miscellaneous ramblings;
Made my first Bowazon.
She was a slow starter, and a difficult mid gamer, but has picked up a tonne (metric, so that’s a lot) of pace with gear stolen from mules.
She’s essentially a Freezing Arrow buld with Ice, faceted Nightwings and some other decent stuff. (SilkWeaves, mana per hit ring, ok-ish mana 2/20 gloves… bla bla…
Long version of the question;
To utilize the “mana-stolen-per-hit” on my ring, what skill should I use to optimize this?
I currently use Magic Arrow, but from my understanding, the more Magic you have the less (physical) you leach… and right now I am converting 77% physical for magic… so, pretty poor return on mana.
To the point;
What skill is best utilized to leach Mana on the Bowazon?
Strafe
But the physical damage is not high on elemental bowazon, so Mana After Each Kill is the way to go. Silkweaves are very good. Crafted caster gloves with 3 MAEK is also very very good, because it can have +2 bow skills and 20% IAS.
With Might from merc, you’ll leech some mana, but its not much. So, its not good to rely on mana leech on elemental bowazons
1 Like
Thank you.
I do have +3 MaeK on the 2/20 gloves… along with the SilkWeaves.
Ring has 5% Mana stolen per hit. (other is a Raven Frost).
Have a Nosfer belt with another +2 MaeK, but would loose pierce from RazorTail.
Also have an Arach’s belt, but would again loose RazorTail.
Could swap either belt. but would really struggle get max Pierce without RazorTail.
Currently running a Prayer Merc with Insight… maybe going to a Might Merc might alter my short-comings.
Hmmmm.
You can also get +3 MaeK (and 15IAS) on jewels, so you could put that in your Nightwings. It may help you reach a breakpoint, depending on your bow.
Thank you.
I Respec’d, had zero points down the middle… was worth the 3 points to get the mana leach on top of my MaeK.
Also just traded my Prayer Merc for a Might… fingers crossed that works out :).
Thank you.
Using a GMB, 'cause, it is what I had made some time ago for an Act1 Merc on a different character… for this Zon with the Ice bow and the cold explosion wrecking as hard as it does I am not chasing an IAS break point… and my NightWings has a 5/5 facet in it… from the same Act1 Merc that I abandoned some time ago… that Merc also had a perfect cold Ormus with a 5/5 in it… she sure did turn the screen blue
Much appreciate you both advising and suggesting.
Thanks again.
1 Like
I run my ice in a Matriarchal Bow, and the 15IAS jewel gets me to an 8 frame attack, compared to 10 frames on the GMB with no jewel. It’s really down to gameplay preference. Mine way can shoot 20% faster, but yours has a better chance of killing in one shot. Both ways make a fun build. 
1 Like
OK BowaZon pro’s…
TLDR - what are you utilizing for DClone?
Left my game on last night (whoops) and today Dclone was waiting for me… We put up a good fight but just could not get it done… my 3rd trip back to town to resurrect Ilzan, I said frig this and went and got my Zeal/Smiter Pally.
20/15/6… ehn.
Right now I have max’d Cold & Freezing arrow (20/41 after +skills - only 1/22 point in Ice arrow)… 16/37 into Magic arrow and 2/23 into Strafe.
Just realized I have too much in Pierce 4 points for 110% total with RazorTail.
5/14 into Avoid & Evade - 6/15 into Penetrate- 8/17 into Valkyrie, 1/10 into all others.
I have 2 skill points unused, and could recover 2or3 from Pierce…
Have Tokens on a mule.
Dclone is hard for a Bowa. It takes a long time, and a lot of mana because you’re not killing anything. It generally requires swapping some gear. Some points would be:
- You need open wounds or prevent monster heal on you (not merc). Usually I get this from Gore Riders.
- Crushing blow is halved for ranged, so it’s better if you can get it on your Merc. It depends which one you’re using. Frenzy Barb with grief and last wish is very nice if you have the budget. For an Act 2 merc, infinity is good because it has crushing blow and lowers Dclone’s defense. He’ll be harder to keep alive than an Act5 merc, so make sure he has high leech. Damage doesn’t matter as much crushing blow and leech, so CoH is good.
- While crushing blow is halved, it’s still going to be faster than freezing arrow. For the helm you could use Gface, or even Giant Skull with IAS jewels. If you have 2/20 gloves with crushing blow, you can also swap them in here.
- Guided arrow always hits and is cheaper on mana. Only switch to freezing arrow at the end.
- Your Valkyrie can provide a decent distraction to keep him still and off you, if she’s strong enough.
I hope this helps. Let us know how you go.
1 Like
Thank you.
I am certain I have all of those items on other charters or mules… I shall add them to my shared stash. (well, do not have 2/20 SB gloves but definitely have 20ias CB gloves… CoH I would have to make but have base and runes… currently Act2 merc has 10%LL Andys, 30 @res Fort and an Infinity)
Guided arrow… as of now I have a have heavy investment into magic arrow (for cold immune)… and a few points into Strafe for mana leach, tho to be honest I am using magic arrow more for mana leach than I am Strafe… hmmm… might use up another Token to get stronger Guided.
