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Description

I have been playing bowazon for a few weeks now and I have a few thoughts I wanted to share:

1. She is surprisingly safe even with zero points invested into vitality and no resistances. She can use
Decoy
as a really convenient tank which can easily catch attention of Gloams and Stygian Dolls.

2.
Slow Missiles
is a very underused skill that basically disables Gloams and Witches because it slows down their projectiles a lot. It also makes them shoot more rare, because they wait for a previous projectile to land before they shoot the next one. Not to mention that they deal 32% less damage. Bowazon is the only character I feel comfortable with around dolls and gloams (even though she has about 600hp).
Slow Missiles
saved my skin more than a few times in the throne room. :D First you cast
Decoy
so gloams attack it instead of you, then cast
Slow Missiles
, then you can pretty much run between flying lightnings because they become so slow. :D

3. + to Passive Skills gives you more DPS than +bow skills because it bumps the
Critical Strike
skill which increases the chance of double damage. Double damage chance gives you more DPS overall than just bumping Bow &
Crossbow
skills. So the worst charms to have in inventory are +Bow, second best are +Passive, best are +max dmg +frw.

4. You can bump Double Damage chance by using
Highlord's Wrath
and
Gore Rider
. It does not stack with the Amazon skill "
Critical Strike
" although the effect is the same. So if you have 74%
Critical Strike
and 50% Deadly strike it does not amount to 124% but to 87% instead (1 - (1 - 0.74)*(1 - 0.5)) if I remember school maths correctly :D)

5. You can achieve max IAS breakpoint with Faith (92 with 15
Fanaticism
) while still using Fortitude . The cheapest setup is
M'avina's True Sight
with 15IAS jewel (the most expensive would be Artisan's
Diadem
of Speed with 3 IAS jewels) +
Nosferatu's Coil
(or
Goldwrap
if you really want that mf) +
Highlord's Wrath
(or
The Cat's Eye
) +
Laying of Hands
(or crafted +passive/20ias gloves) which is 45 + 10 + 20 + 20 = +95 IAS . Although the second best breakpoint is usually good enough (so you can use
Giant Skull
for knockback if you like). You can compensate lack of
Razortail
by just bumping
Pierce
skill, so you will have 90%
Pierce
without it (which is more than enough).

6. Wrath is a really underappreciated runeword. This is a great debuff weapon. Bowazon lacks boss damage and has issues with physical immunes (yes, you can spam
Magic Arrow
or use
Atma's Scarab
to proc
Amplify Damage
), but it still will be hard to clear packs of Spectres or Hell Temptresses . Wrath has +magic damage, chance to proc Decrep and 20% crushing blow which combined with
Slow Missiles
and 10% slowdown from
Nosferatu's Coil
makes Hell Temptresses (and most other enemies) harmless, also killing
Baal
becomes manageable, it is faster than Faith with bosses. It is not good enough in all situations to be the primary weapon, but I really like using it on swap with Faith, it solved physical immunes issues for me. Alternatively you can use Harmony, which for me is the less DPS and less utility version of Wrath (although you might like
Vigor
aura). Harmony is not even close to be good with bossess though and does not have any debuffs

7.
Witchwild String
is an underrated bow (although I think it's a temp before you get
Windforce
or Faith). It's still really strong if you socket something good in it (like
Nef
+
Eth
or
Shael
+
Shael
)

8. You can make Insight in a bow and use it yourself, it has a good damage (before you get Faith or
Windforce
:P)

9. If you are using
Matriarchal Bow
and want to use Jewels in your helmet, +15IAS +15max damage gives you more overall damage than +15IAS +40% ed (because it's the low damage bow)

Bonus tip (for magezon):

10. You can use Phoenix in a bow the same way you can use Ice. Phoenix has minus to enemy fire res, you can even use Phoenix and Ice on swap. :D

---

TL;DR - use
Slow Missiles
and
Decoy
more, make Wrath ruenword, invest all points into dexterity. :D

glhf!

Also, a wish I have - I really hope we will get magical quivers at some point in D2R to buff bowazons at least a bit more. :D

If you know any more good tips let me know.
Description by louner
5

Can be used to make Runewords:

7
User avatar

louner 222

Europe PC
I have been playing bowazon for a few weeks now and I have a few thoughts I wanted to share:

1. She is surprisingly safe even with zero points invested into vitality and no resistances. She can use
Decoy
as a really convenient tank which can easily catch attention of Gloams and Stygian Dolls.

