Matriarch/Patriarch/Guardian Archive Thread

Originally posted by Vang on Apr 3, 2007:

Matted the Fendazon!

This one was fun until the end, when I was just wanting to get done. I have always loved melee characters, and fend was one of those skills that I loved, but never did because I considered the Amazon to be a little to fragile for my taste. Having aquired many nice spear class weapons, I finally got a good one in pike form that I upgraded(upgraded to elite at 75, hone for next 3levels)

Storm Fang
War Pike
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 159 to 858
Durability: 9 of 25
Required Dexterity: 106
Required Strength: 165
Required Level: 66
Spear Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xb97b57e7
+382% Enhanced Damage
+281 to Attack Rating
+1 to Maximum Damage
Required Level +12
60% Increased Attack Speed
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds
Socketed (1: 1 used)


So with the pike not reaching Whirlwinds last breakpoint, a fendazon looked to be done at some point. Fend is pretty good, not the best, but the ability to hit up to 12targets in a range of 5 is pretty good. Its drawback: Dodge/Avoid/Evade animation will make all consecutive hits miss. That is a big one for a class that I considered fairly fragile. So we have a nice skill, that requires to not use any passives. So high defense really isn't possible, so lets see what I can do, and hell lets go on /players8 all the way except Bosses(p3 or p8) and Ancients(p1). I have never done a character from start of hell and to finish on players8 except for the bosses and ancients, so that alone will challenge me. I also found out a low level jab wasn't as effective as fend on harder difficulties, even with a decent level Inner Eye to make up the Attack rating difference. Equipment was the hard part and I'll discuss that in the end.

She throughly trashed most acts, ran into a few hard bosses, and with Lightning Strike taking care of packs of physical immunes(Charged strike for bosses and singles) I was a lean mean killing machine.

Hardest Pack: Lister and company. I didn't have the means to take them on face front and had to split them up, really hated to do that, thought this character would be better. The 2nd spawn was a pain, but not hard, took the as long due to them not chasing you out of decrepify range.

Stats and Equipment:
Level: 87

Fend: 20(Prereq's 1)
Lighting Strike: 20
Charged Strike: 11
Inner Sight: 15
Critical Strike: 7
Penetrate: 5
Decoy: 14(would place to 17 with equipment to get to 21)

STR: 170/181
DEX: 106/131
VIT: 234/239

Life: 994/1630(BO)

Resist: (Before Fade kicked in)
75Fire
62Cold
75Lightning
75Poison

AR/Fend: 7458
Damage: 1000-5000

Equipment:
CTA/Spirit Switch
Rare War Pike(above readout)
Treachery Great Hauberk
CoA(1socket, 30light resist rare jewel)
28%Mara's
String of Ears
Laying of Hands
Goreriders
RavenFrost
Carrion Wind*

Charms:
Resistances, life, Attack Rating, took of 7x4 space


Merc: HolyFreeze w/ Guardian Angel, Kira's, and Reaper's Troll



I needed 120Ias to hit the highest Fend speed with a War Pike, and with needing some form of life, as I didn't plan on standing outside a pack, I needed good life leech and some Damage Reduced by either an amount or %. Nothing really provided the mods I needed other than %reduced by, and treachery giving 15%from fade as well as 45ias and resist was perfect, so I had to build around that and my pike. Once everything else was easily hashed out, and CoA as my highest requirment(rare circlets before) I would have close 43% with my gear. Having to disregard any mana leech as life was more important I went with Carrion Wind, and this thing is wonderful. The CtC Twister on striking is amazing with this build, as it can give long enough time to keep something from pounding on you for a moment. If I could of used two I would of. Overall I enjoyed the class and am going to see if I can get some baal runs in and figure out how to handle lister and company with ease.

Notable finds:

Hellforge/Hell: Mal
Arreat's Face(thats really all I can remember from uniques)

Ocher Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0xa59c928c
+20 to Life
Lightning Resist +7%
 
Originally posted by Virtue on Jan 30, 2009:

Matriarch Medusa

Well, this isn't my first Mat.. I'll post the second one once I get inspired to finish the story following her journey...

LF/CS (Charged Strike) with FA backup... Aka Fishyzon

After reading around I was looking for a fun character to do WSK runs with, I don't like to watch other things kill for me so necro was out of the question.. This seemed to be perfect, LF zons are something I've always loved once the skills actually became useful a long time ago before I assume most people even played the game.. (Yes, I've been at D2 since 2000 =D)

I forgot to take an endgame screenshot, mostly because I was so damn furious after spending 2 hours on the ancients and when I saw all blue it wasn't worth my time.. but here's aprox what they were..

Level : 81

Str: 188
Dex: 195
Vit: 215
Eng: 22

Skills:
20 LF
20 Charged Strike
20 Cold Arrow
20 Frozen Arrow
prereqs/decoy/pierce

Gear:
Perfect Titans
Lycander's Aim
Stormshield
Shaftstop/Skullders
Harle
Saracen's Chance 23%
Silkweave
Ghoulhide
Razortail
Raven frost
Dwarf star

Merc just had basic Insight/Shaft/Gaze (Sorry for my stupidity before)


I'm not sure if it's just luck or not, but my hellforge drops were all the lowest you can get per difficulty so don't expect to see any screenshots :p

Though, This and this dropped throughout my travels. They were the only non-boss worthy items. She had also found Gheed's off nm Baal and Mav's armor from Hell Diablo...

One moment that had me go "WTF" because I had never seen this in all my years of playing was at the Catacombs.

She also has great luck with charms, she found herself a harpoonist GC (can't remember where) and also 1 7%MF sc and 2 6% SC's.


I have to say, this was very fun except for the ancients and after reading about "The perfect Javazon" I'm already trying to find those items because I would make another in a heartbeat.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by zaphodbrx on Nov 14, 2012:

Matriarch Purba, poison amazon

This was an attempt to get an interesting poison based char going..

Good Stuff

LCS ( javelin )
LCS ( bow )

Skills

20(36) Plague javelin
20(36) Poison javelin
20(30) Explosive arrow
20(30) Fire arrow
1 in all prereq and passive skills, a few extra in valkyrie

Gear

Titan's revenge
Gemmed hyperion ( +12/-11 facets )
Valkyrie wing ( psn facet )
'Bramble' Archon plate
Trang oul's claws
Arachnid mesh
Raven frost
BKWB
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Beast nails ( rare boot )

Switch: 'Call to Arms' Grand Matron Bow

7x harpoonist GCs

Readouts

Code:
Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 71 to 188
One-Hand Damage: 71 to 139
Quantity: 140
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x7f8487ad
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+156% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
5% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size

Gemmed Hyperion
Defense: 123
Chance to Block:  49%
Durability: 76 of 82
Required Strength: 127
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xacb36722
+109 poison damage over 2 seconds
100% Chance to cast Level 51 Poison Nova When You Die
100% Chance to cast Level 23 Venom When You Level Up
+12% to Poison Skill Damage
-11% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Bramble
Archon Plate
'RalOhmSurEth'
Defense: 813
Durability: 59 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x1a35068
Regenerate Mana 15%
+300 Defense
Fire Resist +30%
+5% to Maximum Cold Resist
Poison Resist +100%
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
+13 Life after each Kill
50% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 16 Thorns Aura When Equipped
Level 13 Spirit of Barbs (33/33 Charges)
+37% to Poison Skill Damage
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Purba's Valkyrie Wing
Winged Helm
Defense: 249
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xadb87eda
+152% Enhanced Defense
+36 poison damage over 2 seconds
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
20% Faster Run/Walk
20% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
100% Chance to cast Level 51 Poison Nova When You Die
+4% to Poison Skill Damage
-4% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Arachnid Mesh
Spiderweb Sash
Defense: 119
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 80
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x272e39a9
+90% Enhanced Defense
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to All Skill Levels
Slows Target by 10%
Level 3 Venom (11/11 Charges)

Mara's Kaleidoscope
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x7cb4853b
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
All Resistances +29
+2 to All Skill Levels

Trang-Oul's Claws
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 67
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x91d5e2ad
+30 Defense
Cold Resist +30%
20% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Curses (Necromancer Only)
+25% to Poison Skill Damage

Beast Nails
Light Plated Boots
Defense: 17
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc886ff74
+2 to Dexterity
+46% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +39%
Lightning Resist +35%
10% Chance to cast Level 3 Charged Bolt when struck

Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
Ring
Required Level: 58
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xa3876414
+50 to Maximum Stamina
3% Life stolen per hit
+1 to All Skill Levels
+43 to Life (Based on Character Level)

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x88fc6bab
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+174 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Call to Arms
Grand Matron Bow
'AmnRalMalIstOhm'
Two-Hand Damage: 49 to 252
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 152
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 58
Bow Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x12c985
+251% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
40% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Battle Orders
+1 to Battle Cry
+3 to Battle Command
Prevent Monster Heal
+1 to All Skill Levels
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
Socketed (5: 5 used)

Merc: Act 2 defiance

Gear

Code:
1: Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 33 of 40
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x834d8f47
+100% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 11
Damage Reduced by 18%
Adds 6-22 cold damage over 4 seconds
7% Life stolen per hit
7% Mana stolen per hit
15% Slower Stamina Drain

2: Insight
Great Poleaxe
'RalTirTalSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 233 to 617
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Dexterity: 89
Required Strength: 169
Required Level: 63
Polearm Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x63f71555
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
+225% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+3 to Critical Strike
35% Faster Cast Rate
185% Bonus to Attack Rating
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Level 17 Meditation Aura When Equipped
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

3: Fortitude
Kraken Shell
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 3429
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Strength: 164
Required Level: 61
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x787cc800
+200% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +29%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +29%
Poison Resist +29%
Replenish Life +7
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+118 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used)

Thoughts

I've always been a big fan of plague javelins. Extremely cool clouds of death gas. So I decided to make a poison javazon with ( hopefully ) as much poison damage as possible. I thought lightning fury would be too powerful to get as a backup ability and ruin the char, so I decided to go for the other oft-neglected amazon tree, the bow fire skills. I used CtA bow so as to get to use the bow skills and still have call to arms.

Most of her gear is self evident. I used Valkyrie wing over a boring old shako ( love the frw ). I wanted to use a faceted shield. No JMOD here, spirit monarch was too cliche and I really like the look of large shields. So gemmed hyperion it was.

You'll notice I didn't have resistances. Didn't need 'em. Poison javs are great hit-and-runners. You can easily micro them to dodge most attacks and she has D/A/E on top of that. I kept a chains of honor in my stash in case I ever wanted the res, but the only time I used it was in WSK because of poison immune gloams. Great marsh gloams weren't psn immune and I killed them while having 10 LR the whole time ( hit n run ftw ).

Is Bramble just a +psn damage suit? Mostly. I liked the life after every kill mod, and bonus to psn resist. I want to think the thorns aura was doing something useful, but it probably wasn't.

Poison resistant and immune monsters are a big speedbump to this character. I was initially going with immolation arrow, but the cooldown sucked so hard I decided to respec to explosive arrows. Neither is really up to the task of dealing with PoIs, so mostly it was just the merc doing his thing, or park them. I think fire skills can be made to work, but need absolute gear and skill dedication, not half measures.

Actually I don't know why immolation arrow has a cooldown at all. Poison javelin doesn't do anything useful and it still has a cooldown. Plague javelin has 4 sec cooldown which is ridiculous. Come on blizzard. Does poison nova have a cooldown?

I played most of hell on p5, except act bosses/ancients and a few areas with high amount of poison immunes. Ended at lvl 86, which is consistent with my previous chars. Apparently, if you play through most of hell on p5, you'll end at around 86-87.

After a long time I quested through hell with a defiance merc and immediately remembered why I liked them so much for questing. Fortitude chilling and defiance bumped his defense rating to 24k or something absurd. Extra strong cursed might PI fanaticism? Get it on. Can't hit me. Na nana na na.

The strong tank and ranged character with hit and run style was why I rather enjoyed this character. Valkyrie and decoy helped too.

Most skeletons in the game are poison immune for some reason ( and nearly all in act 5 ). They all annoyed my greatly. Why are there so many 'extra' poison immunities added in A5? Just to make poison characters even weaker? Zzz.

The ancients spawned fanaticism and cursed but who cares. I just poisoned them and ran away. Win.

Baal's fourth wave was a bunch of trouble because they spawned fanaticism and had too much fire resist so it was basically up to the merc. Fifth wave wasn't fun either. I did lower it to p1 for those waves. Baal was annoying and took a long time. I know that you can technically kill him with one shot or whatever using certain poison equipment, but in practice plague javelin isn't remotely effective at killing Baal.

All in all it's a pretty fun character. Not as powerful as a poison necro or lightning zon, but still just fine.

Finds

Purba was quite a lucky character and found more stuff than most of my other characters do.

warshrike in flayer jungle
Lightsaber and Seraph's hymn in act 5 caves
Tal rasha's lidless eye ( 2/2/1 ) from Eldritch and co

Bul Kathos wedding band ( 5% leech, my first 'perfect' one )
Gul
Sur


Hellforge was a Lem

Screenshots

Envenomed spears
Merc time..
Fire arrows, burn!
Dumb barricades
Ancients
The end


Weird/Oddball sept completion- 5/7

Patriarch Ralf, untwinked single pass co op concentrate barb
Matriarch Traxex, everything enchantress ranger
Patriarch Asmodean, holy bolting zealot
Matriarch Arianne, Infinity wielding phoenix striker
Matriarch Purba, poison amazon

Addendum

After finishing the game, I respec'ed her to LF/CS plus PJ amazon, with remaining points in valkyrie. Gear changes were bramble->Chains of honor, trangs->Lancers gloves of readiness, shield->spirit monarch. Slvl 44 LF/CS/PJ. Switch was a wand with slvl 3 lower resist charges.

Turns out that my instincts were right. Even without infinity/griffons/etc. the lightning skills are really powerful and tend to overshadow the poison skills. Gloams are worse off, though atleast I have resistances now. Lower resist wand helps. Overall less poison damage, but a better character generally due to the ability to spam CS/LF during plague javelin shots. New LCS.

Hope you enjoyed reading!
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by zaphodbrx on May 27, 2013:

Matriarch Valkyrie, spearazon ( Amazon sept complete )

This one was pretty much a done deal. I've played spearazons before, and in fact the exact same thing using nearly the same items via respecs, but I wanted to get the questing experience. To make it more fun, I decided to kit her up in 'Valkyrie' equipment, ie what she spawns with, which is dependent on skill level.

16 Rare Sacred Armor
17 Rare War Pike
19 Rare Crusader Gauntlets
21 Rare Mirrored Boots
23 Rare Colussus Girdle
25 Rare Amulet
27 Rare Tiara

Well I left out the rare part ( as it is kinda hard to make a character with just rares ), but kept the base items same.

