1.07 News, Info and Gossip

[galtwish]

I'm saving my uncraftable runes to bring forward. I may pop some Rals into 4os armors along with Orts to make Merc armors for questing. If you aren't questing, I'd just bring them forward and craft/cube/RW them there.

[zarfen]

I just started a bowazon in 1.07.
Rolling strong with a 3 chipped(topaz/ruby/ruby) hunters bow. Level 9 in the dark woods currently, best find being a green quilted armor which I actually was very pleased to find :grin:

Have someone played a bowazon 1.07 that could give some pointers? I play untwinked as well and I'm a bit concerned about bows until I can start crafting/whatever an at least decent bow (don't jump me with "nub you will need to try forever to get a 3os cruel IAS fools mod GMB", I'm talking more about something to press myself trough the game to begin with)

I'm not sure how long my current bow will take me, but since I obviously play on /p1 (well, not obviously maybe, but I don't use the modified .dll), which is funny btw 'cuz I actually forgot about the abscence of the /players x command and got hit by a hard stick of reminding when my character said "/players 8" instead of seting it to desired player simulotion
Urgh, enough rambling, what I'm really looking for is just some pointers on making an untwinked bowazon in 1.07. I mean I will not be able to blast my way trough the game relying on non-capped static and CI-breakable Forbs...

Where should I look for decent equipment before I can start craft/chest pop/rack some neat items once(if) I reach late hell, and even then I can't really rely on racking a full amazon bow setup.
Iirc(might be wrong tough) it's not really worthwhile to farm nm meph for some basic stuff, but then where to look?
It's also not very likely I'm gonna stack over the "magic number"(completely forgot the actual number) in mf on a amazon either, so will end game area running give me anything other than experience and fun?

My 1.07 knowledge has faded quite a bit and I'm sorry if this already have been covered somewhere, but I don't feel like hunting trough this whole thread and the search function for it, I hope you don't mind (and it's not like 1.07 discussions are focused on amazon middle gear either , "I found a 1.07 akraine's and then I seeded a zerker and CV rack in the same map today, right after I crafted a pair of 10% cb/10 ll/20 ias gloves!!! and btw I also found a twitch, a razortail and I crafted a rign with mana leech and some str! )

sorry for messy post

[Jaedhann]

I could give you one of my 1.07 ravenclaws. They should serve you well until end of normal i guess. I would want i back though. I could also give you a ring with mana per kill.

But if you want to play untwinked the best way i think would be shopping for a good bow and hoping you find some +damage charms.

[galtwish]

@ Zarfen: don't use a bow until L18+. Get a hurty stick/javelin and 1-hit everything. Pump critical strike, use your A1 merc (cold arrow is best) and wait for a shopped Hunters/Razor bow w/elemental damage. When you get to A5, punch some holes in a fast elemental damage bow and put Nef + some Rals/PRubies in it for high avg damage. This bow can be passed on to your Merc when you find a Riphook/Skystrike/Kuko/rare bow. Don't get caught up in physical damage for a 1.07--the bows are weak, the monsters are 50% PDR in Hell, and you won't be finding anything amazing in your first time through. Fast attack, knockback, and elemental damage is the way to go.

I Matted a Strafeazon riding a "Death" ashwood bow to glory, but the Goldstrike Arch made a huge difference in NM. The build wasn't solid until L66 when I could put on Tal's Horadric Crest for the massive ML. She runs cows now and pulls in sweet charms and a few good socketed uniques with 0% MF.

If I was going to do it over, I'd put 20 in Strafe, 20 in Valk, 10 in Multishot, and 20 in FA while using a Lower Resist wand + Sigon's Shelter on switch and a socketed elemental bow w/Nef + elemental damage sources in the bow. I'd use an A1 Ice merc w/a similar bow. It's slow going, but safe. Cast Decoy to scout and draw fire and split up the enemy armies. FR/W and hit & run manuvering works much better than pumping Vitality.

Equipment that isn't hard to get and most helpful:
Crafted Blood Gloves: CB is at full effect for ranged weapons, and they can spawn w/mana leach as well.
Angelic Halo--Helps tremendously throughout the game
+ skills bows--for your Frozen Arrow/Immolation Arrow shots against immunes in Hell
Prismatic Crafted Amulets--the resists are needed and anything else is just gravy
PDR/chromatic circlet types--for your merc
Tal's Horadric Crest--if you can, run A3 Hell uniques to find this. The Council is the best target, but can be difficult.
FR/W boots w/resists--a key piece of equipment for just about any 1.07 character
Gambled rings/bows
Crafted Hitpower gloves--if you don't want to toss a Nef in a bow in favor of a PEmerald.

Level up in the Glacial Trail/Anceints Way/Nilthi's Temple areas at the end of NM until you hit L62, then patiently crawl through Hell.

Good luck

[helvete]

The better damage charms start falling once you get to nightmare. Once you have a few of those (NM LK being a good place to start) all you need is high AR and a fast attack.

[yiuman]

Re bowazons, I think Galtwish and Helvete have said pretty much everything with one or two exceptions - Vamp Gave>Tals helm, and it can be racked in NM LK (if you want to spend time there) along with a couple of other useful uniques/sets (Valk Wing/Guilarms, Skulders, SoE, Mav's belt and Gerkes spring to mind) if you can't really get any further.

