A fun route for a Strafeazon

[Frenzied Bovine]

A fun route for a Strafeazon

Hi,

As some of you may know my wife has quite a nice WF-strafezon thing going on. Unfortunately, the way she's built and the equipment she's chosen to use to reach 9/2 with a WF leaves her lacking a means to deal with Physical Immunes.

Actually, I really should quantify that. PI's aren't that much of a hassle. She has a might merc with Reaper's Toll, which pretty much de-PI's almost everything. But there is the occasional baddie who refuses to lose his Physical Immunity, dispite being Decrepified.

They're usually not much of a hassle to kill anyway (even with level 1 magic arrow/cold arrow).. take less than 30 seconds.

I was thinking about ways to get Amplify Damage onto the zon. Swapping out equipment mentally in my head.. sigons here, deaths set there, goldwrap there.. nope, too many tradeoffs. Unless I want to drop CoH for twitchthroe - not bloody likely I might say - I can't figure out how to twist things so I can equip Atma's Scarab.

And then it hit me. Why bother with Atma's? There's a faster, more reliable method of triggering Amplify Damage out there. It's called Lacerator - the unique Winged Axe.

Lacerator - unique Winged Axe
+150-210% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+30% Increased Attack Speed
33% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal
Hit Causes Monster To Flee 50%
33% Chance To Cast Level 3 Amplify Damage On Striking
Replenishes Quantity [1 in 4 sec.]

The green stuff is the good stuff. The red stuff is the bothersome stuff.

I was thinking of equipping Lacerator and perhaps Blackoak Shield on her weapon-switch for that little bit extra Dex. She has maxed Penetrate, so hitting things with the thrown axes shouldn't be a problem. With a 33% chance to trigger Amplify Damage, it shouldn't take long at all to get Amp on the target.

But what about the flee? Well, here's the rub: who do I really need to use that Amp on? Stone Skin bosses. What doesn't Flee work on? Bosses. So if keep Lacerator in reserve for those really troublesome bosses (instead of everyday combat).. the Flee shouldn't even be a factor.

I could even use it in everyday combat for a laugh.. but i'd hate to be caught without the ability to strafe in the face of an incoming EF/SS/Fana pack.

Thoughts?

 

[sasja]

That should work out well. Alternatively, you could have WWS on switch and stick to Strafeing - the extra number of missiles would make up some for the much smaller chance to trigger.

 

[tl998]

I don't have a WWS, but I do have a rare amazon-only bow (I think it's a Matriarchal. It requires 183 DEX!) that has 5% to cast amp damage on striking. It's damage is pathetic, but on weapon switch it can help with the PIs I hope. this is assuming the monster is also CI since I'll be using FA

 

[sasja]

I don't have a WWS, but I do have a rare amazon-only bow (I think it's a Matriarchal. It requires 183 DEX!) that has 5% to cast amp damage on striking. It's damage is pathetic, but on weapon switch it can help with the PIs I hope. this is assuming the monster is also CI since I'll be using FA

The new unique matriarchal bow, Blood Raven's Charge, doesn't have a chance to cast amp.

 

[Frenzied Bovine]

He meant a rare bow, not unique

The reason I picked Lacerator is for the 33% chance to cast (level 3 Amp doesn't hurt either). I don't really want to spend a lot of time switched away from my Windforce.

 

[tl998]

I DID say rare lol! I never mentioned the word unique in my post anywhere!

 

[Taft12]

I for one think that using Lacerator is a great idea. Nice suggestion Frenzied. The monster flee may even help scare off some minions leaving you free to deal with the boss.

 

[Ravenforce3]

Remember, though, that skills like Amp and Decrep only work ot 20% efficiency when breaking immunities. That means that there is some Stone Skin Ghost or Insect Hoarde boss out there that will get by with his immunity intact. A way to get around that still lies within the Lacerator. PIs can BLEED. I don't know how I'm doing it, but my HF Zealot can take out PI/CI monsters easily...try some CB, too.

 

[JoJeck]

The Lacerator would be a good idea but you might want to take the Reapers Toll off your Merc to stop it overiding the Amp with Decrepify... then again, the poor guy will probably be dead anyway against a tough PI boss with Stoneskin ... so problem solved

 

[sasja]

I DID say rare lol! I never mentioned the word unique in my post anywhere!

Oops, sorry - that should work just great then! Very nice bow to have on switch.

 

[Frenzied Bovine]

I can now update to say that not only does this idea work, but that it's absolutely outstanding.

Not only does it solve my PI issues, but I regularly use it against larger packs as well. It amps them all so fast, and I flip back to my WF and just gun 'em down.

You can also pull some nifty cheese by switching weapons quickly. Multishot is the best for that - snap off an MS and quickly switch weapons. Your arrows, still in flight, will gain Lacerator's chance to cast Amp on striking!!!

Since i'm build as a strafeazon, I have so much IAS that the Lacerator axes just fly from my hands. I never use enough of them that stack size becomes an issue (repair costs are < 1000 gold anyway :lol: ). I've even cleared Pit Level 2 in Hell with Lacerator when I ran low on arrows!