Strafe With Atma's Scarab

I will add my humble experiences with Bowa.

First I would like to clarify that like half a year ago I made thread in this forum regarding how to gear up bowa and I became friend with mhlg so our bowas are similar but still they differs in few details.

My first advice to anyone who is thinking about bowa: dont be shy to put 0points into vitality !

I have made 3builds so far.

1) Bowa shooting with Mist - 80light res
- highlord amulet (IAS, DS + light resists)
- maavina

Belt (mana leech + FRW)

2) Bowa shooting with

Windforce - dmg build, easiest 95IAS, easiest mana and life leech, bad resists, worst AR (but still high enough)
-

Atma (dmg)
-

Razortail

Belt (100%

Pierce + dmg)

3) Bowa using Faith - 3 auras, maxed fire and light res, dmg bit lower than with

Windforce (I dont have perfect roll), 82%

Pierce - currently using
- highlord amulet (IAS)
- nosferatu

Belt (IAS)

GEAR:
1) & 2)

Andariel Visage socket with +15IAS
Fortitude

Laying of Hands

Raven Frost
2nd ring is rare ring with AR, dmg, +dex/str, all res, mana (sadly in my ring mana leech was missing)

Gore Rider
off hand Harmony for FRW

merc is Act 1 with Faith

3)
different

Helm: I decided 3os

Tiara with 87life instead of with 12max dmg
rare ring with mana leech (currently I run with 2% mana leech and its really enough to clear everything, but u have to check ur mana and switch between magic and

Guided Arrow - both cost 0mana - multishot and

Strafe. I recommend 4+ mana leech)

merc is Act 2 with Pride.



All builds are quite expensive because they all need Faith bow with 13+

Fanaticism. And the most expensive part are small charms and jewels. But the least expensive I find

Windforce which is pure dmg, dont expect anything else than dmg, it doesnt have anything else, but damage it provides a lot ! But what I hate about this build is when ur merc dies or is lost somewhere on map you lose

Fanaticism and your attacks per seconds drops from 3,57 to 2,77 so u lower ur dmg by 30%. So thats the main reason why I prefer build no.: 3.

And now to

Atma scarab amulet.
With

Windforce its epic, maybe its just my feeling or it comes to multishot vs

Strafe. I dunno but I prefer to use

Magic Arrow vs immunes over

Strafe.

Problem with

Strafe (vs multishot) is that

Strafe shoots on all targets, so even the overall dmg is higher it takes more time to kill enemies. So when I run against immunes. I prefer to focus fire. And because

Strafe shoots everywhere it procs its amplify dmg on all monsters than you want and if it procs on right target, then next

Arrows will hit other monsters.

Atma scarab is epic vs bosses. Sometimes if I am lucky and game calculate max possible dmg + amp procs I am able to make diablo health dissappear with few guided

Arrows.

I have tried to skip maxing

Magic Arrow to save skill points for passive skill tree, but I never felt comfortable with

Atma amulet (well I dont run

Arcane Sanctuary). And when there are those annoying lighting ghosts which killed all of us many times , you have to switch to multishot (only center 2-3arrows procs

Atma) to

Dodge its lighting and to be safe you need resists which u dont have with

Windforce (unless u

Sacrifice dmg in charms to get resists, which kinda beats

Windforce purpose), so against them I swapped to my build no.: 1)

Atma is really great (you cant forget 75% poison res), it increases dmg quite a lot, but to use

Strafe and rely on

Atma proc seems to me like very bad decision. Because magic

Arrows can proc and benefit from amp dmg too!

The Flash wrote: 2 years ago

I will add my humble experiences with Bowa.

First I would like to clarify that like half a year ago I made thread in this forum regarding how to gear up bowa and I became friend with mhlg so our bowas are similar but still they differs in few details.

My first advice to anyone who is thinking about bowa: dont be shy to put 0points into vitality !

I have made 3builds so far.

