Flame's 1.12 Pvp Fort Bowa Guide


Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Advantages & Disadvantages
- Amazon Skills
- Amazon Stats
- Gmb Faith Gear
- Basic Strategy
- My Amazon
- Special Thanks

Introduction

The Bowamazon is one of the most versatile and fast paced characters you can ever play during your Diablo 2 career. After remaking my Amazon, I have decided to make a guide so everyone can develop a character as fun to play as mine. The estimated price for this character can vary from 2k fg for a welfare Amazon, to over 25k fg. But the average Amazon will be 5k. (Mine is ~10k).

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

- High Damage
- Ability to Tank
- Fast Paced
- Extremely Versatile
- Well Rounded
- Insane in Tpk
- Unabsorbable Damage

Disadvantages

- Low Life
- May be Too Fast
- Can be BM’d
- Relatively Expensive
- Not an Uber Rape Pub Char. (Meant for GM)

Now after that, if you still want to play the Amazon, read on!

Amazon Skills

Bow and Crossbow Skills
- Guided Arrow (20) Your main skill. Fires a homing missle.
- Multiple Shot (1-20) One of your secondary skills. Fires up to 24 arrows.
- Strafe (1) A one point wonder. Fires up to 10 arrows.
- Magic Arrow (1) A prerequisite, and a one point wonder. Fires arrows for minimal mana cost, and no reduction in quiver size.

Passive and Magic Skills
- Inner Sight (1) Prerequisite, lowers enemy defence.
- Slow Missles (1) Prerequisite, can be used in bm situations. Slows enemy missle attacks.
- Decoy (1) One point wonder. One of the smartest minions in the game. Very good distraction.
- Valkrie (1) One point wonder. Can tank for you, and is a great distraction.
- Dodge (1-20) Get this up to a minimum of 55%, where the payoffs start reducing dramatically. Dodges melee attacks while attacking or standing still.
- Avoid (1-20) Get this at least to 65%, where the payoffs reduce dramatically. Dodges missle attacks while attacking or standing still.
- Evade (1-20) Get this to at least 55%, where the payoffs take a nose dive. Dodges attacks while moving.
- Critical Strike (1-20) Get this to a minimum of 70%, where the payoffs reduce dramatically.
- Penetrate (1) One point wonder. Increases attack rating over 100%
- Pierce (0-1) Worth it if you have the skill points. Will give your attacks a chance to pierce against summons. I find it very useful and well worth the point.

Javelin and Spear Skills
- Jab (1)1 Point wonder. Jabs multiple times with spear. Great for getting dodge locks, and a good melee attack. Secondary javelin skill.
- Poison Javelin (1) Prerequisite. Releases a poison javelin.
- Lightning Bolt (1) One point wonder. Releases a lightning bolt. Used for characters that have high block percent. Secondary javelin attack.
- Plague Javelin (1) Prerequisite. Releases a plague javelin. Can be used as a bluff.
- Lightning Fury (1) One point wonder. Launches a high physical damage javelin. Main javelin attack.

Amazon Stats

Recommended Layout:

Strength: Minimum
Dexterity: Rest of your stats go here.
Vitality: Enough for at least 1.3k life without bo. This will allow you to tank at least two hits from high damage characters.
Energy: None here.

My Amazon:
Without Gear

Strength: 57 - I overstatted here, so my stormshield wouldn't "poof" if you body pops.
Dexterity: 177 - Low dexterity, but I have more life.
Vitality: 291 - High vitality. I need to remake with less life.
Energy: 15 - Perfect, no stats.

Gmb Faith Gear
Required Ias: 95

Helm
- 120/45/30 - Recommended helm. Required to hit bp with gmb, and offers required frw.
- 120/45/Life - Good helm, use it if you have enough frw from charms, and feel like boosting your life.

Armor
- Dusk For- Highly recommended. Greatly increases damage, gives life, res, and stacked lightning res. Dusk also gives a frw boost for being a light
armor.
- Dusk Coh - Can be used for stack against fohers or fc zons. Not recommended as a main armor.
- Dusk Enigma - Can be used for adding frw if you need to get away
from a fast javazon or other char. Not recommended as a main armor.

Bow Weapon
- Gmb Faith - With this gear, you can hit 7 fps, which is the fastest possible. High dmg, res, and other good mods. Highly recommended.
- 08 Windforce - Great bow before faith came out. Gives higher damage, but can't hit the same fps. Overall, it is a good bow, but not the best.
- Mb Faith - Lower ias bp, so you can swap out some gear.

Javelin Weapon
- Eth Up'd Titans - High damage, frw, and stats. Boost javelin skill damages significantly. Highly recommended.
- Thunderstroke - Not very good for a bowa, but if you can't get a titans, use this.

