The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

shwick

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Oct 4, 2009
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The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Im making a theoretical build for a 7fps strafe/ms bowazon.

Please look for errors, or reply with any suggestions or answers to my questions.

************************ Gear ************************
weapon: Windforce (socketed with Shael)
armor: Fortitude Archon Plate
helm: Andariel's Visage (socketed with 15%ias/40%ed jewel)
gloves: Laying of Hands
boots: War Traveler
belt: Razortail
ring: Raven Frost
ring: Raven Frost
amulet: Atma's
charms:
Annihilus
Gheed's Fortune
Hellfire Torch

Act 1 Roge Merc (Cold) with Faith Great Bow , at least lvl 13 Fanaticism

************************ Skills ************************
110 in total (98 from lvls + 12 from quests)

Bow & Crossbow
20 Strafe
8 Multishot
1 Cold Arrow
1 Guided Arrow
1 Magic Arrow

Passive & Magic
20 Penetrate
16 Critical Strike
5 Pierce
20 Valk
5 Dodge
5 Avoid
5 Evade
1 Innter Sight
1 Slow Missles
1 Decoy

************************ Attributes ************************
Str: 134 (after bonuses, Windforce requirement)
Vit: base
Dex: rest

************************ Explanation ************************
The lifesteal is taken care of by Andariel's Visage, the manasteal by Windforce.
Raven Frost allows for not to be frozen.
Attack rating comes from Atma's and two Ravenfrost.
Get additional life from charms.
Atma's takes care of PI.
Put less into pierce because of the additional 33% from razortail.
Crit strike gets 16 because there are enough +all skills to bring it to 20, returns diminish after.


Assuming lvl 13 Fanaticism or higher on Faith, 95%ias is needed for 7fps attack animation.
40%ias Windforce + Shael
20%ias Andariel's Visage
15%ias/40%ed jewel in Andariel's Visage
20%ias Laying of Hands
total = 95%ias

************************ Edits ************************
-changed vit to base
 
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Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Yeah thats the factory standard specs for your MS/Strafezon. Just a few flaws - most obviously, you cant have an A2 Might merc wield a Faith bow :) In fact, no merc can wield an Amazon-only bow. What you want is an A1 Rogue merc (probably cold) with a Faith Great Bow or Blade Bow. And Faith gives you Fanaticism, not Frenzy.

Secondly, you probably want your Fort in a Great Hauberk or Archon Plate. Balrog Skin is classified as medium armor, so it'll give you a -5% FRW penalty.

Third, you only need L16 Critical Strike after +skills...past that, returns really diminish and its not worth the extra points. I'd rather have a few more points in MS for a fuller, wider volley.

Lastly, BK ring is an ineffective choice. You already have LL on Andy's, and you dont benefit much at all from +skills. Another Raven will give you a big AR boost and up to 20 more dex (= +20% off weapon ED); +dex rare, crafted, or magic rings can give you dex and life, resists, etc.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Again: More gear choices.

And if you're going to make a guide, make it better than the already existing ones.
check out the stickies.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Thanks for finding those errors droid I fixed them.

This isn't a general guide its just a factory build for myself I put together after reading some guides.

I just wanted it critiqued/examined.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Yeah wheres he ever claim it to be a guide? I never got that, dont be so quick to judge :)

And you missed the part about CS...you only need 12 hard points, so 16 after torch+anni. That means you can get MS up to 12 as well (16 after +skills), which means 17 arrows per volley, which should give you decent enough coverage and range.

I find a lot of people here underestimate the benefit of pumping MS past the dozen or so arrows most builds prescribe....it doesnt make much difference when you're firing a tight volley, but it does allow you to fire a wide volley (by shift-clicking right in front of your char) that doesnt start having gaping holes in the coverage after half a screen or so. That really makes a difference in wide open zones like River of Flame/CS
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

@druid: He got +6 skills since he's using Andy's ugly face. So, 8 points gives 15 arrows, which I find plenty in most cases.