I'd also second Helvete in that most of your damage will probably come from charms and the best charms fall from NM Act 3 onwards. So, look for mods like Galtwish said on your bow.

A last little note bout crafting and shopping, just because you can't craft the uber cannons till you get elite weapons, don't forget that you could craft a useful midgame bow with an exceptional bow if you are prepared to use the ingredients. Also, keep an eye on the bow vendors, a good magic exceptional bow with 4 sox from Larzuk will take you a long way (or any quality elemental damage bow with 4 sox will be good).

@Helvete: The runes you mentioned are useful in their own right - my Frenzy Guardian used an Amn in a coldsteel eye as his only source of life leech for a good portion of NM and still has a Ral in his Sazabi helm and another in his Sazabi body to cover the gaping hole in his fire res. There are also one or two useful RWs you might consider that use Rals (although, as ever be careful with RWs in 1.07), Beauty (El Ral Eth), Bramble (Ral Eth) and Ancients Pledge (Ral Ort Tal). These RWs together cover a good chunk of resistances and Beauty has 50%MF to boot! Other than that, you might as well bring them forward.

[helvete]

The only runeword I'd concider is the Death in a bow for my upcoming bowazon, but since she'll probably use a sickening poison bow, that's not really an option either. Sporting Skullder's and shako, I don't want to change my armor/hat setup. I still need some socket quests done, but I'm hoping for a 3s 29res/life tower for main shield, and milabrega for switch. Also have ali baba atm, but waiting for oculus, as I don't want to spend more dex.

...And the only "single rune" usage I'm up for would be Ists in a good shield, or in an occy.

[zarfen]

@Jae: I appriciate your offer, but I decided to do it untwinked for a chagne :smiley: And thanks for the tip.

@Helvete, galtwish & yiuman:
Thanks for all the info, I was pretty much clueless about the whole thing.
So far I've only sunk some skill pts in some preq's and enough in MS to get 10 arrows, gonna save the rest for a whie I think.
I've also spent every single stat point so far in dex as well, it started as a silly idea in my head, but I'll see how far I'll come before it drives me mad and I invest some str to use equipment at least.

I've got some more q's:
Is there any boss worth running in normal/nm?
Should I bother to try to squeeze some mf onto her?
Where can I find a list of the 1.07 rw's? The link in the 1.07 guide was not working last time I tried.
When is it 'worth' to start craftign at all?

Thanks for your help!

I'm gonna re-read and refresh my mind on the crafting recipes in 1.07 now, and then maybe push my zon some more.
Currently level 17 act2, just heading into the palace with my thrusty chipped hunters bow and my terrible act 2 merc (definitly switching back to an act1 one)

[helvete]

As soon as you reach 127% (i think) MF, NM act bosses will start dropping all sets with a few rares and even fewer uniques. This is a good way to get set amulets and rings from NM meph (lure him to the moat and pwn him with guided arrow). Besides that, there's no worthwhile boss. Maybe NM andy for death gloves/belt combo, which should get you a LONG way concerning IAS and resists. Cannot be frozen is needed as well.

About MF, see above.

About runewords, google is your friend. I believe Thrugg listed them on this forum once.

Crafting is worth it as soon as you can get your hands on something worth crafting. At any rate, I'd recommend getting to hell cows and level until you're dead bored, then level some more. But hydra bows and the like have high enough qlvl to get cruel/grandmasters anyway so as soon as you can shop one, go ahead.

About crafting, that's not the only cool usage of the cube. Cube flawless to perfect and cube prismatic ammys. Save every sapphire for a lvl 12 character to cube bugged Mana/kill rings. Save every amethyst to attempt caster boots at lvl 79. Save every ruby and exploding potion (the ones you get from exploding shrines; make sure to pick them one by one) for the fire res ring recipe. Save every emerald for crafting Great Hauberks once you find a rack that drops them. Save every Eld and Tir for boot/glove crafts. In short: Use ATMA.

(Do NOT attempt to open you character in ATMA if you have items with "Freezes Target", like Iceblink or Axe of Fechmar picked up. That can corrupt the whole character file, according to rumors I hear. I also don't use stashes for 1.07 items, only mules, due to another rumor I heard).

[zarfen]

Thanks for the reply.
I found a listing of the rw's, not much to hooray for to be honest

Anyway, 2 of my flatmates also started 1.07 chars, so it'll be a nice competition (even though they are both pretty nooby when it comes to d2)

Btw is atma's drop calc for 1.07 accurate? Thanks for all the help :grin:

EDIT: @galtwish:
About this comment

If I was going to do it over, I'd put 20 in Strafe, 20 in Valk, 10 in Multishot, and 20 in FA while using a Lower Resist wand + Sigon's Shelter on switch and a socketed elemental bow w/Nef + elemental damage sources in the bow. I'd use an A1 Ice merc w/a similar bow. It's slow going, but safe. Cast Decoy to scout and draw fire and split up the enemy armies. FR/W and hit & run manuvering works much better than pumping Vitality.

that's 70+ skill points with preq's, and it's hard to get to areally high level in 1.07, so wouldn't that build leave penentrate/pierce/critical strike/D/A/E and other nice skills on a very low level? If you are using a elemental bow, would you really pump 20 into FA? I'm definitly getting 1+ pts in it, but manacost and skill pts shortage may leave me at a low number, even 1. What about the issues of less AR and overall dmg (cs and more hits with pierce)