Hi.
So a month or two ago I started playing D2 again when I found it on an old backup disc. After a few weeks I had almost accumulated enough runes to cube my *** a Lo. Then my comp crashed and I had to format. To clearify, I'm playing single player which means that my saves was lost and so was my envisioned Grief.

A few days ago I started once again. This time I decided I'd make only one char and play it to lvl 90+. I remembered that I played a bowazon before the synergies was introduced (was probably 1.09). She was using a Buriza with GA and MS. Man did she tear things up. With that in mind I decided I'll go for a bowazon which I love to play, for some reason I cant quite understand.

I decided I'd start out as a bowazon from the very beginning and did not put any points into the javelin skills.
Early on I was lucky enough to find a Stoutnail which got me to lvl 25. At that point I could finally make and equip my Edge in a Stagbow. The rest of normal was a breeze and I ventured into NM.

At that point my Edge was starting to slow down drastically and I did not have any decent alternative. Mind you, it could probably do NM on P1, but I prefer abit higher player setting for NM. Most of the time I used Frozen Arrow to kill. After a while I got tired of it and thought, if I'm gonna use mana intensive skills anyways, I might as well do LF through NM. And I did, needless to say it was a breeze.

NM gave me a few goodies such as an Eth Tannr Gorerod which I upped, Goldstrike Arch (low on everything), Guardian Angel, Frostburns, Infernostride, Undead Crown, Razortail, alot of different low set items (Sazabi helm stands out with its res and +skill as do Laying of Hands for reasons we all know), 2 Ko runes, 2 Lem runes as well as an Eth Legend Sword.

At 76 I decided I had enough of NM and was ready for hell. I figured GSA can take me through P1 Hell, maybe do a pitstop at the Pit. I had never found the Sol I needed for Insight and at this point I was planning to go through hell as a bowazon. I used my socket quest on the eth Legend Sword, made a Lawbringer, hired a barb and made him Treachery as well and put the Undead Crown ontop of his head. This was all a good idea. In hell he provides me with Decrep. as well as Sanctuary Aura for those undeads\Phys Immunes (which are often UD). The knockback has so far been great and ATM he is the one who kills, not me.

For myself I made a Smoke armor and gambled some rare boots I'm happy with.

At the moment I just started A1, but noticed I kill very slowly on P1 and relying on my merc to kill. I'm not really having trouble yet, but it must surely come.

I'll post my equipment setup.
Head: Sazabi
Weap: Goldstrike Arch
Switch: Harmony
Armor: Smoke in a Sup. Light Plate
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: Razortail
Amu: 2 dex, 21 allres
Ring: Manald Heal
Ring: Rare with +93 ar, 15 energy, 5 life, 3 mana, mdr 2, fire res. 24
Boots: Rares with +2 dex, lightning res. 40, cold res. 26, 25% mf, 20% frw and 40% edef.
Charms: None

In hell that gives me:
75 fr
17 cr
51 lr
-9 pr

Merc is wearing:
Undead Crown
Treachery Dusk Shroud (would probably switch this with a high def. armor if I had one, tho the attackspeed is nice)
Lawbringer eth Legend Sword

My skills are:
~Bow and Crossbow~
1 prereqs
Max. Strafe
10 Multishot

~Passive and Magic~
1 in all skills
20 Valk
20 Penetrate
2 Pierce

~Javelin and Spears~
1 Jab


So.. what I'm wondering is how to make Barloc (merc) and myself more effective. I'm one of those that believes high defense makes my merc survive longer (duh, ofc it does). As of such I think Treachery is a bad merc armor as I find Fade unreliable, but he needed IAS and I had nothing better.

I could probably switch armor with my merc, but I have no use for Treachery atm. I get hit too little to proc fade, and as I said I find it unreliable (not willing to prebuff it everytime it wears off). I strafe and MS at a satisfying speed, so I'm happy with that.

I'm on the lookout for a +3 Skill MB or GMB to make a Harmony to see if that helps my killingspeed, but none so far. Would also have to get myself another Ko, but that shouldnt be too much hassle.

Dno if I want to go back to the elemental arrows as I should have no problems with immunities. The dilemma is that they will deal alot more dmg than I currently am.

Please keep in mind that I play solo untwinked singleplayer with no trading. Might have to bite my own *** and trade for a WF if it wont drop within a reasonable time in the Pit or I come by runes for Faith (or something else). I hate runehunting so mostly relying on luck for those, unless its some lower runes I can cube up from Countess.

Think I'm gonna post this on the SP forums as well, if that's not bad manners.