Bowazon - I'm Going To Hell (I need advice)

General Discussion
1

I play a physical Bowazon (lv 74) with Multishot and Strafe and everything was fun and games until Hell.

My damage is barely enough for the first area and I can’t seem to find the items I need to put my runes into.

I have a list that I should keep looking for, but I’ve never read any of these names, maybe they can’t appear in the early sections of Act 1?

Dusk Shroud, Wyrmhide, Scarab Husk, Wire Fleece, Great Hauberk, Archon Plate
Grand Matron Bow, Matriarchic Bow…

…are the ones I’m supposed to put my runes into. Are there better areas where I can find any of them, do they drop in NM Act 5 maybe?

–

My Act 2 mercenary dies so often that I barely have enough gold to revive him. I go back to Nightmare every now and then to collect some gold, but admittedly it’s very nerve-wracking.

I tried playing without him and pick an act 1 merc instead but he has a healing and manareg aura and I need both and haven’t found items for myself to substitute that.
When he dies, my Valkyrie follows shortly afterwards, basically the fight is over if he dies and sometimes he just seems to collapse by someone looking at him.

–

I am able to do the Forgotten Tower, I can make it to the Countess after about 45 minutes so I can get her runes.

Blood Raven is impossible, I can’t kill her Zombies faster than she respawns them.

It’s really tedious and I don’t have a good plan to overcome this misery, I just keep leveling up and collect runes, but maybe that’s enough for something.

–

I would be grateful for tips to help me move forward and thank you in advance :ok_woman:

2

Physical Bowazon is very very difficult unless you have a great weapon. Without one you are going to have a hard time. To put it in perspective, I managed to make a Harmony but the base bow I used was a bit crappy. It was very fast with about 30 to 40 damage on it (pre runeword). Anyways, my Bowazon is no match for Hell even with that and wearing a Peace chest and with a ton of +damage charms and attack speed and +damage on other items. She was just so weak compared to all the casters I levelled before then (whose weapon doesn’t matter as much, so they use a Spirit or similar) that I gave up for now.

I should have realised there was going to be a problem when my Bowazon took something ridiculous like 5 minutes to kill NM Baal.

3

To be honest, bowazons are not he best farming builds. Do some bossruns on nightmare and hope for a buriza if you intend to stick to the character.

I recommend building a sorc for farming bosses and perhaps some lvl 85 areas. Blizzard is great for Mephisto/Ancient Tunnels just to name one.

4

The next patch with rebalancing changes is probably your only hope for ‘going to Hell’ with this build, although details are unknown so i wouldn’t get my hopes up. Perhaps respec to Javazon for now?
Try Nighmare Cows for some decent runeword bases. Just don’t forget to unequip your magic find gear.

5

I used my Harmony on the first 4-slot Bow I found and now am trying desperately to get a better base. It’s also the main problem I got, I think. I don’t know really how much difference a good base bow will make but I hope it will be much.
I got all the runes and could build some harmony bows, but just can’t seem to find any Grand Matron or Matriarchic Bow; I hope it’s a bad luck problem and not a ‘in the wrong zone’ problem :speak_no_evil:

I also had help with Baal, I think the fight would’ve been quite similar to your experience.

Do you think a better base for Harmony would help until I can find a Buriza?
I’d like to stick to the character because she’s really fun when she’s doing some damage…
But maybe you’re right and she’ll have a hard time being my first character and not the 2nd. I’ll try to enhance her for some time but if it’s not enough I think I’ll make a Sorc to supply her with gear.

6

Harmony is a good option, yes

yes, simply because this next quote

any half equipped sorc can do that in a few minutes.

Bowazon is fun, just not very well suited for item runs.

7

before you find jah for the faith play with elemental bowazon immolation arrow + cold arrow (30 lvl) enough to slowly play on the hell without good gear. Easier way use sorceres for magic find first and then play bowazon when you have enough gear.

8

Someone gifted me a Tal Rasha Helmet for lifeleech and manaleech and it made such a huge difference.

I could replace my Act 2 Merc with an Act 1 Rogue that doesn’t die all the time, and my Valkyrie somehow performs better without the other ‘tank’.
I always felt she just survived because of his heal aura but she didn’t have any problems since the aura is missing;
And I always have enough mana to revive her, that was a problem when I was dependent on my Act II merc for mana.

I finally found a Scarab Husk, not the best one but I socketed Nef/Lum anyway, there will be a time when I get a better base but it will do for now.

My merc got a Kuko Shakaku, the damage seems to be alright for Act I and is noticable when everything is collected around my Valkyrie. I feel like in that combination I could be able to play through Act I quite smoothly.

Nevertheless I will level up the other classes too, I’m sure I’ll hit the next wall pretty soon and I don’t think I’ll ever kill Duriel. :bug:

Thank you all for your answers and advice, moving forward :raising_hand_woman:

9

Immolation Arrow is garbage (has a stupid 1 sec cooldown it really doesn’t need). I think Explosive Arrow would be the better choice. Also, although I described my build as a Physical Bowazon, I also have points in Freezing Arrow as my backup for Physical Immunes. My spec is actually this at present (I am level 64 and skipped including enabler points):

Passive + Magic
Valkyrie 1
Critical Strike 1
Penetrate 9
Pierce 1

Bows + Crossbows
Strafe 20
Cold Arrow 11
Freezing Arrow 16

I originally used Multiple shot over Strafe but it was even weaker, so I respecced into Strafe.

