About To Respec - how can I make my Bowazon A Bit Less Squishy?

I've got a level 70 bowazon who does pretty serious damage and is otherwise very enjoyable to play. However, even considering the fact that amazons, e specially bowazons are always going to be a bit too susceptible to damage, she seems to be a bit too much so. When doing

Baal runs in Nightmare, she can die far too easily if I cannot stay behind the group, safely, all but avoid many monsters there.

I'm about to respec for the first time. What can I do to at least make her more survivable (especially for solo work, at times) while not giving up any substantial damage. Obviously, I also need to balance strength and dexterity enough to allow for use of major bows, and some other equipment.

Any expertise and thoughts from those of you familiar with this scenario would be immensely appreciated. Thanks.

Can you share your current build (gear + skill + stat points)? Otherwise its tough to make any meaningful suggestions besides "high leech + high res"

I found bowazon to be pretty underwhelming. Even with great gear it feels slow vs bosses and not mobile enough. With mediocre gear its rather bad. Especially when compared to the alternative javazon possibilities. But yea, as Knap suggested, the more details you post about your current state the better the advice will be.

In diablo 2 resistances are important. So try to aim for maximum resistances of 75% at least. Thats a huge help.

Semirotta wrote: 20 hours ago

In diablo 2 resistances are important. So try to aim for maximum resistances of 75% at least. Thats a huge help.

this is really hard for bowazon without making some big sacrifices, even with good gear.

missusecel wrote: 20 hours ago

Semirotta wrote: 20 hours ago

In diablo 2 resistances are important. So try to aim for maximum resistances of 75% at least. Thats a huge help.

this is really hard for bowazon without making some big sacrifices, even with good gear.

Ah my bad, havent played amazon since d2 original days and even then very little. Dont really remember how things are on it
Perhaps

Dodge chance?

you probably can max them out using

Kira's Guardian/

Mara's Kaleidoscope, but at at a big impact to your dmg, your really want highlords/atmas as amulet, and ias/crushing blow on helmet

My bowazon is squishy too, and I don't even use CTA on her. My reasoning is that she barely gets hit. I am always attacking from afar, which generally keeps me safe. Worth noting I don't use

Teleport on her so no danger of accidentally being in the middle of a mob. Swap is Harmony for run speed.

Bowazons are supposed to be squishy! Just go full dex and enjoy your non-existent life pool as you annihilate mobs not even on your screen yet in a couple shots max.
Or go "dex for reqs" and full vit in which case they really aren't squishy at all, albeit obviously with noticeably less dmg. They then get to a decent life pool plus get the evasion skills on top. Actually leaves them more durable than many caster builds.

Though resistances should be capped either way so one stray projectile doesn't take you out (imo that's true for any and all builds apart from perhaps ES sorcs, even if only out of Principle).

Hell, mine doesn't even use CtA and is built for speed so no life charms either. She is forced into a slight "some dex to vit compromise" by other oddities of my build but all in all, she still only ends up with just over 1k life. And that's plenty for basically anything but ubers. And still keeps the damage to shred everything.

Maybe it's because sorc is my bread 'n' butter but I find Amas to be extremely tanky even with low res. 1pt in

Dodge /

Evade / Avoid + Valk and Merc. The few hits that come through are not enough to seriously threaten her. (Lvl 92 Max vita Frost maiden HC here)

Obviously, you don't telestomp with bowa.

Could you share in which situations you feel squishy? Souls, dolls, fana bosses, archers, ... ? (Could indicate whether the problem is ele res, physical res, lack of life, bad Merc setup, ...)

My advice would be respec to Javazon and play that instead, but thats just me

BigD wrote: 9 hours ago

My advice would be respec to Javazon and play that instead, but thats just me

+1 for that.

Or frostmaiden if you don't want an OP char.

Physical bowa is super boring imho.

vued wrote: 3 hours ago

BigD wrote: 9 hours ago

My advice would be respec to Javazon and play that instead, but thats just me

+1 for that.

