WitchWild String Amazon

[CrescentWindX]

WARNING! ONE HECK OF A LONG POST FORTHCOMING! GET A DRINK, YOU WON'T BE MOVING FOR A WHILE!

Well, OK, but don't say I didn't warn you...

Yes, it has been done before. By many people. No, I don't care ;)

I want a WWS Zon. In Hardcore.

Been reading through some of the Bowazon Room threads at the AB as of late, and the WWS is more and more starting to appeal to me. Level-based Deadly Strike, when combined with Critical Strike, 100% Pierce, and high-level Frozen Arrow, may very well prove to be quite the deadly combination.

So, here's what I need to do -

• First and foremost, I must shoot at no slower than 9/3. 9/2 is also a possibility, but I haven't thought much about it. Anything less than 9/3 is too slow for me. 8/2 might be possible, but I would have to sacrifice a lot to reach it. Accoring to ZenDragon's Bow Bible, I will need 63% IAS to reach this. No problem. Shael the bow, get some 20% IAS gloves (Laying of Hands), either use an Um'd M'avina's hat (30% IAS, 15% resist all - Yum!) or another godly amazon hat that I have lying around (8/4 dual leech/19 resist all - which is still clean btw). If I can dig up an IAS/high LR jewel, the second option is better. If I did the latter, I'd need to get IAS from armor as well (Twitch/Ort? Fervor'd Duriel's Shell?). But it'd be more efficient than the M'avina's True Sight, I think.
  
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• Secondly, I must have high level FA, as well as loads of mana leech to support said FA (Crescent Moon, anyone?). For one, FA is cool. Secondly, it's more useful than any of the other elemental arrows IMO. However, due to the low physical damage on the WWS, FA will be hard to support, especially against lone targets. I will also need a lot of Critical Strike in order to be able to compensate for the 38-84 damage on a perfect WWS. *sigh*
  
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• Thirdly, I must have high (for a bowazon) resistances in Hell. And a good amount of life. This is no SC WWS build; SC players can afford to crank their Dexterity to 600. In my case, I'd feel much safer off with 300 or 350 Dex, maximum. That would allow me to pump more into Vitality, leading to a much safer time than what I'm used to in Hell with a Bowazon.<>
  [st]
  Skill planning -
  
  6 in Strafe. I don't care if it's bugged, I don't care what anyone else says. I adore this skill. 6 points gets me the max number of attacks. The damage increase is rather small, and won't help out this build too much, so I will not max.
  
  20 in Freezing Arrow. My main crowd-killer. Or, at least, crowd-freezer-so-I-can-use-Strafe-to-wipe-the-floor-with-them.
  
  20 (?) in Critical Strike. I don't know if I'll need that many; in fact, I highly doubt that I will (due to the DS from the WWS). But a good investment into here is important, that's for sure.
  
  Valk and Decoy get one only. I really don't need 'em higher; FA performs the same purpose as they would.
  
  Pierce. Ohh boy, here's a big thing for me. I could choose to max pierce, giving me 85% (not bad, sez me). If I do that, I can ditch Razortail in favor of a belt with more resists, life, or what-have-you. And since I can't think of anything else to do with my skill points, this is looking more and more viable.
  
  Right now that's 66 skill points (if I max Pierce and CS), not including any of the skills I haven't mentioned here, as well as Valk/Decoy. This makes the build technically complete by late Nightmare. In other words, very early on. I know there's somewhere else that I can place points, but don't know where. Penetrate is out the window; FA is auto-hit. I can't think of anywhere else to dump the points, though.
  
  Basic ideas for equipment -
  
  Weapon - WitchWild String (duh), socketed with Shael. There is no alternative. This is my bow.
  
  Armor - A few ideas kicking around here; mainly of a Fervor'd Duriel's Shell (which would clash horribly with the WWS - yes, I do consider fashion to be of utmost importance). The other ideas I can think of is a Twitchthroe/Ort, or a custom-build 60% IAS armor. Of them all, I'd like the fervor coat the best - some resists, a good deal of IAS, and I'm pretty set. The only problem is that gothic plate and full plate look absolutley horrible with the WWS, and I don't know if I want 111 Strength for a Wire Fleece. A Lionheart Wire Fleece or other would be another choice, but I'm currently in the school of thought that I need IAS from armor.
  
