MLD Bow Amazon

Introduction

Bow Amazon also known as Bowa are some of the strongest characters that you can make at Level 49. They compete very well against most characters.
Budget Bow Amazon's can be difficult to play and build, but not impossible. With lots of practise and effort, deadly and effective.

Dexterity or Vitality

There are two types of MLD Bow Amazon's. Max Dexterity build or max Vitality build.

• Dexterity build gives you more damage, but less hit points.

• Vitality build gives you more hit points, but Less burst damage.

• Vitality build increases the overall amount of damage you can deal and take over time.

• Dexterity build is recommend for new players, as it has a faster learning curve.

Break Points

8 frames per animation:

• Matriarchal Bow 75% Increased Attack Speed

• Blade Bow 75% Increased Attack Speed

• Shadow Bow 105% Increased Attack Speed

• Spider Bow 125% Increased Attack Speed

7 frames per animation:

• Blade Bow 145% Increased Attack Speed

• Matriarchal Bow 145% Increased Attack Speed

• Shadow Bow 200% Increased Attack Speed

• Spider Bow 240% Increased Attack Speed

Stat Placement

Strength: Enough for gear
Dexterity: Enough for gear / Max if Dexterity build (~4k+ Damage

Guided Arrow's)
Energy: None
Vitality: None / Max if Vitality build (~1,1k max hit points)

Hell rushed. All stat / skill quests completed

Skills

20

Guided Arrow
20

Multiple Shot
10

Critical Strike (65%+)
1

Evade
1

Valkyrie
1

Lightning Fury

Optional:
1

Jab

Gear

Helmet:
Athletic

Circlet/

Coronet of Speed 3 Passive and Magic Skills, 30% Faster Run / Walk, 2 Socket (Magic Jewels 15% IAS / 30% Enhanced Damage)

Armor:
Jewelers

Dusk Shroud of the Whale 4 Socket, 100 Life (Magic Jewels 15% IAS, 30% Enhanced Damage)

7 Frames Per Action Bow:
Rare

Matriarchal Bow ~400% Enhanced Damage, 20% IAS (Magic Jewel 15% IAS, 30% Enhanced Damage)

8 Frames Per Action Bow:
Rare

Shadow Bow ~420% Enhanced Damage (Rare Jewel 30% Enhanced Damage, 10-18 Damage)

Amulet:
Magic Amulet 3 Passive and Magic Skills, 100 Life

Glove:
Rare Gloves 2 Passive and Magic Skills, 20% IAS, 9 Str, 15 Dex

Rings:

Raven Frost 20 Dex
Rare Ring 15 Dex, 15 Str, 90 Mana

Belt:

String of Ears 15 / 15

Boots:
Ethereal

War Traveler

Switch:
Ethereal

Titan's Revenge
Rare

Matriarchal Javelin 2 Skill, 2

Javelin and

Spear Skills, 20 IAS, ~450% Enhanced Damage, Replenishes Quantity
Artisans

Kite Shield of Deflecting 3 Sockets, 30% Faster block rate and 20% Increase block chance (Rare Jewels 30% Enhanced Damage, 9 Dex, 9 Str)

Charms:
Fine Small Charm of Inertia 3% FRW, 3 Max, 20 Ar or Sharp Large Charm of Inertia 5 Max / 35 Ar / 5% FRW. Enough to reach ~120 FRW (140 on switch).
Rest Fine Small Charm of Vita 3 Max, 20 Ar, 20 Life

Maxroll Character Planner

General PVP Tips


How-To: Increased screen size

Step 1: Press Escape
Step 2: Options
Step 3: Video Tab
Step 4: Screen Space Calibrate
Step 5: Press and Hold Down Arrow so that it looks like this image


How-To: Easier Name Lock Ability

Step 1: Press Escape
Step 2: Options
Step 3: Gameplay Tab
Step 4: Chat Font Size - Change to Extra Large


