Matriarch Bowdicca – The Faithful Enchantress (1.13)

TheNix

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2003
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Matriarch Bowdicca – Bow Wielding, Energy Shield Enchantress

Yes, I did actually play it!


Level: 83

St – 121 (148)
Dx – 107 (148)
Vt – 238 (245)
En – 39 (46)

HP 1051
Mana 547

Resists:

Fire: 75
Cold: 75
Ltning: 75
Poison: 75

Skills:

Enchant: 20 (34 on switch)
Warmth: 20 (29)
Fire Mastery: 20 (28)
Energy Shield: 20 (33 on switch)
Telekinesis: 7 (16)
Static Field: 1 (10)
Prerequisites: 1

AR: 9272 (after BA)
Dam: 6437 – 8614

Defence: 1483

Equipment:

Weapon 1:

“Faith” Great Bow

Weapon 2:

“Leaf” Gnarled Staff (for Enchant)

Or

Warpspear (for Energy Shield)


Harlequin Crest with Silver Jewel of Fervour
“CoH” Archon Plate
Laying of Hands
Gore Rider
Razortail
Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Raven Frost & SoJ

Merc (Act 2 – BA)

Eth Rockstopper
“Duress” Archon Plate
“Infinity” Eth Thresher


Random musings:

This build, on paper at least, looked good. Using an enchanted bow meant there would be no problems in using mana for casting; mana it could be used as reserve hit points. Yay, big win! I thought that I might use Static Field a little against monsters that were PI/FI or against bosses, but nothing too serious. Conviction aura on the merc broke a lot of the FI, so that was a bonus too. The problem arose as I started to become reliant on the strategic use of Teleport, both offensively and defensively. This was not a problem until I hit Hell difficulty. As I had put only a single point in Telekinesis and maxed ES, any moderate hit would immediately strip my mana pool. Add to this the fact that mana burn is quite common in Hell, and I spent a fair amount of time without mana or chugging blue potions. This lack of mana was a contributing factor in the three deaths Bowdicca had during the back half of Hell. The main factor though was my strategic use of Teleport. I could not tell you the number of times I teleported into a pack of monsters. Of course, the moment I did, ES would swallow all the remaining mana and I’d would be standing there with my arse hanging out. The fact I only died three times was, frankly, a miracle! If I were to make this build again (fat chance of that!), I think I would spread the points out a little between ES and Tk to balance the damage reduction and the amount of mana taken from the pool. Perhaps supercharge Static Field and Teleport. Or do something completely out of left field and put my points into Thunder Storm for some passive extra damage.

In the end, I didn’t really enjoy the build much. True, when it worked, it worked beautifully, but there was this vague annoyance that ran through the back half of hell that only got deeper the longer I played. Constant mana disappearances, a merc with a death wish, ES randomly being turned off (what does that?) and making bad teleport choices, all drove me mad. By the time I got to Act 5, I had had enough, and I just bullied my way through the act doing only what I had to do to finish.

The only classes that I have not build a bow wielding character for are the assassin and the necro; maybe someday, but for now I might give the arrow a miss for a while.



Screenshot047.jpg
 
Congratulations, even though you didn’t like it.

I would have gone max TK and Memory on switch myself. Did you consider going the Demon Machine / Kuko route instead for the area of effect?
 
Congrats!

As for ES turning off, it has a high chance to do so as long you run out of mana (via burn or whatnot).

Learnt this the hard way first time fiddling with ES. And... Maxing ES without Maxed TK, definitely a no-go.😅
 
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