Bowazon, thinking of going hybrid

[Ajax]

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.

[gekko]

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.
First off, are we talking ladder/non-ladder? If ladder, and you have the upgrade runes lying around, an upgraded Lycander's Aim is an excellent choice. Simply an excellent all around bow, with few weaknesses and few gaps. To really get some oomph from your strafe, the highest damage bow is best (obviously). So Eaglehorn/WF are obvious end-game choices, where available. However, I've found that nowadays the bowazon in 8-player hell games works much better as a support character than the 1.09 killing demon she once was. So if you party exclusively, consider dropping the need for heavy damage and concentrate and freezing enemies, aiding your party (high level valk and liberal use of decoy/slow missiles comes to mind). If you party frequently, try to find a mix, or a second set up that say, includes knockback.

• Knockback creates a problem for her teammates, so a better glove could be in order.
Other excellent gloves to consider are the set 'Laying of Hands.' Super fire resistance, IAS, and frankly, who the heck cares what else? I like the CB on venom grips IF you can get a high attack rate. Then enchant will help your AR and add a pitance of fire damage, though I don't find the bonus that useful for a bowazon with high dexterity. Personally, I almost always go with Laying of Hands, unless I happen to have a good set of rares lying around (personal best was IAS, +2 passives, +dex, mana leech).

• Low resists makes Camilla and her valk tremble at elemental damage!
Two solutions that I see: first, who cares about low resists? You're a bowazon, not a paladin! Kill 'em before they even come onscreen! Since I understand that's not always as easy as it sounds... Secon choice -- pump up the valk levels a bit more. Good target level to shoot for is 17 (after +skills; at this level she receives her last gear upgrade). Of course, higher will give her more life and more staying power. Other than that, the only advice I can give you is, unfortunately, increase your resists. The planned armor change will help. So would the ammy change.

• Camilla has no real way to deal with combo phys/fire immunes.
Well, I've done both a hybrid and a strafe/FA zon, so here's my take -- the hybrid is alright, but somewhat annoying when dealing with small groups of physical/fire immunes. The power of LF is in assaulting groups, not individuals. While you can make this work, you'll go through a ton of mana and plenty of tedium.

• Low FHR is a worry.
Try to play more defensively, and try to get that valk to a more 'solid' state. With valk, decoy, defensive playing (i.e. slow going wherever possible), you should rarely -- if ever -- be hit.

• 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!
Personally, I would go with FA, as I find it to be more universally effective. When playing solo, a level 15+ FA can kill effectively, although it does go through mana at a considerable rate. In large games, the skill is still very useful as a method of freezing enemies for your companions to hack through in relative safety.

I can't speak specifically for pumping FA vs its synergies. My gal pumped FA, but I can't remember if that was due to laziness (i.e. ahh, it's probably better) or actual research. I can say pumping FA does work, though the increasing mana cost can be problematic.

Finally, concerning pierce and LF. As I mentioned earlier, the power of LF lies in assaulting big groups -- the larger the better. Since every target you hit with your thrown javelin sends off 10, 15, 20+ bolts of lightning, every time you pierce and hit another target, you get those 20+ lightning bolts sent off again. The potential damage between one hit and, say four, is staggering. As a hybrid, will you *need* 90%+ pierce? Absolutely not. However, even small % increases in pierce can result in much higher damage rates.

gekko

[Wyrm]

Personally, I would max Valk. At level 17 (I think) she gets the use of War Pikes, and at level 25 (again, sketchy on the level) she gets a rare amulet to go with the rest of her equip. I've rarely seen my valk die, and then it's almost always due to iron maiden. Also, once she gets that high up, she'll be able to kill monsters quite efficiently on her own.

As for having maxed Immo, but no synergies... ouch. You've got the one point in FA which is enough (and at level 82 already, you're not going to have the skill points to max both it and CA for the synergy). I'd suggest putting some points into either Exploding Arrow or Fire Arrow (whichever gives the better synergy, right now I forget). I really like Goldstrike Arch as a weapon, but in your case, a Kuko Shakaku might work out better because it has +3 to Bow skills and +3 Immo Arrow. Not as much damage as Goldstrike though, and I forget if it's actually worth it to upgrade the thing.

Another thing I recommend is more points in pierce. AK404's Bowazon guide has a page with stats on how effective pierce is when going through multiple enemies.

Anyways, now that I've rambled forever, let me try to answer your questions.
1) From what I understand, unless you like chugging mana pots, it's better to pump Cold Arrow for the synergy before maxing FA.

2) Yes. Synergy bonuses for Lightning Fury are laughable (1%? please...). The only reason most Javazons put points into a synergy for it is because that synergy is Charged Strike, which, when combined with the synergy from Lit Fury, is one of the strongest attacks in the game (except vs. Lit immunes).

You're going to need at a minimum 80% pierce for Lightning Fury. This is because the skill itself doesn't really deal all that much damage, but when monsters group together and you hit multiple ones with a Fury, you're going to be sending a ton of lightning damage through monsters, usually enough to kill large groups with 1-2 javelins used. Without pierce, or vs. a single opponent, LF doesn't deal enough damage to be viable.

[Wyrm]

Other excellent gloves to consider are the set 'Laying of Hands.'  Super fire resistance, IAS, and frankly, who the heck cares what else?

+350% damage to Demons is the main reason those are used. It's the main reason they should be used. Using them just for the res and IAS is pointless since you can get those on rare/crafts. Granted you can only wind up with a max of 40% on rares (or is it 30? I can never remember) against the 50% of LoH, but that's almost negligable.

[gekko]

I knew there was some other reason I loved those gloves!

Thanks, it's been a while since I actually played now. I'm getting out of touch.

gekko

[Ajax]

Heh, darn you gekko and your dancing bananna of wisdom! :-)

thanks for the input guys!

[Assur]

Hi

As regards gloves, if you want to retain knockback craft yourself some hitpower gloves otherwise craft some blood gloves, you can get some really decent items that way. I would also suggest gambling for circlets and amus, the rare ones can be pretty amazing :D

good karma

[gekko]

I may have to switch to , thanks to bloodbath.

What do you guys think? Got epilepsy? You will soon!

gekko

[Ajax]

now time?

[ryan4nayr]

I tried maxed Immo+ExArrow in SP to see how I could go about building a dual elemental bowie. Definitely a definite challenge. Definitely. [/hoffman]

Low resists/FHR/any defensive mods would not be so bad with liberal use of Decoy. Cast pre-emptive Decoys as much as you can, just as long as it's not blocking a tight doorway/pathway. Myself I have it hotkeyed to E, Valk to R, Slow Missiles to W.

I second the backup crafted blood gloves with dual leech. Should you decide to go FzA/CA primarily, the kb would be useless, but the mana steal wouldn't be.

Sparingly invest in FzA, but instead pump CA. You'd like only 2 things off higher slvl FzA: higher dmg (which you can also get from the CA synergy), & higher AR (which you can also get from +skills into FzA & Penetrate).

But who can resist LFury ;) The mana steal would also be useful for this.

[Refrigerator]

That's really good. :lol: How would it look with the words changing to solid colours, I wonder? Without the 'epilepsy' bit. :lol: