Hardcore Bowazon

[PhatTrumpet]

I hate to be another one of those "here's my gear/build, tell me what to do differently" type of people, but I haven't made a Bowazon since 1.09 and I wanted to be sure I didn't mess her up.

I found a WF not long ago and decided I might as well use it. I figured I could use this Zon to run Chaos Sanctuary since I've never really run it repeatedly. Here's the planned setup:

Windforce ('Shael')
Kira's Guardian ('Um')
Cat's Eye (sick of all my non-spellcasters using Highlord's... I don't have an extra one anyway)
'Treachery' Dusk Shroud (circlet and quilted type armor... gotta love the nekkid look with the ponytail)
Laying of Hands
Razortail
War Travs
Ravenfrost
rare ring (ideally with ar/dex, life leech, and resists)

Might Merc of course

20 Strafe
20 Penetrate
17 Valk
12 Crit
5 Pierce
6/5/6 D/A/E (40%/45%/40%... considering leaving Dodge at lvl 1, but 40% would really help if/when the lag monster strikes)

Finished at lvl 87... remaining points could probably go into Multi.

This is about the best Bowazon gear I have on hand, so if you have a suggestion it'll need to be comparable in value.

With Kira's and Fade from 'Treachery' I should have maxed resists and 15%dr, which is vital in HC considering I won't be pumping vit past 100... less than that if possible (all life charms). 125% ias gets me past the 120% breakpoint. 55% Pierce plus 33%(?) from Razortail sounds like enough (capped at 95%, right?). 60% Crit is around the point where diminishing returns start to hurt.

I'm not sure what to put on my weapon switch. I've got a 'Harmony' Matri, which would dispose of PIs pretty well; I've also got a couple Demon Limbs, which would help a little with PIs but mostly give a nice ar boost.

How do most WF Strafers deal with PIs? Would it be better to re-allocate skill points so I can max Magic Arrow? WF does a lot of damage, but 20% doesn't seem all that impressive.

Thanks in advance.

[PhatTrumpet]

What about the usefulness of Multishot? I was thinking of trading for two or three Passive skillers since the build is pretty heavy in that department. That would save me some hard points in Crit, D/A/E, and Pierce that could be used to get Multishot to about slvl 10.

Still very curious as to how most WF Strafers deal with PIs.

[Wmeredith]

-You've got lots of options for PI's:

a) WWS/Harmony on switch. (This is my pick. With WWS you have a free lvl 20 Magic Arrow plus CTC amp. So shoot them with the MA until they're dead or the amp goes off. If the latter happens first, switch back to your WF and blast them. I personally like Harmony the best, because of the aura and the valk prebuff.)
b) Frozen Arrow. (This is nice, since you'll slow them down, too.)
c) Put a Reaper's on your merc.
d) Carry an charges of amp wand on switch.
e) Wear an Atma's.

-Your build+gear looks good. I would do min dex for gear and lots VIT, since you're playing hardcore. Or maybe split your dex and VIT, shoot for 200 of each maybe.

-I would skip multi. It's just too slow with a -10 bow IMHO.

-It looks good to me. Have fun!

[PhatTrumpet]

WWS I definitely hadn't thought of. Upgrading it would yeild even better magic damage too since it's based off of bow damage.

If I were to go the Frozen Arrow route I'd want to damage synergize it, which requires 40 skill points I don't really have to spare. I think I've ruled out that option for now.

I probably should've mentioned Merc gear. I'll be dumping as much +skills gear on him as I reasonably can in order to boost his Might aura, so that means Andy's Visage and Arioc's Needle, i.e. no Reaper's. Although now that I think about it, maybe the Decrep triggering every so often would increase my damage output more than a slightly higher lvl Might aura. Has anyone tested this out?

Wand with charges of Amp? I believe the only item with charges of Amp is Gavel of Pain.

Not sure I want to sacrifice Cat's Eye for Atma's since it gets me past the 120%ias bp.

Speaking of ias, I've got enough for a 9-frame Multi. Is that still too slow?

Thanks.

[YogiRat]

I would go with Harmony also. For me, the scaryist PIs in the game are the minotars in the ice caverns. The fact that they are naturally cold immune kinda knocks out FA as an option. This basicly leaves MA as your most viable alt bow skill. The beauty of MA is that you don't to max it for it to be effective. All you really need to do is get it's mana cost low enough to spam it. 1,3,7,13 points, whatever works for you. Shooting it at 8FPS really helps it's damage over time, so use MA with your Harmony.

There is an MA Windforce build, but I can't see maxing the skill when it works so well without that much investment.

Multi with strafe is redunant. Don't bother with it.

[Wmeredith]

-I think a 9 framne multi is too slow. You have a WF, use strafe.
-Yes, decrep will help your damage a lot more than haveing might be a few levels higher. It's just like when amp triggers, the packs just melt away...

[xeyloderixed]

mine has almost the exact same gear, except i went with an mf armor instead (because, well, you know, i love mfing):

kiras with ias jOOl
cats eye
skullders with ias jOOl
wf with shael
wartravs
ravenfrost
nagel
noscoil
laying of hands

which gives me exactly 120 ias.

stats are:
100 vita
enough str for gear (dont know off hand, i just put in enough to wear my items + charms)
rest dex (currently have 419 or so)

i dont use treachery because it requires getting hit, and getting hit with only 770 life is a nono. i dont even have max res before getting hit~ my resists look like: max/45/64/45. and if u dont have fade active when u engage diablo, then ur toast (he gobbles up my 64 light res very quickly~)

the rest assumes you are playing 1p:
(1) dont think you need more than 1 point in pierce, since the monsters in chaos die very quickly with loh and low pierce.
(2) i also have harmony on switch, also on a matribow. it's fine for the occasional pi grand vizier: lots of elemental damage + MA (mine has lvl 10 ma using harmony, so 10% magic + elemental damage).

also, i think ariocs is the way to go, because waheed rarely engages enemies because of the kb on wf. the +4 only adds a few hundred damage though (i think it's like ~200 for mine)

xey
-ps: ive recently switched to running flayer jungle in pubbies, because what do you know, the flayers are demons~ not found anything special, but gems, charms, runes drop like crazy there.

[Wmeredith]

-ps: ive recently switched to running flayer jungle in pubbies, because what do you know, the flayers are demons~ not found anything special, but gems, charms, runes drop like crazy there.

It's also the best place to find 4os GM and Mat bows...

Another thing that's nice about harmony is when you see a pack of those PI minoutars (sp?) you flip to your Harmony, and you can really scoot. I got a addicted to a speedy-zon at one point. She wore Aldur's boots (40%), a Cat's eye (20%) and carried a Harmony. I could outrun Teleporters in that kit. :lol: I also threw a trang arm on her once upon a time... but her main armor was Treachery of course.

[slap]

hi.

shame you are on east, i have reapers/arioc's but i am on europe.

my hcl amazon lives in the level 85 areas, she clears the chaos/river of flame with ease, she usualy has two level ten mules with her to make it a 3player game and has no trouble with any pi's.

buriza is what she use's, nothing on switch. her trusty rogue use's harmony.

level 92

upped buriza,socketed 15ias ed
upped duriels, socketed 15ias resist
cirlet ,resists/damage/2xias+resists
amu 29resist all/41life
raven/crafted .. ll/ml/str/resists/l
rare plated belt /lots of stats
waterwalks
loh

she has a 8-9 second freeze length in hell / does 600-3200 damage.
all resists maxed fire is on 80.

trusty rogue debs

howltusk
treachery
harmony

....

i wish you well with your build, have fun.