Amulet
- Cats Eye - Frw, Ias, Dex. What else can you ask for? Essential to hit 7 fps breakpoint.
- Highlords - Use this if u use mb faith. Not recommended for gmb users.

Gloves
- 2 Passive 20 Ias Kb Gloves - 2 Passive saves you 8 skill points, 20 ias is needed for bp, and kb owns with bolt. Very good gloves.
- 20 Ias CB Gloves - Cb is fairly useless in pvp in my opinion. But some people like it. Feel free to use this if you can't find the above.

Boots
- War Travs - High dmg. Adds 300 onscreen damage. Has good stats, and frw. Highly recommended.
- Rare Boots - High frw, fhr, and res. Use this vs. elemental chars.

Belt
- Nosferatsus - Needed for ias bp, also adds str and slow.
- Verdungos - Good for damage reduction, vitality, and life rep. Use this for MB faith.

Rings
- Raven Frost - High Ar, Dex, Cannot Be Frozen. Use at least one of these if not two.
- Bk - Adds life and skills. I recommend two raven frosts instead of this, but it is up to you.
- Rare Ring - If you can find Ar/Dex/Str/Life/Mana/Res ring, definately use that.

Shield
- Stormshield - Damage reduction and high block. Socket with -15 req/15 res jewel.
- Jmod - High block, and good dmg. Socket with 15 max/15 req jewels.
- Phoenix - High physical dmg.

Inventory
- Torch - 20/20 Amazon
- Anni - 20/20/10
- 37x Small Charms - Either 3/20/20s or 3/20/3s. Mix them up to hit a frw speed you like.

Basic Strategy
The reason I call this basic strategy, even though I explain the strategies you will be applying, is because no character you duel will duel exactly the same as the next. You need to adapt, and learn how your opponent thinks.

Amazon:

Bowazon: I wrote a complete guide for this. I would recommend reading this to learn the basics of Amazon dueling vs. every char, and for bow vs. bow. http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=25734509&f=87

Javazon: Not really much you can do as they also have high dodges. I recommend stacking as much frw as you can, and run and spam lightning bolts behind you. If they trigger kb, you have enough time to spin around and fire a few GA's.

Assassin:

Pure Trapper: These can be pretty tough. Seeing as you have low fhr, and 8 frame dodges, you have no choice but to wsg. Most trappers will know how to chainlock, so all you can do is wsg until they slip up. Whenever they cast a trap, you have several frames to shoot a few GA's before the traps start shooting. Play defensive and don't let them get on screen. If they are a camping trapper, simply spam GA's and multi into their trap field.

Ghost/Hybrids: These are insane, their wof stunlock is unbeatable, and they have high poison damage. Treat these as barbarians, except that you need to wsg out of their trap fields.

Barbarian:

Whirlwind: These can be either extremely easy, or extremely difficult. Against these characters try to get as much dr and life as possible. Frw shouldn't be a problem. Now, if you followed my guide you will have a javelin and shield on switch. To start, you should have a fair distance between you and your opponent. Spam Guided Arrows and Multi from a distance. When they teleport in, switch to shield, and spam furies. When they teleport on you, simply sidestep the whirlwind, while walking. If you know they make long whirlwinds, switch to bow and shoot a few GA's. Rinse and repeat. This will take a lot longer and will require nimble sidesteps if they have a shield.

Warcry: I have seen a few nice guides on jsp, but I have yet to duel a decent one. If you get into stunlock, wsg out and shoot GA's. They don't have a shield, so should be easy.

Druid:

Wind: These guys are tough, with minion stack, and physically imune oak sage in nightmare. When they are far away, spam multiple shot and pray that their minions fall to your arrows. When they get in close, and oak is still up, use magic arrows instead of guided to kill his sage. These arrows should pierce, and continue on to kill the druid. If he doesn't die, or his minions are still up, switch to jav, and fury. The fury will branch out, and with lifeleach, should be the equivalent of a rejuvenation potion.

Melee: These are very easy, with your high dodges/block/, you can simply tank and jab them to death.

Necromancer:

Bone: These guys are a fair matchup. They have minion stack, but it isn't physical immune as the wind druid. You should be able to take out the golem's 5k life easily. They should teleport on you, and boneprison, then jump and dodge lock you with bonespear. Well, that's what they hope to do. While they are teleporting on you spam a few multis and the rest GA's. You should take the golem out. When they boneprison, simply shoot a multiple shot, and the prison will fall down around you. When they teleport on you, simply sidestep and GA, or simply, jab rape. If they teleport out and recast bone armor and golem, simply recast decoy/valk, and rinse and repeat. Remember to throw in a few multis whenever they are onscreen to break a possible prison.

Poison: These guys can be pretty good if made well, but they are no match vs. an Amazon. With low frw you already outrun their nova. Do the same as bone necros.

