bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

[fliebel]

bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

hi all, i'm new here.

i do not play very long or often, and only offline(or LAN), i played with sorceress before, but now i am a amazon with a bow.

i never did character building, so my char has very stupid skills, i'll list them here, together with my stats.

stats:
strength: 53
dexterity: 65
vitality: 40
energy: 47

resistance:
fire: 37
cold: 7
lightning: 22
poison: 8

stat points to spend: 5

skills:
magic: 1
fire: 1
cold: 2
multiple: 2
explosion: 3 // i use this very much
ice: 2
guided: 1
strafe: 1
immolation: 1

all passive: 1

jab and bower strike: 1 //accidentally

skill points to spend: 1
​

i have to defeat duriel, so how should i spend this skill and stat points?
i would give my stats to dexterity and my skill to ice arrow, is this a good option?

and what weapon should i choose?
what i have now is a socketed jagged long battle bow of leech, it does 2 - 20 damage, fast attack speed and 5% mana steal, one fire gem(normal) and one lightning gem(normal)

but i found a composite bow with 3 sockets, 4 - 8 damage, very fast attack speed, and i have some gems to put in it, so maybe this can become a better bow to defeat duriel.
what kind of gems should i put in it? i was thinking about poison and ice.
this are the gems i have at normal level:
1 skull
1 ice
1 attack rating
1 damage to undead
and nearly 2 poison ones.

or should i look for some rare bow item?

and the fight itself?
do you have any good hints on what spells to use and what to do?
i would buy a mercenary and go back every time he dies, cast as much decoy as i can and use ice arrows to slow him down while i keep running around.
but i died 2 times already while he still had at least 75% of his life left...

i hope you can help me....

bye!

 

[Poppis]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Well, first of all, I know nothing about Amazons.

But here's some basic advices.

1. Allthough some cold damage is very nice against him, because of the slow, don't count on it to kill him, since his cold resist is 50%(highest of all his resistances).

2. Hire act 2 merc. Go for either combat(prayer aura) or defensive(defiance aura). Try to get some Crushing blow items for him. CB is just amazing against bosses. You could get some for yourself too. There are some low level items with CB, like Rattlecage and Goblin Toe. Also the runewords Strength and Black have CB, but they require Amn and Io rune respectively(and act2 merc cant use Black).

3. Drink some thawing potions just before you enter the chamber, and give some for your merc too. IIRC each pot gives 50 cold res for 30 secs(and the duration stacks if you drink more than one).

EDIT:

One more thing. Duriel does most damage with his charge skill. This does 57-75 physical damage in normal, whereas his other melee attacks only do around 20 damage, so maybe you could try staying in melee range of him so he can't charge you.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

oh, i forgot to mention i don't have the expansion, so i don't think i can equip my mercenary or give him potions.

 

[DarwinJim]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Then too, there is the DarwinJim woodpecker approach. Get a lot of throwing potions, I saved up those that do 72 damage.

Before going in, make sure that town portal is on your right mouse button. Get away from Duriel, not much space, but get back and cast the portal. Blast with potions. As soon as the situation looks dicey, go through the portal. Rinse and repeat. Might take five or six repetitions.

This is real cheese, smelly cheese. I hate it; but it works.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

how do i get those potions?
i once found a exploding shrine, but i don't have any of them anymore.

those potions do 72 damage?
if i put 2 emeralds in my bow it does 80 poison damage over 4 seconds, plus the bow's damage and one more gem's damage, and that at very vast attack speed!

can someone tell me what is the best bow for me, and how i have to spend my stat and skill points?

 

[Poppis]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

I think he is refering to Oil Potion, which does 24-64 damage. But thats only in the expansion. In Classic, they do meacre 3-5.

The best potion in classic would propably be Rancid Cas Potion, which does 168 poison damage, but I don't know whether it is enough to help with Duriel, nor whether you can get those potions in act 2(plus the damage from it won't stack).

You can check the vendors in act 1/2, I think you can buy different throwing potions from them in classic.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

no, i can't buy anything that i can throw that looks like a potion, only javalin's and that kind of stuff, even the special potion vendor in act II does not sells anything that explodes or does damage.

but what is the point in buying potions that do some damage if i can make a bow that does 80 poison damage over 4 seconds?
but what happens if i shoot a few shots in these 4 seconds, is it like shot one: 80 damage, shot two: 160 damage, shot three: 240, or is the poison damage 'reset' to 80?

well, i guess that would not really matter, since i'll be running around and shoot at him now and then...

 

[Poppis]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

but what is the point in buying potions that do some damage if i can make a bow that does 80 poison damage over 4 seconds?

Well, in classic, there isn't much point, but in expansion throwing potions damage is increased so in normal act1/2 they might be of some use.

I don't know how poison works in classic(by the way what version are you playing), so can't really help you with your emerald question.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

just the latest version i think, 1.12b, is that possible?

ok, so no throwing for me... but the other questions remain, how should i use my points, and what should i put in my bow, or should i gamble or reroll one? i have a small war bow i believe, i could try to add some sockets to that, or gamble for some long battle bow until i get a good rare.

[edit]
info about poison damage
so, is it a good plan to add poison damage?
i think that if i shoot at him very much it is a bad plan, but if hit him and run for a while.... or should is just get some fire or lighting damage?
[/edit]

 

[Mursilis]

Keep the bow you have, that will work best. You have points in the elemental bow skills, so the damage your bow does isn't a big deal, but the one you have is pretty good so that should work fine.

