1.Intro
2.Goals
3.Stats
4.Equipment
5.Skills
6.Merc
7.Strategy
INTRO
Windforce is an old favorite for many, but with the introduction of the Faith many players have abandon this olden goldie of a bow. This is a little attempt on taking the Windforce out of the closet and brush the dust of it, because this is the bow with the highest maximum damage and almost only for that reason alone it deserves some credit.
GOALS
Keywords for a Amazon wielding a Bow are: Speed, Dexterity and Damage. So the goals are to reach the fastest IAS breakpoints and the highest damage on a bow.
STATS
Strenght: As Low As Possible
You will get strenght from anni, torch + items so it is vital that you dont put more than necessary here.
Dexterity: The Rest here
Dex equals damage for a Bowamazon, and you want ofcourse as much damage as possible. The rest of your points here.
Vitality: Nothing
Many players prefer to put some points here for the comfort. In my opinion that is not needed; First of you want your points to go into dex for more damage. Secondly you are a PvM Bowamazon, that means you are ranged attacker, so you dont get hit much, you Valkyrie are gonna take the hits + you will get enough vitality-pts from your anni and torch.
Energy: Nothing
If you put any points here, your amazon is broken, which means you have to rebuild her.
EQUIPMENT
Weapon: Windforce
This you must socket with a Shael rune to reach the wanted breakpoint. 8% mana leech is ofc best, but you will to just fine with 6 and 7 also.
Armor: Fortitude
There is only one option here and that is the lovely Fortitude runeword. 300% enhanced damage alone makes this the best option + you also get life, resists and defense from lvl 15 Chilling Armor and 200% enhanced defense. Just lovely.
Gloves: Laying Of Hands
Here you have more options. The most important thing here is that the gloves have 20IAS. You got the magic gloves like +3bowskills/20IAS and +3passive/magic skills/20IAS. The +bowskills aint gonna help you damage, so if these are the ones you have go for the +3passive ones. You also have the rare gloves with +2pass/magic/20IAS or +2bow/20IAS with mods like +dex, +str, resist and life/mana leech. Here also go for the ones with +2passive/magic/20IAS +mods. But the best gloves PvM is without a doubt Laying of Hands, gloves from The Disciple-Set. These babies give not only 20IAS, but also +350%damage to demons. And when hell is filled with demons, the result gives itself and you also get a nicely 50% fire resist. And these you can trade for some pgs.
Belt: Razortail
For PvM the skill Pierce is incredible powerful, and Razortail belt gives you 33%pierce. That means you can only get 100% with this belt around your waist. And you get other goodies like 10 to max damage and 15 dexterity to boost your damage even further up. Other option is to use Nosferatus coil, it gives slow target, life leech, str and 10IAS, if you use this you can socket the Wf with a 40ed/15IAS and still reach the last breakpoint. But overall pierce is more powerfull than this.
Boots: Gore Rider
There arent any boots that are dedicatet to amazons, so here you have some options. Wartravelers are a good choice, gives 10 str so that you have 10 more pts to put in dex and gives 15-25 damage. The rare boots option that are almost good enough to compete with the uniques should have 30%FRW, triple res etc. For this build, its not the best wayto spend your wealth. The third option are Gore Rider. The mods here are very good for a bowazon, 30%FRW, open wounds, crushing blow and a little deadly strike, these makes these boots the best choice in my opinion. This is much debated, so you might want to try them both to what you think is best.
Amulet: Atmas Scarab
There are 3 main options for you amulet. The Cats Eye gives dexterity, FRW and 20%IAS. Highlords Wrath is also a popular choice with the IAS, skill, light resist and Deadly Strike, but you dont really need these mods in this build. There are only one option here for a PvM Bowama, and that is the Atma's Scarab. The Amplify Damage will remove the physical immune and give your killing speed and power a great boost. The amulet doesnt look like much, but when you equip it on your Amazon you will experience it and love it.
Helm: Andariels Visage
You will need a helm that gives you IAS. There is a very expensive magic Tiara with 30%FRW and 3 sockets. This you socket with 40ed/15IAS jewels, but the helm alone will cost you more than all other equipment on your char, and this is mostly used as a PvP ama helm. A cheaper alternative is to use Mavina Set helm socketed with a IAS jewel with some nice mod like maybe resist, min dam or low ed. The middle way with the costs are the unique helm Andariels Visage. This gives you 30 str,(meaning more pts in dex for you) 20IAS, life leech and +2skills. The downpart with this is the -30%fire resist, but a jewel with 15%IAS/30% fire resist should take care of that. The must here is the ias jewel.
Rings: Ravenfrost/Rare Ring
The 'cannot be frozen' is deadly important for a bowama, a frozen ama is a dead ama. And the 20 dex on the Raven gives damage. This makes a Ravenfrost a must on almost any kind of Amazons. The other ring is more debated. A second Raven is a fine choice, Bul Kathos is a ok ring with life leech and skill, allthough +skills dont really do you that much good as in other chars. Other unique rings isnt gonna help you much. The rare rings do have better mods. You will want a ring that gives damage aka dex. You will appriciate a ring with high life leech, +dex, +str and maybe some resists.
Weapon On Switch Harmony
This cheap and nice runeword gives you level 10 Vigor, this makes you run alot faster. It also gives you more points in Valkyrie, so its useful also for prebuff some levels higher Valk.
