11-04-2003, 12:55 AM
I tested a few 1.09 bowazon and sorceress builds, mostly in solo games in Hell. Here are a few quick observations :
Bowazon observations :
1) You need crowd control even more than before in some areas. That would include : cold damage, well positioned Decoy and Valkyrie, a though merc, and ideally another crowd control modifier (HCMTF, Knockback...).
2) Chance to cast has been greatly nerfed with regard to Freezing Arrow splash radius, and it's good. It's still very easy to trigger Amp damage (for example) with Strafe or Multishot, though
3) Strafe is back to a good part of its former glory, especially against small groups of critters or bosses. :P As a side note, Strafe and MS are still mostly ridiculously overpowered.
4) In a typical Blizzard fashion, Guided Arrow was overnerfed by a large, large margin. Not only was Pierce removed, but it seems the targeting mechanism is broken, and you can't even use it well to scout and shoot from corners. A one point skill now, and I'm even considering going back to Ice Arrow as a Left Button skill on most of my zons. If I were to redo my bowazons, I would replace maxed Guided (on the zons with it) by maxed Magic Arrow (of all things) or Synergy investments.
5) For the bowazon (I tried with elemental and physical-based zons), it seems most good 1.09 build can handle 1.10 Hell in single game (I haven't tried the cheap Burritozon yet, though), provided there is a good draw of monsters in Act5 (more on that later). It seems synergies are mostly there to help solo in larger games. An unbalanced bowazon design taking advantage of synergies could, for example, reach absolutely ridiculous Cold Damage levels by maxing Cold Arrow, Freezing Arrow, and Pierce (still an uber skill, this one). After that, you just have to wait for the luck of the draw to give you a good monsters mix, and you are set.
6) You need points in Decoy and Valkyrie now. The upside is that a high-level Valkyrie is a terrific tank.
7) Immolation is still too weak. At least, now, a Slvl 25+ Immolation isn't put to shame by a Slvl 1 Fire Arrow.
8) Leech has been severely toned down, but as was theorized a while ago, it breaks some melee builds while merely annoying the bowazon. I've replaced my 4th column in my belt by mana pots on all my characters, though.
General observations :
1) Item drops are good. There is no need to do repetitive MF runs anymore, playing with even a small amount of MF in various areas already gives superb returns. The game is much less frustrating this way. On the other hand, it seems rune drops are horrible now, and charms and jewels aren't that hot either. Rares have been much, much beefed up, and now even low-TC weapons are worth identifying, because they can be upgraded.
2) Monsters are thougher, but it seems the "gap" was reduced : I've had fewer cheap deaths than in the past (although stair traps are still deadly), but a larger number of deaths to regular monsters. There are a few monsters that I think are over the top, though, like Gloams, and Minotaurs run too fast.
3) Hell Baal is ridiculous now : the fight is less challenging than in 1.09, but he has insane amount of life. *Yawn*. The Diablo Clone, on the other hand, is very, very challenging and fun to fight.
4) Act 5 is now "why bother". It seems the only way they found to increase the difficulty was to import the bestiary of acts 2/3/4 (in beefier kinds). So the difficulty is ranging from challenging to "insane" depending on the luck of the draw, and there is absolutely no "flavor" whatsoever. Blech.
5) Experience is now good in all acts. I was pleasantly surprised to see my bar actually grow past level 80 in Act 1 Hell, single game. The difficulty to level up seems to come from the fact that death are much more frequent now.
6) Item-wise, rare weapons are good (that was already said), and they improved the Class sets a lot. Of course, that means finding all this stuff again. :P The new runewords are ridiculous for the most part, both in power and rarity.
As a conclusion, 1.10 is for me a very, very pleasant surprise. The bowazon is still very powerful, but her role is more in line with version 1.03, before the Age of the Barbazon (a Dark Age indeed) : she can provide ranged support to a party and excels at Crowd Control, but unlike a barb she mostly lacks the focused power to quickly dispatch powerful enemies.
