Boss destroying skill

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Doliamn

Diabloii.Net Member
Boss destroying skill

Right now I have a strafezon lv 52 -- hardcore, useast realm, she owns everything in her path and what she doesnt own her valk kills. Right now i'm relying on my valk to kill bosses which is fine because she does her job however.... I'd like a skill that takes down bosses really fast. I did find titans revenge today, although I don't know if it is really viable to get a java skill to kill bosses. That is where you guys come in, :wink3:.

What is the best skill to get? Maybe another bow skill or perhaps a java skill. I could always find a shield and definitely have max block.

Stats (+ to stats included):

str: 115
dex: 177
vit: 105
energy: 15


here is my skill setup (Without +skill items): 1 in all passive and magic tree, 1 in pre-reqs for strafe

valk: 7 (will be maxed)
penetrate: 20
strafe: 20

Equipment (I plan on getting demon limb sometime in the future or soon, depending if i can find someone that has it):

Armor: Twitchtoe studded leather with a Pemerald
Gloves: Sigons
Boots: Sigons
belt: razortail sharkskin belt
helm: Valkyrie Wing winged helm
rings: manald ring and some rare ring with +to mana, +to str, etc..
Weapon: Cliffkiller large siege bow, soon to be upgraded to harmony. (I also have bloodravens charge, which might be fun to!)


What do you guys suggest?
 
Master Zap

Master Zap

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Something like 1 point Jab with perhaps a Tiamat's shield and a pair of goblintoe boots could do alot to speed up your boss killing. You could also look at lance guard shield for the deadly strike and other general nice mods. You could also throw Gface helm on your merc too.

Boss killing is all about getting some crushing blow to lay waste to the huge hitpoints these monsters have.


Your investment in Penetrate means your ar with any attack you use should yield a good chance to hit. Your high Dex pretty means max block on anyshield you want to use.

if you wanted to do a jav/bow combo I can say that nothing destroy's bosses like a syngerised Charged strike, but that will require a hefty skill investment in the jav tree
 
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arbing

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

one of the fastest boss/ single monster killer in the game is charged strike and one of the fastest crowd killer is lightning fury.
 
WrongdayJ

WrongdayJ

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Your Boss killing speed will increase if you:

1. Augment your Strafe with things that will halt the enemies ability to heal itself. . .like Open Wounds or (my favorite) Poison. These aren't necessarily aimed at damaging the enemy, just stopping it from regenerating- which translates into faster killing.

2. Find a source of Crushing Blow. Goblin Toe boots work fine, but you'll want more than the 25% chance they give you to really hack away at a Bosses Life Bar. If you can get that CB up to about 50%, then a few quick Strafes can have you looking at a Boss with 1/2 it's life bar GONE.

3. Find a source of Amplify Damage (wand on the switch?). Speaks for itself. . .your Merc and Valk will do some respectable damage to an Amped Boss.

4. If you don't like the Amp route, then find a source of Life Tap. Your Mercs will be almost invincible and then you can just sit back and rain arrows until the Boss drops.

Hope this helps. . .
 
crawlingdeadman

crawlingdeadman

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

on my latest (mostly) bowa i went with the 20fury/20 cs route to kill bosses.

for pure bowa i'd go with crushing blow + life tap (dracs, marrow walks, or wand) and tank them and strafe. it works fairly well as long as you have good chance to hit. if you dont then one point GA works fine since it's going to hit unless they block it.

@Jay, only one thing has amp damge charges (it's the big martel i cannot remmember the name of) . spellsteel has charges of decrep, however.
 
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deathpusher

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

I don't think there are any items with amp charges. That maul, like other items, is just ctc amp damage. The spellsteel does have decripify charges, which is nice.
 
NASE

NASE

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

I find all those things quite damagerous, going mele with a hardcore bowazon? Even with crushing blow, that seems like a problem.

Just gear up your merc with crushing blow, Obedience has some nice mods and is quite cheap. Combine that with high attack speed, some anti-monsterregeneration and good damage. If you really want to run bosses, perhaps some more points in guided arrow might be an idea - as are points in critical. It will give you more damage and less mana per arrow while it keeps you mobile and it has auto hit.


