Hey all,
I hope this is the right place, but I wanted to share some experience I had with my Bowzone build. The build is with basic gear (worth a couple of Jah in total) - nothing too expensive a (i.e., no charms/perfect items) with the goal to explore some high-level strategies. Multi-shot
- which bow?
- which merc?
- what skill?

I use basic gear - worth a couple of Jah in total - nothing too expensive though (i.e., no perfect items etc.):
- Gloves: Laying of Hands
- Helm: GFace (40ed jewel)
- Armor: Forti in Scarab Husk
- Boots: Gore
- Amu: Cat's Eye
- Belt: Razortail
- Off-hand weapon: Harmony or CTA
- Rings: Ravenfrost (20dex, 24x ar) + dual leech ring with res

No charms equipped aside from Torch and Anni, but obviously you would want to use dmg/life/ar charms - they are pricey though. I leveled the character to 90 and put only around 200 into vitality rest into dex for more dmg.

First thought: strafe over multi-shot cuz it does more dmg; so skills are:
20 strafe, 20 guided arrow, 20 critical hit; rest is flexible - I also maxed valkyrie and some points into passive skills

With A2 merc:
- Pride for concentration Aura
- Andys or Vampire Gaze
- Ebug Foriti (mostly for def reasons)
- Offensive A2-nightmare for might

Build (1) 1060 - 5087 dmg (guided arrow) and 797 - 3827 dmg (strafe) with Faith in Gmb as bow on main char
Build (2) 460- 6784 dmg (guided arrow) and 346-5107 dmg (strafe) with Windforce (not socketed) on main char

With A1 merc:
- Faith in shadow bow (perfect roll)
- Ebug Forti or Treach
- Andys or Giant Skull
Build (3) 327 - 4768 dmg (guided arrow) and 246 - 3596 dmg (strafe) with Windfore (not socketed) on main char

I tried all builds on hell with varying players - experience so far (for physical immunes cold arrow is key):

Build (1): big plus here was that faith has also ignore target def -> so all dmg goes fully through irrespective of attack rating. For bosses, I used guided arrow anyway. Valkyrie + Merc is nice buffer
-> plays very well from 1-4 players, can clear CS easily - also doable on 5-7 players, but a whole lot slower; you don't die on 7-8 but it's not so much fun anymore.

Build (2): biggest issue here is attack rating since no fanaticism. Even with 20 skill points into ar, it's just about close to 70% hit chance... that's makes the effective damage much lower than build (1)
-> almost unplayable on any player setting -> can't recommend that...

Build (3): attack rating here is much better than (2) since merc provides fana aura from faith. But the lower hit chance is still around 8x%. In combination with the lower absolute damage, the clear speed is significantly lower than (1).
-> plays still well from 1-4 players like (1), but as mentioned: lower damage and lower hit chance than (1) makes it slower.

Note that all build hit the max strafe IAS breakpoint easily. One thing to be said about (3) is that there is still an open socket for the windforce bow, which would increase the damage slightly; but practically, it wouldn't reach (1). A more important question is whether to play in team or alone:
If pala with fana is in party, (2) becomes suddenly very viable since a high fana aura would fix ar issue.
If pala with conc is in party, (3) has a higher dmg modifier and outperforms (1) in terms of absolute damage.

Conclusion so far: (1) is the best build for playing alone in party!

I also tried Brand -> bone spear looks cool, but does simply less dmg than faith (much less...)
I also tried multi-shot -> doable, but the strafe pierce combination for my (relatively low) gear was worth it.

Let me know if you have any thoughts and whether I missed any obvious things

How much dex on your ama?

You are obviously missing that atma's amulet >>>> everything else
faith sb > faith gmb
ed/45 ias helm > guilface
war travelers > gores

with amp on, your killspeed is gonna be 2x faster on avg, compared to your current build.
I would also use Coh (+2 skills) on merc for some better might aura.

you can use ga + multishot, best with 7fpa build.
1 pt freezing arrow is more than enough. you will not use it that often at all.

This post was edited by Melatonina on May 24 2020 01:58am

275 (incl. items)




Atma's is indeed missing - good point - in particular on higher player settings

ed/ias helm would make sense but a bit pricey. Essentially you're trading 80ed/30ias for 15% for Deadly Strike and 35% Chance of Crushing Blow (best optimal gear).

I only have 1pt in freezing arrow - yeah that's totally fine for the few phys immunes

Coh is interesting: essentially 2lvls might is 20% more dmg vs more def from forti which gives a bit more survivability. I actually swapped it out for stone atm since it gives even more def - that would mean either coh or stone then.


This one here I'm not sure if I fully get: faith sb seems to do 50md less than faith gmb.

you cannot reach 7 fpa without a shadow bow. thats why its superior to gmb.
about helm, crushing blow is halved effect on ranged attacks, for critical strike you should 20 pt in it, giving around 70% to crit with gear

This post was edited by Melatonina on May 24 2020 08:30am

a2 merc is coh + andy or delirium for +4sk

Ed/ias means ed/45 ias. If you are poor, use Mavinas diadem
Cb, ds and ow are all nerfed to ground for ranged. Dont bother

Stone sucks and defense is almost useless stat

Sb has lower damage but faster. You cant get max ias with gmb and atma



Delirium overrides amp

This post was edited by wupa on May 25 2020 05:14am

amp that comes from atma
that he's not using
that he shouldn't use in p1
and that if he does use, he can use andy as I suggested

I like this bowa: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=33329805&f=87/center