Story of my Bowazon

Stay awhile and listen

Let me tell you my little old (and ongoing) story.

I had the best bowazon (for me) in 2017, but unfortunately I forgot / couldn’t login to battlenet for about one month. (work, travel, network issues etc…) – So my account was deleted.
Please check her gear, she was a monster, the nightmare of all the creatures in hell.

Just on right click, and

Arrows flew across everywhere, no one could react. Amplify kicked in (or not) and everybody was dead in one second.

imgur.com/a/jVkUF

RIP Krisztina, Your deeds of valor will be remembered. (BTW she was SC )

My current goal is to “get her back” in D2R.

My current progress:

She is lvl 89.
She can easily solo hell, but not so fast. (I skip

Baal because of the pesky Lightning guys who are enjoying sniping lightnings from faaaaar away.)

My run progress is:

Act I Pit, Cow level, Countess,

Andariel.
Act 2 clear

Lost City then

Ancient Tunnels
Act 3 Travincial,

Lower Kurast chests (Found my first

Vex rune 2 days ago YAY!)
Act 4

River of Flame -> Diablo
Act 5

Pindleskin,

Frigid Highlands (the 2 elites.)

My current gear:

Tal Rasha’s

Helm (10% life/mana steal, all res – really helpful, keeps HP and Mana full with

Strafe /

Freezing Arrow)
I got a

Valkyrie Wing too, but I need the all res and mp/hp steals yet…

My goal is to get a

Diadem/

Coronet with skills, mp/hp leech and maybe all resists. (if those are exist)

Atmas scarab amulet (that amplify man…) (traded for an

Um (or

Mal) rune, don’t remember exactly

Chest armor is Skin of the vipermage (good resists) – I already got my 4 socketed perfect

Archon Plate (traded for an

Um rune) but as you guessed it, I didn’t find a

Lo rune

Lay on hands gloves

Gore Rider

Boots (traded for a

Vampire Gaze) - Thanks diablo2.io

Raven Frost ring (from

Andariel hell)

All res life steal ring (trying to craft a mana/ hp leech ring with all res…)

The bow…

Lycander's Aim upgraded to

Grand Matron Bow. (maybe I socket it (Lazruk?) and put a

Shael?)

BUT I already got my +3 skills

Grand Matron Bow with 4 sockets (Thanks diablo2.io ! )
And you don’t believe it, yesterday I got a

Jah rune(!!) From a tomb before Nihatlak. (my heart just skipped a beat when I saw that on the Ground)

So basically I need an

Ohm and a

Lo rune to complete my Fortitude armor and Faith bow.

And a better(?) helmet and a ring.

Resists are not bad, poison maxed, fire like 60%, lightning also 60%+ a cold a little bit lower like 40% but as nobody can't reach her I'm happy with these.

Mercenary is Act 2 Nightmare Might aura with reapers toll

Duriel shell and also a

Tal Rasha

Helm

I keep on grinding farming shooting looting to “

Revive” my old loved Bowazon ♥

Okay! Faith is ready, I have the torch, got the Fortitude armor!
How did I get the

Lo rune? I've found a

Tyrael's Might in

Chaos Sanctuary and sold it haha
2 days ago I've found a

Sur rune from a witch before Nihatlak, so I got my

Annihilus too!
I think she is done!!!

Congratz

Great job. Reminds me of my Glass Cannon that got to lvl 99.

but how does she fare now!??

also, how much mana life steal you have in advanced stats?

I am SOOOO sorry for bumping / late reply - I've managed to get her mercenary a Pride weapon, I realized that +1 bow /

Crossbow charms wont help to increase the damage, but it is what it is, she will remain my favorite forever!

Gear:

Helm: +2 amazon skills, 110 AR, 8% mana/life stolen, 24 life
bow: Faith +3 GMB
Weapon switch: Call To Arms: 6/4/3
Chest: Fortitude
Amulet:

Atma's Scarab
Gloves:

Laying of Hands -> i couldt craft skiller and atk speed gloves (yet)
ring:

Raven Frost
ring2: 48ar, 7% life stolen, 6 dex, cold/lightning/fire resist 11% poison resist 20%, magic damage reduced by 1 (lol)

Belt:

Razortail

Boots:

Gore Rider

Hellfire Torch 15 all atributes / 18 all resistances

Annihilus: 14 all atributes / 18 all resistances

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

I am SOOOO sorry for bumping / late reply - I've managed to get her mercenary a Pride weapon, I realized that +1 bow /

Crossbow charms wont help to increase the damage, but it is what it is, she will remain my favorite forever!

