09-01-2004, 09:46 PM
Greetings Lurkers--
Recently, this article was posted over at the Amazon Basin. It got me to thinking about my own bowazon's strengths and weaknesses.
*enter Amazon*
Everybody, meet Camilla. Named after the fearsome spearwoman from Virgil's Aeneid, she ironically uses bows and crossbows exclusively. She's clvl 82 (going on 83) and is in Act II/Hell (held up in the Claw Viper Temple).
Camilla specializes in two main skills: Strafe and Immolation Arrow. Both are maxed, although none of her synergies for Immo Arrow are pumped. She's got 10 skill points unallocated and doesn't really know where to put them. Her Valk is decently beefy, but suffers from low resists and dies to ranged attackers often.
For completeness sake, an in-depth overview of Camilla's stats, skills, and equipment will follow. After that I will discuss apparent weaknesses or deficiencies in Camilla's current build, and offer up the two competing plans I have for remedying them. Any advice you can give me on this matte would be greatly appreciated.
Stats: STR = 121 (111)
DEX = 277 (253)
VIT = 121 (111)
NRG = 15
Life: 635
Mana: 216
Resists: 16 all (on Hell difficulty)
Gear:
To view items, go to Battle.net's Arreat Summit
Helm: Tal Rasha's Crest (socketed with a +15 resist all jewel)
10% dual leech, +60HP, +30 Mana, +30 resist all
Amulet: The Eye of Etlich
+1 all skills, cold damage, 3% life leech
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi
+1 all skills, 30% FCR, Resist All +31%, MRD 11
Gloves: Ceglaw's Pincers
Slows target by 25%, knockback
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
+1 all skills, 20% FCR, slows target by 10%, Increase Max Mana 5%
Boots: War Traveler
25% FR/W, Enhanced DMG, +10 STR & VIT, 40% Slower Stamina drain
Ring 1: Raven Frost
+224% AR, 15-45 cold DMG, +18 DEX, +40 Mana, cold absorb 20%, cannot be frozen
Ring 2: Manald Heal
7% mana leech, +20 HP, Regen Life +7, Regen Mana +20%
Weapon: Goldstrike Arch
33-166 DMG, 50% IAS, +233%enhanced DMG, 116%bonus to AR, +15% DMG to Demons, +174% DMG to Undead, Replenish life +12
Notable Charms:
Gheed's Fortune (for MF)
+1 Passive & Magic skills
+1 Bow & Crossbow skills
Total +35 resist all (from shimmering small charms)
Total +28% FHR
Posion length 7s
Tidbits of cold damage for added chill length.
Skills: Total(hard points)
For a complete skill mockup, visit www.d2skills.com, it's a great resource
Unallocated -- 10
Spear & Jav. -- None
Passive and Magic --
Critical Strike: 8(4)
Dodge: 7(3)
Avoid: 7(3)
Evade: 7(3)
Decoy: 8(4)
Valk: 12(8)
Penetrate: 5(1)
Pierce: 5(1)
and all prereq's 5(1) each
Bow and Crossbow --
Multiple Show: 7(3)
Guided Arrow: 7(3)
Strafe: 24(20)
Immolation Arrow: 24(20)
Freezing Arrow: 5(1)
and all prereq's 5(1) each
General Discussion on Camilla's current status:
⢠Camilla needs to use the Buriza to deal decent damage on Hell/8-player games. But it is slow and unwieldly, so I'd like to find a better weapon.
⢠Knockback creates a problem for her teammates, so a better glove could be in order.
⢠Low resists makes Camilla and her valk tremble at elemental damage!
⢠Camilla has no real way to deal with combo phys/fire immunes.
⢠Low FHR is a worry.
⢠Her biggest problem is role ambiguity. Is she a frostmaiden? She has the gear for it but doesn't have the skill point allocation for it. Is she a Mage? well, most of her killing is done via Strafe, and Immo. is used in spots against phys-immunes and bosses. Strafeazon? She has no IAS gear on!
Possible solutions to Camilla's problems:
Gear:
1) Swapping out the Skin of the Vipermagi to the Chains of Honor runeword. This will upgrade the + skills by one, resist all by another 30, and add some life leech and other goodies. Camilla actually has the runes, but is looking for some Archon Plate to socket. Because, you know, looks count. This change is already planned, and I'm just waiting on the armor
2) Possible gloves are: Soul Drainer (dual leech & -Monster defense); Venom grip (5% CB, posion DMG, life steal); or Lava Gout (IAS, Enchant, Fire damage). I like the knockback, but it makes my teammates have difficulties. So Ceglaw's is out. Of the alternative gloves, I have all but Lavagout.
