Windforce: Pride or Faith Merc?

[renegademaster]

Hi i had a Windforce drop the other day, and just had to make a new 'zon, back in 1.09 my friend and I spent a year questing for a WF!

Anyway, enough reminiscing, I have the WF and Titans/ Storm on Switch. Which would give more overall damage, Might Merc + Pride, or Faith Merc?

Am i right in saying the % bonuse from Auras affects overall weapon Damage?

Whereas the extra 2Fpa (9fpa for WF, 7fpa with Faith) for Faith affects total damage over time.

[NASE]

Generally, a faith merc is preferred. It will be more effective for multishot - with damage increase - playing 7fpa is more interesting, it will help your javelin side and your merc will no die as often - certainly at the chaos sanctuary, a popular place for this hybrid.

[droid]

MS or strafe? You could make an argument that might/pride would be better for a strafezon since the IAS is generally not needed.

However, I'd still take the A1 merc since your valk is a better and more easily replaced tank, having a ranged merc makes for easier crowd control (monsters all swarm in on your valk, meaning easy sweeps with MS or LF) and she doesnt need to close to melee range to start doing damage, and the A2 merc dies much more often, especially vs IM, and CS is such an awesome run for a well-equipped hybrid zon.

[renegademaster]

Thanks guys!

Am going Multishot, mostly for Mooo slaying. Plus i have bad memmories of Strafe from the old days.

[NASE]

Why not use lightning fury for cows?

[renegademaster]

I was going to go with the following, for Dueling and Cowing, and apparently running around in act IV ;). With + 6 Bow skills, + 11 Passive & Magic, +10 Java

Head Andariels Visage
Amulet Cats Eye
Main Windforce
Body CoH
Belt Mavinas
Gloves +3 P&M,20IAS
Feet 40 FRW
Ring 1 Bulkathos
Ring 2 Raven
Charm Anihilus
Charm Skill Charms - 2 P&M
Switch Titans / Storm

Using a Torch for Dueling but not PVM.

Magic Arrow 1
Penetrate 20 -Gotta love the AR bonus
Multishot 13 - between 19 and 24
Valkry 6 - 17 with bonus
Guided 20 - great for dueling / Bosses

Cold Arrow 1
Ice Arrow 1
Freezing Arrow 1 - crowd control

Dodge 3
Avoid 3
Evade 3
Decoy 1
Inner Sight 1
Slow Missiles 1
Critical Strike 3
Pierce 1

Jab 1
Pre Req 3
Lightning Fury 20 - For Phys Immunes

The Java setup is for Blocking, running with 120 FRW, and resists.
Bows for Multishot and Guided whilst Duelling

I have never played a Javazon, so am most familiar with bow skills, but am open to opinions.
What you suggest the Strafe setup to be? Does Strafe work well duelling - i know it auto targets - but it does make you a sitting duck...

[Bladewind]

Hybrid bow/jav zons need at the minimum 20 points to Lightning Fury and 20 points to Charged Strike.

[renegademaster]

Hybrid bow/jav zons need at the minimum 20 points to Lightning Fury and 20 points to Charged Strike.

Care to Elaborate? LF doesn't benefit much from the synergy? Is CS better point blank?

[NASE]

Lf doesn't really need synergies - although it doesn't hurt. Cs on the other hands get a very respectable bonus - 8-10% per point. And seen the fact that you use them for a different thing - lf is mass killer, cs is single target - they complement very well and should almost always be used in combination.

[Bladewind]

Yep, you can easily get 2k+ per bolt for CS with only 40 pts in LF and CS.

+14 skill to Jav is pretty easy to come by.

+3 jav skill glove with 20 IAS
+4 jav skill with titans / Tstrokes
+3 any zon torch
+2 spirit shield (you should have enough strength for SS anyway so these can be easily equipped)
+2 zon helmet / shako

That gives you 9 bolts each hitting from 3 to 2156.

[renegademaster]

I ended up taking your advice - even though my Atmas Scarab revelation nearly changed that, but it does take ages to kill the Phys Immunes once broken.

I sacrificed 100% bonuse to damage with Guided arrow for Charged Strike to kill the Phys Immunes and boost LF. I think this Ama is pretty cool.

My final build was:

Magic Arrow 1
Multishot 16
Guided 1
Cold Arrow 1
Ice Arrow 1
Freezing Arrow 1

Penetrate 20
Valkry 1
Dodge 3
Avoid 3
Evade 3
Decoy 1
Inner Sight 1
Slow Missiles 1
Critical Strike 3
Pierce 1

Jab 1
Pre Req 4
Charged Strike 20
Lightning Fury 20