Wrath-zon

[Wmeredith]

Wrath-zon

I hate Wrath. I think its stupid, but it is an interesting weapon. I've built 20+ bowies since I've played this game and am getting bored, so I'd like to built an equipment set around this waste-of-runes bow. It literally has no standard ed and no ias, which is retarded for a bow. Lets check the stats:

Wrath
4 Socket Missile Weapons
Pul + Lum + Ber + Mal
30% Chance To Cast Level 1 Decrepify On Striking (Excellent)
5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Life Tap On Striking (Not so useful to a bowie)
+375% Damage To Demons (Good, but this kind of mod is off-weapon ed)+100 To Attack Rating Against Demons (meh)
+250-300% Damage To Undead (varies) (Good, but once again, off-weapon)
Adds 85-120 Magic Damage (Excellent)
Adds 41-240 Lightning Damage (Excellent)
20% Chance of Crushing Blow (Good, but nerfed at range)
Prevent Monster Heal (Good)
+10 To Energy (Meh)
Cannot Be Frozen (Meh, what bowie has no Ravenfrost?)

Alright, so the theme here is obviously just weirdness. I'm going to build a kit around this thing that emphasizes "alternative" types of damage, meaning mostly anything but raw ed. she'll have a Faith rogue following her around to make up for the lack of ias. (I can't believe I'm going to use a bow with no ias, ughhhhhh...)

Alright:
Wrath +3 mat bow
CoH Wire Fleece
Laying Of Hands
Gore Riders
Highlord's Wrath
Guillame's face
Razortail
Two Tasty Dual Leech Bowie Rings:
-6ll, 6ml, +9min, +10dex
-6ll, 6ml, +20 lit res, +4 min
20/19/9 Anni
20/19 Ama Torch

Here's some critical stats with that kit:
(not counting my charms, which isn't really fair because I have a pretty nice collection of charms, but w/e)

The Decripify will go off ALL the time with 30% ctc. So everything I'm fighting will be slow and hurting, unless they're life-tapped. As I'm writing this guide I'm honestly at the point where I think I'm starting to understand why blizzard made this retarded bow. I think it's for a strafer backing melee characters or maybe Tritram. But I digress...

How I'll do damage:
30% CTC Decrepify on Striking (Which grants me double damage and breaks 95% of all immunities.)
55% Increased Attack Speed (7/2 strafe)
100% Piercing Attack
60% Chance Of Crushing Blow
63 % Deadly Strike*
50% Critical Strike*
+925% (!) Damage To Demons
+350-400% Damage To Undead
Adds 42-270 Lightning Damage
Adds 85-120 Magic Damage (Almost unresistable)
+13 To Minimum Damage
+10 To Maximum Damage
10% Chance Of Open Wounds (Which is actually pretty nice at lvl 91; my bowie)
5% CTC Lifetap on Striking
Prevent Monster Heal

*(My zon has about 50% Chance of Critical, these combine for about 81% chance for my hit to do double. I'm not getting into it here, but that's how it works)

That sounds pretty good to me. (I'm also not counting the Fana damage boost or my charms. I'll get a screenie in here once she's equipped.)

Stats/Skills:
+4 To All Skill Levels
+3 Amazon (torch)
+3 To Bow Skills
+45 To Dexterity

Defensive:
Attacker Takes Damage of 114 (of one kind or another)
30% Faster Run/Walk
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
Damage Reduced By 8%
Cannot Be Frozen
20% Life Stolen Per Hit
12% Mana Stolen Per Hit

I think this build will own and be original and be a great support player. She would even be good in Trist, maybe. It could get dicey if I over-road a melee-rs lifetap, and her resists are acceptable but no where near Tristy needs, but the massive crushing blow and almost +1000% damage to demons makes you wonder...

Anyway, does anyone have any critical thoughts on this build?

 

[crawlingdeadman]

what's your weapon switch? you dont need a phys immue killer...CTA? what kinda skills layout? all dex or some vit too?

 

[Wmeredith]

I'm not building a new zon. I will be using McZon_NoCheese who I listed the stats/skills layout for in my "One Bad Bowie" post.

Considering the theme of the build, I'm honestly thinking of doing a Demon Limb (enchant buff) and a Spirit on switch or a Harmony for valk Buff.

Or I may carry Brand on switch because I can't get enough of the 100% CTC Bonespears. It's what I have on switch right now...

 

[NASE]

Why not go for an ice, certainly if you are going to back a mele character. This way you will get the chance to slow them down even more. 25% chance to cast lvl 22 frost nova, and a holy freeze aurea.

