Hi guys,

I need your help, I am playing bowazone to pvm and farm gear (I know it is not usual, but I want to do different)
however I deal 0 damage, I can't resist anything and I do nothing...

I was wondering what are you guys putting in skills and stats

thanks for your help

I thook coh instead of fort because I have 0 resistance so I thought it was better but apparently fort is way better.. I screw up but yeah...
Otherwise I have harmony in a elite bow and other crappy stuff

This post was edited by Midaz on Jul 1 2017 05:57pm

you summed up bowazon pretty well.


here's the gear:

gloves must be loh
amu can be HL, cats or atma
belt should be razortail, possibly nosfe
boots should be WT but gores can be ok
1 ring should be raven
the other ring should be a rare leech ring, or possibly a 2nd raven if you've leech elsewhere
armor should be forty
helm is ideally a 120/45 30frw diadem, but can just be andy or mavina with a ias jewel
bow can be faith gmb, faith diamond (or shadow, same thing), or WF

merc can be a2 might with pride or a1 with faith


everything is built around the ias breakpoints
with WF, you want lvl13+fana and 95ias
with faith gmb you want lvl13+fana and 95ias
with faith diamond you want lvl14+fana and 65ias
if you make a strafer, you don't want fana, you want wf and a2 merc


stats = full dex
skills =
you want about 20pts in crit, but not every point gives 1%crit so don't waste points
as much in MS as you like
max guided if you like it
max magic arrow for immunes
max strafe unless you're never gonna use it
you can get 1valk or max valk, whatever
if you use razortail (33%pierce) you should have lvl9+ pierce for 100%pierce, if you use nosfe you can max pierce


optimal build is:

This is a quoted answer from another thread. It works very well in hell, i do chaos runs all the time in hardcore. If you want more magic find, then get magic find charms.



Hc or sc?

Either way, this is my general setup:

Max strafe. Strafe i use instead of multishot, because with strafe, every arrow carries special effect modifiers such as chance to cast amplify damage from atma's scarab. Every arrow also pierces with enough points in pierce and if using razortail, so it is the most effective skill. Auto aim is also time consuming and easier to use.

Max valkyrie.
3-5 points in dodge, avoid, and evade.
3-5 points in pierce.
Max critical strike.

Remainder of points in guided arrow, which is mainly used for bosses.


Gear:

Chains of honor i would switch for Fortitude, because of the 300% enhanced damage, and chilling armor increases defense. Treachery for poor player's option.

Razortail is the best belt, unless you are looking to survive burning souls, in which case you should use thundergod's vigor and dual wisp projector.

Gloves: Laying of hands set gloves gives 350% enhanced damage to demons, which is a significant boost, and i cannot see how crafted kb gloves can do them justice. Knockback isn't really that useful.

Raven is a good ring, but i've just come to realize, it isn't really necessary. It does increase damage a bit, but look to helmet option. As for rings in general, you should have a wisp projector and use Spirit of wolverine, which increases damage a little bit. Oak sage can be used, but dies far too often. Wolverine spirit seems to fly away from enemies and can take a few hits.

For second ring, you can use whatever you wish. Dwarf star for increased survivability, 12-15 mdr is not a bad thing. Ranged enemies are your biggest fear, especially packs with fana or might aura, multiple shot and extra strong. 1 volley can kill you.

Amulet: Atma's scarab is the best amulet. Amplify damage will be cast very often, and doubles output damage. Cat's eye is a very good amulet, and use it if you wish, but you will miss the doubled damage from atma's scarab.

Helmet: Kira's guardian. You should get as high all res as possible, and socket it with an um rune for more all res. This helmet also gives Cannot be frozen, so you really do not need a raven frost. This is a life saver and highly underestimated.

Boots: War travelers. You can try gore riders for yourself and see which deals more damage, in my experience, war travelers are the best boots.

Weapon: Faith grand matron bow is the best bow. For second place, i choose Eaglehorn, since it has Ignore target's defense. Combined with Atma's scarab and strafe, you will deal big damage. Windforce at third place. It has low attack rating, and slow attack speed, but high damage. I've taken off 1/3 of diablo's health bar with 1 arrow while cursed, in hell mode. Fourth option can be Cliffkiller. Harmony is a great runeword, which will make you run very fast. Almost any unique bow will do the job, but Faith Gmb is the porsche of bows.

Charms: I use mainly resist charms, max damage charms (AR not needed if you have ITD on bow), life, and faster run/walk. Faster hit recovery to hit some breakpoints. Magic find is welcome. 1 gheeds i always carry. I don't necessarily use torch, since i get tired from watching the firewave attack. Annihilus is great, but expensive.


Merc:

The grand setup is: Fortitude, pride and andariel's visage. "Poor" player's option may be shako, reaper's toll and treachery. Other options are vampire gaze, crown of thieves, duriel's shell, shaftstop, insight. With treachery, Fade will be cast almost always, which increases survivability quite a lot. Combined with damage reduction from vampire gaze, he will become tanky.

For softcore, you can be a little more aggressive and place more points in damage skills. For hardcore, you may want to place more points in defensie skills (d/a/e). You also have to play more defensively. Casting Decoy is a standard, i use it all the time, always in every doorway and around any corner. 1 fast boss pack can tear you down in 1 second, with lag spike too, you have no chance to react. Let Decoy be your scapegoat. If there's a pack, throw valkyrie there and start using strafe.