Items

Eth Botd War Pike
Fortitude Sacred Armor

-pretty self explanatory.

War Traveler mirrored boots
-Goblin toes would have worked, but have no frw.

Lava Gout Crusader gauntlets
-Ias and ctc enchant, this is excellent.

Bladebuckle colossus girdle
-This is interesting, at first I used T-gods but then I realized I don't need that much LR and bladebuckle has some rather nice FHR on it, I also looked through some rares but wasn't satisfied with them.

Storm mask Tiara ( upgraded from coronet )
-30 ias helm to meet breakpoint, 2 zon skills and leech.

Highlord's wrath
Raven frost
Dread loop rare ring

Switch: call to arms, spirit monarch

Merc: A2 might, with eth reapers, ebug treachery, G-face (cham)

Readouts

Code:
Storm Mask
Tiara
Defense: 44
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xa8c593d3
+40 to Life
+14 to Maximum Stamina
Cold Resist +18%
Poison Resist +11%
6% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
Required Level +5
30% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Cast Rate
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Fortitude
Superior Sacred Armor
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 1890
Durability: 42 of 67
Required Strength: 232
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x56ac2694
+200% Enhanced Defense
+12% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +30%
Lightning Resist +30%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +30%
Poison Resist +30%
Replenish Life +7
Increase Maximum Durability 12%
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+99 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (4: 4 used)

Breath of the Dying
War Pike
'VexHelElEldZodEth'
Two-Hand Damage: 240 to 1308
Required Dexterity: 75
Required Strength: 122
Required Level: 69
Spear Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xd4897d05
+30 to Strength
+30 to Energy
+30 to Dexterity
+30 to Vitality
+390% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Attack Rating
15% Life stolen per hit
7% Mana stolen per hit
+1 to Light Radius
Requirements -20%
60% Increased Attack Speed
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
200% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
Indestructible
50% Chance to cast Level 20 Poison Nova When You Kill an Enemy
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (6: 6 used)

Valkyrie's Lava Gout
Crusader Gauntlets
Defense: 176
Durability: 38 of 38
Required Strength: 151
Required Level: 64
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x771ba4d3
+185% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +24%
Adds 13-46 fire damage
+20 Maximum Durability
Required Level +7
20% Increased Attack Speed
Half Freeze Duration
2% Chance to cast Level 10 Enchant on striking

Bladebuckle
Colossus Girdle
Defense: 153
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 185
Required Level: 79
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x124e28f
+5 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+99% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
Required Level +12
30% Faster Hit Recovery

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x1775f6e6
Lightning Resist +35%
Adds 1-30 lightning damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skill Levels
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15
33% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)

War Traveler
Mirrored Boots
Defense: 177
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Strength: 163
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x1b519c5f
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
+173% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Minimum Damage
+25 to Maximum Damage
+30 Maximum Durability
Attacker Takes Damage of 10
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Required Level +7
25% Faster Run/Walk
40% Slower Stamina Drain

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc5159a36
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+177 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Dread Loop
Ring
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x6ddfa8d3
+19 to Strength
+1 to Maximum Damage
Lightning Resist +21%
Cold Resist +27%
Poison Resist +13%

Skills

20 Fend
20 Critical Strike
20 Penetrate
20 Charged strike
11 or so Jab ( remaining )
1 decoy, slow missiles, prereqs.

Thoughts

This is an okay build. Blizzard obviously wasn't kind to melee amazons, what with messing up DAE with fend/jab and providing them a lot less damage and utility skills. I have played spear zealots so much it was hard to be impressed by this one. Compared with that she really lacks dmg output and fanaticism, sanctuary aura/running around with vigor, but has decoy and slow missiles. Meh.

I did play the whole of Act 1 on p8 as well as most of A2 and A3. PIs were the bulk of the problem, they just take too long to kill and not having any sanctuary aura meant that ghosts were tough, as well as itches in the maggots lair . Originally I had maxed Jab and remaining in decoy but after meeting unbreakable PIs like this one, I respec'ed to 20 points charged strike. Yeah.. that didn't work. You can see how puny the lightning damage is compared to physical in this LCS. Unsynergized low level CS is teh sux.

Act 4 was lowered in psetting especially for dealing with those maggots and flesh spawners which are such a pain for physical damage dealers. I actually did most of act 5 on p8 and quite enjoyed it. Just rerolled an area whenever a PI showed up , as I had no chance of taking on blood lords and such like. For an additional challenge I did ancients on p8. They were not cursed so it was quite easy. I also did Baal waves at p8 ( again easy ), though the rest of WSK at p1. Final LCS.

Deaths: One ( De Seis )
Finds: No.

There are many things zons do better than pallies, but wielding spears isn't one of them.

With that I am done with my Zon sept. Hall of fame Pic.

1. Matriarch Rukmini - Lightning Javazon.
Pure lightning zon, perhaps the most powerful build in the game. I have two swap setups for her
-( chaos/other leechable/easy areas ): Moser's (+10/-6), Rare amulet +1 skills/20@/8ML, razortail
-- maxblock, max pierce, better dmg and -elr. LCS.
-( Worldstone keep/difficult areas ): Phoenix monarch, Mara's 29@, Tgods
-- high fres/lres and sorb, better hp, big boost to jab/throw, wtfbbq redemption aura LCS.
Other items are all same, Griffons +20/-25, Chains of honor, 2/20 gloves, rare boot, ravenfrost, Stone of Jordan
And of course 3 stacks of eth upgraded Titans, one used and two carried in cube for convenient swapping Pic.
I planned to replace the mosers with AtSoD or JMod with 5/5s but never got round to it. Prefer the phoenix for the most part anyway, more versatile and smoother. Sometimes carry both sets for swapping depending on area Pic, but this only uses 2 sets of javs which can cause depletion. Eth titans can't be repaired obviously and must be rotated. I used to carry a thunderstroke for Baal but stopped bothering really.
CS/LF are godly, jab/throw takes out unbreakable LIs pretty well and decoy and slow missiles are good CC. I usually park unbreakable PI/LI, except for grand visir for which I keep a reapers in stash.
All in all its in a league of its own. I still can not believe how overpowered it is even compared with other overpowered builds.

2. Matriarch Birgitte - Physical bowazon.
She has had an interesting career, starting out as an FA/EA zon, then I respec'ed her to strafer with windforce and reapers merc for some pit runs, then windforce and faith, later I borrowed Jason's faith GMB and made a video with Faith/might/pride. Later I respec'ed her to an FA zon to try out some equipment and ran p8 WSK from lvl 93-94. Finally she's back to faith-M/P this time with some resistance charms. LCS.

3. Matriarch Aviendha - Lightning spearazon.
Levelled as a fend/CS/LS zon, I later respec'd her to pure lightning with CS and LS, using silence matriarchial spear, CoH, griffons, etc. It's alright but.. LS doesn't really compare to lightning fury, and there isn't much point in using a spear over say T-stroke+stormshield. I'm probably nit picking though, CS and LS are still really strong skills. LCS. I wish Blizzard had made one of the lightning melee skills dependent on physical damage conversion like berserk, this would make physical spearazon's life easier too..

4. Matriarch Purba - Poison amazon.
Weakest build by far, it suffers due to absence of Lower resist and -ePR, and the timer ruins the build, the actual dps is comparable to that of poison nova. CS/LF used as backup and often still feel stronger than poison even without infinity/griffons/etc. Reworked the items a bit, but still uses bramble and trangs and stuff. LCS.

5. Matriarch Farah - Immolation arrow/strafe.

6. Matriarch Ygritte - Icemaiden (FA/EA).

7. Matriarch Valkyrie - Physical spearazon ( this one ).

Well that covers most things I guess. A notable exception would be daggerzon/bearzon/<insert whatever> passivezon. Imo, those are already similar to the physical spearazon anyway, and I like spears more.

Thanks for reading!
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Zarhrezz on Oct 3, 2004:

Matriarch Begoe

Well, my lightning maiden just trashed Baal at level 85. She ran the entire game at players 3. Hell was pretty uneventfull really...all the way through Hell she never got in mortal danger (below 50% once, maybe twice). Dealing with LIs was slow and the 3-4 LI/PI monsters that I've encountered were a drag, but once again not even close to dangerous.

Conclusions:
LF is extremely effective, but generally spoken, some blue potions should be within grab. I've never dealt with Baal's minions this quick...Bartuc took the longest, he was LI. The rest was a matter of seconds.
Then CS: This is the best bosskiller I've see this far. If it's big and not (as good as) immune to lightning, it's dead in 1 hit most of the time. Also, when fighting bosses, giving up some damage (from +4 to CS due to Titan's) for slow from Kelpie is definitely worth it...Baal himself did his mana rift once and that's all from him. I didn't time the fight but I think it was less than 1 minute...I'll check later.
Jab is a good enough backup skill to deal with LIs. It's not quick, but the Valk and merc will generally live through things, especially with me also drawing some fire, and they can kill things just fine. Jab is just a nice way to add some damage yourself.
Gloams are a pain. They're no threat, but take ages to kill. Die Gloams, die.

The build at lvl 85 is as follow:
Skills:
CS/LF/LS 20
Valk 10
LB 10
Pierce 4
Further points are going towards LB and if I ever pass lvl 95, Valk.

Stats:
Strength 100
Dexterity 137
Vitality 263
Energy 15

With gear Begoe has max block and around 1150 life. Gear/charms provides +10 to Javelin & Spear Skills and +9 to Passive & Magic Skills and an additional +3 to LF/LS. I'm still looking for 3 +J&S skillers and *cough* Enigma. Resists are in the 65 range, except for lightning which is 85%.
 
Originally posted by Aconite on May 9, 2009:

Matriarch Heskla: Windforce strafer

After being the lucky recipient of a Windforce from Heskla's giveaway, it was time to put it to good use.

I had a similar character to this, way back, but without the Windforce. She used a WWS. The WWS is a nice bow, but I now understand why WF is considered so good... it just mows things down! Of course, the rest of my gear is a lot better now than back then, and that most definitely helps. I used the WWS on this character as a switch weapon for PIs when the Merc decided to croak - lvl 20 MA plus Amp Damage works pretty well.

A Fortitude would have been great here, but I'm still too poor, so after some deliberation I decided to settle for a Treachery. It was better than I expected. The Venom is a nice damage boost and the IAS meant I could be a little more flexible with the rest of my gear. Very good for its cost in runes.

I went for 89% IAS, 9/3 Strafe.

This was a fun character, everything was easy until after rescuing Anya, then I had to slow down a little and use Decoy more often. The Ancients were rough and I ended up using a Fleshripper plus Stormshield, with Kelpie on the merc to finally take them down (after about 6 attempts). The Baal fight was quite epic - I'd lost the Merc in WSK 1 and had no gold to res him, so the rest was done with just the Valk. The Throne Room was a piece of cake, at /p1. I can see Heskla running it a few times perhaps, but skipping Baal as he just takes way too long to die.

No drops worth mentioning, and yet another disappointing Hellforge:

Nef / Shael / Ko

Ho hum.

Straightforward play: cast Valk, Strafe on left, Decoy on right.

I still haven't put anything in the WF socket - I don't have a decent jewel, so there's some room for improvement there.

Code:
Name:       Heskla
Class:      Amazon
Experience: 710185558
Level:      80

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   119/144
Dexterity:  306/365
Vitality:   50/60
Energy:     15/15
HP:         358/519
Mana:       133/243


Resists:    30/6/53/-42, with Fade: 75/66/75/18

MF:         36       
GF:         57
FR/W:       25
FHR:        20
IAS:        105

Magic Arrow: 1/2
Cold Arrow: 1/2
Multiple Shot: 1/2
Guided Arrow: 1/2
Strafe: 20/21

Inner Sight : 1/2
Critical Strike : 5/6
Dodge : 5/6
Slow Missiles : 1/2
Avoid : 3/4
Penetrate : 20/21
Decoy : 2/3
Evade : 5/6
Valkyrie : 20/21
Pierce : 5/6

The LCS had the following:

Strafe AR: 7922
Damage: 243-2522, with Venom 471-2766, plus Might: 543-3555.

Might merc had Vamp Gaze, Duriels and an Amn'd Reapers.

The crux of the build, personalized (hence the character name):

Code:
Heskla's Windforce
Hydra Bow
Two Hand Damage: 35 - 488
Durability: 47 of 55
Required Level: 73
Required Strength: 134
Required Dexterity: 167
Fingerprint: 0xc47cd376
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+10 to Strength
+5 to Dexterity
250% Enhanced Damage
30% Heal Stamina Plus
6% Mana stolen per hit
Knockback
20% Increased Attack Speed
250 to Maximum Damage (Based on Char Lvl)
1 Sockets (0 used)

Gear:

Code:
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 125
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0x46a0aa21
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
+45 Defense
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit
All Resistances +15
5% Enhanced Damage
+14 to Maximum Damage
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Cinnabar Jewel of Carnage

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xa818965a
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Lightning Resist +35%
+1 - 30 Lightning Damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to All Skills
+15 Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of
3% Deadly Strike

Treachery
Archon Plate
Defense: 509
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0x98dd9808
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Lem Rune

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xbbd0efec
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+234 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xd857958d
Item Level: 66
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+202 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 97
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x9417d052
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+15 to Dexterity
122% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
33% Piercing Attack
+8 Attacker Takes Damage of

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 133
Durability: 47 of 48
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0xa62da0f2
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
179% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Minimum Damage
+25 to Maximum Damage
+30 Maximum Durability
Attacker Takes Damage of 10
36% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
25% Faster Run/Walk
40% Slower Stamina Drain

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 85
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x3bcd5818
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%
20% Increased Attack Speed
350% Damage to Demons
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking

Witchwild String
Diamond Bow
Two Hand Damage: 88 - 107
Durability: 35 of 40
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 89
Required Dexterity: 132
Fingerprint: 0x188b099d
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
169% Enhanced Damage
Required Lvl +7
Fires Magic Arrows
2% Chance to cast level 5 Amplify Damage on striking
8% Deadly Strike
All Resistances +40
20% Increased Attack Speed
Knockback
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Nef Rune

Charms, focusing on damage and resists:

Code:
Fine Grand Charm of Strength
Grand Charm
Required Level: 16
Fingerprint: 0x4d8065a7
Item Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+5 to Strength
+47 to Attack Rating
+6 to Maximum Damage

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xff99e05e
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+16 to Life

Snowy Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x420e7dda
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+15 to Life
+2 - 4 cold damage with 1 sec Duration

Amber Small Charm of Greed
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x9b3088b9
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Lightning Resist +11%
7% Extra Gold from Monsters

Fine Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xab41566b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+17 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

Garnet Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x904b986c
Item Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+26 to Life
Fire Resist +22%

Arcing Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0x816314cd
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+1 - 32 Lightning Damage

Small Charm of Storms
Small Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xdbca2c28
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+1 - 26 Lightning Damage

Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xa7f02570
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Fire Resist +13%
Lightning Resist +13%
Cold Resist +13%
Poison Resist +13%

Sharp Grand Charm of Craftmanship
Grand Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x4eab2b00
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+70 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

Sapphire Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xe4a49fd0
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+14 to Life
Cold Resist +11%

Small Charm of Storms
Small Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xb3218c5c
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+1 - 22 Lightning Damage

Amber Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xa5601dd0
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Lightning Resist +10%

Amber Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x8b318de0
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Lightning Resist +10%

Lapis Small Charm of Frost
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0xe76cf565
Item Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Cold Resist +7%
+1 - 2 cold damage with 1 sec Duration

Amber Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0xeee25d7
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
Lightning Resist +29%

Playing this character reminded me how much I enjoy Zons. I'm thinking about a FA/Immo Mav's Zon and perhaps a new witchyzon - similar to the above, but I can squeeze out some more dex as there's no need for Highlords (Cat's eye instead) and the Str requirements would be lower.

