Spart's Vitality Bow Amazon - Topic

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Posts: 13,444

Joined: Jan 15 2007

Gold: 14.94

Feb 28 2008 05:28pm

1) INTRODUCTION:

I derived this build and combination of gear during Season II ladder when the Faith and Fortitude Rune words were first released. This time period was the great rebirth of the Bowzon after their brutal beat down at the start of 1.10. Since then I have time to refine and rebuild a total of four times.
I choose to post this build in response to the complete lack of Vitality Bow Amazon builds in the sticky section as well as the overwhelming amount of people inquiring about my zon's build via PM's. Not only is this a guide but a study of the theory and mechanics of how both Vitality and Dexterity work with your gear and skill to benefit an Amazon. Also included is a brief description of the importance of Faster Hit Recovery and calculating your run speed. This is NOT a guide to a "Glass Cannon" Amazon and if you are looking for such a build please feel free to glance through the endless amount that are available on this website and others like it. It is also not my intension to bash or put down other guides out there but merely to suggest that there is a different and possibly better method of building a Bow Amazon.

2) SKILLS PLACEMENT:
Max guided arrow
Max Critical Strike
Max Dodge
Max Avoid
Max Evade
1 multi
1 cold arrow
1 magic arrow
1 penetrate
1 slow missile
1 inner sight
These can be tweaked to your liking and may require fewer points in the passive section depending on your gear. If you have extra points feel free to go wild and explore valk, decoy, strafe etc.

3) STAT PLACEMENT:
With any good vita build you need as much vitality as possible.
Str – 174 with gear
Dex – 152 with gear
Vita – 450+
Ene – None

4) GEAR:
The keystone to a good zon build is the gear worn.

BOW – Faith GMB
14+ Fanat/ +2 skill +3 bow, Best combination of damage and speed you will find
Break points on this bow with 14-15 Fanat are 46% for 8 frames and 92% for 7 frames. This build will utilize the 8 frame per shot bp.

ARMOR – Fort
27+ res and 1.5 life archon, dusk and wire fleece are good choices or anything that is lightweight
Helm – Crown of Ages
25+ res, 15% dr and 2 sockets are a must here. Socket this with 2x 40/15 or other ias jewels

BOOTS – Grim Spurs, Soul Spurs, Treks, war travs, gores
Gspurs are the best as this build need high stats, fhr and res to work properly. Travs and gores will work but in this build survivability should take priority over the small increase in damage provided by these two options.

GLOVES – Draculs, crafted/rare kb, cleglaws
Take your pick, BM or GM is the only difference for this item. I prefer cleglaws in pub games.

BELT – Verdungos
35+ vita with 15% dr, necessary to reach that wonderful 30% dr

RINGS – Raven Frost/Stat ring with resist
240+ ar with 20 dex and a stat ring with as much + str and +dex with some good res all.

AMULET – Cats eye
Could go with highlords if you feel the need but it really isn't worth sacrificing the dex and frw

WEAPONS SWITCH – CTA and Spirit
This is necessary to take full advantage of the vitality points being used. This is a ZvA build and not all characters you encounter will have skills you can bloc. Therefore, using the SS and Titans setup will rarely help in a pub game. Keep a Storm shield in your stash for Bow duels if you like or find a different build if you only plan on dueling pure ZvZ.

CHARMS
20/15+ anni
20/15+ torch
20x 3/15+/20 life
8-10x 3/15+/5% frw
0-2x 175psn/20life