Paladin:

Charge/Smite: These guys will simply namelock charge and hope you die. Always stay on shield. When they charge, you walk, and when they smite, you run. As simple as that, except you will throw lightning bolts behind you. If it triggers kb, throw a few more, and if you're lucky they will be in kb lock.

Zeal: Same as any other melee. Dodges/Block make easy work of them. Use bolt.

Foh: These guys are tricky because of your low resistances. Always keep your decoy/valk up. They will tank a few fohs for you, and with the cool down period of foh, will buy you a lot of time. Conviction takes time to lock on, so once you notice it is affecting you, run out of it's range so it has to retarget you.

Hammerdin: Amazingly easy. Even if they can chainlock, you can easily get out of the way by the time they can cast a hammer. If they try and desynch, spam GA's around your screen to identify their location. When they teleport on you, run down. Or up if you have enough frw, and shoot multis. If they have maxblock, switch to jav and bolt.

Sorceress

Vitality Fb/Lightning: These guys are easy. When they shoot at you, run left and down, shoot a few ga's, and run down and right. If they chainlock you, strafe them. They will get stuck in fhr animation, and will be ezpk.

Es/Mb Fb/Lightning: These guys are a bit tougher. I recommend throwing on a few 451 pdscs to force them to play offensive. Do the same as above, but realize they will tank a lot more.

Blizzard Sorc: Blizzard doesn't always hit, so even if they cast it directly on you, and you don't dodge, you might not get hit. These will teleport away, and blizz you, so try to predict their teleport and shoot infront.

Orb Sorceress: I have yet to duel a gg one, but I would imagine that they would teleport on top of you, and cast an orb, hoping to get you into dodge lock. Too bad you run faster than the orb and the bolts shooting out. Just run away, and GA.

My Amazon:
This screenshot is takine in Nightmare, with a crappy Magic 2 Amazon 30 Ias 80 Ed 30 Frw Helm (120/45/30 Poofed) and 19x 3/xx/20's and 18x 3/20/3's frw.
(I usually use 20x 3/xx/20's and 17x 3/20/3's




Special Thanks

- Tienje - For helping me make my first bowa, and helping me with everything I could imagine about d2.
- DeuceDeuce - Countless hours dueling me with his barb. Thanks bro.
- Massous24 - Giving me a level job for my bowa, and being too GM for his own good.
- GGBVB - For providing a safe haven for those of us who still love to gm pk.
- GG Bowazon - Anyone who beats me in Gm Bow vs Bow and gets on my profile.
- Myrddrall9 - Anyone who donates fg to buy a title.

Special Thanks:
Me - For Windy Practice ok ok ok.

Sure But I've dueled DeuceDeuce for about a year lol. I'll pm you if I stop lagging.

Edit: Feel free to rate

This post was edited by PerfectFlame on Nov 22 2008 07:06pm

its just like any fort zon guide i have seen 6/10 its got the info but its been done way to much

didn't talk at all about using a mat bow, all just about the gmb...which has been done too much

7/10

This post was edited by demonslayer1000 on Nov 22 2008 07:34pm

I edited it out of the guide because it was too long, and it is pretty self explanatory.

"- May be Too Fast"

What does this mean

Also your tactics for dueling melee druids I disagree with. I would never attempt to jab a wolf to death, GA and fury will kill them rather easily (my duels with alia showed me this), but tanking them with jab? The last thing you want is to be in melee range.

Other then that, nice guide, never been a fan of zons myself, but ZvZ looks really fun

Well "May be Too Fast" means that those with slower reflexes may not be able to keep up with the fast paced bowazon.

And vs. melee druids, I personally have only dueled one or two good ones. And the key to a bowa is adaptability, so if you duel a good or even a decent one, you obviously don't tank. But with a fast uninteruptable vs. a fast interuptable one, with mass dodges, you should be able to beat bad/decent melee druids.

Fake screen shot.

you need 120-45 to hit fastest bp using fort.

coronets cannot have 3 sockets.

Thus:

20 ias form cats
20 ias from gloves
10 ias from nosferatus

and you're missing 45.

wearing something else to make your stats look higher?

nice strategies.

How
is this a fake screenshot? Because my 120/45/30 poofed and I need to
use a crappy helm to use as a backup? And I am well aware that I don't
hit the breakpoints. I am only using this helm for the 2 zon/30 frw/120
ed to boost my damage to as close as I can to what it would be with a
120/45/30.

Please don't criticize people unless you actually read.

Code

This screenshot is takine in Nightmare, with a crappy Magic 2 Amazon 30 Ias 80 Ed 30 Frw Helm (120/45/30 Poofed) and 19x 3/xx/20's and 18x 3/20/3's frw.
(I usually use 20x 3/xx/20's and 17x 3/20/3's

This post was edited by PerfectFlame on Nov 22 2008 10:17pm