Bowazon build

[TheKingofKewl]

wow thanks :-) i made some new changes to my build based on this!

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. 

+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
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