windforce + strafe breakpoints

Q for bowazons re.

Strafe and

Windforce:

which do u recommend-

80 ias -> 5+(3)+7, can use Fortitude
120 ias -> 4+(2)+7, must use Treachery or Hustle

thoughts appreciated...

Largely a matter of taste/playstyle and the rest of your gear but generally speaking, IF you go for the higher breakpoints, 4 socket armors with ed/ias jewels are your best friend. Not Treachery and the like.

Can't you hit 120 ias with a 45 ias

Helm? 35 on the bow, 40 gloves and ammy, 45

Helm = 120. Early on you can use mavina's, then work up to a jeweler's

Tiara.

Either works, presenting their own respective benefits/costs.

was planning on

Atma's ammy, but i'm only lvl 12., lots of time 2 ponder
thnx !

to get IAS for

Windforce is easy:

socket

Windforce with

Shael and you get 40% IAS on weapon, LoH + highlord and its done

btw

Strafe with

Hydra Bow requires only 80 for fastest attack Also I would recommend

Atma amulet and you can go

Helm: andy visage

Stealskull (need 15IAS jewel) or maavina

Helm

or if u want any gloves you can get jewelers

Tiara with 45IAS, with

Windforce with

Shael it would be enough.

btw if u go physical bowa, not to go Fortitude is imho bad choice. Unless u plan to use bowa for specific location where u know you wont need 300% dmg from Fortitude.

regarding bowa: I have made my first proper bowa with BiS this season.

for me best build is:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/r1010633

reason why I chose not to use highest dmg bow in game (=

Windforce).

Windforce has lower AR (thats not much of an issue), no resists and besides dmg it has nothing else + if you wanna maximize your dmg output - you need your merc to wear Faith.

And believe me, your merc will always be too far from you or dead (I have been using my bowa to kill dclone, and merc barely survived) so you wouldnt be shooting with highest IAS when u need it the most. Unless u go Enigma to reposition your merc, but then you lower your dmg.

Me Faith vs me

Windforce, dmg is a bit lower, but nothing drastic and the fact whenever I shoot its fastest attack speed possible. This fact makes it imho way better than to have higher dmg and rely on your merc.

If you use

Windforce,

Atma's amulet totally make bosses and or immunes disappear

Tip: with bowa you need maximize your dmg output at any cost. If something gives you a bit more dmg, then its better item. No vitality !
2%mana or life leech is really enough to stay alive and not drinking.

hmmmm i use the warren caluulator

https://warren1001.github.io/IAS_Calculator/

which shows faster possible breakpoints. i'll test it when i reach lvl 65.
ill prob go fort

Atma 80ias....
and sharp charms!

krathkor wrote: 1 year ago

hmmmm i use the warren caluulator

https://warren1001.github.io/IAS_Calculator/

which shows faster possible breakpoints. i'll test it when i reach lvl 65.
ill prob go fort

Atma 80ias....
and sharp charms!

hmm thats interesting and it seems its probably right.

according to website I use https://planetdiablo.eu/diablo2/calcs/s ... nglish.php . With my

Fanaticism lvl 14 I should need 18IAS for fastest shooting. I took off some of my IAS items (with all my gear its 95IAS) to get enough IAS according to your website. And its breakpoints seems right. There was difference when I had 0IAS 20IAS 40IAS and 50IAS.
Breakpoint seemed right according to ur page.
Lucky for me I have 95IAS so it makes no difference for me so I wont have to change gear

I also noticed other discrepencies in favour of website I use:
so imho its best to check both websites and try to get better criteria.

So yeah go for 4+(2)+6 difference is noticeable

If you want, add me on bnet and I can be "your A1 merc" providing you

Fanaticism aura to see its difference. Faith is kinda expensive RW, so it can be better to see it with ur eyes before you buy/make Faith

120IAS gear:
bow - 40
highlord - 20
gloves - 20

Helm jewelers

Tiara 3x15jewel - 45

Belt - 0
Fortitude - 0
------------------------------
=125

or you can go
bow - 40

Atma - 0
gloves - 0

Helm: andy visage + jewel - 35

Belt - 0
Treachery - 45
------------------------------
=120

with some MF
bow - 40

Atma - 0
gloves - 20

Helm: steelskull +

Ist - 10

Belt

Goldwrap - 10
Treachery - 45
------------------------------
=125

regarding my 3 options:
1) Fortitude gives you most consistent dmg
2) Treachery with andy gives you resists and a lot of dmg (30str on andy = 30dex = 30%dmg) +

Atma - andy and

Windforce gives you high dual leech
3) 105% MF on

Helm + 30goldwrap + with SC you can get easily to 200%MF

if u use

Atma amulet, you dont need

Magic Arrow to deal with immunes.

Back in LoD 2fpa

Strafe was bugged (only shown on clientside) thats why old calcs doesn't show those breakpoints. Seems like they've fixed it.

If you really want to use

Atma's, maybe the following setup makes sense:

Fortitude
mavina's

Diadem@ias -45ias

Windforce@

Shael -40ias
nos coil

Belt -10ias

Atma's amu

Raven Frost
some fire+light res rare ring
IK

Boots
IK gloves -25ias (set bonus)

=120 ias
I'd pump points into

Pierce this way since you lose

Razortail

Me Faith vs me

Windforce, dmg is a bit lower, but nothing drastic and the fact whenever I shoot its fastest attack speed possible. This fact makes it imho way better than to have higher dmg and rely on your merc.

