1.13 PvP Bowazon Guide

[dsmikk]

1.13 PvP Bowazon Guide

Table of Contents:

1) Introduction
2) Breakpoints
3) Gear
4) Stats/Skills
5) Srategy
6) Conclusion


0) Introduction

Bowazons are a very fun character to play and can be one of the best pvp chars if played right.

This build is very expensive. If the right gear is not used then this character will not be very good in PvP.

Advantages:

1. Has very high attack speed
2. Can deal great amounts of physical and poison damage

Disadvantages:

1. Has around 1400 life without Battle Orders
2. This build has low resists


2) Breakpoints

Faster Hit Recovery

Frames / FHR%

11 / 0%
10 / 6%
9 / 13%
8 / 20%
7 / 32%
6 / 52% <---- Target Breakpoint (Eplained Later)
5 / 86%
4 / 174%
3 / 600%

I'm not even going to list the Increased Attack Speed breakpoints.
This character needs to meet the 92%IAS Breakpoint and this build will have 95%IAS. Any furthur increased attack speed will be useless.


3) Gear

Helmet:

Magic 30% Faster Run/Walk Circlet with 3 open sockets (socket with 3x 40% Enhanced Damage/15% Increased Attack Speed Jewels)

You can also use a 3 open socket circlet with 30 to Dexterity if you choose but I prerfer the one with 30% Faster Run/Walk

Amulet:

Only 2 choices here

Best- Cat's Eye Amulet
20% Increased Attack Speed, 30% Faster Run/Walk, and 25 to Dexterity

Other Choice- Highlord's Wrath Amulet
1 to all skills, 20% Increased Attack Speed, % Deadly Strike based on
character level
Deadly Strike is not as useful for Amazons because Deadly Stike is taken
into effect after Critical Strike

Armor:

15% enhanced defense Fortitude Archon Plate with 30 resists and 1.5 to life per character level

Gives 300% enhanced damage which can really help boost your damage. Also has resists and life. Not really any other good choice here.

Weapon:

15% enhanced damage/3 to bow skills Faith Grand Matron Bow

Needs to have 2 to all skills and 15 to fanaticism.
This bow is absolutely necessary for this build. No other bow can take its place.

Weapon Switch:

6/6/4 CTA Flail or Crystal sword for Battle Command and Battle Orders

Shield Switch:

Lidless Wall Shield

Gives +1 to all skills. You can't use spirit because the strength requirement is 156 and you will only have 108 strength

Belt:

Nosferatu's Coil

Gives 10% Increased Attack Speed, 15 Strength, and slows target by 10%

Gloves:

Crafted 20% Increased Attak Speed/Knockback/2 Passive and Magice skills with any other helpful mods

Rings:

2x Perfect Ravenfrost Rings

Gives 20 dexterity, 250 Attack Rating, and you can't be frozen which is very helpful in PvP

Boots:

War Travelers are the best option here. They add 25% Faster Run/Walk, 10 to Strength, 10 to Vitality, and 15-25 damage (which actually ends up being a lot more with all of the enhanced damage % from your gear)

Inventory:

perfect Anni and perfect Amazon torch

I use 4x 10 Max Damage/70+ Attack Rating/12% Faster Hit Recovery Grand Charms and 1x 3 Max Damage/20 Attack Rating/5% Faster Hit Recovery Small Charm in order to reach the 52% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint. You can add more Faster Hit Recovery Charms if you want to reach the 86% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint

The rest is somewhat up to you. I use a mixture of 3 max damage/20 attack rating/20 life scs and 451 poison damage scs. You can play arond a little and figure out what is best for you

Stash:

You will want to own a Demon Limb in order to precast enchant with it. use a socket quest on it and socket it with a hel rune to make the strength requirement go down to 107. Level 23 Enchant adds 87-111 fire damage and adds a 218% bonus to attack. Demon Limb has 20 charges of Enchant on it and when it runs out just repair it with a ral rune in your cube or pay money to repair it

You might want some absorb gear and resist gear. Everybody knows what gear to absorb and stack with so i won't go any furthur on it.


4) Stats/Skills

Starting Attributes
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 25
Vitality: 20
Energy: 15

Hit Points: 50
Stamina: 84
Mana: 15

Each Character Level
Life +2
Stamina +1
Mana +1.5

Attribute Point Effects
1 Vitality point gives 3 Life and 1 Stamina


Attributes:


Strength: Put in enough points to use your Faith (108 Strength Requirement)

Energy: None

Dexterity and Vitality: Split the remainder of your stat points between these two (1:1 Ratio). You can put a little more in either one depending on what type of Bowazon you want to be.


Skills:


Bow Skills:

20 Guided Arrow (Main Attack)

13 Multiple Shot (Only 13 because with all of your gear and Battle Command you end up with a skill level of 23 which gives you the maximum of 24 arrows from this attack)

1 Cold Arrow
1 Magic Arrow
(Both are prerequisites)


Passive and Magic Skills:

20 Dodge

8 Avoid

20 Evade

15 Critical Strike

1 Penetrate (with all gear and Battle Command it gives you a 125% bonus to attack rating and it is a prerequisite to pierce)

1 Pierce (This skill helps against Characters with summons. Arrows have a 71% chance to pass through and go to another target)

5) Strategy

I won't hit this subject too hard.

Vs. players with teleport, shoot a couple of Guided Arrows and when they teleport away switch to Multi Arrow and spray a couple of shots in their direction. Then hit them with more Guided Arrows.

Vs. players without teleport, run away (you will have more faster run/walk than most other players) spray a few guided arrows and repeat until they're dead.