Charms: Anni/Torch/Max-AR-FRW
Here you have the usual unique charms where the perfect ones are 20/20(/10), but this will ofc cost alot. Aim for the best Anni and Torch available for you. For other charms to boost you damage is not bowskillers, but grand charms with the mods 14to max damage/AR. These will cost you a years pay, so this aint a option for the common user. But you have the normal gc's with 10max/AR/FRW-FHR-life has a much more friendly price. In these I prefer FRW as the third mod. Because as said before life aint for you, you are a amazon. That means speed in attack and speed in running. So the best choice here would be 10/ar/frw. For small charms you have the 3max/ar/frw for damage, another good option is to have sc's with 11%light/fire resist/3%frw. I recommend try both ways with the sc's, and see whats suits you the best.
SKILLS
Strafe 20 pts
Maybe one of the funniest skills in the game, almost like a machine gun. Fire and watch your arrows fly away. Downpart is the strafelock, means when you have fired one time, you will be locked untill you have fired all the arrows in the round. But it takes notime to master it. It will be your main skill, max it.
Multishot 5 pts
The debate on strafe vs multi have been going on since the year 2000 and still continues, but the truth is that both are best used with combined when PvM. You will learn to appriciate this skill in areas like Cow level and Chaos Sanctuary. 5 pts here is enough, your +skills will boost this high enough, too much here and it will drain to much mana out of you.
Valkyrie 11-20 pts
This is a skill I like to max, because its your only shield and defense. So why not make it the highest possible. You can also have her up to lvl 17 after +skills, in that way she will have the best items available. Your choice.
Penetrate 1-20 pts
This is also a skill I personally like to max. It gives AR, meaning higher chance of hitting you target. If you are going for FA/CA you might not wanna max this.
Pierce 3 pts
This will give you 69% chance of your arrows flying though the monsters and hitting the monsters behind, after the +skills. This + the belt Razortail gives you 102% chance. That will result in all your arrows will pierce. In PvM this is almost a must with a Bowama.
Critical Strike 1-10 pts
When Critical triggers, you will do double damage. But after lvl 16 it will give you diminishing return. So 16 soft points here is the maximum recommended.
Guided Arrow 1 or 20 pts
This is the skill with the highest damage for a bowamazon. But its also a 1-point wonder skill. This will be your main boss killing skill, and you either put one point or 20 here, depending on wether you are going the FA/CA path.
Freezing Arrow 1-20 pts
This is a great skill vs the physical immune monsters. You will have Atmas Amulet that will be effective, so its your choice. But if you decide to put skills here, dont max Guided Arrow, its better to invest them here then.
Cold Arrow 1-20 pts
Synergy to Freezing Arrow, gives more damage. This should be the last skill to place your points.
Dodge/Avoid/Evade 1 pt
Many would like to put some points in the defensive skills like Dodge, Avoid, Evade. But in my experience PvM, you will do just fine with 1 point and let the +skills boost them up. There are other skills you want before these when taking PvM.
Decoy 1 pt
After a while of using this skill, you will find it very useful to combine with Valkyrie. Especially if you are killed and want run back after your body. It doesnt last that long, but long enough.
Prereqs 1 pt
As normal, only 1 in prereqs.
MERC
Weapon
The build depends on having a Faith on the merc, and the important thing here is to remember that the A1 Rogue is not an Amazon. So she cant use a Grand Matron or a Matriarchal Bow. You want this merc for two things: 1.The Fanatism Aura 2.Freeze you enemies. That means you need a A1 Cold Arrow Rogue, and since its you that is doing all the damage you want her to be the fastest she can be. The fastest non-ama bow is The Great Bow and a 15%ed would be your best choice here. The most important thing with the Faith is that it has lvl 13 or more. If not you will not reach your breakpoint with your Windforce.
Helm/Armor Eth Andariels Visage/Eth Fortitude
The are two things you want here: IAS and Life Leech. And the beaty with Rogues is that they hardly ever dies, you may spend the occasional rev pot but thats all. The armor and helm you must choose after your faith bow, because if it has lvl 13 fana your merc needs 32%IAS and if it has lvl 14/15 she needs 30%. IAS and ll helms you have Mavina Helm, Vampire Gaze and maybe the best combined with the Fortitude is a IAS-socketed Eth Andariels Visage. All these are nice options.
For armors you could use Skin of the Flayed One, Greyform, Twitchthroe, Treachery runeword and maybe the best, but most expensive choice Eth Fortitude. The best cheap alternative imo is Crown Of Thief Helm and Crow Caw Armor, it gives your Rogue life leech, IAS, FHR and open wounds.
STRATEGY
The challenge many players new to the Amazon face, is the low life. And will die alot more than experienced Amazons. This requires practise in the way of positioning yourself and almost equal important how you are positioning your Valk and Decoy. One tip here is to summon your decoy in front of you when moving forward in unknow terrain, this will make the monsters attack it and reveal themself for you. Also you could shoot out, in the unknown terrain, one strafe round to see if you get strafelocked. If you do, then you have time to get your Valkyrie upfront. Other than that, just roam around and have fun:)
I hope you enjoyed the reading and see appriciates this little guide of mine.
Any feedback and comment are welcome.
KremBanan