in what bow/xbow shall i make brand?

[Gimmershred]

in what bow/xbow shall i make brand?

I want to make a brand bow or crossbow for my pvm strafer, together with dragon armor, marrowwalks, whisp projector and a carrion wind for a godly spam of (gogo lag) :

1) bonespears
2) Hydras
3) chain lightning
4) Twister

For ias i will have 20 gloves, 20 cats eye and 15 in helm = 55
The chance to cast on striking is cool but i still want to do some physical damage to actually kill monsters in hell.

Now for my question, in what bow crossbow shall i make it, i expecting a roll of +-300%ed:

1) Colossus crossbow 128-364 damage 14/4 strafe, huge str dex but ability to use my coa 30/80

2) Gorgon Crossbow 100-348 also 14/4 strafe little less damage but not as high str req.

3) Hydra bow 40-272 11/3 strafe, Less damage but still ok, mediocre speed high strength

4) Shadow bow 60-236 10/3 strafe, unless i can get 90 ias on my gear wich will give me 9/2 strafe ( i will have to use mavina helm and deaths gloves+belt for this, although i think razortail is pretty important)

5) Great bow 48-208 9/2 strafe with 60% ias (won't be able to use a helm with 15% ias)


Is it worth using a high damage slow bow while i don't have ed on the rest of gear or would it be better to use a faster bow in combination with guillaume helm for some nice crushing blow?

Wich 1 of the bows/ crossbows would you choose? I didnt mention the amazon only bows cause i might wanna give the bow to a merc someday.

 

[Masas]

I'd prefer a Crusader Bow. It is better than Hydra Bow in every aspect - lower requirements, cooler looks, same average damage, and better min damage.

 

[Leohappy]

Not much to choose here, Great bow for speed or Crusader bow for damage.

Brand bowzon also benefits greatly from Act 1 merc using Faith (you get the awsome ias bonus from aura, and some dmg also), hitting the last speed breakpoints for Multi and Strafe easily with just 50% ias (gloves, belt and ammy) when using a -10 speed bow.

I'll also make a Brand bow in the near future, and I am almost convinced it's going to be made in Matriarchal bow (Great bow in your case).

 

[Gimmershred]

I was wondering, since i am using dragon armor for hydras, will lvl 18 fireball from 2x trang-oul set items boost the hydra damage? since fireball is a synergy for hydra.

I was also thinking if it does that a holy freeze act2 merc with infinity would complement this build very nicely. lower fire resistances + slow for the bone spears to hit and a good tank doesnt seem all too bad. The good thing is that i have an infinity and i don't have a faith for a merc. Also would the trang gloves complement the venom damage from the dragon armor wich will go off very often when struck.

If this works i will have 5 types of damage.

Bone spear with lvl 33 synergy
Hydras with lvl 18 synergy and -85 lower res
lvl 16 lightning with -85 lower res
lvl 18 venom with 25% poison skill damage
Physical damage

If the thing with trang oul works i will make brand then in a crusader bow with 35% ias for a 11/3 strafe. Or with 15% ias for a 13/3 strafe and atma's amu for amplify damage

 

[Omikron8]

I was wondering, since i am using dragon armor for hydras, will lvl 18 fireball from 2x trang-oul set items boost the hydra damage? since fireball is a synergy for hydra.

I was also thinking if it does that a holy freeze act2 merc with infinity would complement this build very nicely. lower fire resistances + slow for the bone spears to hit and a good tank doesnt seem all too bad. The good thing is that i have an infinity and i don't have a faith for a merc. Also would the trang gloves complement the venom damage from the dragon armor wich will go off very often when struck.

If this works i will have 5 types of damage.

Bone spear with lvl 33 synergy
Hydras with lvl 18 synergy and -85 lower res
lvl 16 lightning with -85 lower res
lvl 18 venom with 25% poison skill damage
Physical damage

If the thing with trang oul works i will make brand then in a crusader bow with 35% ias for a 11/3 strafe. Or with 15% ias for a 13/3 strafe and atma's amu for amplify damage

With the obscene monster hitpoints in multiple player hell games your sources of fire, lightning and poison damage will be negligible. You should not be dependent on them.

 

[Gimmershred]

With the obscene monster hitpoints in multiple player hell games your sources of fire, lightning and poison damage will be negligible. You should not be dependent on them.

i think its very viable with a synergized hydra and conviction aura, and around 20 hydras laying around the screen. Ã still will do physical damage too and venom damage and bonespear damage. I know it's not as good as using a fortitude armor, but i don't want to make a same build as everyone else.

But does the synergy from trang-ouls fireball works or not?

 

[Gimmershred]

Ok she has been made, equip =

brand hydra bow
Loh gloves
Fortitude armor
Andy visage helm
Atma's scarab amu
Ravenfrost
Dualleech ring
Razortail belt
Marrowwalks boots

Act1 merc carrying:
Faith hydra bow
Crown of thieves
Rattlecage

This ama is the bomb in especially cs runs and baalruns. Kills superfastand will almost never get hit due to knockback, fast strafe and stunning from spears.

 

[Superbit]

Looks good.
Did it not work out with the dragon armor, wisp, carrion, using an infinity merc?

 

[Omikron8]

I myself thought brand would be godly with some decent equipment (twitch/marrows/400+ dex/etc.) but the bone spears were quite disappointing in 3-4+ player hell, because 300-400 damage (even when spammed) is a joke against a monster with 50k-100k hitpoints. I see your fortitude and faith merc aura and amp damage (none of which boost your bone spear damage) and i ask what is really doing the killing here the bone spears or the insane physical damage in the actual attack? The physical damage of course. The branding strafer just seems to be a souped up physical damage strafer build with an oddball choice for a runeword bow. I didn't want to think it was this way but i saw for myself when i used brand without fort or faith

 

[Joel9-Co]

For a real big damage dealer, go the very expensive route :

Combat Merc with Pride (lvl 18 conc + might)
Bowazon with Faith (lvl 15 Fanat if lucky)

Fortitude armor is surely a great extra with all the added damage from the triple auras.

Oh and play with your barb friend that play with a Oath weapon (lvl 16 HoW)

Stack up as much as possible on sharp charms and see what you can reach with all this mix.

 

[Leohappy]

I've made a Brand MFzon 2 weeks ago and was disappointed by poor performance in 8player Hell games in general. Although my Brand was in a MB, and merc carried Faith Crusader 13, Andy w/ias + fireres jewel and eth Fort.

The killing was alot slower than with my Faith+Fort+Pride MFzon since I had to use Strafe a lot (that's the only way to make BS work everytime). Also I had manaleech problems with lvl 12 Multishot (I carried 8/6 dual ring).

Another thing that annoyed me is really poor performance of Rogue merc in higher Hell acts. In A4 or A5 her damage with abovementioned gear was PATHETIC, not to mention the known AI bugs with these mercs which often left me without Fanaticism.

IMO Brand is a fun RW but not worth the runes. And if Blizzard at any time removes Marrow bug this RW will become useless.