Gear:

Helm: +2 amazon skills, 110 AR, 8% mana/life stolen, 24 life
bow: Faith +3 GMB
Weapon switch: Call To Arms: 6/4/3
Chest: Fortitude
Amulet:

Atma's Scarab
Gloves:

Laying of Hands -> i couldt craft skiller and atk speed gloves (yet)
ring:

Raven Frost
ring2: 48ar, 7% life stolen, 6 dex, cold/lightning/fire resist 11% poison resist 20%, magic damage reduced by 1 (lol)

Belt:

Razortail

Boots:

Gore Rider

Hellfire Torch 15 all atributes / 18 all resistances

Annihilus: 14 all atributes / 18 all resistances

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC
image.png

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.
Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC
image.png

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.

image.png

Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Yeesh That's throwing some hurt.

-

Congrats OP! I never really got a bowazon put together very well over the years since D2 launched. I played mainly hardcore ladder with a terrible internet connection... So I really didn't put much of anything together for many years...

While opting out of Ladder 1 for D2R I managed to get one together and she is amazing.
Easily my favorite character. Shes not as fast or efficient as some of my others. But, the pure enjoyment to play makes up for it all.

I went with a

Strafe/LF hybrid so I wouldn't really have to worry about immunes, also

Charged Strike and

Lightning Fury is just so cheap on points to get to a moderately effective level. This pretty much means I gave my up CTA though. So, my damage bonus through dex is lower to make up for the BO loss, I pushed her around ~800-900 hp through vita. It's quite a comfortable playstyle (Also I had a pair of thunderstrokes and titans kicking around to see how well it worked.)

I'm glad you got her "replaced." It looks like she's back better than ever! This kind of reads like a rekindling of lost love story. I like it

Curious; do you have a feeling of completion now with the Pride build or maybe even earlier? I get there is always some min maxing available with pretty much any D2 character, but are you feeling like your original goal to "get her back" is has been completed?

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

I am SOOOO sorry for bumping / late reply - I've managed to get her mercenary a Pride weapon, I realized that +1 bow /

Crossbow charms wont help to increase the damage, but it is what it is, she will remain my favorite forever!

Gear:

Helm: +2 amazon skills, 110 AR, 8% mana/life stolen, 24 life
bow: Faith +3 GMB
Weapon switch: Call To Arms: 6/4/3
Chest: Fortitude
Amulet:

Atma's Scarab
Gloves:

Laying of Hands -> i couldt craft skiller and atk speed gloves (yet)
ring:

Raven Frost
ring2: 48ar, 7% life stolen, 6 dex, cold/lightning/fire resist 11% poison resist 20%, magic damage reduced by 1 (lol)

Belt:

Razortail

Boots:

Gore Rider

Hellfire Torch 15 all atributes / 18 all resistances

Annihilus: 14 all atributes / 18 all resistances

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC
image.png

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.

image.png

Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Thank you for your answer! I am not really experienced with charms, should I get +max/min damage charms with attack rating? Do i get damage from attack rating?
You have twice as much damage as her, and im glad for you, but it makes me sad, I just cant imagine better items...

GooberGirl wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC
image.png

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.

image.png

Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Yeesh That's throwing some hurt.

-

Congrats OP! I never really got a bowazon put together very well over the years since D2 launched. I played mainly hardcore ladder with a terrible internet connection... So I really didn't put much of anything together for many years...

While opting out of Ladder 1 for D2R I managed to get one together and she is amazing.
Easily my favorite character. Shes not as fast or efficient as some of my others. But, the pure enjoyment to play makes up for it all.

I went with a

Strafe/LF hybrid so I wouldn't really have to worry about immunes, also

Charged Strike and

Lightning Fury is just so cheap on points to get to a moderately effective level. This pretty much means I gave my up CTA though. So, my damage bonus through dex is lower to make up for the BO loss, I pushed her around ~800-900 hp through vita. It's quite a comfortable playstyle (Also I had a pair of thunderstrokes and titans kicking around to see how well it worked.)

I'm glad you got her "replaced." It looks like she's back better than ever! This kind of reads like a rekindling of lost love story. I like it

Curious; do you have a feeling of completion now with the Pride build or maybe even earlier? I get there is always some min maxing available with pretty much any D2 character, but are you feeling like your original goal to "get her back" is has been completed?

