Favorite zon builds

ganseng wrote: 3 days ago

So guys I did make another zon
Spearzon this time.. obviously Breath of the Dying to be equipped
And question is,

Matriarchal Spear or

Matriarchal Pike?

Pike deals 12.5% more dmg, and build will prly have at least 95 IAS and lvl 12

Fanaticism.. so will there be a substantial advantage in breakpoints with the

Spear on

Jab and

Fend?

There are basically 3 options for the base each with their own tradeoffs:

*

Matriarchal Spear: good consistent damage, fastest attack speed, +skills
*

Matriarchal Pike: high damage, slower speed, +skills
*

Ghost Spear: high damage, fastest attack speed, no +skills

All three hit hard and are perfectly viable options (assuming ethereal of course).
I've run Chaos with all three of them and the difference is negligible (players 1 online).

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

hmm made botd out of an ethereal

Matriarchal Pike.. not sure it's optimized in every possible breakpoint, but it certainly feels godly!

It's fine for general gameplay at that breakpoint but not ideal like you said. If it really bothers you, you could try a Hustle (mat or ghost)

Spear on swap.

Fend can proc the

Burst of Speed fairly easily (esp. if surrounded) and once proc'd you'll have optimal attack breakpoints when you swap back to your

Pike.

thanks! i think the

Pike is pretty close to optimum with 60 ias on botd, 20 on gloves and lvl 12

Fanaticism from the merc.. maybe just 1 ias jewel missing

Duriel and meph took about 3 seconds each

btw if tooltip says max dmg 13k that means the very best you can get per hit is 52k (x2 from crit and x2 from amplify dmg), correct?

sor wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 3 days ago

So guys I did make another zon
Spearzon this time.. obviously Breath of the Dying to be equipped
And question is,

Matriarchal Spear or

Matriarchal Pike?

Pike deals 12.5% more dmg, and build will prly have at least 95 IAS and lvl 12

Fanaticism.. so will there be a substantial advantage in breakpoints with the

Spear on

Jab and

Fend?

There are basically 3 options for the base each with their own tradeoffs:

*

Matriarchal Spear: good consistent damage, fastest attack speed, +skills
*

Matriarchal Pike: high damage, slower speed, +skills
*

Ghost Spear: high damage, fastest attack speed, no +skills

All three hit hard and are perfectly viable options (assuming ethereal of course).
I've run Chaos with all three of them and the difference is negligible (players 1 online).

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

hmm made botd out of an ethereal

Matriarchal Pike.. not sure it's optimized in every possible breakpoint, but it certainly feels godly!

It's fine for general gameplay at that breakpoint but not ideal like you said. If it really bothers you, you could try a Hustle (mat or ghost)

Spear on swap.

Fend can proc the

Burst of Speed fairly easily (esp. if surrounded) and once proc'd you'll have optimal attack breakpoints when you swap back to your

Pike.

I been playing forever Mixed Ice/Fire Bowazon or

Lightning Fury, I found more fun to play

Strafe gatling , but java with sunder and equipment its kinda top tier.

Where are you guys farming

Crack of the Heavens?, since griffon´s is almost impossible to farm (or very boring), I feel I wont transition my bowazon to java till I get a light sunder, I hear they are dropping more often in this patch, any tips?

i got one lightning sunder from a

Herald last patch and another from a random mob this patch. also got one griffon from a

Herald last patch, and another griffon and another ethereal griffon don't remember where.. so it's just rng and endless grind

and btw, i would advise to

Concentrate on one element, e.g. Ice, as it's better optimized, and cold sunders are not that difficult to buy these days

Moreina wrote: 2 days ago

I been playing forever Mixed Ice/Fire Bowazon or

Lightning Fury, I found more fun to play

Strafe gatling , but java with sunder and equipment its kinda top tier.

Where are you guys farming

Crack of the Heavens?, since griffon´s is almost impossible to farm (or very boring), I feel I wont transition my bowazon to java till I get a light sunder, I hear they are dropping more often in this patch, any tips?