If you have the bow, I'd certainly try it.


And I just wonder, why is life tab not that good for bowie, and do you need 20% ll and chance to cast life tap?

[edit]
Why not go for extreme. Take on cleclaws glove. If all those type of slow stack, the monsters will not be moving much I think, and that way, you'll be fast, in comparison. And the mele build will the super fast.

 

[Wmeredith]

Why not go for an ice, certainly if you are going to back a mele character. This way you will get the chance to slow them down even more. 25% chance to cast lvl 22 frost nova, and a holy freeze aurea.

If you have the bow, I'd certainly try it.


And I just wonder, why is life tab not that good for bowie, and do you need 20% ll and chance to cast life tap?

[edit]
Why not go for extreme. Take on cleclaws glove. If all those type of slow stack, the monsters will not be moving much I think, and that way, you'll be fast, in comparison. And the mele build will the super fast.

I've used many an Ice in the past and the whole point of this build is to use Wrath as my main weapon. The types of slow do stack, but I need the 20 ias on my gloves to hit my last BP. I think I will be using Nos Coil instead of razortail which does have some added (10%) slow.

 

[NewForumBloke]

This looks like it could be very interesting indeed. U know when you look at Wrath it almost looks like a beefed up 'Edge' (only with a staggering cost...). I think she will practically crush Chaos sanc with all of those demons and undead and such in there, i hope she turns out to be of some possible use lol.

Wrath seems to be the Zon's Aldurs set, enough said imo

-BLoke :smug:

 

[Wmeredith]

Nice to hear from you Bloke!

Yeah, we'll see. I currently have all parts for her kit except:
Mal
Ber
Pul
CoH

I have the wealth to obtain them I just haven't been able to find them as of yet.

 

[superdave]

the demon limb on switch would be my choice...the charms will make or break this build...good damage charms are getting expensive...i could see this working ok on a pure strafer.

 

[Wmeredith]

So I got the kit together last night and...

I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE BOW!

And I'm dead serious. This thing chews through packs. The gear I had talked about putting together above didn't even matter. The bow by itself is stellar. WTF? I thought as I ate through the chaos sanctuary faster than I do with my 15 fana +15%ed sup +3 Mat Faith. How is this possible? So I decided to make it so that my gear was not so offensively oriented to see if it could stand up without all the stacked DS and CB.

I took off my Gores and put on my Travs.
I took off the Guillame's and Put on my Kira's.
I took off the Highlord's and put my cat's Eye back on, and...

It still destroys. It's made me love strafing again. So after playing with it for an hour or so. I decided to make it my permanent "switch" weapon, but here's the thing: I found myself using it more than my Faith because it kills faster. Or at least in 8 player games it does. Playing solo I honestly couldn't tell the difference.

Oh, and it granted me what have to be the three fastest Baal takedowns I've ever done with a bowie. The CB + Damage to demons + Decrep is great for bosses.

Color me surprised. This means I have to re-write my Runewords in Your bow guide. I never even gave it a chance, and why should I have? This bow is heinously expensive, it had NO IAS, and no ed? What's to like?

I'll tell you: subtlety.

This is not a bow you'll ever be able to sell a noob on. It's listed damage range is 12-52 for godsakes (I made mine in a plain Great bow, I'm now seeking the 15% +3 mat to make one in). But the rest of the mods seem to create the perfect storm or something. Let's take a second look, now that I'm advocating instead of being skeptically hopeful:

