Well, here are a few thoughts on bowazons in 1.10s (which it's just as well to remember is a beta, so there's no guarantee that things won't change in the actual patch; or perhaps there's a guarantee that things will change).
IMO bowazons are still very versatile and capable characters, but there are big differences from 1.09 which affect them a lot. For example:
IMO bowazons are still very versatile and capable characters, but there are big differences from 1.09 which affect them a lot. For example:
- Monsters have much more life and regeneration
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- Monster have much higher defence
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- Leech is much less effective
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- Synergies make skill point distribution more critical
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- And, specifically for amazons, your valkyrie is now stronger than you are ;)<>
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Increased monster life means that the first main thing you need is a way to deal out lots of damage. (Even so, you'll still kill much more slowly than in 1.09.) For bowazons this either means high-end elite bows, which you're unlikely to find yourself for a long time, or a maxed elemental arrow as your primary weapon. Except for those with access to great equipment, IMO a maxed elemental arrow is the way to go. My bowazon maxed immolation arrow, with about 10 points into exploding arrow for the synergy, and it carried her all the way through the game (on players 1) . I haven't tried a high level freezing arrow, but I'd guess it's more effective than immo, except that my impression is there are more cold immunes around than fire immunes. At least, there were lots of times I was really glad to have a fire attack instead of a cold attack.
Unless you're always in a party, you need at least two good attacks to deal with immunes -- the physical attack from my bowazon and her valk is my second one. (Bowazon's have it easy here though -- a lvl 1 freezing arrow boosted by +skills items is a very useful third string cold attack, though it takes a while to kill a PI/FI boss, and a couple of points in the javelin tree to lightning bolt -- as suggested by Crystalion -- even provides an admittedly rather weak fourth lightning attack.) Given a good enough bow, a strafe/multishot bowazon could invest in immo or freezing arrow as a secondary attack for PIs. However, IMO, 1.10 has massively tipped the scales from physical attacks to elemental attacks.
Monster regeneration is so fast you need something to control it: I have some assorted poison charms, and a harpoon of vileness on my weapons switch to tag monsters with PMH, especially for longer battles vs. bosses and their minions.
The second main thing you need in 1.10 is a way to control mobs. For amazons, this is a no brainer in more ways than one. Your valk may no be the brightest bulb on the planet, but she is almost indestructible. And, at high levels, she may well deal out more physical da than you do. On top of this, 'zons have decoy (which is absolutely invaluable, and in 1.10 may be worth more than one point not only for the synergy with valk life, but for the extra life-time and toughness, unless you get enough from +skills items).
Monster defence means AR matters in a way it didn't before. This also counts against physical attacks: strafe and multishot have no AR bonus, so I suppose if one of them is your primary attack, you might need to pump penetrate a lot to compensate (and personally I hate to use those valuable skill points just to be able to hit things). The elemental part of the elemental arrows always hits (AFAIK) and although they don't autohit any more, they carry a hefty AR bonus. For instance, my (lying) character screen shows for a normal/multi/strafe attack vs thorned hulks in the hell/bloody foothills an AR of 1580 and a to hit of 42%; for a lvl 25 immo, the AR is 4261 and the to hit is 66% (still low, but only applicable to the physical da AFAIK).
Leech is much harder to get now. This is especially bad for mana leech. The days of strafing a mob and seeing your mana bulb fill instantly are gone. For example, only recently -- after I found a Tal's mask, which is unfortunately just as ugly as before but even more useful, and got to 17% mana leech with a 111 da bow -- have I been able to strafe without drinking mana potions. (I still require mana potions for elemental arrows, but with a good plus-mana ring and base energy it's not too bad. Maybe some stat points into energy would have been a good idea, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Monsters also do more damage now, so low vit builds, even bowazons with their valks, are harder than before.)
Before 1.10, bowazons had skill points coming out of their ears. That's not true anymore. If you want to max valk and get a heavy duty elemental arrow attack with 10pts, say. in a synergy (as I would recommend), you're already at 50 skill points without prerequisites. Maxing both freezing arrow and elemental arrow would be even nicer, and what about physical attacks, not to mention all those great passives?
At any rate with these comments in mind here's a few specific responses to your suggested skill pt distribution, though no doubt there are other possibilities too.
Quote:Being new to the 1.10 patch and the Amazon class, but hearing of their flexibilty, I want to start a Bowazon. However, I need some help with the planning.
Skill plan (base level):
Passive & Magic
Critical Strike -- 1
Inner Sight -- 1
Dodge -- 2 (24%)
Slow Missiles -- 1
Avoid -- 1 (24%)
Penetrate -- 1
Decoy -- 1
Evade -- 1 (18%)
IMO there's a lot of options, but you'll have to be choosy, because you won't have as many skill points to distribute here as you'd like. You could put one in everything and rely on +skill items (much more valuable for 'zons than before IMO). Or add to critical strike, dodge/avoid/evade, penetrate, decoy depending on your preferences. (Even inner sight can be useful now in reducing enemy defence, though I wouldn't recommend more than 1 point in it.)
Also, pierce is very important for immo/freezing arrow -- at least one point there.
Quote:Valkyrie -- 10
Unless someone has something against using valkyries (e.g. it makes the game too easy), I think any amazon is crazy not to max this out in 1.10. (Not only does her life, AR etc go up with lvl, she gets better equipment at higher levels as well -- and, as far as I can tell, it's much better equipment than anything my 'zon has.) The mana cost of a high lvl valk is much smaller than it was in 1.09, so that's no obstacle at all in 1.10.
Quote:Bow & Crossbow
Magic Arrow -- 1
Cold Arrow -- 1
Multiple Shot -- 1
Ice Arrow -- 1
Guided Arrow -- 11
Strafe -- 20
Frozen Arrow -- 10
I honestly think the damage bonus on strafe and guided is pretty worthless, or at any rate not remotely worth the skill point investment. I'd leave guided at 1, maybe put 5-6 in multishot or strafe (IMO multishot is much more effective than strafe -- which has a lot of bugs/problems associated with it -- even though I like strafe better), and rely on +skills items for some more levels.
Then, I recommend you max out an elemental arrow attack (I'm not claiming the game is impossible without doing this, but it will be much harder, unless you happen to have a windforce or whatever in your back pocket). For example, 20 into freezing arrow and another 10 into cold arrow (synergizing the damage is more important than the freeze time IMO).
Quote:The amount of skill points needed is 64.
Therefore, the level minimum is 52, assuming that I can finish all the difficulty levels by that level.
Well. I think my minimal recommendations add up to around 66 -- about the same. But don't worry, you'll be nowhere near finishing at that clvl. (You get a lot more exp in 1.10: my bowazon finished the game at clvl 81, playing straight through.)