1.14 Plague/Bowa Hybrid Zon Guide



Introduction:
The plague/bowa amazon is a hybrid bowzon utilizing both a bow and plague javelin. This build is very similar to that of a typical ZvA Bowzon except you will be sacrificing some bow damage and passive skills for Plague Javelin damage. The benefit of having nearly 45K plague is that you will stand a better chance against some of the pure bowas harder matchups; Smite(charger), Barb, Necro, Ghost, MB Druid, etc. Because a Zon is typically on the run anyways, plaguing your opponent and then running off will allow time for the plague to sink in and do its damage. For the matchups that a bowzon normally has advantage, the slightly lower bow damage should not affect you all that much and you should still win those duels. The only opponent that will gain a significant advantage on you will be a pure ZvA Bowzon, as they will have more bow damage and higher passives.


Goals:
4k+ Guided arrow
45K Plague
150frw
2.2k+ life
70 CS / 37 DS
75+ all res / stacked light res
50 DR
Max block



Stats:
Strength - enough to wear gear
Dex - Enough for max block with stormshield
Vitality - Rest
Energy - 0


Skills:
Javelin
Poison Javelin - 20
Plague Javelin - 20
Light fury - 1
Light bolt - 1
Jab - 1

Passives
inner sight - 1
slow missiles - 1
decoy - 1
Valkyrie - 1
Dodge - 5 (52%)
Avoid - 5 (61%)
Evade - 5 (52%)
Critical strike - 14 (70%)
Penetrate - 1
Pierce - 1

Bow
Magic Arrow - 1
Cold arrow - 1
Multi - Rest
Guided - 20
Strafe - 1

Options: You can play around with more or less into D/A/E, critical strike, guided arrow, etc. personally this is how I skill at lvl 99


Gear:
The gear I've posted below is perfect and may not even exist. Get gear as close to the listed stats as possible. If you can't afford this gear, then you'll just need to stat more strength/dex or wear more res charms. Ultimately it's just a small sacrifice in life and damage that your skill level can easily make up for.
Also keep in mind the breakpoints of this build. You must always have 65ias on bow side. 90ias on jav side is preferable, but not a big deal if you can't meet it.

Helm
1. 2zon/30frw/30str/20dex/20@res/2os (2x 40ed/15ias)
This helm will help you wear all of your gear. 2 skills boost your plague damage. If you don't need the strength then other bonuses worth seeking are: 30% Enhanced damage, 60 life

2. 2zon/30frw/30str/60life/40 Cold Res/2os (2x 15ias/30 cold res)
vs. Cold sorcs


Armor
1. Fort of Chains
Best Zon armor. Gives you 8DR and 15@res over a regular fort. Regular fort will do if you cannot obtain this.


Weapons
1. Faith Shadow bow
You can also use a diamond bow. Personally I like shadow bow because of the high max damage. This bow requires 65ias, so keep that in mind.

2a. 2zon/2Jav/20ias/300+ ED/Eth/Rep Matriarchal Javelins
Best javs possible, the higher the ED the better. Only use these if they have 4 total skills; Titans would be better if not. Also, if you use rare javs, you may want to add more frw sc's to your inventory.

2b. Eth Upped Titans
All around great javs and much easier to come by than eth/rep/rares. The higher the ED the better.

3. Call To Arms Matriarchal bow
You can either wield this, or more likely put it in cube/inventory for BO. Useful in some matchups like vs. hammerdin.


Shield
1. Stormshield (5/-5 Poison Die Facet)
Best shield there is. DR/block/res.

2. JMOC (4x 5/-5 Poison Dies)
Jewelers Monarch of the Colossus (4os/60life) socket it with 4x 5/5 poison dies. This will be used against casters or any char that you don't need maxblock/DR against


Belt
1. Verdungos
40vitality/13life rep/15DR does it really need an explanation? True it will be over kill DR on shield side, but now on bow side you will have 23DR.

2. Thundergods
vs. light based characters. Also a good all around belt for pubs since you may not know what you're facing.

3. 10OW/30str/80 life/9 life rep/30 Cold Res Crafted belt
Used vs. Cold sorc for cold stack + strength to wear 2x Raven. Also good to use when you swap on hotspurs to make up for loss of strength from war travs.


Boots
1. War Travelers
Adds Strength, life, and most importantly, Damage. Never use tri res boots in place of war travs, you are always better off wearing travs and using resistance small charms in place of 3max if you need res.

2. Gore Riders
vs. Hammerdins, necros, and any character you want OW against. This will usually be combined with the OW belt you carry. Be sure to swap out 2x 3frw sc's for 2x 20life sc's due to the added frw when switching from travs.

3. Hotspurs
Vs fire sorcs

4. .08 Soul Spur's
I use these for light/cold res stack + the str/dex if I want to wear 2 wisps for BM sorbing(vs farcasters). These aren't completely necessary, you can make up the cold res in charms or add extra strength if you plan on using 2 wisp for bm sorb.


Gloves
1. 2 javelin/20ias/knockback/15 Strength/15 Dex
These would be ideal


Rings
1. Ravenfrost
Perfect if possible. The "cannot be frozen" is a must. the rest is just a bonus

2. 120AR/20Str/15Dex/Life/Light Res/All Res
This would be ideal, but get one to your liking. Some people prefer more mana, some prefer crafted with 25str/15dex/60life/etc.