Vs. players with summons such as Necromancers and Druids run away and spray with multi arrows until the summons are dead and then when they teleport away to resummon, chase them down and hit them with more arrows


6) Conclusion

This build can be very powerful if played right. No you wont be able to win every duel. No character is able to achieve that feat, but this build is very fun to play.

This is my first guide so take it easy on me. I'm open for criticism, but don't let it get out of hand please.

[Cursing]

what will you do with smiters? they have75%block 1frame fbr 50%dr ?

[dsmikk]

Like i said, you're not going to be able to beat some characters. Most paladins will beat you

[Xom]

OKay, now I have played many zons through the years. The gear you list- is near to impossible to achieve with out being lame and purchasing via internet. A few problems with your build are very clear- Yes you will have incredible dmg for a bowazon but what about resists? Any 200 fcr fire sorc will torch her, any trapper will electrify her, FOH? forget about it your toast like any other char. Windy Druids will tele-stomp the heck out of you and with such a low fhr, you are doomed beyond belief. Same with any Din basically, you will either be hammer stomped, charge locked and smited to death. Any Poison necromancer will be having a field day with you and the same with a skilled boner(yes I said boner) .The idea of putting so much effort into a zon that will surely lose 70% of the duels, is a little silly.
I agree that you need some vit when PVP'ing however 1:1? That ratio will not be effective in PVP. What happens when you come into contact a high def melee char? You should be hitting 40k plus ar to even have a chance against certain barbs and paladins and fury/rabies druids(yes I understand GA is main attack skill, however multi'ing into a windy druid will not be effective). Over all this character is way over priced for more than 90% of all d2 players ( with out purchasing items), those sc's your talking about are incredibly rare, how many 451 psn scs have you found and the same with 3/20/20's. The resits are just to low to ignore or even make her viable in any PVP scheme unless you were only doing Zon Vs Zon or Pub dueling scrubs. Even then you would be lucky to survive if you were playing BM. I think this character needs to be revamped and or made into a hybrid.

Now for some congratulations. Nice format for the guide, you have a lot of useful information! Nice first try at a guide, but understand your items are extremely rare, those scs... are worth a small fortune, each and everyone of them could fund a decent character.

[theredpredator]

Im just wondering...

Wouldn't a 4s armor with 4x 30max jools in it do a lot more damage then fortitude?

[Karth]

What do you do vs ghosts and barbarians and any build with a melee attack? Or other bowas that use max block on switch? I would rather cube BO or even go without most of the time and have max block & javs on switch to allow you to fury or bolt down those types with some measure of safety. My understanding is also that fhr is less than useful on bowas because you only get fhred after something gets through d/a/e and block... and then you should be wsging away.

Im just wondering...

Wouldn't a 4s armor with 4x 30max jools in it do a lot more damage then fortitude?

Used a calc to do a quick check & no, even with a very 'glassy' build (high ED from dexterity; this would emphasize the value of base damage) the 30 max jewels leave you with much lower minimum damage & slightly lower max damage. Amazons need ED% more than they need base damage... at least once they have a solid inventory.

[mysticc]

I have a 30/45/120 tiara, and I have to say, it's really not that impressive. The damage it adds, especially compared to fortitude, is pretty unimpressive for the cost. I have no doubt that people who want to min-max in pvp will say that any bonus damage, no matter how small, is worth it... but I do want to point out that a 5nado helm on a druid or a nightwings on a blizzard sorc is going to give much better damage in comparison to the 30/45/120 helmet. It really is a shock to see how small the % damage is that you get from it.

I think it would probably be better to get a rare circlet with +2 amazon skills, 30 faster run walk and various other mods that are more useful, and then perhaps put 15/40's (or 15ias with min/max) in the socket(s). In a 2os rare circlet, you might lose out on 15 ias and the extra damage, but I don't think that 15ias really matters with respect to breakpoints, and the 40ed on off-weapons really doesn't matter that much at all. In fact, with fanaticism, you may even benefit more from min or max damage on the jewels. Someone would have to calculate the damage of that suggestion to be sure.

Nonetheless, it's possible to get a helmet like this and just put 2x 15/40's in it for a much more useful result. I would say something like this is your ideal choice, and a 30/45/120 is your temp:



If you actually need that much ias to hit breakpoint, then I apologize, but I haven't played this class in awhile now... been 2 seasons. You didn't talk about breakpoints, at least at a glance.

[Karth]

If you actually need that much ias to hit breakpoint, then I apologize, but I haven't played this class in awhile now... been 2 seasons. You didn't talk about breakpoints, at least at a glance.

The extra 15 ias from the helm is required to use a GMB at 7 fpa with Fortitude. A lot of the better zon vs all players I've run into prefer to use a Diamond Bow faith so that they can wear gear like that circlet, dungos, etc, and tank better than can a GMB+Fort zon.

[mysticc]

The extra 15 ias from the helm is required to use a GMB at 7 fpa with Fortitude. A lot of the better zon vs all players I've run into prefer to use a Diamond Bow faith so that they can wear gear like that circlet, dungos, etc, and tank better than can a GMB+Fort zon.

Yeah, it might be worth mentioning the use of a shadow bow/diamond bow and that alternative gear then. I think it would be much stronger honestly than the GMB.

I would also investigate if 15/40 is the best jewel. I think some people might take it for granted. Auras do funny things with +max damage, and it might turn out to do more damage than the 40% ed would.

[mysticc]

Yeah, It seems your right - you need 95% ias to get it. That's way too much. Shadow Bow only needs 65% ias. I would soon ditch the belt and the helmet immediately since the +3 to all bow skills is irrelevant for guided arrow/strafe amazons. It's only really very useful if your a frostmaiden on an Ice bow.