1) Bowa shooting with Mist - 80light res
- highlord amulet (IAS, DS + light resists)
- maavina

Belt (mana leech + FRW)

2) Bowa shooting with

Windforce - dmg build, easiest 95IAS, easiest mana and life leech, bad resists, worst AR (but still high enough)
-

Atma (dmg)
-

Razortail

Belt (100%

Pierce + dmg)

3) Bowa using Faith - 3 auras, maxed fire and light res, dmg bit lower than with

Windforce (I dont have perfect roll), 82%

Pierce - currently using
- highlord amulet (IAS)
- nosferatu

Belt (IAS)

GEAR:
1) & 2)

Andariel Visage socket with +15IAS
Fortitude

Laying of Hands

Raven Frost
2nd ring is rare ring with AR, dmg, +dex/str, all res, mana (sadly in my ring mana leech was missing)

Gore Rider
off hand Harmony for FRW

merc is Act 1 with Faith

3)
different

Helm: I decided 3os

Tiara with 87life instead of with 12max dmg
rare ring with mana leech (currently I run with 2% mana leech and its really enough to clear everything, but u have to check ur mana and switch between magic and

Guided Arrow - both cost 0mana - multishot and

Strafe. I recommend 4+ mana leech)

merc is Act 2 with Pride.



All builds are quite expensive because they all need Faith bow with 13+

Fanaticism. And the most expensive part are small charms and jewels. But the least expensive I find

Windforce which is pure dmg, dont expect anything else than dmg, it doesnt have anything else, but damage it provides a lot ! But what I hate about this build is when ur merc dies or is lost somewhere on map you lose

Fanaticism and your attacks per seconds drops from 3,57 to 2,77 so u lower ur dmg by 30%. So thats the main reason why I prefer build no.: 3.

And now to

Atma scarab amulet.
With

Windforce its epic, maybe its just my feeling or it comes to multishot vs

Strafe. I dunno but I prefer to use

Magic Arrow vs immunes over

Strafe.

Problem with

Strafe (vs multishot) is that

Strafe shoots on all targets, so even the overall dmg is higher it takes more time to kill enemies. So when I run against immunes. I prefer to focus fire. And because

Strafe shoots everywhere it procs its amplify dmg on all monsters than you want and if it procs on right target, then next

Arrows will hit other monsters.

Atma scarab is epic vs bosses. Sometimes if I am lucky and game calculate max possible dmg + amp procs I am able to make diablo health dissappear with few guided

Arrows.

I have tried to skip maxing

Magic Arrow to save skill points for passive skill tree, but I never felt comfortable with

Atma amulet (well I dont run

Arcane Sanctuary). And when there are those annoying lighting ghosts which killed all of us many times , you have to switch to multishot (only center 2-3arrows procs

Atma) to

Dodge its lighting and to be safe you need resists which u dont have with

Windforce (unless u

Sacrifice dmg in charms to get resists, which kinda beats

Windforce purpose), so against them I swapped to my build no.: 1)

Atma is really great (you cant forget 75% poison res), it increases dmg quite a lot, but to use

Strafe and rely on

Atma proc seems to me like very bad decision. Because magic

Arrows can proc and benefit from amp dmg too!

Magic Arrow fires at normal speed so it has a much much lower chance to proc Amplify because it's striking less often. The larger the mob the greater chance that it will proc. When

Atma's lvl 2 Amplify does proc it has a 2.6 yard radius and 11 second duration. So I keep

Strafe on my left button and depending on where I'm farming,

Magic Arrow or Multi on my right button and I will cross fire them. Meaning I'm strafing and alternately firing either magic or multi. If I'm farming the Arcane I keep

Magic Arrow on my right button. If I'm farming Cows I keep multi on my right button.

A thought on Faith. I have a Perfect Faith with lvl 15 Fanat. I tested it on an act 1 rogue merc while using

Windforce. The result was in my view underwhelming and even a little disappointing. In my view it's better to wield the Faith as your main weapon, and keep the

Windforce on weapon swap. Then get an act 2 mite merc and you will get better overall results. Faith is the best bow in the game, but it's much more expensive than a

Windforce which comes in second. Note, this doesn't make me completely right, it's just my preference based on my set of experiences.


Here is a

Magic Arrow speed comparison with and without Fanat, and

Strafe with Fanat. Note that the Windorce will need 80 IAS to hit breakpoints.

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

How long ago was that?