  Helm - Two main options here. One is M'avina's True Sight, socketed with Um. This gives me 30% IAS, 15 Resist All, and nothing else of any use. This option is giving way to the second one in my mind - my "Gale Veil" (dual leech, prismatic, AR) circlet, socketed with an IAS/LR jewel. This grants me large bonuses to my resists (especially lightning), as well as dual leech. I do lose 15% IAS, but that's not really going to help me to get a breakpoint, provided I have IAS from armor and don't want to go faster than 9/3.
  
  Gloves - Laying of Hands, most likely. The IAS as well as 50% FR are not to be missed; damage to demonds notwithstanding.
  
  Belt - Razortail. 100% Pierce. Alternatively, if I can get enough Pierce from skills, I'll use a Goldwrap for the extra IAS, which could help bump me to 9/2.
  
  Boots - Faster Run/Lightning Resist/Some Other Resist rares. Can't think of many others that would work as well as those would.
  
  Amulet - Crescent Moon - the one that I have is 13%, which, combined with extra 4% mana leech from my circlet (should I opt for that instead of the M'avina's) should provide enough to support FA, with Amp + CS + DS thrown in. Instead of the Crescent Moon, a resist/mana leech amulet could be used (if I had one, that is).
  
  Rings - RESISTS. Need I say more?
  
  With enough luck, I'll have enough resists between armor, helm, bow (love that 40 all), boots, gloves, and rings (I'd better, or I should quit the business!) to reach 75 all, or near that, in Hell. Failing that, I want max FR and LR. CR I can keep in the 20's or 30's (very few ranged cold attacks in the game), and for poison I can carry antidotes. No big deal at all.
  
  My main concern with this build is the low physical damage on the WWS. Right now, I'm looking at 17% mana leech (with the Crescent Moon and "Gale Veil" should I choose that over Um'd M'avina's hat), which, when combined with Strafe as a mana recovery skill, should be enough. I don't know, though - can you leech off of CS and DS?
  
  Thanks all in advance for any comments, criticisms, and flames :)

[Occhidiangela]

Yes you leach off deadly and crit strike, but they do not compound on each other, they are an either or last time I checked. See a thread in the Workshop on this one.

Strongly recommend you gamble for gloves, you will eventually find a set with +2 to bow skills. That helps your FA.

[RogueMage]

My main concern with this build is the low physical damage on the WWS.

Occhi's right - CS and DS don't stack, they just fill in each other's gaps. At lvl-70, you'll have 30% chance with the WWS to not get DS on each hit. Lvl-8 CS would reduce that 30% down to about 15%, effectively giving you 85% DS/CS. To get past that point, it's more effective to simply watch DS climb as you gain levels. :) But since it's capped at 100%, there's not much more to gain anyway.

Here's another option for you: Crushing Blow. With FA, Pierce, and Amp Dmg, this build would be ideal for exploiting CB damage in Hell. Since neither helm nor boots are critical items, you can easily get 50% Crushing Blow from Guilluames and Gore Riders. (They'd also give you 30% extra Deadly Strike, maxing DS at lvl-70 without any need for CS.) Another 10-20% CB could be had from Goblin Toe or crafted gloves. I'd also strongly recommend Razortail to get 100% Pierce, maximizing your overlapping FA splashes.

Technical background is this: CB damage is halved on ranged weapons, but FA cold splashes can trigger CB as well as the arrow itself. Monsters' 50% Physical resist in Hell cuts CB damage in half again, but Amp Dmg eliminates PR, restoring CB damage in full. Net result is multiple CB hits on overlapping FA splashes fired into a horde of targets, producing lots of shattered ice cubes. B) Strafe would also score plenty of CB hits.

CB doesn't leech, however, so it wouldn't help your mana issue with high-level FA. Personally, I'd rather use a good Eye of Etlich to extend low-level FA freeze duration, and avoid the need for huge amounts of leech. But pumped Dex, a Might merc, and a pair of mana leech rings added to the Crescent Moon would probably take you where you want to go. ;)