TSBoyer's Bowazon Guide v1.14d
The old guide -> Habakkuk's Bow & Fury ZvA Guide v1.13d was destroyed due to a change in policies so I figured I'd replace it.
This is a GM build designed around the use of legit items which are spawnable on all realms Ladder and Non-Ladder alike
Although some .08 gear is suggested for use it is not required to use this guideLadder Resets And Magic Finding On A BowazonThe Faith GMB & Act 2 Might Merc Method:-
Normal Faith GMB lv14 to lv15 with
Upgraded Ethereal Titan's and
Stormshield on swap -
Lacerator can be used over Titan's to proc Amplify Damage, see below under Switch Glitch
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Artisan's Diadem of Speed 45%ias/120%ed - Mav's Diadem with a plain 15%ias jewel can be used as "get me by" item
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Fortitude, any light version
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Goldwrap -
Laying of Hands-
War Traveler-
Cat's Eye or
Highlord's-
Raven Frost-
Rare Dual Leech-
Torch, Anni, Gheed's - stack the rest of the inventory with
Max/AR/mf% charms of any size, preferably SCs
* Act 2 Might Merc -
Thresher or Giant Thresher Pride for Concentration Aura -
Eth Andy's with FireRes/IAS jewel and any
Eth Bugged Fortitude that is light armor
I suggest this method if the bowa is planned to convert in to a pvp character later - The act 2 might/conc merc synergizes better with a pvp bowa's gearThe Windforce & Act 1 Rogue Method:This method has a few differences from the above method but is otherwise identical
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Windforce is used over Faith GMB - Socket it with Ohm for 50%ed or Ber for 20% Crushing Blow
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Atma's Scarab is used over Cat's Eye or Highlord's "The Amplify Damage is great but the 20% bonus to AR is also important while using Windforce"
* Act 1 Rogue is used over Act 2 Might Merc -
Faith Great Bow lv13 to lv15 for Fanatacism -
Eth Andy's with FireRes/IAS jewel and any
Eth Bugged Fortitude that is light armor
I suggest this method if the bowa is strictly planned for the purpose of magic finding - This method is glassy but has slightly better kill speedBoth methods are excellent and will provide maximum 7fpa with top kill speeds, while maintaining around 150% to 200% magic find and plenty of space to pick up drops.
Both methods use the same general stat/skill allocations below:
STR: only enough to wear gear -
DEX: add as much as possible -
VIT: do not add -
ENG: do not add
Bow Skills: 1 Magic Arrow - 5 Multi Shot - 20 Guided Arrow - 1 Strafe
Javelin Skills: 1 Jab - 1 Lightning Bolt - 1 Lightning Fury
Passive Skills: Base 1 all passives - 20 Critical Strike - 20 Avoid - 20 Evade
Extra skill points can be distributed based on preference but I advise adding more points to Valkyrie if you are using the Windforce methodWhy add these skills? Multi Shot is the most effective mob killer, base 5 with +gear skills will be enough radius while keeping mana cost low.
Strafe can be more effective situationally if a mob happens to be lined up so that all the arrow pierce has a stacking damage effect but this doesn't happen often, base 1 is enough.
Strafe is also strong against individual targets that are standing alone, such as an act boss like Diablo. If there is even one other target in the area, Strafe loses it's effectiveness vs. a single target.
Guided Arrow is the highest and most reliable single target damage with the lowest mana cost provided on bowside, with exception for situations like Strafing against an act boss.
Magic Arrow & Lightning Bolt are important for killing physical immunes. Jab & Lightning Fury are important for dealing higher physical damage while blocking/tanking.
Every base 1 passive skill is important because of how +skill gear effects their effectiveness. Critical Strike is crucial to max for damage capability and Avoid/Evade is needed for survival.
Valkyrie is the most important amongst all the passives even at base 1. It is largely responsible for either method's ability to stop up a mob while gunning it down.
