Zon questions

[tragor]

Zon questions

Ok, I learned a hard lesson the other night. I don't really know how to play an Amazon. So, naturally, my first serious attempt is in the HCL, untwinked. I know, I'm a merc, um, I mean, moron. :bonk:

So anyway, 3 quick questions:
1. How do I build killing power with this girl? Her damage is pathetic. (ok, that may not be a quick question).
2. How does mana leech work with a skill like Strafe? Do I leech for every arrow that hits? Lack of mana was a huge problem against Diablo.
3. Does the Valk actually do any damage? I swear, I watched her fight (she survives with no problem) and she doesn't seem to even scratch the opponent. What's the deal?

I'm at work right now so I'll have to post her skill distro later but I think it's sorta messed up. Luckily, she's only 34 so I have some time to fix the problem areas. But these three were the top of my list.

 

[wildjinn]

Ok, I learned a hard lesson the other night. I don't really know how to play an Amazon. So, naturally, my first serious attempt is in the HCL, untwinked. I know, I'm a merc, um, I mean, moron. :bonk:

So anyway, 3 quick questions:
1. How do I build killing power with this girl? Her damage is pathetic. (ok, that may not be a quick question).
2. How does mana leech work with a skill like Strafe? Do I leech for every arrow that hits? Lack of mana was a huge problem against Diablo.
3. Does the Valk actually do any damage? I swear, I watched her fight (she survives with no problem) and she doesn't seem to even scratch the opponent. What's the deal?

I'm at work right now so I'll have to post her skill distro later but I think it's sorta messed up. Luckily, she's only 34 so I have some time to fix the problem areas. But these three were the top of my list.

1.) Killing power on a zon is not easy to come by, unless you're going the javazon route. In my experience, both Strafe and FA do poor damage, even when maxed (and with synergy in the FA case). If you don't have much more than points in strafe, you could still go with the hybridzon route and go with LF and CS, if you're interested.
2.) Yes Every arrow leeches. If you have significant mana leech, you can easily leech with a reasonable damage bow.
3.) Eventually. At level 17, she gets a war pike. She still kills slowly for my taste, though.

Since you're going relatively untwinked, I'd suggest going with the LF/CS route with a couple points in strafe as backup. Those skills work wonderfully, even with toothpicks as weapons.

edit @ FF: At least you have good reason to. :uhhuh: :lol:

 

[FrolfFreak]

All i can do is re-gurgitate quality info others gave me, but here goes:

1. Some really powerful Amazon skills: Lightning Fury (great mass killer, no synergies really needed), Charged Strike (great single target killer, even with just one synergy maxed). Multishot is great for masses as well if you have a decent bow. Strafe can handle smaller masses or single targets pretty good too, but again, decent bow needed.

2. dunno

3. For best results with the valk, skill level should be 17+, since that's when she gets her final rare equipment, a rare war pike.

Hope this helps.

-FF

edit: dammit, wildjinn. I hate you

 

[Vinmar]

Another suggestion for extra damage is to use the crushing blow setup. With my sniperzon (thanks Lonewolf!) I used Guillaume's Face and Gore Riders.
I know with missile weapons the percentage of damage is not great but when you have bosses with a lot of HP's, every little bit helps.


Vinmar

 

[My_Immortal6]

If you put points in penetrate your Valkyrie will hit more often.

 

[NSXdreamer]

I just went down to ancient's way for a spin with my strafezon, and found my valk can do some pretty nice damage on player 1. I think it can kill most normal monsters with 3 hit, so yes, it can kill.

 

[tragor]

Well, I'm home now so it's time to admit my mistakes with this build.

First, thanks to all for the ideas. Since she's untwinked I'll just have to hope for Guillaumes or Gore Riders. I'd love some CB but I'll have to wait. For the record, she is a bowazon and will remain one. Trust my luck to pick the low-damage option. :scratch:

Anyway, stats. Here are her numbers. I know I've wasted points. Hey, you learn by doing and when it don't work you ask questions. This clearly isn't working.

Stats: Str 56, Dex 67, Vit 112, Ene 20

Bow skills:
Magic Arrow 7
Cold Arrow 2
Ice Arrow 2
Multi-shot 1
Guided 3
Strafe 5

Passives:
Inner Sight 1
Critical 4
Dodge 1
Avoid 3
Evade 1
Slow Missile 1
Decoy 1
Valk 3
Penetrate 2
Pierce 1

Javelin skills:
nothing

I see wasted points here and there and I'll have to live with that, or at least try to. I can start putting points into Freezing Arrow but it won't be a useful weapon until I can get some serious mana leech. She only has 73 pts mana so a big drain like that will hurt. Casting Valk 3 times sucks her dry. Ditto for 6 Strafe shots. I used MA because it's a low mana weapon so she can spam it. Unfortunately, the damage matches the mana cost.

On the plus side, the fight with Diablo was 45 minutes of terror (one shot of pink lightning would just about kill her) but she survived. Cast Valk, spam MA, recast Valk, etc. until the blue pots run out then run away and start over. The scary part was finding Diablo on the return and hoping he didn't hose her before she knew where he was. Luckily, he always warns you with a fire nova first.

I know I need ML, so that's high on the list for the A5 scavenger hunt. I also want a better bow, preferably a Stag or Reflex with 2 sockets to make Zephyr. But that would mean finding other gear for the ML. Naturally, better armour, too. She has Bloodfist gloves and Gorefoot boots so it'll be a while before she improves on them.

She has two bows, Arctic Horn and a gemmed Composite (ruby, emerald, flawed sapphire). The Horn does better base damage but less total. The poison damage on the composite is 75 but spread over 5 seconds. Which should I use? And does the poison damage stack? It doesn't seem to. If I hit with 5 arrows in a few seconds is that 375 points damage or just 75? The life bars just don't drop fast enough to believe the first.

Ok, that's long-winded enough. Thanks in advance for additional pointers. And feel free to ask "Why the **** did you put points there?". I won't be able to answer but it'll help my next bowazon.

Cheers. Free :drink: for every response.

 

[FrolfFreak]

I don't think the poison stacks; i believe that if you hit again before the timer runs out the timer just gets reset.

I twinked out my hybrid zon with the arctic set from the get-go (yay lvl 2 requirement!). It's a really good set for low-level zons, thanks to the extra cold damage and other nice mods. If you run some of the more popular drop monsters (meph, baal), you should be able to find more pieces of the Arctic set (all you need is two more to get that extra cold damage). ATMA's drop calc can give you a good idea of who your best bet is. Good luck!

-FF

P.S. Big thumbs up for sticking with an untwinked char.

 

[dantose]

with the wasted points I'd just go for a pure strafer. Start pumping strafe to get the damage upafter that's maxed move to maxing valk then decoy (great castable meat sheild for redirecting enemies off your merc) Speaking of mercs, I assume you have or plan to have a HF merc or a might merc (I went with might myselfsince that ups the damage of me him and the valk) so the question is what gear do you have/plan to have?

Vit is higher than you need. start pumping dex instead. If you plan to use hell rack or the burrito canon start tossing a little more in Str too

The good news is pure strafers have enough spare points that the wasted points wont hurt too bad. I mat.-ed mine at a point where I had nothing to spend on but penetrate since all of my other passives were getting killed by diminishing returns.

 

[NSXdreamer]

I have only 100 vit on mine, and have no other +vit item. It worked fine all the way, and didn't really die much (the times I died vit is not gonna help anyway, like FE ancient)

I think you should stop on vit and pump dex like there is no tomorrow, and add to str as equiptment requires. Mine is approaching the 400 mark, and I know people with over 500 of dex, but that's base vit build.