Speaking of that, you only need 3 in pierce to get the magical +9. I would have gone for 1 point D/A/E myself and add points into decoy for a buffer valk. By the way, I used the exact same build before, and is rather pleased with it for running high player Chaos Sanctuary. The only thing I can say is stack a bunch of +max/AR charms on top of this.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

It's certainly a solid build. With the +skills though, you should have more than enough D/A/E %. I think investing 5 hard points into each is a big waste, you should never really need help from these skills. 1 point into each should be optimal.

I'd move the extra 12 (!) saved points to max out Critical Strike, increase Pierce (so you can remove the torch to prevent fire-lag-dropping certain games and still have 100% Pierce), or more Multiple Shot for a better covered spread.

Diminishing returns on Critical Strike is a weak argument, because when you deal around max 6,000 damage, even a meager 3% increase means a potential of extra 180 damage, 360 under Amp... which can add up pretty fast considering the amount of arrows shot. And the defensive skills available to Amazons aren't even that great.

Andariel's "ugly as ****" Visage has the downside... of being ugly. :) It's probably close to optimal, but I'd take a 120/45 Tiara (dream item: 120/45 on a Jeweler's Diadem of Perfection) and swap a Raven for a rare Life Steal/STR/DEX ring.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

I use exacly the same equipment except instead of a second raven i have a rare ring with 6% life leech 17 str 13 dex some ar and resists.

I also use goreriders instead of wartravelers. I still wonder which of these two add more damage over time since no one could answer that question in my last thread :(

I regret putting so much points into vit i think i have 150 base there giving me almost 900 hp. You can easily do with base vit!!

Even better would be to use a faith bow yourself and have an act2 merc with concentration + might aura. I think it does more damage but i can't afford it yet.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

@Dogbert: It's very situational and hard to find a clear winner. War Travelers' +damage is applied every arrow of MS, while the crush chance of Gores only applies to the 2 central arrows. For Strafe, crushing is applied every arrow, so against big act bosses Gores win out - the Deadly Strike is also a meaningful bonus and I think it is applied every arrow of MS. I usually wear Travs due to a personal bias (+Str, MF, damage) and because I'm more of a MS fan. I've never done much of a math to see how the 15-25 damage from Travs would compare to Gores' Deadly Strike when MS'ing, though.

Agreed on base Vitality.

And WF+Faith merc is the strongest choice. If you happen to meet a Hammerdin in a game (which is like, lol 100% of games), under his Concentration Aura you'll shoot up even farther ahead of the Faith-wielding zon due to WF's superior base damage. Not to mention other physical characters with Might mercs, that are also common.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

I agree with Dog, Gore's and Faith for self-use with a A2 Pride/Might merc with +4 all skills from Chains/Shako is the hands best solo damage dealer.

You're also providing triple aura's to any bums that group with you who don't have their own.

You have two tanks, which has up's and down's, and a good decoy.

I went with 165 Str, 100 Vit base in order to wear medium armors because I love the armored Zon look and survive without life charms.

You can skim 3 points from MS, 3 points from Pierce, 3 from Penetrate and put 7 of them into Decoy and 2 into Avoid. This boosts your Valk and provides you with a stronger decoy meat shield/lightning blocker/gloam target and the extra points into Avoid helps you reach the level when diminishing returns kicks in. Nothing worse than a ranged attacker who gets killed from PvM ranged attacks.. ;)
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Well i think you're both right. Hector is talking about teaming up with a hammerdin who has a higher concentration aura than yourself while sunny is talking about in general where there might not be a hammerdin around.

Hector thanks for your reply about gore vs wartraveler but you forgot that goreriders also have open wounds.
Is this mod so bad it doesn't even deserve a mention? :)

Oh i didn't know crushing only applies to the 2 central arrows when using multi. I'm not using strafe much except vs single tough targets so i guess wartravelers might be a better choice for me.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Of course, the only problem with act 2 merc is the moron will have a probability of 100% killing himself with IM as the number of runs gets large, either Chaos or WSK.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

How durable is an A1 merc through these zones for stragglers, gloams/suicide bombers, etc?

