05-30-2005, 04:03 AM
NOTE: Guide made by Fallens From Diabloii.net
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=312803
The bowzon was so very popular and overpowered back in 1.09 but since 1.10 char classes like the hammerdin have taken over,
although this is the case the bowzon can still dominate.
This is a guide not a precise build feel free to experiment around this to make your own unique char for better or for worse,
Im just writing about what I have found to work well.
Contents
i) Stats
ii) Skills
iii) Gear
iv) socketing
v) mercenary
vi) useful links
i) Stats
This is your characters outline and what decides on your end game gear, its useful to see what you will think you will be wearing when this char is finished,
Best to be realistic, ie dont set yourself up for faith if you know that you are never going to be able to really afford it.
Strength
The only use this has for the bowzon is to help her wear her items, so as with so many builds nowadays the minimum possible(ie wf needs 134 but if you are also
wearing chains of honor then you only need a base of 114 as the extra 20 will come from your armour) and since 1.10 body popping is far less of a problem.
Dexterity
This is the power house of the bowzon, this is where her damage comes from, after you have the required amounts pf the other stats this is where I recomend you
put the rest of your points.
4 dexterity points gives 1 defence
1 dexterity point gives 4 attack rating
Vitality
This depends on your gear, if you are super rich and can afford godly charms then you can get 2k+ life with base vit easily which is more than enough, although
if you are relatively poor then life is harder to come by and so Id recomend points here, 100 should see you through fine.
1 Vitality point gives 3 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1 Stamina
Energy
Well as with alot of builds this is best left at the base amount, guided arrows really do not take much mana and in pvp these are prety much the only attack you
will be using.
1 Energy point gives 1.5 Mana
ii) Skills
Well there are a few main skills that if you want to duel succesfully then I recomend but then quite a few skills you can play with for entertainment or against
certain char classes
The Main skills
Guided Arrows(MAX)
This is the skill to use, it follows the enemy and ignores targets defence, what else could you ask for, the more points you put into this the greater your damage
so I recomend a full 20 points otherwise you will probably feel your damage lacking. Pre requisites (magic arrow, multi arrow, and cold arrow).
Dodge/Evade/Avoid(12+)
These help alot in pvp because they mean that you can completely dodge some attacks meaning that you take no damage whatsoever, The amount of skill points you place
here depends if there is somewhere else you want to put points as well, although i recomend at least 12 in each as after this the returns diminish this will give you 50%/58%/50%
to dodge enemy attacks if you find out later on that you have maxed all the skills you want to then come back here and spend your remaining points.
Critical strike(Depends on your gear)
Now im in two minds about this skill and basically I think it comes down to what gear you are wearing, You have to see how much deadly strike you have (remmeber deadly strike does stack)
Now deadly strike is the same thing as critical except that they DO NOT stack on top of each other. When you attack the computer in affect rolls to see if you do double damage with one.
If you do then it does not roll for the other as you cannot get 4x the damage, but if the first roll fails then it rolls for the next one. Therefore if you have 50% deadly and 50%
critical in theory you will always do double damage, although it does not work like this in real life although your chances of not doing double damage are quite low.
Therefore if you are wearing alot of deadly strike gear then very few skill points are needed, yet if you are wearing basically no deadly strike I recomend getting this very high, maybe
even maxing it.
The above are most definately the main skills for pvp and if your are designing a char precisely around them then you can in theory max them all. Yet we all know that to level we need
some kind of PvM ability
so I also like the following skills for my ama
Multi Arrow(10)
This can be used in pvp as well although I find that I dont usually have enough attack rating for it to be very useful although in pvm this is still the king, especially at the high fpa
that a pvp bowzon should be shooting at. More points than 10 is really a waste, you can get away with as little as 5 if you want to.
Valkyrie(1)
The valkyrie is an invaluable tool for taking some of the attention off you and 1 point is more than enough for what we want her for, although you will have to respawn her quite often.
If you want her to be of any use other than a brief distraction she needs to be level 17+(this is the level where she gains access to rares). Although for pvp this will not prove very
useful.
Penetrate(1)
This will boost your attack rating which doesnt help for guided arrows but again in pvm multi arrows still need to hit, 1 point boosted by some +skills is fine
pierce(1)
This DOES NOT work in pvp, the days of buri being the king bow because of its huge pierce left with 1.09, but it is useful in pvm for multi, it helps clear that room a little bit faster.
Imolation/Freezing arrow(1)
In pvm immune to physicals do appear and its useful to have some means to defeat them although again since pvm is not the main aspect of this build 1 point is all thats needed. In pvp
they can be used yet are ather easy to dodge and so will not be that useful.
