Lvl 30 Plague/BowThe plaguer can be a very very powerful character if built and used correctly, it can also be abused very easily by being massively defensive. This character also does especially well in tvt. The general skillset is plague and poison javelin, with 1 pt light bolt and/or guided arrow to finish the blow. Depending on how you like to play, you can gain more bow damage or make changes in frw and life. It all comes down to play style.
StatsStrength: Enough for gear
Dexterity: See below *
Vitality: Rest
Energy: None
*I like to have 109 dexterity, this allows the use of +4 ceremonial javelins for more damage, also allows me to use eth harpoons and gets more bow damage and still allows for high life
SkillsCrit strike and Jab depend on gear (crit) and choices (jab)
The following will be setups of multiple people and the stats they try to obtain.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Basic Plaguer setup(cheapest):This setup will get the most life, the easiest. And definitely the most rep life. These can be boring to use but are effective.
GearHelm choices:-Pcrown with PSkull
Armor choices:-Peace
-Spirit shroud with PSkull <-I prefer this. 15 more replife with repmana (Put 1 pt in crit)
Shield:-Rhyme Bone/Grim Shield
Javelins:-4 jav/ias matr javs
Bow:-60% Up'd Rogues bow with nef
Gloves:-+2 jav/0-10% ias gloves with stats/rep/res. Make choice depending on jav ias requirements, and bow you choose.
Belt:-string of ears (swap belt)
Boots:-Sanders boots
Rings:-Sojs
-Manalds for rep rep.
Amulet:-+1 zon amulet with additonal stats (life/mana/res/rep/dr)
Inventory:-Life/res and life/mana charms. These can even be 15life/single res to get you up, and can be a lot cheaper than 15/5's.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cadagan's balanced mix hybrid:Stats aimed for:
105-130 frw
max res +
850+ life
22+ life rep
325+ mana
9.5k plague javelin
20k poison javelin
500+ 9fpa damage @ 62.2% double damage (crit+deadly)
cbf at all timesGearHelm choices:-Pcrown with 24 maxer
-+1zon/30frw/life/mana/soc circlet. Socketed with your choice (I chose Pruby)
Armor choices:-Spirit Shroud (I socketed with 6str/8dex/13max jewel) <-cbf,+1 skill, 10 rep life, 11 mdr. hard to beat. Requires crit to be skilled
Shield:-Rhyme
-I use: 30/20 4rep, 2OS bone shield with 2x 9dex/15res jewels
Javelins:-4 jav/10-30 ias ceremonial javelins (ed is a huge plus on these)
-high damage eth/rep harpoons in stash
30 ias total is a good bp to have, could be gotten between javs and gloves. I do fine with 20 ias. This mainly comes down to LB throw speed and jab damage, since plague has a time delay.
Bow:-60% Up'd Rogues bow with 17+ed/15 max
-Rare bow
Rogues auto hits 9fpa so there is no need for more ias on gloves or anywhere else. 3 shael robo would require 10ias on gloves, but no ias on 2shael robo ashwood is required.
Gloves:-+2 jav/0-10% ias gloves with stats/rep/res. Make choice depending on jav ias requirements, and bow you choose.
Belt:-str/life/mana/trires belt (fhr not needed)
-string of ears (swap belt)
Boots:-30frw/5dex/trires boots
-Sanders boots
both are great boots, I use the trires boots most of the time, sanders when res is not needed.
Rings:-Sojs
Amulet:-+1 zon amulet with additonal stats (life/mana/res/rep/dr)
Inventory:-enough 3/xx/3's to fit your needs (100-130 is good)
-3/xx/15's
-choice of 15/5's or 3/5's to fit res needs
-If mana isn't enough, choice of life/mana or frw/mana.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KnightXENO and ClanBK's Bowcentric typeStats aimed for:
120 frw
max res +
~750 life
~350 mana
8k plague javelin
18k poison javelin
650-700 9fpa guided damage @ 62.2% double damage (crit+deadly)GearHelm choices:-+1 zon 30 frw circlet (look for one with life/mana/damage/2OS), same socket choices as pcrown
Armor choices:-lifer armor with maxers (Put 1 pt in crit)
Shield:-Rhyme
Javelins:-4 jav/10-30 ias ceremonial javelins (ed is a huge plus on these)
Bow:-60% Up'd Rogues bow with 17+ed/15 max (KnightXeno's preference) - 9fpa
-40 ias +3 robo ashwood (ClanBK's preference) - 10fpa
Gloves:-+2 jav/0-10% ias gloves with stats/rep/res. Make choice depending on jav ias requirements, and bow you choose.
Belt:-fhr/life/mana/trires belt
-string of ears (good swap)
Boots:-30frw/10fhr/trires boots
Rings:-Sojs
Amulet:-+1 zon amulet with additonal stats (life/mana/res/rep/dr)
Inventory:*enough 3/xx/3's to fit your needs (100-130 is good)
*3/xx/15's
*choice of 15/5's or 3/5's to fit res needs
*If mana isn't enough, choice of life/mana or frw/mana.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Honorable Mentions:Rare bows:Finding a rare bow can be very difficult, but can definitely be better than Rogues or Robo. This bow is a 9fpa Razor Bow owned by
yeawhatup on East NL.