Once I get my grubby little paws on a Lo I plan on re-equipping around a Fortitude, possibly with Mav's helm, and finding out how much of a difference Fortitude really makes to physical damage characters.
 
Originally posted by aitrus on Jun 2, 2006:

Mat and a half, or, a half guardian

I've been quite interested in making a Witchy strafer for a while now, especially after seeing these two threads (Nighfish and AJK). Very easy, straightforward build, not expensive, well, almost boring. So a twist was needed...

Glass cannon you say, yes, I've seen it somewhere around these forums (some sickly high strength barb without vita or something). Well that is interesting, why wouldn't I try that. OK, so zons get 3 life per level, that's quite nice, about level 80 that would be 240 + 20 vit to start which totals to ~300, not bad, no too low either.

What else... Hardcore is nice, though, I don't play hardcore (tournaments don't count) which means I have no equipment. Untwinked then?! Well sure, this is a WITCHWILD zon and I don't have it!! I know, play SC but quit when you die! That would mean not to die while playing a glass cannon zon without a valk (yes without her).

We have a winner... Witchy it is, no vitality points, no valk, no decoy, and don't die on me!

Introducing Witchy (I know) the Witchwild String Strafezon
I totally doubted I can do this. I know strafing is quite safe while using the right gear and play style, but I never done it before, and I never done any character with less than 700-800+ life through hell.

Normal was totally dull, strafe was too mana intensive to use regularly so she relied much on the merc in the start. At 28 she equipped Skystrike (thanks AJK) and then strafe strafe manapot strafe strafe... Normal bosses were nothing to write home about: Andy (yea right); Duriel was a pain as always but run around him and keep merc alive; Meph (sure); Diablo was fun, merc died ASAP of course while I kept running around his pentagram so he can't reach me and shot at him, slow but doable; Baal came in the wrong moment, I just equipped regular Witchwild socketed with two Orts (2-100 lightning damage) and he wasn't pleased to hear that.

Nightmare came and she rushed through Act I to get a might merc to improve her damage. He proved to be a masterful hero, it's a bit dark, but you see it right, he's hiding behind a tree. Dolls were almost the only threat in Nightmare but knockback rocks. Nightmare done.

Hell! Entered Cold Plains, got hit by an arrow, life down to ~10%! Whoops, this will be interesting... Actually it was not, I was very very cautious (maybe even too much) and slow. By now I know just how to position her and shoot efficiently so no real problems there. Merc however discovered that dolls are fun to play with and almost ended her mission.
Some of you would like to know about the Ancients, let me quote Nightfish "...slow target by 45% owned the **** out of the troublemakers. I could do the strafe, fall back, strafe, fall back...". I honestly didn't see their mods, I know leaper had Holly Freeze aura and Teleport, as for the other two, who cares... Merc died of course, he loves to play with dolls anyway... Baal was no fun, I was afraid of those tentacles he casts since I thought one hit from them will kill me, but I haven't seen even one of them, go figure. He did clone himself, twice! NP, 350 arrows x 10 (or is it 7) 3500, enough. He dropped nothing, as usual.

I must admit I had a bit of luck there, I didn't see a Gloam in Hell at all, I didn't save Anya either 😁
No luck with drops generally, but she did find Earth Shifter (grailer) so that's ok, hellforge was Sol and Ko.

This is the place where I say something about her equipment. I read what Nightfish and AJK said and decided to try some variations. Also I wanted to reach the fastest 8/2 diamond bow (Upp'd Witchy) strafe breakpoint. In the end, this is my choice:
Helm: Blackhorn's Face* w/ 15% IAS jewel
Armor: Treachery Linked Mail (borrowed from Trappersin) - 45% IAS + Level 15 Venom 👍
Weapon: Witchwild String Diamond Bow socketed with 2x Shael - 40% IAS
Weapon 2: Demon Limb, Level 23 Enchant charges for some fire damage and ~213% AR boost!
Gloves: Cleglaw's Pincers*
Belt: Razortail and String of Ears, for some reason I felt safer vs. bosses with SoE (DR 14%) while Razor was for mobs to get 100+ pierce
Boots: Gore Rider, highest str req of all gear but I just love these boots
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath - 20% IAS, Cat's Eye would be better I think but I don't have one
Ring: Raven Frost
Ring: Manald/Rare dual leach (8%LL, 6%ML) at lvl 74

Skills:
20 Strafe
20 Penetrate
9 Pierce
+ prereqs
Done, nothing more, total of 38 unspent points in the end!

Stats and inventory can be seen here, damage an AR are with Might, Venom and Enchant.
I'm obsessed with resist, hence the full inventory...

*Blackhorn and Cleglaw courtesy of Nightfish. I tried some variations with gloves/helm but I just loved the effect of these, 45% slow monsters and knockback is just great. On top of that lightning res and absorb from Blackhorn. Great, great combo, once again thanks Nightfish. 👍

That's it, a long read, thanks for your time.

-aitrus
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by AJK on May 29, 2006:

A strafing matriarch

"bowazons cannot solo Hell"

This sentence popped up more than once when browsing the posts in the amazon forum. Well, I came close to believe that on more than one occasion, but more on that later. First allow me to introduce to you:

Kalashnikova, the Witchyzon, lvl. 85

Stats/Bow skills: *click*
Merc/Passive skills: *clack*
Note: Stats influenced by triggered Fade from Treachery and Might from merc.

Gear (readouts at the bottom):
Hat: Howltusk, socketed with a jewel of fervor
Trinket: Cat's Eye amulet
Cannon: An upgraded WWS with a bit of ED and IAS
Armor: 'Treachery' in an Archon Plate
Gloves: Ghoulhide
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: 27% Light res, 4% LL rare
Belt: Razortail
Boots: War Traveler

Charms:
- 3 cold damage SCs (for added freeze length)
- A few +3 damage fine SCs
- Two sharp large charms of sustenance
- A few SCs of vita
- A Shimmering GC + SC

Some of these gear choices are obvious when playing a witchyzon (err, I still wonder where that name came from...), but some are not. Let me explain:
The Howltusk was an experiment. A helpful SPFer (don't worry Randall, I won't tell anyone it was you) PMed me with a useful tip after I posted somewhere that I was looking forward to getting butchered in Hell.
He tipped me to wear Flee gear, so I tried it for a while. It quickly became endgame gear for me because of its dual mods: Knockback and CtC Flee.
Raging frenzytaurs suddenly become a whole lot less scary when they're speeding away from you instead of towards you. Exploding fetishes were also driven away by this helmet. Good times.

The Ghoulhide was an experiment too. I was searching for a source of mana leech. Since the glove spot was the only option for mana leech, I went ahead and crafted some awful safety mitts. This was before I plopped a Howltusk on my head.
After discovering the usefulness of that piece of headgear, I didn't need the safety anymore, so I browsed through my glove cabinet, looking for mana leechers.
Soul Drainers would have been great, but their CtC weaken would override any Amp Damage/decrepify, so they were not considered. Then I spotted the Ghoulhide. 4% Mana Leech was more than enough, but these gloves also sport a nice enhanced damage+AR against undead mod. Great, because the undead are usually the ones with high life/thick skin.

The Treachery armor should not be an anonymous 1.11 runeword anymore by now. The 45% IAS and Venom couple so well with this build that it's not funny anymore. It also has CtC Fade when struck, but if you get hit playing a bowazon, then you're doing something wrong (trust me, I learned that the hard way, several times).
The 45%IAS + cat's eye + 2 fervor jewels nicely put IAS at 95%, enough for a 2FPA spray of arrows.

Yes, a 2 FPA spray of arrows was a lot of fun to play with. Sometimes the game reminded me of those old school shoot-em-ups. I wouldn't be surprised if the flayers suddenly started dropping smart bomb/laser powerup orbs. Let me tell you about the progression through the game.

Normal: As slow as a snail on weed during the first few levels. Ya man!
Slow running + low damage bows + /players 8 = a test of patience.
Then Skystrike happened. 30% IAS, 200% ED, 1-250 light damage, and *poof* went the flayers. Fun times. Strafing at 3 FPA already.
The only hard part was big D, who took a great delight in snacking on crispy toasted merc with a bit of burned valk on top. I lived though. Act V was not very interesting.

Nightmare: My first death at the hands of Pitspawn Fouldog. You can laugh now. I blamed my 50 points in vitality. And my wandering merc. And the world. Didn't blame myself of course...
This was my first lesson on the fragility of glass cannons.
I played more carefully, got smoked by big D three times in a row (you may laugh again now), and lived through act V. Yay.

Hell: Two words: "Hell does not smile kindly upon the careless." So true.
I learned a lot of harsh lessons in Hell about the dangers of carelessness. The resistance penalties made me weak, without Fade I was looking at near zero resists.
- A skeleton mage launches a pretty ball of light, *DEATH*
- A blood lord taps on my shoulder when I'm in the middle of a strafe cycle, *DEATH*
- The bunnies in Harrogath, *DEATH*
- 'What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Hey, a gloam!', *DEATH*

I'm SO not ready for hardcore yet...

So, a lot of text, let me end this tome with a few random observations:
- Blood lords didn't kill me. They ran in fear, I shot 'em in the back.
- Killing Hell baal takes about as much time as killing an elephant by pelting him with marshmellows.
- Strafing at 2 FPA is fun times!
- Strafe lock is not.
- Freezing critters and blasting them into little frozen giblets rules!
- Freezing cold immunes does not work, 'Press ESC to continue...'
- You CAN solo Hell with a bowazon, just don't expect to sail through it.

Here are the readouts of my gear:
Code:
Howltusk
Great Helm
Defense: 64
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 63
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x898cd9ce
+80% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
Knockback
15% Increased Attack Speed
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
35% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
Socketed (1: 1 used)

The Cat's Eye
Amulet
Required Level: 50
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x1b793e9d
+25 to Dexterity
+100 Defense
+100 Defense vs. Missile
20% Increased Attack Speed
30% Faster Run/Walk

Witchwild String
Diamond Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 98 to 123
Required Dexterity: 132
Required Strength: 89
Required Level: 61
Bow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xc9a3c4e5
+9 to Strength
+197% Enhanced Damage
+5 to Maximum Damage
All Resistances +40
Required Level +7
15% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Magic Arrows
2% Chance to cast Level 5 Amplify Damage on striking
85% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Treachery
Archon Plate
'ShaelThulLem'
Defense: 514
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x67bb7c39
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Fade when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Ghoulhide
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 123
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 36
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb0381350
+20 to Life
+174% Enhanced Defense
4% Mana stolen per hit
170% Damage to Undead (Based on Character Level)
680% Bonus to Attack Rating Against Undead (Based on Character Level)

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 106
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x57613939
+15 to Dexterity
+148% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
Piercing Attack [33]
Attacker Takes Damage of 85 (Based on Character Level)

Death Spiral
Ring
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x4bfa155
+7 to Dexterity
Lightning Resist +27%
4% Life stolen per hit
22% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x520bd506
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+209 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 133
Durability: 47 of 48
Required Strength: 95
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x372821ec
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
+178% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Minimum Damage
+25 to Maximum Damage
+30 Maximum Durability
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
35% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
25% Faster Run/Walk
40% Slower Stamina Drain
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by AJK on Oct 24, 2007:

*ploink* *whoosh* Matriarch

What bow could be better for an all-dex strafeazon than a Windforce? Several bows, actually, but that doesn't stop me because I'm a raving lunatic. *raves* I mean, why would Blizzard code +strength on charms if they never imagined us making use of them. So, here she is:

Matriarch Bazooka, lvl. 85, dexy straferzon.

I was inspired by several all-dex strafer mats posted during the last weeks, so I got the itch again. Not the one I got an ointment for, but the one that made my twinking muscle stretch and flex, which also is about as much excercise as I can handle before passing out.

As +str charms are generally crap I wasn't surprised to see that I had relatively few stashed away at ATMA's place. Thanks to the gullible fools, er.., generous traders at the SPTF I got hold of more than I ever wanted within a day. Time to hit the spreadsheet. *spreadsheet broken* Ah well, pen and paper will have to do then.

Not only did my madness compel me to wear a Windforce with nothing more than base dex, it also compelled me to hit 2 frame strafe. Sheer insanity. But doable. Let me present my gear and you can work out the rest, I hope.

=--=
Gear
=--=
Silly hat: Andy's visage with 30%FR/15% IAS jewel.
I lost count of the amount of chars and/or mercs that used this hat. The massive leech, 35% IAS and +30 strength on this halloween mask made it pretty much the only hat I could consider for this build, barring an obscenely rare 2os circlet thingy. The bonus +skills made the valk stronger and buffed my passives. Nothing to complain about.

Girly necklace: The Cat's Eye.
If Highlord's Deadly strike stacked additively I would have chosen that one, but the overkill on dexterity matched my build so well I couldn't resist. The extra FRW saved my behind while frenzytaurs shaved it.

Weppin: Windforce.
No further text required.

Lovely jacket: Lionheart.
Rather awesome for its cost. I already had one but remade it in a Wyrmhide to save on a few +str charms in favor of +life ones. The +25 str of course made my day. Nice to see some good resists and life bonuses tacked on as well.

Silky smooth glovelets: Slaying of Demons. ATMA has a bug where it reads 'Laying of Hands'.

Shiny belt: Nosferatu's Coil.
What! No Razortail!? Yes! Razortail doesn't have +strength! So there! This one leeches!