Pre requisites(3)
there are only 3 pre requisites for the main skills, multi, magic and cold arrows, multi is usefull on its own as stated above so really only two pre requistites for the core of this build.
If you want to migrate away the basic structure of course more will appear.
iii) Gear
This is always a hard section to write in a guide as people vary so much in what they can afford. For each section of gear I will attempt to find cheap, medium expensive and BEST.
Helm
There are a few options here that you can choose from, shako offers skills, life, mana and magic find. Now for this buid the mana will not be that useful as not much mana is required,
also since this is pvp the magic find will be useless, but the skills and life could prove invaluable. Another helm at about similar price is vampire gaze, this helm provides damage reduction,
life leach, mana leach, since 1.10 came out leach has been useless in pvp, but gaze does offer up to 20% damage reduction which can be VERY usefull when dueling melee chars, although this build
is not meant to actually get hit. Attack speed is a large factor in pvp so a helm with ias is always very favorable, mavs helm is good, also 3 socketed helm with 3 15ias jewels can prove useful
and cheap, but also for the best can be very expensive, as if you can afford it jewels with ed and ias can prove extremely good, if you cant afford 3 15ias jewels then sigons is always a good
leveling/cheap helm. Also I suppose I should mention crown od ages, this is a very good helm although it requires huge amount of strength, too much really for an ama.
cheap: sigons/ biggins bonnet
medium: 45%ias helm/Gaze/shako
Expensive: ed/ias
BEST: Life/ed/ias
Armour
This can be used to make up for any weak points with the rest of your gear, for instance if you want more damage reduction shaft is viable, it also offers 60 life which can be very useful.
Another cheap armour is duriels shell offering resists str cannot be frozen and life all in all quite a nice armour. For leveling or if shaft and duriels are out of reach then twitchthroe
is a more than decent armour. Then of course there are the slightly more expensive armours, chains of honor is very useful mainly for the resists, although the skills and strength are useful too.
Fortitude is useful mainly for the HUGE 300%ed. Also you can go with ed/ias armour, this is useful if you are lacking ias for a certain breakpoint.
cheap: twitchthroe/duriels shell
medium: shaftstop/60%ias armour
Expensive: Chains of Honor, ed/ias(life if you can)
BEST: Fortitude
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=312803
The bowzon was so very popular and overpowered back in 1.09 but since 1.10 char classes like the hammerdin have taken over,
although this is the case the bowzon can still dominate.
This is a guide not a precise build feel free to experiment around this to make your own unique char for better or for worse,
Im just writing about what I have found to work well.
Contents
i) Stats
ii) Skills
iii) Gear
iv) socketing
v) mercenary
vi) useful links
i) Stats
This is your characters outline and what decides on your end game gear, its useful to see what you will think you will be wearing when this char is finished,
Best to be realistic, ie dont set yourself up for faith if you know that you are never going to be able to really afford it.
Strength
The only use this has for the bowzon is to help her wear her items, so as with so many builds nowadays the minimum possible(ie wf needs 134 but if you are also
wearing chains of honor then you only need a base of 114 as the extra 20 will come from your armour) and since 1.10 body popping is far less of a problem.
Dexterity
This is the power house of the bowzon, this is where her damage comes from, after you have the required amounts pf the other stats this is where I recomend you
put the rest of your points.
4 dexterity points gives 1 defence
1 dexterity point gives 4 attack rating
Vitality
This depends on your gear, if you are super rich and can afford godly charms then you can get 2k+ life with base vit easily which is more than enough, although
if you are relatively poor then life is harder to come by and so Id recomend points here, 100 should see you through fine.
1 Vitality point gives 3 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1 Stamina
Energy
Well as with alot of builds this is best left at the base amount, guided arrows really do not take much mana and in pvp these are prety much the only attack you
will be using.
1 Energy point gives 1.5 Mana
ii) Skills
Well there are a few main skills that if you want to duel succesfully then I recomend but then quite a few skills you can play with for entertainment or against
certain char classes
The Main skills
Guided Arrows(MAX)
This is the skill to use, it follows the enemy and ignores targets defence, what else could you ask for, the more points you put into this the greater your damage
so I recomend a full 20 points otherwise you will probably feel your damage lacking. Pre requisites (magic arrow, multi arrow, and cold arrow).