P.S. unique elite throwing axes with 33% ctc. Might be nice if you want some amp and it offers extra protection, you can use a shield.
 
Uzziah

Uzziah

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Crushing Blow, best affix to have when trying to kill Bosses with an otherwise weak character.

you can find some with goblin toe (25%) (cheap elite to find), you can make a runeword for IIRC 30% more, and just melee with a 1h weapon and shield Swordback for open wounds is a nice addition as well.

CB does work with ranged attacks as well but at a slower rate It takes something like 1/4 as much as a melee hit would, I don't remember exactly.

By the way when I was playing a passive barb in single player it took me 45 minutes to kill normal Baal the first time (w/o CB), with the addition of crushing blow on my character it took less than 10 minutes a remarkable difference is killing speed. So really crushing blow works with any character who can melee.
 
WrongdayJ

WrongdayJ

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

@CDM (and all) thanks for the info on the charges of Amp.

I do know that rare weapons can spawn with CTC amp. . .:scratch:

Well, then Atmas get's the nod. HOPEFULLY it triggers during the strafes.

I kinda like NASE's idea of loading up the merc with crushing blow and just kicking back and tapping the boss every now and again when needed. :thumbsup:
 
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Doliamn

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

I got about 20 skills to spend right off the bat, so keep that in mind. I'll probably get an overall total of ~30 as lv90 is my max goal. Better gear with crushing blow, etc... is a given. I'm leaning more towards a skill to invest the extra points in.

So is magic arrow any good? Freezing arrow (with only +skills for its synergy)? Exploding arrow? etc.....

thanks for the help thus far. :p
 
NASE

NASE

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

the only skill you can use for bosses are charged strike - mele lightning skill that needs synergies and/or -res and/or +skill to be really effective - or jab in combination with crushing blow - this means you need gear changes and go mele, both aren't advised for a bowazon if you ask me.
 
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Virility

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Charged strike is an excellent boss killer, only if you are going to invest some points into the jav tree and actually use it, sort of "hybrid" type. This approach is good for untwinked character(I believe there are excellent guides that explain the jav synergies) you can decide if it is worth the point investment.

Strafe is a fair boss killer with decent AR, 85% to hit boss is a decent number, if it is in the 70% range you will spend alot of time in the strafe animation with arrows hitting the back of the room. So look into using your guided arrow. It seems to hit a bit more often than strafe, regardless of point investment(I cannot show you numbers or fancy diagrams). The advantage of a guided arrow is.......well try it and see if that helps. If the boss you are having trouble with is Diablo, that one swats arrows aside regardless.

Something you are probably already doing but I will mention in passing is always having your decoy up for strafing. Don't put it in harms way, spot it somewhere in the killing area, unless you are trying to hold your target still(think Izual for example, less so with Baal).

All good suggestions above regarding crushing blow.
 
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chien

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

One vote to amp if you don't plan to make a hybrid zon. My softcore ladder zon (using faith MB) is using atma for ctc amp. It works well since you can trigger it quite often (with strafe) even with low listed % chance.

Chien
 
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cour de mal

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Don't normal blue wands have a chance to spawn with amp charges? I know lifetap charges are relatively common, and I'm pretty sure I've seen decrepify, lower resist, and most of the other curses at one time or another. Of course I rarely pay enough attention to the stats on wands after realizing that they are only good for selling, so I could easily be wrong.
 
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cour de mal

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

I stand corrected, thanks. I must just be seeing things with charges of something else and a bonus to decrepify or amp. Too bad they don't spawn though. I guess it could be a bit unbalencing to have everyone running around with an amp wand on switch.
 
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mrstack

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

god i wish there were amp charge wands...then i could use damage and speed and not have to choose 1..
made a matri faith and yes i can equip atmas and reach top ias, but still i miss have top dmg possible ;(
 
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PFSS

Diabloii.Net Member
Re: Boss destroying skill

Can you revive mercs in Hardcore? If so then Cheap and Cheerful merc Options are:

Act 2 Might Merc with Obedience, Treachery and Tals Helm

Act 2 Might Merc with Reapers Toll, Treachery and Guilimanes Face

Those alone will take down a lot of bosses fairly quickly.
 
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