The main focus here is to get as many max damage small charms with as high life as possible. This provides a great dmg bonus with critical strike and allows for higher life since 3x sc can have a total of 60 life vs the 45 max life on a max dmg gc. 5% frw small charms should be used if possible to maximize the total amount of life charms being used. The rumor that 5% frw scs only provide 3% is a myth and was started by corrupt sellers trying to get people who are looking for the rare and expensive 5% frw scs to buy their cheap and common 3% scs. A few 5% res all small charms with high life should be used to help max resistance as well as counter the hidden Anya bug. A brief explanation of this glitch is the resistance you receive from the scrolls when doing the Anya quest in all difficulties does not get added to your character when you die and respawn naked in town even though it shows up on your character screen. The only way to get this resistance back is by leaving and rejoining the game. I have not taken the time to test this bug myself but even if it is not true it never hurts to have stacked res. I recommend adding a handful of 175 psn/life small charms to help take down sorc w/ es and necros that like to recast bone armor as the poison ignores their armor and goes straight to their health bar. Please note that poison damage or any elemental damage DOES NOT, I repeat...DOES NOT cancel critical strike. However, it only doubles your physical damage and does nothing for your elemental damage. It is also true that the critical strike animation (the little flash) does not show, this is due to the fact that other animations take priority over it, such as the poison animation. I have completed a lot of time consuming research on this subject and have tested this myth on three occasions all proving without a doubt that it is false. How did the myth get started? Most likely it was created by someone upset by an amazon using stacked poison charms and created such a story to encourage them to remove their poison damage and so the myth was born.

5) THEORY AND MECHANICS:

~Theory of the Vitality Amazon~
By maxing Vitality you increase your life and the over all amount of damage you can receive. This is accomplished by using the dexterity that is normally used to increase the Bowzons max damage and by adding damage reduction and resistance into mix to help increase its effectiveness. This may seem backwards when first read but the end result is a zon capable of a much higher damage output than with maxed dexterity.

This can be simplified as follows:
The more life you have the more hits you can take.
More hits you take the longer you will stay alive in battle.
The longer you are alive the more arrows you will be able to shoot.
More arrows you shoot the more damage you will be able to produce.

~Mechanics Behind the build~

This section is the simple mathematical bases of why a Vitality Zon has the ability to be superior to its horrific twin the Dexterity Zon. For right now only Vitality and Dexterity will be considered.
1 pt of vita = 3 life
1 pt of dex = 3 max dmg

Using an arbitrary amount of stats, lets say 400, we can compare the two choices. All factors from gear to skills that affect the two are including in the calculation.

With Dexterity we have…
400 points * (3 max dmg/point) = 1200 max dmg
Since this is only the max, the average damage generated will actually be half
1200/2 = 600
With a 72% chance of critical strike the average dmg
(600*0.28)+(600 *2*0.72) = 1032
Reduce this value by the pvp reductions
1032 / 6 = 172
172 = the average damage gain in pvp from dexterity

With Vitality we have…
400 points * (3 life/point) = 1200 life
Adding a level 12 Battle Order there is a 68% life bonus
1200 life * 1.68 = 2016
With 30% dr
2016 * 1.30 = 2621
With 75% res
2016 * 1.75 = 3528
2621 or 3528 = the amount of additional damage able to be received
These calculations show the great difference in the amount of damage being add from dexterity vs the amount of damage able to be received by Vitality. Almost 15 time as great when only considering physical damage!

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However, a more in-depth look of both types of Bowzons fully geared is necessary as their stats are only a small portion of their overall build.

It is will be assumed that a "Glass Cannon" Amazon will have on average the following stat.
1000 to 6,500 damage
1000 life.
0% dr
0% Resistance

A Vitality Bowzon with this build should be able to achieve the following
1000 to 4,500 dmg
3,800 life
30% dr
75% Resistance

Calculations for a "Glass Cannon" Amazon
The average dmg is
(1000+6500)/2 = 3300

With a 72% chance of critical strike the average dmg will be
(3300*0.28)+( 3300*2*0.72) = 5676

PvP Reduction
5676 / 6 = 946

This zons shoot at 7 frames or 3.5 arrows per second
946 per arrow * 3.5 arrows per second = 3311

Calculations for a Vitality Amazon
The average dmg is
(1000+4500) / 2 = 2750

With a 72% chance of critical strike the average dmg will be
(2750*0.28)+( 2750*2*0.72) = 4730

PvP Reduction
4730 / 6 = 788

This zon shoot at 8 frames or 3.1 arrows per second
788 per arrow * 3.1 arrows per second = 2444