Bow GuidesIAmAsylum has an excellent bowa guide that may help someone to understand what they need to do to their plaguer to make it more balanced toward the bowa side, rather than taking info from his guide, here it is:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=32629468&f=143As in most LLD characters, it's about building the character toward your play style, so some experimenting may be in order for your plaguer to be how you want it to be
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Strategies and Tips:Poison Overrides:Cycling poison javs is a good way to keep the poison damage higher, an opponent at the very beginning of a duel will usually be pretty defensive vs your javs, and can make it very hard if you are trying to use plague instead of poison. Throwing poison javs first allows for more area to be covered, with no time delay. Once they get hit, most will charge in. After they do that, throw a plague jav, it will override the poison jav and start the "quick"-dealing damage.
PLR:This is pretty easy, use poison jav against any plr. It just reduces plague so much.
"Boxing":What I call boxing is just simple side-stepping. If a barb is coming at you, predict the ww and sidestep. Pull out bow as he ww's past and fire off a few. Just keep side stepping and throwing javs / shooting guideds. It requires less frw than simply outrunning that barb, and also reduces the barb's synch.
WWlockers:A lot of people complain about ww lock, with a jav zon it makes it easier. If you notice them wwlocking, run away (yes run, not walk) in a straight line, throwing plague javs where you are running to. Even if you don't see them, don't stop. Long sweeping circles and straight running until they die, if you can get back to where you see them, check their life real quick. If it's low or at one, stop/walk and fire off some light bolts. Do not pull out bow.
Random Movements:With the exception of wwlockers, don't run in straight lines. Always use random movements as a zon (plaguer or bowa), especially vs hammerdins. A good random-running zon won't even get hit vs a hdin (by hammers, not charge swap).
Keep block/run close:I changed my run/walk and weapon swap toggles to f1 and f2, whenever I have bow out I am running, hit both at the same time and I'm blocking with shield and walking. Helps with quick and effective swaps.
C/T:C/T is usable on just about any caster character, but is best used on a zon, necro, trap or fissure. It's done by casting/shooting over the
Character or skill
Tree screens. If you put your mouse up to the very top right corner, you can shoot pretty far, but keep that cursor at the top right (while holding down the mouse) and open up the skill tree screen. This extends the range of the guided arrow's "guide" and also helps it to go invisible faster, same for bone spirits. Can be very useful to extend the range on fissures and traps by hitting them from over a screen away. If going left, pop up the character screen. I find it easiest to just start guiding, then pop it up, but it can be done by holding unsummon, popping up the screen - dragging over, and then swapping to guided.
Stay low:The c/t brings me to the next one, always stay below your opponent. For most duels you always want to be below your opponent. This is because of the bar at the bottom that restricts your screen by a short amount. We are wanting to increase the range with c/t, so we don't need to get rid of range by firing down.
Chargers and Kickers:Use of high damage javelins, normal throw, and jab are key to winning these duels (unless they have bad psn res
) Keep the shield out at all times. I like to even have 2x shields, one side having ceremonials for psn dmg, and the other with harpoons. Throw the plague jav and then swap over to harpoons. Keep walk on. 2H chargers should be a breeze with jab. Usually standing in one place and keeping them locked with throw and jab works well enough. Kickers require movement, just stay a few steps ahead of them and throw back. They have a small delay between kick stop/start that allows for some quick jabs if needed. Especially right after a dflight. You can pull out bow vs a kicker if they are a screen away. They will usually try to hit you with dflight from the edge, so wait until you see them go for a dflight and run just outside of the screen. Dflight cancels if you move outside so they will just stand there kicking nothing while they get hit in the face with guideds.
Sorc's:Hardest duel, stay random and never stop. 1-2 attacks at any given time. Sometimes don't even attack, just fake them out to make them stomp you. A good sorc will be very aggressive with stomps and use tk, keep up the wsg if you are getting fhr'd and be patient.
Zons:CS = they will kill you if they have more frw. Run and shoot behind, if they catch up sidestep, do not run straight away or you'll be hit by the charged bolts more than once.
Unless you are just better at zvz than a bowa, this will be a hard duel. Use your life to your advantage, swap to dr + physical dmg setup, you won't hit a good bowa with poison jav enough to be of any use. Plus they have death's on. When you see the opportunity, run in to jab (and throw a psn jav), you'll likely have more life/dr and almost as high jab dmg (mine hits over 700 jab). If they run, make sure to get some NL'd guideds in. Swap out the sojs for manalds or rep/mana rings (or 1 of each like I do). I prefer 1 manald and a 5rep/85 mana ring (could get better). A dtm shield and eth's can make the difference in your zon's endurance in zvz.
Necros:Remember Multi to clear bone walls, then use c/t guided. Sometimes going back and forth, multi then 2 guided.
Teledruid:Always run down, if they stop moving shortly after you were on screen, you are probably namelocked. Don't stop. Run down, multi up. Throw plagues where you will be running, because that's where they are going to be. On top of you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Special thanks to the following for their build types or just answering questions I had:
KnightXENO
ClanBK
TheBadLuitenant
Mikeyjd
IAmAsylum
Yeawhatup