Where to magic find with these Bowazon setups?Bowazons, due to not having teleport, have the most convenience while magic finding wide open areas so the valk/merc stay close and don't get clipped/stuck by walls.
Once an end-game setup is built, it is convenient to run this routine: Eldritch/Shenk - Pindleskin - Chaos Sanctuary - Council at Travincal - Cows.
Depending on the strength of the setup, players can solo these areas or sneak into full games and run them silently for better drop rates.
I'd also like to note that with the gold you pick up and/or get from selling items, use it to gamble rings. They're cheap and can roll useful stats for any class.
Whether it's a cast ring, damage ring, dual leech or a bit of a mix, rings have a high chance of being wanted and tradable.
How to play a walk through without a rush on day 1 of a reset when bowazon feels underpowered?Unfortunately, bowazon is underpowered due to it's damage being very reliant on it's weapon and other gear provided.
Nevertheless, with a few tips, a bit of fg and a couple simple trades, it's perfectly possible to solo through norm, nightmare and hell in a couple days time or less, with garbage gear.
* Act 1 norm - Shop a 3os longbow from Gheed ASAP as well as socketed helm/armor. Put topaz/ruby/sapphires in the longbow and put small damage jewels into the armor.
Save ALL charms that add any damage type.
* Act 2 norm - Focus on saving/mixing gems to get stronger socketed bow damage. Nothing that can be shopped will render higher damage than gem sockets at this point. Start trying to build mana leech on the bowa.
* Act 3 norm - Bows can be shopped here from the mercenary hire NPC that have enough physical damage to outweigh gem socketed bows. Around level 21, bows with good mods appear.
* Act 4 norm - Good pikes can be shopped here for a2 mercs. If the bowa manages to hit level 28, take a break and go trade for a Skystrike. Very important or the bowa will have no damage in act 5.
* Act 5 norm - At this point, it becomes crucial to have something like a Skystrike Bow at level 28 or a Riphook at level 31. If the bowa hits level 41 before the end of norm, get a Buriza ASAP.
* Nightmare - The Buriza will carry her through the rest of the game damage wise and make nightmare relatively easy. Just make sure the mercenary has a bit of life leech and enough physical damage to make the leech work.
* Hell - Mercenary becomes important as it plays a large role in damage mitigation. If needed, take time to trade for "get me by gear" like Crown of Thieves, Shaftstop, w/e weapon it needs and put them on the merc.
The bowa will be able to finish hell solo or with a group and be functional to follow chaos/baal games for purposes of XPing/Magic finding while it build it's end-game setup.
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PvP Bowazon - The Diamond Faith ZvA SetupWhy do I suggest Diamond Bow? Here is an elaborate explanation ->
GMB Vs. Diamond & Shadow Vs. FOI-
Diamond or Shadow Faith lv14 to lv15 with
Eth Cruel/Fool's 20%ias RepQuantity Matriarchal, Winged or Hyperion Javelins with
Stormshield on swap.
