Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

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Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

I am looking for a complete guide for a strafazon and I cant find one. Please help...I looked at the stickied guides and it only has like the pit strafazon and one other guide that is specialized like pit. Can anyone help me out?
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

hello. it depends a lot on what build you are interested in. is it a pure strafer? or is it a hybrid? and if you are interested in a hybrid, which one - strafe/java, strafe/FA? it is also important to know what type of gear do you have for twinking (if available), if you have a Witchwild String (WWS) bow waiting for you in your stash for example, there are good guides for it.
you might have a go in the "search this thread" utility on this forum. type "strafeazon" and you should find a lot of useful guides. if you don't, say so, and I'll be glad to help anyway I can.
Best of luck to you!
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

I want a pure strafer and I have no good items at my disposal. Plus, I already tried to search this forum and got no luck cuz I cant find the search this forum link =(

Anyhow if you could just give me the skills and stats I need that would make my night. Thank you
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

This is one of the best guides for a strafer. although it's built around a particular item (i.e. the previously mentioned WWS), it's quite safe to say that it's generally good for any bowazon that uses a high physical damage bow.
When playing an untwinked ama it works (well, for me it does) to make use of your valk, best meat shield, IMO, there is. FA is great for crowd control, and should get you quite easily through normal and NM, especially considering that it doesn't rely on the damage you get from your bow.
I am a modest d2 player, so I usually place a lot of points in vitality, although the idea when playing an ama is NOT getting hit, through careful positioning and smart using of your merc, valk, and decoy. My "brilliant" strategy is to "sniff" ahead with decoy and/or strafe, position myself safely behind the merc and valk, then fire away frozen arrow, then strafe. Rinse and repeat. Make sure there are no enemies around when strafing, because of the strafe-lock. Get a might merc from NM act 2 and equip him with a "strength" runeword polearm (amn+tir, two common runes you should easily get), that should speed things up.
On what the rest of your gear is concerned, you should look for faster run walk, resists (the main problem for a bowa, as you don't get to wear a shield), increased attack speed, life, and MANA leach. strafe uses 11 mana/shot, FA is extremely mana hungry at higher levels (should you decide to go this way), so ml and +x mana per kill is very important. Check the crafted items section for gear with good modifiers, relatively easily attained, if you're not lucky with your finds/gambling sessions. There are also very useful guides for untwinked "get rich quick" chars, like this one
When you complete NM, don't rush to hell difficulty straight away. Try to do some countess (for runes), andariel, mephisto and act 5 runs, including baal (for experience and gear), using the "players/x" command that you are most comfortable with. You should get some useful items and runes before you have a go at the baddies from hell.
Hope that helped a bit, but take this with a grain of salt, for I, as I said, am not the best of players. Any otger question you may have, fire away!
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

amne said:
This is one of the best guides for a strafer. although it's built around a particular item (i.e. the previously mentioned WWS), it's quite safe to say that it's generally good for any bowazon that uses a high physical damage bow.
Click to expand...

The main problem is that wws has build in amp, thus a great solution to counter physical immunes. Without wws, you are forced to use atma's scarab or The Reaper's Toll on your merc.
both will probably be unattainable.

Therefore, consider going with freezing arrow, lightning fury or high level magic arrow.

P.S. If you're interested, a guide aimed for the low budget strafe/fa hybrid. Just put more focus on physical damage - by higher critical strike/penetrate if needed - if you're not really into fa.
http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=676075

P.P.S. and before you get frustrated, remember that bowazon without a high damage bow are slow and hard to play. It might be interesting to try and get a good bow first.

[edit]
damn, I really should learn to run the full post next time.



 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

I, by no means, have the right to get into a virtual "fight" with Nase, but still, WWS is an item that you can find in NM, and it saves you a lot of skill points. You should consider this before investing in MA. With FA you'll do just fine in NM, no need for MA, and you should, provided sufficient reruns, get a WWS. With some additional countess runs you'll also get the runes for an upped WWS, that provides enough damage for a decent run in hell difficulty. not to mention the ctc amp damage, the +40 res all, and the two sockets you may dual shael for IAS, or shael/nef for IAS and knockback, should you not be able to craft gloves with kb mod.
I am slightly amused by the fact that a living legend like Nase sends you to the same guide I pointed in a previous post, but I assume that such a perfect d2 player as him tends to forget/ignore the problems a noob might encounter.
 
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Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

This thread is getting strange...



Searching for a specific item will only drive you mad. Lest assume you look for wws form nightmare mephisto. That's 1/997 chances assuming first drop, with a 5 minute run - due to low killing power and no teleport - you are looking at over 83 hours on average.