Dodge/Evade/Avoid(12+)
These help alot in pvp because they mean that you can completely dodge some attacks meaning that you take no damage whatsoever, The amount of skill points you place
here depends if there is somewhere else you want to put points as well, although i recomend at least 12 in each as after this the returns diminish this will give you 50%/58%/50%
to dodge enemy attacks if you find out later on that you have maxed all the skills you want to then come back here and spend your remaining points.
Critical strike(Depends on your gear)
Now im in two minds about this skill and basically I think it comes down to what gear you are wearing, You have to see how much deadly strike you have (remmeber deadly strike does stack)
Now deadly strike is the same thing as critical except that they DO NOT stack on top of each other. When you attack the computer in affect rolls to see if you do double damage with one.
If you do then it does not roll for the other as you cannot get 4x the damage, but if the first roll fails then it rolls for the next one. Therefore if you have 50% deadly and 50%
critical in theory you will always do double damage, although it does not work like this in real life although your chances of not doing double damage are quite low.
Therefore if you are wearing alot of deadly strike gear then very few skill points are needed, yet if you are wearing basically no deadly strike I recomend getting this very high, maybe
even maxing it.
The above are most definately the main skills for pvp and if your are designing a char precisely around them then you can in theory max them all. Yet we all know that to level we need
some kind of PvM ability
so I also like the following skills for my ama
Multi Arrow(10)
This can be used in pvp as well although I find that I dont usually have enough attack rating for it to be very useful although in pvm this is still the king, especially at the high fpa
that a pvp bowzon should be shooting at. More points than 10 is really a waste, you can get away with as little as 5 if you want to.
Valkyrie(1)
The valkyrie is an invaluable tool for taking some of the attention off you and 1 point is more than enough for what we want her for, although you will have to respawn her quite often.
If you want her to be of any use other than a brief distraction she needs to be level 17+(this is the level where she gains access to rares). Although for pvp this will not prove very
useful.
Penetrate(1)
This will boost your attack rating which doesnt help for guided arrows but again in pvm multi arrows still need to hit, 1 point boosted by some +skills is fine
pierce(1)
This DOES NOT work in pvp, the days of buri being the king bow because of its huge pierce left with 1.09, but it is useful in pvm for multi, it helps clear that room a little bit faster.
Imolation/Freezing arrow(1)
In pvm immune to physicals do appear and its useful to have some means to defeat them although again since pvm is not the main aspect of this build 1 point is all thats needed. In pvp
they can be used yet are ather easy to dodge and so will not be that useful.
Pre requisites(3)
there are only 3 pre requisites for the main skills, multi, magic and cold arrows, multi is usefull on its own as stated above so really only two pre requistites for the core of this build.
If you want to migrate away the basic structure of course more will appear.
iii) Gear
This is always a hard section to write in a guide as people vary so much in what they can afford. For each section of gear I will attempt to find cheap, medium expensive and BEST.
Helm
There are a few options here that you can choose from, shako offers skills, life, mana and magic find. Now for this buid the mana will not be that useful as not much mana is required,
also since this is pvp the magic find will be useless, but the skills and life could prove invaluable. Another helm at about similar price is vampire gaze, this helm provides damage reduction,
life leach, mana leach, since 1.10 came out leach has been useless in pvp, but gaze does offer up to 20% damage reduction which can be VERY usefull when dueling melee chars, although this build
is not meant to actually get hit. Attack speed is a large factor in pvp so a helm with ias is always very favorable, mavs helm is good, also 3 socketed helm with 3 15ias jewels can prove useful
and cheap, but also for the best can be very expensive, as if you can afford it jewels with ed and ias can prove extremely good, if you cant afford 3 15ias jewels then sigons is always a good
leveling/cheap helm. Also I suppose I should mention crown od ages, this is a very good helm although it requires huge amount of strength, too much really for an ama.
cheap: sigons/ biggins bonnet
medium: 45%ias helm/Gaze/shako
Expensive: ed/ias
BEST: Life/ed/ias
Armour
This can be used to make up for any weak points with the rest of your gear, for instance if you want more damage reduction shaft is viable, it also offers 60 life which can be very useful.
Another cheap armour is duriels shell offering resists str cannot be frozen and life all in all quite a nice armour. For leveling or if shaft and duriels are out of reach then twitchthroe
is a more than decent armour. Then of course there are the slightly more expensive armours, chains of honor is very useful mainly for the resists, although the skills and strength are useful too.
Fortitude is useful mainly for the HUGE 300%ed. Also you can go with ed/ias armour, this is useful if you are lacking ias for a certain breakpoint.
cheap: twitchthroe/duriels shell
medium: shaftstop/60%ias armour
Expensive: Chains of Honor, ed/ias(life if you can)
BEST: Fortitude
