Level 30 Bowzon Guide - Topic

Member

Posts: 21,040

Joined: Aug 6 2007

Gold: 20,009.00

Sep 5 2008 04:29am

Background: (Why I am writing this guide)

I have been getting a lot of PM's asking for advice on a LLD bowzon lately, so I figured I would go ahead and take the time to write out a basic guide covering what I know ...

I don't claim to be an expert and if anyone would like to add anything they are more than welcome, my main purpose of posting this is so I can send people who PM me to one source, and then answer any questions they may have from there.

Abbreviations and Terms used in this guide:

LLD: Low level duel (hopefully you already know this if you are reading this guide, but you never know)
FPA: Frames per attack
FRW: Faster run / walk
FHR: Faster hit recovery
AR: Attack Rating
Dex: Dexterity
Str: Strength
Vita: Vitality
Kite: A term I picked up from playing other games. As I use it, I basically refer to employing shoot and run tactics against melee opponents.
GA: Guided Arrow
IAS: Increased Attack Speed
ED: Enhanced Damage
Max: Maximum Damage

Planning Your Character:

As with any character, the first step you should take, before buying any gear, or even creating your character, should be making a few basic decisions about how you want your character to perform in certain situations. The main considerations you need to make for a LLD bowzon are as follows:

Glass Cannon, Vita, or Balance
Attack Speed Breakpoints (8 FPA, 9 FPA, or 10 FPA)

Glass Cannon:
Your entire focus for this build will be obtaining the highest possible damage. This build will excel in TPK where you are protected by teammates but you should expect to be targeted first every match. You will be able to win 1v1 duels, but you must be mindful of the fact that your FHR and Life are much lower than most LLD builds.

Vita:
You will still want to acheive as much damage as possible with this build, but not at the cost of life. All spare stat points will be spent in vitality with this build, and your charms / gear will focus much more heavily on life and faster hit recovery. You may be able to tank certain builds by going pure vita bowzon, but it does not mean you *should* do so, you are still a ranged character with high damage potential, and should not forget that, even if you decide to go this route.

Balanced:
This is my personal favorite. Your goal with this build, is maintain just enough FHR to not get locked up, just enough life to survive a little bit of spam (it's fairly common to see a lot of spammed attacks in TPK), and then once you have achieved these two things, the rest of your focus becomes obtaining the highest possible damage you can.

8 FPA Attack Speed:
This is the fastest possible attack speed a bowzon can achieve through gear alone on a LLD bowzon. You will shoot out arrows faster than you would believe, but at the cost of damage done per shot. Many people swear by this build, however it is not my choice because of the fact that the damage loss per shot is so great, and frequently in team duels, you will have fanaticism available to you, and the boost from fanat for an 8 FPA build compared to the boost for a 9 FPA or 10 FPA build is much less.

9 FPA Attack Speed:
This is the second fastest possible attack speed a bowzon can achieve. Though not quite as fast as 8 FPA attack, your average damage will be slightly higher than someone who chooses to go with the 8 FPA breakpoint, and your gear flexibility will be much greater. Another added benefit of this build is that with a level 11 or higher fanaticism (very do-able for many LLD pally builds) you will reach 7 FPA, making this a strong choice for TPK as well.

10 FPA Attack Speed:
This is the slowest speed I would recommend anyone use for a LLD bowzon build. Any slower than this and you will not be able to properly kite melee opponents due to your attack speed animation taking too long. What you lose in speed with this build you gain in damage per shot and flexibility with what gear options you can use. This build will make full use of a decent level fanaticism in TPK as you will still be able to hit 8 FPA.

For the purposes of this build I will most refer to the setup I chose to use, a balanced build with an 9 FPA attack. This does not mean it is the best option, or anything like that, it is just the one which I am most familiar with playing, so I will go into detail about it. I will also include a couple item builds at the bottom for those people interested in making budget build bowzons. For budget build I actually suggest going with 8 FPA because it can be very effective in locking up and killing opponents you might have not stood a chance against with otherwise, due to the fact that your gear is worse than theirs, but perhaps their FHR or FRW is too low.

