Anything Goes D2 Lounge!

[SirName]

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I think banned accounts are not viewable for “vanilla” forumites.

 

[maxicek]

My memory wasn't quite correct, it was Silence, not BoTD. I'm getting bits of the story mixed up.

Spoiler: TL;DR fb story

farting bob was a very well known and active member in the forum, before my time. He showed a Silence RW in a thread.

The Hydra bow was ilvl99, and got called out on it. He then admitted downloading an item pack and got banned. Many players also got burnt by this as he traded quite a bit.

To answer the question better: I don't recally anyone making a BoTD ever. If I was going to do a magezon, I would consider before BoTD:
Faith
Ice
Melody
Mist
Insight
Call to Arms

all in a Mat Bow for speed.

 

[LouB]

@drmalawi I didn't think any of the Amazon bows could have six sockets either, but wanted to check before I posted. I went to the PureDiablo section on equipment and found this:


Note that it also says that Ceremonial Javelins can have up to six sockets!

 

[Helvete]

That data is probably taken from some of the game files, and hasn't been filtered. Some orbs should be listed as 4 sockets as well.

 

[Swamigoon]

To answer the question better: I don't recall anyone making a BoTD ever. If I was going to do a magezon, I would consider before BoTD:
Faith
Ice
Melody
Mist
Insight
Call to Arms

all in a Mat Bow for speed.

Thanks, maxicek. I think the BotD mods I want most for a magezon are its IAS and mana-stealing, but I should be able to get sufficient mana leech from another equipment slot. CtA looks interesting. I already have made and stashed a +3 B&X matriarchal bow with Melody, so I'll probably use that. Melody's knockback could get annoying, but careful knockbacks against obstacles should still let me ignite some effective Immolation Arrow bonfires. Its physical damage is languid, so I may have to look for a better switch-weapon-slot bow to use against fire immunes.

I still insist on playing vanilla 1.14 LoD (no RWM), so for now I have forfeited the privilege of making those other runewords you listed.

Here's what Wmeredith said in his 2006 Guide to Runewords and your Bow:
...-You could just pin a badge on your sleeve that says "n00b" and you would get a similar effect. ... This bow is not all that bad, but in terms of style, grace, and general 1337ness, it effing blows. It's kind of like wearing a Dolce & Gabbana tux that's mustard yellow. It was expensive and serves a purpose, but we're all sure that you're a moron.

With all the errors, falsehoods, and arrogant opinions I posted (and had to later correct) throughout my MPG skills census posts, I think I already branded myself a confirmed n00b, so a BotD bow would suit my reputation accurately. (By the way, LouB, your Frenzy deep-dive thread was sublime.)

A mageazon using freezing arrows or immolation or exploding arrows would probably like the poison nova since it prevents healing in a group of monsters, just like her skills damage a group. She is also short on damage and leeching and the rune word provides both. To me it sounds like an uncommonly well suited rune word for the kind of character.

Then again, the fact that someone has called it heresy is more than enough reason for me to go for it ...

Maltatai's peer-pressure powers of influence over me keep getting stronger. Must . . . resist . . .

 

[SirName]

@Swamigoon perhaps Blood Ravens Charge could be considered? 4 to bow & xbow skills (best roll). No knockback and huge AR boost (200-300% roll) which will come in handy as AR is bugged for bow skills in LoD. More hits -> more penetrations. Has some physical damage too.

 

[krischan]

Wmeredith doesn't like slow bows, but BotD also gives you a huge 60% IAS. Another issue with the 6 socket runewords is that you can't put them in a GMB or Matriarch bow. The only Amazon bow that has 6 sockets is the Exceptional Ceremonial Bow.

A L12-15 fanaticism aura probably provides more speed than 60%IAS on bows if you have a setup with IAS from many other sources. Also, Jah+Ohm are easier to obtain than Zod+Vex on single player. I would never make a BotD bow. My one and only D2R Zod is from cubing up 2 Chams and it went into BotD in a GPA.

Considering that, Faith is the best for physical bowazons in my opinion, followed by Windforce, then Mist and then BotD. Insight, upgraded Goldstrike Arch and Buriza are pretty OK as well.

By the way, I've seen people using Faith in a non-amazon bow on amazons. Why that? Perhaps because it's from times when act 1 mercenaries couldn't wear amazon bows? Or because it's taken from a non-amzon character using Faith? Or because they didn't pick up matriarchal or grand matron bows in time? It can't be base speed or damage, as a matriachal bow is faster than any bow that can have 5 sockets and a grand matron bow deals more damage than any other bow.

@Swamigoon perhaps Blood Ravens Charge could be considered? 4 to bow & xbow skills (best roll). No knockback and huge AR boost (200-300% roll) which will come in handy as AR is bugged for bow skills in LoD. More hits -> more penetrations. Has some physical damage too.

You mean to say that knockback is bad for bows? I think it's awesome! My bowazon wears a Giant Skull just to have it! Her act 5 mercenary wears Azurewrath for even more of it versus undead. Very few enemies can come close to her!