P.S. dual shael isn't needed for strafe. /2 strafe doesn't exist anyway so you going 9/3 is more then enough imho.
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

Of course you'll never get /2 strafe, but it's not as strange as Nase suggests to dual shael your WWS, since 1/3 of the monsters you'll encounter on hell ar physical immune, therefore requiring some other form of attack rather than strafe, most likely FA, that would definitely benefit from the IAS on your WWS. Furthermore, since it's quite common to get the knockback mode on crafted gloves, I cannot grasp what exactly would be better to fill your WWS's sockets with. Nase is right, it may be difficult for you to find a WWS (if you're really unlucky), but you should have no problems trading for one on US East (seeing you're from Chicago), or even getting it for free, as Theio Vrefos already offered you (unfortunately for you he's from Europe). Even if you are on a "self-found" basis, it's still easier to "farm" mephisto than Nase implies: going untwinked means that you will likely have something close to 150-200 MF with merc dealing the final blow, that should get you your WWS in one day, in spite of the odds. And that will be a well spent day, for you should get a lot of other useful items, experience, and the best bow you can get in the early stages of D2 playing.
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

I would socket the wws with amn, perfect skulls, nef, eth. this to cover leech and possibly knockback or ar problems.
Cause lets face it, getting decent leech on a good place isn't that easy. And leech is something you can't ever get enough.

The reason why I wouldn't go for dual shael is because you can strafe to fight physical immune. Just strafe untill amp triggers. And if one isn't breakable immune, you can always use the free lvl 20 magic arrow.

P.S. note that the topic starter has expressed his reluctance to using other attack skills such as freezing arrow.
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

Getting life and mana leach IS easy if you farm mephisto and baal. It's highly likely that you get Tal's Crest that provides +15 res all, and 10% ml and ll, and getting a ring/ammy with +AR is really easy to come by, thus solving another one of your problems. Not to mention that, by the time you get to farm mephisto, you will get the sigon combo (gloves, belt, and boots) that provides 30 IAS, + strength, +AR, 10% ll, fire and cold res, not exactly end game gear, but still good enough to get you through NM and early stages of hell.
Nase has a point here: "you can strafe to fight physical immune. Just strafe untill amp triggers", but I know from experience that you will encounter PI's that will tear your merc and valk apart faster than amp triggers from WWS. And that's exactly when you need FA the most, AND when you don't give a damn about ll or AR, not to mention the fact that PI's grant NO life leach.
"P.S. note that the topic starter has expressed his reluctance to using other attack skills such as freezing arrow."
I've noticed it, but max strafe requires 23 hard points, so I assumed FA was in order.
One other thing: asking for help from "legends" poses a problem. They assume that:
1) you play as well as they do;
2) you have those 1337 itamz, and godly gear is not an issue.
They are quick to help you, but you'll find that it's not very lucrative to read that "you really need an enigma runeword, 2 soj's, war travs, 5 skillers, 15 3/20/20 sc, and 1000 MF".
 
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Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

amne said:
Nase has a point here: "you can strafe to fight physical immune. Just strafe untill amp triggers", but I know from experience that you will encounter PI's that will tear your merc and valk apart faster than amp triggers from WWS. And that's exactly when you need FA the most, AND when you don't give a damn about ll or AR, not to mention the fact that PI's grant NO life leach.
Click to expand...

You can always use a switch. Take a fast -10 bow with as many sockets as possible - or perhaps a slow 6socket bow - and fill it put with shaels/jewels until you hit your breakpoint wanted. Continue filling up with perfect saphires to increase your damage aswell as increasing your freezing time.
That results in a faster attack with higher damage and more freezing time. And possible mana problems can be solved with insight which shouldn't be expensive as according to amne, you will have runned countess already quite often.

P.S. Allow me to point out a little mistake in your post amne. Maxing strafe takes 24 points. You need one points for magic arrow, one for multishot, one for guide arrow and one for cold arrow. Count in the 20 for max strafe and you will see that you need 24 points and not the mentioned 23.



 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

Typical "legend" stuff from Nase: "or perhaps a slow 6socket bow". You get a 6 socket bow only on hell difficulty. Switching gear is much more likely for MF, such as langer briser or stuff that you can use to prebuff your valk, that is a +2 to ama levels javelin and sigon's tower shield, but that's just me, Nase MUST have better advice, he's posted for almost 1800 times.

Dear Nase - I apologize for that mistake, of course max strafe needs 24 hard points. Still, even considering points spent on valk, there should be more than enough slvl points that might be invested in FA, given that D/A/E is not the thing to go for, because of the evade animation.
 
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Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

I am afraid that I am going to have to correct you again amne.

According the wiki, weapons can get max sockets from ilvl 41+. According to that same page and the summit, a long war bow can get up to 6 sockets. If we combine this data with the data containing the alvl of the area's and with the knowledge that form nightmare, alvl equals mlvl equals ilvl. We see that from - give or take a few - act 2 nightmare, the alleged 6 socket bow can be obtained by finding a suitable white bow and using the first quest reward form act 5.


http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2231212&postcount=6
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Sockets

[edit]
apology excepted.
 
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Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

Nase - you rule! Me stupid, you smart. Of course I'll be extremely amused to get 6 os whatever items in NM, especially given the fact that you can't get more than 4 os socketed items in NM, no matter how good you are.
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

The data disagrees.
And I trust data - most a little default in my genome.
 
Re: Strafe Guide(I already checked the stickied)

Exactly. Check the data for items and you will see that you don't get more than 4 os items in NM.
"The most sockets possible to find in armor are 3 on normal and Nightmare, and 4 on Hell." oops, you ssssslipped :D
 
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