3. Sorb rings
2x Wisp
1x Dwarf
1x Ravenfrost


Amulet
1. Highlords
1 skill, DS, and light res stack

2. Cats Eye
If you feel you need more frw, ex. wearing hotspurs. If you need more dex when swapping on stash gear.



Inventory
The goal here is to have a mix of charms to achieve the following:
150 total frw (javs out)
90@ res (bow out)
45k plague damage
Max life

With my gear, I have 85frw, 30@ res(+ light stack), and 32k Plague damage
To achieve my goals above, I use:
12x 3frw/5@res
5x 3frw/3max/20ar
2x Jav/7frw grand charms
2x Jav/45 life grand charms
7x 3max/20ar/20life
1x 451 psn small charm
Torch
Anni

stash: 10x 20life/11 cold res sc's

Options: You can use more jav grand charms if you want more plague damage
If you can afford 5frw sc's (either 5frw/5@res or 5frw/3max/20ar) then definitely use those. Just meet the builds goals and then add 3/20/20's or 20/5's for more life.
You can use 3max sc's instead of resist charms if you like. By swapping out 3/5's for 3/3/20's you can gain around 1k max dmg. Personally I prefer to always have max res.


Standard setup:
Helm: 2/30/30/20/20@ (2x 40/15)
Armor: Fort of chains
Bow: Faith Shadow Bow
Weapon switch: Eth Upp'd Titans or 2/2/ED/Eth/Rep Rare javelin
Shield: Stormshield (5/-5)
Gloves: 2 jav/20ias/kb/15 Str/15 Dex
Boots: War Traveler
Belt: Verdungos
Amulet: Highlords
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: 120AR/20str/15Dex/40 life/41 Light/11@res rare ring


Setups/Strategy
Amazon
Bow - Standard setup
If I'm not playing by ZvZ rules then typically I just multi the shit out of them til dead. Guided if theyre far off screen or if they try to run up on you. If close then attempt to plague them, you will probably catch them by surprise. After that, Fury them with bow out, Bolt if shield is out. ZvZ takes a lot of skill and practice.
Javazon - Tgods, JMOC
Throw Plague and sit in it while shooting arrows. When they approach, plague them or make them chase you through a plague cloud. WSG and run away if they get too close.

Assassin
Trap - Tgods, JMOC
Get used to pressing W because you will need to WSG a lot. Guided/multi when you are not mindblasted. Throw Plague javelin and try to predict their movement so that they tele into it. Plague is not needed to win though, just wsg and arrow.
Ghost - standard setup
Throw Plague javelin and sit in it. Guided them from far, do NOT get ww'd with your bow out. Force them to jump on you and get plagued while throwing fury at them. Run/wsg and shoot arrows if you have some distance. Repeat.
Hybrid - Tgods
Play the same as ghost.

Necromancer
PnB-Vita - 10OW belt, JMOC, Gore Riders
Throw plague and sit in it while shooting Guided arrows and multi. Necros have to jump on you and spear, they can not beat you if they keep their distance. After they jump you, wsg and run to let the plague sink in. Repeat. Strafe is a good skill too to get their golem.
PnB-Maxblock - 10OW belt, JMOC, Gore Riders
Same strategy as Vita, but it will be more difficult due to the max block and likely DR.
Poison nova - 10OW belt, JMOC
Guided arrow and multi from far. Try to predict movement and throw plague out in front of you where they will need to tele.

Barbarian
BvC - standard setup
Barbs have to jump you to do damage so always be sitting in your plague cloud. Guided arrow when they are far and switch to shield as they approach. After they get plagued, run and fury them. Repeat with plague if necessary. Do NOT get with with your bow out.
Shield Barb - standard setup
Approach the same as BvC, it's just going to be harder due to block and DR.

Palladin
Hammer - 10OW belt, JMOC, Gore Riders
Using CTA mat bow from cube/inventory is a good idea here because Hdins can kill you in 1 hit. They will need to jump you so throw plague javelin and when you think theyre going to tele on you run away with wsg. Try to lead them into your plagues and then Guided arrow from afar.
Smite/Charger - standard setup
Throw plague and sit in it. Guided arrow from a far. Keep on the move, don't sit too long because they will sync on you and kill you before you can even see them. If you are moving then t hey cannot sync on you so bad. They will likely just namelock and charge you so throw plague and make them run through it. Turn and throw furys when possible and stay on the run to allow the plague to do its damage. This is one of your toughest matchups

Sorceress
Fire - hotspurs, cats eye, 10OW belt, JMOC
Throw plagues and sit in them or near them. Fire sorc will need to get close to kill you. Guided and multi from afar.
Light - tgods, JMOC
Same as fire sorc
Cold - 10OW belt, 2x ravenfrost, Soul Spurs boots, 2/30/30/60/100 Cold Res helm, cats eye, JMOC, 10x 20/11 cold res sc's
Cold sorcs can actually kill you from far with blizzard, so stay off screen. Throw plague and try to predict their movement so that they tele into it. Guided arrow/multi from a distance

Druid
Elemental - standard setup
Druids have to jump on you to get you, so throw plague javs and sit in the cloud. Shoot multi when they are far to kill their oak and zoo. Guided if you can namelock. Fury is helpful here too. Strafe is good if the zoo is small.
Wolf - standard setup
Easy duel. Just cast plague and make them chase you through it. Then fury + guided arrow.

bump

thank god there's an updated 1.14 version instead of the outdated 1.13 version

can you give tips for dueling against all the new 1.14 builds and items?

You must be the most disappointed user of d2jsp, also your avatar fits greats to your posts.

rekt

This post was edited by Arelax on May 15 2016 03:09am

Just built one
Fun as hell to play

Looks like a good upgrade from the normal bowazon

I made one of these on the first ladder, actually mine focused more on the jav side and my CTA bow was just there for final hit. Used enigma and 48 fcr which was pretty slow but better than nothing. She did exceptionally well in all duels except vs trapper really, but there was no Grief or Fort back then. Fun char to play except when people use antidotes lol.

could mention bugbelt+foi gmb

He's Americano and don't understand about good stuff