Bowazon: Horazon VS Laying Of Hands + Gore Rider + Ravenfrost

We need to talk about the pink elephant in the room, and I'm surprised that I'm the first one to bring it up. At least, I couldn't find any threads on the subject.

The new warlock set opens up new combination possibilities. We will compare Laying of Hands + Gore Rider + Raven Frost with Horazon's and the freed-up ring slot. I would like to list the facts here and then want to hear your opinions and experiences.

Laying of Hands Gore Rider Raven Frost Horazon's Hold Horazon's Legacy

Here are the totals

-132-146 def
-10% Chance Of Open Wounds
-15% Chance Of Crushing Blow
-15% Deadly Strike
-55-100 To Attack Rating
-40 Mana
-350% Damage To Demons
-15-45 Cold Damage
-Fire Resist 50%
-20% Cold Absorb


+10% Increased Attack Speed
+10% Faster Run/Walk
+10-15 Strength
+25-30 Dexterity
+30-40 Life
+140-270 Fire Damage
+20-30% Magic Resist

+1 Ring Slot

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A perfect rolled Crafted Blood Ring can be looked like this
+ 9 Minimum Damage
+3% Life stolen per hit
+20 Life
+25 Strength
+15 to Dexterity
+ All Resistances +11

Opalvein rings should also be considered.

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Summary and personal opinion

Def can be ignored and Horazon's Hold can be easily upgraded using Recipe: Elite Version of Unique Armor
-55-100 Attack Rating is more than offset by the +25-30 Dexterity Bonus.
+10-15 Strength hard points can be saved here to further increase dex.
The loss of Fire Res is significant.
350% Damage To Demons only applies to demons. Dex increases damage against everything.
40 Life is much better then 40 mana

I have tested both configurations and would say that Horazons is slightly better, especially with perfectly rolled blood rings

What are your thoughts and opinions?

Some builds use War Traveler (which gives 15-25 dmg) instead of Gore Rider

But, anyway, I was thinking the same thing...

if some attack build will switch

Gore Rider / War Traveler + Laying of Hands / rare or crafted 20 ias gloves + Raven Frost
for
Horazon's Hold + Horazon's Legacy + any ring

fredkid wrote: 5 months ago

Some builds use War Traveler (which gives 15-25 dmg) instead of Gore Rider

But, anyway, I was thinking the same thing...

if some attack build will switch

Gore Rider / War Traveler + Laying of Hands / rare or crafted 20 ias gloves + Raven Frost
for
Horazon's Hold + Horazon's Legacy + any ring

i would say War Traveler are for MF builds, and a bowazon is certainly not one. 15-25 flat dmg and the other stats are´nt enough to compensate Gore Rider.
But thats another Topic..

physical Bowzon already have high Critical Strike and Crushing Blow for ranged weapons is way less efficient... so "raw damage" ended up being better
But yeah... another topic

IIFOXII wrote: 5 months ago

fredkid wrote: 5 months ago

Some builds use War Traveler (which gives 15-25 dmg) instead of Gore Rider

But, anyway, I was thinking the same thing...

if some attack build will switch

Gore Rider / War Traveler + Laying of Hands / rare or crafted 20 ias gloves + Raven Frost
for
Horazon's Hold + Horazon's Legacy + any ring

i would say War Traveler are for MF builds. 15-25 flat dmg and the other stats is´nt enough to compensate Gore Rider.
But tahts another Topic..

Bowazon here, I think Laying of Hands + Gore Rider is better. Crushing Blow, even if not as powerful using ranged attacks, is still subtracting the monster's life by a percentage. If they have a lot of life, that's always going to beat raw damage.

But it depends on the area you're at. If you're not fighting too many demons and your enemies have a lot of physical resistance, there might be cases where Laying of Hands + Gore Rider won't be very effective.

Slightly off-topic, I think the Amulet here plays and important part. If your attack speed and attack rating are good enough, using Atma's Scarab can help you melt any enemy in the game regardless of the gloves/ Boots your use.