Rings:
20/241 raven, just like my mercenary: a no-brainer.
[highlight]Dread Knot[/highlight]: 6%LL | 5% ML | 24% LR | 6% PR | +10 mana | +13 str

Boots:

War Traveler. It has +10 to strength. Notice a theme yet?
The bonus 50% MF and added damage too were as welcome as a sprinkler installation in Hell.

Charms:
Allow me to list the properties of the entire backpack.
Resists: 56% FR, 59% CR, 76% LR, 27% PR
Stats: +24 str, +110 life, +247 AR, +16 max dam., +3% FRW, 6-10 cold damage.

Idiot:
Reaper's Toll, Stone, Andy's visage.

How I haxxed together the strength for the force:
Base: 20 -charms-> 44 -ring-> 57 -nos'-> 72 -Lionheart-> 97 -travs-> 107 -Andy's-> 137

The setup hits 125% IAS, so 2 frame strafe for the win!

=--=
Skills
=--=
- Critical Strike: 20 (22)
To hell with diminishing returns, I'll take any amount of more pain I can get thank you.

- Penetrate: 20 (22)
Reaching 11K AR doesn't hurt. Well, actually it does, but it doesn't hurt me.

- Strafe: 20 (22)

- Multishot: 8 (10)
I used this skill almost as much as strafe, if not more. The way it decimates packs of critters is vastly superior to strafing them. The massive damage and knockback combo must have something to do with that. I didn't feel that more than 11 arrows were needed, so having it stuck at lvl. 10 provided more than adequate firepower.

- Valk: 12 (17 on switch with Harmony)
I read somewhere that a lvl. 17 valk gets a war pike. If not, I failed. She merely needed to be able to tank long enough for me to run away, so more points weren't needed.

- Pierce: 7 (9)
With multishot being the main tool of destruction the multitude of arrows itself takes care of reaching the back of the pack, so no maxing needed for that skill. With strafe being used against single or non-aligned double targets, an overload of pierce wasn't needed as well.

=-----=
Playing
=-----=
Normal: a +84 max damage bow of carnage, useable at lvl. 18. Stuff died.

Nightmare: a 'Harmony' Matriarchal Bow, useable at lvl. 39 (with a few strength charms). Once I equipped this bow, Nightmare passed by in a hail of arrows.

Hell: *aargh*
Nah, it's not that bad. As long as there were no frenzytaurs around I lived. I did die a couple of times though, but that's due to ~550 life standing between me and a corpse retrieval. My funniest and at the same time most brutal death was the evil urn I kicked in the Crystal Passage. A bunch of witches popped out and instagibbed me with their red balls of unpleasantness.

I was surprised about how safely she played through Hell. The autotarget from strafe and massive life leech kept my red bulb always full. The multiple arrows leeching at once from multishot made sure that my health cup always runnethed over. I still learned a few things though:

Don'ts:
- Strafe against a herd of demons. Surrounded -> death.
- MS against single targets: waste of arrows.
- Hang around PI's. Annoying and deadly.
- Don't multishot the scarabs.

Dos:
- Strafe to scout critters and see how far the following MS should fan out.
- MS to wipe out crowds. Great fun in act III (for a change).
- Strafe to finish of the stragglers.
- Strafe in case of emergency. Auto target --> auto leech.

The biggest problem were the PI's of course. The decrepify from the merc did help against skeletons and other small creatures, but I did get creamed several times by PI frenzytaurs in the chilly tunnels near the end. Reloaded. Against those annoying random stone skin PI bosses I used the elemental damage of the Harmony switch together with a lvl. 6 magic arrow. No real problems (except lack of patience) there. Bosses got a load of guided arrows from me.

=--=
Lewt
=--=
NM, Flayer Jungle: Trap skiller with +7 life
NM, Forge: Sol
Hell, Pit: Eagle Whorl, ring. 10% FCR, +90 AR, +64 mana, +26% LR
Hell, Dry Hills: Fal Rune
Hell, Flayer Jungle: Burning skiller
Hell, Forge: Pul
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Antonio on Feb 27, 2009:

Matriarch Dex, no vita bowzon

Ever since i found Windforce in bassano's ALVL 85 tournament I've been meaning to make a bow amazon. And I wanted her to have some extra punch. That's where my bro Darkoooo came in and gave me his Lo rune :yes: and I rolled a perfect roll Fortitude AP :smug:

But Fort wasn't enough for Dex, she had to have the highest damage feasible without sacrificing too much equipment (e.g. all-dex zons with strength focused items). So it's no-vita, minimum strength for equipment and rest to dexterity for firepower.

In the end this is what turned out:

Character name : Dex
Character type : Amazon
Character level : 85

Strength: 104/124
Energy: 15/15
Dexterity: 376/430
Vitality: 20/30

Life: 278/587(no BO)

Skills:
Maxed strafe and penetrate
12 points in multiple shot
13 points critical strike
12 points pierce
10 points decoy
1 point lightning bolt (PI solutions)

Damage:
Strafe: 522-5133
Multiple Shot: 477-4683
Lightning Bolt: 508-1635
AR: 9190/15252(with Demon Limb enchant)


Helm: Kiras with all res jewel and +3 max damage
Weapon: Windforce with -req/10ED/9min dmg jewel
Armor: Fortitude AP
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: 1.07 Mavina's with 40 FRW and 11% mana leech (hax :crazyeyes:)
Boots: 44MF War Travelers
Amulet: Cat's Eye
Ring1: 19/241 Ravenfrost
Ring2: 92 AR, allres +8, lres +8, 6% ll and 1 max damage (the last mod was make it or brake it)
Switch: Titan's and 2*Pdiamond Mosers

Charms:
Code:
Sharp Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x67c68b3c
+39 to Life
+74 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x2ff01a6e
+38 to Life
+66 to Attack Rating
+7 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xb47febfc
+14 to Life
+76 to Attack Rating
+8 to Maximum Damage

Sharp Grand Charm of Dexterity
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x66604007
+5 to Dexterity
+73 to Attack Rating
+9 to Maximum Damage

Sounding Grand Charm of Maiming
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 56
Fingerprint: 0x4fb95696
+20 to Maximum Damage
+1 to Warcry Skills (Barbarian Only)

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x6a346ed3
152% Extra Gold from Monsters
37% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Reduces All Vendor Prices 10%

Fine Small Charm of Winter
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 38
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xec564529
+20 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
Adds 4-9 cold damage over 1 seconds

Fine Small Charm of Life
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xcec9ca11
+8 to Life
+17 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xe59777e8
+18 to Life
+14 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0xe040b44d
+19 to Life
+16 to Attack Rating
+2 to Maximum Damage

Shimmering Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x30131774
+16 to Life
All Resistances +5

Merc: Ilzan, might town guard
Helm: Guilliame
Body: Duriels
Weapon: Reapers

Questing:

Normal difficulty was usual stuff: wacking bad monsters with things you can carry.

At lvl39 she was able to equip Harmony Mat bow and we proceeded to nightmare. In Act2 NM Ilzan, the might merc joined us and stayed until the end. NM was easy, even though not as fast as some other chars I played.
I played with Harmony bow until lvl 73, when mayor gear change was in order.
Dex could equip her Windforce and most of the other end game equipment (except Kira's, that waited for a few more levels).

We entered Hell and the real stuff started to unfold. First act was played on p3 setting and no mayor problems there, except Andy, she gave us a couple of runs around the blood pool. Act bosses are definitely the weak spot of this build, it take too long if not on p1.

Act two is where troubles began. Lots of unleachables means lots of potting and some deaths. I had to lower to p1 to make it through the act with decent speed and as few deaths as possible. Duriel was much easier then Andy.
In the Jungle things were good. Lots of flayers, birds and other little creatures to kill. Multishot really shone through this act. Durance was one of the hardest areas for Dex. I don't know, maybe I was a bit inpatient with her as I really wanted to get to act 4, my favorite act, so she died more then a few times in Durance of Hate levels.
Act 4 was great, I kept p3 setting almost through the whole act and none gave us much trouble except Diablo himself. He fried poor Dex with his red lightning attack so she had to run naked from the RoF waypoint. Twice :whistling:

The final act started hectic, there were skeleton archers all over the place in first 3 areas, and then skeleton mages in the caves. Frozen River was pain, died a couple of times there.
Merc couldn't last against the Ancients so I had to use shoot less run more strategy. After couple of laps around Arreat Summit the crazy old grumps finally fell to Dex's arrow barrage.
WSK and Baal were easy, as I played it on p1 because it was getting late and I wanted her to make Matriarch before she hits her real destination.
Baal dropped junk items, but he messed himself so that's good enough for me.

I must say I really like strafe, but there is just one aspect I hate about it. The auto-aim algorithm. I wish it would take into consideration that the monster that is namelocked is the one that I want to kill asap. It's not the Wooden Door two screens away or catapult. If only it would aim at least half of arrows into the target I namelocked it would be perfect.

I like the fact that with 6%ll and high enough damage Dex manages to leach out enough life in a fight to stand toe to toe with some tough monsters. Uninteruptables of strafe makes that possible and that is why it's such a cool skill. Now if only it would aim where I want it to aim :scratchchin:

That's it, she is probably going to the pits with some minor MF, mostly to full clear the place for socketables, gems and maybe a HR or two :whistling:

I want to thank Darkoooo for the Lo rune which made Fortitude possible and you for reading this. 👍

Pictures:
LCS
Anya's hell reward
Hell Ancients' Way layout
Evil Urn trap.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Arkardo on Nov 3, 2010:

Matriarch #12: Welgoedmikkenhe, the no-vitality Bowazon

Introducing... Matriarch Welgoedmikkenhe, a no-vitality bowazon, and my 12th M/Patriarch.

GoMule readout: <-- Where would we be without GoMule

Name: Welgoedmikkenhe
Class: Amazon
Experience: 723560209
Level: 80

Stats:

Naked/Gear
Strength: 115/144 <-- Enough for Guillame's
Dexterity: 340/380 <-- Enough for pwnage
Vitality: 20/20 <-- Only for smart people
Energy: 15/15 <--Only for not-so-smart people
HP: 268/629
Mana: 133/173
Stamina: 163/183
Defense: 85/2225
AR: 1670/2218 <-- 5212 AR for both Strafe and Multishot, before Enchant from Demon Limb

Resists:

Fire: 176/136/76
Cold: 127/87/27
Lightning: 179/139/79
Poison: 133/93/33

Moar stats:

MF: 43 Block: 57
GF: 85
FR/W: 30
FHR: 30
IAS: 60
FCR: 25

Skillz:

Magic Arrow: 1/2
Cold Arrow: 1/2
Multiple Shot: 9/10 <-- Main attack #2
Ice Arrow: 1/2
Guided Arrow: 1/2
Strafe: 20/21 <-- Main attack
Freezing Arrow: 1/2 <-- Crowd control

Inner Sight: 1/2
Critical Strike: 20/21 <-- Should've waited with maxing, but oh well.
Dodge: 1/2
Slow Missiles: 1/2
Avoid: 1/2
Penetrate: 10/11 <-- next to be max'd
Decoy: 1/2
Evade: 1/2
Valkyrie: 13/14 <-- +3 from Harmony, for a level 17 Valkyrie, meaning she spawns with a War Pike
Pierce: 8/9 <-- Enough for 100% chance to pierce

Gear:

Windforce <-- This baby doesn't shoot arrows, she shoots AWESOME.
Hydra Bow
Two Hand Damage: 35 - 488
Durability: 49 of 55
Required Level: 73
Required Strength: 134
Required Dexterity: 167
Fingerprint: 0x3e753b09
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
250% Enhanced Damage
+250 to Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
8% Mana stolen per hit
Knockback
+10 to Strength
+5 to Dexterity
Heal Stamina Plus 30%

Arrows
Fingerprint: 0x98349d9d <-- Apparently, arrows need an item level. God forbid if someone dupes them.
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Fortitude
Archon Plate
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1572
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0x714aad2c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+120 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +25
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0xe689d048
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength
All Resistances +15
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Um Rune

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 96
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xc439b29f
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Piercing Attack
+10 to Maximum Damage
+121% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+15 to Dexterity
Attacker Takes Damage of (Based on Character Level) 80

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 87
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0xc78b18e0
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+350% Damage to Demons
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 158
Durability: 34 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0x7a94e5f5
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
10% Chance of Open Wounds
+194% Enhanced Defense
+20 Maximum Stamina
Requirements -25%
+10 Maximum Durability

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x1206c932
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
30% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x43cb953d
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+250 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Bitter Spiral
Ring
Required Level: 48
Fingerprint: 0x9e8f2c99
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+98 to Attack Rating
6% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +5
Lightning Resist +27%
Fire Resist +30%
Level 2 Confuse (25/25 Charges)

On switch:

Harmony
Matriarchal Bow
TirIthSolKo
Two Hand Damage: 73 - 160
Durability: 45 of 48
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 87
Required Dexterity: 187
Fingerprint: 0xb7c0c68f
Item Level: 66
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Level 10 Vigor Aura When Equipped
+2 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
223% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
+9 to Maximum Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Fire Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Lightning Damage
Adds 55 - 160 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (63 Frames)
+5 to Valkyrie
+10 to Dexterity
Regenerate Mana 20%
+2 to Mana after each Kill
+2 to Light Radius
Level 20 Revive (25/25 Charges)
4 Sockets (4 used)

Arrows <-- Moar arrows
Fingerprint: 0x8cf59915
Item Level: 58
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Inventory:

Demon Limb
Tyrant Club
One Hand Damage: 95 - 172
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 133
Fingerprint: 0x8cc53ce7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
198% Enhanced Damage
+123% Damage to Demons
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 222 - 333 Fire Damage
11% Life stolen per hit
Fire Resist +16%
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
Level 23 Enchant (20/20 Charges)

Horadric Cube <-- No adventurer shall go without.
Fingerprint: 0x29a73dd4
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Key <-- 'cause even the mightiest warrior in the Diablo universe can't budge simple wooden chests.
Fingerprint: 0xcbdf25db <-- Like with, moar finger prints
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xdaa1ba99
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
85% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 14%
38% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Shimmering Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xf5d25d36
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+25 to Life
All Resistances +14

Shimmering Small Charm of Vita <-- My precious...
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x461fa861
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
All Resistances +3

Shimmering Small Charm <-- Also precious
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0xd6c6cf92
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +5

Shimmering Small Charm of Fortune
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0xe76c15ee
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +4
5% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Sapphire Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xeacfe2cc
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+11 to Life
Cold Resist +11%

Emerald Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x952042a3
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+12 to Life
Poison Resist +10%

Cobalt Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x9ae93fd6
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Strength
Cold Resist +9%

Emerald Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x58df72ab
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Strength
Poison Resist +10%

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xa80133b8
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Viridian Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 17
Fingerprint: 0x5f3afa42
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+14 to Life
Poison Resist +7%

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xf661bac
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Stalwart Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x567547cc
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 Defense
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x221d1561
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x6615750d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life

Amber Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xf82aa52c
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Lightning Resist +10%

Sapphire Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x28e6b07
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+13 to Life
Cold Resist +11%

Viridian Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xcfbb4145
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+19 to Life
Poison Resist +6%

Beryl Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 17
Fingerprint: 0x13b4b66b
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15 to Life
Poison Resist +4%

Mercenary:

Name: Haseen
Race: Desert Mercenary
Type: Off-Nightmare
Experience: 62221666
Level: 80
Dead?: false

Naked/Gear
Strength: 177/177
Dexterity: 142/142
HP: 1567/1627
Defense: 1160/2302
AR: 1850/1850

Fire: 159/119/59
Cold: 189/149/89
Lightning: 159/119/59
Poison: 159/119/59

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 130
Durability: 17 of 20
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xc5e08db
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Mana stolen per hit
10% Life stolen per hit
+45 Defense
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
All Resistances +15

Treachery
Boneweave
ShaelThulLem
Defense: 1012
Durability: 23 of 23
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 148
Fingerprint: 0x4c8cbf92
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)

The Reaper's Toll <-- awesome... on a stick!
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 39 - 463
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0xc002c2d7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
229% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 4 - 44 Cold Damage Over 2 Secs (42 Frames)
13% Life stolen per hit
33% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Quests:

All quests completed in each difficulty, except the Cow King. Lucky bastard.