From this point forward in the guide, just keep in mind that I am referring to a balanced build, with a 9 FPA attack speed.

Skill and Stat Placement:

Skills:
13 Guided Arrow
1 Jab
6-9 Critical Strike (Minimum of 50% after gear)
4-5 Dodge (How you place your points in dodge / avoid / evade are entirely up to you and should be based upon your play style, I preferred a balance in each -- 4/5/4 -- to achieve the most % avoidance per skill point)
4-5 Avoid
4-5 Evade
1 Penetrate
1 All Prerequisites
1 Decoy (Optional)
1 Valkyrie (Optional)

Stats:
Strength - Just enough to use gear.
Dex - At least enough for max block with shield switch out (I used ~95 Base), all extra stat points should go here
Vita - Just enough points should be placed here to where you are comfortable with your Life Total. (I used ~95 Base, this can be more or less based on your quality of charms)
Energy - Base. No stats should be spent here.

Gear: (Ideal Setup)

Main Set:
Bow - 5 Socket Ashwood Bow with 3 Bowskills and 15% ED - Socketed with 3 x Shaels, Nef, 24 Max Damage Jewel
Armor - Artisan's Mage Plate of the Squid (80 Life 3 Sockets) - Socketed with 3 x 24 Max Damage Jewels
Helm - 1 Zon, 30% Runwalk, 2 Socket Helmet - Socketed with 2 x 24 max Damage Jewels
Boots - Sander's Set Boots
Gloves - Bloodfist
Belt - Rare Belt - 24% FHR / 60 Life / Strength / Resists / Mana / Replenish <-- Anything close
Amulet - 1 Zon Skills, 60 Life, 90 Mana, 10 Replenish <-- Anything close
Rings - 90 Mana, 5 Dex, Damage (Max / Min), Life, Strength, Attack Rating <-- Anything close
Shield - Whitstan's Guard or Rhyme Grim Shield <-- Weapon Switch
Javs - High ED / IAS / Eth / Replenish Quantity Ceremonial Javas (You will have enough dex / str to use them anyway) <-- Weapon Switch

Charms:
(3) 10 max, 76 ar, 25 life gc
(5) 10 max, 76 ar, 7% frw gc
(1) 10 max, 76 ar, 6 dex gc
(3) 3 max, 20 ar, 15 life sc
(9) 3 max, 20 ar, 3% frw sc
(1) 3 max, 20 ar, 2-4 cold damage sc

Stash:
Death's Set Gloves
Death's Set Belt
5 Socket Ashwood Bow with 3 Bowskills and 15% ED - Socketed with 2 x Shaels, Nef, 2 x 24 Max Jewels <-- To be used with death's set, as you will gain 20% IAS with death's combo vs bloodfist
(7) 3% frw, 9% Lightning Resist sc <-- Res stack
(7) 3% frw, 9% Cold Resist sc <-- Res stack
(2) Stone of Jordan <-- These should be used when you are expecting a short duel, where extra damage is key
Cow King Boots <-- Should be worn when extra damage is more important than 10% frw

Strategies:

General Strategies:
1. Make your weapon switch hotkey and run/walk toggle hotkey very easy to press in conjunction with one another.
2. Always be ready to move, do not be predictable, never let your opponent get a feel for where you will be next. Mobility and damage are your strengths, ability to sponge damage is not.
3. Don't be one of those GA spamming zons from out of the screen. Keep it GM. Nobody likes a zon who just runs and shoots from off the screen, you can be perfectly effective while staying on the screen of your opponent or very close to on screen. If your opponent chases you, run and shoot, if they start to run away, chase them. Too often bowzon duels can become a very boring camp-fest against many builds, do not let this happen, stay aggressive but mindful whenever you can.

Vs Melee:
1. Shoot and run. Shoot and run. Shoot and run.
2. With the high amount of run speed you will have between gear and charms, very few characters will be able to keep up with you. Tack on the fact that you have knockback and cold damage (note the 1 charm listed earlier), and they shouldn't be catching you very often. If you come across a character that is able to keep up with you, try and get shots off when you can, and as they are about to catch you, switch to shield, walk mode, change directions quickly, and then get back to kiting.

