What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

[Angelbound]

What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Hi all im getting back into d2, and I deffinatly dont want some typical boring way to mf like the sorc or fishymancer, nor does pally interest me in general.

I thought about amazon and realized they are truly a hybrid so im looking for a versatile build where I can mf in many areas kind of like the fishymancer, I did find the fishyzon build but im not sure if its still viable and found the guide not very good.

Anyways, if you want to link thats fine to thanks for reading my post everyone.

Oh and just fyi I do have some decent items like a stormshield and titans but I dont have alot of stuff.

 

[Lizardking]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

I think fishymancer guide is the best guide around imo... It's really big and has much valuable information. I'm following it right now after half year being off diablo. I'm searching my own gear as i lvl up. The least dependant mf zone is (in my opinion) the lighting zone. Just lighting fury (or was it the other one ? The one who throws javalins and releases lighting) and a good valk. I always had some pierce skillpoints, decoy is always nice if you aren't that strong. Some good setups are:

just a 3 socketed mask with ptopazzes (always did good for me).
vipermagi
titan's (your most expensive item , 10 pgems or so)
a nice shield, you're looking for mana leech, mana after x kill, MF and so on. Rhyme has it all !
some yellow gloves which you can find @ mephisto or andy @ normal. (same goes for the boots). You are looking for resistance (try keeping ~30 resistance all in NM so you can mf there for better stuff).
You can choose for cathans jewelery or nagel ring + eye of etlich. This set will give you ~40 mf + a nice 1+ skill.
As a belt, i don't know, you can try to get a thundergods. It isn't that much worth (say lem).

for the skills :
1 in jab, power strike, poison java,lighting bolt.
20 charged bolt (i rly like this skill for my left mouse button. It is your primary weapon if you are stuck with low mana and you want to leech some back)
20 lighting fury (your primary attack for long range. This is the sniper of whole diablo)

for the passive tree:
1 in inner sight, slow missle, decoy, critical strike penetrate
17 in valkyre (he gets his new armor then)
16 in pierce (that gives you 82 percent, let the + skills to the work)
And if you want not to be hit that much (you don't if you play smart) you can put some in the mid section of the passive tree, the avoid ect).

How to play:
Try to play with your low-med gear in nightmare. This always works for me if i have low gear, i mf in nightmare, get good stuff and can get to hell.
You just summon your valk, have a nice akt 2 merc (i like might and holy freeze but all are very usefull) and go out where you want to mf let's say CS. Try to play with your decoy and place your shots with lighting fury so you hit the most possible mobs. You will gain nice mana from your leech. Once you are @ the seals, place a decoy before the spawn of the bosspacks. They'll forget about you (with your deadly java's) your merc (with it insight (rly, get this one. i prefer it over my own gear) and also forget about your strong valk. You'll kick *** in the more difficulty part of the game on nightmare. You can run mephi, andy, cows if you want and baal. Just somewhat everything. Make sure you have all your slaves (merc, valk) if you go in bossfight and try to fight with your charged strike (also goes for single mobs who aren't in a pack, don't waste your fury on them.

This is somewhat of a mini guide, i'm not good @ writing them but i hope it helps you. The +'s and -'s of this zon:

+strong, can take up much monsters @ the same time, nice valk and a nice gameplay imo.
-your mana bulb is going to suffer, only ~1000 damage on your fury with some +skills but it's enough on nm before you get some good stuff.

i give this zon a great 8/10.

also try this guide, i luv'd it and it was my second (first on mf) char ever :

http://strategy.diii.net/news.php?id=591

Oh yeah another tip, just socket your stuff with Ptopazzes !

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

In my opinion, starting with a sorc or fishymancer still is the best option. playing amazons without any equipment isn't that easy/fun. However, I do think they are a very good second character.

However, you seems to have atleast some items, so going for amazons is a good idea. The first thing you have to do is choice a place you want to run. Not every place in the game interesting, so making a mf character that can't rune everywhere isn't really the best option. Focus on a few places and then have a look how you can make that build run other places.
And in addition to this, choice what items are your goals, do you want uniques/rare or do you want to hunt for socketable items? Perhaps keys - though fast teleport is useful here.


