I just realized that i did not do a "side by side" comparason between Windforce and a Faith bow. Well, no time like the present to add this information to this long azz post.

windforce stats:



faith stats:



So where to begin. Well, lets ignore what kind of bow you make faith in and just deal with the mods granted by the item/runeword. The pro's of windforce are:

Built in Knockback, mana leech, scaling damage

the pro's of faith are:

built in fanaticism aura, + skills, AR bonus

The cons of Windforce are:

well damn, there arent any really. I mean sure its a TC87 piece so it makes it rather hard to find. But when you calculate in the odds of finding a Jah coupled with the odds of finding an Ohm, finding a windforce should be like stubbing your toes. I mean the odds to find an ohm are double the odds for finding a windforce for crying out loud! Odds for finding said items:

1 : 569,039 Mephisto ~ 1st kill - [H] Durance of Hate Level 3 - {mlvl 87} Best chance at a Jah
1 : 108,856 Andariel ~ 1st kill - [H] Catacombs Level 4 - {mlvl 75} Best chance at an Ohm

coupled together this equils 1 in 61,943,309,384 when both kills are quest kills. The odds to win a standard, non-powerball lotery of 47 numbers is 1 in 7,731,052,560.

for a windforce -
1 : 24,638 Baal ~ 1st kill - [H] The WorldStone Chamber - {mlvl 99}
1 : 37,249 Baal ~ [H] The WorldStone Chamber - {mlvl 99} if you have already mat'ed or pat'ed your character.
1 : 51,674 Pindleskin ~ [H] Nihlathak's Temple - {mlvl 86} more realistic MF location for a windforce as he is easy and fast to run.

The cons of Faith:

see above, finding the "perfect bow" to make it in, the randomness of the slvl of fanaticism which leads to lower IAS and lower damage, low damage to start with, NO knockback, NO mana leech

So lets say you are "leet" and had the amazing ability to find those 2 runes. There is still the Lem to find as well as the "perfect bow." Lots of discusson this has been done and the majority agree on a Matriarchal Bow [ -10 speed and 33.5 avg damage ] for pure speed and a Grand Matron Bow [ 10 speed and 43 avg damage ] for pure power. I do not subscribe to this at all. I would prefer a Ward Bow [ 0 speed and 36.5 avg damage ] for the simple fact that if you get bored of the zon, you can give this bow to an act 1 merc. Besides the speed is an increase over the GMB and slower than the MB, but the damage is better than the MB but lower than the GMB. Now that you have your bow choice, lets look at the finished results of the bow damage wise.

Faith in a ward bow would give you a damage range on the bow of 86 to 228 ( average of 157). Windforce has a damage range of ( for your average character of 85 ) 35 to 504 ( average of 269 ). Sure the minimum damage is better on Faith than Windforce, but the average and max damage on windforce is far larger. "But what about the fanatacism? Doesn't it improve things much?" I knew you were going to ask these questions, so lemme attempt to figure out the actual damages. Keep one thing in mind, these calculations are just what I think is happening and not what could actually be occuring in the game.

Worst case scenario in a ward bow with a slvl12 fanatacism

290 to 768 with an average damage of 529

Best case scenario in a ward bow with a slvl15 fanatacism

334 to 885 with an average damage of 609

So damage has increased and IAS has been added. HOWEVER, this in no way shape or form changes the fact that Faith is still missing the Knockback, Mana Leech, and scaling damage. Why are these things so damn important? Well lets find out shall we?

Knockback - This mod is quite simply the most important mod for a bowzon to have. This will keep "most" of the critters away from you as you plug away at them with your arrows. Having this mod included on the bow frees up your glove spot allowing you to equip whatever gloves you really want. This now allows you to not have to create or buy those godly IAS/KB crafted safety gloves. This means you can equip Laying of Hands and gain an added 350% offweapon ED against deamons. This eliminates the fanatacism from faith for this example.

Mana Leech - this mod included on the bow allows you to free up either an amulet or ring slot. For arguments sake, we are going to reference a ring slot. Since almost all bowzons are wearing a Raven Frost on one finger, this allows you to have whatever you want on your other finger. If you need life leech, toss on a 5% BK ring. Hey, lookie there, we added one of those 2 possible skills from faith. Since we now have LL and ML taken care of, we can now add either Highlords or Cat's Eye for amulets if we are still lacking in the IAS department. If IAS is ok, then we can add ATMA's amulet for the added CtC Amp Damage which in effect adds on 100% offweapon ED. Fanatacism is looking less and less godly aint it?

