Need some help getting my untwinked bowazon through hell der=0>

[DBlock]

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.

[zaphodbrx]

Nice to see a pure bowazon, untwinked. Your doing fine I think. Some points I'd like to comment on.

-If the main problem you have is low damage, that can be changed by improving your weapon. Buriza is the highest damaging bow in the game ( excepting windforce etc. ofc but talking of budget items ), followed closely by Goldstrike Arch (GSA) and Harmony. Some people like Wildwitch String (WWS) too, which I personally don't. GSA and WWS need to be upped ( Pul rune ) for use in Hell, and harmony needs to be in an elite base. Buriza doesn't need upping.
-By the way, +skills do zilch for this build. Feel free to make Harmony in a plain GMB or any other bow.
-KB KB KB. Knockback is amazing for strafers. Since LoH is a bit too good to give up, that means socketing a Nef into the GSA. Or you can try crafting KB gloves. Buriza has freezes target which is effective
-Barb merc with lawbringer is pretty effective, but might is very powerful for bowazons. You don't have a reapers though so that is understandable, but do try might atleast once.
-Treachery armor is mainly for the ias, not fade. I have given some pointers on ias in this thread. I also give my skill placement there.
-Try lowering the player settings when you go to hell. You might have accidentally left it on p8. I suggest going for p1 and increasing it to the point where you are comfortable.

Strafers are a lot more frustrating than LF or FA builds because it is item dependent.
If you trade, you can pick up things like Buriza, GSA, WWS for dirt cheap. If you insist on untwinked, they can be obtained from NM Baal/Meph without too much effort.

[sidzie]

Hi,

I’m pretty new here and not as experienced as some of the people here.

I was just thinking… Goldstrike Arch:

Being a gothic bow:
Does average 30 (10-50) damage,
Base wpn speed 10,
Comes with 50% IAS
Has 200-250% ED
(Also extra ED to demons and undead)

Harmony (In any Elite bow)
Elite bows all have higher average damage
Can use an elite bow with faster base weapon speed
Comes no IAS

If you use Harmony with Treachery you don’t lose any attack speed breakpoints (50%+20%, versus 45%+20%) if you use the same speed bow. If you use faster Harmony bow you could move up some breakpoints.

With Harmony (and treachery) you potentially have higher average base bow damage, higher ED modifier (depending on rolls), higher rate of fire. Including good elemental damage with will be applied with each arrow. (and revive charges may not be irrelevant).

But you lose the extra ED to demons and undead and you lose the %AR.

This does depend on the rolls of your particular GSA and Harmony.

As zaphodbrx said, it may be worth trying a might merc – the %ED will help with damage output also. I would definitely give him Smoke and use Treachery yourself. I know fade wont happen often, but you shouldn’t be getting hit much anyway. Venom may also be useful.

I currently have a FA/strafer and I’m not using the RWM. I’m struggling to get strafe damage up also, but I don’t have access to Harmony – I’m currently using Melody in a Mat bow – the +6 to bow skills is good for FA, but the lack of damage makes strafe weak.

Hopefully someone will be able to tell you if what I’ve said is correct, or not – as I said I’m not as experienced as others on here

[DBlock]

I got a WF, Reapers and some other goodies from Noodle which I have tested out in The Pits. Think I'm gonna stash it away and finnish Hell untwinked and rather use them as endgame gear.

On the other hand I've found an Um rune. I also have Lum and Fal. So I'm able to make a Duress and Lionheart as well. I know Lionheart is decent on myself, but is it better than using a Treachery? Provided Treachery actually helps me hit some BP's (going for 90 IAS on my untwinked setup, got 125% IAS using WF). Also, would a Duress be good on myself, should I make it in an eth elite armor and stick it on my merc or should I just save my Um and maybe make a Stone for my merc?

My next char will most likely be a WW Travrunning barb, so any items I can use on him as well would be nice, but prio is making my ama as good as possible and use the leftovers on my trapper and barb.

At the moment I'm struggling abit with somewhat low ar. I have yet to find angelic amulet, but i have one angelic ring stashed away (currently using 2 rare ar rings with some other mods as well as all my ar charms). Been thinking of shopping for an Enchant wand or something, but I have only found some with lvl 1-2 enchant. Any other way to boost my ar, apart from lucking out and finding a demonslimb? Socketing my bow with an Eth is not an option as the only source of knockback I have is a Nef.

Also wondering what would be my best option for killing bosses. I'm currently using strafe\ga depending on which of them seems to do more dmg. How do you deal with physical immunes? I found that even with decrep they are still pretty damn resilient and as a result I spend alot of time killing them, tho I usually end up just running past.

I'm dreaming of 99 with this char (more realistically I'll be tired of her around 93). What would be the best way to get there? As in which areas should I run at certain levels?

@zaph
Improving my weapon is easier said than done when playing untwinked. I know +Skills does close to nothing for my build, but I might as well get the best out of it and I figured the +3 Bow and Crossbow skills for free is better than nothing. Since GSA is plenty fast, I have already socketed Nef. Not really struggling as much with low dmg as I suspected. Finished Act 2 without too much hassle, tho skeletons and those leeches are annoying as hell and can take some time to kill. I was under the impression that upgrading GSA would not add much damage at all.

@sidzie
All advice are welcome.