First, load up both yourself and your mercenary with thawing potions, to give yourself quite a bit more cold resistance (since Duriel has a cold attack). Keep throwing up decoys to keep Duriel occupied and give your mercenary time to strike. While this is happening hit Duriel with as many Immolation arrows as possible, as that does the most fire damage of all your skills. Keep feeding your mercenary health and rejuv potions until you run out, then TP away to restock. Reenter and repeat until Duriel is dead. It will most likely take several trips, but if you have the patience you can beat her without spending any of your stat/skill points.

Just note you'll have to restock on thawing potions partway through to ensure the duration doesn't run out.

 

[Poppis]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Nevermind.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

yea, i just thought about that, the bow i have now has kind of a build in skull, and because it is %, it can steal quite some life of him i guess.

so, no ice arrow, but immolation?
i red strafe can do very much damage, because al those arrows hit him, or is immolation better?
but why not spend this skill and stat points? maybe save the skill for valkyrie, but i see no reason for keeping stat points... is dexterity ok?

in classic diablo II, how do i give my merc potions?(maybe that is the reason why mine dies so often...)

the rest sounds easy to me...
drink thawing potions, buy a merc, as soon as you enter start casting town portal, decoy and shooting immolation until i lose my merc, my life drops, or i run out of mana potions.
it is going to take a while, but i think i will succeed.

 

[krischan]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Normal Duriel is a very tough enemy for missile-based zons and on classic, mercs are useless versus act bosses (and useless versus any monster beyond normal mode).

You won't be quick enough to run away and aim arrows at him and continue running away wile you are slowed by his aura. Put away the bow and get a one-handed spear (aka javelin), a shield with good blocking and something with life leech, as well as increased attack speed and fight him in melee, with jab. Sigons gloves+helm will provide 30%IAS, 10%LL and an ar bonus of 8*charlevel, for example.

Don't run away all the time, else he will charge you. He can't do that as long as you stand directly next to him.

You will have to live with his holy frost aura, even CBF won't counter the slowing.

Don't fight directly next to the town portal, else he might kill you before you can do anything if you come back through the portal.

Finally, drop your gold in town if you expect to die a lot (like in your case :azn or in case you have to apply a hit-die-hit-die-... tactics, else all your gold will be gone quickly and you might also have to buy a few potions and scrolls from time to time.

 

[Mursilis]

Oh wait, this was classic? My mistake....so you need to upgrade to expansion then my suggestions will work.

Or you can just do what Krischan said and you'll be all set as well.

 

[fliebel]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

thank you very much, all of you.

i did it!
i just used my bow, drink a lot of thawing potions and go back to town a lot of times.
the decoy did not work for me because he killed her in one blow, so it took me more time to switch spell and cast her than it gave me time to run away, and most of the time he just ignored her and ran after me.
the mercenary did some damage, but he only gave me enough time to cast a town portal and shoot a few times, then again it was him against me, i ran around as much as i could, i did not use immolate all the time because it looks like it has some kind delay, cold arrow did not slow him down very much, again, it costed me more time to fire at him then it costed him to unfreeze.
so i used a mixture of exploding, immolate and ice.
just before i went defeating him i found some half frost duration item, and my boots have this as well, i have 7 cold resist and i have over 20 replenish life, so i could stay alive very well, even without a decoy and a merc, but still i used over 10 town portal, 3 full belts of potions and over 10 mercenaries.

lol, i did not know what would happen when all of them were hired, so is was scared when there was only one left, and it was a offensive lvl 20, but after he died, he had a full list of new mercenaries.

but i am in act 3 now!
thank you!

 

[Tarantella]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Well done! :thumbup:


Act 3 is a different kettle of fish; the flayer jungle as night falls(ambient sound on full), the otherworldly tweets and whistles, the shiny teeth of the flayers as they lurk in the verdant jungle, their yodelling taunts, visciously sharp knives and suicidal rushes!

The dead ends and the dark pits!
What terrors lie beneath?

 

[Mursilis]

Very nicely done. :thumbup:

I'm amused that you went through the entire mercenary list, quite the feat.

 

[Spiz]

Re: bowazon lvl25 fighting duriel - need advice

Poppis - thank you for this. It was so helpful I decided to register just to say thanks.

I was unaware you could build up thawing potions like that, and since upgrading to the expansion I was trying to beat Duriel without losing the merc (archerer) I've been building up since the start of the game.

It worked well. I am a pally who didn't have thorn defence I saw someone else mention so I used increased defence aura (thanks to whoever mentioned that for the thought). At level 23 and merc level 22, I had to teleport out twice when either me or my merc got dangerously low and was afraid healing wouldn't be enough.

Other than that, just a good Falchion in my hand and a decent bow in my merc was enough. Decent armor too but nothing special and nothing socketed since I'm saving my gems for perfection. Oh, I did have half freeze duration on my ring although I'm not sure that mattered much because of the thawing potions.

I can now proceed to Act III with my original merc and the entire battle only took about 2 min.

Thanks again!
Spiz

Well, first of all, I know nothing about Amazons.

But here's some basic advices.

1. Allthough some cold damage is very nice against him, because of the slow, don't count on it to kill him, since his cold resist is 50%(highest of all his resistances).

2. Hire act 2 merc. Go for either combat(prayer aura) or defensive(defiance aura). Try to get some Crushing blow items for him. CB is just amazing against bosses. You could get some for yourself too. There are some low level items with CB, like Rattlecage and Goblin Toe. Also the runewords Strength and Black have CB, but they require Amn and Io rune respectively(and act2 merc cant use Black).

3. Drink some thawing potions just before you enter the chamber, and give some for your merc too. IIRC each pot gives 50 cold res for 30 secs(and the duration stacks if you drink more than one).

EDIT:

One more thing. Duriel does most damage with his charge skill. This does 57-75 physical damage in normal, whereas his other melee attacks only do around 20 damage, so maybe you could try staying in melee range of him so he can't charge you.