How-To: C/T

Step 1: Press Escape
Step 2: Options
Step 3: Controls Tab
Step 4: Change Character Screen to Q and Skill Tree to W
Step 5: Pull up either Character Screen or Skill Tree screen, while dueling, to fire further


How To: Name lock

It is recommend when dueling with close opponents, for example, other bow Amazon's, to try to catch a "name lock" while on

Lightning Fury switch. The idea is to rush your opponent. Click and hold

Lightning Fury on right click. Wait for your opponent to move (ideally away), switch from

Lightning Fury using your hotkeys, to unsummon, then switch to bow setup, then switch to

Guided Arrow. While your opponent may no longer be in your screen, you should still have a few seconds while your opponent is "name locked" to kill him. This works best in MLD where the life to damage ratio is the lowest out of all PvP Brackets (i.e. Opponents die faster then at any other dueling bracket in the game).


Expanded:

Step 5: Press Escape
Step 6: Options
Step 7: Game play Tab
Step 8: Select Large Font Mode

General PVP Strategy

Leave town, find a spot, and fire at where you think your opponent is at, or will be going. Use C/T as referenced above, whenever possible. Its a useful trick. Best applied when you see your opponent on the mini map. It is therefore strongly recommend to have a friend help you practise your aim. Another useful trick name lock

Guided Arrow's as outlined above. Another trick is the successful use of

Decoy /

Valkyrie to mislead or distract your opponent. It needs practice, but it does work. Wear damage reduction (

String of Ears) against melee & resistances against elemental attacks. You should be wearing ~120 faster run / walk most duels. Be patient and just pick away at your opponent until he's dead.


Bow Amazon

Vitality build are better then Dexterity build in mirror contests. Always wear

String of Ears. Use

Valkyrie /

Decoy as appropriate. Faster run / walk is not needed here. But some play styles use a lot of faster run / walk. When in doubt, walk with shield equipped. Try to always know where your opponent is. This helps to avoid being hit by arrow's. Some replenish life helps. damage, passives, life, and a lot of practice. Take your time, even when low on life. Switch to shield if a Amazon enters the screen. With rare

Matriarchal Javelin's you can one hit most of them. C/T as appropriate. Name lock as appropriate. You won't get a lot of chances to name lock. Because entering your opponents screen will usually end the duel pretty fast. The trick is to name lock your opponent while he is moving away from you (applies vs Necromancer as well).


Far cast Amazon / Rabies Druid / Kick Assassin

Dexterity build is better then Vitality build against these builds. As the longer the match goes on the more chances they have to catch you. If they catch you, you will probably die. Things that help are: faster run / walk, high damage, resistances, poison length reduced and absorb. If they are faster then you (they usually are) don't try to tank them. Try

Lightning Fury, move,

Lightning Fury.

Guided Arrow, move,

Guided Arrow works to a lesser extent. Fury druids can't catch you, Pure

Wake of Fire is not viable. Manual far cast is banned on Europe but not on other realms. Against a skilled Javelin Amazon you need very high damage.


Whirlwind barbarian

Dexterity build work best against

Whirlwind barbarian. Running with shield equipped and throwing

Lightning Fury's and then switching to

Guided Arrow after Barb attempts (and hopefully misses) to

Whirlwind on you, rinse and repeat. Practice alternating between

Guided Arrow and

Lightning Fury while moving around your opponents screen. If your about to get hit, switch to shield and walk. With practice you should get a lot better in these duels over time. Never try to tank a barb, even when he is 1 life and you are max life. Its suicide, trust me.

Lightning Fury hurts barbarian's a lot. I found that a Plague / Bow Hybrid did best of all Amazon types against mid level duel Barbarian's.

Against name lock

Whirlwind Barbarian's (considered bad mannered, but may occur unintentionally). Due to issues in D2R it is much easier for Barbarian's to unintentionally name lock

Whirlwind on you (this is where they

Whirlwind until they hit you, uninterrupted). Switch to Shield, walk, wait for the block to occur then continue dueling.

