Witchwild String Strafezon in the Chaos Sancturary

Several D2 sites all seem to agree on how expensive Strafezons builds are. I recently had a 161 ED

Witchwild String drop. After a review of its stats I decided to test it out. I have an all purpose reusable level 83 Zon which I use to test the performance of bows and javelins. The Witchwild fires level 20 magic

Arrows which I use on my right mouse button, but I was more interested in its 2% chance to proc lvl 5

Amplify Damage, and its +1 per lvl Deadly Strike, and the two open sockets. The 40% to all resistance is also a nice touch.

The weapon physical damage isn’t all that impressive but add

Amplify Damage and Deadly strike and it does some serious damage to mobs even in act 5 Hell level. I wish I had captured a video of when I was in the

Crystalline Passage and encountered a mob of duel wielding physically immune Blood Lords including 4 champions, some minions, and their boss. I was able to quickly divide them and take them down in about a minute without losing my mercenary.

The capture is the 10th Chaos run I did in a row.

The bows native stats are below.

“150-170% Enhanced Damage (32-35) to (75-81)
Fires Magic

Arrows [Level 20]
2% Chance To Cast Level 5

Amplify Damage On Striking
+1-99 % Deadly Strike (+1 Per Character Level)
All Resistances +40
Socketed (2)” Diablo Wiki


Items I’m using include Guillaumes face with 15 IAS Jewel, Fortitude armor, 20% IAS

Blood Gloves, Gore Riders, 10% IAS Nostferatu’s coil,

Raven Frost, a rare ring with 5% ML, and Atama’s Scarab. The Witchwild was upped to a

Diamond Bow. The two sockets are filled with a

Shael and a 39% ED +9 to minimum damage Jewel. The breakpoints for the bow is 56% IAS, I have 65 IAS total. I also have 60% CB, and 10% Open Wounds. The only expensive item in the build is the

Lo rune in the Fortitude.

Nice to see some love for the Bowas

Ya witchwild is a pretty good bow, underrated IMO for levelling.

Diablo goes down, BLING, level goes up. I loved that LOL.

I like witchwild and used a lot myself on my bowazon. I'm not currently using because my merc can proc

Decrepify, but it is still a solid bow.

luizgeo wrote: 10 months ago

Diablo goes down, BLING, level goes up. I loved that LOL.

I like witchwild and used a lot myself on my bowazon. I'm not currently using because my merc can proc

Decrepify, but it is still a solid bow.

My merc is also using a Reaper's, it never hurts to have a backup because amplify works best on mobs. Amplify does a -100 reduction to physical resistance vs

Decrepify which does a -50%. Even though Witchwild's amplify only has a 2% chance to proc, on a Strafezon hitting breakpoints it's still going to proc often. Also since it 's level 5 amplify it increases the damage area to a 4.6 yard radius with a 20 second duration of Destruction, and it rately takes 20 seconds to proc in a mob. When it procs it turns my merc and Valk into a destructive force that mows down mobs at a speed that

Decrepify can't match. This makes in my view Atama's Scarab a necessity for any Strafezon hitting breakpoints.

Omg I actually kept my old one from when I was levelling before ladders. I put a

Shael and a 15%ias jewel in. The things you do when levelling.

davme_mcreg wrote: 10 months ago

Omg I actually kept my old one from when I was levelling before ladders. I put a

Shael and a 15%ias jewel in. The things you do when levelling.

I've found a couple and probably dropped them off in a for free game. As it turns out the bow is more than just a leveling tool, it's a pretty good farming tool for Hell level including Chaos, and that's how you get all the really good stuff. I started to double

Shael the one I have now and then decided not to since with a single

Shael I have 65% IAS and its breakpoints according to IAS calculators are 56%. Upgrade it to a

Diamond Bow and go give Chaos a go.

I use WWS and it is an endgame tool for my strafazon.

Keeps things interesting, not so Easy Button to the rest of goto runewords that was OP too.

Skaijuice wrote: 10 months ago

I use WWS and it is an endgame tool for my strafazon.

Keeps things interesting, not so Easy Button to the rest of goto runewords that was OP too.

It is in fact an endgame weapon for a Strafezon (mutishot untested). I've done more than two dozen Chaos runs without much difficulty, then went on to act 5, cleaned everything all the way to the Ancients, and then it quickly took down the Ancients. So yes people, you can solo the Ancients in Hell with this build. From there I went on to kill

Baal, and I haven't had a single Death since I started testing the bow and I've probably used less than a half dozen rejuvs. I have every major physical bow in the game including a Windorce and perfect Faith and this bow with the right stuff is easily in the top tier group.

Edit: Add a Hell level TZ Cows to the group and still no deaths.

I think this answers the question "can I kill D-Clone" with a

Witchwild String bow. I was farming

The Countess for a

Lum rune I need when no sooner did I enter level 5, the room started shaking and the message "Diablo Has Invaded the Sanctuary" popped up. Now D-Clone had clearly taken a wrong turn somewhere because this was no where near the Sanctuary and I wasn't expecting him, but however confused and lost he was nonetheless here, and so I dealt with it to finally get that 13/12/6 anni I always wanted.


I think this build might be faster taking down D-Clone then my premium build wielding a perfect Faith and

Windforce. So the difference has got to be the 60% crushing blow and 100% deadly strike.

Crushing blow and

Strafe is absolutely deadly on bosses. Even though only 4 or 5

Arrows of each volley have a chance to hit because of next hit delay.

the options...

puts on think

Cap.

Skaijuice wrote: 8 months ago

the options...

puts on think

Cap.

image.png

Shael +

Eth for hitting FPA breakpoints and decreased target defense. I found

Amplify Damage procced far more often with the target defense reduction.

Amplify Damage procced far more often with the target defense reduction.

Amplify Damage casts on striking so the more you strike in a given frame of time the more it will cast. So any skill that insures more hits will increase the likelihood of it casting. In the video I'm also using Atama's Scarab which has a 5% chance of casting level 3 amplify in a radius of 3.3 yards for 14 seconds, and the Witchwild has a 2% chance of casting level 5 amplify in a radius of 4.6 yards for 20 seconds. Having both will increase the odds of one of them casting. The

Strafe breakpoints are 56% IAS for my setup and I had 65%. So I'm casting amplify faster than the time it takes for it to decay. In your setup arget defense reduction will insure fewer misses so yes, I can see how it would help, especially if the Witchwild is your only

Amplify Damage source.