Hellforge:

Normal/Nightmare/Hell
?/Pul/Gul!

Background
Months ago I decided to start up a Bowazon. Apparently I was in a hurry when I created her, hence her lousy name (translates to 'Makesuretoaimwell'). Anyway, I don't remember much about the first half of the game, because when I reached Nightmare Act 3, I favoured running LK for runes instead of actually playing the game. After a D2 break of several months and already getting sick & tired of Counsil Horking and LK running, I decided it would be nice to finally finish her. And so it came to be.

The story
Welgoedmikkenhe suffers from mild amnesia, so she can't remember the first half of her journey. She does remember often waking up and finding different items in her inventory. She suddenly lost her nice Burrita for an even nicer Wildwitch String with a perfect 170% enhanced damage, and she popped in two Shael runes that conveniently appeared in her inventory as well. Unbeknownst to her, the runes didn't do much, because of an evil force in the Diablo realm that prevented her from strafing at 2 frames per shot.
Anyway, with this awesome new weapon, she trudged on through Nightmare with little opposition to speak of. After a Lum rune, a Pul rune and a perfect Emerald magically appeared in her inventory, she thought that she might as well upgrade her Wildwitch String. However, she wasn't quite ready for this, so she waited. Conveniently, just before confronting Baal, she felt that she was ready. Baal pwnage ensued.
Cometh Hell, she had to be more careful, but still killed at a satisfactorily speed. Act 1 and 2 were rather uneventful, but in Act 3, a Windforce appeared in her stash, of all bows! Her enthusiasm was short-lived, however, when she found out she wasn't strong enough for this bow. However, she remembered that Akara offered her to make her a total n00b again, so she did. She now wielded the mighty Windforce. Her resists took a big hit, though, so she had to rely more on charms and be more careful. Still, she managed to complete her quests relatively easily. Mephisto was a joke. Izual went down before she even realized it (that's what you get for wielding a friggin' Shadowfang. Noob.). Hephasto the Armorer did not fare much better. However, Welgoedmikkenhe expected Diablo, the Lord of Terror himself to go down easily as well, but she hugely underestimated him. His Bone Prison took her completely by surprise, and a Lightning Hose o' Doom nearly ended her existence (though the Escape button would've instantly revived her anyway), but, luckily, she found out she's a master of gulping potions (especially those huge purple ones. Hmm, maybe that's where her amnesia comes from?) down and survived the ordeal. With renewed respect, she eventually killed Diablo.
Starting Act 5, she found herself again with new equipment, and her mercenary now somehow sported Death's very own weapon, The Reaper's Toll. She breezed through the final part of the game, but was often impeded by physical immunes, in particular one Stone Skin Blood Lord, the first monster she was unable to kill.
She had to carefully deal with the Ancients. Luckily she somehow knew beforehand that one of them used Leap Attack and had been the bane of many strafers like her. Using this knowledge, she took them down with relative ease.
The Worldstone Keep was a bit tricky, but was nothing she couldn't handle. Gloams were a pain, but manageable. At level 3, however, she met the physical immune Stygian Furies and her mercenary died. She had no way of dealing with them. Luckily, she had this nice Harmony bow, that she used to run past these pesky creatures. Nobody gets in her way.
The rest of her quest was easy. All five waves went down without much effort. Baal took some more effort, but eventually died anyway. And the world was safe.

OR IS IT??

Evaluation
She was very fun to play, with so many possible gear setups to consider. Going all-dex is fun, challenging and rewarding. Questing was actually easier than expected, unlike my only other no-vitality character. She reminded me a little of the D1 Rogue I used to play, the class I had the most fun with.

I think I'll continue leveling her until I've max'd Pierce, and then consider her finished. Maybe I'll do some WS K/Baal runs afterwards, but I haven't decided yet. If I do, I'll probably respec her with some more vitality, 'cause she's awesome and all, but not efficient, having to play so careful. I still haven't socketed the WF yet, but I was thinking of sticking a 40% ED jewel in it, maybe even one with +8/9 dex (forgot which one). I also haven't settled about the merc's helm. Think I'll change it to a Vampire Gaze with an ED% jewel.

Thanks to (in no particular order):
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by aman on Nov 19, 2005:

Matriarch Almarie and Patriarch Echo

First Almarie . ;)

Name : Almarie
Charater : Amazon(LF/CS)
Level : 91

Stats (Base/Equip)

Strength: 105/206
Dexterity: 157/206
Vitality: 257/277
Energy: 16/16

Resistances in hell

Fire : 44
Cold : 75
Light : 39
Poisen : 72

I still got an anya quest to do so add 10 onto that :)

Damage

Charged Strike : 1-4.2k
LF : 1-2k

My equipment wasn't as good as vegas but still quite good

Andys visage
Tal armour
Normal titans(not upgraded) on switch i used demon archs
Aldurs boots
2 java/10 ias/3 ll gloves
Thundergods
Storm
1 amazon / ll /resi amu
Raven and a ll/dex/resi/mana

Merc : Act 2 holyfreeze
Duriels shell/gaze/reapers toll.

The skills were pretty much the same as Vegas

This character was real easy to play and makes a good overall runner. This is the highest i have taken any characer so im quite pleased .

I would like to thank Vega he gave me alot of stuff and i mp'd with him alot , also anyone else i mp'd with AtmaRH , Wolf , Nebux all come to mind but im sure there are more

Onto my Druid

Name : Echo
Type : Fireclaw/summon
Level : 79

Stats (Base/Equip)

Strength: 126/201
Dexterity: 25/112
Vitality: 304/359
Energy: 20/75


(Normal/Bear)
Life : 923/1736

Resistances 75/75/75/75

Damage Fireclaw : 2.9 k- 3.4k
Grizzly : 1.2k -1.3k

Merc act 2 holyfreeze

Shaft/tal helm/Reapers

Items

full Aldurs
Storm
Raven
LOH gloves
String of ears
+3 shape amu

I thought Aldurs was going to be much worse but it turned out to be better than i thought.

I mp'd this character near the end (ancients/baal) but i did do diablo by my self :D

Diablo took around an hour to beat , not diablo him self but all the seals and stuff. The problem wasn't me it was fire immunes/iron maiden so i would have to go running around in other acts to look for money to get my merc back. When diablo came i done him without a merc and it was quite easy.

I would like to thanks for Corax for giving me alot of advice on this build , and any one i mp'd with during it Vega and everyone else.
 
Originally posted by Smips on Jan 22, 2009:

Introducing Patriarch Douglas and Matriarch Harle

Hello everyone!

I've been rather busy in between random MFing and I've scrapped together these two :p.

Patriarch Douglas

LCS

Stats:
Code:
Character type  : Druid
Character level : 80
Character exp   : 695925480

Strength        : 156
Energy          : 20
Dexterity       : 45
Vitality        : 254

Life            : 1982 / 691
Mana            : 475 / 178

Lit Res: 23
Fire Res: 4
Cold Res: 34
Poison Res: 7

Skills:
Code:
Cyclone Armor: 20(34)
Twister: 20(34)
Tornado: 20(34)
Hurricane: 20(34)
Oak Sage: 6(13)
Grizzly: 1(8)
1 in all prereqs

Gear:
1.07 Harlequinn Crest(thanks Fabian!)
Skin of the Vipermagi - +31 res all
TGods
Silkweave boots
'Spirit' shield and crystal sword
Magefist
Rare FCR Rings
Scintillating Amulet of Life Everlasting - +12 res, 22 DR
7 Natural GCs

Merc:
Act 2 HF with:
Eth 'Insight' Thresher
Eth 'Duress' Kraken Shell
Vampgaze

Hellforge: Shael?/Mal
Notable Finds:
Nothing really, other than the Mal HF. Just a few grailers.

Gameplay:
Ran Rakanishu until I hit level 15 and then threw on the 1.09 Ravenclaw. Can't say much here; everything was a breeze until I hit Act 5. Once I hit Act 5 I ran Elderitch for some levels and the real fun started. The gameplay was a little repetitive from this point on, but it was still fun. Cast Hurricane, run around and hit anything that didn't die with Tornado. However, Tornado was rather fickle and difficult to aim. Against Hell Baal, the Tornados were literally being cast in at 90 degree from where I was pointing(I think Baal has anti-tornado hax :p). The thing that impressed me most was how safe this build was. I had only one death(Szzark the Burning in Normal =/) up until Act 5 Hell. Plus, bosses went down in seconds, which is always a good feeling.

Hell really earned its' name in Act 5 for this Druid. I made it to the Crystalline Passage and from there on the game was nearly unplayable. Burning Souls and Frenzytaurs were spawning in every area possible and there were boss packs everywhere. I more or less lost all my patients trying to deal with them and ran all the way to the Ancients and then to Baal :p.

Summary:
Overall, Windy Druids are fun, efficient, and safe builds. However, this is mainly due to massive +skills that tend to go along with them. Luckily, Natural GCs come cheap :p. Prior to this build, I was rather turned off to Druids, but this really showed me that they can be rather fun.

Future: Probably just MP Baal runs. Or he'll just retire. Not sure yet.


Matriarch Harle

LCS

Stats:
Code:
Character type  : Amazon
Character level : 81
Character exp   : 752511666

Strength        : 90(176)
Energy          : 15
Dexterity       : 124(173)
Vitality        : 261(281)

Life            : 1454(1650) / 993
Mana            : 107(185) / 135

Lit Res: -12
Fire Res: 27
Cold Res: 23
Poison Res: -44

Skills:
Code:
Power Strike: 18(25)
Charged Strike: 20(27)
Lightning Strike: 20(30)
Lightning Fury: 20(30)
1(6) in all skills in Passive Tree
1 in all prereqs

Gear:
1.07 Harlequinn Crest(thanks Fabian!)
Twitchthroe
TGods
Gore Riders
Titan's Revenge
Stormshield
Laying of Hands
Ravenfrost and Manald
+1 zon skills/ +15 res all rare ammy
Resistance/Life charms

Merc:
Act 2 Blessed Aim(This will be getting switched, I just forgot to :p) with:
Eth 'Insight' Thresher
Eth 'Duress' Kraken Shell
Vampgaze

Hellforge: Io/Lum
Notable Finds:
Some TC3's in Hell

Gameplay:
As I did before, I ran Rakanishu until I hit level 15 and then equipped the 1.09 Ravenclaw. Ran Elderitch until my Java skills did respectable damage and went to town. When I got to Act 2 NM, I started MPing with Tanksaabas's Blizz Sorc. At this point, the game became entirely unfair until we hit the WSK in Hell. All of the Amazon's Lightning skills are, in my opinion, horribly over powered. I obviously have mediocre gear and I was able to tear through nearly all non-LIs on p1 Hell with no problem. I used
LS much more than LF, but only because of mana cost. I need to work out my gear to my LF more usable since it is so powerful. CS was used to take out bosses(which were all complete jokes) and any single monsters.

Summary:
Overall, this build is unreal. If you could properly outfit a pure Lightning Zon, she would be damn near unstoppable. More importantly though, she was very fun to play. I've always had a tough time getting into zons, but she was very entertaining. There isn't much in D2 more gratifying than taking out an entire camp of fallen with a few LS hits :p.

Future: MP Baals, then I want to do some area running. I think she could make a good cow runner perhaps.


Thank you all very much for reading! If there's any questions or comments, feel free to post them.

Oh, and as a side note. This makes 3/7 for my twinked sept. I believe an Assassin is up next, followed by a Barbarian.:)
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by zaphodbrx on Feb 16, 2012:

Patriarch Robin hood and his merry gang

Robin hood looked greedily at the massive stash of weapons and armor they had recovered from the stash at Nottingham. That old sheriff had obviously stockpiled more stuff than was good for him, he thought. With this gear they could stop playing at outlaws and do something actually good. Like, getting rid of those prime evils for a start. Little John agreed to accompany him on his epic journey.