 

[Luhkoh]

@krischan I can say in LoD i made my faith in a non amazon bow, so that mercs could use it. Additionally, plus skills dont make much difference on a physical bowa, plus there aren't any 0 speed amazon bows, which have a good speed/dmg mix, and they have favorable stat requirements (I made mine in a diamond bow).

All that being said, the merc was the main reason, so yeah I can't see a reason to do so in d2r unless you have some other niche non-zon build that needs it.

 

[Swamigoon]

@krischan Yes, knockback is bad for my current character, because I'm making an Immolation Arrow build. Knockback can interfere with that skill.

@SirName You're right, BRC could be a good weapon switch bow. It worked really well when I used it on my strafer a couple of years ago. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[LouB]

@krischan My one and only Faith is in a Diamond bow. I wasn't really into Amazons but did like Rogue mercs( before Rogues could equip Amazon gear. However, I specifically made it for my Ranger Paladin so it would still not have been in an Amazon bow. I used @art_vandeley Faith Guide which did an exhaustive analysis on the best bow to make Faith in. He chose a Diamond bow over the Matriarch bow for a first Faith bow primarily because of the rarity of Jah runes and the result of not getting a level 15 Fanaticism for a bowazon. I think it is still a reasonable analysis.

 

[Swamigoon]

Has anyone else noticed that the smiling blow-dart fetishes and flayers in act 3 look a little bit like Baryl, the drummer from the Interstella 5555 music videos for Daft Punk's Discovery album?

 

[Luhkoh]

@Nano thanks for making that tz adjeff comparison chart. I've referenced it a ton. Do you already have calculated what the adjeff of a tz baal run is? I'll calc it myself if not, but figured I'd be lazy and ask if you'd already done it first.

 

[Nano]

@Luhkoh I'm glad the TZ adjeff data could be of use.

Yes, I did have an extra entry for TZ Baal runs. It's in the 2nd last row of the "Spoiler: Raw TZ Data" table in my MFO post.
P1 Waves (SU + Minions) + P3 Baal, with 488 MF Blizz Sorc = 1.749 adjeff
The idea for this run was to see what adjeff can be achieved just by getting to Baal as quickly as possible. It does not factor in additional mobs from clearing throne.

Also, I should have noted that the TZ Diablo runs factor in drops from the 3 seal bosses (no minions).

 

[Luhkoh]

Thank you @Nano! not sure why I didn't look in the spoilers, my bad. That all makes sense to me. Yes it's definitely of use! I'm looking forward to testing out different things in d2r so much. But since I started from scratch, it will likely be awhile before i meaningfully contribute. Also sidenote, but I originally was thinking I would play d2r with no tzs, but ended up just deciding to not allow tz act bosses. I was debating allowing baal which is why i asked about the adjeff!

 

[Luhkoh]

@PhineasB we doing rfl this year?

 

[PhineasB]

Yes! It’s been quite a last few months, but I will have some time this weekend to post a thread to gauge availability. I was thinking last week of March start for round 1 maybe, similar format as last year:

RFL When and Format?

Hi SPF! It's that time of year! As shown here (scroll down a bit, although recent ones aren't updated yet), for the last few years we've had Rune Finding League in the spring. So I wanted to gauge interest and availability for RFL, if it starts in early April. For quick reference of what's...

www.purediablo.com

 

[Luhkoh]

@PhineasB sounds awesome. Cant wait. First tourney since i've been back to forum. My vote will be for as late as possible and for cows round first just because I'm still gearing up my chars . But I'll participate anytime!

 

[BullHorn]

I spent quite a while grinding in offline, learned how the map seed impacts loot generation and you can literally force specific item/hr drops, weapon racks (for example

...), etc, it completely killed my interest in the singleplayer aspect of Diablo 2.

I tried online but quickly discovered endless 'fair' ways to get an unfair advantage - like multiboxing with 8 accounts for /p8 exp and giving yourself BO+Chant, parking 8 characters in a Hell game to get 8 dclone kills to trade unid annis, etc.

At this point the only way for me to regain interest and reinstall is if Activision ever add a solo-self-found online-only mode kind of like how GGG does in POE1/2. I really love the concept of locking a character save on a server without the ability for any weird shenanigans.

 

[DarkMaster]

I spent quite a while grinding in offline, learned how the map seed impacts loot generation and you can literally force specific item/hr drops, weapon racks (for example

...), etc, it completely killed my interest in the singleplayer aspect of Diablo 2.

I tried online but quickly discovered endless 'fair' ways to get an unfair advantage - like multiboxing with 8 accounts for /p8 exp and giving yourself BO+Chant, parking 8 characters in a Hell game to get 8 dclone kills to trade unid annis, etc.

At this point the only way for me to regain interest and reinstall is if Activision ever add a solo-self-found online-only mode kind of like how GGG does in POE1/2. I really love the concept of locking a character save on a server without the ability for any weird shenanigans.

I mean... just don't farm racks? They're pretty much exclusively the only drops that can be manipulated like this, everything else gets their RNG reseeded too often that there's no way to "force" anything in particular to drop.

 

[Luhkoh]

@BullHorn I assume you’re talking about that stuff where you can use the -seed command to get infinite bers or other stuff? That’s both no fun and against the forum rules. But also most of us here love single player offline