Wrath
4 Socket Missile Weapons
Pul + Lum + Ber + Mal
30% Chance To Cast Level 1 Decrepify On Striking
This is the money right here. You think WWS or Atma's CTC Amp is sweet? It's got nothing on Decrep. Amp doubles your damage. Decrep lowers physical resistances by 50%, slows by 50%, and reduces their damage output byb 50%. Ask any sorc or other elemental character how sweet -resist is compared to +damage. It's better by an order of magnatude. Especially in Hell difficulty. Plus, they're slowed and made less deadly. Decrep makes Amp look lame, and this thing casts 30% of the time! You can't strafe one volley without it going off as opposed to waiting for amp to cast from a WWS or Atmas. Oh and did I mention that this makes PI's something you don't even have to think about at all?
5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Life Tap On Striking
I will stand by mny statement that this is not that useful to a bowie, but it might be to your merc or anyone else you're playing with. This goes off occaisionally and overrides your decrep whcih I thought would suck, but it's actually brilliant because Decrep casts so often that the LT is only ever on for a second, which is just long enough to get a hit in and refill your little bowl of blood. Whether it be you or your merc.
+375% Damage To Demons
This is a stunning mod when paired with Laying of Hands. Demons just melt under pressure from this bow.
+100 To Attack Rating Against Demons
This is fine, w/e. I'm a bowie I'm not hurting for AR.
+250-300% Damage To Undead
This is also helpful. Combined with the + to demons this bow now does decent physical damage all by itself to 3/4 of the monsters in the game.
Adds 85-120 Magic Damage
Great, very few monsters in the game are resistant to pure magic damage. Not that it matters because the decrep will break immunities.
Adds 41-240 Lightning Damage
Also great, big elemental damage, making this bow even more of swiss army knife of damages than it already is at this point.
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
This is the perfect mod to stick on this bow. Because you're depending on Decrep going off for a lot of your damage, but the first few hits while you're waiting can be CB hits while they really count. Awesome.
Prevent Monster Heal
A good mod to have anytime, anywhere.
+10 To Energy
(Meh)
Cannot Be Frozen
Another insightfully placed mod by Blizzard. You need big Mana Leech to make this thing work, this allows you to equip two mana leech rings instead of the obligatory Raven Frost.

This bow is like a WWS for the 1.11 world. Wrath is like a WWS running full speed while on fire and smoking crack. It's beautiful and subtle in the way it rips enemies apart. I used to make fun this cannon and chalked it up as one of Blizz's worthless RW's, but no more. This is my main bow now.

THE CON:
NO IAS! No IAS on a bow that;s this pricey!?!! Grrr. You either have to make it in a -10 bow and dedicate all of your gear to speed, or you have to have a faith merc (I did) to hit the last BP. It's a fact about this bow that sucks, but considering you'll mainly be strafing with it, it's not that big of a deal I guess.

Screenie of my Wrath equipped bowie and her LCS. Look at those numbers, lol. You just won't believe what this thing is capable of in Hell.


Baal feeling my Wrath:

You can't quite make it out, but I think he was saying something about or like, "12-52? WTF!?"

Alright, I'm done ranting about this bows supreme ***-kickery. I'll list the kit I used so you can judge for yourself. I know my gear is good but keep this in mind: I also play with this same gear on with a Faith most of the time. So I am making the comparison of the two on a level playing field. Basically all I ended up doing was switch my bow and a ring and it kept up or even passed my (100% perfect) Faith in some situations.

Wrath Great bow
Cat's Eye
30mf Travs
Fort Wirefleece / CoH (I honestly couldn't tell the diff in killing speed between these two.)
Perf Kira's (40/15'd)
Razortail
Laying Of Hands
One dual leeech/res ring
One Mana Leech Ring

Well, I hope someone is inspired to try this RW. Just don't tell anyone what your carrying, they may laugh at you. Until the third or fourth time you save their ***. I'm off to re-write my Runeword & Bow guide...

 

[lagalot]

Awesome stuff!!I just invested several high runes in bowazon gear.Two faith...matri and gmb, matri brand, ice, and a merc faith...oh and another matri faith for my girlfriend..she decided she wanted a bowazon also:grin:.

I looked at wrath and thought the mods looked awesome but likewise was irked by the no ed /ias.
When I accumulate a little more wealth my next runeword is wrath.

Thanks for the rundown on the bow and setup:thumbsup:

 

[windwingwind]

I am really glad that you give a +ve comment to wrath after actually trying it.....I always think that blizzard does a great job in providing a variety of weapon choice to bowies. For speekfreak we have faith. For big gun we have WF and brand. For elemental dmg we have ice. Now you dig out the virture of wrath , very good :scratch: No straight ed and no ias ==> different from what traditional "good bows" but it's good to explore somethings new.

Just a little point.....Amp dmg -100% of enemy physical resistance, not doubling your dmg. So it's unfair to says "Decrep makes Amp look lame"....for a necro, even one is a lvl 1 skill and the other lvl 30, they have their own niches. It's hard to say which one is superior when their uses are situational. Ask a summoner what is the most frequent he use it must be amp dmg.

Between, would you try switching the CoH with Duress (so less dmg to demon/undead but more crushing bow) and see how's it go?

 

[superdave]

any chance you can get in a game on the weekend and let us see how it performs? i bet dacar would like to have a look...i know i do. :smiley:

 

[Wmeredith]

Yeah I can try the Duress thing. I was already thinking about it a bit.