Against

Teleport Barbarian's (considered bad mannered). A good

Teleport barbarian will own you. Completely. As simple as that. He does not even need a shield. If he knows how to

Teleport properly you have no chance. You might beat inferior

Teleport Barbarian's, but not a good one. Best idea is to make him your friend, get someone else to kill him (few 49'ers will be able to) or save/exit.


Energy Shield Fire Ball Sorceress

Vitality build is better then Dexterity build here. This is one of the hardest contest's for a bow Amazon. To be successful against a good one you need +max fire resist (

Waterwalk or

Nokozan Relic), over 1k life ideally, good damage and excellent movement. There are 2 types of Fire Ball Sorceress players. Those that constantly telestomp and those that fire from middle/long distance. There is no right or wrong way to play, but you need to be able to adapt to your opponent.

Against aggressive Teleportation, try to fire 2

Arrows, move, 2

Arrows, move. A little trick is to run in tiny semi circles when they are in your screen.
Against middle/Long distance Fire ball Sorcerers. Try to

Dodge the fire ball's while firing

Guided Arrow. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Hydra's /

Fire Wall used to be played by some 49's years ago. But the build has disappeared from Europe. So long as you are always moving you can't realistically lose (with practice).


Blizzard Sorceress

7 frames per action is better then 8 frames per action against Blizzard Sorceress. Vitality build is also ideal. Don't bother trying to name lock a good blizzard sorceress, just fire at where you think the sorceress will be. if you do not stack resist you will probably die in one hit. Blizzard sorceress have serious mana problems, and firing at a fast rate can really mess them up. This is a hard contest. And quite often it's best to have a stack of

Arrows outside town. Longest duel you will ever have is likely to be against a Blizzard Sorceress.

Frozen Orb Sorceress are not common anymore. The trick against this build is to keep moving and never eat a full

Frozen Orb. 7 frames per action is ideal again here.


Light Sorceress

Always have a

Valkyrie out to take the

Thunder Storm hit. And at the start of the duel have a

Decoy out as well. Never Tank. Move, then shoot, and repeat. These duels are usually pretty fast. Running along a wall to reduce the avenues of attack is recommended.


Bone Necromancer

Dexterity builds are better then Vitality builds against a Necromancer. Since the necromancer recasts

Bone Armor. This is one of the few contests where you will see a noticeable big difference in win / loss ratio's between Dexterity and Vitality setups.

Dexterity setup: Approach, fire

Guided Arrow, approach, name lock, delete.
Vitality setup: Be more careful, but the same principal applies. Don't tank, the Necromancer can

Stun you, you can't

Stun him.

Name lock is the fastest way to end these duels, but Necromancer's will try their best to stop you from getting the name lock. A good Necromancer will have a lot of faster run / walk, regular recast of

Bone Armor, great damage, replenish life, use walls to great effect and

Stun capabilities.


Light Assassin

Faster run / walk is important, replenish life helps and always use

Titan's Revenge. Try to ensure the assassin does not name lock and

Stun you.


Paladin

All paladin builds are hard for a bow Amazon. Vitality setup is ideal here. If it's Fist of heaven you need a lot of hit points. If it's a

Blessed Hammer Paladin you need to learn where to run / walk to avoid

Teleport and hammer's. If it's a

Charge Paladin, you will probably die.

Charge does 14K+ critical strikes usually. At the end of the day a level 49 Paladin just has to

Charge you to kill you. Ways to have a better chance at winning these duels include :

• Use the terrain. Get them stuck on a puddle and name lock them.

• Always wear
  String of Ears.
  Charge is simply too strong. If allowed, put
  Vampire Gaze on too.

• This it the contest where you get to show off your rare
  Matriarchal Javelin's.

• Walk, don't run. Or learn to run / walk safely.

• Switch between weapons. Try to get 2
  Arrows out and then switch to
  Lightning Fury. try to lure your opponent into giving you a free hit.