Bowazon

[War_Master_Ares]

Hi, decided to make a Bowazon for my new HC character, and I am not that experience with Zons. I could not find much help on Zons. I need your' input as to what would make a good Zon. All help if greatly appreciated.[Keep in mind I do not have access to Godly items.].

Current Plan

Evade: 10
Dodge: 5
Evade: 5
Freezing Arrow: 20
Pierce: 10-15
Critical Strike: 10-15
Valkyrie: 1
Penetrate: 1
Multi Shot: 20
Guided Arrow: 20

Stat Points
Strength: 125
Dexterity: 150
Vitality: Rest
Energy: Base

What are your' thoughts? Will this character survive or get drilled?

[swirly]

Well I don't have much bowazon experience, but I did recently make a hardcore one. She only lasted till act two nightmare due to my lack of paying attention, but I did some reading up in bowazons because of her. So here are a few thoughts.

1: Most people seem to recommend not maxing Multishot. They say that 10 or so (plus skills from items, or up to 15 + skills from items depending on your comfort level) is all you really need. After a while the extra points become a waste cause those arrows don't have any real effect. I'm not sure if this is because they just get shot where no monsters are or of a bug where a monster can only get hit by 1 arrow (I think I read that somewhere) or what, but most seem to agree that it doesn't need to be maxed.

2: Pretty much a similiar thing with guided arrow. Nothing is wrong with maxing it, but the enhanced damage is rather small so the main benefit is the cheaper mana cost. With a little mana leach though and some skills from items 1 point in guided should be enough. In 1.09 more than one point is more useful because of the multiple hit pierce bug in which case the more enhanced damage the better. I'm still not sure maxing it is necessary though and if you are giving any thought to 1.10 where the pierce bug is fixed then it really isn't necessary.

3: If you are giving any thought to 1.10 then more points in valkyrie would be a good idea. They say that getting her up to level 17 makes her get elite items (I think thats what she gets then). So you should aim for that. I'm assuming that is 17 after skills from items, but I'm not sure.

4: dodge, evade, and avoid: I was planning on putting less poins in those for my amazon. The reasons I have heard for this is that a: you shouldn't be getting hit much anyway b: if you are running away then you don't want to get stuck in a dodging animation (I think this is about the evade one if I remember) c: I think I have heard that evade (I think its evade) is bugged so that if you get hit while dodging because of it you get locked in place or some such like that. Now being that we are talking hardcore I can understand more points here, but I just thought I would throw these points that I have heard out there and you can decide how much you want. : )

5: synergies: If you are giving any thought to 1.10 then you might want to consider putting some points in to cold arrow. I think thats the skill that is a damage synergy with freezing arrow.

Your build looks mostly built for 1.09, but I figured I would include those 1.10 tips as well. Now this is mostly just information I have gathered from reading in the past, so use your own judgement on things. It is just stuff to consider. I think I read alot of it at the amazon basin in the bowazon forum though. So you can check there yourself and see what you can find.

[War_Master_Ares]

Yup, this character is for 1.09D only, when the new patch comes out I'll be starting afresh:D

[gekko]

Have to agree on a few points there -- multiple shot does not need to be maxed. The main (only?) reason to max guided is for a high level zon to kill more quicly in the cow level. Since each monster can only be hit by one arrow, once you get to the point where most mobs are smaller than the number of arrows you shoot... obviously, the extras are a waste. This is particularly true if you do NOT have knockback on your bow or gloves (you should aim for it if you can, IMHO, particularly if you solo), and you pump valk up more. The enemies will gather around your valk (usually), allowing you to tighten the arc of arrows.

I have two other nits: freezing arrow and cold/physical immunes.

The first, 20 points in freezing arrow -- just wondering how you plan on fueling that with base energy. It IS doable, but PI's will be a headache, seeing as you can't leech. Freezing arrow takes a LOT of mana at slvl 20.

The second is more troublesome -- if you're planning on soloing, how will you tackle cold/physical immunes? A fairly simple solution is to find a 6 socket bow (damage doesn't matter, but faster helps) and slap in either topazes, ort runes, or emeralds.

Other than that, sounds decent enough. Just be careful, of course, since it is HC. I've found that in 1.09, bowazons are fairly easy to keep alive, provided you play cautiously. However, those few enemies that chop through your valk in 1 blow and then come charging after you can put your lights out before you know what happened. Good luck with the character.

gekko

[Guest]

in case you're going to start 1.10 ;)

20 freezing arrow + ice arrow(the lost one) + lightning fury = you can kill almost anything in the game.

then since it's "only" 60 points(little when you compare to other classes), so you can spend the rest in passive/magic skills, good for hc and valk since she gets synergies from almost any skill there. you also don't need any good bow damage at all(you can use a store bought +2 skill one..), so you can pump vit mostly.