Strafer vs Diablo

[Wolfedude]

Strafer vs Diablo

I have a hardcore strafer equipped with:
Upped WWS shael/shael
Crafted 20IAS KB gloves
Tals Mask w/ 15IAS jewel
Lionheart Armor
Razortail belt
Unique Battle Boots
Highlords ammy
Dwarfstar
Ravenfrost

I have been running Eldrich/Pindle/Shrenk for quite some time but I hear that it is pretty easy to run the CS and kill Diablo in hell. Is this true? And what is the normal technique for killing Diablo?

P.S. I have enough in D/A/E for about 40% ans have a maxed Valk. Couple of points in Frozen arrow. My resists are all around 40-50% with almost maxed LR.

I appreciate all answers.

 

[NASE]

guided arrows. You don't have any crushing blow and your ctc amp just good enough to risc getting caught in diablo's red hose of dead - or something like that.
Count in that fact that guided arrow will do more damage and you cth will not be that great, guided arrows are your way to go.

Cs isn't that hard - although diablo can be nasty, just play slow and behind your valk/decoy/merc. Normally, you won't have much problems as long as you have merc/decoy/valk up and running all time, use decoy as scout. when things get dangerous, use freezing arrow and multishot.

P.S. what merc are you using, if you are using act 2 (5?) merc, IM might be very dangerous as both merc and valk and get killed in seconds due to IM. I'm using a act 3 cold merc. No problem with IM and freezing monsters is just so usefull.
P.P.S. I'm no hardcore player, so don't take my word on what I say. I don't have much problems with my harmony-strafer, and up'ed wws isn't worse then harmony. Although, I have died, though I think I could have avoided all deads if I were to pay more attention (stupid lag).

[edit]
unless you are using goblin toe as boots. Then you have some nice crushing blow and then strafe might be faster for the first few hit. On the other hand, I woudn't take the risc.

 

[DH Amazon]

That guided arrow works just fine, kills quite safely.
Lag near diablo is quite fatal, merc cant tank you there, usually get killed while you are dancing around with diablo.
And diablo uses that nasty bone prison sometimes, hard to escape from there.
With good resist you have no problems, but dont panic if diablo uses that trick.

Diablo is easy boss to take down, if you have good resist and decent life, but those lags spikes or prison trick can be fatal. That last boss pack (those fire immunes) is usually much harder than diablo, but freezing arrow takes care of those.

Other ways:
One way to kill diablo easily is to go next to diablo and use freezing arrow (low freezing arrow llv works just fine, if merc has nice crushing blow) and let merc with crushing blow to take diablo out fast. Mercs life is saved this way and its fast. Thunder belt is best for this attempt if you have enough str to wear it.
That extra life and absorb are nice against diablo.

I recently discovered that fleshripper (uniq dagger) is very good against bosses. As bow ama, you have high dex, so almost any shield gives max block. And while using shield, easy to get resist up.
Even without merc, diablo goes down fast. Only need to drink couple red bottles.
This trick works great against 4players...8players diablo or baal. Those full game bosses are usually very hard for bowama.
Full game baal has so much life, that it took about 2min to kill with dagger and one big plus is that bottles are not needed during fight, just keep mouse putton down and drink coffee etc. at other hand. Its little cheesy trick, so better use bow if you need more challenge.
This 'dagger' way just safes both bottles and time.

Don't try with dagger or with freezing arrow if you are full dex ama (you play HC, so I think you have little more life than normal bow ama). About 600...800 or more life is needed for both. Dagger is little odd, but much safer way to take bosses down. Good resist, max block, full effect of crushing blow, slow effect, fast etc...
If you try this, test with nmare diablo/baal first. In HC not much room for errors.

 

[phool]

yeah diablo tends to completely ignore mercs and summons. Staying dagger range from dia makes you immune to red hose but you don't really want to be there on a bowa. Tanking dia from further away's harder so you should probably spam GA from around a corner or run out of the flames/hose when it's used. You can probably ignore the hellfire as you're wearing a dwarf actually. Strafe will be faster than GA only if you have very high ar, probably higher than you do unless you demon limb prebuff.

Anyway whatever you do there is no risk for a bowa playing alone unless you let yourself get swarmed by the venom lord pack (when you get the hooked map) or play with other people and they trigger the seal when you're where seis' pack spawn.

 

[Baranor]

With that gear-setup? A little patience, a little care, and no lag. Luck is not involved. Always keep your distance, Hell Diablo is best fought solo when he's not on your screen (just at the edge) with an amazone. The Lighting Hose is painfull, but not that bad. The fire-thingie in the floor on the other hand... if he does that, run like hell. 40-50% FR means if you stand next to D whilst he sets the floor on fire, he'll hit you for about 1500 HP on a bad day. I've seen people perish really quick like that.

As for quick diablo killing: A lot of CB, guided arrows, max LR and FR...

 

[YogiRat]

I still use the 'sweet spot', those two little nitches at the intersection of the NE and NW arms of the cross. While it is no longer the cake walk like when GA did U-turns, it is still an effective strat. Fire, duck, then keep firing until he's on you, run to the other nitch, decoy to lure him out, (merc dies) fire, fire, run, decoy, fire, revive valk, fire, fire, run, decoy and on and on.:grin: It is the classic cat and mouse game. CB helps, but mostly OW will help you take him down. Strafe is a way better skill to use now, provided you have enough points into it (15-20).