2.
Slow Missiles
is a very underused skill that basically disables Gloams and Witches because it slows down their projectiles a lot. It also makes them shoot more rare, because they wait for a previous projectile to land before they shoot the next one. Not to mention that they deal 32% less damage. Bowazon is the only character I feel comfortable with around dolls and gloams (even though she has about 600hp).
Slow Missiles
saved my skin more than a few times in the throne room. :D First you cast
Decoy
so gloams attack it instead of you, then cast
Slow Missiles
, then you can pretty much run between flying lightnings because they become so slow. :D

3. + to Passive Skills gives you more DPS than +bow skills because it bumps the
Critical Strike
skill which increases the chance of double damage. Double damage chance gives you more DPS overall than just bumping Bow &
Crossbow
skills. So the worst charms to have in inventory are +Bow, second best are +Passive, best are +max dmg +frw.

4. You can bump Double Damage chance by using
Highlord's Wrath
and
Gore Rider
. It does not stack with the Amazon skill "
Critical Strike
" although the effect is the same. So if you have 74%
Critical Strike
and 50% Deadly strike it does not amount to 124% but to 87% instead (1 - (1 - 0.74)*(1 - 0.5)) if I remember school maths correctly :D)

5. You can achieve max IAS breakpoint with Faith (92 with 15
Fanaticism
) while still using Fortitude . The cheapest setup is
M'avina's True Sight
with 15IAS jewel (the most expensive would be Artisan's
Diadem
of Speed with 3 IAS jewels) +
Nosferatu's Coil
(or
Goldwrap
if you really want that mf) +
Highlord's Wrath
(or
The Cat's Eye
) +
Laying of Hands
(or crafted +passive/20ias gloves) which is 45 + 10 + 20 + 20 = +95 IAS . Although the second best breakpoint is usually good enough (so you can use
Giant Skull
for knockback if you like). You can compensate lack of
Razortail
by just bumping
Pierce
skill, so you will have 90%
Pierce
without it (which is more than enough).

6. Wrath is a really underappreciated runeword. This is a great debuff weapon. Bowazon lacks boss damage and has issues with physical immunes (yes, you can spam
Magic Arrow
or use
Atma's Scarab
to proc
Amplify Damage
), but it still will be hard to clear packs of Spectres or Hell Temptresses . Wrath has +magic damage, chance to proc Decrep and 20% crushing blow which combined with
Slow Missiles
and 10% slowdown from
Nosferatu's Coil
makes Hell Temptresses (and most other enemies) harmless, also killing
Baal
becomes manageable, it is faster than Faith with bosses. It is not good enough in all situations to be the primary weapon, but I really like using it on swap with Faith, it solved physical immunes issues for me. Alternatively you can use Harmony, which for me is the less DPS and less utility version of Wrath (although you might like
Vigor
aura). Harmony is not even close to be good with bossess though and does not have any debuffs

7.
Witchwild String
is an underrated bow (although I think it's a temp before you get
Windforce
or Faith). It's still really strong if you socket something good in it (like
Nef
+
Eth
or
Shael
+
Shael
)

8. You can make Insight in a bow and use it yourself, it has a good damage (before you get Faith or
Windforce
:P)

9. If you are using
Matriarchal Bow
and want to use Jewels in your helmet, +15IAS +15max damage gives you more overall damage than +15IAS +40% ed (because it's the low damage bow)

Bonus tip (for magezon):

10. You can use Phoenix in a bow the same way you can use Ice. Phoenix has minus to enemy fire res, you can even use Phoenix and Ice on swap. :D

---

TL;DR - use
Slow Missiles
and
Decoy
more, make Wrath ruenword, invest all points into dexterity. :D

glhf!

Also, a wish I have - I really hope we will get magical quivers at some point in D2R to buff bowazons at least a bit more. :D

If you know any more good tips let me know.

7
This is really great info - thank you! I've been messing with a bowazon for the past week or so and trying to get her dialed in. Have been running into some of the same issues with physical immunes, and
Magic Arrow
is annoying even though I try to line up the shots and
Pierce
(still have to move out of the line of fire between shots, etc).
Guided Arrow
seems to work best for act bosses, but it's still pretty slow to take them down, especially
Baal
.