Patriarch Robin hood

Holy fire/Holy freeze ranger

Stats
Level: 79

Strength: 91/93
Dexterity: 130/166
Vitality: 254/256
Energy: 15/18
HP: 958/1157

Skills

20(28) Holy fire
20 Resist fire
20(28) Holy Freeze
20 Resist cold
9 salvation

Gear ( upto half of Hell act V )

Kuko shakaku shael ( holy fire )
Widowmaker shael ( holy freeze switch)
Robin Hood's Harlequin Crest ( 15 ias jewel )
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Skin of the vipermagi
Razortail
Lava gout
Fiend trample ( boots )
Raven frost
Storm touch ( ring )

3x Captains grand charms

Gear readout

Code:
RobinHood's Harlequin Crest
Shako
Defense: 121
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 62
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x9226850d
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+15% Increased Attack Speed
All Stats +2
+118 to Life (Based on Character Level)
+118 to Mana (Based on Character Level)
Damage Reduced by 10%
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Jewel of Fervor

Jewel of Fervor
Jewel
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xe584730a
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xc643beec
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+218 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+16 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Storm Touch
Ring
Required Level: 13
Fingerprint: 0x8e67a02d
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Energy
Lightning Resist +27%
Fire Resist +20%
Poison Resist +29%

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 99
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xc68b0248
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Piercing Attack
+10 to Maximum Damage
+129% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+15 to Dexterity
Attacker Takes Damage of (Based on Character Level) 79

Skin of the Vipermagi
Serpentskin Armor
Defense: 279
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0x36cdf6b8
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Cast Rate
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +32
Magic Damage Reduced by 12

Fiend Trample
Demonhide Boots
Defense: 62
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xeafbcaac
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
+73% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +30%
Fire Resist +25%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%

Lava Gout
Battle Gauntlets
Defense: 136
Durability: 38 of 38
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 88
Fingerprint: 0x771ba4d3
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
2% Chance to cast level 10 Enchant on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 13 - 46 Fire Damage
+185% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +24%
Half Freeze Duration
+20 Maximum Durability

Widowmaker
Ward Bow
Two Hand Damage: 54 - 145
Durability: 38 of 48
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 72
Required Dexterity: 146
Fingerprint: 0x29ef2244
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Magic Arrows
174% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
33% Deadly Strike
+4 to Guided Arrow
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Shael Rune
Required Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +20% Increased Attack Speed
Armor: +20% Faster Hit Recovery
Shields: +20% Faster Block Rate

Arrows
Fingerprint: 0x920e2107
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Kuko Shakaku
Cedar Bow
Two Hand Damage: 26 - 76
Durability: 15 of 28
Required Level: 33
Required Strength: 53
Required Dexterity: 49
Fingerprint: 0x82c9811f
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Explosive Arrows or Bolts
Piercing Attack
165% Enhanced Damage
Adds 40 - 180 Fire Damage
+3 to Immolation Arrow (Amazon Only)
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Shael Rune
Required Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: +20% Increased Attack Speed
Armor: +20% Faster Hit Recovery
Shields: +20% Faster Block Rate

Arrows
Fingerprint: 0xa9bb87e6
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+

Mara's Kaleidoscope
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0x7cb4853b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
All Stats +5
All Resistances +29

Playing this guy was a blast in normal and nightmare, he used a 1.08 ravenclaw till he could equip the Kuko Shakaku at 34, and for holy freeze used an upped Wizendraw till he could equip the widowmaker. He slowed down a bit when entering Hell, but it wasn't terribly bad at first as he could one or two shot most enemies still before they could harm him. He ran into serious problems in act 4 however, and by the time he finished the Hell Anya quest he cut such a sorry figure that I just had to figure out another plan.

Robin hood cast aside his bows despondently. They had served him well so far, but he knew they just wouldn't cut it anymore. He started looking through his swords and shields. His eyes glanced upon a phase blade filled with runes, with the name 'Passion' carved on the handle. This kindled a fiery zeal within him and he decided this would be his weapon. A round shield belonging to Moser had been blessed by the gods, and that would protect him from the enemies.

Oh the indignity of a paladin having to use 'Passion' as I had no points in zeal. Still, I figured that was my best chance. By a happy coincidence I also had enough points in dex already to max block with a mosers. Also swapped in dracs and gores, but no other changes.

Gear from middle of Hell Act V to the end

'Passion' phase blade
Moser's blessed circle ( pdiamond eld )
Call to arms/Lidless wall
Dracul's grasp
Gore riders
Demon limb ( Hel )

As I had expected, the melee build was way better and safer, and I completed hell without much problems. Ancients were rerolled a bit and then split up, I killed Madawc on his own and then took out the other two, Screenshot. WSK was filled with gloams and other crap so I mainly just ran through. Throne room had dolls+horadrims.
First wave of Baal. Conviction+multishot colenzo. Merc keels over instantly, must be a record.
Second wave was a huge pain. Multiple town trips, tons of merc revives. Same for the third wave.
Fourth and fifth wave were extremely easy. Decrepify+holy freeze means that melee monsters are rendered completely useless.
Finally, killed Baal and earned the title. Baal dropped nothing of interest.

Merc upto Hell act V

Barbarian merc with Doombringer, Delirium tiara and ebug stone.

After that till the end

Act 2 defiance merc with reaper, Guillame's face, ebug stone.

I knew this guy was the only one who could afford not to have an act 2 merc, as he didn't really need insight or defiance. The barb merc worked pretty well overall, but I had to swap in the Act 2 defiance for the endgame. Also, my first and probably last ebug armor! I don't like bugs, but 4k defense on one piece of equipment is neat.
Delirium was very nice so long as I could kill them quickly, when I couldn't, it became a nuisance.

LCS as a ranger Holy fire | Holy freeze
LCS
after killing Baal ( Passion/Mosers ) zealot
Ancients screenshot
Damage with Nightwing's veil and 11/12 Ormus. Rejected for loss of style points and low resists. Rangers look cool in caps.

Bonus character: Birgitte the bowazon

Freezing arrow/exploding arrow bowazon

Level: 83

Stats
Strength: 88/103
Dexterity: 146/185
Vitality: 256/261
Energy: 15/20
HP: 981/1157

Skills

20 Freezing arrow
20 Cold arrow
20 Fire arrow
20 Exploding arrow
1 in all passives
1 Guided arrow

Gear

M'avina's True sight ( 3/3 cold facet )
M'avina's caster ( Shael )
M'avina's tenet
M'avina's Icy clutch
M'avina's Embrace
Raven frost
Stone of Jordan
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Birgitte's blood blazer (boots )
Naj's Puzzler ( switch )

Gear readout
Code:
M'avina's Icy Clutch
Battle Gauntlets
Defense: 93
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 88
Fingerprint: 0xcad31b13
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 6 - 18 Cold Damage Over 6 Secs (150 Frames)
+46 Defense
+10 to Strength
+15 to Dexterity
Half Freeze Duration
56% Extra Gold from Monsters
Set (4 items): Adds 131 - 252 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
Set (5 items): +20% to Cold Skill Damage

M'avina's Tenet
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 82
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x56a530bb
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Run/Walk
5% Mana stolen per hit
+50 Defense
+5 to Light Radius
Set (4 items): Cold Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +25%
Fire Resist +25%
Poison Resist +25%

M'avina's Embrace
Kraken Shell
Defense: 1193
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 70
Required Strength: 22
Fingerprint: 0xa78274a5
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Glacial Spike when struck
+2 to Passive and Magic Skills (Amazon Only)
+332 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+350 Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
Requirements -30%
Set (3 items): +30% Faster Hit Recovery

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xbba85ab7
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+235 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Fingerprint: 0xc1a58319
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
All Stats +5
All Resistances +21

The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x3297ec83
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
Adds 1 - 12 Lightning Damage
+20 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 25%

M'avina's True Sight
Diadem
Defense: 210
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0x1e55d443
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 37 Blizzard when you Die
+30% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 24 - 38 Cold Damage Over 0 Secs (3 Frames)
-3% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+3% to Cold Skill Damage
+150 Defense
Replenish Life +10
+25 to Mana
Set (2 items): +1 to All Skills
Set (3 items): 50% Bonus to Attack Rating
Set (4 items): Cold Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +25%
Fire Resist +25%
Poison Resist +25%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet

Rainbow Facet
Jewel
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x95f89eca
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 37 Blizzard when you Die
Adds 24 - 38 Cold Damage Over 0 Secs (3 Frames)
-3% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+3% to Cold Skill Damage
Birgitte's Blood Blazer
Greaves
Defense: 20
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 70
Fingerprint: 0xed3dae56
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
+27% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +29%
Fire Resist +20%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
19% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

M'avina's Caster
Grand Matron Bow
'Shael'
Two-Hand Damage: 40 to 207
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 152
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 70
Bow Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xa8f008b9
+188% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Attack Rating
60% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Magic Arrows
Set (2 items): Adds 114 - 377 Magic Damage
Set (3 items): 10% Chance to cast level 15 Nova on striking
Set (4 items): +2 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Naj's Puzzler
Elder Staff
Two Hand Damage: 200 - 232
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 78
Required Strength: 44
Required Dexterity: 37
Fingerprint: 0x91fad207
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Cast Rate
150% Enhanced Damage
Adds 6 - 45 Lightning Damage
+35 to Energy
+70 to Mana
Level 11 Teleport (69/69 Charges)

Merc: Act 2 defiance
Shaftstop <-- lazy
Insight cryptic axe
Vampire gaze

Birgitte was a blast to play, I was initially going FA/strafe with a maxed valkyrie. But I just hated strafe so in Hell act 2 I respeced to exploding arrows and found it much better. Like Robin, she found the later parts of Act V Hell very tedious and hard, so often used her Naj's puzzler to get past them. One point guided arrow was great against FI/CIs along with merc. But atleast I was able to complete the game as a bowie and didn't have to resort to 'Passion' cheese.

The build was completed at level 83, so I ran p5 ancient tunnels until she reached that level.
LCS in the end.

Comparisons and some rants

Okay, I've just got to say it. I hate bows. I just didn't know how much I hated them until I played these two characters. Maybe I just don't 'get' it but frankly a melee build is 100 times easier and 1000 times more fun. The problem is that these guys just can't survive due to 1) no hp 2) no leech 3) no blocking/defense . As long as they're one shotting mobs it's okay but the moment they run into tough enemies it falls back to endless kiting because they just can't afford to be hit. Robin hood was the most pathetic in this regard, as in, forget frenzytaurs, even a single ice bolt from mages in the frozen river were putting him into hit recovery, and that's when I decided to be a zealot for the rest of the game.

As far as comparisons go, obviously having actual bow skills help, but the difference isn't as much as you may think. Robin hood greatly outperformed Birgitte in the fire damage area, and his being able to leave entire screens of maggots in smoking ruins saved the character for me. Birgitte however froze everything that wasn't cold immune solid, and thus her crowd control was excellent.

A special note about the ancients. I had an extremely frustrating time killing them with Robin hood in nightmare. It was just-> shoot guided arrows. Run back. And so on for about 5 minutes. For Birgitte I decided to split up the ancients and tank them anyway. High defense from Mav and defiance made that possible, but only just.

Since Mavs gives 100 MF, I slapped on a gheeds and together with boots I had about 150 mf. Sadly, nothing turned up.
Needless to say, these are my last 'bow' characters. If heros with bow sorta skills suck, I can't imagine what it would be like with a necro or sin.

Okay, enough of that. Now for some happier news.

Little John

Little John looked through his pile of staves and quarterstaffs and became frustrated. The only good one he could find was a ribcracker, but it looked blue and pink like some woman's umbrella. Clearly it would not do. Maces on the other hand.. He quickly found a huge thunder maul named 'The cranium basher'. Ah, he thought. I will train and have enough strength to use this hammer of doom, even though it take an eternity..


Patriarch Little John

Two handed mace zealot

Stats

Level: 87

Strength: 228/278
Dexterity: 20/40
Vitality: 267/282
Energy: 15/19
HP: 1013/1329

Skills

20 Zeal
20 Sacrifice
20 Fanaticism
20 Vengeance
1 in Vigor, Cleansing, Redemption,Salvation,Sanctuary,Charge ( all used ), and prereqs
4 in Blessed aim

Gear

The cranium basher ( ruby jewel )
'Gloom' scarab husk
Little John's Rockstopper sallet (ort)
Little John's Loath grasp ( crafted blood gloves )
Gore riders
Nosferatu's coil
Highlord's wrath
Raven frost ( near perfect )
Carrion wind
Call to arms/Spirit ( switch )
Demon limb ( prebuff )

Gear readout

Weapon
Rich (BB code):
The Cranium Basher
Thunder Maul
Two Hand Damage: 144 - 700 <-- woot
Indestructible
Required Level: 87
Required Strength: 253
Fingerprint: 0x25657029
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
4% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking
Indestructible
+20% Increased Attack Speed
278% Enhanced Damage
Adds 20 - 20 Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
75% Chance of Crushing Blow
+25 to Strength
+4 to Energy
All Resistances +25
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Ruby Jewel of Knowledge

Ruby Jewel of Knowledge
Jewel
Required Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x6838696e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
39% Enhanced Damage
+4 to Energy

Armor
Code:
Gloom
Scarab Husk
FalUmPul
Defense: 1445
Durability: 23 of 28
Required Level: 51
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x17ac4cf
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
15% Chance to cast level 3 Dim Vision when struck
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
+205% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
All Resistances +45
Half Freeze Duration
5% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
-3 to Light Radius
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Fal Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0xd752f8f5
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+244 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0xbb02c976
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
32% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 149
Durability: 13 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0xe2337fc7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
10% Chance of Open Wounds
+176% Enhanced Defense
+20 Maximum Stamina
Requirements -25%
+10 Maximum Durability

Carrion Wind
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0xf6aaf39f
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 10 Poison Nova when struck
8% Chance to cast level 13 Twister on striking
8% Life stolen per hit
+153 Defense vs. Missile
Poison Resist +55%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Level 21 Poison Creeper (15/15 Charges)

Nosferatu's Coil
Vampirefang Belt
Defense: 61
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 51
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0xa02b443f
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
5% Life stolen per hit
Slows Target by 10%
+15 to Strength
+2 to Mana after each Kill
-3 to Light Radius

Little_John's Loath Grasp
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 6
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 46
Fingerprint: 0x5518b109
Item Level: 51
Version: Expansion 1.10+
3% Mana stolen per hit
3% Life stolen per hit
7% Chance of Crushing Blow
+20 to Life
Fire Resist +26%
62% Extra Gold from Monsters

Little_John's Rockstopper
Sallet
Defense: 187
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Level: 31
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0x295e8f48
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+198% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Vitality
Cold Resist +31%
Lightning Resist +53%
Fire Resist +28%
Damage Reduced by 10%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Ort Rune

Switch
Code:
Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 17 - 52
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0x708d6b82
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
252% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+3 to Battle Cry
+3 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Command
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Spirit
Monarch
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 138
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0x3b4fdae9
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+34% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+96 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+7 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Merc: Act 2 defensive

Gear: eth upped Duriel's Shell, Guillame's face, Reapers
I was pleasantly surprised by how nice Duriel's shell was.

Code:
Duriel's Shell
Great Hauberk
Defense: 1989
Durability: 27 of 150
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 108
Fingerprint: 0x50887284
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+162% Enhanced Defense
+108 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+87 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
Required Level +7
+100 Maximum Durability
Ethereal

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 30 of 40
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x95f57a54
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 37 - 442
Durability: 39 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 89
Fingerprint: 0xacbc4209
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
214% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 4 - 44 Cold Damage Over 1 Secs (32 Frames)
11% Life stolen per hit
33% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%

Little John was an unusual character in the sense that his equipment, mainly the weapon, took very long to come online. Level 87 req is wtf. I used Bonesnap and steeldriver for normal nightmare. Part IK set. Windhammer and CtA at level 68.
At level 76, he donned IK maul and armor and became an IK paladin. He also made patriarch.
Finally after many pit runs, at level 87, he was able to respec and wear the cranium basher. Only 30% OWIAS is needed to achieve 6 frame zeal, I think zealot is the best build for the cranium basher.