Or frostmaiden if you don't want an OP char.

Physical bowa is super boring imho.

I find javazon even more boring than bowazon. You just... you just throw javelins.... its so stupid. You do nothing but press one

Key and move. Not very interesting gameplay.
Personally would love to see a massive nerf patch where every class gets massive nerfs or boosts depending on how they are doing. Amazon should be nerfed to the Ground level like Necro is. Perhaps not as bad but closer to its level. Its a bit silly how OP certain few builds & classes are compared to the rest. Javazon especially requires absolutely nothing and it just destroys everything, almost like

Echoing Strike warlock :'D needs no gear and itll destroy everything but at least with warlock its slower by a mile.

Semirotta wrote: 3 hours ago

I find javazon even more boring than bowazon. You just... you just throw javelins.... its so stupid. You do nothing but press one

Key and move. Not very interesting gameplay.
Personally would love to see a massive nerf patch where every class gets massive nerfs or boosts depending on how they are doing. Amazon should be nerfed to the Ground level like Necro is. Perhaps not as bad but closer to its level. Its a bit silly how OP certain few builds & classes are compared to the rest. Javazon especially requires absolutely nothing and it just destroys everything, almost like

Echoing Strike warlock :'D needs no gear and itll destroy everything but at least with warlock its slower by a mile.

Au contraire, monsieur!

The Javazon is extremely hard to optimize. Of course, she tends to be strong quite early, and she is the "Queen of Cow Level", but if you want a fluid gameplay and a safe and sturdy build, which is able to farm anywhere, you'll spend a lot of work on it. Bowazon is even worse, both are glass cannons. The hardest part is to bring her to full resists, with high enough FCR, at least 30 IAS and a sufficient mana/life management. This is why many of them players are using Phoenix, which is, in fact, a stupidly expensive noob trap. Your Javazon is set the moment you don't need that silly shield anymore!

And I am using more than one skill:

Slow Missiles vs ranged monsters,

Decoy vs dolls and wisps,

Lightning Fury vs crowds,

Charged Strike vs bosses,

Lightning Strike vs scattered enemies,

Teleport for repositioning.

Javazon endgame equip is extremely rare and expensive. You need:

Griffon's Eye, ethereal

Titan's Revenge, Lightning Sunder, Enigma, Lightning Facet, Infinity Merc, 2/20 gloves, 2/20 amulet and so on. It's nearly impossible for a selffound player to achieve all that stuff in a reasonable time.

Fishymancer can safely do hell with two Spirits, Insight Merc and Enigma or a

Teleport charge item. Please don't forget that

Corpse Explosion is also one of the most op skills, doing fire and physical damage and being supported by one-point-wonder curses. No sunder needed. No -resist needed. Trading necro stuff is cheap as shit.

If there are classes which need to be buffed, it's

Frenzy Barb or Fanazealot.

DasNarf wrote: 1 hour ago

If there are classes which need to be buffed, it's

Frenzy Barb or Fanazealot.

My lvl 97 Zealer is my most expensive Char with the worst clear speed... He CAN do everything but I almost only use him for DClone, Ubers and

Colossal Summit.

oOKIWIOo wrote: 1 hour ago

DasNarf wrote: 1 hour ago

If there are classes which need to be buffed, it's

Frenzy Barb or Fanazealot.

My lvl 97 Zealer is my most expensive Char with the worst clear speed... He CAN do everything but I almost only use him for DClone, Ubers and

Colossal Summit.

Yep, same here. The time my Zealot kills one monster on p8, most other classes have cleared a screen. And this guy is very well equipped.

Those Maxdam/AR/Life-Grand Charms are the most rare, and you can throw a bunch of

Lo/

Vex and

Jah runes at him for optimizing his armor/weapon/shield.

