Introduction:
Tired of the same old builds for the bowazon?
Well then this build might be something for you.
What is the Sniperzon then?
The Sniperzon is a bowazon that uses more strategy and skill than most cookie-cutter builds from 1.09 but that is not the only difference between this build and old 1.09 builds. One hit kills is the aim for this build but as monsters now have such a huge amount of hp in hell survival is more important then killing speed. So to make sure to stay alive and get the kills a Sniperzon follow these steps:
- She uses her decoy as a shout to be able to see the monsters before they see her.
- She kills most monsters off screen to further ensure that she is in minimum danger at all times.
- with her merc and valk as tanks she should rarely see more monsters on screen then those her tanks fight.
That’s why this Amazon is much more defensive than most Amazon builds out there and as you read on you will understand why this build most used skill isn’t an attack skill. This Amazon also uses equipment many would normally never think of putting on a zon. So let’s start.
Amazon Stats points:
The simple rule here is to have enough STR to wear you equipment enough in vita for a good amount of life once you reach hell and the rest in dex for damage.
But as I know people generally want some tip of how to spend their points I will list what I recommend you to have on your Sniperzon.
Str 115-119 remember to count in any str bonus your end game gear will give you to give a example my Sniperzon has a base str of 119 but with gear on she has 145 str.
Why I have 115 STR listed as minimum is because it’s the STR req for the best helm to use with this build.
You can read more about what helm that is and why I recommend it later in the equipment section of this guide.
Dex here you should put any point you can spare once you got enough STR and vita
Vita I recommend you to put 120 points her as minimum sure you could make it with less but you have a higher chance of getting killed too.
Your calls just remember that monsters in hell hit hard now.
Energy is left at base as you don’t use any mana intensive skills in fact your main skill don’t use mana.
To give you an example my level 86 Sniperzon Zara has these stats:
STR 145 (a mistake as I didn’t remember to count in my +STR from items. Base STR is at 119)
Dex 311
Vita 120
Energy is at 35 thanks to my equipment
Life is 677
Mana is 172
All res in hell are maxed at 75%
Damage with poison charms added is:
Magic arrow level 24: 659-1506
Strafe level 17: 517-1283
Skill points:
Most build just tell you what your skill points should be at when you beat the game, granted this is useful info but if you know where to put your skill points as you level up its even better. That is why I will tell you what I spent my skill points as I levelled up to give you an idea of how you should spend yours.
Level 1-6 all skill points should be spent in critical strike to ensure that you have a decent chance to get double damage out of your attacks. Why is this important then?
Well you will most of the time shot single arrows at your targets and then you want those arrows to count for as much damage as possible. Remember to use the reward for clearing the den of evil.
Level 7-13 all points into magical arrow. Why do we stop at level 13? Well it’s because at level 13 the mana cost of magical arrow drops to zero and having a skill that cost no mana or arrows it’s very useful. Note on magical arrow this skill gives you a massive attack rating bonus at higher level as well as a percent of your physical damage converted to magical damage witch makes it a good means to kill pi with once you have maxed it and got a good bow. The + to min and max damage this kill also gives you are not worthless either but its not that much to cheer for granted at level 20 you get +20 min max damage from it.
Those that favour the new WWS or witch wild string man choose to spend no point at all in magical arrow as WWS grants level 20 magic arrows directly. I recommend not to as although the WWS is nice it wont deal much damage sure you can upgrade it to a diamond bow to increase the damage it deals but even them there are much better bows out there for this build.
Level 14-20 spend all skill points in the passive tree so that you can spend points in valk and pierce as fast as possible once you hit level 30
Level 21-28 I recommend you to max out magic arrow here as you really don’t need your support skill until you hit nightmare.
I explain why later on.
Level 29-30 spend your first points in pierce and valk now.
Level 31- 47 all your points should now go into valk to ensure that you have a decent tank.
Once you have the rest of your skills where you want them, you can by all means max valk completely as no point is wasted but remember that a level 17 valk is very strong and that you don’t have to recast her often.
48-55 put all your points in pierce now so that you have it up to 69-70% chance to pierce why only up to level 8 on pierce then?
Its because later on if you can get good gear you can equip Razortail witch then will give you 33% more pierce for free and if you have above 70% pierce already by then those points are wasted.
56-60 place your points in the bow tree now so you get access to strafe.
61-80 place all your points in penetrate now you may think this is a waste but I can bet on that you understand why later on in hell as the monsters are so beefed up that you need extreme amounts of attack rating to have a good chance to hit in hell.
Sure your main skill magic arrow won’t have much trouble hitting as it boosts your attack rating by itself but your strafe benefits a lot from the extra attack rating.
Nothing beats getting killed just because you missed with a strafe volley.