A few questions, if you don't mind:
1. Does
Slow Missiles
work in a radius where you click, or around your character (I don't have points in it yet)?
2. Are you using
Valkyrie
at all with your setup? If so, which of the Valk's seems to work best?
3. Do you know if Crushing Blow works with every
Strafe
arrow - say, if you're splitting a group of high-HP monsters? I believe CB (and perhaps other attributes like Prevent Monster Heal) may only work on the middle 3 arrows with
Multiple Shot
, but not completely sure about that. I believe I read that something only works with the middle 3
Multiple Shot
arrows, but can't remember what at the moment.
4. What Merc setup are you using with your build?
5. Are you at 100%
Pierce
? Edit: now I see that's only 85% chance @ slvl 20, so may not be feasible without
Razortail


I'm using an Act 1 Cold Merc (trying the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl route) and she currently has Harmony, which is nice for my FRW and getting the Reanimated to be more useful and better position themselves distract the enemies. Between the Reanimated, her
Confuse
proc, and
Whirlwind
from
Carrion Wind
happening quite often, it's been really fun and I can mostly hold my Ground.

Some day when I can afford it, she'll probably get Ice or I may try an Act 2 Might Merc if I can ever find a
Ruby
Jewel of Fervor for Andy's
Helm
. I was thinking it might be fun to try giving that Merc a
Tomb Reaver
for even more Reanimated :D I've been using those to draw fire from the Willowisps and
Succubus
monsters, but that only works so long as they happen to be out front and I don't get blasted first. It would be another
Ber
to give some Crushing Blow to that Polearm, too. All this stuff is so expensive that it feels like a pipe Dream, having starting only about a month ago.

Wrath on switch sounds perfect to deal with the PI's. Some day I will get a
Ber
, but everything good needs one :P Still hoping for a
Lo
as well, but it will be quite hard to not want to use that to make Grief before Fortitude :| Right now I'm using Treachery, so it should be easier to get to max breakpoint using some of your tips. Thanks again :)

Traders: Please don't PM me for trades without a trade posting or add me on BNet without a comment on a trade posting

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Trade zone: PC | Softcore, Non-Ladder | UTC-8
7
User avatar

mhlg 1230

Americas PC
louner wrote: 2 years ago
I have been playing bowazon for a few weeks now and I have a few thoughts I wanted to share:

1. She is surprisingly safe even with zero points invested into vitality and no resistances. She can use
Decoy
as a really convenient tank which can easily catch attention of Gloams and Stygian Dolls.

2.
Slow Missiles
is a very underused skill that basically disables Gloams and Witches because it slows down their projectiles a lot. It also makes them shoot more rare, because they wait for a previous projectile to land before they shoot the next one. Not to mention that they deal 32% less damage. Bowazon is the only character I feel comfortable with around dolls and gloams (even though she has about 600hp).
Slow Missiles
saved my skin more than a few times in the throne room. :D First you cast
Decoy
so gloams attack it instead of you, then cast
Slow Missiles
, then you can pretty much run between flying lightnings because they become so slow. :D

3. + to Passive Skills gives you more DPS than +bow skills because it bumps the
Critical Strike
skill which increases the chance of double damage. Double damage chance gives you more DPS overall than just bumping Bow &
Crossbow
skills. So the worst charms to have in inventory are +Bow, second best are +Passive, best are +max dmg +frw (imo).

4. You can bump Double Damage chance by using
Highlord's Wrath
and
Gore Rider
. It does not stack with the Amazon skill "
Critical Strike
" although the effect is the same. So if you have 74%
Critical Strike
and 50% Deadly strike it does not amount to 124% but to 87% instead (1 - (1 - 0.74)*(1 - 0.5)) if I remember school math correctly :D)

5. You can achieve max IAS breakpoint with Faith (92 with 15
Fanaticism
) while still using Fortitude . The cheapest setup is
M'avina's True Sight
with 15IAS jewel (the most expensive would be Artisan's
Diadem
of Speed with 3 IAS jewels) +
Nosferatu's Coil
(or
Goldwrap
if you really want that mf) +
Highlord's Wrath
(or
The Cat's Eye
) +
Laying of Hands
(or crafted +passive/20ias gloves) which is 45 + 10 + 20 + 20 = +95 IAS . Although the second best breakpoint is usually good enough (so you can use
Giant Skull
for knockback if you like). You can compensate lack of
Razortail
by just bumping
Pierce
skill, so you will have 90%
Pierce
without it (which is more than enough).

