Well most of the time you will hit a conced hammer if they are jodering about, and a shadow average damage > diamond - but it also has the potential for a much larger hit. Personally I prefer the chance of large hits with a higher average damage = shadow.

Also dropping forti to 160/60 reduces the damage & resists (which cancels out any gains imo) really in euscnl because of the bb it makes forty > any other option. bb = 1 sk 10ias 20%dr 25 dex 15str 20@. its hard not to use this on a bowie if available.
Without bb available then yes I agree 160/60 + dungos or shaftstop are the only options left in any kind of melee duels.

I agree with everything you said. The bow choice is merely one of preference and I also prefer high max damage.

The biggest travesty of Bnet: We had a belt similar to bb on east in 1.08 called bugged string but it was poofed along with all the other hacks.

sori, but my hybrid ama>

Regardless of our personal choice - I think the guide is well done, maybe add some 'realm only items' to make it fit everyone or they will only question why you missed these 'godly bow items'

And maybe options for cheaper invent - my last 5frw/3 max scs were 700fg+ each, but 3frw/3max are only 40fg !

Rings - my current gmb ring is 9 min 114ar 20str 7 dex 77 mana etc - min/max dmge is a really nice bonus & worth a lot of dex for average damage, maybe talk about this in the guide?
Mana consumption in duels with multi - 80 mana >> 30 life imo on a bowie ring.
Also you don't mention using strafe anywhere - I find this very good in certain duels, with non mb chars its deadly.

Mana consumption is indeed a big thing but only in mld I think. In hld, it is GM to use mana pots so I'd take the 40~60 life over mana (though I'd never say no to mana). In mld, I'd take 80 mana over 20 life.

I mentioned strafe in the strats vs bone necroes which is the only place where I find it useful. Some say strafe is better for druids but I'm not a fan of being locked in an animation against a character you NEED to be faster in order to survive. Do you know of any other uses for strafe other than against necroes?

Incredible guide. (finally made and account on jsp just to compliment this)

I do like how you emphasize that vita zons lack the dr and resists to be as effective with the hitpoints they have. Something I've been telling vita zon's over and over. Plus without cta, one point in vita = only 3 hitpoints. So zon's get less bang for their buck with heavy investments in vita. Yet, pure glass cannons also kinda suck since most attacks do ~200 damage more then their max health (300 or so extra hitpoints allows for a zon to double their lifespan vs. these characters)

I would've liked to see your guide have more builds using a faster bow (eg. a mati faith) which allows for more versatility than the standard gmb faith. Although a mati faith lacks slightly on it's average damage, that can be made up for with a higher ow, cb (which isn't totally worthless), and survivability (by means of higher resists and dr)

Also, I find strife to be incredibly effective vs. windies. Yes you get locked in place for nearly a full second, but, thats a small price to pay to get rid of all their puppies, oak, and usually fhr lock the druid (if he's not max block that is). Multi on the other hand is more effective when he's further away, but when he closes in, it rarely hits more than 2-3 of his summons and even more rarely hits him.

hahaha multi comment xDD

Meh, part of the reason I haven't made an account here yet was because I'd get flamed about being a 'multi' or getting scammed because I'm new.

All good though, if ya want proof that i'm not the other dude I can login and show you my character. Same name as my account. (also nowhere near as good of as eq as the threadstarter)

Thank you. I found that multi/pierce combo worked better against summons but I do admit I rarely use the strafe hotkey so perhaps this will be a better option once I've used it more.




What fool would make a multi to comment on a guide..

It depends on the timing. If you multi right when they tele to a spot, the multi will hit a maximum of 4 creatures (since everything is on a 2x2 grid spot and multi maxes the arrows per square to 1 effective arrow per square/target) That's provided you pack your multi tight enough and both arrows pierce at least once. Strife on the other hand will shoot one arrow at each target (only takes one arrow for puppies/oak), which usually lets you get a second or even third shot on the windy. But, if you multi slightly after they teleport, multi will usually wipe out all their summons (since the summons will first expand out to a 4x4 grid spot allowing you to hit up to 16 targets). Strife doesn't require luck with timing, which is why I prefer using that.