Best bow for Faith for both Amazon and merc usage

[rafquad]

As long as you still have to use WWS, I wouldn't do anything but /p1 Pits. Random bosses don't drop more at higher /p settings and XP are equivalent to additional life of monsters. It also reduces the risk of dying, a factor which becomes more and more significant when leveling.

Sorry, I didn't offer much depth about that. When I do Pit runs with Bowazons, MF is almost never what I'm looking for (gear is too restrictive). I do those runs for gems/charms/jewels/white/socketables and, obviously, runes. I think that is why I have Ohm and Jah before I have a Razortail I know bosses drop the same at higher psettings, but the regular monsters drop a higher volume of stuff at higher psettings. p5 is usually too slow, but p3 is a good enough pace, I've found. Even with WWS setup.

A Giant Skull is an excellent choice because it has what Faith doesn't have in comparison to WF: Knockback, the ultimate life insurance for bowazons. Just don't socket it with any IAS stuff of value at this point. Once you have Faith, you don't need further IAS and you better socket it with something else.

Actually, for Blade Bow I need 45-50 IAS (and 65-70 IAS for speed 0 like Ward), on top of Fanaticism, for 7-frame Multiple Shot, right? LoH provides 20% and I need 45-50% from other gear, and Giant Skull's open sockets seemed like a fine choice. Burgomaster's reminded me of Treachery, though, so there's that too!

Crow Caw is a heavy armor which slows down running speed. I would prefer Twitchthroe. I wouldn't upgrade it, however, the additional AR isn't worth it. Either you have a really good armor rating or you ignore it altogether. Stay away from monsters, your new Giant Skull will help at that a lot!

Oh I know defense is meaningless for this particular build, but I already have an upped TT, and since the STR req is meaningless compared to other things there is no harm, right?

OK, as long as you are using WWS. When you have Fort+Faith, I would maximize resists with Aldur's or Natalya's boots or a nice pair of rares, so CS and WSK becomes safer - or even convenient

Cool, I'll keep that in mind. I am not prioritizing resistances atm so yeah, I will need that if I run the more dangerous areas.

Razortail is a must for a bowazon, so once you've found it, put it on immediately!

Oh, I know. Just waiting to get one. In the meantime, since I can get to 70% pierce anyway with skills + gear, it's working out just fine. This build is a pure bowa, even after Valkyrie I have enough skill points to plant a skill tree (quoting Nightfish).

As soon as you replace Nos' Coil with Razorztail, you need a dual leech ring here.

Right. Will keep on gambling/looking, no luck yet

To be honest, I would not make Faith in anything but a +3 GMB. Mercs are too dumb for actions as sophisticated as going to a place which is probably safe and attack from there. If you insist on it, I would use a great bow. Ihe quicker the bow, the more often their elemental attack is applied.

Thing is, Faith Mercs are nice for a variety of cool builds, right? To go along a Windforce bowie too, I've heard. So I want to make it in a non-specific bow. But, since all I have right now is an upped WWS, I'm trying to compromise my bow choice so that it is bot 1. non-specific and 2. can be placed in an act 1 merc. I know speed and damage are mostly irrelevant for when I finally place it on a merc, but in the meantime my bowie will fire Faith herself, which is what led me to this topic. If I wanted the Faith for the zon only or the merc only, GMB and Blade Bow are the best individual choices considering dmg (zon) and requirements/speed (merc). The fact that I want to compromise between both uses is why this has become a dilemma, heh.

Right now, I have:
12% sup Great Bow
15% +3 sup Blade Bow
14% sup Ward Bow
plain 4os Diamond Bow

I am discarding Diamond since I have a 14% Ward, and I am also discarding Great Bow because the STR requirement is too high for my bowie (121 means that I still need 16 more points even considering +10 from War Traveler on top of the 95 req for the boots) and Great Bow doesn't deal enough more damage in comparison to Blade Bow to justify the higher str req. The Ward Bow looks like a good option, though.

@Gripphon: did you use a superior or plain Diamond Bow? Care to share what builds/characters have used the bow, either on the character or on the merc? I could use a few ideas, specially about builds that like an act1 fanat merc!

Thanks a lot for all the input, ppl.

 

[krischan]

Faith mercs might be interesting once you have everything involving act 2 mercs, but your resources seems to be a bit limited so far. I really wouldn't put so many resources into a merc as long as you are limited regarding your main characters. A bowazon with Faith and Fortitude can do everything without a merc (who will die all the time in CS and WSK). She will have plenty of skill points, in particular if you have a GMB with +3 to bow skills, so you can maximize your valkyrie (the best tank in the game!), put a few points into magic arrow and also invest into guided arrow which is a very nice act boss attack because it always hits... and apart from the bonus damage, GA needs less mana at higher skill levels which is pretty useful versus Diablo.

My recommendation regarding a merc is an act 2 nightmare offensive one (with a might aura) with an Obedience polearm, Treachery armor and Andariel's Visage with a Ral rune (which compensates its fire res penalty). Mine is dead most of the time, by the way.

 

[Gripphon1]

@Gripphon: did you use a superior or plain Diamond Bow? Care to share what builds/characters have used the bow, either on the character or on the merc? I could use a few ideas, specially about builds that like an act1 fanat merc!

Thanks a lot for all the input, ppl.

It was superior. I used it only on amazon, a bit playing her against monsters randomly to see how she goes running wsk, cs, pit, cows and such areas. Second build I used it on is icezon running Travincal and AT. Nothing else. I'm not really in the merc-faith camp. Only char I thought about using it for was with Pindle zerker, but gave up on the idea eventually.

 

[Korlic]

Find a Grand Matron bow with +3 bowskills (and 4 sockets?)

Don't worry about a merc bow right now. Make another when you get the runes. In most cases an act II merc is the best option anyway.

Also consider Windforce might be a better option than Faith!

 

[rafquad]

Problem is, a +3 4os GMB is going to be such a pain to find they don't even drop that often. Recently I found a +2 white one, but socketing it got me 2os only....

I'll keep looking, but I am very close to giving in to my 4os superior Ward Bow.

And yes, Windforce is great, too bad I never found one, ever, in about a decade worth of Diablo2...