Let me go ahead and get my disclaimers out of the way:
The best amazon build is a Lightning Javazon.
The bowazon, in terms of damage per second and kill speed, pales in comparison to the Javazon.
This is also my first ever Diablo 2 build guide.
Now with all of those out of the way, here’s why this guide is being written:
It always seemed a shame to me that the Bowazon does not get as much attention as other builds in the game. Lightning sorcs, Hammerdins and Blizzard sorcs all prevail as the most common builds seen. But constantly making these builds after few seasons on ladder, sometimes you want something a bit different.
I define best as a hybrid of skills. I like to play characters that have a mixture of melee, magic, and healing skills OR the ability to get good items that grant the above. I have just purchased both Diablo 2 and the expansion pack. Yeah I know I'm 4 years behind but I've been a MMORPG finatic for the last few years.
Even though she cannot claim superiority to her Javazon sisters, the Bowazon is by no means a failure. Her bow skills allow her to target multiple targets at once and, with the aid of the mercenary and Valkyrie, can sit behind defenses and clear out rooms. Admittedly the Javazon can do the same thing. At the very least for the Bowazon, you will not have to make an Infinity mercenary.
Again this is my first build, and she is still very much being playtested. Without further delay, here she is:
STATS:
Strength – enough to use all items (with recommended gear will be 134)
Dexterity – majority of your points go here for damage boost
Vitality – 50-100 here (this is still being tested for its viability in Hell difficulty)
Energy – nothing
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SKILLS:
Javelin and Spear skills:
Nothing
Passive and Magic skills:
Inner Sight – 1 (Just a prerequisite, but it does give a minus to enemy defense)
Critical Strike – 4-6 (This skill can double your damage in the form of a critical hit. I personally only put 4 in, but I probably would not put any more than 6 due to diminishing returns)
Dodge – 1+ (This one needs to get at least one point in it, but consider putting more in as the benefits move over to your Valkyrie.)
Slow Missiles – 1 (This can help you to avoid any monster with a ranged attack. Cast slow missiles on them and avoid those projectiles coming your way. This can be especially helpful for those with a lower Vitality score.)
Avoid – 1+ (Much like dodge, this can help you and your Valkyrie survive. As of now I only recommend one point with the potential of adding a few more later.)
Penetrate – 1 (It’s nice to get a percent bonus to your attack rating.)
Diablo 2 Druid Solo Hell Builds
Evade – 1+ (Dodge and Avoid both allow you to prevent damage when you or your Valkyrie are standing still. This skill works when either of you are in motion. Right now I only have one point in it, but this one could theoretically have more.)
Decoy – Maxed (Why max Decoy? For two good reasons: First, your Valkyrie receives a +20% life per Valkyrie level for each hard point in Decoy. Second, your Valkyrie receives +2% to all resistances for each hard point in Decoy. So that’s more life AND more resistances for your meat shield.)
Pierce – 7 (Get this up to nine, which INCLUDES all bonuses to skills. Paired with the belt Razortail, this will give you 100% chance of piercing your enemies. This means your arrows could go throw one enemy and into another.)
Valkyrie – Maxed (Your Valkyrie and mercenary provide you with a distraction and meat shield for your Bowazon. To maximize the potential and increase your survivability, max this skill out. Not only will her life be considerably high thanks to Decoy, but her damage will also be worthwhile.)
Bow and Crossbow skills:
Magic arrow – 1 (Prerequisite)
Multiple shot – 1+ (This skill is a bit of a wildcard. Many who have played countless Bowazons argue in favor of Multiple Shot over Strafe, but almost as just as many argue for Strafe. Go with whichever suits your style best.)
Cold arrow – 1 (Prerequisite)
Guided arrow – 1 (Prerequisite)
Ice arrow – 1+ (Ice arrow can get more, and I prefer it due to its freezing mod. If there is an enemy giving you trouble, try freezing it in place and letting your Valkyrie and mercenary clean it up.)
Strafe – Maxed (This will be your main attack. Sure, it can lock you into place during its animation. But with a strong Valkyrie and mercenary, this should not be too much of an issue.)
EQUIPMENT:
Charms:
Annihilus
Hellfire Torch
Anything that adds to resistances, especially lightning. Of course, also look out for Grand Charms adding +1 to bow skills.
Helmet:
Harlequin Crest (recommended, for its boost to skills, life, mana, and magic find.) Other options are:
Stealskull (5% life and mana drain with +10 % increased attack speed and magic find.)
Vampire Gaze (mostly for life and mana steal but the damage reduction is nice too.)
Andariel’s Visage (+2 to all skills, +20% increased attack speed and 8-10% life leech are all terrific, but that -30% to fire resistance hurts. If you choose this helm, socket it with a Ral rune to bring its net fire resistance to 0.)
Armor:
Fortitude (Archon Plate makes a good base for this because of its low strength requirement and high defense rating. This runeword gets you a lot of different mods to be happy with, but its unquestionably the +300% enhanced damage that makes this one stand out from the others. The addition of life and resistances make it even better.)
Chains of Honor (Remember when I said Fortitude stands out from the others? Well, Chains of Honor might be the exception. +2 to all skills and an automatic +65% to all resistances alone make this runeword elite. Then you also get 8% life leech, +200% damage to demons, +100% damage to undead, and magic find!)
Which of these two do I recommend? Frankly, it’s a toss-up. If you are playing ladder, the answer is simply “whichever one you can afford.” If you could get either, I would be tempted to get Chains of Honor because of the skills boost and resistances. Getting Um, Ber and Ist runes will take time though. Finding an Archon-Plate base and a Lo rune is a lot easier than finding the same base with those three high(er) runes.