Use the rest of your points to first max out strafe once you done that you should have about 10 skill points left that’s if you ever get to level 99.
Not that a maxed strafe isn’t needed at all but the extra arrows is useful.
At level 86 my Sniperzon has these skills with the help of her equipment:
Bow and crossbow skill tab:
Magic arrow level 24
Strafe level 17
Rest is pre req and are at level 5
Passives and magical skill tab:
Critical strike level 9
Penetrate level 22
Pierce level 10
Valk level 21
Pre req at level 3
With the ultimate gear many of the levels would drop a couple levels but the increased power that comes with better equipment makes up for it.
Equipment:
First before I list the equipment I recommend for this build I want to point out what modifiers this build really benefit from.
These modifiers are knockback, prevent monster heal, open wounds, crushing blow, deadly strike, life and mana leech, amplify damage, FRW, FHR.
Knockback is obviously to keep the monsters away from us but it can also be of use to keep our merc alive as monsters that are hit with knockback wont damage our merc.
Prevent monster heal do exactly what it says it stops the regen of monsters witch in hell is very fast. And as we bowazons deal little damage too many monsters at a time we need it as monsters otherwise would heal to full life when we stop shooting at them.
Open wound may seem useless but it’s in reality a quite useful modifier as explained below:
Open Wounds works in a way similar to poison, although it isn’t poison so the two effects can stack. It drains the victim’s life over a period of time (8 seconds), and will prevent monster regeneration whilst it’s in effect.
Open Wounds’ damage per frame is computed as follows (L is the attacker’s level, i.e. your level):
L=1-15: (9L+31)/256
L=16-30: (18L-114)/256
L=31-45: (27L-384)/256
L=46-60: (36L-779)/256
L=61-99: (45L-1319)/256
Since there are 25 frames per second in D2, multiply the resulting number by 25 to find the damage per second.
Crushing blow works as described below:
Regular monster: 1/4 melee, 1/8 ranged
Bosses and Champions: 1/8 melee, 1/16 ranged
anything else (including other players): 1/10 melee, 1/20 ranged
“Other” includes all types of boss monsters as well as other players and their hirelings. This doesn’t sound like much, but if Izzy has 100,000 hps, taking off 1/20th with your bow would be worth 5,000 hps.
Just keep in mind that the percent of life taken away from the monsters is based on their current hp so it gets less and less effective the more you damage the monster.
Deadly strike gives you another way except with critical strike to double your damage that info should be enough to anyone that wonder why we want to have that modifier.
Life and mana leech is not only useful for this build thanks to the fact that it gives us back life and mana when we attack the monsters.
Life and mana leech is also your way of telling where the monsters are off screen.
Granted you can’t use this tactic against unleenchable monsters or PI but that’s what you have your decoy for to shout for you. More on that in the strategy section.
Amplify damage give use about 100% more damage and it also break physical immunity on many monsters. So it’s a very useful modifier and breaking the physical immunity on the monsters don’t only benefit you but also your merc as he is then able to leech of the monster and inflict much more damage.
FRW or faster run walk is useful as you sooner or later will lose both your tanks in battle and then your best means of survival is to make a run for it and the faster you get away from the monsters the faster you can get your tanks back.
FHR why use faster hit recovery?
Well the new patch throw in some mean ranged attackers in the game and even if you play like a god you will sooner or later get hit even if it so is a random shot that wasn’t even aimed at you.
With a decent faster hit recovery you can ensure that that hit won’t let the rest of the ranged attackers fill you with their shots.
Recommended Gear:
Helm Guillaumes Face (this build use a version of nightfishs CBSTU)
Amulet: Atmas scarabs for its chance to cast amplify damage.
Armour: everything from a lionheart to gloom and chains of honor works.
Myself I use gloom as I don’t have the means to make a chains of honor.
Belt: hawanins blessing is a nice belt that grant you prevent monster heal. If you have the dream equipment for this build you should use Razortail instead. As you then get prevent monster heal from another source.
Gloves: laying of hands is a great set of gloves that you really should use for its 350% extra damage to demons and 50% fire res as well as the 20% ias.
Another great pair of gloves is Ghoulhide for the large bonus to damage against undead like glooms.
Boots: there is really only one pair of boots you want for this build and that’s gore raider.
Even though goblin toe has a larger bonus to crushing blow the extra modifiers on gore raider makes it the better pair of boots.
Rings: ultimately you want a raven frost and nature’s peace here but that is only if you can get your life and mana leech covered elsewhere like in your bow.
Otherwise you should set for a dual leech ring and a raven frost here.
Weapon: a good weapon that should be able to take you trough the game is a nefed Lycanders aim. It can even be upgraded for more damage.