Effectiveness of life with the extra dr bonus
3800 * 1.30 = 4940

Effectiveness of life with the extra resistance bonus
3800 * 1.75 = 6650

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Totals for the "Glass Cannon"
Average dmg = 946
Equivalent Dmg = 3311 per second
Life = 1000
Equivalent Life
vs magic = 1000
vs physical = 1000 (1350 with storm shield equipped)
vs elemental = 1000

Totals for the Vitality Bowzon
Average dmg =788
Equivalent Dmg = 2444 per second
Life = 3,800
Equivalent Life
vs magic = 3,800
vs physical = 4940 (5700 w/ storm shield equipped)
vs elemental = 6650

~Various Other Features~

Faster run/walk suffers from what is know as diminishing returns. Meaning that the more you add the less of a bonus you will receive. As see in Figure 1, when a character reaches an amount of frw past 300% there is almost no additional speed generated. With this build a run speed of 100% should easily be achievable. This is the optimal amount as the tangent to the graph is approximately a slope of 45 degrees, or a 1 to 1 ration. Meaning an equal amount of speed increase is provided per given amount of faster run/walk % added.

Figure 1: Faster Run/Walk Diminishing Return

Faster Hit Recovery unlike with other Bowzon builds is extremely important. Normally it is completely forgotten about because Bowzons have such low life that any single hit is more than enough to kill them. Obviously what good would FHR be if you are never given the chance to recover? In a Vitality build you are expecting to take a lot of damage along with numerous hits throughout the course of battle. Being able to recover from these hits in a rapid manner is vital. Having high life also reduces the chance of a hit activating a FHR animation. This is because you must receive a hit that takes away 1/12 of your total life or more to trigger the animation. So the greater the life you have the less of a chance you have to go into FHR mod. One important not is that FHR does NOT increase or in anyway affect the passive skill tree. This is a common myth and is not true, please note that it is NOT the reason it is being used on this build.

6) DUELING STRATEGIES:

ASSASSINS
Trappers - Just shoot them from a distance. The ones that are bold will charge at you laying traps and spamming mind blast assuming you are a regular Bowzon with negative resistance, low life and no FHR going for a easy kill. Go ahead and introduce them to a Vita Bowzon

Hybrid - The main issue here is not the lit dmg of the traps but the passive skills that are constantly kicking in. Between the traps and ww you're going to spend the majority of the time dodging attacks. Run while the ww and shoot right as they get ready to finish a ww so that the arrows actually make contact. Try and pop a antidote potions before you duel them.

AMAZONS
Bow - Using ss and cta charge them and get them named locked. If they stand their ground and shoot they will be dead in a matter or seconds. If they are a runner just ga them and muli when close enough. Make sure to laugh if they decide to throw javalins at you.

CS - Shoot and run, they shouldn't be able to get close to you. If they do your 80% lit res will take away most of the damage. Use cleglaws if they run too fast.

Far Cast - You already have 80% lit res and if its stacked all you need to do is toss on a tgods and whisp and go to town. A little trick I use is a doomz with a 4x topaz jmods. The hf slows down their attack speed, run speed and passive dodge rate. Plus their life is so low 1-2 hits from the doom kills them.

BARBARIANS
WW - Right as they go to tele change directions at a 90 degree angle. They will come out of the tele ww and completely miss. Keeps your distance vs shield barbs as they will take longer to kill. Dual axe barbs will die a lot faster.

Warcry - very easy, just them. They have no shield and do little to no dmg most of which your passives will kick in.

Beserker - Just run and be sure to keep your distance. Most of their attacks will miss and they will die pretty easy.

DRUIDS
Elemental - As they close in spam multi to clear their summons, do not use ga till everything is dead as it will probably not even hit the druid! By time they reach you they will be alone with no sage. Your high life and 30% dr will allow you to take at least 4-5 hits. Druids with spirit monarch and low dr will die quick. MB druids with ss can be more difficult but still easily beatable with a little practice.

