Runewords and Your Bow. A mini-guide.
V 1.1, Last Updated 3/22/2006This a guide I have posted at other forums. I thought it might be enjoyed here as well...
There are many fine bows in this game, but nothing is quite as cool as the rush of holding your own self-made cannon in your hands. Or, actually, watching the little sprite that represents you on your computer screen hold it's own self-made cannon in it's hands. Either way, there are a ton of Runewords in this game that can be stuck in a bow. So, without furtherado...
"Twink" bowsOr maybe, good "untwinked" bows, depending on how you look at it. Basically these bows are dirt-cheap, but still serve a purpose in this crazy post 1.10 uber-runeword world:
"Melody" / "Edge" / "Zephyr"-These are good until you can afford to make a harmony.
-A "Melody" in a +3 zon bow nets you +6 bow skills over-all, this is great for twinking an Frost-Maiden in-the-making.
-An "Edge" bow may well be the best demon killer (Read: boss killer) in the game that you can get before level 39.
The rest of the pack: (In alphabetical order.)"Brand"-The 100% CTC Bone-spear may be the coolest looking effect in the game. Especialy when you've got a 2 frame per arrow starfe going on. Spewing white magic-damage-death-that-pierces all over a pack of monsters is always fun. It also sounds very cool, or very annoying, depending on who you are. (I actually had a buddy name his Boning-Strafer ‘Woosh’ during ladder season 2.)
-It’s a pretty powerful bow, with lots of nice mods, but pales in comparison to "Faith"
-Pricy.
-The +damage to demons should not be overlooked on this bow. Ladder Season 2, I had a dedicated Chaos-Runner that packed this bow with Laying of Hands. This combo yielded me +650% damage to demons. I know all about on vs. off-weapon damage, but +650% damage is nothing to sneeze at noi matter how you slice it.
-Note, this bow is SICK on an enchantress. Don’t forget it fires exploding arrows as a normal attack.
-This is great on an act 1 cold rogue, because when she isn’t firing her cold arrows, she’ll be fire exploding arrows, making nothing immune to her. (Richy-Rich only need apply.)
-It took a hard nerfing when they ‘fixed’ the "Marrow Walk Bug" for 1.11.
Note they did not fix the fend bug, just the bugs people liked...
"Breath of The Dying"-Just... no.
-It's a waste of a Zod.
-You have to put it in a slow bow.
-The poison nova is annoying/laggy and does futile damage.
-You could just pin a badge on your sleeve that says "n00b" and you would get a similiar effect.
(This bow is not all that bad, but in terms of style, grace, and general 1337ness, it effing blows. It's kind of like wearing an Armani tux that's mustard yellow. It was expensive and fits well, but we're all pretty sure you're imparied in some way.)
"Call To Arms"-Also a nice bow, but mainly for style points only.
-The mods are there to make it a good weapon, but it would better in something one-handed, on switch; it just doesn’t stack up against the other cannons for the price.
-If you're rich, make one just to watch people freak in pubbies when you Bow (heh) them.
“Faith”-THE bow for Multi-Zons.
-Also considered the Swiss-army knife of bows: it's soooo godly that any bow-based-build (zon or not) would be a force-to-be-reckoned-with when packing this gun.
-It’s very fast, even in the slowest bow, due to the Fanatacism aura it grants.
-Godly mods stacked on godly mods...
-One mod I feel is often overlooked is the chance to revive. Well the revives are TOUGH. And it should bring a tear to the eye of any glass-cannon to see little tanks popping up out in the crowd as she mows Bloodlords down from a distance...
-Expensive.
-Equip this bow, grab a Might merc, and stick a “Pride” on him. See how that treats you, you rich, rich bastard.
"Fortitude"-No ias: too slow for my taste.
-The armor version of this RW is second-to-none for a bowie, though.
"Hand Of Justice"-This is a great bow, but, much like "Silence", it's day has come and gone, except for to a few specialized zon builds. The fire tree is still viable, while mostly forgotten in post 1.10.
-This is probably THE bow for an Immo-Zon. (see also: “Phoenix”)
"Harmony"-This is the best bow in the whole effing game if price is considered as a factor in any way, shape, or form.
-Combine this RW with Lionheart/Treachery/Duress for deadly-on-a-budget. You'll be surprised.
-It's also a fanatstic utility weapon with it's valk pre-buff and a speedy aura, to boot.
-Suggestion, put on a 40% frw boot, a Cat's eye and this bow and you can outrun some teleporters. Just not through walls...
"Ice"-A Frost-Maiden (Frozen Arrow zon) carrying this bow is similar to gods own personal smiting tool.
-As you read down the stats, it just keeps getting better:
1) The Holy Freeze adds cold damage that stacks on the area effect of FA .
2) Plus the aura slows everything that gets close to you down to a crawl, which makes you very hard to kill .