The ultimate bow here would be a windforce socked with a Amn.
Why with a Amn then?
The answer to that is simple you don’t die if you have a little less damage but you pretty sure to die if you don’t have any life leech. That’s why.
An Amn socked windforce gives you knockback, life and mana leech freeing up other equipment places.
My Sniperzon uses the following equipment:
Helm:
Guillaume’s Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 34
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0xde9cc08e
+15 to Strength
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +14
30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
Socketed (1: 1 used)
Socketed with this jewel
Scintillating Jewel
Required Level: 26
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xf1f2fb50
All Resistances +14
Amulet:
Atma’s Scarab
Amulet
Required Level: 60
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xa48089a2
Poison Resist +75%
+39 poison damage over 4 seconds
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
+3 to Light Radius
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
5% Chance to cast Level 2 Amplify Damage on striking
Armour:
Gloom Wire Fleece
‘FalUmPul’
Defense: 1398
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Strength: 111
Required Level: 53
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x34a14bcc
+10 to Strength
+247% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +45
-3 to Light Radius
10% Faster Hit Recovery
5% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
Half Freeze Duration
15% Chance to cast Level 3 Dim Vision when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)
Belt: (before I could trade for a nature’s peace I used Hwanin’s Blessing as a belt to get my prevent monster heal)
Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 97
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 32
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x282ac216
+15 to Dexterity
+124% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
Piercing Attack [33]
Attacker Takes Damage of 86 (Based on Character Level)
Gloves:
Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 86
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x807d18b4
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%
20% Increased Attack Speed
350% Damage to Demons
10% Chance to cast Level 3 Holy Bolt on striking
Boots:
Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 155
Durability: 33 of 34
Required Strength: 94
Required Level: 47
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x6f8bbaa6
+20 to Maximum Stamina
+188% Enhanced Defense
+10 Maximum Durability
Requirements -25%
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
Ring1: (at lower level I used a raven frost here)
Nature’s Peace
Ring
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xe5866829
Damage Reduced by 8
Poison Resist +29%
Slain Monsters Rest in Peace
Prevent Monster Heal
Level 5 Oak Sage (27/27 Charges)
Ring2:
Ghoul Finger
Ring
Required Level: 35
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x852535cf
+9 to Dexterity
+107 to Attack Rating
Poison Resist +19%
6% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Mana after Each Kill
Weapon:
Lycander’s Aim
Grand Matron Bow
‘Nef’
Two-Hand Damage: 65 to 257
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 152
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 65
Bow Class – Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xe328d474
+20 to Energy
+20 to Dexterity
+20% Enhanced Defense
+188% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
5% Mana stolen per hit
Knockback
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
20% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)
Zaras inventory is filled with res charms to ensure that she has max res in hell to have all res maxed is not necessary if you have res lightning and res fire maxed you do ok.
But of course max res in everything helps.
Strategy tips:
Your decoy is there for a reason use her she is your best bait to lure monsters out.
That’s why you when playing the Sniperzon should cast the decoy at the edge of the screen when ever you advance future on the map. Using your decoy this way won’t only make it easier to target your enemies it will also save you life many times.
For example I once casted my decoy at the edge of the screen and it was instantly greeted with the explosion of 5 suicide minions. Hey I would not have survived that if they had hit me instead of my decoy.
Learn to take out key targets first.
That is killing the monsters that pose the biggest threat to your char first.
A example a fallen shaman is a bigger threat then a fallen so you should take the fallen shaman out first. But if you have a few fallen running at you to attack you, they pose a bigger threat then the shaman and should be killed first.
This becomes easier once you get pierce as you then can aim a the shaman and still hit the minions.
Also remember to use the terrain to your advantage. For example if there is a pack of ranged attackers shooting at you and there is rocks or other obstacles nearby take cover behind them. Then plan for your next move.
When you face larger groups of monsters later in the game I advice you to switch to strafe and hit them all this to make it easier for your merc and valk as they get weaker target to tank.
Sometimes like when facing oblivion fighters and mages strafe is your best bet as you will shoot straight trough the fighters and hit the mages at the same time.
Also remember that the range of strafe has been improved so you can now auto target monsters of screen. This feature is very useful when you fight glooms as they are a bit hard to spot when they move around.
The nice thing is that they can’t hide from strafe.
Also a thing to remember about ranged attackers slow missiles is your friend. But to be able to slow them down you need to distract them and the means you have to distract them with is either your decoy, valk or merc.
I rather have my valk killing of other monsters so what I do is that I cast a decoy behind the ranged attackers so they turn around and start shooting at the decoy instead of me then I cast slow missiles and start killing them. If you want to kill them faster you can also recast your valk in the middle of them. Works good against glooms too.
