Bowazon build

[Occhidiangela]

I looked over some of the build guides at the Basin. ALso some debates why some thought strafe wasn't as useful as FA when built up and if it was better to make FA then Ice Arrow.

Cold arrow Max
Freeze arrow  - single point
To keep mana costs down and achieve higher damage.

Valkerye  17
Gets war pike at this level and any further abilities and perks I will look at as getting from skill items and possible future torches.

Dodge 1, Evade 1, Avoid 1 
Critical Strike 1 or 2 points, as above.

Pierce 10 - 15 points as it seems to be worth it.

magic arrow, possible primary attack 1 point

strafe  possibley max, if used
penetrate 1 to 5 points
I don't know where else to spend these points or where to take away, I would like a powerful build. Any advice is welcome. Thanks
[right][snapback]100072[/snapback][/right]

What kind of merc did you intend on hiring?

Might merc helps Strafe damage bonus, of course, Act III Lightning Merc could improve your elemental balance.

For a weapon switch, W II, consider a wand with charges of Lower Resist. Handy assistance for Freezing Arrow.

Food for thought. For a 4 point investment, you double your Freezing Arrow damage. The problem in Hell Difficulty, I have found, is that even with Freezing Arrow and Cold Arrow Maxed, monster regen and HP make FA take quite a while to kill things. Something to stop Regen, be it Open Wounds, PMH (yay) or a Poison Charm with a decent duration, is handy.

As far as Penetrate and Pierce: +skills would probably take care of you, Pierce wise, if you invested 10 points into Pierce. If you have really good + Skills equipment luck, maybe less. The diminishing returns seems to start around slvl 10. If you end up with about 5 points in + Amazon skills, the Amazon Bow you end up with, etcetera, you are sniping at the margins in terms of Pierce percentags. A +3 Bow Skills pair of gloves or +3 Passive Skills gloves would be sweet. :) With the volume of fire you'll be putting out, why not look at

Inner Sight as an alternative to extra points in Penetrate?

Add points to Inner Sight, rather than Penetrate, and you decrease target defense rather than increase your AR, but still improve your % to hit. That boost also helps your Merc hit better, if you use an Act II or Act V merc. If you have an Act I merc, her Inner Sight will do well enough for the both of you. If you use Act III merc, AR is basically irrelevant.

Your Valk's attacks? Assisted by -DR. Any party Members as well.

If you concern is PvP in the end game, Penetrate probably meets your needs better than Inner Sight. (Not sure if a Strafezon is a good PvP build, guessing no.)

Inner Sight yields -40 DR to -60 DR at slvl 6 to -305 DR at slvl 10. Won't hurt.

Chance to Hit: 100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)
AR = Attack Rating; alvl = Level of Attacker; dlvl = Level of Defender.

For me, the formula is a bit clearer with another set of parens to show the basic calc modified by the mlvl differential.
% Chance to hit = (100*AR/(AR+DR))*(2*alvl/(alvl+dlvl))
(The significant benefits of Inner Sight, of course are at very high levels slvl 20 -815 to DR, at 24 -1095.)
Depending on how significantly you ratchet up your AR . . . -DR could be of use.

My two cents. Not sure if I covered any ground you had not already considered.

Occhi