As it was a melee build I didn't really have any problems with it. I was tired of using fortitude on all my melee toons, so I decided to go for a rarely used runeword- Gloom. And instead of standard LoH or Dracs, I decided to craft blood gloves. I was going for 100% cb, but when I got dual leech I decided to keep it. Gloom was pretty good for me, the dim vision shut down ranged stuff a lot. I went with Rockstopper for theme's sake, even though I had CoA and Veil of Steel which were better.

Crushing blow - 97% ( wow )
Leech: 16%
6 frame zeal
LCS in the end. clicky. Yes, 5000 average damage delivered with near 100% cb at 6 frames by yours truly. Hell Mephisto went down in about two seconds.
LCS as an immortal king paladin with Veil of steel clicky

Bonus character: Avindha, the Spearazon

Fend/Charge strike/Lightning strike Spearazon

Stats
Level: 83

Strength: 144/156
Dexterity: 101/120
Vitality: 245/282
Energy: 15/15
HP: 948/1243
Mana: 138/203

Skills

20(25) fend
20(25) lightning strike
20(25) charged strike
20(25) decoy
2(7) penetrate <- fail
5 power strike

Gear

Arioc's Needle ( perfect skull )
Kira's Guardian
'Fortitude' wire fleece
Dracul's grasp
Gore riders
Verdungo's hearty cord
Raven frost
Carrion wind
Highlord's wrath
Call to arms/Spirit ( switch )

Leech: 19 LL 3 ML ( +lifetap )
Deadly strike: 97% <-nice
FHR: 52% <-sexy

Gear readout
Weapon
Code:
Arioc's Needle
Hyperion Spear
Two Hand Damage: 113 - 385
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 81
Required Strength: 155
Required Dexterity: 120
Fingerprint: 0x9dd751bb
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+4 to All Skills
+30% Increased Attack Speed
224% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
Adds 394 Poison Damage Over 10 Secs (250 Frames)
3% Mana stolen per hit
4% Life stolen per hit
50% Deadly Strike
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Perfect Skull

Perfect Skull
Required Level: 18
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Weapons: 3% Mana stolen per hit
4% Life stolen per hit
Armor: Replenish Life +5
Regenerate Mana 19%
Shields: Attacker Takes Damage of 20

Armor
Code:
Kira's Guardian
Tiara
Defense: 152
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Level: 77
Fingerprint: 0x8eb16ef7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+106 Defense
All Resistances +68
Cannot Be Frozen

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x5f8cd82a
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+211 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen

Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil
Defense: 137
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 106
Fingerprint: 0x2a9037a9
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
+109% Enhanced Defense
+37 to Vitality
Replenish Life +13
+109 Maximum Stamina
Damage Reduced by 12%

Carrion Wind
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x152e9170
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 10 Poison Nova when struck
8% Chance to cast level 13 Twister on striking
6% Life stolen per hit
+131 Defense vs. Missile
Poison Resist +55%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Level 21 Poison Creeper (15/15 Charges)

Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 142
Durability: 32 of 34
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Fingerprint: 0x8f7dd261
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Run/Walk
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
10% Chance of Open Wounds
+164% Enhanced Defense
+20 Maximum Stamina
Requirements -25%
+10 Maximum Durability

Dracul's Grasp
Vampirebone Gloves
Defense: 137
Durability: 12 of 14
Required Level: 76
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x5e45405e
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 10 Life Tap on striking
9% Life stolen per hit
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+108% Enhanced Defense
+12 to Strength
+7 Life after each Kill

Fortitude
Wire Fleece
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1455
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 111
Fingerprint: 0x8dd50047
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+83 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +25
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

Switch
Code:
Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
AmnRalMalIstOhm
One Hand Damage: 17 - 52
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0x708d6b82
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
252% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5 - 30 Fire Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+3 to Battle Cry
+3 to Battle Orders
+2 to Battle Command
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5 Sockets (5 used)
Socketed: Amn Rune
Socketed: Ral Rune
Socketed: Mal Rune
Socketed: Ist Rune
Socketed: Ohm Rune

Spirit
Monarch
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 138
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0x3b4fdae9
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+34% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+96 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+7 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Mercenary: Act 2 defiance
Gear: Vampire gaze, eth stone, eth crescent moon Ogre axe

Merc gear readout
Code:
Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 27 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0xd31916a9
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 6 - 22 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
6% Mana stolen per hit
8% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 14

Stone
Superior Wire Fleece
ShaelUmPulLum
Defense: 2848
Durability: 19 of 19
Required Level: 53
Required Strength: 101
Fingerprint: 0x80990b6b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+60% Faster Hit Recovery
+294% Enhanced Defense
+300 Defense vs. Missile
+16 to Strength
+16 to Vitality
+10 to Energy
All Resistances +15
Increase Maximum Durability 14%
Level 16 Clay Golem (16/16 Charges)
Level 16 Molten Boulder (80/80 Charges)
Ethereal
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Pul Rune
Socketed: Lum Rune

Crescent Moon
Ogre Axe
ShaelUmTir
Two Hand Damage: 126 - 655
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 185
Required Dexterity: 65
Fingerprint: 0xbf8d7a98
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
7% Chance to cast level 13 Static Field on striking
10% Chance to cast level 17 Chain Lightning on striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
202% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
-35% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+9 Magic Absorb
+2 to Mana after each Kill
Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30/30 Charges)
Ethereal
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Um Rune
Socketed: Tir Rune

This character exceeded all my expectations and is probably my favourite of the quartet.
Like Little John, she suffered from high level requirements on her endgame gear. Dracs? 76. Kira 77. Ariocs a whopping 81. God. Have you tried to get through act 1,2,3 hell with an un-upped Lycander's flank and a Tal's mask? What a nightmare. But once she got Ariocs at about the middle of act 3 hell, it was smooth sailing all along.

I thought I would be using fend only for LIs, but as it turns out, I used it a lot, mainly for the nice leech. Dracs weren't absolutely needed, but made situations like these extremely easy. No points in DAE to avoid the bug, and 52 fhr + 5 frame fend + leech makes them totally redundant.I could go to sleep in such situations and not care.

I chose crescent moon for the merc mainly to match the lightning theme, but the static helped too. If only blizzard had made the polearm runewords work in spear. Crescent moon matriarchial spear. Ah, if only..

LCS after killing Baal
Fighting Ancients ( bloody idiot took forever with stone skin+LI )
Fighting Minions of Destruction ( real easy )

Comparisons

It is obvious that somewhere down the line, Blizzard decided to screw over spearazons, as even with Fortitude, Avindha can't come close to matching John, even counting deadly strike. But there's another thing too. Zeal is simply a much better skill than fend. It works with all weapons, it is uninterruptible, it has no bugs, and it's great vs single targets while fend isn't. She also had big problems with LI/PIs.

But on the other hand, I found that spearazons are a lot of fun, and much more viable than people think they are. I had a great time playing this character and almost no problem at all, maybe due to fortitude+dracs+cta. Whatever. The same can be said for two handed zealots, my favourite paladin build

Drops ( all together as I don't remember now who got what )

Alma Negra sacred rondache
Sabazi's cobalt redeemer
Lion branded GC, trainer's GC, Mentalist's GC, Steel GC of inertia
Doombringer
Mal/Pul/Fal/? Hellforge

I had been hoping for a random Gul or Vex to show up somewhere, but no such luck.

Overall

It was a good experience, and time well spent. I did almost no mfing for a month, that is not the point of these characters.
I think I'm pretty much done with amazons as I have a pure javelin ( LF/PJ ), pure spear, pure bow. As I don't care for strafe the only thing maybe left is a bear dodge zon. As for pallies, I still have my first one that I made as a two handed spear zealot, then respeced as one handed zealot, then hammerdin, then conviction zealot, and now a sort of medic/holy bolter. Turns out I don't like them very much at all compared to two handed zealot.

Nearly all the items were self found. The captain's GCs were traded for, and I know the Ist rune in CtA must have been too as the game has never dropped me an Ist. Good use of all the mfing gear.

Thank you all for reading!
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by bcoe on May 23, 2010:

Matriarch Elanus_Leucurus (Freezing/Exploding arrow Zon)

Matriarch Elanus_Leucurus


My first fire/ice bowazon. I really loved this character – what fun skills to play with. I got the necessary runes for Ice during the last MF League competition (CS/Diablo).

Her name is latin for the White-tailed Kite – probably my favorite raptor in North America. Bright white wings/tail with black under-wing patches. It has a cool habit of hovering above open fields before it descends on an unsuspecting rodent/bug. Beautiful bird.

STATS:
Name: Elanus_Leucurus
Class: Amazon
Experience: 892794456
Level: 83

Naked/Gear
Strength: 72/98
Dexterity: 155/205
Vitality: 263/263
Energy: 15/15
HP: 1003/1178
Mana: 138/254
Stamina: 409/409
Defense: 38/1727
AR: 745/1239

Fire: 108/68/8
Cold: 108/68/8
Lightning: 143/103/43
Poison: 108/68/8

Skills (after + skills):
Magic Arrow: 1/17
Fire Arrow: 20/36
Cold Arrow: 20/36
Multiple Shot: 1/17
Exploding Arrow: 20/36
Ice Arrow: 2/18
Guided Arrow: 1/17
Strafe: 1/17
Immolation Arrow: 0/0
Freezing Arrow: 20/36

Inner Sight: 1/6
Critical Strike: 1/6
Dodge: 1/6
Slow Missiles: 1/6
Avoid: 1/6
Penetrate: 1/6
Decoy: 0/0
Evade: 1/6
Valkyrie: 0/0
Pierce: 1/6


LCS:

Freezing Arrow Damage: 3783-3886
Exploding Arrow: 1358-1574

How I got there:

She was fun to level – bowazons are just a blast. I tried a bunch of different bows, Wizendraw, Kuku, Witchwild String, Melody, Harmony. My favorite was probably Harmony in a +3 skills Mat bow. The vigor just adds so much speed. Wizendraw is hugely effective with freezing arrow, but freezing arrow doesn’t need much of a boost in normal/nightmare. Once she got to a high enough level to use Ice, she never looked back.

Equipment:
Head: Nightwing’s Veil (with a facet, +20/-5).
Amulet: Highlords
Armor: Chains of Honor dusk shroud
Weapon: Ice matriarchal bow
Shield: None!
Switch: CtA/Lidless
Belt: Razortail
Gloves: Cleglaw’s gloves
Rings: Ravenfrost, 1.07 Hax +35 MaeK ring
Boots: Silkweaves

Charms:
8x Fletchers
Random SCs

Resists: 8/8/43/8

Merc: Might with Infinity ethereal thresher, Fortitude, Vamp gaze

Finds:
Hellforge: Io/Pul
Had a random Gul drop.

Thoughts:

I really like amazons. I’ve not played all that much with them, but I always come away thinking that they are a ton of fun. Not the fastest necessarily, but great fun. This gal was no different.

Freezing arrow is a great skill. Non-CIs simply melted with this rig. Maybe faster even than a blizz sorc. She had -110 enemy cold resistance (Infinity, Ice, NW's facet), and 100% pierce, so the FA splashes overlap and the damage gets BIG fast. She doesn’t have the tele-mobility of a blizz-sorc, but could with the right armor… I think a FA-based sorc with Ice, Enigma, Shako, Wartravs, etc, and the right map could make quite a competitive AT-runner.

Exploding arrow is pretty mediocre. Even with the infinity-boost, the damage was such that it took a few volleys to bring down CI crowds. I also think the splash-radius is smaller than FA, making it less of an effective mob-killer. Its an OK backup to FA. I like it because it is stylistically so similar. Investing the skillpoints into Strafe/crit/valk would probably be more effective. She didn’t really need a valk for tanking, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.

The biggest issue this gal had was mana. Her pool is small, and FA sucks it down like crazy. The ridiculous 1.07 ring helped, but not as much as you might think. I didn’t have any ML, but it might have helped. I’d love to make some knockback, +2 skills, mana leech crafted gloves, but no luck with those yet…

One piece of gear needs special mention: Cleglaw’s gloves. Amazing. They are wonderful for any bowazon. I love the slow-effect. At one point, I’d like to make a strafer focused on slowing (upped riphook, blackhorns, cleglaws) and just completely shut down enemies and wait for the merc to pick them apart. I think it would be hilarious, and extremely effective.

Ice is one of my favorites of my new 1.13 (runefest) runewords. Its just ridiculously powerful for FA. I also really love the CtC frost nova. Its beautiful. Sometimes 3-4 would be flashing onscreen at once. Here’s a crappy screenshot. I’ll keep trying to get a better one. Trust me – its beautiful to watch. I don’t think the FN damage was all that significant (95-112 by my calculations), but it was certainly fun to watch. If I had made it in a non-zon bow (no regrets, but just what if…), a sorc with synergized FN would be fun to try. I don’t know how great it would be with 1 arrow at a time, not much pierce, etc.

Overall, an EXTREMELY fun build. Highly recommended.
 
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Originally posted by Cius on Feb 8, 2009:

Matriarch Skythia

My first character built around my new shiny Chains of Honour.

Character name : Skythia
Character type : Amazon
Character level : 85
Character exp : 1085148452

Strength : 103
Energy : 15
Dexterity : 137
Vitality : 260
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 43

Life : 1067 / 998
Mana : 181 / 141
Stamina : 423 / 408

Gold (Inventory): 0
Gold (Stash) : 1492762

Maxed Strafe, Penetrate,
One pointers: IS, SM, Decoy, CS, 3 cold skills, pre-reqs to Strafe.
3 points in Pierce

Equipment:
Andarials Vissage with 15IAS and 15 Fire res jewel
CoH in AP
WWS upped with Shael and 15IAS 10%ED jewel
Atmas Scarab
Razor tail
Eth war travs 41MF (only have eth)
Raven Frost

Gloves:
Raven Finger
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 81
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0xc2524cde
+5 to Maximum Stamina
+82% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Attack Rating
Attacker Takes Damage of 4
Knockback
10% Increased Attack Speed
5% Chance to cast Level 4 Frost Nova when struck

Ring:
Chaos Grasp
Ring
Required Level: 13
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0xd0901d42
+3 to Minimum Damage
Fire Resist +27%
Lightning Resist +21%
Cold Resist +10%
4% Life stolen per hit

Demon Limb on switch

Sharp charms, resist charms, poison small charm, cold charm, lightning charms.

