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Nov 30 2025 12:49am
Currently have faith (13 fanat), pride, wind force, and a fortitude.

What’s the tech, do I use wind force + faith on merc and runeword for burst of speed on switch or do I use faith, pride merc with harmony on switch? If Windforce is better is it required to have burst of speed for it to be better? Seems like that could be tedious to keep up over just being faith

atmas or highlords? Travs or gores??

Do I use a phys sunder??

What’s the sweet spot between dext for damage and vita?

And the age old question strafe or multi shot? If I go strafe do I max multishot first for synergy over penetrate??

Anything else to note for hardcore? I have a Bo Barb loader

This post was edited by lost_one1 on Nov 30 2025 01:03am
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Nov 30 2025 05:29am
Definitely atma's. And war travs. And strafe.
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Nov 30 2025 09:34am
Definitely atma's. And war travs. And strafe.


Thanks bro!

My main concern is do I use wf / faith setup or faith / pride
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Nov 30 2025 10:41am
Thanks bro!

My main concern is do I use wf / faith setup or faith / pride


Faith pride is my pick. Wf faith is good too, but more varying damage, a bit higher max damage, and no ignore target's defense.
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Nov 30 2025 12:11pm
Faith pride is my pick. Wf faith is good too, but more varying damage, a bit higher max damage, and no ignore target's defense.


yeah ty bro. i did some testing with wf + faith and no scs i only top out at 6.5k strafe dmg which feels bad even in p1 lol.

ill swap to a2 merc + faith. i was just concerned cos im on hc and my faith is only lvl 13 fanat so its pricey to get 15 fanat.
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Nov 30 2025 01:05pm
yeah ty bro. i did some testing with wf + faith and no scs i only top out at 6.5k strafe dmg which feels bad even in p1 lol.

ill swap to a2 merc + faith. i was just concerned cos im on hc and my faith is only lvl 13 fanat so its pricey to get 15 fanat.


Yeah well that is the kind of damage you get with the bowa, unless you deck yourself out with 10 max gc's, or 14 max which are rare as hen's teeth. They help. But yeah. Remember you do have critical strike, and when amp triggers from atma's, which it does relatively often when you use strafe and herd our enemies a tiny bit, with 100% pierce and ignore target's defense, now you deal a whopping 4 x damage when you crit.

I know I'm stirring up a hornet's nest here, but i did wf+faith a1 diablo runs way back, hc, and even if i took a heap of abuse from mentioning it, i am like 99% certain, or close to 100%, one guided arrow hit with amp and crit (I saw the crit animation), took roundabout 25% of hell diablo's hit points off. In one shot. This was on p1 though, ladder. I used strafe with regular mobs and guided for bosses and boss monsters and their packs.

With faith gmb, that is unnecessary because you get a strong attack rating boost.

But play around with it a bit and wait for more answers. It still fun to play with. Do that strafe+amp+pierce this on p8, i'm relatively certain you will do quite well with it.

And no need to upgrade to lvl 15 fana. It's probably like 100 more damage, after amp n crit. Not worth it.
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Nov 30 2025 01:22pm
And if you play on p8 like, trying gores may be a thing because of the crushing blow. Even if ranged is only 12,5%, it still helps. Even swapping helmet for guillaume's may be something to test out then.
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Nov 30 2025 03:46pm
thanks dudes!!!

last question!! do i use phys sunder or no?? is that too rippy in hardcore without using dungos or something to migigate the extra phys taken??

atmas is really that gg? ive never tried it. i just made a bad assumptions highlords ?

would u also reccomend actually speccing into valk? seems pointless to me but maybe for hardcore the decoy is effective?

and since im gonna go with faith + pride, do i need to craft knockback gloves??

This post was edited by lost_one1 on Nov 30 2025 03:59pm
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Nov 30 2025 04:25pm
thanks dudes!!!

last question!! do i use phys sunder or no?? is that too rippy in hardcore without using dungos or something to migigate the extra phys taken??

atmas is really that gg? ive never tried it. i just made a bad assumptions highlords ?

would u also reccomend actually speccing into valk? seems pointless to me but maybe for hardcore the decoy is effective?

and since im gonna go with faith + pride, do i need to craft knockback gloves??


Dang, i don't play d2r. Hard choice. 95% physical resist, that means 5% damage, it's barely noteworthy. Also, in my experience, physical immunes are not many of in hell mode, and they are usually bunched together, like zombies, making it easier to strafe n proc amp.

And yes, good point, if hardcore, taking more physical damage is like a death sentence, specially with bowa, which typically has 1000-1500 hit points only. I don't think the sunder charm is worth it. But play around with it and test ... if you dare ^^ Corrupted rogue archers deal 67 damage on average in hell mode. Minions of boss packs = 50% = 100. If extra strong + 50% = 150. Sunder charm x 2 = 300. If might + 180% (avg) = 840. If 5% monster crit = 1680 damage. That's from ONE rogue archer. Even a stray arrow could kill you. Big gamble ^^

Personally i think atma is #1 amulet for bowa. Many disagree. That's okay. Highlord's and even cat's eye have great bonuses. Both may be worth using in different situations, like if you plan to run areas where there are no physical immunes and/or if you do great damage normally. But remember you have critical strike naturally, like 60%, so the somewhat 30% ds from it is just something like 12%, mitigated. Cat's eye speeds up your run speed, and attack speed, dex boosts damage by probably about 200 each arrow after calculations, crits n amp, which is not bad.

Personally i don't like kb on a bowa. It is not necessarily a bad thing to have, it's just not necessary. For me, sometimes, it causes a bit of lag and weirdness. It makes it harder to control the game. I like to stay at mid-short range, it makes it easier for every arrow to connect. That to me is high level play in hardcore. Stay close, but just out of arm's reach, and saw them down. Like the hitler's saw machine gun ^^ lol.
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Nov 30 2025 09:57pm
Personal choice and Skill allocation.

Windforce + Might Pride Merc while using Strafe.
You can use Harmony on switch for faster run/walk.
When using strafe, you only need to reach 95% IAS breakpoint, higher is Faith + using MS.
You use Valk (slvl 27 minimum) for summoning the best equipment and use Decoy to draw in monsters while using strafe + pierce to clear mobs... also Atmas for Amp.

Your build is built around goals you want to reach, also, if you build your bowazon correctly, you can go "toe-to-toe" with Diablo using Strafe and not running around using base point Guided Arrow, also... 1 base Magic arrow comes in handy vs pesky Phys/Light immunes etc... thus you need Knockback (WF)

Again, it is based on personal choice, also, 150 to 200 vita build will still give you enough points in Dexterity to deal decent damage, and you can also build around different damage, not just physical... Cold, lightning, Fire, maybe 1 poison dmg SC to slow regen.

So, Strafe, Freezing Arrow and Valk build (Valk being an extra Tank) ... choosing just Strafe vs MS is not realistic, you need another skill or two. You can go GA / MS and pure phys, but your vitality is reduced, so you are constantly moving around, also a little harder to do Pits... enclosed areas.

Not sure how D2r has changed, but if the Phys Sunder gives you some benefits, you may use one(1)... this means your other charms are phys oriented, however you can also deal elemental damage.

Upto you how you want to build your bowazon.

Iron frostmaiden is old, however, with D2r and their changes, maybe YOU can make it better.
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