Oh, I'd guesstimate around twenty years ago. The buy I'm referring to occurred a after Lord of Destruction had already been released but before

Stone of Jordan rings started going poof.

phantomotap wrote: 2 years ago

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

How long ago was that?

Oh, I'd guesstimate around twenty years ago. The buy I'm referring to occurred a after Lord of Destruction had already been released but before

Stone of Jordan rings started going poof.

Yes

Windforce bows were expensive 20 year ago but they were also rarer. At about that time I traded one for 19 Sojs. Now you can get them for quite cheaply. I have three on my NL softcore account. Just remember there are no appreciable differences between a 6% and a perfect 8%.

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

At about that time I traded one for 19 Sojs.

Wow. Maybe I didn't pay through the

Teeth. I recall only giving ten. I guess you probably got yours earlier in the game's life.

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

Just remember there are no appreciable differences between a 6% and a perfect 8%.

Oh, I will. I'm one of those "perfect is the enemy of good" folks anyway. I don't see a single good reason to spend 30 or even 40

Ber on a single character when 10 will get a character and hireling %90 to %95 of the way.

Plus, I already play five different characters, and my parents both play two. Buying not just the best-in-slot but the best rolls of the best-in-slot for so many characters would get silly expensive.

The random game gods are looking i know you are..

now let's talk about Mara's so i can gamble one out of nowhere soon!

Skaijuice wrote: 2 years ago

The random game gods are looking i know you are..

now let's talk about Mara's so i can gamble one out of nowhere soon!image.png

The last Mara's I found was 22% so be careful you wish.

I've gotten most of my Jewelry running

Travincal including 3 SOJs.

Skaijuice wrote: 2 years ago

The random game gods are looking i know you are..

now let's talk about Mara's so i can gamble one out of nowhere soon!image.png

I’ve gambled 2 cats eyes and 1

Atma’s. No mara’s yet

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

Then we are looking through completely different windows.

My gear includes:
Weapons
W1. Faith GM Bow, perfect
W2.

Windforce bow socketed with

Shael

Armor:

Fortitude

Andariel's Visage socketed with 15 Ias 36% damage Jewel

Laying of Hands
T-Gods

Belt/

Nosferatu's Coil

Jewelry varies
Dual leach ring with life/AR

Raven Frost ring
Amulets:
Atama's
Highlord's
28 Mara's but don't use much

Boots:

Gore Rider

Natalya's
War Trav

Whats your benefit of T-Gods when playing Bowazon? I just use

Razortail and it gives me so much more damage from

Pierce and dex.

Greys_Prey wrote: 2 years ago

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

Then we are looking through completely different windows.

My gear includes:
Weapons
W1. Faith GM Bow, perfect
W2.

Windforce bow socketed with

Shael

Armor:

Fortitude

Andariel's Visage socketed with 15 Ias 36% damage Jewel

Laying of Hands
T-Gods

Belt/

Nosferatu's Coil

Jewelry varies
Dual leach ring with life/AR

Raven Frost ring
Amulets:
Atama's
Highlord's
28 Mara's but don't use much

Boots:

Gore Rider

Natalya's
War Trav

Whats your benefit of T-Gods when playing Bowazon? I just use

Razortail and it gives me so much more damage from

Pierce and dex.

My piercing attack is already quite high with just a single point into it along with plus to skill items, so

Razortail doesn't offer me much actual benefit. T-Gods lighting absorb allows me to completely ignore the Black Souls lightning attacks in Worldstone which allows me to move through it much faster. I was using Nostferatu's coil but the added 10% IAS is wasted because I'm hitting max breakpoints even when I swap from my Faith to the

Windforce. I'm constantly trying out new stuff, but there isn't much left that I don't already have and haven't tried.

Which IAS calculator are you guys going to for BP's ?

Skaijuice wrote: 2 years ago

Which IAS calculator are you guys going to for BP's ?

I use a couple, but this one is better for Screenshots.

https://d2.lc/IAS/?char=0&charform=0&wa ... per+second

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

Greys_Prey wrote: 2 years ago

mhlg wrote: 2 years ago

Then we are looking through completely different windows.

My gear includes:
Weapons
W1. Faith GM Bow, perfect
W2.