Thanks for the gratulation!
I FELT myself that i completed her, but now as i can see people has EVEN more (TWICE as mine) damage, i am a bit sad..
Ok, i could get a 3 socketed

Helm with damage + atk speed jewels, but those are ridiculously expensive...
Anyway, i love farming with here because she could kill everything, if i get phisical immun, i switch to

Freezing Arrow and job is done.
the chances are small that i meet immun phisycal/cold mobs, but amplify (thanks to atmas scarab) will do the job for me, or my merc

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

I am SOOOO sorry for bumping / late reply - I've managed to get her mercenary a Pride weapon, I realized that +1 bow /

Crossbow charms wont help to increase the damage, but it is what it is, she will remain my favorite forever!

Gear:

Helm: +2 amazon skills, 110 AR, 8% mana/life stolen, 24 life
bow: Faith +3 GMB
Weapon switch: Call To Arms: 6/4/3
Chest: Fortitude
Amulet:

Atma's Scarab
Gloves:

Laying of Hands -> i couldt craft skiller and atk speed gloves (yet)
ring:

Raven Frost
ring2: 48ar, 7% life stolen, 6 dex, cold/lightning/fire resist 11% poison resist 20%, magic damage reduced by 1 (lol)

Belt:

Razortail

Boots:

Gore Rider

Hellfire Torch 15 all atributes / 18 all resistances

Annihilus: 14 all atributes / 18 all resistances

And yes, she is my first character in d2r, non ladder SC
image.png

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.

image.png

Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Thank you for your answer! I am not really experienced with charms, should I get +max/min damage charms with attack rating? Do i get damage from attack rating?
You have twice as much damage as her, and im glad for you, but it makes me sad, I just cant imagine better items...

No reason to be sad. Mine is optimized to hell and back so..different starting point.
As for the charms, in terms of damage, AR/Max dmg is your best bet for a phys bowzon. AR doesn't offer a direct increase in dmg (i.e. the dmg number in your char screen won't go up) but it increases your hit chance which in turn offers an indirect dmg increase. After all, the ignore target defense on your Faith only works on base mobs. Still need AR for bosses.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Well, bow charms still offer some bonus to dmg and such.
Though yeah, you get a lot more out of dmg/ar charms.

image.png

Agreed though, bowzons always remain a favorite!

Thank you for your answer! I am not really experienced with charms, should I get +max/min damage charms with attack rating? Do i get damage from attack rating?
You have twice as much damage as her, and im glad for you, but it makes me sad, I just cant imagine better items...

No reason to be sad. Mine is optimized to hell and back so..different starting point.
As for the charms, in terms of damage, AR/Max dmg is your best bet for a phys bowzon. AR doesn't offer a direct increase in dmg (i.e. the dmg number in your char screen won't go up) but it increases your hit chance which in turn offers an indirect dmg increase. After all, the ignore target defense on your Faith only works on base mobs. Still need AR for bosses.

Thank you for your answer, BUT 14K?! (on char screen) HOW? should I change something? or "just" get GC+s with max damage? I only found maybe 1-3 max damage

Looking at that min damage, I'm going to say that Schnorki is using

Windforce, not Faith. The min and max damage numbers aren't comparable. Also, don't get too caught up with damage per shot, which is what the character sheet shows. It doesn't tell the whole story. Any melee character using Grief already knows that all too well.

What matters more is damage per second, which you can best get through recreating your build in D2Planner, but its calculation for

Strafe is incorrect and still using the pre-2.4 75% weapon damage penalty.

That being said, you're also leaving at least 35% IAS on the table, so both your damage per shot and damage per second have considerable room for improvement.

The grand charms you're looking for are Sharp Grand Charms with up to 10 max damage/76 AR.
The bowazon gets a lot of skill points to work with, so you have a few options for physical immunes. I'm using a maxed level 31

Magic Arrow and it completely melts physical immunes even in 8-player games and is far more effective than

Freezing Arrow for that purpose.

I also maxed

Freezing Arrow and maxed

Cold Arrow for the synergy, but that's a carryover from my LoD playing days when I had a mageazon and never fully gave up that playstyle. As it turns out though, I only use

Freezing Arrow in 8-player

Baal runs, which as we know have largely gone by the wayside since TZs. It's a good "enter the town portal to the throne and spam everywhere" skill for team safety, but honestly, I haven't found myself using it much aside from than that, and even then, the most terrifying throne monsters are cold immune or have a chill effectiveness of 0. Effective use of

Decoy in most situations makes

Freezing Arrow nonessential, so there's at least 19 if not a full 41 hard points there I could reallocate to fully synergizing

Strafe, which should result in a significant rise in my damage per shot for

Strafe.