The other thing about an Elemental Bowazon is that your Bow still matters. It’s Attack Speed determines how fast you fire but also Freezing Arrow and Explosive Arrow also work in such a way they perform better with a decent Bow. Those skills still shoot an arrow as normal, and when that Arrow hits its target it explodes hitting everything nearby. Now that explosion is like a spell, so it doesn’t use Attack Rating, can’t fail to hit, and ignores the Bow’s stats. But the actual arrow does behaves like any normal arrow and thus can fail to hit due to AR, and cares about the Bow stats.

I mention this because I didn’t know that and I started a new Elemental Bowazon thinking it was a build that would not care about weapon quality. It is to a certain extent but you are still going to struggle without a good Bow.

10

Strafe amazon is my fauvorite character, so I can tell a lot about her. However, it is not applicable to multishot amazon.

First, that is very weird your valkiria dies. What is her level? Valkiria from peace is level 15, she can tank up to act V. If you like valkiria, you have to use peace or max out that skill. Level 20 valkiria almost immortal.

Second, you must have a knockback. You can get it from nef rune or cleglaw gloves (awesome choice) or crafted safety gloves.

Third, you need crushing blow. I currently have wrath bow (it has no enchanced damage) and 95% crushing blow - can run chaos sanctuary in 5 minutes.

Forth, you need as much attack rating as possible. 90%+ hit chance helps very much. So, penetrate level 20 - must have. You can get a huge boost if wear angelic ring (or 2 rings) + amulet. My 83 lvl amazon has 16000 attack rating.

Also, you could want high pierce chance and some amplify damage or decrepify optionally.

11

My build is planned as something like this:

Magic Arrow 20
Multishot 10
Strafe 20
Critical Strike 17
Penetrate 1
Pierce 17
Valkyrie 17

I tried to play with Guided Shot but it seems to be bugged on the controller (I love playing with controller). Often it just flys past the enemy without doing any tracking and misses more often than any of my other abilities because it doesn’t attempt to hit the enemy. Very weird behaviour.

The skill I would argue about is Magic Arrow 20, it is meant to be my fallback skill if I face physical immunes and I’m aware it’s not a strong ability.
But having no mana or munition cost at all has helped me a lot and I think if I can pierce more often it’s not half bad. For normal singletarget situations I usually just Strafe, Multishot helps with huge monster packs, and Strafe does the Rest that Multishot didn’t kill.

My Valkyrie is (with +items) Level 20, and I have no explanation for that but she hasn’t died since I got rid of my Act 2 merc. Maybe I’ve just been lucky with the monster spawns, often both of my tanks just died within seconds and I couldn’t even give a potion and resummoning was almost in vain since she just died again so quickly.

In the Amazon FAQ they say any more than 1 point in Penetrate would be wasted because you get enough attack rating through gear and they have workarounds if you lack attack rating before you have the gear you need.
I am inclined to trust them on that, although one could argue that it wouldn’t hurt to put in points now and then just reset later. I want to reset soon and strip the points from Guided Shot and allocate them elsewhere…
At the moment I don’t have severe attack rating problems and there’s always 1 point in Guided Shot.

There’s one runeword (Wrath, I think?) that I’d love to give to my Merc but a friend of mine says act 2 is just the best and I shouldn’t invest in act 1 merc.

I’ll try to find what you’re suggesting, though first for me to do will be to find a good amazon bow base for harmony and then build it up from there and see what’s missing and what she might need.

12

You need no penetration if you go guided or elemental arrow and all guides are written for that skills.
Have no idea what are that gear you can get enough attack rating from. Only faith bow can give you a enough boost, but you should not expect to ever get one. What is your hit chance for zombie?

Actually, harmony is good enough to deal with rare physical immunities. Magic arrow +dmg is too low to see it in hell difficulty.

Also, you could try buriza, hellrack, witchwild string or goldstrike arch (upped to hydra bow). All that items you can get for free or for some perfect gems if you play on battlenet.

You can get decripify with A2 mercenary and reaper’s toll. It is 1000 times more cheap than wrath bow.
Or you can get amplify damage from witchwild string bow and atma’s scarab amulet.

13

I quote from the FAQ:

3. How many points should I invest into Penetrate?

This depends greatly on which kind of Amazon you’re building. If you’re aiming for a java- / bowazon, you don’t need to put any more points than 1 as you’ll already have high attack rating due to your points placed in dexterity - most bowazon or javazons have dexterity ranging from 250 to 350 upon completion of the character (when you have stopped leveling the character). It is important to note that if you are using the elemental arrows or Guided Arrow as your primary skills then you don’t need to worry about Attack Rating. However, if you’re planning to build a spearazon you will need to put some points into Penetrate, as you won’t be able to concentrate heavily on dexterity. Some people will argue that if your character is not hitting the monsters frequently enough, you should invest some points into it. This argument is fundamentally flawed as your attack rating is not the most important factor for chance to hit the monsters. The most important factors are rather monsters’ lvl, monster defense and the skills / equipment you use.

