Matriarch Katyusha - Faith Strafer with Pride Merc

[TopHatCat64]

Matriarch Katyusha

Lvl 90

Strafe: 1835 - 11K (w/ Fanat + Conc + Might) | 24290 attack rating

Life: 714
Resists: 55 F, 5 C, 80 L, 75 P
Str: 59 | Dex: 396 | Vit: 70

Skills
20 Strafe
20 Guided Arrow
20 Multishot
18 Critical Strike
13 Valkyrie
1 Pierce

Gear

Giant Skull '15 max dmg/IAS jewel' '14 max dmg/IAS jewel'
Atma's Scarab
'Faith' Grand Matron Bow*
'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Laying of Hands
String of Ears
War Traveler
Raven Frost
Corruption Whorl rare ring*
Switch: 'Harmony' Blade Bow

A2 Might Merc: 'Pride' Cryptic Axe* / Shaftstop 'IAS jewel' / 1.07 Vamp Gaze 'Ber'

Charms (combined stats): 149 max dmg, 35 attack rating, 36% lightning resistance

Faith
Grand Matron Bow
OhmJahLemEld
Two Hand Damage: 60 - 309
Durability: 41 of 55
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 108
Required Dexterity: 152
Fingerprint: 0x9dadf7f8
Item Level: 81
Version: Resurrected
Level 13 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped
+2 to All Skills
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
330% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
300% Bonus to Attack Rating
+75% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
Adds 120 - 120 Fire Damage
All Resistances +15
10% Reanimate as: Returned
75% Extra Gold from Monsters

Corruption Whorl
Ring
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x147b1f7
Item Level: 84
Version: Resurrected
+5 to Minimum Damage
+115 to Attack Rating
5% Mana stolen per hit
8% Life stolen per hit
+43 to Mana
Lightning Resist +20%

Pride
Cryptic Axe
ChamSurIoLo
Two Hand Damage: 49 - 225
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Level: 67
Required Strength: 155
Required Dexterity: 93
Fingerprint: 0xbb1d9126
Item Level: 93
Version: Resurrected
25% Chance to cast level 17 Fire Wall when struck
Level 17 Concentration Aura When Equipped
299% Bonus to Attack Rating
+90% Damage to Demons (Based on Character Level)
Adds 50 - 280 Lightning Damage
20% Deadly Strike
Hit Blinds Target +1
Freezes target +3
+10 to Vitality
Replenish Life +8
168% Extra Gold from Monsters (Based on Character Level)
Ethereal

The Planning Stage

The very first build I made wayyy back in 2000, was a bowazon. It was a ineffective mix of strafe, freezing arrow, and explosive arrow but I really loved being an archer. That was one of many bowazons I've built over the years but I've never been totally satisfied with my killing speed. I was hoping this build, which lets me run all 3 damage auras, would be the one.

I wanted a name that conveyed that this gal was going to be a freakin' weapon, and eventually settled on Katyusha. These Russian rocket launcher trucks could mount up to 48 rockets and I think that fit my vision of raining all kinds of death, once I had my gear on.

Leveling and Observations

I leveled with Harmony all the way up until I could wield Faith. Prior to putting on all my final gear, my max damage was around 3000. When I hit 75, and I could finally wear my end-game gear and charms, my max rocketed up by 8000. My zon suddenly felt like Arnold when he wields the 4-barrel rocket launcher in Commando...and it felt that way the entire way through Hell.

I played the entire game on P8, and a couple times I had to double-check my player settings. You know how it goes? You're playing another character who's on P1 or P3, and then you switch to another character who usually runs P8, start a run and you're like "this is way too easy, I must not have changed the player settings". I have read that some folks feel like bowazons are a tier below the top builds for killing speed, and I get that strafers are slower then hammerdins or LF zons, but this was by far the most potent bowazon I've ever played, and she was plenty fast, in my eyes.

I managed to go through the entire game without dying, a first for me as a bowazon, which really surprised me since I stopped adding to vitality back in Normal and I topped out at 714 life. I think my survivability came down to two factors:

• Knockback: I've typically foregone KB on my bowazons and this was the first one I've built that really took advantage of it. Man, I was really missing out! Seeing knockback disrupt and push back everything I strafed made my life a whole lot easier. Monsters couldn't attack me if they're being blasted back 10 feet every time I hit them with an arrow. KB also helped out my merc, who is a little fragile since he's not wielding Reaper's Toll, from having to fight too many monster at once.
• +Skills: I have a total of +6 to all skills in this build and that meant that my defensive skills (Dodge/Avoid/Evade) were boosted from 18% > 40% for Dodge, 24% > 50% for Avoid, and 18% to 42% for Evade. That's a huge boost in percentages and considering I can only take a couple hits before dying, every missed enemy fireball or arrow is hugely impactful.

I originally was going to go pure Dex and put nothing in Vitality. After all, how much difference does 50 Vitality mean in Hell difficulty? Well, as it turns out, that little bit of extra life kept me from death at least 3 times, by my count. It gave me justttt enough leeway to take a hit and not immediately keel over.

Future plans

My goal for every class is find that one build that I find really fun and spend time playing it past Mat/Pat while investing in better gear. I think this strafer is it, when it comes to Amazons. As a prototypical glass cannon, Katyusha is the polar opposite* of my wolfbarb Champ, who can tank anything but is pretty weak offensively

*What's the opposite of a glass cannon? A stone slingshot?

 

[LouB]

I'm not much of a fan of Amazons, but I do like Bowazons. The dual aura merc is interesting, someday I've got to make Pride. My last Bowazon had almost the same skill breakdown as Katyusha but mine carried Wrath and I paired her with a Cold rogue wielding Faith.

 

[drmalawi]

Nice done!

How was proccing amp with Atmas?
How did 13 points Valkyrie pay off?

 

[TopHatCat64]

I'm not much of a fan of Amazons, but I do like Bowazons. The dual aura merc is interesting, someday I've got to make Pride. My last Bowazon had almost the same skill breakdown as Katyusha but mine carried Wrath and I paired her with a Cold rogue wielding Faith.

I was hesitant to make Pride, since all my research seemed to point to the merc being too fragile without life leech on the weapon. But I had a Cham burning a hole in my pocket and none of other Cham runewords really spoke to me. Overall, I'm very happy with how Pride performed. I do think that a merc wielding it needs to be paired with a character doing something to weaken/slow monsters, otherwise he'll die too often.

Nice done!

How was proccing amp with Atmas?
How did 13 points Valkyrie pay off?

Thanks!

It felt like Atma's procced pretty often with all the arrows I was flinging around. Monsters just melted even faster when it went off.

I cast my Valkyrie with my Harmony switch (+3 to Valkyrie), so in practice, she was lvl 22. That gets me past the lvl 17 benchmark and seems like she should be pretty sturdy on paper...but in practice, she dies often enough that all my remaining points are going here to make her less fragile.

 

[duck]

How do you survive burning souls lol. My zon got 1 hit KO. Gave me ptsd. I guess given you're twinked, your kill speed is much faster

 

[TopHatCat64]

How do you survive burning souls lol. My zon got 1 hit KO. Gave me ptsd. I guess given you're twinked, your kill speed is much faster

With 80% LR and playing very very carefully when souls were around. I tried to use the terrain to my advantage as much as possible to block their lightning, while peeking out and firing. When there was a huge group, I tried to find a corner and took advantage of Guided Arrow's homing ability. I also tried to out-range them, when possible, by taking small steps forward and strafing blindly, when I knew souls might be lurking.

Yea this character was twinked to the gills.