Um from NM forge (lost due to weird crash) and Hel from Hell HF. Other good finds where Harly from Quest Hell Mephy drop and this:

Boneslayer Blade
Gothic Axe
Two-Hand Damage: 54 to 211
Durability: 33 of 50
Required Dexterity: 79
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 42
Axe Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x69ac690e
+8 to Strength
+202% Enhanced Damage
20% Increased Attack Speed
35% Bonus to Attack Rating
50% Chance to cast Level 20 Holy Bolt when struck
Level 20 Holy Bolt (176/200 Charges)
212% Damage to Undead (Based on Character Level)
425% Bonus to Attack Rating Against Undead (Based on Character Level)

There was also a TC3 grailer but I forget which one.

Very fun character to play. She was twinked with socketed longbows with various quality topazes until skystrike was equipable. After that it was easy till I could put the WWS on. I did die 3 times, once to diablo's prison, once to negligence, and once that I don't recall details of. I ran P5 pits until I hit level 83 and equiped the andys. I found chance to flee made her almost 100% safe but took the mod off after realising that it overode my amp damage curse really slowing her down.

I had planned for the 2 frame strafe and then found out the bad news so the Atma's scarab was actually a substitute for cats eye which was no longer needed. Never did find a need for the saved skill points. Her future may be a RoF runner and occasional pit runner. She is a bit slower than my sorcs though so she will be a novelty character mostly. Still, only my poison mancer ever handled the pits better than her. Thanks to all those that helped with the questions I had about her from time to time.

What made it happen:
Chains of Honor
Archon Plate
'DolUmBerIst'
Defense: 884
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Strength: 103
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x5ca76ec7
+20 to Strength
+70% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 8%
All Resistances +65
8% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +7
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
200% Damage to Demons
100% Damage to Undead
+2 to All Skill Levels
Socketed (4: 4 used)
 
Originally posted by Colony on Jul 22, 2006:

Matriarch Tireda

Level 83
Stats: (Base/after items)

Str: 110/163
Dex: 355/392
Vit: 20/20
Nrg: 15/15

Life: 661
AR: 8.1k
Defence: 2.2k/4.7k with Chilling Armour

Resists: 36/-15/80/61

Strafe Damage (without/with Might): 390-3663/456-4437

Equipment:

Windforce socketed with 18ed/IAS jewel
Andariel's Visage socketed with IAS jewel
Fortitude Archon
Highlord's Wrath
Laying of Hands
Ravenfrost
Rare ring with Fire res/Light res/AR/Min damage
Nosferatu's Coil
Waterwalk
On switch: The bright purple explodey bow (otherwise known as Kuko)
Charms were mainly Fire res/Light res/Life/Fine small charms

Skills: Max Strafe, Valk, Penetrate, rest of the points spread between Pierce, Decoy, D/A/E and Crit Strike

Merc:
Reaper's Toll
Duriel's Shell
Tal's Mask

I don't often make Mat/Pat threads anymore, but this character was a lot more fun than I expected. It's been a long time since I made a bowazon, and finally taking a chance and going with base vit paid off. Normal was actually quite scary because of this, even with a bit of twinking. Deaths to Duriel and Meph predictably followed. All this despite the 1.09 Ravenclaw killing everything simply by looking at it in a nasty way until level 30 or so. Once I had a few skill points in Valk though things started to go much more smoothly. Kuko and Witchwild String took me through NM very easily, with most of my items used for giving IAS, until I could equip Fortitude without losing any speed. I wasn't sure what to expect from Fortitude really, but I was very impressed with the difference in damage once I'd put it on. It adds over 1k max damage before Might now, and with all the other mods on it I'm not going to complain 😁

I levelled up to 73 to be able to use WF before starting Hell, and also had to switch the Gaze I'd been using for Mav's True Sight to keep Strafe at 2 frames. Having less than 700 life in Hell in 1.10 is a new experience for me, at least without ES it is anyway, but yet again the durability surprised me, I was half expecting constant stun luck and 1 or 2 hit kills :undecided:

I finished off Hell in an MP game last night, skipping quite a bit of Act 3 and 5. After trying out a couple of WSK runs earlier I can also say that while not immune to Gloams, if I keep moving they're not too bad and I can take several hits from non-unique packs. I did find it takes a lot of attention to keep this character alive though, sitting around making coffee while playing, or drunken diablo sessions aren't a good idea in this case. I kept Kuko on switch for PIs and Gloams, and other monsters with high physical resist.

Having only just put on Andy's Visage and replacing the Shael in WF with an ed/IAS jewel I feel like there's still more to do, but what I'm not sure. Pindle runs are just more efficient for MF'ing that the Pits, she wouldn't make a good PvP character, and other characters can run Baal faster :undecided:
 
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Originally posted by Colorless Green on Jun 1, 2008:

Matriarch Petra, M'Avina's FA/Strafezon

Class-specific #5/8:

Matriarch Petra, Level 82 M'Avina's FA/Strafezon

Str: 77 (122)
Dex: 87 (152)
Vit: 321 (331)
Ene: 15 (15)

Life (with BO): 1898
Mana (with BO): 641
Resists (Hell): 30/30/30/30
FA Damage (per LCS): 2510-2714
Strafe Damage (per LCS): 475-1641
AR: 2893

Skills:
Cold Arrow: 20 (32)
Frozen Arrow: 20 (32)
Strafe: 20 (32)
Valkyrie: 9 (17)
Pierce: 11 (19)
All Other Passives: 1 (9)
Bow Pre-Reqs: 1 (13)

Equip:
M'Avina's True Sight
M'Avina's Embrace
M'Avina's Icy Clutch
M'Avina's Tenet
War Traveller
Crescent Moon
The Stone of Jordan
Raven Frost
M'Avina's Caster (Shael)
CTA/Lidless on switch
Might Merc: eth Insight Thresher, ebug Treachery, Tal's Mask


Well, to start with the good, this is by a wide margin the sturdiest bowazon I've ever played. That pretty much covers it for the "good" section.

On to the complaining. I played hell entirely on p1 because of how poor a backup skill strafe wound up being with this equipment. Everything non-CI shattered into hundreds of pieces basically instantly, and everything else basically got taken down by the merc despite my holding down the strafe button. Given the amount of CI's that have high life, high physical resistance, or both, things got a bit tedious at times. Also, I'm fairly sure the D2 gods were taunting me all through this char, because I encountered a truly unreasonable amount of CI bosspacks including at least two of cursed, ES, and EF, which would take down my merc almost instantly leaving me to whittle them away with strafe over a long period of time. Sadly, I think that strafe is the best backup skill available without becoming a hybrid, though exploding arrow started looking pretty attractive towards the end.

I think she could be an effective AT runner given the right map and a harmony on switch - it's not hard to reach reasonable levels of MF with the set, and as I said before, non-CI's all die almost instantly, particularly when in groups. I'm too annoyed with the char to actually give AT a decent shot, though, so I'll leave that for someone else.

I found absolutely nothing. Io/Pul from hellforges. Due to the aforementioned sturdiness, I didn't have any survivability issues anywhere really, the only death I had was when I let that superunique right outside LK whose name I don't remember corner me against the river and I sucked down all 16 of my potions without being able to move. I would've had plenty of time to S&E but I just let her die. Ancients were easy - the two non-CI's went down almost instantly as they do, but the last one (Korlic) took a while because he namelocked me and never let go, so it was quite tricky to get the merc to land hits. It was, actually, a pretty good example of the way the char played all the way through. Non-immunes instantly dead, and then no real danger from the immunes, but lots and lots of tedium. Baal was easy, too. Thankfully, lister didn't spawn CI so minions went about as quick as the average blizzsorc, and the CI skeletons actually got mowed down pretty well by strafe. Baal was a bit slow due to his resistance, but eventually he went down.

I very much doubt I'll ever touch this char again, and the level of annoyance means I won't be doing an Aldur's druid next, so I'm trying to decide between Griswold and Tal Rasha (leaning a bit towards the latter) as my next.

I haven't been this happy to mat a char in a long, long time.


-CG
 
Originally posted by corax on Feb 10, 2005:

Matriarch Quoththeraven

A dark shape fluttered down the mountain side and swooped into a leveled ampitheatre where two heavily armoured warriors could be seen amongst the general gloom between the ancient pillars. As the swooping bird neared the ground it expanded in a blaze of white light and a naked woman dropped the last few feet to the ground. Quoth gathered up her discarded clothing as her mercenary, Ahsab, turned beet red which is quite hard for a man who's skin has been cooked to a perpetual brown by his desert home of Lut Gholein. After she was clothed in her garish purple outfit her attendant Valkyrie handed over her mighty bow and they moved out under the starlight in the center of the theatre.

As Quoth read from the ancient tablets stacked in the theatre three heavily armoured warriors prowled silently down the slope. Quoth snapped her head up as she heard the silence, not the normal silence of emptiness, but the silence of something trying hard to be silent. As her eyes locked onto the patches of total silence amongst the background noises of the mountain, rumbles and the distant screams of the dying, she cursed herself, she was certain the upper slopes had been empty.

One of the shadows coiled itself and fired into the air with a mighty spring. As Quoth and her consort watched the warrior, now illuminated by the full moon, flying through the air with a great poleaxe, another of the shadows unfurled and a wolfish looking warrior let out a fanatical scream as he unleashed a barrage of axes.

Ahsab, Quoth and her Valkyrie scattered amongst the pillars as the flying warrior landed, bringing his poleaxe down and sinking its entire blade into the ground. As the Valkyrie closed on the warrior who was struggling with his embedded weapon, Quoth peppered arrows at their axe hurling assailant, providing Ahsab the cover he needed to close the distance.

As Ahsab jabbed at his foe the third shadow sprang onto him from the side, casting him down in a whirl of blades. The counter- assault however had been left too late and the thrower toppled over, full of arrows, looking like a strange quill rat. Seeing the fall of their comrade a fire started to smoulder in the remaining warriors eyes as they both hurled themselves at Quoth, who fired as fast as she could, dropping her leaping foe in a flurry of desperate arrows. With only the one enemy left Quoth stood back and filled him with arrows as well while her Valkyrie maiden held him at bay.



Matriarch Quoththeraven
Lvl 88 Strafer

Stats: base(gear)
Str - 111(134)
Dex - 190(223 or so)
Vit - 214(224)
Energy - crap all

Health - 1064

Resists: -15/-9/-15/-55

Skills:
20 Strafe
20 Penetrate
20 Valkyrie
20 Magic Arrow
5 Critical Strike
3 Decoy

Equipment:
Helmet - Tal Rasha Mask of purple with a ptopaz
Armour - Tal Rasha's Armour of more purplyness with a ptopaz
Belt - Tal Rasha's belt that you can't see on your avatar, but is supposed to be purple
Weapon - Pwnage of a Windforce, with a shael, kind of darkish and evil looking
Switch: Lycander's bow because it looks cool and I was using it to buff my valk. Heh buff my valk.
Gloves: eth chance guards (34%)
Boots: eth war travs (48%)
Amulet and rings: angelic combo and a ravenfrost
Charms: lots of MF small charms aswell as a few max/AR/str charms

Merc:
Lvl 88 Might merc
Weapon: reapers toll
Helmet: Vamp gaze
Armour: gladiators bane

Finds: lots of them. Although I didn't find anything elite after I left the pit. Damn pit.


Build was pretty fun and strong on p3 for the whole game, except for Baal, he took bloody forever on p1. damn baal, he kept summoning his mate . grrrrrr.

Interesting points:
There was a really scary fanatic/might/cursed extra strong combo of a skellie pack and an archer pack in the doorway to pit lvl 2. took me forever to clear it out.
Ancients were interesting, Madawc and Korlic refused to stop chasing me and both Korlic and Talic were FE. Madawc was Fanatic, so lots of running and firing GA wildly behind me until madawc fell, then I switched to using MA on korlic, then sat back and strafed at Talic until he fell.
Throne of Destruction was just about the worse roll possible, gloams, OK's and the bloodstar trampess's. So it took quite awhile to clear away the packs and then when Baal spawned his second wave the mummies revived a group of gloams. So there was a lot of me running screaming.
Diablo was fun, with -25 res to his 2 main attack types it was a lot of circling, casting valk behind him, wait till he turned then fire off as many strafes as I could, then repeat.


btw the name is from the raven by Edgar allan poe and in a discworld book by Terry Pratchett, its the death of rats 'horse', although its a raven

and now for more meleemancer goodness.
 
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Originally posted by Cormallon on Jan 8, 2005:

Matriarch Janina

Some of you may remember my MA/MS bowazon. Well, she finally finished Baall (drops: chromatic Ire, The Tannr Gorerod, Radament's Sphere).

Character name : Janina
Character type : Amazon
Character level : 85
Character exp : 1102210576

Strength : 105
Energy : 16
Dexterity : 260
Vitality : 134
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 7

Life : 620 / 620
Mana : 212 / 142
Stamina : 297 / 282

Gold (Inventory): 8971
Gold (Stash) : 1223126

Equip:

25: Blackhorn's Face - Death Mask
26: Raven Eye - rare Amulet (PDR 2, CR 13%, PR 22%, LL 6%, replenish life +5)
27: Stealth - Ancient Armor
28: Raven Frost - Ring
29: Nagelring - Ring
30: String of Ears - Demonhide Sash
31: Goblin Toe - Light Plated Boots
32: Viper Touch - Heavy Bracers (crafted: Knockback, 20%IAS)
61: Lycander's Aim - Ceremonial Bow

Mercenary Items :

1: Shaftstop - Mesh Armor
2: Delirium - Death Mask
3: Kelpie Snare - Fuscina

Skills (base/with items):

Magic Arrow 20 / 24
Multishot 5 / 9

Valkyrie 20 / 22
Decoy 4 / 6
Dodge/Avoid/Evade 5 / 7 each
Critical strike 8 / 10
Penetrate 8 / 10
Pierce 7 / 9

Inner sight (prereq) 1 / 3
Slow missiles (prereq) 1 / 3

points left: 8


I did this build untwinked until I had severe problems in mid act 5 hell (Crystalline passage), then she got the IST rune my sorc just found and made Delirium for the merc. No more twinking was necessary... I really wonder if Delirium really made such a difference or if playing the sorc increased my personal skills so tremendously that I could finish the bowazon without any real difficulties (she never died since I restarted her with the Delirium). Ancients weren't difficult at all, I had 4-5 rerolls due to bad mods though. WSK was quite easy too, but here I was lucky: no OK, no burning souls (hey, my sorc had both of them).

Nevertheless, I'm not that satisfied with her, I tried some pit runs and she's really slow there, it takes too much time to kill. Most likely she'll retire except running Eldritch, there she rocks.
 
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