3) This also packs negative enemy cold resistance AND adds % to cold damage .
4) The CTC Frost Nova occurs
at the target. This is freak-nasty-looking on a 2-frame Strafer with novas popping everywhere. It’s also practical, slowing down the crowd quite a bit before they even hit the radius of your Holy Freeze aura, which then slows them down more, if they can even move from being spammed with FA.
5) This is all not to mention the deadly strike, the IAS, the AR boost, the ITD, Monster Gold Find, blah, blah, blah; it's just awesome all over your face.
-An FA zon with this cannon in hand can destroy packs in the cow level just as fast as an LF zon (!).
-This was some Frost-Maiden-fanatic-who-works-at-blizzard's wet dream. They got their boss to put it in the game by holding their breath while on a hunger strike.
-This is also good on an act 1 cold rogue for obvious reasons.
-Expensive.
"Passion"-Actually very nice for the price.
-I haven't seen one of these in a long time, if ever.
-Hmmm... I might make one of these tonight...
"Phoenix"-No ias is the big negative here, for something this pricey no ias just isn't acceptable in my book.
-Probably really nice for an IMO zon.
1) She's on a timer anyway so the lack-of-ias is a non-issue.
2) Plus -fire res.
3) She would also have no mana problems with Redemption going and HUGE mana leech on the bow.
-It's OMFG-this-is-costing-alot-expensive.
“Silence”-A fallen hero of a RW.
-It's mods are truly godly: it’s got huge res all (75!), fhr, ias, blinds target, good dmg, causes monsters to flee, MF, and huge Mana Leech, yipe!
-A very nice mix of an offensive/defensive weapon. This would be the holy grail for a Hardcore bowie, imho.
-You are, however, forced to make it in a slow bow, because of socketing options, but in a self-preservation light, the mods are worth it.
-By the time you are at a level where you can equip it,
this bow will blind 100% of the monsters able-to-blinded that it strikes.-In offense, it is outshined by nearly all the newer RW's, and most would agree, just not worth the price nowadays. In it’s time, though, this was a truly awesome weapon. It still is in my book.
-On a Strafer, this bow offers crowd control only a Necro or Singer-Barb can match.
-Pricey.
“Venom”-See: “Wrath” below.
"Wrath"-Sucks any way you slice it: you get almost no-bang-at-all for your buck. It may be cool for someone extremely rich bow-collector with some weird build, but what build that would be, is beyond me. Harmony outshines this crap bow and leaves you enough left over to get a Highlord's, War Travs, and Raven Frost compared to the cost of Wrath.
-Booo.
My Bow-Pick for some of the more popular builds:These are my picks. Your picks may be different.
This is OK.-Strafer: Windforce / “Faith” +3 GMB
-Frostmaiden: +3 Matriarchal “Ice”
-Multizon: +3 Matriarchal “Faith”
-Immo-Zon: “Phoenix” Great Bow
-Guided Arrow PvP: +3 Grand Matron “Faith”
-Guided Arrow PvM (Assasin): +3 Matriarchal “Faith”
-Proc’-Zon: “Brand” Great Bow
-Effect-o-zon: “Silence” Gothic Bow
These are all ideal-scenario bows. If you're on a budget I would go with Harmony pretty much across the board.
A few general RW/Bow tips.-Keep in mind that you cannot equip amazon-only bows on act 1 mercs.
-I always like to put my RW's in -10 speed bows if possible. In fact, the only non -10 bow I would ever be caught using is a Faith or a Silence.(Once again, this is personal taste. Relax, big damage number addicts.) If you can't bear to go to such lengths for speed, try a Shadow Bow, they're a nice compromise between speed and power and they have the highest AVG damage of all 0 speed bows.
-I ignore min/max damage when picking a bow, avg. damage is what I look at first, then I look at speed, then at min. damage, then at max damage. Consistent damage and speed will pwn a big max damage number on the LCS with slow attack speed any day. This is a very important part of the 'Zon philosophy to me. Most people like to see a big fat number on their character screen. I agree, that it's nice when it means something, but to my zons speed is king. Think damage per second, not damage per arrow.
-Some of the cheaper RW's, like Harmony/Passion are worth re-rolling to get a good ed%.
-These are my opinions only. You will develop your own opinions after you've played lots and lots of bow zons and hybrid zons, like I have. Until that time you may borrow my opinions to get you started.
-If anyone has a comment or question about a Runeword Bow (This means no WF vs. Faith flame-war, please. There are 69420 other threads already dedicated to pages of this crap on every forum, search one, and post in there if you’re interested) feel free to respond in this thread. I’ll try to answer, if it's a question, or I may comment on your comment.
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtmlhttp://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/bows.shtmlhttp://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=englishI hope this helps anyone pondering how to spend a hard-earned rune.
-peace