BEST bow for strafer?

[Mistress Sersi]

BEST bow for strafer?

I am lvl 33 in norm. I figure one of the BEST bows is a Riphook. I found an almost prefect Riphook bow. I figure I can up this later on.

What are some other bows that would work well on a strafer? ( I am going to go for the glass cannon zon)
What are some secondary skills I should max? FA? GA?


220% Enhanced Damage ( mine is 217%)
Slows Target By 30%
30% Chance of Open Wounds
30% Increased Attack Speed
10% Life Stolen Per Hit ( mine is 10%)
+35 To Mana



I used a weapon speed cal. & with the current IAS = 60 ( 30 ias from the bow & 30 from sigs gloves/boots) I get 2 frames per attack. This is the fastest as I can go, yes?

Later on I was thinking on a Silence bow as a switch for the hit blinds target ( +33) which I am told triggers almost every arrow. Or I might put this on my merc.

 

[NASE]

for low lvl, riphook might be good, though it isn't an end game choise. Don't up it, you're wasting the runes.

If you're on a budget, try getting a wws and read the wws guide. That's a much better bow then riphook, and it doesn't cost much more.

P.S. if you can, use silence - but why not make faith, brand, or even use windforce? - it's much better then riphook if you ask me.

P.S. silence will triger blind on every arrow if the monster can be blinded.

 

[dave]

Harmony in a Matri bow is also very viable - and its a great switch for extra run speed if u get a better bow later

 

[Mistress Sersi]

I agree with your choices. But I have yet to find a Windforce bow. I doubt I will.
I do not have the runes to make a faith bow either. SO until then, I will prob stick with my riphook, make a Silence bow or buy a WWS.

 

[dave]

i wouldnt recommend a silence bow... its vex and ist and for just a bit more u can make faith which is 100x better - or u could probably buy a wf for less than it costs to make silence.

 

[Sephfire]

Or you could make Harmony which is cheap as hell AND good... mhm.

 

[dave]

Or you could make Harmony which is cheap as hell AND good... mhm.

As I mentioned in my first post :wink3:

 

[VoX Dei]

You are on a budget and need a good bow for a strafer. Than I'll have to go with NASE's WWS suggestion. You SHOULD up it if you intend using it end-game and load some mf so you can roam the pits for some wealth (note: up it implies an additional Pul rune investment which is well worth it). Davidskp's suggestion on Harmony comes a close second as this bow focus on elemental damage while both strafe and WWS are focused on physical damage making them a perfect match.

Why a WWS?
1) price: it's easy to selffound one, it's also cheap to buy one; 2) damage: seems low but with all the DS% + ctc amp dmg, strafe will actually be doing around 4x the listed damage on LCS omst of the time; 3) speed: it's easy to reach 9/2 strafe bp. 0 WSM but 2 socks meaning, if you double shael it for example you'll only need another 50% IAS from gear; 4) ctc amp dmg (again): no other ctc on striking is as useful as ctc amp dmg for a strafer in general because it means 2x damage in general plus a way to break physical immunities in particular; 5) slvl 20 magic arrow: a further garantee that you'll not have issues killing PI's; 6) 40% @ res: to me this means mainly that a decent MF% can be achieved without sacrificing too much on killing power and survivability; 7) Use cat's eye: the perfect amulet to go with this bow is cat's eye, as ctc amp dmg discards the need of using atma's and high DS% discards the main usefulness of highlords. Using cat's eye means 20% less IAS need from other gear slots to reach 9/2 strafe, dex = +enh dmg, and perhaps more importantly 30% FRW means more maneuvrability which I equate with better survivability and MF%, i.e., faster MF runs.

Why you should not use Silence?
1) price: vex + ist like pointed out by David doesn't not make this a cheap bow; 2) damage: 200% enh damg is low, you'll take forever and a day to kill anything; 3) speed: it can only be made in a 10 WSM bow. 10 WSM + the 20% IAS Silence has still means 100% IAS needed to reach 9/2 strafe bp. Now, that is slow and means you'll have to focus your gear choices around IAS% which is not practical and will overall weaken your strafer; 4) hit blinds target: while this will greatly increase your safety (i.e., the game treats this as the curse Dim Vision which is the harcore necro player best friend) it also means you'll have to stick with this bow's low damage. I mean as game treats both Silence's "hit blinds target" and Atma's amu ctc amp dmg (again, I think every strafer who wants max killing speed MUST have this procy) as curses there is a curse overriding issue here. In other words, there's no point in using Atma's amulet when using Silence as the "hit blinds target" on it works whenever a monster can be blinded (i.e., most of the time as NASE pointed out) effectively reducing Atma's 5% ctc Amp Dmg to 0%.

Concerning Riphook: this a top bow choice for a Zon at lower levels (so i think you have a solid bow atm) and I'm especially fond of it on a Rogue Merc. I currently have a pally with a rogue equipped with an upped one "Amn'ed" + blackhorn + rattlecage and it completely owns providing crowd control/additional safety plus the 50% slow target provided by this setup turn any act boss into a dumb walking corpse. So if you are going with the rogue merc you should consider this gear setup. However, i think you'd be better hiring a might merc (nightmare offensive). A strafer benefits the most from this merc imo.