Vs Casters/Ranged:
1. Change directions as much as possible. Keep them guessing. Get off a few GA shots each time you move.
2. Never try to tank a character that teles on to you. You will die. Shoot and move, dodge their attacks. If they are able to tele on to you, fire one quick shot (hopefully triggering a knockback, and get the hell away from them before firing off a few more quick shots).
3. Try not to let yourself get involved in a spam fest as they are boring for both duelers. Be aggressive, and hope that you can take them out quickly -- if it becomes apparent that you cannot, then ask them to be the aggressor to make the duels more evenly matched.

A few common LLD builds are listed below along with a few tips:

Vs Hammerdins:
1. Do not let them close enough to hammer you. Do not let them charge past you to start a hammer field, if they try to do this, change direction.
2. Try and force them to come to you, you have superior range, take advantage of it.
3. If they also have a strong charge switch (frequently the case), be ready to switch to your shield + walk mode at any time to increase chances of avoiding their charge damage. This same tactic should be applied against pure chargers. I also recommend taking a jab or two at the paladin immediately following a blocked charge, if they are quick to start hammering after a charge you need to adjust accordingly though.

Vs Necromancers:
1. Take advantage of the fact that your arrows travel faster than their bone spirits. Move in for a few hits, back off, repeat.
2. Do NOT trade them shot for shot. You will lose if they properly built their character.
3. Run in a circle around the necro, shooting arrows. You should be able to outrun their bone spirit while still being able to get a few shots off.

This was an awesome tip from Ferdia.
4. Be ready to dodge bone spears if they give up on using bone spirit. Resume hit and run tactics.

Vs Sorces:
1. As mentioned earlier, play cautious, if they port on you, get out immediately and start putting arrows in their face.
2. You should be able to take them at range easily dodging any attacks. This will force them to tele on to you, once that occurs go to step 1.

Vs Kicksins:
1. Die
2. Take solace in the fact that you are one of the few classes they can easily dispatch, while they are one of the few you have any trouble with...
3. Oh you were hoping for actual advice? Well honestly there isn't much you can do that I would consider GM, but if you throw up a decoy and valk camp and spam GA, you have a good shot of taking them out before they lock you up.

Vs Trapsins:
1. Never let yourself get name locked in a trap field.
2. If you screw up and let #1 to happen, run away until they lose the name lock.
3. Remember that your GA can out range their traps if you approach them from the right angle. This is one of the few duels I would consider it GM to spam GA from off screen.

Vs Bowzons:
1. There is already a very awesome guide on this so I won't go into this much, but I will just say, try not to turn it into a camp fest. Those duels are boring.

Alternate Gear Setup: (Budget Build)

Main Set:
Bow - Up'd Rogue's Bow Socketed with Nef Rune
Armor - 3 Socket 70+ Life armor with 3 x 15 Max Jewels
Helm - Peasant Crown (Socketed with 15 Max Jewel)
Boots - Sander's Set Boots
Gloves - Death's Set Gloves
Belt - Death's Set Belt
Amulet - Angelic Amulet
Rings - 1 Soj, 1 Angelic Ring
Shield - Whitstan's Guard or Rhyme Grim Shield <-- Weapon Switch
Javs - High ED / IAS Ceremonial Javas (You will have enough dex / str to use them anyway) Weapon Switch, anything close

Charms:
(10) 10 max, 40-76 ar gc
(9) 3% frw sc
(1) 2-4 cold damage sc

That's all for now. I will most likely repost this later, with more information and after I get some feedback on this one.

Hope you guys enjoyed the guide, best of luck on your bowzons. Just remember, the best part about LLD is coming up with a character build that best suites your play style.

Please take my advice in this post for what it is, a guide. This is not a strict set of rules that you should stick to by any means. Try it out, change it up, and find what works for YOU.

This post was edited by Sloxx on Sep 5 2008 04:57am