Upgraded Eth Titan's will suffice as a "get me by"
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Rare Diadem with +2 zon skills, 2os, +all res, +STR, +DEX, 30%frw socket the diadem with 2x 40%ed/15%ias jewels
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Fortitude, any light armor will do
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Verdungo's-
Knockback Gloves with +2 passive skills, 20%ias, +STR, +DEX or sometimes +res can suffice in place of +stats
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War Traveler-
Cat's Eye-
Raven Frost-
Rare Damage Ring, ideally a perfect one would be: +all res, +30mana, +9min, +12max, +10life rep The bowa shouldn't rely on ring stats for STR/DEX bugging due to how often it will use swaps such as wisp/dwarf/dual leech
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Torch, Anni, 3/xx/frws, 3/xx/20s, 5res/frws, 5res/20s If on NL, upgrade 3%frw SCs in to 5%frw .08 versions - SC distribution should provide 150+ frw and +20 res beyond max, not counting Anya quests
- Cube BO setup that sits in the bowa's inventory at all times -
6/6 CTA,
Arach,
Mara's,
2x BK rings* Act 2 Might Merc -
Thresher or Giant Thresher Pride for Concentration Aura -
Eth Andy's with FireRes/IAS jewel and any
Eth Bugged Fortitude that is light armor
This is a more expensive higher-end setup but very rewarding if taken the time to build properly. I suggest this route for players who want to build a trophy case bowazon.Using Faith GMB over DiamondA few simple swaps can convert to the use of Faith GMB, while keeping the rest of the gear setup identical
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Faith GMB lv14 to lv15 over Diamond
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Artisan's Diadem of Speed 45%ias/120%ed over Rare Diadem
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Nosferatu's over Verdungo's
This is a less expensive route that loses overall character sustain for a bit of bowside damage. I suggest this route for players who want to spend a moderate amount of fg to get a functional bowazon up & running.Using Faith GMB on Europe with Bugged BeltThis build is identical to using Faith GMB over Diamond, with one notable difference and that is the use of
Bugged Belt. The Bugged Belt only exists in the Europe realm and is essentially a Nosferatu's and Verdungo's combined.
This allows Europe bowas to run Faith GMB but still maintain all the defenses of a Diamond ZvA. Europe bowas with Bugged Belt combine all the strongest aspects of the above two setups, into one build.
Europe bowas should strive to run Faith GMB, 45/120 and Bugged Belt. Here is Jesper's Europe bowa guide based around Bugged Belt ->
Zon Guide 1.13Gear Swaps For All PvP BowasCharacter stash will have just enough space for all of this
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Eth Lacerator-
Double Upgraded Swordback Hold &
Phoenix Shield-
.08 Gaze socketed with Ber
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Jeweler's of Whale socketed with enough 40%ed/15%ias jewels to 7fpa the bow you use in ZvZ, put defensive jewels in the other sockets.
- All non-Europe bowas should be carrying
Verdungo's,
Nosferatu's and
T-God's-
Hotspur-
Highlord's-
2x Wisps-
2x Dwarfs- Extra
Raven Frost-
Rare Dual Leech RingZvA strategy section will explain how, when and why to use these gear swapsWhether you choose to use Diamond ZvA, GMB ZvA or are playing Europe with the Bugged Belt
Each of the above setups will offer maximum fpa bowside and javside with optimized player vs. player statistics
Each of the setups use a similar general stat/skill allocation, give or take a player's preference to tweak here or there:
STR: only enough to wear gear -
DEX: only enough to wear gear and maintain max block -
VIT: add as much as possible -
ENG: do not add
Bow Skills: 1 Multi Shot - 20 Guided Arrow - 1 Strafe
Javelin Skills: 1 Jab - 1 Lightning Bolt - 1 Lightning Fury
Passive Skills: Base 1 all passives - 20 Critical Strike - 10 Dodge - 20 Avoid - 20 Evade
This stat/skill platform will take 94th level to completeWhy add these skills? 1 Multi Shot to keep the mana cost low, +gear skills will be enough spray in pvp. 20 Guided Arrow because it is the most important pvp bow skill. 1 Strafe for special circumstances.
1 Jab for locking up melees with poor position. 1 Lightning Bolt to surpass block rates/Eshield/bone armor and deliver open wound procs. 1 Lightning Fury to throw high damage attacks while javside.
Base 1 passives goes without saying, 20 Critical Strikes for the crucial damage output, 10 Dodge, 20 Avoid and 20 Evade for peak gains.
Here are a few helpful images of a Diamond ZvA Setup, a General Skill Allocation and Bowazon Breakpoints:
Note that Hydra Bow has the same breakpoints as Grand Matron
And that Winged Harpoons & Hyperion Javelins also share the same breakpoints as Matriarchal Javelins
If the images are for whatever reason blocked again, GOOGLE: D2 ias calculator to easily find and understand character breakpoints