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

i got one lightning sunder from a

Herald last patch and another from a random mob this patch. also got one griffon from a

Herald last patch, and another griffon and another ethereal griffon don't remember where.. so it's just rng and endless grind

and btw, i would advise to

Concentrate on one element, e.g. Ice, as it's better optimized, and cold sunders are not that difficult to buy these days

I the worst case scenario I will trade for it, there is a lot of LOD sunders around, I guess I will try luck with the heralds first, perhaps this season RNG help me , last season tried 680

Pindleskin, pits,

Chaos Sanctuary rotation (350 MF) with no luck (Nneither Griffon, War travelers or

Jah), If not using Java, usually like to play mixed bowazon, since relying on one element its such a pain to deal with innmunes, but I guess this seson I can go main froze and alt fire, thanks for the tip tho.

heralds themselves seem to be underwhelming this patch.. but sunders can drop anywhere

not sure about ladder, but non-ladder you can fully equip an old sunder and full m'avina for 2-3

Ist.. and it will certainly achieve more than a hybrid

if you fully optimize a frozen arrow build, you have maybe 12 spare skill points which is not enough for a meaningful

Exploding Arrow dmg.. and you are unlikely to unlock these 12 points anyways as the progress is so damn slow past lvl 87

Moreina wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

i got one lightning sunder from a

Herald last patch and another from a random mob this patch. also got one griffon from a

Herald last patch, and another griffon and another ethereal griffon don't remember where.. so it's just rng and endless grind

and btw, i would advise to

Concentrate on one element, e.g. Ice, as it's better optimized, and cold sunders are not that difficult to buy these days

I the worst case scenario I will trade for it, there is a lot of LOD sunders around, I guess I will try luck with the heralds first, perhaps this season RNG help me , last season tried 680

Pindleskin, pits,

Chaos Sanctuary rotation (350 MF) with no luck (Nneither Griffon, War travelers or

Jah), If not using Java, usually like to play mixed bowazon, since relying on one element its such a pain to deal with innmunes, but I guess this seson I can go main froze and alt fire, thanks for the tip tho.

Zon is probably in my bottom two classes, right above Paladin, but I enjoy my

Freezing Arrow/

Strafe hybrid wielding Mist. Good budget, feels safe to play in most zones, clear speed is comfortable enough on /p1 – just a generally pleasant character to play.

A few thoughts on the spearzon after finishing the game. she kills

Baal much faster than the bowazon, but much slower than the lightning zon. but then again my bowazon (Mist + Faith merc) could use some very expensive upgrades
in terms of survivability, i wouldn't agree that spearzon is immortal. she very much needs max vitality, and both strength and dexterity bring only very marginal damage increases. she also doesn't have anything meaningful to spend skill points past ~lvl 85 as all passives give negligible returns past that point. so it's a fun and very niche build. my updated ranking in terms of overall usability and efficiency
1)

Lightning Fury + Insight merc
2) self wield Infinity + Faith / Insight merc
3) icemaiden + Faith / Insight merc
4) bowazon + Faith merc
5) spearzon + Faith merc
6) fire + Faith merc
7) Plague + Ice / Faith merc

and in terms of bowazon, do i surmise correctly that she is the most expensive build if you want to really perfect her (at least compared to other zons or sorcs, not sure about other classes)? i mean 15/40 jewels alone cost like 10

Jah each and you need 2-3, plus the charms must be extremely expensive
i mean a perfect Infinity or

Griffon's Eye or

Crack of the Heavens also cost a lot, but you can have max performance with ~80% stats on lightning, and for bowazon to really shine you need to be very close to 100%?

dionisy_cn wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

hmm made botd out of an ethereal

Matriarchal Pike.. not sure it's optimized in every possible breakpoint, but it certainly feels godly!