I feel the merc AI is worse than the Valk's who will go after things like a pitbull and the A2 merc is at my ankles like a scared yip yap dog far away from Starbucks.. :p

If the A1 is still susceptible to dying, why limit your potential? If anything, the A2 merc loaded to the gills makes for some impressive screen shots of the character panel. aka bragging rights.

I'm debating on making my Faith compatible with an A1 merc, but I never ran with one. Or an A2. When I played, rune words didn't exist and merc's were pointless cannon fodder and it's nice to see things have changed. Thanks for the different point of view!
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

what are you guys talking about? my act1 merc never dies except when she is stupid and tanks diablo's lightning.
the act2 merc combo obviously does more dmg but he will die to iron maiden.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

How durable is an A1 merc through these zones for stragglers, gloams/suicide bombers, etc?
Depends on where you run. If it is Chaos/pit, that merc dies less than my character. WSK is a bit more difficult, but given my zon's own resist, I wouldn't tempt fate.



 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Removing 4 points each from D/A/E.
Removing 2 points from pierce to get lvl 9 after bonuses.

This leaves 14 points to spend.

Does anyone know how much critical strike increases after lvl 20? If it's 1% per lvl that would be good enough for me. Thinking of boosing it from 16 to 20. i.e. what would it be at lvl 26?

Why is Pierce so magical at lvl 9? Does the 33% from razortail stack additively, as in 33% + 69%? Or does it stack with diminishing returns.
And what is this "increase pierce to remove the torch to prevent fire-lag-dropping certain games"?

Anyways I'm thinking,
4 points into CS, 16->20.
10 points into decoy, 1->11.

Also, reducing vit to base.
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Yes, Pierce stacks additively with Razortail so it will be 100% at Level 9 (69% + 33%). I can't remember if it is capped at 95% or 100% though... don't remember the discussions around it but it seems capped at 5 targets.

The idea behind increasing Pierce is to not depend on the Torch's +3 skills. So instead of adding say, 5 to Pierce and count on +1 to Anni and +3 from Torch (total 9), you'd add 8 to Pierce and have +1 from Anni. That's because the Torch has 25% to cast Firestorm (happens often due to zons firing speed), that lags multiplayer games and can drop everyone from the game. If it bothers you, you may want to not count on having a torch (thus the additional 3 points in Pierce to compensate for the loss on Torch's +3), but if you don't spam too much, it shouldn't be an issue.

Base Vit is a good thing.

I don't have a Critical Strike chart here. Not sure about the 20 to 26 increase. Not sure either about the Level 10-11 Decoy (never felt I needed more defense than a good level Valk), I'll let others comment. :)
 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Wow that torch problem is ridiculous... I hope they fix that in 1.13. Zons not being able to use torch gives them a disadvantage.

In that case I would have only 12 points available

1 point into pierce, 5->6 (+3 all from andy's/anni)
4 points into CS, 16->20
3 points into dodge 1->4
2 points into avoid 1->3
2 points into evade 1->3

All those points put back into avoid skills to make up for what was lost from torch. Why would I even bother getting that horrible item.
 
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Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

Wow that torch problem is ridiculous... I hope they fix that in 1.13. Zons not being able to use torch gives them a disadvantage.

In that case I would have only 12 points available

1 point into pierce, 5->6 (+3 all from andy's/anni)
4 points into CS, 16->20
3 points into dodge 1->4
2 points into avoid 1->3
2 points into evade 1->3

All those points put back into avoid skills to make up for what was lost from torch. Why would I even bother getting that horrible item.
I still wouldn't bother with upping D/A/E even if you are not using the torch. Anyways, the torch is fine in solo games, but a bit more of a problem in full Baal games.



 
Re: The 7fps Strafe/MS PvM Bowazon

It's not just full baal games. I was doing chaos santuary with a paladin and a leecher yesterday and i spammed multi as usual with torch when all of a sudden i get this connection interrupted booting me from the game.

I have never got it while playing solo though but it sure sucks.
 
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