Amulet:
Atma’s Scarab (Only one mod here matters: The 5% chance of casting Amplify Damage is what you are after here. With this amulet, physical immunes are no longer an issue. Just start shooting away and the amulet will help take care of any complications.)
Mara’s Kaleidoscope (Anytime you can add +2 to all skills and resistances with the addition of one item is fantastic. The amulet is pretty rare, but wear it if you get it. It may be a good idea to keep an Atma’s Scarab on you for physical immunes too, just in case.)
Highlord’s Wrath (The amulet most Lightning Javazons use, this one does some very beneficial things for the Bowazon as well. +1 to all skills helps to increase damage and strengthen your Valkyrie, and it also adds 1-30 lightning damage and +20% increased attack speed. The attack speed bonus can help you get to your desired +46%, which will shorten your Strafe by a few frames.)
My recommendation here, much like armor, is simply whichever one you can get your hands on. No matter which is your main amulet, I still recommend having Atma’s on standby to deal with those physical immunes.
Belt:
Razortail (This adds +33% chance of a piercing attack. Along with the skill Pierce, this should make your chances of such an attack 100%. You will also get bonuses to Dexterity (+15), defense (+15) and +10 to maximum damage. If there is another belt you prefer, you will need to add more hard skill points to Pierce to get it up to 100%.)
Gloves
Diablo 2 Hell Builds
Laying of Hands (recommended, with its +350% damage to demons, +20% increased attack speed and +50% fire resist, this makes it a great choice for a Bowazon.)
Rare Bowazon gloves (Go visit Anya in Hell difficulty after rescuing her. She may carry a pair of gloves with +bow skills and increased attack speed.)
Dracul’s Grasp (While it is not the preferred pair of gloves for several reasons, the possibility of adding Life Tap into the mix is a bit tempting. It’s not preferred because Life Tap can actually replace Atma’s Amplify Damage curse, which is not ideal against physical immunes. It also does not add any increased attack speed or damage. What Dracul’s does do is add life leech, Life Tap and open wounds. Those things are not bad for a Bowazon, but they could be better.)
Boots
Gore Riders (recommended, Open wounds and Deadly Strike are both nice for a Bowazon. Crushing blow is too, but this value is halved because of using a bow. Normally Gore Riders would add 15%, but since a bow is used it’s around 7-8%.)
Silkweave (I admit this is an odd choice for a Bowazon, but if you want to add more mana for your Strafe and Valkyrie it’s a reasonable choice.)
Ring 1:
Raven Frost (Any veterans reading this post may have felt this one was coming. Preventing the frozen status is a necessity.)
Ring 2:
Stone of Jordan (If you can get it, wear it. +1 to all skills and the addition of mana is nice.)
Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band (+1 to all skills, life and life leeching. You could make the argument that this is better than the Stone of Jordan.)
MERCENARY:
Consider getting an Act 2 mercenary in Nightmare difficulty. Either the defensive Holy Freeze aura to slow enemies or the offensive Might aura to increase damage are good choices.
(NOTE: EQUIPMENT FOR MERC WILL BE ADDED SHORTLY)
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Please read Help:Writing Build Guides (Diablo II) Or your guide may be deleted! A class build is a generalized way of describing the way a character will fight. Accustomed players will be able to deduce not only what skills a build uses when seeing or hearing the name of a build, but will also know how a character will fight in game and roughly what character stats and gear will look like of that build. For example, the following will make the term Hammerdin obvious: It's a Paladin class focusing on the spell Blessed Hammer.
New and old players alike often refer to friends or internet for class builds when it comes to creating a new character. The way a character is developed is easily formatted into writing, giving insight to other players on how and why a build should be built like it is. The way a Class Build Guide is formatted varies depending on the author. Some guides will go as far as recommending certain Jewels to be socketed, while other guides will list the skill setup and give a few short pointers on where stats should be going, leaving more room for preferred gear setup. In the end, a player who starts understanding how D2 game mechanics work will be able to read a guide and tweak it for his own use, having a rough but helping guideline from the beginning of a character's development.
The term 'Funbuild' means that a character is able to be played a specific way that is more uncommon, but usually in an interesting manner. These builds are not always perfect for general PvE, but can be played successfully with skill. A melee Sorceress using Enchant is still about killing, but doesn't perform as well as a straight caster in some cases. However, this build can still provide many hours of gameplay. Other builds like the Suicide Necro, are even less practical in terms of playing, but can lead to many amazed looks from other players when the Necromancer lets himself be killed, activating multiple Death Rainbow Facets at once.
Theory Crafting
Expert players trying out new things or attempting to perfect a character tend to theory craft instead of attempting something without any deep thoughts. In simple terms, theory crafting in this context means planning out possible cause and effect attributes of a character. A well developed knowledge of the inner game workings is required, such as knowing how gear affects damage and survivability, solutions to possible immunity problems, stat requirements, some simple RNG based values, and thorough understanding of what certain attributes found on gear and skills can actually do to improve your character. A lot of time and mathematical thinking can go into theory crafting, resulting in a generally well thought out thesis of a character's performance in the game. With some effort, the actual characters resulting out of this planning can wipe the enemies out easily compared to more simplistic builds, or even of the same type of build.
A common form of theory crafting happens when a player looks at a guide and thinks of available assets compared to recommended assets, such as gear to follow through with character development. Through this, a player can work towards the best character setup using things that are available to him or her. This can mean a character with less than optimal gear than recommended can still be as effective, or even better than suggested if skills are pushed towards the play style instead of strictly following the guide.
Another form of theory crafting is developing a character with other gear in mind than currently available, while still making the character playable at the moment without spending more stats than the build will ultimately need at the end.
Class Build Guides
Diablo 1 Hell
Diablo 1 Hell 2 Mod
Diablo 2 Hell Sorc Build
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