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

The only thing zons really have going against them is abysmal travel speed. Even with Enigma, their cast rates and by extension tele speeds just blow.

Both, java and bowa can clear entire screens in record time and keep up with the best of them in terms of killing speed (once geared correctly).
But come endgame, in top-end comparisons, they both still fall behind overall, simply because they travel so much slower, regardless of whether you're going slow-motion-cast Enigma or stacking run speed to the max (which is more fun at least imo).

That's why javas especially are all over cows but by comparison rarely seen elsewhere as cows doesn't need much travel from one pack to the next.

Pre-endgame though, when it comes to playthroughs and such, as with most builds, it very much depends on your early drop luck. Sure, some builds (and anything warlock ~~) can plow through with nothing but their starter

Dagger but many/most either end up anywhere from "quite slow" to "just faceroll through", solely based on your drops along the way. Typically centered around 1 or 2

Key items to really make it work.

I am somewhat familiar with the scenario, though it was Hell where the "squishiness" of my Amazon really started to bother me. Tried a couple paths, but eventually ended up with what I think is commonly called a "Frostmaiden", i.e. a Bowazon completely devoted to the

Freezing Arrow axis. That works for me because I got hold of a

Cold Rupture, which in combination with a high Piercing Attack means I can relentlessly rely on Freezing

Arrows stopping basically any attackers in their tracks, including Undead Soul Killers.

Further, the lady wears a

Harlequin Crest and

Waterwalk. This overall comes up to far more than 100 additional life, which made a noticeable difference. Also, an Amazon with Harmony and

Waterwalk is really damn fast. You can see that apart from the Crest, my gear is pretty basic; I would love to get a Fortitude armor, but have been unable to procure a

Lo rune so far. Still, the "bodyguards" (Act 2 mercenary and

Valkyrie) plus the

Freezing Arrow usually make it so that no attackers even reach me, and the life bonus helps against ranged attackers, which obviously need to be taken out with priority. I was able to clear

Baal Hell with this without too much trouble, so maybe this helps your 70s Amazon as well. Good luck!

Salid wrote: 4 weeks ago

I am somewhat familiar with the scenario, though it was Hell where the "squishiness" of my Amazon really started to bother me. Tried a couple paths, but eventually ended up with what I think is commonly called a "Frostmaiden", i.e. a Bowazon completely devoted to the

Freezing Arrow axis. That works for me because I got hold of a

Cold Rupture, which means I can relentlessly rely on Freezing

Arrows stopping basically any attackers in their tracks, including Undead Soul Killers.

Further, the lady wears a

Harlequin Crest and

Waterwalk. This overall comes up to far more than 100 additional life, which made a noticeable difference. Also, an Amazon with Harmony and

Waterwalk is really damn fast. You can see that apart from the Crest, my gear is pretty basic; I would love to get a Fortitude armor, but have been unable to procure a

Lo rune so far. Still, the "bodyguards" (Act 2 mercenary and

Valkyrie) plus the

Freezing Arrow usually make it so that no attackers even reach me, and the life bonus helps against ranged attackers, which obviously need to be taken out with priority. I was able to clear

Baal Hell with this without too much trouble, so maybe this helps your 70s Amazon as well. Good luck!

I guess your reasons are quite low with this setup. Back to the question: What makes you think she is squishy?

I would do the following with Frostmaiden:

1. Bow either

Wizendraw or Ice bow. The only enemies slowing you down are sundered cold immunes. -30 cold res is like 7x damage without any other sources for ECR considered.
2. Swap waterwalks for something with ressis. Tri res rares would be best, but also Aldur's are a good and cheap choice (50 life, 40-50 fire res, 40frw).
3. If your res are red, swap

Shako with

Kira's Guardian. If you really like

Shako (despite it's looks), put an

Um in there. I'm using Nightwing's for more damage but as mentioned, my ama feels tanky.
4. Alternative solution for res problem is chains of honour. But I prefer Treachery or Hustle (or whatever it's called now) on frostmaiden. You need IAS and more frw is more fun!
5. Get frost aura A2 Merc or a manic pixie to get control over CNBF enemies.
6. No points in energy, and only min points in str+dex. Your damage comes from cold explosion, not your stats. Rest in Vita. Ama gets 3life per vita. How much vita/life do you have right now?

tl;dr: My guess is you have not enough points in vita and not enough res.

@vued - you are aware I'm not the OP? I have little issues with my current setup, it's enough for anything except probably Ubers, which I have no intention to attempt anyway. But thanks for your input.

Salid wrote: 4 weeks ago

@vued - you are aware I'm not the OP? I have little issues with my current setup, it's enough for anything except probably Ubers, which I have no intention to attempt anyway. But thanks for your input.

Oh, my bad.

You can't make her less squishy. Invest a lot into

Decoy or

Valkyrie, plus you need to have a lot of life leech.

Generally I think you should use +passive skills skillers with bowazon to have really tanky summons, more

Pierce etc.

Salid wrote: 4 weeks ago

@vued - you are aware I'm not the OP? I have little issues with my current setup, it's enough for anything except probably Ubers, which I have no intention to attempt anyway. But thanks for your input.

@salid, besides Chains of Honor, all other gear mentioned are pretty cheap. Anyway, with frozen arrow you should be able to kite every mob in the game. I usually see people struggling more with

Strafe.