Yeah, Amp is not lame (IMy bowie's have relied on it for months at a time) and I was wrong about the mechanics . I was just all excited about being excited about a bow again when I was writing that...:wink3:

I'll be on and off all weekend. Just add me and holla if you want. McZon_NoCheese <------(Edit: this is my char name, my account is in the sig. Thanks CDM)

 

[crawlingdeadman]

*McZon_NoCheese

i think he meant add *I_amSalmon since that's ^^^ his char name.

so, you think this is better than faith for 8 player choas sanc then? i will have to make one of these up tonight and try it as i am tired tired tired of my act 2 merc costing me about 50-200k gold a run (if i play aggressive i can get him to live the entire run but that is rare on an 8 player game.

look me up when you're doing your next test run too if you would.

 

[Wmeredith]

yeah that's my char, my account is in my sig...

Hmm, I don't know about a act 2 merc. Even with faith + pride mine will only last 4 or 5 runs. I'm not sure how Wrath plus pride would be. I'll bet it's pretty sweet.

Oh, you know what? When I was switching back and forth between my Wrath and Faith I wasn't switching my merc, so I'll bet Faith + Pride merc IS better than Wrath + Faith Merc. I was comparing the Faith to Wrath with no Pride merc going. Then again I'd like to try my pride merc with the Wrath, but that's a lot more gear shuffling...

Anyway, it's a good bow and doesn't suck like I thought.

 

[Bjam]

I've been wondering if Wrath would be viable when paired with a Faith merc, but I simply didn't have the wealth to risk finding out the hard way. Thanks again for testing the bounds of Bowazon setups and letting us in on the fun. I still can't see how it can be as good as you say, but I don't doubt it either.

 

[Delreich]

Another little nitpick: CB is affected by phys. res. too, so while early hits are usually best for CB, right after decrep triggers will probably be even better. :grin:

 

[Wmeredith]

Another little nitpick: CB is affected by phys. res. too, so while early hits are usually best for CB, right after decrep triggers will probably be even better. :grin:

Nice. So does that mean a decrepified target "un-nerfs" the ranged Crushing Blow? This would explain quite a bit about this bow's kill speed.

Alright, I tried the Faith vs. Wrath with a Pride/Might merc over lunch and Faith wins as far as pure strafe killing speed, but its VERY close. When you do multi or GA Faith starts to pull away due to ias issues. I'm so surprised it's such a close contest though. Kudos to the Blizzard employee that thought this thing up. I wouldn't have. It also seems like a good candidate as a bow for a Medusa-zon (1,2). You could bring a pack of Extra Fast Moonlords (eep!) to a screeching halt with a volley from this while wearing Clegs and a Nos Coil.

The main advantage of Wrath is it's array of ways it deals damage. Magic, lightning, CB, and the huge probability of casting Decrep. It's a very nice weapon and it kills indescriminently with it's immunity breaking abilities. I can practically run through the arcane sanctuary without switching weapons or skills ever. Just Wrath and strafe. I like it a lot. It's certainly a quicker killer on a strafer than Ice, Brand or Harmony, which is very surprising. It's officially my favorite bow RW now (No longer Brand.) Although it's a tough decision either way.

I need to build two more bowies so I can have a Boning Strafer, a Frost Maiden, and my Wrath/Faith monster. :evil:

Oh, another con because I tried to hit the last BP with my Great bow Wrath and no Faith merc, but the BP is 142%...

This sucks because you can get so close before you have to make the ultimate gear sacrifice.

This is 140%ias which I can do:
Treachery Archon
Laying of Hands
Cat's Eye
Nos Coil
120/45 helm
2% off, grrrr...

So the only way to hit it would be to wear IK gloves and boots, or Sig gloves and boots. It might be worth it for the 7 frame multi, it's not like those are bad items, but it's sucks you can get so close before you have to give up Laying of hands and Travs or Gores...

 

[channimal]

excellent research and writeup!! Thanks for sharing! I'd love to see how it works but I'm in A5 Normal (lvl40) currently.

 

[windwingwind]

This is one of the most exciting thread to read in the amazon forum recently, IMO ^^.

Sorry if my pointing out the mechanics of amp dmg spoiled your fun a bit.....I didnt mean that. I love your writing and I'm excited that you find a new good bow. Think I'm gonna build one too :grin:

Next thing I'm concerned would be the optimal gear setup that is build around the bow.... also whether there is a cheap gear options when using this bow (although the bow itself isn't cheap, chance is that someone spend all his wealth to assemble the bow and then gradually improve on the other gear). Any suggestion ? :fortuneteller: