Overview
This is a classic build. I have played this game through almost all classic builds, and I find this Wizendraw build to be powerful, tanky, and my favorite by far. I've been asked by a few people I play with for a guide, so I decided to publish one.
This build is intended for solo or group PvM play. It clears hell CS solo with loaders and really shines in hell cow for gf/mf, finding many rare items and over half a million gold per cow run. It offers a high damage zon with high life. It relies on -cold damage from the Wizendraw and extra skill gear for damage.
My nearly endgame Wizendraw Zon does 1448 Ice Arrow damage (plus the -35 monster cold resistance from Wizendraw); has 1600 life / 500 mana; 50% chance to dodge; and an 89% chance to pierce. Along with a tank max valk that also has a 50% chance to dodge, the build is high damage and never dies whereas a glass cannon physical or strafezon gets one-shotted from time to time.
An alternative to this build is to use Freezing Arrow with a gothic or rune bow. This style works but loses the -cold resist benefit and requires much higher str / dex that equates to an extra 300+ hit points. The -cold resist also contributes to increased monster freeze time.
The pros of the build are: High life / high damage / max valk kiting ability / super fun with lots of useful skills / fairly tanky / does not require any attack rating
The cons of the build are: No life or mana leech (requires picking up mana pots) / cold immunes are manageable but slow down the run if the goal is to clear everything / requires some skill juggling / not as efficient as some builds i.e. Hammerdin (but I find Hammerdins to be so overpowered and boring)
Stats
Str: Just enough for gear (Wizendraw is 40 str req; Goldwrap is 45 str req; Boneflesh is 65 str req)
Dex: Just enough for gear (Wizendraw is 50 dex req)
Vit: Rest of points here
Energy: No extra points in energy. Some advocate for points here, but it is truly a waste.
Gear
There are some options with gear, but the ias breakpoint for long battle bow to shoot for is 60 ias. Wizendraw already has 20 ias, so with 20 ias from twitch, that leaves at least 20 ias needed from gloves / belt. This can be accomplished with 1.) Sigon Gloves / Belt 2.) Death Hands / Sash 3.) Goldwrap and 10IAS gloves. In my experience, the rare gloves and goldwrap offer the best option. The drawback is that it is a 3 slotted belt, so if this is a dealbreaker Sigon also works great. The benefit is that the rare gloves hit the breakpoint and offer resists and mana in addition to the gf/mf of the goldwrap at a lower str req than Sigon.
Weapon: Wizendraw with a target of -35% enemy cold resistance
Helm: Tarn
Armor: Twitch (with boneflesh in cube for immunes)
Rings: SOJs x 2 (Mana, skills, and lightning damage vs immunes)
Belt: Goldwrap for IAS (see above regarding sigons / death set)
Gloves: Rare low str req IAS gloves. Ideal mods are a combination of 10 IAS / 40 mana / 30 fr / 30 lr / mf / gf / 15 dex / 9 str
Boots: Rare low str req boots. Ideal mods are a combination of 30 frw / 40 mana / fr / lr / gf / mf / dex
Ammy: +2 / Mana / Life / Resists / mf / gf
Alternative Ammy: +20 str / 10 dex for swapping out boneflesh and twitch
Skills
Max Freezing Arrow
Max Cold Arrow (Synergy)
Max Valk. Valk is helpful vs cold immunes and at max lvl with dodge can tank almost any huge mob. Very useful for kiting and herding.
19 points Pierce. With plus skill gear this hits lvl 24, which is 89% chance to pierce (lvl 25 is also 89% chance to pierce, so don't waste that point). Against herds this is how damage is multiplied with the AoE effect of Freezing Arrow. The more cows/monsters it hits the higher damage. At 89% pierce, there is a 50% chance of going through 6 enemies, which happens a lot in large mobs. This would mean 7 x 1448 cold damage plus the effect of -35 enemy cold resist on targeted enemies.
1 point Guided Arrow
1 point Immolation Arrow. Helpful to rotate with Guided Arrow vs Cold Immunes, esp with +skill gear.
1 point Slow Missiles. With plus skills from SOJs / ammy / tarn this skill is amazing esp against oblivion knights in CS.
1 point Decoy. Decoy is an amazing skill to help with herding and directing monsters away in order to run past them.
1 point Ice Arrow (No more points. The freeze length per lvl isnt worth it. Also with -35 enemy cold resist from Wizendraw increases freeze length already.)
1 point Evade
1 point Avoid
Rest of points Dodge (by lvl 90 this will be 50% chance to dodge for you and valk)
Game Play
The goal is to herd as many monsters together with valk and decoy and then to hit them with lots of AOE from Freezing Arrow with pierce. This is best demonstrated in hell cows, which is a great place to mf / gf / sell items for gambling.
Handling cold immunes is not difficult with this build. To take down cold immune uniques, swap on boneflesh armor and alternate 3-4 shots guided arrow + 1 shot immolation arrow. Wizendraw uses magic arrows and does a reasonable amount of damage with the lightning damage from SOJs / immolation / open wounds. Additionally, the lvl 25 valk will do quite a bit of damage if the unique is not physical immune.
Herds of cold immunes can be handled by Immolation since the fire stacks with adjacent monsters.
Oblivion knights in CS are cold immune. They can be tackled, as above. Or these can be easily run by with Slow Missiles and Decoy.
Keep a horadic cube in your inventory. It can hold boneflesh / alternative ammy / extra tome of portals / extra thawing potions.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to PM or reply if you have any questions or suggestions.
This post was edited by SlowPesci on Feb 1 2025 07:57pm