3) Amulet can be swapped for Crescent Moon (dual leech & MDR) or a rare I found:
Viper Beads (+16 STR, +11 DEX, Cold Res. 21%, LTN res. 23%, Fire Res. 19%, Posion res. 20%, 10% Damage goes to mana). Yes, this rare rocks. I found it in Hell back in 2002 and I have handed it down from character to character, patch after patch. It is legit, and it is my pride and joy :-)
But note: this will cause a net loss of 3% life leech and +1 all skills. Although, the Chains of Armor I have planned will offset the +skills loss, the life leech may be kinda painful.
4) Switching the Manald Heal to a rare dual leech 6% ring, or dwarf star if I don't need the leech. I really want to get rid of that darned Manald Heal. Camilla basically grew up with it, and it was her only source of mana leech for a while. But at this point in her life, it's way to dinky to be on her finger! The Dward Star has some cool suff on it (like the fire absorb) but I'm leaning towards the dual leech because of the imminent loss of the Eye of Etlich.
Skills:
1) One option is to go further into the frost maiden route. That would require putting my skill points in places which would enhance my freezing arrow, and would work with most of my current equipment. However, my concern is I won't be able to do much damage to the fire/phys immune monsters I am so worried about. My current level of FA just does not cut it in terms of Damage dealing, although I get a decent cold length from the additional cold damage on my gear.
2) The other option is to make this girl into a hybrid. I favor this for several reasons. One, I have always wanted to make a zon with both javs and bow. Two, it offers me a chance to take on every monster in the game with a combination of fire, physical, and lightning damage. This is important to me. Finally, Camilla's namesake used a spear and shield, so it does seem her destiny. You can see where my bias lies between these two courses of action.
Advice:
1) If I were to increase her cold damage via skill point, what is the best way to allocate them. Should I pump FA itself, and take the hit in mana cost? Or should I pump the synergy that ups FA's damage? Or is there a balance?
2) If I do go hybrid, should I just pump Lightning Fury? Or shold I try to put points into its synergies? Also, how doable is the hybrid without the Razortail 100% Pierce? I'd like to get away with my current pierce at around 50%. Why is pierce so important to the LF build?
Any help you guys can supply would help greatly.
Recently, this article was posted over at the Amazon Basin. It got me to thinking about my own bowazon's strengths and weaknesses.
*enter Amazon*
Everybody, meet Camilla. Named after the fearsome spearwoman from Virgil's Aeneid, she ironically uses bows and crossbows exclusively. She's clvl 82 (going on 83) and is in Act II/Hell (held up in the Claw Viper Temple).
Camilla specializes in two main skills: Strafe and Immolation Arrow. Both are maxed, although none of her synergies for Immo Arrow are pumped. She's got 10 skill points unallocated and doesn't really know where to put them. Her Valk is decently beefy, but suffers from low resists and dies to ranged attackers often.
For completeness sake, an in-depth overview of Camilla's stats, skills, and equipment will follow. After that I will discuss apparent weaknesses or deficiencies in Camilla's current build, and offer up the two competing plans I have for remedying them. Any advice you can give me on this matte would be greatly appreciated.
Stats: STR = 121 (111)
DEX = 277 (253)
VIT = 121 (111)
NRG = 15
Life: 635
Mana: 216
Resists: 16 all (on Hell difficulty)
Gear:
To view items, go to Battle.net's Arreat Summit
Helm: Tal Rasha's Crest (socketed with a +15 resist all jewel)
10% dual leech, +60HP, +30 Mana, +30 resist all
Amulet: The Eye of Etlich
+1 all skills, cold damage, 3% life leech
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi
+1 all skills, 30% FCR, Resist All +31%, MRD 11
Gloves: Ceglaw's Pincers
Slows target by 25%, knockback
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
+1 all skills, 20% FCR, slows target by 10%, Increase Max Mana 5%
Boots: War Traveler
25% FR/W, Enhanced DMG, +10 STR & VIT, 40% Slower Stamina drain
Ring 1: Raven Frost
+224% AR, 15-45 cold DMG, +18 DEX, +40 Mana, cold absorb 20%, cannot be frozen
Ring 2: Manald Heal
7% mana leech, +20 HP, Regen Life +7, Regen Mana +20%
Weapon: Goldstrike Arch
33-166 DMG, 50% IAS, +233%enhanced DMG, 116%bonus to AR, +15% DMG to Demons, +174% DMG to Undead, Replenish life +12
Notable Charms:
Gheed's Fortune (for MF)
+1 Passive & Magic skills
+1 Bow & Crossbow skills
Total +35 resist all (from shimmering small charms)
Total +28% FHR
Posion length 7s
Tidbits of cold damage for added chill length.
