Best runeword bow for a necro?

[gravthirtythree]

Ok so this is going to be a strange build all curse and clay golem. Along with a merc. Haven't decided on which one yet. It'll probably all depend on the bow or crossbow. I'm not looking to do a weapon switch either so this bow will have to serve all purposes.

Brand- It sounds pretty badass.

Faith- Fanaticism, + skills

Harmony- Vigor etc..

Ice- Holy Freeze, deadly strike

Call to arms- War Crys, + skill

BoTD- Also just badass (don't know about in a bow though).

Phoenix- Redemption, Deadly strike.

[Mad Mantis]

Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :guiness: and feel free to raise some corpses.


Brand- It sounds pretty badass.

Good bow. To make it really shine you need to synergize the BS with some points in your own Bone Skills.


Faith- Fanaticism, + skills

Biggest boon is the Fanat, which is pretty useless since you lack an army.


Harmony- Vigor etc..

Tiny elemental damage, useless aura and no means of boosting AR. Not a good bow.


Ice- Holy Freeze, deadly strike

Mostly crowd control. The DS is nice, but can be had via other means. With enough points in AI curses I don't think you really need the extra CC provided by this bow.


Call to arms- War Crys, + skill

War Cries are best on an army. They don't do a lot for just the Necro and Merc. Best to choose another bow or keep this on switch.


BoTD- Also just badass (don't know about in a bow though).

Good amount of extra damage. Lacks AR boosts. Best used with high Poison Skills to synergize the Nova.


Phoenix- Redemption, Deadly strike.

Again, DS can come from other sources, but is nice to have. Good physical damage, but lousy elemental damage. Redemption aura is decent for your Merc. Your Necro shouldn't be getting hit that much to make it worth while.


All things considered I'd think you'd be best off with either Brand and pumping your Bone skills a bit, Ice if you think you really need the CC or Faith if you want to give your Act II Merc that extra push.

[jakotaco]

Well, don't forget that Faith is quite nice offensively already. It's not the Amazon top choise just for boosting the Valkyrie :wink: 300%AR bonus and fanaticism aura is huge for a character not having any special attacks with bows. Brand wins in coolness though.

Else there is always Windforce, Widowmaker or even Buriza. Remember, for a necromancer the difference between a bow and a crossbow is not so big, so it might be worth taking crossbows into consideration when deciding which bow type fits you best. My hunter druid for example found that a Gorgon Crossbow gave the best dps. Crossbows however have less sale value when you are done as they are bad for amazons and bad for mercs.

[gravthirtythree]

Thanks for the input. And I was planning on getting Act II merc if I picked a bow with out Aura and just get him some massive damage polearm. That way I can curse teleport and drop him in a huge group of decrped/life tapped/AI cursed enemies.

[Ed from Russia]

My first choices would be:
- Widowmaker (for the relatively low requirements, and Guided Arrow for bosses)
- Faith great/blade bow (for aura, i.e. extra damage and speed for you and merc)
- upped Pus Spitter (crossbow with +2 to necro skills, mainly because no-one else uses it, requirements are low)

[Damric]

I just don't see regular arrows amounting to much.

Perhaps a widow maker with the 'bone' runeword armor would be cool, for guided arrows that chance to cast bone skills.

Brand actually doesn't fire regular arrows. It fires exploding arrows, so there is a free skill bonus there besides the bone spears. Enchant + exploding arrows are also very nice!

I'd rather use a beast axe instead of a faith bow, so at least you could turn into a bear to help attack big baddies like baal.

Another possiblilty is a bow that fires magic arrows such as witchwild string (level 20 magic arrows).