Lycander's Aim

[Kossuths Will]

Just wondering if this is a good enough bow to be an end game weapon, or if its typically just a weapon that gets you up to lvl 50 or 60, then you need a better one. Never made a bowazon before, and am going with strafe and ice arrow maxed as my skill choices. I am real equip poor, so one of the real high end runewords or trading for an expensive unique isnt an option...so I'm hoping Lyc aim will do the trick.

[0blique]

Lycander's is a pretty decent bow, but it's not normally used for end game use. This isn't really due to it's quality, it's just that there are a lot of nicer bows out there. Still, I'd imagine that, with decent equipment, you should be able to solo hell with it without getting too bored or frustrated.

[KremBanan]

Just wondering if this is a good enough bow to be an end game weapon?

Yes .

[droid]

Lyc's is probably the bargain bow of choice for the aspiring bowie. Especially a bowie that uses the cold tree, since it gives you nice +skills and you're less dependant solely on your bow's damage for your effectiveness.

Its major drawback is its an Exceptional-level bow, so it has lower base physical damage. Upping it, however, is somewhat pointless since you can probably get an Eaglehorn for the same price for more physical damage, or make a Harmony in an elite bow for more elemental damage, and in either case you'd want to eventually trade those in for a WF, Faith, or in your case perhaps Ice anyway.

[wrugoin]

For a bargain bow, I'd still recommend Harmony in a Elite Bow -10 (e.g. matriarchal) or an upped WWS with two Shaels

[Kossuths Will]

Lyc's is probably the bargain bow of choice for the aspiring bowie. Especially a bowie that uses the cold tree, since it gives you nice +skills and you're less dependant solely on your bow's damage for your effectiveness.

Its major drawback is its an Exceptional-level bow, so it has lower base physical damage. Upping it, however, is somewhat pointless since you can probably get an Eaglehorn for the same price for more physical damage, or make a Harmony in an elite bow for more elemental damage, and in either case you'd want to eventually trade those in for a WF, Faith, or in your case perhaps Ice anyway.

yeah, upping it isnt an option anyway since im NL. kind of a drag because I have a hone sundan i would like to up for my merc as well, but from what i've read, you cant go from exc to elite in NL :(

[fwing]

that is correct. you could prolly get a windforce for 2-3 hrs though and hrs are easy to get NL (collect 80 pgems)

[Kossuths Will]

well if i do want to try to make it an end game weapon, what should i socket it with? I have a 28% ed jewel but i dont think that'll do much, as it has 193% ed as it is with 170 max damage. which means the base is (170/2.93 = 58) 58 max damage...adding the jewel would make a total of 221% ed which means it would only up the max dmg to 186 (3.21 x 58), seems kind of a waste.

i was actually considering an eld rune, for the ed and ar bonus vs undead, since skellies and the like u cant mana leech from. so i figure maybe it would help to kill those as quick as possible. pul is another possibility (same thing but vs demons), and then theres the infamous shael :)

[Hrus]

There are better options imho. Shael if needed (check the amount of IAS from other equip), otherwise ETH, NEF, AMN all before eld imho.

[0blique]

Yeah, I agree- eld doesn't really do as much as you'd like, and the same with pul (would pul be enough to get a better bow?). ED jewel, for the reason you mentioned isn't that good because the base damage is quite low. I'd wait until you see what your character needs before socketing it with anything.

[Kossuths Will]

Yeah, I agree- eld doesn't really do as much as you'd like, and the same with pul (would pul be enough to get a better bow?). ED jewel, for the reason you mentioned isn't that good because the base damage is quite low. I'd wait until you see what your character needs before socketing it with anything.

I think the biggest need is damage, really. That's why I was considering eld/pul. +75% damage has to help some, even if its only against a certain type of monster. But now i realize its probably just weapon damage. i was thinking for some reason it would be 75% of total damage (i.e., after factoring in dmg bonus from strafe). But I also see a lot of stuff in this forum that both AR and IAS are more important, so maybe I'll just try and hit a certain fps and hope that's enough.

although 1 ?...i looked up the IAS/strafe table(http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183692), and i'm not sure whether to use 10 or -10 as my base. it says that the wp speed for a ceremonial bow is 10, but if i look at lycanders aim specifically, it says -10. so does this mean i look at 10 and then factor in lycanders 20% IAS and my other IAS stuff, or does this mean i just start at -10 and then factor in my IAS from everything but my bow?

[gakky]

Lycander's Aim is [10]. Look under 10 and add in lycander's 20IAS and any other IAS gear.
Nef or Shael would be the best for socketing.