Bumping with worst D2 fan art ever

Does anyone have (or wants to create) a guide for updated Bowzon (With Foi)?

Posting this in here as well before the FOI myth re-emerges ->


FOI was tested and considered heavily before writing Habakkuk's guide.
There are a few problems with FOI.

In a nutshell:

Maximum 7fpa with a GMB requires 92% IAS (effectively 95%)
Maximum 7fpa with a Diamond or Shadow requires 65% on the dot
It all amounts down to the player's choice between using Nosferatu's or Verdungo's on the East/West realms.

Here is the general setup and variations on East/West as they do not have access to Bugged Belts

* 45%ias/120 or 30%ias Rare Diadem
* Fortitude
* 20%ias Knockback Gloves
* War Traveler
* Nosferatu 10%ias or Verdungo's
* Cat's Eye 20%ias
* Raven
* Rare Damage Ring
* Various assorted charms, torch, anni

The normal GMB setup of course wears 45/120 & Nosferatu and reaches 95% IAS.
The Diamond/Shadow setup takes advantage of Rare Diadem/Verdungo for a stronger Javelinside and reaches 70% IAS. "Keep in mind that javelinside is more important vs. harder competition"
The FOI setup loses a significant amount of DPS from the normal GMB faith and it doesn't deal much more DPS than a Diamond/Shadow actually.
The problem is that FOI loses a lot of ED% and that it only offers 20% IAS. If it had granted 25% IAS, it would have been the best bow in the game, hands down.

When you try to use FOI you end up with two dispositions to choose from: Ditch the 45/120 for a Rare Diadem or Ditch Nosferatu's for Verdungo?
You cannot do both in the same way that you could with a Diamond/Shadow.
This FOI setup seems versatile at first, just bring a Rare Diadem and Nosferatu for vs. things that you won't need DR % against and bring a 45/120 & Dungo for vs. physical opponents.
But here is the hidden problem: When you swap to javelinside, you LOSE that 20% IAS that is on the FOI. This means that your Javelinside is much slower than with standard GMB Faith or Diamond/Shadow setups.
You'll end up needing to find strange ways to replace your IAS on the javelinside when you should be using those slots for more +stats, res, life, life rep and -15% reqs which = more life on the amazon in general for pvp.
Running FOI setups with odd allocations of IAS also messes with your ability to run stashed gear swaps which are important in tournament to take advantage of GM rules and even against BM players in pub games.

It is very important to point out that a Bowazon's javelinside setup defines it's success in pvp.
The most difficult match ups for a Bowazon to win are the matches where the opponent will force it javelinside almost 100% of the time: vs. Shield Barbs, Chargers, Smiters, Ghosts.
During these match ups with a Bowa's hard-counters, the bowside is next to useless and what will allow the Bowa to win is sturdy defenses, high DPS and high IAS with the javelins.
During MOST matches even, a Bowa will be javside at least 50% of the time or greater: vs. Druids, Hammerdins, Other Amazons, Even E-Shield Sorc "which requires Swordback hold OW to kill with Light Bolt procs that cannot be blocked".
The only match ups that will allow a Bowa to really take advantage of it's bow are against Necromancers and Trappers. In these matches, normal GMB high DPS + Nosferatu slow is actually better than the strong javside.

Needless to say, the javelinside statistics are critical for success in pvp, where as bowside statistics don't vary much between normal GMB, Diamond/Shadow or even FOI.
The biggest difference is that FOI causes a lot of inconveniences. Most people who try to use FOI end up needing that 90%ias on javside anyway.
Then when they add it, they realize they have enough IAS to just use normal GMB for higher damage to begin with.

This is a difficult topic to explain but all of the other old ZvA enthusiasts came to the same conclusions that I had on FOI. It just doesn't make for a good ZvA setup as a whole.
If FOI simply had 25% IAS rather than 20% IAS, it would have easily been the best bow in the game.
That or if East/West had access to Bugged Belt "which is essentially a nosferatu and dungo combined" ... everyone would be wanting FOI.

Wish there would be a D2 revival
No seriously.... I miss this game

This post was edited by TSBoyer on Sep 24 2015 02:46am

On Eu normal faith Gmb is better, but i use foi on my tele 3zon who rather requires high fcr 99

I think GMB is still better with BB O_o

Your jav side with FOI would not be slower than diamond/shadow, it would be the same. It would be slower than gmb, yes
if you have rare ias/eth/rep javs though then this is a null point. If you use titans, you could 15ias/40ed your stormshield if you wanted to ( I wouldnt because of high str requirement, but you could, you dont have that option with dia/shadow)

Personally I'm a believer that FOI is better than dia/shadow setups

30frw/45ias/120ed helm + dungos is better than rare circ+ dungos 99% of the time. You'd have to find a really rare and expensive circ that would add enough bonuses to beat out the FOI setup based on a life/dmg ratio

I did a comparison holding all gear constant except 30/45/120 for foi, and a 2zon/30frw/30ed/40life (2x 40/15) circ with dia

results:

Diamond life = 2262
Diamond dmg = 438.5

foi life = 2222
foi dmg = 471.22


if these zons were to trade hits back and forth, it would take 5.07 hits to kill the foi with dia, and 4.8 hits to kill the dia with foi.

With diamond you would need a circ that added 30ed base + 167life in the form of str/dex/life to beat out the foi. thats like a 2zon/30frw/30base ed/16str/20dex/60life/2os circ. if that can even spawn. If you drop the 30ed base, then youd need 260 life from circ, which is not possible. on top of that, most zons do not need anything over 15str from a circ, if that. so having a 30str circ would likely not equal 90 life (30x3)

note: dia with 2 zon circ would also gain 1% higher in dodge/avoid/evade and possibly resistance bonuses, the higher critical is accounted for in dmg calculation.
foi would most likely have higher jav dmg due to 120ed helm

This post was edited by Arelax on Oct 17 2015 04:37am

* The javside with FOI wouldn't have the rare diadem and dungo like diamond/shadow because the bowside requires that extra 5% IAS to maintain functionality

* Rare Javelins with +IAS that hit harder than Eth Titans are impossible to find at this point

* It sounds like you are looking at things from a ZvZ oriented standpoint more so than ZvA.
Back when ZvA actually used to be competitive, you weren't able to stay on bowside often at all.
The most difficult duels against counter classes: BvA, Charger/Smiters, Ghosts, ect.. literally punished you for trying to swap to bowside at all.
In fact, it was debatable why in the hell you weren't just using two swaps of javside to be honest.
So in other words, the defense rare diadem and dungo on a sturdy javside setup was what allowed ladder climbing to top 3 ranks or maybe winning a fg tourney.
Without that defense, you absolutely could not keep up with the sustain of the hard melee counter classes.
Going for a bit of bow damage in sacrifice of critical sustain vs. counters was simply not a good idea, considering the bow wouldn't be able to be used often against them at all to begin with.

There were however 2 match ups that FOI or a solid GMB with Nos were better: Against Trappers and Necromancers.
Everything else I'm telling you, went to defensive javside play with high fury/bolt damage and OW play if needed to surpass blocks.