DasNarf wrote: 1 hour ago

Semirotta wrote: 3 hours ago

I find javazon even more boring than bowazon. You just... you just throw javelins.... its so stupid. You do nothing but press one

Key and move. Not very interesting gameplay.
Personally would love to see a massive nerf patch where every class gets massive nerfs or boosts depending on how they are doing. Amazon should be nerfed to the Ground level like Necro is. Perhaps not as bad but closer to its level. Its a bit silly how OP certain few builds & classes are compared to the rest. Javazon especially requires absolutely nothing and it just destroys everything, almost like

Echoing Strike warlock :'D needs no gear and itll destroy everything but at least with warlock its slower by a mile.

Au contraire, monsieur!

The Javazon is extremely hard to optimize. Of course, she tends to be strong quite early, and she is the "Queen of Cow Level", but if you want a fluid gameplay and a safe and sturdy build, which is able to farm anywhere, you'll spend a lot of work on it. Bowazon is even worse, both are glass cannons. The hardest part is to bring her to full resists, with high enough FCR, at least 30 IAS and a sufficient mana/life management. This is why many of them players are using Phoenix, which is, in fact, a stupidly expensive noob trap. Your Javazon is set the moment you don't need that silly shield anymore!

And I am using more than one skill:

Slow Missiles vs ranged monsters,

Decoy vs dolls and wisps,

Lightning Fury vs crowds,

Charged Strike vs bosses,

Lightning Strike vs scattered enemies,

Teleport for repositioning.

Javazon endgame equip is extremely rare and expensive. You need:

Griffon's Eye, ethereal

Titan's Revenge, Lightning Sunder, Enigma, Lightning Facet, Infinity Merc, 2/20 gloves, 2/20 amulet and so on. It's nearly impossible for a selffound player to achieve all that stuff in a reasonable time.

Fishymancer can safely do hell with two Spirits, Insight Merc and Enigma or a

Teleport charge item. Please don't forget that

Corpse Explosion is also one of the most op skills, doing fire and physical damage and being supported by one-point-wonder curses. No sunder needed. No -resist needed. Trading necro stuff is cheap as shit.

If there are classes which need to be buffed, it's

Frenzy Barb or Fanazealot.

The few times Ive played java and bowazon, its been cake walk compared to anything else.
Dolls and souls are a problem for pretty much everything.

You definitely dont need BiS items like you have listed to make the playthrough fluid and easy. That applies to every class and build, everything is fluid and easy when fully geared to the top.

Semirotta wrote: 1 hour ago

The few times Ive played java and bowazon, its been cake walk compared to anything else.

I doubt you played them solo selffound, which I did.

Semirotta wrote: 1 hour ago

You definitely dont need BiS items like you have listed to make the playthrough fluid and easy. That applies to every class and build, everything is fluid and easy when fully geared to the top.

Nope, there are huge differences in killing speed between classes, which I tried to point out. But Javazon vs Necromancer is a bad example for this. Both are considered very strong.

Semirotta wrote: 1 hour ago

Dolls and souls are a problem for pretty much everything.

Just a few examples of why this is wrong:

Dolls are 100% deadly for you being strafelocked. They often join an ongoing battle and just sucker punch you. Fighting dolls with a Bowa is borderline suicidal, which demands you to be extremely careful.

Dolls are a nightmare for any melee hero except Barb or Werebear.

Dolls are a joke for a Necromancer (1 pt.

Dim Vision, Minions).
Dolls are a joke for an Assassin (1 pt.

Cloak of Shadows, Traps).
Dolls are a joke for a Barb (huge life pool, 1pt

War Cry, let Merc kill).

Souls are deadly for a Javazon without Sunder and/or bad resists. They also kill a strafelocked Bowa with ease.

Souls are a joke for a Necromancer (

Dim Vision, Minions).
Souls are a joke for anyone using remote fire or cold skills: WoF Assa,

Hydra/FB Sorc, Blizzard Sorc, Dragondin, Frostzon etc.