Which content you are doing with her ?
I'd like to try it one day, but will not invest into Ebotd first. What content do you recommend to do with Obedience to feel how all those works on physical zon? I have endgame gear pieces like Chains of Honor for myself, Infinity, Faith or Pride for merc, etc...
I somehow always thought spearzon is like Fury/

Maul Druid just without that many summons.

Hone Sundan is another great budget alternative to BotD if you want for try the build. It's closer to BotD than Obedience since you can just socket 3

Shael and you have 60 IAS as well.

honestly never considered it.

Lycander's Flank worked well until hell, when resistances became an issue and forced switch to Obedience.. imo even with 3 sockets

Hone Sundan loses both to lycander and to a somewhat decent Obedience (mine was in a +2 skills

Ceremonial Pike if Memory serves)

vued wrote: 2 days ago

dionisy_cn wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

hmm made botd out of an ethereal

Matriarchal Pike.. not sure it's optimized in every possible breakpoint, but it certainly feels godly!

Which content you are doing with her ?
I'd like to try it one day, but will not invest into Ebotd first. What content do you recommend to do with Obedience to feel how all those works on physical zon? I have endgame gear pieces like Chains of Honor for myself, Infinity, Faith or Pride for merc, etc...
I somehow always thought spearzon is like Fury/

Maul Druid just without that many summons.

Hone Sundan is another great budget alternative to BotD if you want for try the build. It's closer to BotD than Obedience since you can just socket 3

Shael and you have 60 IAS as well.

I have a pretty decent physcial bowazon with those 3/1x/18 small charms. It is still a pain in the ass to kill those level 5 heralds.

ganseng wrote: 1 day ago

honestly never considered it.

Lycander's Flank worked well until hell, when resistances became an issue and forced switch to Obedience.. imo even with 3 sockets

Hone Sundan loses both to lycander and to a somewhat decent Obedience (mine was in a +2 skills

Ceremonial Pike if Memory serves)

vued wrote: 2 days ago

dionisy_cn wrote: 2 days ago

Which content you are doing with her ?
I'd like to try it one day, but will not invest into Ebotd first. What content do you recommend to do with Obedience to feel how all those works on physical zon? I have endgame gear pieces like Chains of Honor for myself, Infinity, Faith or Pride for merc, etc...
I somehow always thought spearzon is like Fury/

Maul Druid just without that many summons.

Hone Sundan is another great budget alternative to BotD if you want for try the build. It's closer to BotD than Obedience since you can just socket 3

Shael and you have 60 IAS as well.

Not if you upp an

Eth

Hone Sundan. On top it has 45 CB, which makes it great weapon for bosses, ubers, and heralds.

Eth

Hone Sundan is the equivalent of +350% ed, so compared to Obedience:
3 sockets (e.g. 60 ias), 20-40 flat damage and 45 CB vs. 20 extra ed, all res, 40CB and no sockets. Even if you really need res, putting all res jewels in Hone would be the better choice.

before I spend another set of HRs on the bowazon could someone pls make a sanity check?

setup is

Strafe zon + rogue merc. meaning either Faith + Mist or Faith +

Windforce

since I like 2x auras I would go for Faith + Mist, normally Faith on merc and Mist on zon, swap for boss fights

to reach ~50 IAS breakpoint on

Strafe, either wear ugly

Andariel’s visage with one IAS jewel, or an expensive blue

Diadem/

Circlet with two jewels.. or a

Diadem with one jewel, dual horazon’s, and an ias

Belt. eventually win lottery, and get a

Diadem with three sockets (2 jewels and one protector’s Stone)

the extra ias will be overkill most of the time while using Mist or

Windforce

merc will be one frame worse than she would’ve been with a

Matriarchal Bow, but we can live with it

will it be within ~15% of best possible performance on bowazon?

ganseng wrote: 8 hours ago

before I spend another set of HRs on the bowazon could someone pls make a sanity check?