When we look at the rated damage of a Smiter the stats tell us that we have less than 3K DPS, and yet a smiter can kill a D-Clone in under 30 seconds. A number of people use Faith mercenaries to provide a

Windforce with

Fanaticism. I tried it using a Grand Matron with lvl 15

Fanaticism, but even with that wielding the Faith was better than a Faith merc and

Windforce. Yes the

Windforce reports higher damage but the Faith will clear an area faster and more efficiently. Now couple the Faith with a Pride merc, Fortitude armor,

Andariel's, LOH, and

Atma's and you have a winning combo. Yes I still carry my

Windforce, and I always will on a Zon build. If not for my

Windforce I wouldn't have my Faith. One last thought. I've been comparison testing

Atma's on my Faith and Windorce and I've concluded that

Atma's amplfied damage procs faster on Faith and more often. My suspicions are that the Faith is a little faster firing and the knockback on the

Windforce is interfering a little with the frequency a target is struck, and

Atma's has a 5% Chance To Cast Level 2

Amplify Damage On Striking, and if it's not consistently striking then it's not procing.

Oh right! According to online calculators,

Windforce breakpoints with

Strafe are about 80%, everything else is firing at standard speed.

Keep in mind that your average smiter gets most of his dclone dmg from crushing blow and not his raw damage.
Zons tend to have far less crushing blow to begin with and on top of that, ranged CB only does half of what a smiter's CB does.
Plus the smiter literally cannot miss with his CB so..that helps.

Now that Hustle got wrecked, the Faith vs. WF debate is doomed to continue for Eternity (I'll refrain from starting it over again here). But realistically, they're close enough together either way to where one should rly just go with whichever you find more fun to play. Then again, that should be the rule for everything imo.

Now that Hustle got wrecked, the Faith vs. WF debate is doomed to continue for Eternity (I'll refrain from starting it over again here). But realistically, they're close enough together either way to where one should rly just go with whichever you find more fun to play. Then again, that should be the rule for everything imo.

For me it wasn't a debate so much as a tier. You're unlikely to get a Faith unless you first have a

Windforce, and once you have the runes to make a Faith then you're subject to the laws of chance. Will you get a good roll or a so so roll? Unfortunately I never had the chance to compare

Atma's with Hustle and

Windforce to see how quickly Amplify procs. I'm convinced that it procs quicker with a Faith than it does with a

Windforce, and if that's true, then why? In fact it often procs multiple times while attacking a single mob. Still like many, I'm a longtime

Windforce groupie, after all I now have 5 of them and just one Faith.

Edit: I only used the smiter as an analogy, not as a direct comparison.

Generally speaking, a Faith build tends to go for attack speed while a proper WF build is happy with 9 frames, otherwise going for all-out dmg per hit (which is why Faith mercs for WF never made sense to me..all that does is indeed make WF a worse alternative to Faith as you're giving up the main strength of it to attempt to do what Faith was built for - a solid WF build gets far more DPS out of Pride/might than out of a Faith merc).

So yeah,

Atma's will proc more often with Faith. Not only will it proc quicker in terms of time because faster attack speed = quicker procs but it will also proc more often per mob because lower dmg per hit = mob survives more hits = more chances to proc per mob.

My Faith also clears mobs faster than my

Windforce even though my

Windforce has considerably higher DPS. That could be the result of faster equals more hits in a shorter time frame, and when

Atma's procs everything goes down. Another point I've considered is that knockback interferes with

Atma's hit rate and therefore

Atma's proc rate.

Also quite possibly (likely) a matter of lvl + gear.

The higher your level, the higher WF's base damage. The better (and more dmg per hit focused) your gear, the higher the true gain from said increased base damage. WF doesn't really shine unless you really build towards the dmg per hit. But if/when you do, things like

Atma's procs aren't even a concern cuz..well, nothing lives that long. :p

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Also quite possibly (likely) a matter of lvl + gear.

The higher your level, the higher WF's base damage. The better (and more dmg per hit focused) your gear, the higher the true gain from said increased base damage. WF doesn't really shine unless you really build towards the dmg per hit. But if/when you do, things like

Atma's procs aren't even a concern cuz..well, nothing lives that long. :p

My Zon is level 95, so at this point I can't see damage level being a factor, because four more levels isn't going to increase my

Windforce damage by that much. I think Faith's IAS, high attack rating, and Ignore Target's Defense play a major role in its effectiveness in clear speed and in procing

Atma's amplified damage. I realize we aren't talking a huge difference between the bows, but there is a difference. If you're interested I trust you enough to lend you my Faith so that you can test it. I'm guessing our gear, except for charms, is largely the same so if you're interested just say when and we'll make it happen. I know you love testing so here's one for you to give a go.

Note: I'm willing to jump in and record a video if you're interested.

Yeah, at 95 the level doesn't affect too much anymore, true.

Thanks for the vote of trust. Not needed though, I've (extensively) tested both, Faith and WF in a number of different build variations and towards optimization for each one.
I never rely solely on math telling me WF is (barely) better in raw dmg per hit and DPS, I always follow that up with live testing which confirmed the same.

But again (as confirmed by both math + testing), the difference is really quite small when both are fully optimized so either way, I still say stick with whatever is more fun to you.

Hell, if my RNG picker had told me to roll a zon for S3, that one would've actually ended up with a Faith as well (albeit solely because Hustle got wrecked).
For the NL/main one though..she'll never give up her WF.

Side note:
I wouldn't count on our gear being largely the same actually. After 20 years of optimizing, most of my chars tend to differ quite significantly from the norm in some

Key pieces.