It is possible to not use valkyrie at all, in softcore, saving you lots of points. You must kite a little bit, but it's all up to your play style.

Good luck. Bowzon is the best build of all ^^

thank you so much for your help and advice! much appreciated

I really enjoy my bowzon, and also can't afford the very best stuff, but have found a bowzon to be pretty cheap and still very effective.
Gear:
WF
Guils - 15ias
Fort
Nos
Loh
Gores
Raven
Stat/ Leach ring
Atmas
Charms are mostly res, some life, some dmg ar

Merc:
Reapers
Gaze
Treachery

I primarily use strafe, occasionally multi, max valk with lvl 27 on switch to summon it, often use decoy, and have titans/SS- umed on switch. Ofc max dex.

I used to not use guils and gores, and instead used andys/travs, but have found the 30%ds really preferable. Plus, even though crushing blow on missiles is hugely nerfed, 50% cb and 6 attacks per second is really necessary if you ever hope to kill Baal. In a solo game he has about 450k health, assuming you always did 5kdmg, thatd take a long time. Even a best case scenario of 10k dmg every hit, thatd still be 45hits, but you won't always hit. So even if cb only does 1/16, it's still 1/16 of up to 450k, and it doesn't take away from your other dmg (like a duress instead of fort- not recommended). But the real benefit of guils/gores is the 30% ds. With that and 70% cs, every shot will do double dmg. My char dmg typically is between like 400-5000, avg 2.7k, we can think of critical strike as a multiplier of 1.xx. So if i had 50%cs, we'd multiply my avg dmg by 1.5, so about 4k. War travs in comparison will add about 300 to my avg dmg. Getting 100% (Ds + Cs) means that multiplier is now 2.00, so my dmg goes to 5.4k dmg.

B/c switching to guils and gores, I had to use Nos for ias, instead of razortail, and I honestly havent noticed much of a difference with less pierce.

Personally I really like WF, it does so much more dmg compared to a faith bow, and faith is super expensive. That said, I'd love a faith on a1 merc. As is, my merc is pretty pointless besides the might aura, the valk is stronger than my merc. And, with atmas scarab the decrep from my merc isn't necessary.

Fort is really necessary, the ed, life, and all res really make a bowazon viable. With max dex, fort literally adds 1/5 of my health pool.

Even though I put zero points in vit, I am pretty survivable b/c of dodge, valk, and decoy. I can easily and safely solo any area in hell, albiet slowly some times. the only thing that gives me trouble is lots of physical immunes and unlucky procs of atmas. But the main idea when playing is: don't get hit. You should basically never have creeps in melee range, and creeps far away should shoot at your decoy or valk, not you.

I personally prefer Windforce with my personal Iron/Frostmaiden build that is built around strafe and reaching 89% IAS bp, ML, LL and so on.

Iron Frost/Icemaiden:
Iron... represents "Physical" damage... Frost/Ice... represents "Cold" damage... Maiden... self explanatory.

What to Achieve
Knockback: Necessary vs immunes and 0 chill effect monster types.
Mana Leech: 5+% is suitable for the Iron Frostmaiden (FA = mana guzzle skill)
Life Leech: 5+% is suitable for any Iron Frostmaiden)
89% IAS Bp: Only breakpoint needed using Might Aura Merc with Pride
Pierce: 100%

Items Selection

Andarials Visage:
Windforce:
Laying of Hands:
... Note: by adding 40ed/15ias jewels into the helm and bow, the 3 above items cover "What to Achieve" and other factors.

Fortitude:
Razortail:
Ravenfrost:
Rare Ring: +17 str minimum with other mods you may want: dmg, ar, res, dex etc are all bonuses.
War travellers:

I use two amulets: Atmas and Maras. I switch for pre casting BO, valk and other things, I also use the maras when entering Throne room, since there is a chance that souls and other monsters will appear at the bottom of the stairs where you enter.

Switch: CTA / Spirit monarch is the norm... if strength req is not met on switch, then lidless for fun.

Merc... as stated above, Might aura merc wielding a Pride (pref 19 or 20 skill level conc) with fortitude and andys visage... not a fan of treachery and prefer the extra 2 skills for his might aura.

Inventory... the basic anni/torch/cube... only small charms I prefer, small charms with Max dmg and cold damage... combination of the both, but hopefully dual modded = Fine Small Charms of Winter

Stats: Since I play Hardcore, I go with 150 to 200 Vitality total and rest dex after strength requirements are met to wield items.

As the name states: Iron / Frostmaiden, my skills are self explanatory:

20 Freezing Arrow / 20 Cold Arrow (12% synergy for FA)
20 Strafe
20 Valk
01 Pierce (You should reach skill level 9 with gear, anni & torch easily)
... upto you what you want after this, more life for Valk or maybe some more CS and so on.

Sorry for tl;dr option, but hope this helps.

and as we said in that other tread, this is a complete bulshit
faith gmb isn't the best bow for a strafer, eaglehorn sucks hard compared to wf, wf doesn't have low ar or slow attack speed, you can't take off 1/3 of diablo's health in 1arrow especially with kira and no cb, almost all unique bows suck, and all classes except barb have an archetype that's easily stronger than bowa.

So what weapon should I use if all bow sucks? Someone wanna trade me brand for 250 fg should I?
Or bowazone is really bad and I shall really go with javazone (cause it wont be cheaper since I need to buy infinity which is 350 fg..

wf costs 5fg and hits 60% harder than brand