 strafe, 20 critical, 20 penetrate, 20 pierce, 20 inner sight

is it better to do something different?

if i should put 20 pts elsewhere, which of the skills that i listed above for me, should i drop? inner sight (this is what i feel is least important), penetrate, critical strike, or pierce ?

instead of "inner sight", 20 into valk (though usually i am gonna be with a party, so thats why i didn/t and don't really need valk. valk is more for when u play solo/alone when u dont have party members as your "shields") ?

instead "inner sight", should i put more points into the "dodge" skills. if so, what placement? how many into which ones of the 3?

etc..

[EagleEntek]

re resists and balance:

you dont have res gear - maybe a ring.

The trick is that you do so much dmg you leech back life so if you do take any dmg you make it back quick. Dont stop a hell cow bonking you in 1 hit though - those suckers are harcore :crazyeyes:

[HegemonKhan]

LL (life leech) is a possibility.

though with a base vit zon, u don't ahve much life and most monsters CAN kill u in 1-3 hits. also, with IAS gear there's not too much LL left for u to get/have as well, and leeching (ML, mana leech, and LL) from gear is penalized with difficulty as well requiring higher leeching to make up for it.....now if u had a necro who would cast tife tap...which i have read is rumored to be UNeffected by difficulty...50% LL would be nice in hell difficulty...though i'd still rather have amp than life tap....cuz phys strafe zons need all the damage increase they can get.

[WarlockCC]

My zon works because she has enough manaleech, you need a lot of manaleech to keep strafing. And she works because her valk and decoy take all the hits, not her.
Lifeleech is indeed essencial if you plan to get hit, but with a balista your strafe lasts so long that you must have something to take the heat off you(like a valk or decoy). Naturally you also need lifeleech, but not a lot, since your valk takes the hits and if your valk is not there, you cannot, not even with max leech, leech enough life back in Hell to survive. The ll in Deaths is probably all you will need.

[Akse]

Your hp pool will be so small that even low amounth of leech will get it up fast.