Valk is only at 17 points (total)… 2 to 5 into synergies. Hmmm.
Your Act2 merc sounds well geared, so he’d probably do alright as is. Especially if you have a decent Valkyrie. Decoys can also help.
The guided arrow is just to apply crushing blows, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be strong; it just needs to hit. It uses less mana at lower levels, but also more damage is more leech, so you can balance how you like. Freezing arrow will be your damage source once crushing blow stops doing it’s thing. Until then it’s basically all about crushing blow and not burning through all of your mana, because you will at the end when you switch to Freezing Arrow.
Good luck!
Looking through my Bows and I have;
Windforce with a Ber in it. (20 Crushing, big physical).
Wrath in a +3 GMB (30%ctc Decrep, 5%ctc Lifetap, PMH and 20 Crushing)
WitchWild with 2-Shael’s in it. (2%ctc Amp (if it procs) 90 Deadly Strike, 40@res).
Could swap (or even weapon swap on character) for Dclone… along with the following gear…
For gear I have - Gface, Gores, 20ias/10% CB gloves (no +skills)
Any idea which would be better (Wind/Wrath/Witch, hmm, all “W” bows…) ?
I’ll be honest, I’m liking the look of Wrath (would also allow a RavenFrost - SoJ swap).
Valk probably needs work, she’s only lvl17 (total including +skills)… probably need to add points to Critical Strike and Decoy… which I could steal from Strafe and MagicArrow.
Regardless of which bow I use (stash/swap) for Dclone, I need to respec to add points to Dex, as when I swap NightWings (+20Dex) for GFace, I fall 17-32 Dex points short depending on which Bow we are looking at.
From what I understand, adding Dex to the Bowazon is always a good thing, so, there is that.
I think I’ll respec anyways to get a more efficient Valk.
I have never used Decoy… probably should learn how that works.
Looking forward to your (anyone’s) thoughts/theory-crafting on the above… and as always, thank you.
Wrath would be good, but to be honest you can kill him with and edge (runeword) bow. Don’t worry a lot about damage. Attack speed and crushing blow are the focus, along with a source of prevent monster heal or open wounds.
The Valkyrie/Decoy don’t need to be fully maxed or anything. They just need to last a bit so that you have time to attack and aren’t just constantly re-casting them. I would think your level 17 valkyrie is plenty, but it’s really a quality of life decision, so you can pretty much do whatever level you like.
More dex is good for attack rating and physical damage, but neither of those are really needed here because guided arrow always hits and we only care about crushing blow. When you switch to damage, you’ll be back on your freezing arrow. Putting more points into dex is fine, but it doesn’t have the same impact as on a physical bowazon.
I don’t usually worry about min-maxing to this level on for Dclone on a bowazon, because it’s not one of her main targets. Just swapping a couple of items will get the job done. Gore riders have both crushing blow and open wounds, so even just swapping the boots and using guided arrow can get you there. More crushing blow just helps it go a bit faster. Usually, I consider swapping the boots and helm to be enough, giving 50% crushing blow. If you use Wrath, you can also switch the boots to goblin toes, then with Gface you end up with 80% crushing blow. That should nail him down pretty quickly.
1 Like
Freeze Arrow Zon has the best Crowd Control in the game and generally sacrifices some Life for Mana and puts some points into intellect.
Sorry, didnt noticed you already used Silkweaves. I played a long time with Ice Bowazon, its very fun and very strong, can do P8 with easy. But it’s main problem is the mana sustain - I didnt use silkweave because I thought it didnt helped that much, instead I used a 3 resist boots. But maybe today I would use it.
I think the best way to solve mana problems with Ice Bowazon is investing many points into energy - my gameplay got much better and fluid after I did this.
Also, I totally dont think Insight worth it. As a temporary, its good, but Infity gives so much damage thats much better, and also heps a lot reducing cold immunes resistance.
I made a guide for Ice Bowazon in this forum, take a look and talk about what you think, Im sure it you help you, just keep in mind that theres no really efficient way to deal with intense mana use aside from investing many points into energy.
Finally got another DClone.
Swapped in Wrath, Gface, Gores and 20ias/10CB gloves…
Merc went night-night after feeding him a few rejuv’s (my reaction time is too slow to keep him alive), and not long after so too did the Valk… I’m too dumb to recast another Valk, and have yet to use the Decoy… so there I was, Bowazon vs DClone…
I was also too dumb to use Guided, and just rolled Freeze and Magic… Ha.
So there I was running/tp’n for my life and tossing a few arrows when I could… while running low in HP’s/Rjev’s/Mana’s… With DClone jumping my poo at every opportunity…
As absolutely terrible/dumb as I played that situation… I succeeded /survived the battle and was rewarded with an awesome 11/12/5 Anni… LOL!
1 Like
Haha, you got him. Congrats! With this experience, you’ll be more ready next time. You know all the steps and can relax a bit more. And, maybe next time he’ll have a nicer Anni for you.
1 Like