Are "+X Passive Skill" gloves really good?

Hi

I know that gloves with "+X to

Javelin Skills" or "+X to Bow Skills" are BIS for most Amazon builds.

I saw some people saying that gloves with "+X Passive Skill" are very good options too.

Never tried one, but on paper seems not a very good affix (at least compared to "+X to

Javelin Skills"/"+X to Bow Skills")

All end game builds will have a lot of +Skill (mine have +12) and most of the relevant Passive skills are "one point wonders" with diminishing returns on higher levels, so you gain very little from the up to +3 increase...

Are those gloves considered good just because, even being a "just ok" affix it is still better than other prefixes available (mainly "up to 40 mana" and "up to 30 single resist")? Or am I missing something?

It depends on the build, not all bowazons are created equal.

A physical bowazon doesn't care (much) about +X to Bow and

Crossbow Skills, they don't typically even use skiller grand charms. It doesn't really do much for them with a few more +skills, so boosting Passive and Magic Skills might be better. I haven't really played a physical bowazon though, so maybe someone who has/does can confirm

Elemental bowazons (like a frostmaiden) do care about +X to Bow and

Crossbow Skills. They are more like casters where the skill level is all that really matters for damage output (besides lowering the enemies' resistances, of course).

thinking only on the offensive side ... even +1%

Critical Strike and up to 30% ar is better than nothing (as there is no relevant offensive preffix for gloves....)

On the other hand... For Physical builds, depending on where they normally farm

Laying of Hands will probably gives more dmg

Generally I'd say they're not very good.

The one build I'd say they're "ok" for is multishot bowa-zon, for 2 main reasons:
-Multishot is the one skill that doesn't get any more damage from higher skill, and past a point you won't get more shots either. For this reason +bow-skill is kinda useless for multishot and it's generally better to look for other stats.
-

Critical Strike is not a "one point wonder" for physical bow. It's the kind of skill u max. Neither is

Penetrate a "one point wonder" for multishot (tough it's less important then

Critical Strike).

I'd still mostly go for something like

Laying of Hands, but if you get a nice pair of

Blood Gloves with 20 IAS, 10 Crushing blow, and other goodies, then getting +2 Passive on top can be the thing that pushes that item from mediocre into really good.

Wouldn't go with either personally but from a bowzon perspective (and basing numbers of maxroll), passive gloves would give you something like..
- 1% crit
- 30% AR
- 2-10%

Pierce
- Around 6% on each of the evasion skills

Whereas bow would get you..
- Nothing for multi
- 21% dmg and 40% lower mana cost for guided
- 27% AR and 15% dmg for

Strafe

I dare say you could argue that either way if you really wanted to, largely depending on

Strafe v multi for you but ultimately, I'd stick 'neither'.

If you're going for some weird valk zon though..then yeah, passive wins. That's the only case where I'd personally see passive gloves ever really being worth it.

Schnorki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Wouldn't go with either personally but from a bowzon perspective (and basing numbers of maxroll)

What gloves do your bowzon use?

fredkid wrote: 2 weeks ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Wouldn't go with either personally but from a bowzon perspective (and basing numbers of maxroll)

What gloves do your bowzon use?

I suppose

Hit Power Gloves deserves a mention. The knockback on those can be good if you're using Faith / Mist instead of

Windforce.

Other than that I'd say they're mostly all allready mentioned:

-Multishot:

Laying of Hands or crafted (Blood or Hitpower depending on weapon) with 20 IAS +other stats.
-

Strafe / Mage-zon: Same as multi, but you can also consider 3-20 magic gloves.

In some cases I supposes rares with 20 IAS+ other stas can be considers, but I'd say that's only if you need more defensive stats (like resist / life (stats) / frostnova when struck etc.). Generally I'd say it would be very rare to need those stats so bad that you would take rares above crafted.

In some cases you could look into

Immortal King's Forge and

Immortal King's Pillar. I generally would call the above options better, and only consider this if you're facing some limitations (like budget-limitations), but they are quite good and have unique advantages that in the right cases can be just the thing your build needs. Mainly 25 IAS (if you're strugling for the right breakpoint) and 40 FRW on

Boots.

For physical bowazons, most people prefer sharp GCs (AR/max dmg).
As for myself I miss a bit of

Pierce, so using 2 Passive GCs with some Sharps does work well (and they are cheap, paid around

Ist for 33/34 lifers with passive&magic).

Necrarch wrote: 2 weeks ago

As for myself I miss a bit of

Pierce, so using 2 Passive GCs

Don't you use

Razortail?
(Or use but do not have enough +Skill to have 100% with it?)

I have a thematic build using Disciple set. Quite nice for Zons, coupled with Faith &

Shako.

The Disciple

Harlequin Crest

Schnorki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Whereas bow would get you..
- Nothing for multi

It's not nothing, it's a nice increase on the mana costs. )

You forget the valkazon! To her +3 passive and magic is BIS (at least for summoning). When i was playing any of my amazons i made sure they had 1 of those gloves, a +3 Ammy and a few passive/magic skillers in their stash just to get the skill up to cast, then back in the stash. I did manage to get my

Valkyrie 1 level less from perfect (mid 50s i think)… on P8 she did ok, still could die every now and then, but i bet on P1 she’d 1-shot everything!

Nate2.0 wrote: 2 weeks ago

You forget the valkazon! To her +3 passive and magic is BIS (at least for summoning). When i was playing any of my amazons i made sure they had 1 of those gloves, a +3 Ammy and a few passive/magic skillers in their stash just to get the skill up to cast, then back in the stash. I did manage to get my

Valkyrie 1 level less from perfect (mid 50s i think)… on P8 she did ok, still could die every now and then, but i bet on P1 she’d 1-shot everything!

I seeking one of those to cast my

Valkyrie

SnowSnow wrote: 2 weeks ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Whereas bow would get you..
- Nothing for multi

It's not nothing, it's a nice increase on the mana costs. )

Hah! Fair point