MIST Bow Stygian Doll Hunting (or adventures in stupid)

Having a bit of free time and feeling a little bored I got to thinking about what I might be able to do with my Ladder 2 Mist Bow. So I figured why not do a couple of runs just for the hell of it, and then go Stygian Doll hunting in the Durance, because as you know nothing makes more sense than hunting Stygian Dolls in the Durance with a strafezon. I swapped my crafted 20 IAS mits for Dracs and my Highlord’s for

Atma’s.

To test things out I ran

Baal, Diablo,

Andariel, and

Duriel without even coming close to dying, so now it was time to go kill Stygians and then drop

Mephisto for the finale. The first wave of Stygians I hit proc’d

Life Tap (unexpected). Most of the stygians I killed from a distance but the second wave took my life down to a sliver, but still no Death. I was hit two more times and survived both before completely clearing Durance lvl 2, and on to lvl 3 which was surprisingly effortless.

I still haven’t figured out what to do with my Mist, which in my view is an underrated bow. Any suggestions?

Cool ranged summon druid or necro. Run it with might and

Wisp Projector wolverine Spirit. Obedience or upped

Kelpie Snare and gface on merc so he owns everything.

Interesting thought, I'm not a big necro fan.

DasNarf wrote: 3 weeks ago

Put it on a rogue merc with Hustle or Treachery.

Combine this with a

Demon Machine Enchantress +

Razortail for double railgunning.

Add Delirium to the rogue for disco dancing monsters.

Or respecc the zon to dual elemental build, you can save all points to

Pierce and no need for a razor.

For using

Strafe, I would prefer a

Matriarchal Bow.

The build above is from ladder season 3 and is now used as a mule. On my primary strafezon build I use a Faith with a

Windforce on swap.

I also have one Mist bow and wonder if it would be a good build if I combine it with act 2 Might merc with Hustle armor and weapon.

DasNarf wrote: 3 weeks ago

basicnecromancy wrote: 3 weeks ago

I also have one Mist bow and wonder if it would be a good build if I combine it with act 2 Might merc with Hustle armor and weapon.

Mist IS a very good bow, and quite cheap as well. Not the best one in damage numbers, but absolutely capable of doing Hell difficulty. I'm using one on my

Strafe-Frostmaiden-Hybrid build. I like this bow a lot.

+6 to bowskills, 100%

Pierce, huge resists and freeze are very useful and unique abilities that allow for unconventional build ideas.

Any build with this bow will work well, and it's certainly the best bow you can put on a rogue merc IF you don't need

Fanaticism. I'm using these for my Poisonmancer and my Summon Druid.

I use Mist for the same build -

Strafe /

Freezing Arrow hybrid. It puts in good work. I play on Switch, though, so I don't have access to anything higher than /p4

Mist remains the primary weapon on my

Strafe bowazon as well as on the

Frenzy barb's rogue hireling. Sometimes I put on Faith or even Ice (all the same base as yours), but usually not for long. I find the TZ Worldstone level 3 dolls to be the nastiest. The Pit and the Durance of Hate ones may get comparable due to limited space and lower visibility. Narrow paths may get beneficial, however, when using

Valkyrie (sometimes, when I am not lazy, I pre-buff one with Peace armor in a safe area) to block the way. Then it's a piece of cake, as Mist's 100%

Pierce is a killer.

Addendum: A 20% IAS knockback xx+ dexterity

Hit Power Gloves may make one's life much satisfying.

bigbikefan wrote: 3 weeks ago

Mist remains the primary weapon on my

Strafe bowazon as well as on the

Frenzy barb's rogue hireling. Sometimes I put on Faith or even Ice (all the same base as yours), but usually not for long. I find the TZ Worldstone level 3 dolls to be the nastiest. The Pit and the Durance of Hate ones may get comparable due to limited space and lower visibility. Narrow paths may get beneficial, however, when using

Valkyrie (sometimes, when I am not lazy, I pre-buff one with Peace armor in a safe area) to block the way. Then it's a piece of cake, as Mist's 100%

Pierce is a killer.

Addendum: A 20% IAS knockback xx+ dexterity

Hit Power Gloves may make one's life much satisfying.

When it comes to dolls I sum it up like this. The ones that most closely resemble Christmas Tree ornaments are the deadliest, but that's often true of any D2r mobs. The TZ WSK dolls are usually red while the ones in Durance are usually a dirty White, but there are also some nicely colored ones in various shades of pastel blue and green which would look great on any tree. The only problem with TZ WSK doll hunting is that there aren't that many while durance is completely carpeted with them.

I used it for my fire bowa. It was great!
I farmed mainly the swampy pits, many many dolls.
The conc aura and damage buff enhances your leech which such impactful QoL. The resists are so rare on a bow and certainly help, and frees other slots for damage (use 3 facet head piece instead of flickering). And no need for

Pierce or

Razortail.
Had great fun with it.
Wanna try again with hoj bow.

mhlg wrote: 3 weeks ago

When it comes to dolls I sum it up like this. The ones that most closely resemble Christmas Tree ornaments are the deadliest, but that's often true of any D2r mobs. The TZ WSK dolls are usually red while the ones in Durance are usually a dirty White, but there are also some nicely colored ones in various shades of pastel blue and green which would look great on any tree. The only problem with TZ WSK doll hunting is that there aren't that many while durance is completely carpeted with them.

I have noticed the different tints and shades of dolls, but I haven't registered any difference in damage to match their color patters. It's either there is an applied amplified damage, or there isn't. The rest is a general assumption Act 5 foes are stronger than of any other Act. The same goes for TZ vs. non-TZ.