Scaling damage - Let me pose this question to you. Wouldn't you like to increase your damage output without changing a single piece of your gear? I mean not adding in a socketable into an item, not tossing in a charm into your backpack. I mean raising your damage without doing a damn thing. Yes? I thought so! Besides, going back to the arguement about being able to make the faith bow, you probably are not going to be wearing a fortitude armor either. So having the ability to raise your damage is highly important to most players out there.

I have a feeling the ED from fanatacism stacks with the ED on a fortitude armor so the extra ~250% when added on to the standard 300% from fortitude is not going to matter all that much. Besides, if you have a Faith bow, you had damn well better have a fortitude armor on. So, there are the main differences between a Faith bow and a Windforce bow. Sure you can make faith in an amazon specific bow and get an extra +3 bow and crossbow skills, but is that measly ED really worth it since you are probably using strafe or multishot and your overal damage is cut by 25% before appling the skill ED? Sure there are some juicy bits to a Faith bow, but due to the mods built in on Windforce, there really is no comparason between these 2 bows.

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These are my opinions and are not in any way shape or form meant to be taken as facts. Everyone plays the game the way they like. IF you do not like my suggestions or think I am totally full of crap, so be it. It is your right to have that opinion. It is also my right to have my opinion.

This post was edited by The_Morpheus on Aug 28 2007 10:31pm

As I said in your other bowazon guide, gfg and..... stop knowing so much your making people who thought they knew something about d2 feel like total idiots me keep up the good work

This post was edited by HaZeD_DrEaM on Aug 29 2007 01:31am

So im having some trouble doing 8 person chaos games, i have some decent stuff i would say. i have a perfect faith, 8/8/20 gaze with 15 ias jewel, fortitutde, highlords, raven frost, bk ring, 20ias / kb gloves, gore riders, nos coil belt, torch and anni in my inventory and i cant do an 8 person game fast enough, got maybe 5 points in multi, max strafe, 20 in crit with items and 20 in pierce with items, max penetrate. im not sure what im doing wrong. someone help!
*edit* i now have 2 faiths, 1 perfect 2 skills 3 bow skills 15 fana gmb, and a 14 fana 2 skills 3 bow skills matriarchal bow, still about the same problem, hoping someone will help.

For those wondering if this character is viable to solo the game with self found gears, check out this thread:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=10937318&f=161



Your problem is that you have on the wrong bow, gloves, belt.

Stick the faith on a act1 merc if you so desperatly want the fana aura. You should be wearing the Windforce bow. THis allows you to wear Laying of Hands gloves for the extra 350% Ed to deamons. Some one suggested grave palm or some other shit for the ED to undead. The problem with those is that there is no IAS on those gloves. You should also have razor tail belt on so that you dont need to max pierce. Take the extra points from pierce and stick them into decoy and valk. You really want a maxed valk with atleast 5 points into decoy. This way your valk is your meat shield and you and your act1 rogue can sit back and pick off the critters one by one. I would also suggest delirium as opposed to vamp gaze and nothing can replace the confuse curse.

Since you seem to have faiths falling out of your arse, acquiring the gear suggestions should not be hard for you.

can i know your skill point allocation ??

again is a nice guide, help me lots after read ur guide, thanks for the help.

Yeah, I want to know it too you should bring it out like:
20 Strafe
20 Valkyire
Enough pierce for 100%
You have done that once for me in that last topic, but that post doesn't seem to remain :?

Did you read all of this? I am sure the skills are listed in the previous 74 posts.



Are you refering to the one in the PvM forum?

Either way, the skill allocation for a straight up strafer are:

20 strafe ( duh! )
1 all prereqs in bow tree
20 Valk
5 Decoy ( for hidden synergies like max resistance boost, ect. )
1 all prereqs in passive tree
Enough points to get 66% pierce so that with a razortail belt you hit 100%
I suggest to get atleast 50% or so in the D/A/E skills.
I also suggest to get 60% in the Critical strike skill.
Rest of points can be split between magic arrow for physical immunes and / or penetrate for the AR bonus.

Great guide, gonna try it out for hardcore

Bump for an excellent guide.

no one has read this thing in a month? really?