Help get untwinked bowzon through hell

[FredOfErik]

Apart from the fact that I would never recommend a defiance merc for a bowazon, you should be aware that if you do go with this option you need to get your merc some pretty high def armor. Otherwise, it won't make much of a difference. I think you are very right in staying with your might merc, which (if you manage to get a better strafe bow) be quite nice for your own dmg aswell.

[ioupainmax]

Strafe is not much of a killer in the first place - we are talking untwinked zon here - but it will do the job. A balanced composition of Critical Strike/Penetrate/Pierce may result in a slightly lower damage output with Strafe, but improves the overall performance. If I wanted to sink 20pts somewhere, it would be maxing out valk, which really makes a difference in untwinked play, where merc sometimes struggles on his own.

This is good advice, especially if you find Strafe underwhelming. You may want to reconsider taking points from Valkyrie and instead take them from strafe. If you continue to use items with +skills your Strafe/Multishot might still get to a reasonable level with limited investment in skills points and you would also have a meaty tank. Alternatively, if you go for peace armour and hope for Valkyrie from that then you have some more options available.

If you go down the route of items with lots of +skills then you might like the elemental arrow skills. They both benefit a lot from + skills with the caveat that you need to invest enough in passive skills to boost the physical element of those arrows to a point where you can leach effectively. Or you could ignore the physical element even more and just go for a prayer merc with insight if you do decide to get RWM in the future.

[sidzie]

FredOfEric,

Yes, I don’t have a high defense armour so I don’t think I’ll be going for a defiance merc. I think I’ll stick with might – to help his leech.

Ioupainmax,

I like the idea of adding skills in penetrate, pierce and critical strike to make strafe more useful. I’m not sure how best to do this, whether to take some points out of strafe and go for treachery armour.

I do like the idea of peace armour, but I’m not sure how much I would be able to rely on the ctc Valk and how much difference the loss in levels (from 17 to 15) would make (probably not that much now I think about it).

I may read up on some FA/Lf hybrid builds – because I think charged strike may be better for boss fights? Is that true?

Thanks,
Sid

[Pijus]

I tried on Silence Crusader bow yesterday/today. All I can say is that it's pretty damn good.

I agree with whoever said to go with Explosive(or immolation) arrow. Those combined with FA suddenly make Melody a good bow choice, since they all benefit from +bowskills.

If you use strafe constantly, the valk from Peace triggers pretty much on every monster pack.

[Black Cat]

I would NOT recommand Peace armor for your amazon, try to get Treachery instead. The Venom itself will really help your damage output with Strafe (since each monster is generally hit only once per strafe), and the IAS allows you to use a heavy bow without losing much speed.

%ctc valk on strike may seem able to replace normal valkyrie casting, but when playing the hard way it is NOT nearly enough : often you will need to recast it at once after it dies, or to place it somewhere else (to tank for your fragile merc for example, or save your skin), which is impossible to control with %ctc.

I never tested the fire skills after their buff in 1.13, but 60 skill points seems too much to invest (and fire immunes are more often encountered than cold immunes, afaik).

Going to hybrid bow/jav could really make your life easier (20 LF) but then you would likely end up using jav skills more than bow skills . Usually my bow/jav builds tend to be jav/bow ones, with the only bow skills often being only strafe (or multishot, it depends) or even only guided arrow (level 1). Freeze arrow is nice, but cost too much mana and is simply less powerful than LF.

[Ugla]

%ctc valk on strike may seem able to replace normal valkyrie casting, but when playing the hard way it is NOT nearly enough : often you will need to recast it at once after it dies, or to place it somewhere else (to tank for your fragile merc for example, or save your skin), which is impossible to control with %ctc.

The idea is that you cast your own valk, which is then replaced by the CtC one. I agree, however, that it may not always be desired because of her repositioning. Plus, your castable valk is often almost as strong, also due to those +2 skills from 'Peace', which eventually turns the CtC into a hindrance rather than advantage.

[zaphodbrx]

You do not get 60 points in fire tree. Only 40, because immolation arrow sux and is on a timer. Just get explosive arrow and it's synergy.
Peace gives +2 zon skills, ctc valkyrie, plus fhr and some resist. It's perfect for an untwinked zon depending on +skills.

Treachery is okay sure, but venom does negligible damage and fade doesn't trigger very often for a bowazon. And ias can be gotten from elsewhere.

[sidzie]

So would Silence with strafe (+treachery) be ok to fill in the gaps that Melody with Frozen Arrow cant cope with (CI). This would seem like a good idea for crowd control, but would it be any good for boss killing?

You make good points about Peace armour, I think treachery is a more solid choice.

[sidzie]

I defeated Durial last night. The tomb didn’t open with any apparitions – and the unraveller skellies are easily frozen and smashed. If I’m honest it was probably the easiest tomb I’ve ever seen – hardly any champions and no problem boss packs (and I opened up the whole map before finding the right way).

Durial went down quickly – he killed valk once at the beginning (maybe the initial charge), and he then switched between merc and valk, killing neither while I stood out of the way strafing (for what it’s worth). I only needed 3 full rejuvs for my merc. I got a unique Io staff… woo.

I think I’ll be ok at the start of act 3, plenty of space for running battles, but I will probably struggle toward the end of act 3.

I still haven’t decided on (or found/made) any gear changes since my first post. I’m not sure which direction to go.

[Pijus]

If you have the runes for it, and you're not using runeword mod, and you don't have a good unique bow, I'd just go with Silence in a Crusader bow.