6. Wrath is a really underappreciated runeword. This is a great debuff weapon. Bowazon lacks boss damage and has issues with physical immunes (yes, you can spam
Magic Arrow
or use
Atma's Scarab
to proc
Amplify Damage
), but it still will be hard to clear packs of Spectres or Hell Temptresses . Wrath has +magic damage, chance to proc Decrep and 20% crushing blow which combined with
Slow Missiles
and 10% slowdown from
Nosferatu's Coil
makes Hell Temptresses (and most other enemies) harmless, also killing
Baal
becomes manageable, it is faster than Faith with bosses. It is not good enough in all situations to be the primary weapon, but I really like using it on swap with Faith, it solved physical immunes issues for me. Alternatively you can use Harmony, which for me is the less DPS and less utility version of Wrath (although you might like
Vigor
aura). Harmony is not even close to be good with bossess though and does not have any debuffs

7.
Witchwild String
is an underrated bow (although I think it's a temp before you get
Windforce
or Faith). It's still really strong if you socket something good in it (like
Nef
+
Eth
or
Shael
+
Shael
)

8. You can make Insight in a bow and use it yourself, it has a good damage (before you get Faith or
Windforce
:P)

Bonus tip (for magezon):

9. You can use Phoenix in a bow the same way you can use Ice. Phoenix has minus to enemy fire res, you can even use Phoenix and Ice on swap. :D

---

TL;DR - use
Slow Missiles
and
Decoy
more, make Wrath ruenword, invest all points into dexterity. :D

glhf!

Also, a wish I have - I really hope we will get magical quivers at some point in D2R to buff bowazons at least a bit more. :D

If you know any more good tips let me know.

I have strathezon. For main bow I have a perfect Faith, my second bow is an 8%
Windforce
,
Helm
Andariel's Visage
socketed with 15 ias 15 ED jewel,
Laying of Hands
gloves,
Belt
Nosferatu's Coil
, armor Fortitude, and
Boots
Natalya's Soul
. I've tried Highlord's, and Cat's Eye, but I settled for a 28% Mara's as best overall. For rings I have a Frost
Raven
and dual leech magic ring . I have two Bow skills grand charms. I started with an Edge, then Matriarchal Harmony, followed by
Windforce
, and then Faith. The Zon can kill anything in D2r so far except the Ubers. It's a fun build.

Please post offer in item trade before adding me on Bnet, I'm in EST time zone (E Coast U.S)
7
User avatar

mhlg 1230

Americas PC
If you add enough damage charms you can kill them with
Arrows
, but
Magic Arrow
will easily take down a pack of specters and fast. Specters tend to line up and with
Pierce
one
Magic Arrow
shot will go through the entire pack. Contrary to what is recommended I put 10 base points into it, and with plus to skills I have level 24
Magic Arrow
. The other benefit is that it will fire even when the mana ball appears empty. Ubers are the only real issue.

Please post offer in item trade before adding me on Bnet, I'm in EST time zone (E Coast U.S)
7
I currently have one at level 95. I agree that the ubers are where she runs into a wall. Otherwise, despite investing only 30 additional points into vitality for a total of 50, she always felt safer for me to play than my javazon before getting Enigma. I used to prefer doing solo casual
Baal
runs with her because hardly anything ever gets to her as she snipes from the back line.

Using
Strafe
with Faith gets you an army (albeit an extremely dumb one) deployed in short order that would make
Blood Raven
jealous, and using Harmony on switch feels great for mobility considering the enhanced damage from Fortitude is a build requirement.

Since there are an excess of skill points available for a physical bowazon, I maxed
Magic Arrow
and it melts physical immunes. Also, back in LoD, I had a M'avina's mageazon, so I was so used to
Freezing Arrow
that even now, I don't feel like I can give up the utility of that skill because it's a lifesaver when entering a hot portal.

I tried to make things work without
Razortail
for a long time, but I eventually realized it was essential to my build because she's technically not a physical bowazon even though I play her as one. I needed the skill points moved out of
Pierce
and into other skills. I stuck with
Wilhelm's Pride
of all belts for a very long time because I needed life and mana leech.
Nosferatu's Coil
was one of the options I was considering as an upgrade before I realized I couldn't make it work.

I will say that I did not like
Witchwild String
because the 2% chance to proc
Amplify Damage
was too low for me. I also thought
Atma's Scarab
's 5%, which a lot of people rave about in bowazon guides, was also too low. I do still use it and
Guillaume's Face
for act bosses though.

The bowazon is definitely fun to play as a long range, off-screen sniper if you have top tier gear, but she needs help to get her damage up to par in a full Hell game. That's really a byproduct of this game shifting towards favoring elemental over physical damage as it evolved. Bowazons were the supreme subclass in classic D2 and early LoD.