[…]
For skills that require attack rating, we suggest that you get the chance to hit to at least 80%. If it is below this value you will hit monsters a lot less regularly than is needed for good leeching and damage. To solve Attack Rating (AR) problems, try to get AR charms or items, boost dexterity or put a few points in penetrate, but most of all, do not fight monsters that are clearly levels higher than you. If you do, be aware that any points you put in penetrate to help you now may become useless later. Try the other suggestions first. The formula for calculating your chance to hit is listed below. Note that monster defense and level increase quite fast in hell, but once you level up attack rating should not give you anymore troubles and because you listened to our advice you can put away those extra charms and AR items you gathered.

14

I’d pick one or the other. Whichever you decide to spam, you need 20 in it. The other having 10 will be useless / gimmick.

I think this is massive overkill. Only a few points here due to diminishing returns.

This maybe true. I NEEDED Penetrate as I was missing everything.

15

A friend said multishot doesn’t get a damage boost and skill level 10 with plus items will be more than enough arrows; he also said there is a max arrow limit and after that it’s just higher mana cost. I didn’t check if that’s true though, I just trust him.

Yes but I don’t have any other skills to put points into, I could use some on penetrate but if gear will be enough for the attack rating they’ll be available again :slightly_smiling_face:

16

Attack Rating helps though even for elemental Bowazon, as I explained in my long post. The Arrow you fire still rolls AR versus its (single) target’s Defence. It is the elemental explosion component that does not need AR and auto-hits like a spell. So if your arrow itself misses but the explosion hits, you did in fact lose a lot of damage on that specific target (depending on Bow). You also lost the chance for Crushing Blow and the like (I think, not 100% on this). And of course if your Arrow pierces many targets (the Pierce skill is very important for an Elemental Bowazon!) then the elemental explosion part will repeat for all of them that it passes through, but so could the miss of the actual arrow itself if the AR roll fails.

17

My point was, if you have level 20 Strafe, then there is no situation where you’d fire level 10 Multiple Shot instead (and vice versa). It would be like having an M16 and a pistol. Why use the pistol?

18

It fires 12 arrows and covers all the screen edge. With +skill level items it becomes even more.
With lvl 20+ you have heavy mana cost increase and minimum utilization profit. You need no 120 degree cone to use multishot effectively.
But if you focus on multishot, you need not strafe at all, because strafe is good for proc chance (crushing blow, knockback, etc) and multishot is phisical damage only (so you can use only windforce or faith).

500 physical damage vs 4000 AOE elemental damage is not a lot. You need windforce or faith to make it “a lot”.

Hit test fail do not prevent arrow from pierce. You can easily check it with buriza - it has 100% pierce.

250 is not enough, but 350 makes your character too squishy (It is very frustrating, when diablo oneshots you with circle of fire).

And that is why you will have problems in act V. I doubt you can get lvl 90 by finishing act IV.

So, what is your hit chance for zombie? I suggest at least 88% (it sounds like not a big deal, but 80% vs 88% difference is really huge for strafe).

you need that even with +20 penetrate, but it is good if you can replace AR charm with life charm

Contradicts each other. Level 83 amazon with 16000 AR has 88% chance hit megademon from chaos sanctuary. She requires 97 lvl to get 95% hit chance with that AR. And you will not get 97 lvl if you are an average player.

19

I think you missed my point. There’s no point to place points in both Multiple Shot AND Strafe. They do the same job and neither has synergies. Pick one over the other. Put 20 (or whatever you deem the max desired amount) in one of the them, and nothing in the other, except enablers if needed. Even if you deem 10 points in MS is enough, having Strafe 20 renders it a waste of points.

I found MS good for trash and bad for bosses. Strafe in comparison is great for both.

20

I use both skills situational and wouldn’t drop one of them for the other. Strafe is slower and gets me stuck in the animation which got me killed a few times, but it’s strong singletarget and kills wide spread enemies. Multishot kills big trashpacks faster, but the leftovers I kill with Strafe, basically when there’s not enough mobs in the same place to refill my mana I switch to Strafe.

If you have more fun playing just with Strafe you can do that, I prefer to keep both skills, it’s a bit like using Lightning and Chain Lightning both.

It’s 82% at the moment but it does still feel ok for what I’m doing and I don’t use many AR Items yet. One charm I guess.
If I don’t hit anything anymore I will invest into it as I said but for now I don’t have much +skill items and I’ll wait until I reach the point that I need more points in penetrate it if it ever comes.
I do not need 17 points in Valkyrie, Pierce and Crit, I just put them there because the Wiki clearly says 1 Point in Penetrate is enough and a friend of mine said something like “just start playing you will reset often and see how much points in penetrate you need, might be more than 1, but 1 could also be enough with gear”.