Bowazon Build Help

[rukz]

Bowazon Build Help

Hello all,

Let me start out by saying that I used to play D2: LOD from the release date until 1.09. Recently I've reinstalled it and am getting addicted again, anyways I wanted to make a bowazon and was thinking about the following skill distribution. Criticism is welcome considering I have been out of the loop for some time.

Bow Tree:
Magic Arrow 1 (pre-req)
Cold Arrow 1 (pre-req)
Multishot 6
Guided Arrow 20
Strafe 20

Passive Tree:
Critical Strike 3
Inner Sight 1 (pre-req)
Dodge 1
Slow M 1
Avoid 1
Penetrate 5
Decoy 1
Peirce 6

I will be using gear that adds +4 all skills +1 bow skills and Faith GM Bow. That is about 68 skill points used. What else should I put points into or should I increase certain skills like Multi? Peirce? Penetrate? Valk? MS will be about 13 arrows with this setup, Valk I was thinking of nto getting because I want a Might Merc.

Thanks for any suggestions

P.S. How to get a might merc again? is it normal or nightmare offensive act 2 merc again? I forget, its been awhile.
-rukz

 

[thefranklin]

Act 2 offensive nm merc is might.

There is really no reason to max both strafe and guided (unless you plan on pvp'ing.) General consensus is putting 5-15 into strafe, as the added damage is counted as off weapon and doesn't really do much.

Pierce is helpful, if you wear razortail you will only need 9 total points to attain 100% pierce. However since you are not going fa you probably could live with 70% or so, depending on where you kill most of your monsters at.

Valks are very good at attracting monsters, with fanaticism and might they are worth getting, but they are more of a meatshield than something that will kill. Getting a valk depends on play style as well.

 

[rukz]

Thanks for the response, what do you mean added damage for strafe is only off-hand? (sorry I'm a little confused). I'll def'n consider a valk, and I do plan on doing a little pvp hence the max guided, but perhaps I won't max strafe.

 

[Virility]

Congrats on the Faith bow, I am hoping to find a GMb for that runeword. There are a couple of skill "points" that seemed to be "just right", having critical strike, pierce > 66%, the last was as much AR as possible.

Regardless of the equipment/bow combinations the set up that gave me the highest AR killed the fastest. I switch out bows, gloves, ammy's depending on where the hunting is, and it is not a small difference in killing speed when my AR is at its highest. A strong valk is essential for killing at range. She can handle lots and lots of cows, black souls and stand toe to toe with PI's at levels 25+. I regret the points spent in the jav tree in retrospect.