Bowazon observations :
1) You need crowd control even more than before in some areas. That would include : cold damage, well positioned Decoy and Valkyrie, a though merc, and ideally another crowd control modifier (HCMTF, Knockback...).
2) Chance to cast has been greatly nerfed with regard to Freezing Arrow splash radius, and it's good. It's still very easy to trigger Amp damage (for example) with Strafe or Multishot, though
3) Strafe is back to a good part of its former glory, especially against small groups of critters or bosses. :P As a side note, Strafe and MS are still mostly ridiculously overpowered.
4) In a typical Blizzard fashion, Guided Arrow was overnerfed by a large, large margin. Not only was Pierce removed, but it seems the targeting mechanism is broken, and you can't even use it well to scout and shoot from corners. A one point skill now, and I'm even considering going back to Ice Arrow as a Left Button skill on most of my zons. If I were to redo my bowazons, I would replace maxed Guided (on the zons with it) by maxed Magic Arrow (of all things) or Synergy investments.
5) For the bowazon (I tried with elemental and physical-based zons), it seems most good 1.09 build can handle 1.10 Hell in single game (I haven't tried the cheap Burritozon yet, though), provided there is a good draw of monsters in Act5 (more on that later). It seems synergies are mostly there to help solo in larger games. An unbalanced bowazon design taking advantage of synergies could, for example, reach absolutely ridiculous Cold Damage levels by maxing Cold Arrow, Freezing Arrow, and Pierce (still an uber skill, this one). After that, you just have to wait for the luck of the draw to give you a good monsters mix, and you are set.
6) You need points in Decoy and Valkyrie now. The upside is that a high-level Valkyrie is a terrific tank.
7) Immolation is still too weak. At least, now, a Slvl 25+ Immolation isn't put to shame by a Slvl 1 Fire Arrow.
8) Leech has been severely toned down, but as was theorized a while ago, it breaks some melee builds while merely annoying the bowazon. I've replaced my 4th column in my belt by mana pots on all my characters, though.
General observations :
1) Item drops are good. There is no need to do repetitive MF runs anymore, playing with even a small amount of MF in various areas already gives superb returns. The game is much less frustrating this way. On the other hand, it seems rune drops are horrible now, and charms and jewels aren't that hot either. Rares have been much, much beefed up, and now even low-TC weapons are worth identifying, because they can be upgraded.
2) Monsters are thougher, but it seems the "gap" was reduced : I've had fewer cheap deaths than in the past (although stair traps are still deadly), but a larger number of deaths to regular monsters. There are a few monsters that I think are over the top, though, like Gloams, and Minotaurs run too fast.
3) Hell Baal is ridiculous now : the fight is less challenging than in 1.09, but he has insane amount of life. *Yawn*. The Diablo Clone, on the other hand, is very, very challenging and fun to fight.
4) Act 5 is now "why bother". It seems the only way they found to increase the difficulty was to import the bestiary of acts 2/3/4 (in beefier kinds). So the difficulty is ranging from challenging to "insane" depending on the luck of the draw, and there is absolutely no "flavor" whatsoever. Blech.
5) Experience is now good in all acts. I was pleasantly surprised to see my bar actually grow past level 80 in Act 1 Hell, single game. The difficulty to level up seems to come from the fact that death are much more frequent now.
6) Item-wise, rare weapons are good (that was already said), and they improved the Class sets a lot. Of course, that means finding all this stuff again. :P The new runewords are ridiculous for the most part, both in power and rarity.
As a conclusion, 1.10 is for me a very, very pleasant surprise. The bowazon is still very powerful, but her role is more in line with version 1.03, before the Age of the Barbazon (a Dark Age indeed) : she can provide ranged support to a party and excels at Crowd Control, but unlike a barb she mostly lacks the focused power to quickly dispatch powerful enemies.