Skills: Total(hard points)
For a complete skill mockup, visit www.d2skills.com, it's a great resource
Unallocated -- 10
Spear & Jav. -- None
Passive and Magic --
Critical Strike: 8(4)
Dodge: 7(3)
Avoid: 7(3)
Evade: 7(3)
Decoy: 8(4)
Valk: 12(8)
Penetrate: 5(1)
Pierce: 5(1)
and all prereq's 5(1) each
Bow and Crossbow --
Multiple Show: 7(3)
Guided Arrow: 7(3)
Strafe: 24(20)
Immolation Arrow: 24(20)
Freezing Arrow: 5(1)
and all prereq's 5(1) each
General Discussion on Camilla's current status:
⢠Camilla needs to use the Buriza to deal decent damage on Hell/8-player games. But it is slow and unwieldly, so I'd like to find a better weapon.
⢠Knockback creates a problem for her teammates, so a better glove could be in order.
⢠Low resists makes Camilla and her valk tremble at elemental damage!
⢠Camilla has no real way to deal with combo phys/fire immunes.
⢠Low FHR is a worry.
⢠Her biggest problem is role ambiguity. Is she a frostmaiden? She has the gear for it but doesn't have the skill point allocation for it. Is she a Mage? well, most of her killing is done via Strafe, and Immo. is used in spots against phys-immunes and bosses. Strafeazon? She has no IAS gear on!
Possible solutions to Camilla's problems:
Gear:
1) Swapping out the Skin of the Vipermagi to the Chains of Honor runeword. This will upgrade the + skills by one, resist all by another 30, and add some life leech and other goodies. Camilla actually has the runes, but is looking for some Archon Plate to socket. Because, you know, looks count. This change is already planned, and I'm just waiting on the armor
2) Possible gloves are: Soul Drainer (dual leech & -Monster defense); Venom grip (5% CB, posion DMG, life steal); or Lava Gout (IAS, Enchant, Fire damage). I like the knockback, but it makes my teammates have difficulties. So Ceglaw's is out. Of the alternative gloves, I have all but Lavagout.
3) Amulet can be swapped for Crescent Moon (dual leech & MDR) or a rare I found:
Viper Beads (+16 STR, +11 DEX, Cold Res. 21%, LTN res. 23%, Fire Res. 19%, Posion res. 20%, 10% Damage goes to mana). Yes, this rare rocks. I found it in Hell back in 2002 and I have handed it down from character to character, patch after patch. It is legit, and it is my pride and joy :-)
But note: this will cause a net loss of 3% life leech and +1 all skills. Although, the Chains of Armor I have planned will offset the +skills loss, the life leech may be kinda painful.
4) Switching the Manald Heal to a rare dual leech 6% ring, or dwarf star if I don't need the leech. I really want to get rid of that darned Manald Heal. Camilla basically grew up with it, and it was her only source of mana leech for a while. But at this point in her life, it's way to dinky to be on her finger! The Dward Star has some cool suff on it (like the fire absorb) but I'm leaning towards the dual leech because of the imminent loss of the Eye of Etlich.
Skills:
1) One option is to go further into the frost maiden route. That would require putting my skill points in places which would enhance my freezing arrow, and would work with most of my current equipment. However, my concern is I won't be able to do much damage to the fire/phys immune monsters I am so worried about. My current level of FA just does not cut it in terms of Damage dealing, although I get a decent cold length from the additional cold damage on my gear.
2) The other option is to make this girl into a hybrid. I favor this for several reasons. One, I have always wanted to make a zon with both javs and bow. Two, it offers me a chance to take on every monster in the game with a combination of fire, physical, and lightning damage. This is important to me. Finally, Camilla's namesake used a spear and shield, so it does seem her destiny. You can see where my bias lies between these two courses of action.
Advice:
1) If I were to increase her cold damage via skill point, what is the best way to allocate them. Should I pump FA itself, and take the hit in mana cost? Or should I pump the synergy that ups FA's damage? Or is there a balance?
2) If I do go hybrid, should I just pump Lightning Fury? Or shold I try to put points into its synergies? Also, how doable is the hybrid without the Razortail 100% Pierce? I'd like to get away with my current pierce at around 50%. Why is pierce so important to the LF build?
Any help you guys can supply would help greatly.
Out here,
--Ajax
--Ajax