Bow Sorceress

[Magus_Omin]

Hello,
I was thinking of creating a bow sorceress because i decided to try something new. But i haven't the darndest idea how to creat one. What i was thinking was for skills: Max Enchant, Max Fire Mastery, ?( what else?) and for stats order was :Dex, Vit, Ene, Str. If any of you out there are baffled by this, i'm sorry it's my guess of what it should be. Now if anyone could please add and reflect upon this i would be gateful.
Thank you all in advance :D




-Magus

[Archon_Wing]

I think this is better suited for the armory.

But in general, this would be similar to your average bow user. As little str as possible, no energy, mucho dex, and some vitaility. Maybe throw in frost nova to slow the monsters.

You may want to use a crossbow. Non-zon characters tend to do better with the likes of the repeating crowssbow/cho-ko-no/demon crossbow type because of its high natural speed and the fact that they can only fire so fast with a bow.

AR will become a nightmare. Stock up on any charms and equipment that contains attack rating bonuses that you may find

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Magus,

I prefer to use spells like Thunderstorm and Hydra with my Bow Sorceresses; ones that compliment what I am already doing. I keep the bow as my primary attack, with Thunderstorm blasting away from time-to-time. Frost Nova is excellent for keeping fast critters under controll too, so I strongly recommend that. However, this is all my personal strategy. You could always make a highly successful Inferno Sorceress who uses a Bow, or perhaps something completely different. Really, you cannot go wrong: it's quite possible to make a Firebolt/Icebolt/Bow Sorceress, if you had the patience.

[Brista]

One option you may wish to consider is to use a bow that gives Exploding Arrow. There are 3 unique bows that do this:
Ravenclaw
Kuko Shakuko
Demon Machine

The advantages are
- autohit, irrespective of Dex
- hits effect a small area, causing fire splash damage
- sources of fire damage such as enchant, charms, etc add to both the missile and the fire damage
- fire mastery boosts fire damage
- effects like fear and crushing blow are transmitted by the splashes

If you are playing on the realms then making a game Need Kuko 4 chips might get you a result

[Sickywicky]

I'm working on a kuko shakaku sorc she's lv 28 now and has an artic set for the time being. :)

Kukosorc

Str :60
Dex :50
Vit :255 (and more)
Nrg :100

Enchant:20
Firemas:20
Shiverarm:5
Blizzard:20
Coldmas:7
Energyshield:3

Total+prereqs-12skills=74 (I'm taking more side-skills after lv74 but usually plan till around lv75.)

I took Blizzard because I haven't tried it yet and my other fireballsorceress has thunderstorm so I didn't want to pick it again, it's a lot of fun so far. Can't wait till I get to lv33 to use the actual kuko shakaku. :D
I'm also adding a ton of fire dmg items/charms as much as possible (gotta watch res on hc though).

[Bun-Bun]

As Brista said, the autohit Exploding Arrow bows are wonderful. I'd lean away from Enchant, since it's not all that powerful, and it's cut to 1/3 on missiles. On the other hand, it does add to that splash damage ...

My preference would be to max Fire Mastery, Lightning Mastery, and Thunderstorm. The LM helps Thunderstorm, and maximizes the impact of any lightning damage from your gear. Good lightning damage charms are more common than fire ones, so it pays to cover your bases. It also makes SkyStrike a very interesting choice for speed and elemental damage.

If you can get a Kuko or a Demon Machine, you don't need to invest more in dex than the requirements, and your other gear is much less restricted (no AR needed). If you don't go that route, take a look at the Angelic set. Wearing the amulet and two of the rings gives a big AR boost, and a healthy slug of life as well, covering two of the most glaring shortcomings of this build.

Pumping dex is, IMHO, inferior to getting AR through items. You'll need the life. As for pumping dex for damage, I don't like doing that. Your big force multiplier is in fire and lightning damage. Your gear choices should be biased towards elemental damage. Of course, if you choose a big damage bow dex becomes a more viable choice, but I like playing to the Masteries.

Don't forget about Pierce. 100% Pierce is a wonderful thing, especially with Exploding Arrows.

Crushing Blow gear can augment your physical damage considerably. It's carried to all critters in the Exploding Arrow radius.

[kandrathe]

That is why the Kuko Shakaku(33) or the Demon Machine(49) can be so useful for higher levels. Since they fire explosive arrows or bolts, they always hit. If you want some other bow, I would think about a Blessed Aim act 2 (normal offense) merc. Teleport, to help position/save your Merc, and to remove you from any swarms. I would still be tempeted to max out thunder storm, and lightning mastery eventually for an additional elemental attack.

[Numsay]

Knockback, along with pierce, and exploding arrow are a life saver with this build. If you are planing on using a demon machine, consider Chain lighting as one of your other attacks.
Here is a great post on this topic you may want to check out:Click


Very fun build good luck with it :)

Numsay

[kier]

A few points in static field wouldn't go a miss, this skill is brilliant, and can make it easier for you to kill. I'd also preffer orb as it corvers a bigger area than frost nova, and you won't need much energy for it, but its up to you, good luck!

[kandrathe]

I thought about that, but in general a bow user needs to be a stand off attacker. If you get close enough to static, or nova, then you need to worry about that you are not carrying a shield, have lightweight armor, using energy shield, and resistances. So I wouldn't put more than a point in it, for those times when it gets down and dirty, standing toe to toe with some very bad monster or an act boss.

[Logic_X]

At high levels static will hit off screen.......here's my pure bowsorc build:

Enough str for equipment
Enough dex for bow
Rest in vit
none in energy

Max Static (it will hit off screen)
LMastery
FMastery
1 pt in cold mastery (I use a bit of cold damage to slow down my enemies)

I'm experimenting with other spells, will probably use semipassives like Energy Shield or Tstorm - Enchant doesn't add enough damage to really cause effect.