PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's? <

[krischan]

PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

Faith + knockback surely rocks and I don't want to exchange LoH with a craft. Remember, this is for PvM.

IAS comes from LoH and there's a bit variation with the aura, that's all without Andy's. She will wear Atma'a because of ctc amp. How well will it go with strafe? Would the Giant Skull need any IAS?

 

[hubb]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

Strafe doesn't need much IAS. A Faith GMB with level 12 Fanat only needs 20 for the very last breakpoint (5/3/9), and even a WF with no Fanat reaches 6/3/9 with just a Sheal and LoH.

 

[krischan]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

OK, thanks, so I will use a giant Skull this time.

But what's going into its two sockets then? A few considerations for that question:

- Gear: Faith GMB, Giant Skull, Fortitude, LoH, Razortail, some frw boots which even out resists (Aldur's or Natalya's or a frw/dual+ res rare which can beat them), Atma's Scarab, dual leech ring, Ravenfrost.
- Anything which is worth Ohm or beyond in total is too expensive.
- Resists are maxed with charms
- Faith, Strafe, might merc and dex add enough off-weapon %ed, so no %ed jewels, at least no plain ones.

I don't need help about the gear, just about what's going to go into the Giant Skull sockets

 

[Madness]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

Are you going glass cannon? If so maybe Ed-Dex jewels?
Otherwise I'd say whatever fills up gaps in your equipment, fhr etc. I would suggest a cham to free up a raven for a rare, but I guess a raven will most likely be more effective anyway.

I would normally hate to use Giant skull on an Ama because it's so ugly but your other option is Andys, which looks worse... Besides, you have a nice Giant Skull, they don't trade well, might as well use them I did (on a barb though).

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

i like the way it looks.

if you dont like the idea of just more ed%, how about some +maxers or +min. you could always go -req/res it or something like that.

 

[mackscynox]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

i socketed my GS with 2Ort runes for making my bowazon "soul" immune afterwards when i found some literesist items, hel'd and put 2 40ed jewel

like other's say, whatever your build need...

 

[krischan]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

I think I will add two of shael, -req/xx jewel and cham, thanks for your help!

Edit: I have a -req/9str/5dex/52ar jewel and a -req/80ar one, I might even use both of them

 

[MrSnaps]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

I have a pvm Bowazon, near perfect gear *I think*. I use a giant skull with 2 30ed/15 ias jewels in it. 40/15 would be better but I took what I could get.

From a strafe standpoint I haven't noticed it shooting a frame faster with the jewels, though I was using steelskull before so I *think* I only gained 10 IAS. I highly reccommend jamming as much damage as possible into your gear, it's the only thing I try for now.

I'm base vita glass cannon style. My lightning and cold resists aren't the best and souls can be a problem, so resists are not a bad option for the Giant Skull slots.

I use multishot a lot, normally multi on left click and strafe on right, I'd say it's about 50/50 usage. I'm not sure if the extra IAS helps on multi, but I assume it does.

Highly advocate getting as much listed damage as humanly possible, you won't regret the killing speed. Deaths aren't as frequent as you'd think, it normally comes down to either a bad strafelock (like in diablo lightning) or lag or a stupid error on my part.

if you're interested, my gear/skills look like this:

Head: Giant skull w/ 2 30/15 jewels
Ammy: Atma's Scarab (AD is leet)
Chest: Fortitude Archon Plate
Weapon: Faith
Belt: Razortail
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Rings: Ravenfrost/ Dual leech AR ring
Boots: War Travs

Skills:
20 Strafe
10 or 11 in multi (I have 11)
20 Magic Arrow
Enough pierce to get 9 (took me 3 with faith/anni/torch)
20 valk
rest in Critical Strike/ Penetrate.

Right now it's hard for me to decide between penetrate or crit every level. I have 88% hit against Diablo with magic arrow, I'd like 90 so I'll probly put one or two more in Penetrate. Crit is 1-2% more damage overall every level though, so it's important too.

Hope this was helpful, good luck!

 

[krischan]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

Yes, that's my zon equipment, except that I will wear frw boots with resists instead of WT (although I'm aware of their +dmg bonus).

With Faith you don't need more than the one point in penetrate for being a prereq. That bow has ITD (i.e. you hit every regular monster from about L85 on at the maximum chance of 95%) and those boss monsters which are hard to hit are killed with GA which hits all the time. Even if that's not your way of doing it, Faith has a 300%AR bonus and with good dex, you will hit well enough.

IMO 1 point in MS is enough, I just need it versus missile shooters which come in hordes, like the blowgun flayers in the WSK, to avoid being strafelocked. Apart from that, I don't use MS because it needs too many arrows and I hate running out of them. A +2 Faith adds +5 to bow skills and a torch +3, that's 10 MS arrows (or even 12 if you wear Andy's).

For me, magic arrow only has to use less mana than my zon regenerates, apart from that it's just for triggering amp on PIs which don't come in crowds (and then switch to strafe). One point or maybe 5 are enough. BTW, the AR bonus of magic arrow is bugged, it doesn't work at all IIRC.

I usually invest a bit in GA, to have an easier time with enemies like that choleric guy called Diablo who's waiting at the end of each visit to bowazon Disneyland. It's better than magic arrow because it hits all the time. Similar to magic arrow, its mana costs decrease with further investments.

BTW, this isn't my first bowazon, but something like my 10th, but I'm willing to give up a few old habits and learn new things . The main difference is that I'm not going to use Andy's which I did so far (since the first ladder season), but a Giant Skull and I didnt know speed breakpoints that well anymore. 20% IAS from LoH is enough, further %ed from jewels won't add enough in comparison to 300% from Fortitude, 250% from Might (merc), 400% from dex etc. That leaves Cham, Shael and-req/xx jewels.

 

[zrk]

Re: PvM Strafer with Faith. Which helm: Giant Skull or Andy's?

Yeah that works, just if you want to go superman style then 95% ias multisetup is the way to go, thats what faith is designed for once you go 7 frame multi you never go back , try lvl 24 multi if you havent yet.. it has a unique beauty of melting everything in its cone. but yeah, for strafe a wf setup would do more damage.