As for a 3-socket helm, I cube rolled an Artisan's Diadem of Life Everlasting. It's actually for my spearazon and although the suffix is useful for a melee subclass, there are better suffixes and I'm not sure if I want to use it, but enough patience and

Perfect Gems will get you a 3-socket magic

Tiara/

Diadem. Either that, or I was just lucky. I feel like the real expensive parts are the Ruby Jewels of Fervor.

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

TheOnlyLuca wrote: 2 years ago

Thank you for your answer! I am not really experienced with charms, should I get +max/min damage charms with attack rating? Do i get damage from attack rating?
You have twice as much damage as her, and im glad for you, but it makes me sad, I just cant imagine better items...

No reason to be sad. Mine is optimized to hell and back so..different starting point.
As for the charms, in terms of damage, AR/Max dmg is your best bet for a phys bowzon. AR doesn't offer a direct increase in dmg (i.e. the dmg number in your char screen won't go up) but it increases your hit chance which in turn offers an indirect dmg increase. After all, the ignore target defense on your Faith only works on base mobs. Still need AR for bosses.

Thank you for your answer, BUT 14K?! (on char screen) HOW? should I change something? or "just" get GC+s with max damage? I only found maybe 1-3 max damage

One big difference is obvious (and a matter of taste/preference):
I go for dmg over theoretical speed (theoretical in that I still hit my BP and it makes no difference if you basically 1shot everything anyways). Not to start that whole discussion over yet again but I for one would never go with Faith over

Windforce. The only exception to that is/was league pvp in the olden days since that tends to outlaw

Windforce.

Beyond that, what I don't see in your post (maybe I just missed it) is the stat distribution. Do you go for life or dmg? I like my zon as a glass cannon and hence have 0 pts in vitality, maxing out dexterity for damage. That makes a very noticeable difference. Plus she blows up everything 2 screens away in 1-2 shots anyways so wtf would she need life for?

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Beyond that, what I don't see in your post (maybe I just missed it) is the stat distribution. Do you go for life or dmg? I like my zon as a glass cannon and hence have 0 pts in vitality, maxing out dexterity for damage. That makes a very noticeable difference. Plus she blows up everything 2 screens away in 1-2 shots anyways so wtf would she need life for?

You did miss it, it was a post above yours.

post3048592.html#p3048592

Strength is too high for a Faith build. The max should be 108 for a

Grand Matron Bow.

There appear to be a few stat points in vitality there as well. The

Annihilus and

Hellfire Torch make up for 29 of those points. That brings us down to 60, and the base vitality for an Amazon is 20, so that's 40 hard points in vitality unless I'm missing something else.

For the record, I put 30 hard points in vitality myself as a matter of preference and just so my total vitality reads an even 100, but the 43 extra points in strength should definitely be reallocated toward dexterity.

All good stuff.

I personally think that your feeling that she was "completed" is probably accurate if your taking into consideration of your previously stated goal to have another bowzon active and ready to smash stuff. In that case, you succeeded!

Now your at the wonderful point in D2 where you get to enjoy your hard work and slowly make her insane through min/maxing and other additions. I also have a long way to go with mine.
I think my

Strafe is sitting around 7.5-8k. She is more than capable of punching through anything I'd like her too, so I enjoy it. Lot's to work towards though; SC's, better jewels, ect. Maybe later down the line a transition to the

Windforce I have collecting dust that meets how I want to play.

In my opinion, completed and finished tend mean two different things in D2. "I have completed putting together and getting my bowzon active." .. "I have finished my bowzon and she is insane." All subjective to personal stance. But, I'm a bit quirky...

Either way, grats again. If these beefcake screenshots have given you a new goal, that's cool too Just don't feel bad about where you are at currently, you do have an accomplishment on your hands.

I wonder, what's the highest damage one can get on d2? (although that is extremely not representational because of mobs res/imm)

GooberGirl wrote: 2 years ago

All good stuff.

I personally think that your feeling that she was "completed" is probably accurate if your taking into consideration of your previously stated goal to have another bowzon active and ready to smash stuff. In that case, you succeeded!

Now your at the wonderful point in D2 where you get to enjoy your hard work and slowly make her insane through min/maxing and other additions. I also have a long way to go with mine.
I think my

Strafe is sitting around 7.5-8k. She is more than capable of punching through anything I'd like her too, so I enjoy it. Lot's to work towards though; SC's, better jewels, ect. Maybe later down the line a transition to the

Windforce I have collecting dust that meets how I want to play.