Image
PC | Softcore Non-Ladder | US Eastern Time (UTC-4)
Expansion Ladder Season 1 Level 99 (#115 Amazon, #584 Overall)

Image
EPOCH FAIL
7
I have a max dex Strafezon, not got all the gear options but will have a
Windforce
once the Ladder season ends. Currently running a fairly standard setup aside from that and she kills things quickly:
Eaglehorn
,
Valkyrie Wing
,
Laying of Hands
, Treachery,
Atma's Scarab
,
Gore Rider
,
Raven Frost
,
Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
, a couple of skiller charms and the rest are mostly AR + damage.

My "pro" tip is avoid Death novas. :) The number of times I have died simply because I've been careless and strayed too close to the things I'm killing, it's a bit embarrassing really.

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OP
User avatar

louner 222

Europe PC
undertow wrote: 2 years ago
A few questions, if you don't mind:
1. Does
Slow Missiles
work in a radius where you click, or around your character (I don't have points in it yet)?
2. Are you using
Valkyrie
at all with your setup? If so, which of the Valk's seems to work best?
3. Do you know if Crushing Blow works with every
Strafe
arrow - say, if you're splitting a group of high-HP monsters? I believe CB (and perhaps other attributes like Prevent Monster Heal) may only work on the middle 3 arrows with
Multiple Shot
, but not completely sure about that. I believe I read that something only works with the middle 3
Multiple Shot
arrows, but can't remember what at the moment.
4. What Merc setup are you using with your build?
5. Are you at 100%
Pierce
? Edit: now I see that's only 85% chance @ slvl 20, so may not be feasible without
Razortail


Wrath on switch sounds perfect to deal with the PI's. Some day I will get a
Ber
, but everything good needs one :P Still hoping for a
Lo
as well, but it will be quite hard to not want to use that to make Grief before Fortitude :| Right now I'm using Treachery, so it should be easier to get to max breakpoint using some of your tips. Thanks again :)
1. From around your character, like an aura
2. Even when maxed out she does not do any viable damage, so I don't really care about her variants. :)
Decoy
seems more useful, because you can place them exactly where you need, but I keep
Valkyrie
walking around to sink some damage.
3. It works for each
Strafe
arrow, with
Multiple Shot
, yeah most effects work just for the middle few
Arrows

4. Act 2 Offensive with Pride. Some people argue that Act I with Faith + you with
Windforce
is better (but I don't listen to them, I like using Faith by myself better :P)
5. 91%
mhlg wrote: 2 years ago
I have strathezon. For main bow I have a perfect Faith, my second bow is an 8%
Windforce
,
Helm
Andariel's Visage
socketed with 15 ias 15 ED jewel,
Laying of Hands
gloves,
Belt
Nosferatu's Coil
, armor Fortitude, and
Boots
Natalya's Soul
. I've tried Highlord's, and Cat's Eye, but I settled for a 28% Mara's as best overall. For rings I have a Frost
Raven
and dual leech magic ring . I have two Bow skills grand charms. I started with an Edge, then Matriarchal Harmony, followed by
Windforce
, and then Faith. The Zon can kill anything in D2r so far except the Ubers. It's a fun build.
Seems like a good setup. :) Ubers are doable, there are a few YT videos, but it seems more like a challenge than a viable thing.
Snakecharmed wrote: 2 years ago
Since there are an excess of skill points available for a physical bowazon, I maxed
Magic Arrow
and it melts physical immunes. Also, back in LoD, I had a M'avina's mageazon, so I was so used to
Freezing Arrow
that even now, I don't feel like I can give up the utility of that skill because it's a lifesaver when entering a hot portal.

I tried to make things work without
Razortail
for a long time, but I eventually realized it was essential to my build because she's technically not a physical bowazon even though I play her as one. I needed the skill points moved out of
Pierce
and into other skills. I stuck with
Wilhelm's Pride
of all belts for a very long time because I needed life and mana leech.
Nosferatu's Coil
was one of the options I was considering as an upgrade before I realized I couldn't make it work.
What you describe is also a good idea and of course works. :) I use
Nosferatu's Coil
because I really wanted the max IAS breakpoint with Wrath. There is a tradeoff in that you won't have 100%
Pierce
but you just shoot faster and apply debuffs faster, and that bow is more about debuffs and slowdown. First you disable everything with
Slow Missiles
and Wrath, then finish monsters with Faith - personally I like this style more. :D

7
Here's a guide about the highest DPS for bowazon:

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t ... ble/165859
9

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