War Trav's are kind of a generic and/or magic find option when you don't need something else specific.
Putting CBF on Boots and removing Raven Frost means that a horker without Cham doesn't freeze and smash bodies anymore. Although losing 30-50 MF is harder to offset. Ist in a Helm instead of Cham won't make that back up. But then again, 6 Ist in a sword provides 180 MF and a horker easily gets past the point of diminishing returns.
+350 damage to demons doesn't work with Smite, so Smite pally is running Blood Gloves or Dracul's Grasp. My FOH/ Smite hybrid uses Chance Guards everywhere except Dclone and Ubers and I have no problems clearing the screen in P5 or less. A Zealer is using Fanaticism and gets plenty of IAS, losing that 350 damage to demons and MF is worse than what you gain.
A good portion of Amazon builds use 2/20 rares or 3/20 magic gloves for BiS.

Horazon's looks good at first glance, but I think that a lot of builds will still keep their current meta. Somebody way smarter than me will crunch the numbers somewhere and find out exactly what combination is best, but I think that Horazon's Boot + Glove combo is not going to replace most BiS builds. Especially considering the number of Raven Frost and War Traveler that are already floating around the market.

Edit: and to prove that everyone else is smarter than me, I just re-read the OP title and saw that this was for Bowazon. I'm just going to keep this up on my Posts of Shame.

i ve switched the Exploding Arrow zon to double horazon recently, seems to work fine.. at least until i get excellent 2/20 gloves

on physical bowazon don't see that much potential.. although would be nice to get some viable alternative to Laying of Hands

the +fire dmg doesn't work on Strafe right (but does work on Exploding Arrow)?

another persistent idea is to try double horazon on spearzon.. 30 ias + 60 from botd + 30 from double jewel in Crown of Ages + good Fanaticism on merc's Faith = max poke speed on Impale with Matriarchal Pike.. usefulness = 0, but would be an achievement

2-piece horazon is exceptional for many a build.
But OCD says "no partial sets bro!" so...f it..

Hmmm... my 2 cents:

War Travs are hard to beat on a Strafezon/MS-Zon. 15-25 damage is huge with the crazy %ED values a Bowa has. The magic find is very good because a Bowa lacks MF big time. And we all know, the first 100 points of MF are the most important and valuable. You can cover half of that with a good rolled Travs.

Physical Bowa also doesn't need any more AR. My zon comes to 27k Strafe or something? Plus ITD from Faith... yeah. Bowazon is Queen of Attack Rating.

You could argue about Ravenfrost, but I never needed more than one dual leech ring, stats are great for ranged classes and cold damage is always a welcome crowd control.

I stayed LoH+Travs with my Strafezon and 2/20s + Tri-res MF/ Gold Boots with my Frostzon.

For the amulet: A physical Amazon is probably the best of all classes to give an Atma's Scarab to. This thing just outclasses anything else. Add a The Reaper's Toll Might Merc and you can reliably solve 99% of all encounters with ease. And the poison res? GODLIKE. Poison really can ruin your day with that barely 1k life. At last, give a Cure to your merc. This totally does the trick. He can wear that because Reapers got life leech. Curses are very bad for a Bowazon: Amplify Damage? Fatal! Lower Resist? Uber fatal! Your local Amazon cringes at Decrepify. And again, good vs. poison, our special nemesis.

I looked at this but never tried it. I would love to be able to use WF with Protectors Stone and Harmony on switch and keep 120IAS. That could be done with Horozans + Nosferatu's Coil but then you loose 33% Pierce.

Currently just using Hustle to buff the Protectors WF. Not nearly as good run/walk as Harmony.

but how?.. pure dex / glass cannon build makes that much difference?

i feel pretty close to Cap at 20k ar with Faith equipped and Mist on merc, and full stash of charms

the rest agree, War Traveler, Atma's and laying are all but impossible to beat.. which is sad, no variety

DasNarf wrote: 2 months ago

Physical Bowa also doesn't need any more AR. My zon comes to 27k Strafe or something? Plus ITD from Faith... yeah. Bowazon is Queen of Attack Rating.

I'm using Horazon's Boots and gloves currently after seeing this, figured why not give it a try. I'm quite enjoying it. Only hitting 80% Strafe breakpoint with Windforce but I'm using Gface and Fortitude. Damage over speed seems surprisingly good in my CS, WSK, and especially Cow runs. Sure I attack slower, but I'm one-shotting half my enemies thanks to Critical Strike, deadly strike, and crushing blow working in Harmony. I should note, my wf is socketed with Protector's Stone; I also have a 90% ED Renewed Bone Break.

If speed is that critical, Faith on rogue makes up for it, give her Hysteria and a speed Diadem. She keeps up good.
Might and Concentration though is a tough pass.