Amazon with bow vs Physical Immune

[rondraeq]

Hi,

I play diablo online and are now with my first character in Hell difficulty. It is an Amazon. I am wondering how I will be able to handle Physical immune. I did spare some skillpoints and wonder if magical arrow would help me. it converts some physical damage into magical damage. I do think about other skills such but they are of a single element, thus would eventually meet another immune enemy.

Two questions:

- When I deal 300 physical damage. It wil deal 0 damage to a physical immune. Howmuch damage will a magic arrow deal if it converts 10% damage into magical damage; 0, 30 or different?

- Which skill would be best to use if you want to deal with physical immune?

[Fragbait]

Hi,

If you have a damage of 300, and magic arrow converts 10% of the damage to magical, it does so before the damage is inflicted to the monster. That means that you'd indeed do 30 damage (magical) to the physical immune foe you're facing.

As to what concerns the best skill against PIs, that's hard to tell. If you can cope with the cast delay, this could be Immolation Arrow with synergies. It especially kicks ass in narrow paths and doorways. Since you probably have only a few points to spend, IA might be hard to take into heights were it deals real damage.
Freezing Arrow is the other option, but the same things apply here.
Perhaps it's reasonable for you to take some Unique Weapon that does a fair amount of elemental damage, like Hellrack.

Max Magic Arrow converts 20% of your damage to magical, but that sounds rather little, too.

Sorry if I can't be of more help to you.

Greetings, Fragbait

[rondraeq]

Hi,

If you have a damage of 300, and magic arrow converts 10% of the damage to magical, it does so before the damage is inflicted to the monster. That means that you'd indeed do 30 damage (magical) to the physical immune foe you're facing.

As to what concerns the best skill against PIs, that's hard to tell. If you can cope with the cast delay, this could be Immolation Arrow with synergies. It  especially kicks ass in narrow paths and doorways. Since you probably have only a few points to spend, IA might be hard to take into heights were it deals real damage.
Freezing Arrow is the other option, but the same things apply here.
Perhaps it's reasonable for you to take some Unique Weapon that does a fair amount of elemental damage, like Hellrack.

Max Magic Arrow converts 20% of your damage to magical, but that sounds rather little, too.

Sorry if I can't be of more help to you.

Greetings, Fragbait

thanks for your reply Fragbait, I would like to add another question?

Can de magic part of magic arrow be resisted, and if so on what resist?
Immolation Arrow sounds interesting, I will have to check the mana cost / damage. This one will be resisted on fire resist.

perhaps magic arrow can be considered if it's magic damage does not check versus any resists.

[Fragbait]

Hi,

in all cases, this link should help you.
I believe there are some monsters that can resist magical attacks as such, e.g. Guardian, Unraveler and Horadrim Ancient, mostly Greater Mummies.
Hope this helped.


Greetings, Fragbait

[Raziel]

- Which skill would be best to use if you want to deal with physical immune?

Whatever your regular attack is, coupled with a means of removing the physical immunity.

Examples include:

1. Atma's Scarab - an amulet with a small (5%?) chance to cast Amplify Damage on striking
2. Witchwild String - if you're already using this evil little bow, what's the problem?
3. Reaper's Toll - given to your mercenary, this should solve most of your PI issues
4. Lacerator - having a throwing weapon on the switch that has a 33% ctc Amplify Damage on striking isn't bad :)

I use two approaches on my zon: Reaper's Toll on my merc, and Lacerator on my spare hand. Otherwise, I basically strafe non-stop.

[adeyke]

About 15-20% of all base monsters in hell have magic resistance (counting only the number of lines in monstats.txt, which doesn't account for relative rarity but which includes some nonexistant monsters). Magic damage can definitely be resisted.

One nice skill against PIs is lightning bolt. It requires the use of a javelin and has a 3/4 damage penalty, but it converts all physical damage to lightning, even with a single point investment. So if you don't mind carrying a high-damage javelin in your alt weapon slot, lightning bolt is a very easy way to get some elemental damage.

[arrunique]

I am wondering how I will be able to handle Physical immune.

What worked wonderfully for my zon was to keep Thuderstroke on my switch. Lightning bolt has a 25% damage penalty but after that converts 100% of physical damage to lightning damage. Tstroke also has about 500 elemental damage and -15% lightning resists. Most physical immune base monsters such as wraiths and succibi are pretty wimpy so it only takes a few shots to bake them. Another great thing about tstroke is it comes with the lightning bolt skill so you don't have to waste 2 skill points aquiring it. They are usually pretty cheap to trade for as well.

Witchwild is a great bow and should be able to take most phys immunes. As a bow zon you should have a maxed valk to take the hits for you while you wait for amp to kick in.

[ryan4nayr]

Two questions:

- When I deal 300 physical damage. It wil deal 0 damage to a physical immune. Howmuch damage will a magic arrow deal if it converts 10% damage into magical damage; 0, 30 or different?

- Which skill would be best to use if you want to deal with physical immune?

Your 1st question... e.g., after all the ED%, the +dmg suffixes, the dex bonus, any auras, you do base 300 phys dmg. With maxed Magic Arrow, 20% converts to magic dmg... so we now have 30 magic dmg + 270 phys dmg (I don't really know when the +20 from this skill kicks in). Don't forget about Critical Strike / Deadly Strike now, if either kicks in we get 60 magic dmg + 540 phys dmg. Ditto with maxed Cold/Fire Arrow: (123 cold/fire dmg + 177 phys dmg) x 2 if CS/DS

The bowazon is blest to have so many options regarding PIs. :D

Via gear, the many LLoungers have given great advice.

Of the cold brach of the B&XB Tree, Freezing Arrow is considered your best option vs. groups, switch to Cold Arrow for the resilient stragglers

The fire branch is pretty much considered dead, though a few are trying out Exploding Arrow.

As a user of Magic Arrow, I believe this skill is too slow of a killer, even when pumped to high slvls. Still, many aspects of it, like zero mana, zero mana, & of course zero mana, draw many admirers (after all, can't leech off PIs).

I consider my bowazon my most exciting 1.10 character, I hope you find out for yourself why B)

[adeyke]

Your 1st question... e.g., after all the ED%, the +dmg suffixes, the dex bonus, any auras, you do base 300 phys dmg. With maxed Magic Arrow, 20% converts to magic dmg... so we now have 30 magic dmg + 270 phys dmg (I don't really know when the +20 from this skill kicks in).

20% of 300 is 60, not 30.

[D2Player69]

Another thing to consider is Open Wounds. It cannot be resisted and while you won't drop large groups quickly, you can kill anything with Open Wounds if you have a bit of patience. Since PI monsters aren't as common as they were in 1.09, I find Open Wounds works fine with my Strafers. A Malice spear or polearm (with its 100% chance of Open Wounds) on the merc is also nice - I think the Malice runeword is terrific for Act 2 and Act 5 mercs for many different characters, and is especially nice for a Strafer since your merc will be reducing the target's defense substantially with each hit.

You can get Open Wounds for your BowZon from a number of sources. A Riphook bow, Boneflesh or Toothrow armor, and Gore Riders boots all come to mind readily. Riphook makes a particularly nice switch weapon as it also has the Hit Slows Target effect.

John H
D2Player69@aol.com