Guide:Pit Strafer Guide v1.10, by Shanksie: Difference between revisions

This guide describes a Bowazon who specializes in Strafe to clear out [[The Pit]] and is competent at other PvM tasks as well.

After reading these forums for some time you see the same old questions asked over and over again, so I am writing this guide with the aim of having all (well most) of the answers in one place.

This guide is mainly geared to a strafer using a Windforce as it seems that everyone finds a WF then thinks “I’ll make a strafer to run the pits”, other bows are of course mentioned, but the bulk of this guide is WF based. The build is Hell viable with many of the main bows/xbows, but imho it only excels with a high damage bow.

* Str – enough for gear – extra str doesn’t give extra damage.

* Dex – as much as you can spare – more dex = more damage.

Those who have already have the items before building the char are at an advantage as you can easily work out where to stop investing in strength, but as I guide I’d say you can go up to 95 easily (for WT’s / 97 for Eagle)), any more than that will be bow dependent – Windforce mainly – 134 str rqd.

* Strafe – 20

* Penetrate – 20

All points spent in the passive tree also benefit your merc/valk so I always prefer to spend them there as opposed to trying to hybrid my zon with either J&S skills or the Cold / Fire arrow branches.

This main area for debate over equipment is the balance between IAS (increased attack speed) and mf (magic find). Personally I have played with both full mf (30IAS) and full IAS (120IAS) and have to mention that the killing speeds are not that different. I will try and list both mf and IAS options so you can try both sides for yourself. I also realise that IAS can be added to helm, armour and bow via socketing but I will leave those permutations up to you as there are far too many to list here.

These tables have all been taken from the Amazon FAQ at the top of this (and every) page via the left hand side drag down menu.

For me there is only one choice for a strafer – the Act2 Nightmare Offensive Might merc. My reasons are:

* Act2 – because we will equip him with a Reapers Toll weapon and this is of huge significance to the build.

* Atmas Scarab amulet has 5% chance to cast Amp damage.

* There are other sources of both Amp and decrepify and rares can spawn with either as a mod.

As with everything in D2 ppl have many ways to do things and each prefer there own methods/ideas. As we are going to be a pure strafer, with no non physical attack bar a few optional pdsc’s we are going to have problems in certain areas – Act2 and Act 3 spring to mind so if you are levelling by questing you really need to party for these acts. It is possible to solo quest the whole game, but the PI ghosts in both acts are a real pain for our strafer.

Whichever you choose sooner or later you will want to venture into the pits to start mf’ing.

Start small and solo the pits in a single game and work your way up to a “difficulty” you are happy with at your level. The pits are an excellent place to level up our merc, so keeping him alive is a priority, and going back to town as soon as he is dead is sensible too. Once you both are lvl 75 (or higher) you should be ready to make things harder for yourself, thus increasing the drops and the exp gained.

11. The pits are not like Meph, where some rare/unique/set drops every run, some runs will produce nothing better than a flawless gem or 2, but the beauty of the pits is that unlike meph anything and everything can drop. So many runs are needed to produce results and I am dubious regarding some ppl’s claim to have found x shakos, y Stormsheilds and x Tal’s armours in 10 runs.

After the feedback from the draft it became clear that there was some call for a section that discussed modifications to gear/charms/skills with the goal of helping our strafer in other areas of the game. In her current state, she is not limited to endless pit runs, and there are other areas that can be mf’ed with no changes made. These include – Eld / Shenk & Pindle but I am sure there are more. Personally I am happy to take her into a baal run with no changes made to the existing setup, but others may cringe at the thought of -60 res all and Burning Souls.

Both 3 & 4 need a lot of pre planning and so I won’t spend too much time on them, instead I will concentrate on the 2 aspects of any character that can be changed easily and quickly.

Because a strafer gets damage from gear and not skills it means that a highly efficient strafer is not a cheap build to make. So if you are new/poor then I’d suggest a sorc to run meph to get a supply of good gear and tradable.

Again I will stress that WF / BoTD are you main aims, as both provide the killing power we need. Rare bows have the possibility to spawn with as good, if not better mods than a WF, but I’d guess they are even rarer/costly than the WF. There are other good bows out there, but they all require alterations and sacrifices in order to fit the main mods on our zon.

Open Wounds / Crushing blow / Deadly strike – are all useful, and if you want to sacrifice some mf, then they can certainly help your killing speed.

With the above build, and depending on how high you level her and +skills gear, you will certainly have 20+ spare skill points to spend. For those who don’t want to, or can’t rely on the merc to solve the PI issue, then investing skill points in either the J&S or B&XB tree can provide a second form of attack.

It is possible to alter the stat point distribution, but this really needs planning well in advance and obviously can’t be undone at a later time, so tinker at your peril.

It seems that I failed to get my versatility message across with my first attempt. (But it does say some things I like so it’s staying). The main point I failed to get across was this guide is for a pit running strafer, and this is why I suggest the gear that I do, and why I place such emphasis on a WF.

I just suggest a WF because if I had to play a naked character in the pits, equipped with just a bow, no armour, boots, gloves, jewellery, charms etc, I would pick a WF.

I don’t pvp, and from what I can gather the WF is banned in many duels due to the Knock back mod. I may in the future try pvp’ing using a different bow. I am sure some ppl pvp with strafers, but from what I have read elsewhere a bowazon is not the best char for pvp.

(For those that care)

* Tal’s Mask “pt”

** 397-2250 // 642-4133

This guide is simply a collection of replies I have given regarding my experiences with strafing in the pits; everything is open to opinion/preference and budget. In D2 there are very rarely right/wrong ways of doing things and I am sure everyone disagrees with some point of this guide. I am equally sure I have missed points/items/strategies/options etc; this wasn’t an attempt to produce a definitive list, more a summary of what has worked/failed for me in my time pitting.

I hope it has helped those that read it needing help and I wish you all better luck mf’ing in the pits than I seem to have had.