Bowasin. I seem to have read somewhere that you can make a feasible assassin weapon using a bow as her primary weapon. I am not out to make the el33t'est build on the block, but I want something that works. Firstly I would like to have this verified: I am under the impression that the chargeup skills Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, Fists of Fire and Phoenix Strike can be done with any weapon. I know they can be released with a normal attack done by any type of weapon, but can you charge up Tiger Strike by shooting arrows at monsters for example? If this is true my plan is to make an assassin that maxes Tiger Strike and Phoenix Strike (I am not that fond of Fists of Fire) puts a respectable amount of points into Burst of Speed and tries to get a big meaty Shadow Master. Perhaps also some Mind Blast. I don't want to mess with traps. Oh yeah, and regarding the bow I will try to get something fast with good damage.
I dont know, but, it is easy to test. Tiger strike is a lvl 1 skill right? Make a sin and a minute in the bloodmore should get you a point in tiger strike and a bow to test with.
Widow Maker Ward Bow with 200 ED and +5 to guided arrow is the best bow for any nonzon bow user. guided rox! stef
no they dont work with bows, and you cant be released with a normal attack when holding a bow. you can charge the strikes with a jav, but you cannt release the strikes with a throw. if you were thinking that too.
The skills on the left side of the MA tree work only with claws. the center skills work with ne Melee weapon. I tried the bowass back in .09 and i got the best results by grabbing a 6 socket long war bow and cramming it with tal runes. and relying on shadow disc. with a side of death sentry for crowd control. in .09 poison did much more damage from missle weopons than listed (the Tao of Poison is buried here on diabloii somewhere) i dunno if that changed but I figure that the lowered time on poison skill should help a little.
I ran into a guy on west with a shaeled buriza (mostly for the pierce) with a high lvl venom and BOS looked like a fun build. He was using a stormlash and a tiamets with BF for his weapon switch.
that give me an idea though. i should give my blodravens charge to an assasain. i found no use for it with my zons because of the sheer brilliance of the synergied Valk. but an assasain with 5 revives could give even the gimpiest build the time to hunt and peck as necessary. and save the points in SM.
Venom The idea of a assasin using a bow was created around the idea of using Venom, and then Cloak of Shadows, Fade, Burst of Speed, as needed. Hmm... I wonder if it would work with throwning knives... then you'd get a shield... Great, another build I have to try.
Sounds ok but if your interested in ranged attacks why not just throw little nija stars? Get a high damage clw with good mods and use venom, stand back poisin a crowd then run in and claw/kick them to pieces.
IMO if you're hellbent on using a bow you should be using Pus Spitter. Upgrade a perfect one to elite (Gorgon Crossbow). It deals pretty hefty damage, has very low requirements, and if Lower Resist goes off you're in heaven. Don't forget that nice AR bonus per character level. The two reasons I see to use a bow/crossbow over Blade Fury is: 1) No 3/4 Venom damage penalty. 2) Arrows/Bolts pierce. If you're not planning on wearing Razortail, why bother? There's always the ubercheese Buriza-Do Kyanon.
Planning one myself Consider Trang's Gloves for the +25% to poison dammage. Even better would be bramble for up to 50%. With both and a ton of shadow charms and a pair of +3 shadow claws you'll have serious green stuff That's what I'm going to wear. I am leaning towards buriza for the bow (in part because some guy in act 1 norm yesterday gave me a near perfect one for free). The 100% pierce would help immensly with crowds. Immagine venom hitting 5 or 6 monsters per shot. I would use highlords and gore riders to get deadly strike b/c your dammage will be low. There will be % chance to hit issues. Cloak of Shadows will help, but not solve this completely. Socketing an eth rune and pumping dex would improve things, as would carrying ar charms (you get a better yield on grand charms). That's how far I am in the process so far. If I get any more ideas I'll post em here.
having a slowfire buriza would exaggerate the low ar issues. A Demon Machine or custom gemmed Demon Crossbow would put a plethora of bolts into play to make up for the low AR!
A level 5 burst of speed maxes out buriza to an 11 frame attack which is identical to a maxed out demon machine. It also provides excellent mobility which is highly advisable for someone who prefers to fight at range. The explosive bolts on demon machine are useless to this build. Also with buriza you don't need to wear razortail to get max pierce so that frees up your belt slot. I was thinking of using spiderweb sash for +1 skills (more dammage) and the slow monster mod. Demon machine does have a nice ar boost, but I would prefer to attack the problem from another angle. Don't underestimate buriza's cold dammage (3 second chill in hell with just ravenfrost cold added) and hit freezes target.
well if your gonna go big go for the hellcast. unheard of elemental damage for te pesky immunes 9or high poison resistant undead). I know the str req are a bit high but most good armor needs 110 str or above and since u don't melee energy can be flat spare 30 or so off vit, it's noy like you got 5 life per neways.
I have a hellcast somewhere I think. I would really hate to give up the 100%pierce on buriza though. Maybe hellcast would be good on weapon switch for immune monsters. Bah, then you'd have to give up using a pair of +3 shadow claws to boost venom. Decisions, decisions. This isn't going to be an easy character for us to plan is it.
for this build the bosses should pose the biggest prob. packs can be handled by a lev. 1 MB. so i dont worry abot pierce alot. It kinda reeks of cow planning to me.
No cows for me. I haven't been to cows since mid 1.09 I just don't like the cow level that much. Mind blast will stop a mob of normal monsters, but won't do jack vs uniques, champions etc, and it won't help you kill them any faster, which is why I'm so determined to get a high pierce.