So let us see what you places you could run.
Alvl 85. These are the pit, the mausoleum and the ancient tunnels. Often run by bowazon as there aren't that many monsters to make lf shine while having lots of Li. Cold immunes aswell. If you think you can get the items, consider going for a gunslinger.
cows. Super lots of cow easily killed with lightning fury. Can be farmed for both socketabe items and uniques. You can get lots of interesting items, though some interesting items aren't findable. The best build is a pure lightning amazon without infinity, however any build with max lightning fury and max pierce can run this one.
Chaos sanctuary. Best build would be a gunslinger. You can combine the perfect mass killing and bosskilling with the multitarget skills like strafe and multishot - freezing arrows doesn't work that great. And you can get your bow side strong as you don't need that much life. Bowazon are an other option though aren't that fast when it comes to diablo. If you want to go pure lightning, you need infinity merc that will kill itself on the IM.
WSK. The hardest place to run, therefore a fishyzon or pure lighting amazons is a good option. Bow builds can have problems with low life and low resistance against the souls. If you go with pure lightning, again infinity is needed.

There you go. I would chose a place to run and then read the appropriate guides. If you have question - as not all guides include lots of mf option - lets us know. We'll be glad to help.

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Good suggestions, I see what you mean for the gunslinger build, but how is freezing not good as an option? Im just curious, I dont know with the fishzon guide recommends it over strafe or multi arrow build?

I know I want a hybrid for sure so it will either be strafe or cold, I can for sure put atleast one point in freezing im assuming right?

But going pure fury is also out of the question for me

 

[Lizardking]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

well you asked for the least gear dependant and a hybrid always need better gear than a pure char... xD

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Ok well im affording some moderate things, so I guess somewhere in the mid, I also read that strafe is extremly gear dependant, I also read that all light fury needs is charged strike, light strike only adds little damage compared to the guide I read.


So If I only need to max cs, and Lf and put 1 in some passives im assuming I can max cold and freezing arrow.

 

[Lizardking]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Ok well im affording some moderate things, so I guess somewhere in the mid, I also read that strafe is extremly gear dependant, I also read that all light fury needs is charged strike, light strike only adds little damage compared to the guide I read.


So If I only need to max cs, and Lf and put 1 in some passives im assuming I can max cold and freezing arrow.

don't forget pierce and valk . Sure you can try to make a hybrid out of it ! Just try it .

 

[KremBanan]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

If you are set for starting with an amazon, I suggest go for a Hybrid(LightningFury/Charged Strike/Strafe), this build doesnt require highlevel items to be good. You can run for example cowlevel fast with items only worth a few pgs.
You will have problems with Lightning Immunes ofc, there the bow and Strafe come in. I would try get a Eaglehorn, it has good damage and is very cheap(few pgs on Europe).

Here is some items that are worth few pgs that will do you good imo:
Eaglehorn bow
Razortail belt
Laying of Hands gloves/rare +2java/20ias gloves
Titans
Spirit Shield
Rare +2ama amulet

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Good suggestions, I see what you mean for the gunslinger build, but how is freezing not good as an option? Im just curious, I dont know with the fishzon guide recommends it over strafe or multi arrow build?

Freezing arrow is a good option. However, you need to look at the situation. In chaos, you will only use your second attack to kill those annoying mage things. These are ranged monsters that don't group up. So if you were to use freezing arrow, you would only hit one monster at a time where strafe or multishot could hit them all at the same time. And they use mana steal attack so strafe is good for leeching aswell.
On the other hand, for wsk - for which the fishy guide was written - freezing arrow is more interesting as it allows you to go with much better life. The lightning immune monsters are of different kind too, and some of them group up nicely making freezing arrow do very good damage - I'm at 2k with medium gear. Assuming 2 pierce this gives you 6k to a each monsters. I can't hit the number with strafe.

P.S. you could go with strafe/freezing arrow. Dacar wrote a guide about it specially for low/cheap equipment. I'm not sure what you would run with it though.
P.P.S. consider going for up'de wws for your gunslinger. it can allow you to keep good resistance easily on bow side. Depending on where you are heading, this can be important. Bit more expansive then eagelhorn though.