Fury - Very easy as kb makes them completely useless, just run and shoot.

Armageddon - Very rare, their dmg is so low with max fire res they are extremely easy.

Town Bear - Don't hug town and you should have no reason to die to one of these.

NECROMANCERS
Bone - If they are GM they are very easy. If they are BM they will decrip you, use slow golem, bone prison, a doomz and recast bone armor as fast as you can shoot. If this is the case your best bet is to slow missile them and take a tp back to town and try again.

Summon - Multi like there is no tomorrow and avoud ga as it will not hit the necro with all the summons around him. If they are BM they will follow the same pattern as listed before. Respond in the same way. One thing to try that works 90% of the time but is kind of a hassle is to use lifetap on them from a wand or marrowwalk boots and then switch back to your bow and multi. You will receive enough life per multi to keep yourself alive even at melee range with all of the summons attacking and the necro using his bone skills.

Poison Nova - Very easy. Can use an antidote potion if you really feel its necessary.

PALADINS
Hammerdin - Always run away from them down or in a southern direction because their hammers when cast appear on the top. Keep your distance, running and shooting. Usually very easy unless they use third party mods...then you never kill them as they will always auto tp when they take to much dmg....lame

FOH - Try to keep your distance. If you stay out of the conviction range your lit res will be 80% making their foh almost useless vs you. Even if they do get close your passives will help out and you should be able to finish them off quick.

Smite/Charge - Probably a Bowzon's greatest weakness. However, with a little practice they too can be a reasonable challenge. Start with some distance before you challenge them and find a nice group of puddles on the ground to fight them around. As they charge toward you they will become hung up on the puddles with the charge skill which has troubles navigating complicated paths. When they get stuck pump them full of arrows. Using cleglaws will give a nice advantage here. If you get caught in the open or they jump you use a circular running pattern. As u turn they will charge past you tangent to where you were. This is not the time to spam arrows but to land accurately placed shots with your mouse. Every shot needs to be on target because their holy shield will make quick work of most of them. With 3.8k life and 30% dr you should be able to make a few mistakes and still be fine. If they tap you go heal and start over.

Auradins - Very easy with stacked res. Just keep shooting at them and wait for them to get caught on something and stop charging/run out of mana and your arrows will rip them apart. If the stack auras put on sorb. If they cry just laugh at them. If you don't have sorb gear you're screwed but then again who cares because they aren't legit anyways.

SORCERESS
Fire ball - Shoot and run making sure to dodge the fireballs by walking around them. Most use a spirit monarch and have little to no dr.

Lighting - Quick feet and you will be fine. Should be able to take 3+ hits

Nova - Most will use Infinity poleaxe. With stacked res this is the biggest mistake they can make. Just stand and one spot and shoot. The kb will push them out of the nova range and if they do get close it doesn't matter because your res will be nice and high. Plus with no shield they don't stand a chance.

Blizzard - Constantly keep moving. Use a thaw potion for a added cold res bonus. Unfortunately even with this build you will only be able to take one hit which will leave you with very little life. Maxed passives will be the key to success. I like to setup camp in a deep corner where to of the little stone walls meet running in small circles. This protects me from two sides and removes paths of attack for the sorc. You can easily spam this small area with arrows or multi. If they stack bmanas and use mana pots to heal this may be a long difficult duel and is why I like to keep a few psn charms on me.

7) CONCLUSION:

The Vita Bowzon sacrifices approximately 25% of her damage so that she can take 380% to 650% more damage than her "Glass Cannon" counters part. This is done with help from damage reduction as well as maxed resistance. As a result she is capable of much longer battles which allows her to fire more arrows and produce a greater damage to the enemy. With lighting fast run speed and hit recovery, maxed resistance, 30% damage reduction, massive life and adequate damage the Vitality Bow Amazon is more than capable of engaging a wide variety of character in both public and private dueling matches.

If you feel that I have left anything out or have questions /comments please feel welcome to post here or contact me by PM.

This post was edited by Spartikis on Feb 28 2008 05:58pm