setup is

Strafe zon + rogue merc. meaning either Faith + Mist or Faith +

Windforce

since I like 2x auras I would go for Faith + Mist, normally Faith on merc and Mist on zon, swap for boss fights

to reach ~50 IAS breakpoint on

Strafe, either wear ugly

Andariel’s visage with one IAS jewel, or an expensive blue

Diadem/

Circlet with two jewels.. or a

Diadem with one jewel, dual horazon’s, and an ias

Belt. eventually win lottery, and get a

Diadem with three sockets (2 jewels and one protector’s Stone)

the extra ias will be overkill most of the time while using Mist or

Windforce

merc will be one frame worse than she would’ve been with a

Matriarchal Bow, but we can live with it

will it be within ~15% of best possible performance on bowazon?

Faith merc is alright but the range of the aura is a bit of an issue. The best merc for a phys bowa is an act2 might merc with Pride.

thx! and as for bases, gmb is fine for both?
not matriarchal, not something else?
and idea to swap for boss fights isn't wrong per se?

brownSys wrote: 6 hours ago

ganseng wrote: 8 hours ago

before I spend another set of HRs on the bowazon could someone pls make a sanity check?

setup is

Strafe zon + rogue merc. meaning either Faith + Mist or Faith +

Windforce

since I like 2x auras I would go for Faith + Mist, normally Faith on merc and Mist on zon, swap for boss fights

to reach ~50 IAS breakpoint on

Strafe, either wear ugly

Andariel’s visage with one IAS jewel, or an expensive blue

Diadem/

Circlet with two jewels.. or a

Diadem with one jewel, dual horazon’s, and an ias

Belt. eventually win lottery, and get a

Diadem with three sockets (2 jewels and one protector’s Stone)

the extra ias will be overkill most of the time while using Mist or

Windforce

merc will be one frame worse than she would’ve been with a

Matriarchal Bow, but we can live with it

will it be within ~15% of best possible performance on bowazon?

Faith merc is alright but the range of the aura is a bit of an issue. The best merc for a phys bowa is an act2 might merc with Pride.

Ice all day for me. I don’t often want to play slowly, but when I do, there is nothing like freezing all the monsters and making them explode. It’s a very laidback build especially on low player count.

ganseng wrote: 4 hours ago

thx! and as for bases, gmb is fine for both?
not matriarchal, not something else?
and idea to swap for boss fights isn't wrong per se?

I've never used Mist so I can't speak to that. However, on Faith a GMB with +3 skills is considered the best base. A matriarchal is a very close second best.

Personally I use a

Windforce with 38/15ias jewel, and enough ias on other gear to get to 120ias breakpoint. I use Harmony on swap for running faster. Pride merc. Boss fights are a weak point with the phys bowazon. They just take awhile, but they are easy to survive because you can shoot a boss off screen. I've taken out dclone dozens of times, it's just a lengthy process.

I have a perfect Faith in a GMB as well and I've tried in both on a merc and on character. I prefer

Windforce though it's not a popular opinion it would seem.

omg

I'm making another zon

ty!

can confirm kill speed, including on

Baal, substantially improved from

Matriarchal Bow to GMB

and both bows rolled okayish, 13 fana & 2 skills on Faith, 11

Concentration & 353 ED on Mist

brownSys wrote: 1 hour ago

ganseng wrote: 4 hours ago

thx! and as for bases, gmb is fine for both?
not matriarchal, not something else?
and idea to swap for boss fights isn't wrong per se?

I've never used Mist so I can't speak to that. However, on Faith a GMB with +3 skills is considered the best base. A matriarchal is a very close second best.

Personally I use a

Windforce with 38/15ias jewel, and enough ias on other gear to get to 120ias breakpoint. I use Harmony on swap for running faster. Pride merc. Boss fights are a weak point with the phys bowazon. They just take awhile, but they are easy to survive because you can shoot a boss off screen. I've taken out dclone dozens of times, it's just a lengthy process.

I have a perfect Faith in a GMB as well and I've tried in both on a merc and on character. I prefer

Windforce though it's not a popular opinion it would seem.