@ KremBanan: you can run cows with a pure lightning amazons much faster and probably with more mf aswell. I'd consider giving other place to run with low equipment gunslingers as an example.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

P.P.S. consider going for up'de wws for your gunslinger. it can allow you to keep good resistance easily on bow side. Depending on where you are heading, this can be important. Bit more expansive then eagelhorn though.

It all depends on if he will sacrifise the Lem and Ko for upping a WWS. He is on a budget.

@ KremBanan: you can run cows with a pure lightning amazons much faster and probably with more mf aswell. I'd consider giving other place to run with low equipment gunslingers as an example.

The cowlevel was only an example of an area to run. A pure Java will ofc do cowruns faster, but with Eaglehorn strafe he can do other areas aswell(where there are LIs)

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

The cowlevel was only an example of an area to run. A pure Java will ofc do cowruns faster, but with Eaglehorn strafe he can do other areas aswell(where there are LIs)

I know, question is does Angelbound know?

Guess he goes now for sure.

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Well I cant really see myself wanting a point in valk, I really dont bother with that stuff unless I max it, in the guide I read it sounds max cold and freezing, I want to be able to use java and bow in a hybrid way so which should I choose? And if I choose the other way why should I go strafe over multi? Im just curious thank you.

Yes I know about cows but I do not want to limit myself id rather do a variety of areas it doesnt have to be all of them just a decent amount.

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Thanks all.

 

[KremBanan]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Well I cant really see myself wanting a point in valk, I really dont bother with that stuff unless I max it, in the guide I read it sounds max cold and freezing, I want to be able to use java and bow in a hybrid way so which should I choose? And if I choose the other way why should I go strafe over multi? Im just curious thank you.

I can see you want a point in Valkyrie. When on a budget, killingspeed is lowered, so you will want the best meatshield in the game to cover behind. The Valkyrie is your first line of defence, or actually..it is your defence.

Yes I know about cows but I do not want to limit myself id rather do a variety of areas it doesnt have to be all of them just a decent amount.

Thats why you will want atleast two different types of damage.

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

Right which where I was talking about cold and light, but if strafe is a better option then cold/freeze then im listening, valk may be the best meat shield but there is also your merc and if a sorc can rely on that so can a zon, I cant worry about putting points into valk being a hybrid.

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

If you ask me, even the valk debate is depending on what places you. And with a good build - like the fishyzon - that has freeze, valk isn't needed. Just play smart with decoy - and put some more points in there if you feel it to be weak.
Only think you have to do is get max block and as much as possible life by going for a high block shield, using eth's in your shield or using crafted block amulets.

P.S. Strafe is better if you can get good killing speed with your bow - something like windforce - and if you can get the life and resistance needed to be safe in your area of choice without damaging you damage to much.
Going for an average strafe of 0.5k while you could have 3 k freezing arrows isn't worth the multihit aspect.
P.P.S. if you are on a budget, strafe is probably better. It's only going to be your LI solution so you don't face large packs and with strafe, you don't need to stress your gear for ias at all. Strafe's bugged remember?

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

how many points do you recommend in decoy? Im thinking just maybe I can invest some strafe and it can still be an excellent form of damage in higher difficultys.

But I think being light/cold is alot more fun with me.

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

How many points in decoy depends on how much life you have and how many +skills you have. I'm at 1.6k life with something like 8 +skill and 1 hard point in decoy and I'm very happy with survivability.
So why not safe the points until you hit end game with end game gear - they will be synergy points anyway - and then add points until you are happy.

P.S. going with base - or near base strafe - can be an option. Just remember that your minimum number of arrows will get rather low. And strafing with just 4 arrows isn't that interesting. if you want to go with as many non-lightning points as possible, why not go with an other arrow skill?
guided arrows have auto hit and much better damage. Magic arrows do much more damage as there aren't many magic resisting monsters.

 

[Angelbound]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

I would think cold/freezing considering its synergy has more damage then magic arrow, and more cc for safety.

 

[NASE]

Re: What is the least gear dependant mf zon builds?

yes, but freezing arrow needs up to 40 points. Magic arrow might be useful with much less points - and I thought you wanted a build with maximum points in the lightning synergies.