Windforce bow socketed with

Shael

Armor:

Fortitude

Andariel's Visage socketed with 15 Ias 36% damage Jewel

Laying of Hands
T-Gods

Belt/

Nosferatu's Coil

Jewelry varies
Dual leach ring with life/AR

Raven Frost ring
Amulets:
Atama's
Highlord's
28 Mara's but don't use much

Boots:

Gore Rider

Natalya's
War Trav

Whats your benefit of T-Gods when playing Bowazon? I just use

Razortail and it gives me so much more damage from

Pierce and dex.

My piercing attack is already quite high with just a single point into it along with plus to skill items, so

Razortail doesn't offer me much actual benefit. T-Gods lighting absorb allows me to completely ignore the Black Souls lightning attacks in Worldstone which allows me to move through it much faster. I was using Nostferatu's coil but the added 10% IAS is wasted because I'm hitting max breakpoints even when I swap from my Faith to the

Windforce. I'm constantly trying out new stuff, but there isn't much left that I don't already have and haven't tried.

I see, ty for reply. Ignoring Black Souls is a nice bonus.

On which player x do you normally play? I play just on p1/p3 and everything melts aways even without a single crushing blow% or deadly strike item, except

Baal or D-Clone / Upped Diablo. So Atmas would not proc for me. But if you play high Px then that sounds strong. Can you do Ubers? And do you think there is a third or forth good alternative for Atmas/Highlord? Does Highlords do very much, when your critial strike is already high? I do love my Cateye on my neck until now, its a cheap Beast imo :>

My items as bowazon (first Bowazon ever, running as "mf/dmg hybrid"):

Faith gmb

Stealskull with

Um

Tal Rasha's Guardianship with

Um

Hit Power Gloves

Vambraces with 20ias + Knockback

Razortail

War Traveler
Dual Leech Ring with AR

Raven Frost

The Cat's Eye

Naj's Puzzler for

Teleport on 2nd

Merc A3 fire:
Flickering Flame

Hexfire
3os Armor with

Fal + 2 fire facets
Spirit

Eth

Monarch

Its working good for me, finding much valuable stuff (for me its the best season ever, probably of T-Zones).
But im pretty sure you are way more effective on higher Px with finding stuff than me

I see, ty for reply. Ignoring Black Souls is a nice bonus.

On which player x do you normally play? I play just on p1/p3 and everything melts aways even without a single crushing blow% or deadly strike item, except

Baal or D-Clone / Upped Diablo. So Atmas would not proc for me. But if you play high Px then that sounds strong. Can you do Ubers? And do you think there is a third or forth good alternative for Atmas/Highlord? Does Highlords do very much, when your critial strike is already high? I do love my Cateye on my neck until now, its a cheap Beast imo

I don't play offline games. I prefer to play with other people if possible, because it adds a degree of fun to the game. I've done runs in filled public games with good results.

Atma's procs on striking so the more stuff you're hitting the more likely it will proc. I'm constantly swapping out amulets,

Boots, and helms, to test to see if I get different results and if something works better for one run say Chaos and

Halls of Vaught, then I will swap to the one that is best for that run. I have every amulet in the game so there's nothing out of my reach.

Atma's is most effective with the aerial physical immune such as the ghosts and

Succubus. That makes it perfect for running The Dark Tower,

Tal Rasha's, Arcane,

Halls of Vaught, and World Stone Keep.

I've killed D-Clone many times with my Zon, but I don't do Ubers with her, it's just not the right build. For that I have a Smiter Paladin that kills Uber quite efficiently and quickly, and he's also excellent at running the Durance of Hate and killing

Mephisto. He can take down any boss in the game in seconds including

Baal, but when it comes to clearing mobs, my Zon is much better. It's always a good idea to have a couple of good builds to cover for deficiencies in each.

An aside. I just made a password protected game in Lobby with my Zon. Quickly cleared everything in World Stone Keep to the Throne. Then I saved and quit and quickly rejoined the game using my Smiter wearing an Enigma. I was able to get back in,

Teleport to the Throne, take down

Baal in seconds. The only setback is I'm not sure it really makes things any quicker, because the time needed to get to the Throne doesn't really offset the time it takes my Zon to kill

Baal. I could've taken a little more time to remember the map to the Throne and that would've sped things up a bit. I'll give it another try later.