My 2 cents concerning skills if you go the WWS strafer route like suggested:
- Max strafe (this is your crowd killer and can be used as single target killer too given that you wear good enough gear)
- 1 point FA will suffice (you don't need this to kill PI's as you have slvl 20 Magic Arrow -> normal attack with WWS; Magic Arrow is also perfectly viable as boss/single target killer; 1 point FA is just to slow enemies when/if needed)
- rest of your skills will go into passive tree (that's what really makes or breaks a strafer imo)

Sorry about the looong post. Hope it helps.

 

[dave]

i would take VoX Dei's advise - he obviously knows what he is talking about

 

[Mistress Sersi]

Ok, I have a rattlecage, horns & I will give my riphook to my merc.

I am going to buy a WWS & socket it w/2x shaels

 

[VoX Dei]

Note that the might merc would be a overall better choice for your strafe damage. But since you already have everything for the rogue no harm in giving her a try with that setup. You can always change it later if you wish.

I said 2 shaels as an example. Plan 1st all your gear to see how much IAS you'll be needing in the WWS (90% = 9/2 strafe). For example, there's no point in going overboard on IAS by slapping 2 shaels in it when you already have 60% IAS from other gear. If you can get 60% IAS from gear slap 2 IAS/ed jewels in it or 55% 1 shael + IAS/ed jewel.

 

[Mistress Sersi]

My expereince with act 2 mercs is that they always die in monster packs. I have to keep feeding them potions, which means I am not firing arrows. so I figure I would try a rogue. I might switch mercs later on.

I have some nice crafted gloves that have 20% IAS/10% crushing blow/1% life leech/+10 life/+14 strength & +15% magic find.....if these do not work, I have lavagout gloves ( ctc enchant & 20% IAS)
can +2 bow skills also appear on crafted gloves?


I will be getting 20% IAS from my gloves. I am going to use either twitch or treachery as my armour. I also have a cats eyes ammy & going to try & buy an andys helm.

 

[Mistress Sersi]

What about the runeword WRATH? ( I see it has NO ed on it, so the damage of the bow after you make the runeword would NOT go up, correct? ( what I mean is I can take a bow & make a faith or passion bow & the base damage of the bow I am using to make the runeword would increase, is this due to the ed on those 2 runewords? --passion & faith?)

WARTH does have 30% ctc decrep. on it!!!

30% Chance To Cast Level 1 Decrepify On Striking
5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Life Tap On Striking
+375% Damage To Demons
+100 To Attack Rating Against Demons
+250-300% Damage To Undead (varies)
Adds 85-120 Magic Damage
Adds 41-240 Lightning Damage
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 To Energy
Cannot Be Frozen

 

[Lizardking]

why don't i see any windforces here ? aren't they good for a strafer O_O ?

 

[NASE]

there are four big top end bows. Each of them can make a very powerfull build if you build around the bow.
The best bow if faith, every build will probably use it on the char itself or on the merc. The bows are:

faith, windforce, brand and wrath.

If you want, silence is just as good, though it isn't a damage bow. It's a very defensive weapon and the dream for every hardcore player.

 

[Lizardking]

well i now got windforcer and a witchwild.
i'am going to make a witchwild strafer (from the build around here) but i dont want my windforce untouched, mayb for some second gear ?

 

[crawlingdeadman]

i'd like to point out that silence is easier to self make than most of the other hr using bows (on ladder anyway). two guls and an ist can be gotten through forges making it a hellofa lot easier to make than faith.

 

[Mistress Sersi]

I agree. Its great to talk about the best bows. But when I say "best", I mean
realistic. Realistically, I am not going to find a wf or the runes to make a faith or brand bow.

What about a passion bow? ( hit blinds target!)

 

[Lizardking]

+25% Increased Attack Speed
+160-210% Enhanced Damage
50-80% Bonus To Attack Rating
+75% Damage To Undead
+50 To Attack Rating Against Undead
Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage
+1 To Berserk
+1 To Zeal
Hit Blinds Target +10
Hit Causes Monster To Flee 25%
75% Extra Gold From Monsters
Level 3 Heart of Wolverine (12 Charges)

darn now i see this one, its not a bad bow, ED, IAS, HBT,HCMTF.
And look at the runes !: Dol + Ort + Eld + Lem
awesome thing

 

[dave]

+25% Increased Attack Speed
+160-210% Enhanced Damage
50-80% Bonus To Attack Rating
+75% Damage To Undead
+50 To Attack Rating Against Undead
Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage
+1 To Berserk
+1 To Zeal
Hit Blinds Target +10
Hit Causes Monster To Flee 25%
75% Extra Gold From Monsters
Level 3 Heart of Wolverine (12 Charges)

darn now i see this one, its not a bad bow, ED, IAS, HBT,HCMTF.
And look at the runes !: Dol + Ort + Eld + Lem
awesome thing

Upped Whichwild string is still much better with the amp, ds and flexibility of 2soc - and dont forget that it fires lvl 20 magic arrows - and 40res is also very nice for an amazon who is usually having a hard time getting res from gear.