In my opinion, completed and finished tend mean two different things in D2. "I have completed putting together and getting my bowzon active." .. "I have finished my bowzon and she is insane." All subjective to personal stance. But, I'm a bit quirky...

Either way, grats again. If these beefcake screenshots have given you a new goal, that's cool too Just don't feel bad about where you are at currently, you do have an accomplishment on your hands.

Thank you for your kind words!! I think I realized i really messed up my skill point distribution.
I don't remember putting points into

Guided Arrow /

Multiple Shot and

Strafe has synergies from them.
Maybe i have to get rid of my super-duper tanky

Valkyrie + other skills - such a noob mistake.. but i'll check it later, just began work

rikus wrote: 2 years ago

I wonder, what's the highest damage one can get on d2? (although that is extremely not representational because of mobs res/imm)

In general or on a zon specifically?

Either way, that's a surprisingly tough question.

If you're thinking in terms of "dmg number on character sheet" (or hidden number there, since the sheet itself tends to be bugged with a ton of things) then charged up assassins are bound to be quite high up in the ranking with well above 200k with TS alone. But that's only if you allow for pre-charging.

In terms of actual dmg applied (before reductions), they're even higher up, as one of the few who can multiply on both, the phys and the elemental level in the same attack (or at least for parts of it), closing in on a theoretical 1 million dmg top-end, maybe even exceeding it with full charges from more than just TS.

Going back to the character sheet though, there's also the question of "instant dmg per hit?" or "overall dmg from 1 hit?". In the second case, a few poison skills get fairly high up there as well. Javas top out at around 180k I believe it was. Necros can push similar numbers with

Poison Explosion. But for those you obviously need to consider the full duration and they only get multiplied once (-res), meaning they fall well behind

Dragon Tail in terms of real outgoing damage.

And then of course there's the question of "1 target or multiple targets?". The above numbers are all fine and dandy but if you put a sorc in the middle of a screen full of full-life tanky P8 mobs..that first static's actual total damage done is quite hard to compete with. But it is static of course so once you got that initial hit..it goes down to worthless on the same target.

GooberGirl wrote: 2 years ago

All good stuff.

I personally think that your feeling that she was "completed" is probably accurate if your taking into consideration of your previously stated goal to have another bowzon active and ready to smash stuff. In that case, you succeeded!

Now your at the wonderful point in D2 where you get to enjoy your hard work and slowly make her insane through min/maxing and other additions. I also have a long way to go with mine.
I think my

Strafe is sitting around 7.5-8k. She is more than capable of punching through anything I'd like her too, so I enjoy it. Lot's to work towards though; SC's, better jewels, ect. Maybe later down the line a transition to the

Windforce I have collecting dust that meets how I want to play.

In my opinion, completed and finished tend mean two different things in D2. "I have completed putting together and getting my bowzon active." .. "I have finished my bowzon and she is insane." All subjective to personal stance. But, I'm a bit quirky...

Either way, grats again. If these beefcake screenshots have given you a new goal, that's cool too Just don't feel bad about where you are at currently, you do have an accomplishment on your hands.

I can agree with this. There's a lot of looking up in this game, as in trying to measure up to a more polished example of your build versus finding a balance in what works for you given how you play and your available time and resources. If you focus too much on other people's gear or stats, you can lose sight of what you've already done with your time and effort.

At some point in the future, you won't even log in to this game anymore and at best you'll just reminisce about your build on D2Planner or any screenshots or videos you've taken over the years, and that's when you'll wonder whether it was really all worth it. Like for me, I just want the best version of what I've theorycrafted without worrying about absolute perfection where practical improvement is marginal, e.g. spending vast amounts of time and resources acquiring 3/20/20 small charms instead of 3/10+/17+. That being said, I also refused to leave other variables on the table, such as re-rolling Faith and its static 330% ED to 2/15 on a more expensive 12% ED base. If Faith's ED was variable, then we're talking about much worse odds than 1:8 for perfection that I wasn't going to attempt.

The best I can do in this thread as a higher-damaging triple aura bowazon is help point out what areas can be improved if the OP wants to get the most out of the build, and then it's up to the OP to determine whether the cost of acquiring the gear or making the changes are worth it. But even then, TheOnlyLuca is already well beyond the original LoD build that included some perfect gear but only dealt 996-4659

Guided Arrow damage per shot. The current build is already a fine achievement in terms of building better than what you had before, and yet, there is still room for obvious improvement without fundamentally changing the build.