oh and also another case.
In your guide you said in most case GMB would be better but in order for GMB to obtain 7 frame you need 45 ias from helm.
But if you were to use Matriarchal you dont need to pull any ias at all from helm and you can just socket 30 max jewel x 3 this also outputs more dmg when I do the math.
Got it all done.
Double check it if need be.
Tell me if you find something that isn’t making sense with what you are seeing in-game.
If you are very seriously finding higher damage output on the +max over 40%ed in-game, we may be onto discovering a damage bug that exists or possibly a UI bug.
Let me know!
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Not sure what you’re seeing, but I think the way you are adding this up is very different than how the Diablo 2 engine adds things up. The more 40%ed you remove in favor of +15max, you begin to diminish the potential of those +15max jewels because you keep losing more 40%ed. Losing that ed% also effects your entire charm inventory as well as the min and max sides of your weapon damage.
ED% effects everything, but the +15max mods bolster no other sources of damage and must be modified by the amount of ED% that is on the character. The more +max you add, the more ED% you lose, which kind of defeats the purpose of the +max to begin with.
Again though, if you are actually seeing in-game results where +max stacking is somehow adding more damage in D2r than stacking ED%, please let me know.
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Okay thank you very much for your calculation!
Have a blessing day and maybe I will encounter you in one of the room =D
Whats up buddy! How do you think the new announced changes will affect bowa pvp ?
Here is my forecast of what’s going to happen with the current proposed v2.4 changes.
Mainly discussing Amazon here, but I’m going to mention the entire patch in general as well:
- Changes to Impale won’t effect anything in general normal pvp and probably won’t be useful in pvm either. First of all, Impale is just too slow in general. The skill could literally do “1,000,000 physical damage, unblockable, ignores defense” and it would still be too slow of an animation to ever hit anything with teleport or anyone who understands how to click the ground and walk away from the Amazon. However in melee tournaments where people like to pit attribute vs. attribute melee tanks vs. tanks and stand in each other’s faces without moving much, Impale could be useful depending on how these new mechanics work with preventing dodge & block shield animations from interrupting attacks. I will point out that no matter what we are talking about here, you’ll always still need the use of Stormshield in pvp so we are looking at realistically using something like Eth Upgraded Titan’s for the Impale in melee pvp. Using like an EBOTD Mat Spear or Warpike is unrealistic because the Zon wouldn’t have enough DR% in the right places, wouldn’t have blocks, and it would strike so slow that even in a melee ruled environment, people would still side step it too easily for it to ever be viable. In pvm it’s probably not going to be all that great either. People right now are so hopeful about these changes but realistically in the time it takes you strike let’s say Diablo with a single Impale, a simple lv 1 Jab is landing something like 6x hits. So if you were to base 20 Impale looking for big damage, the actual DPS “damage per second” offered by a 700%ed Impale is rather equal to a simple base lv 1 Jab that is rattling off 6x strikes in the time it takes to land 1x Impale. Also, when we are talking real practical use for such single target striking, it is vs. act bosses or UBERS. To survive in melee like that vs. the UBERs, you need to be hitting FAST to be able to continuously proc Life Tap with Drac’s and to be able to hit in quick succession so you are actually stealing health often. Impale is going to completely fail at this. Jab is the only way in melee to do this realistically vs. truly powerful single targets. And this isn’t even to mention that even a lv 1 Jab is going to get 6x chances in that single use to proc Crushing Blows vs. a lv 20 Impale in that same that is only getting 1x chance on a single strike to attempt to land a Crushing Blow. If they want Impale to be useful, they need to make its attack animation standard attack speed and then maybe give a drawback like when you use it, your defense goes to 0 temporarily until the animation ends. Then it would useful in both pvp and maybe in pvm. But Jab is hard to beat as a single target skill for physical based Amazon, due to the several strikes in conjunction with how the mechanics of things like Dracul’s Tap & Open Wounds, and a Goblin Toe’s Crushing Blow procs work. Or alternatively, make Impale a ranged throw skill that can compete with Lightning Fury or Charged Strike bolt passes. Just make the Impale a standard attack speed normal throw animation that deals a lot of damage in a line. This would allow build structures designed around the use of just physical based Java techniques “Jab for single target, Fend for mobs, Impale throw for ranged” in the likeness of a Phalanx play style.
- Fend on the other hand looks like a great change. 100% increased animation speed is fantastic and will definitely make this skill viable in pvm as a mob killer. Players want to imagine that EBOTD Mat Spear or Warpike, but realistically it will be a much stronger attack with the use of say Eth Upgraded Titan’s with a Phoenix Shield or maybe Stormshield if defense is needed. Fend will be insanely fast with 1hand Javas, and still provide the ability to kite & throw when needed. Fend on the other hand in pvp still won’t be used because against single targets it for whatever reasons strikes fewer times than Jab.
- The changes to Lightning Skills are great. Removing the 4th synergy and pushing up the efficiency to synergies from just 3 synergies allows a Lightning based Zon to hybrid itself in many new ways. This may actually make Light based Javazons viable in higher tiered pvp. It will allow them to maintain most of their current damage output but to also pickup other skills such as Plague Javelin for a defensive point or possibly even bow skills that woud deal sufficient damage to use, with enough hybrid point to dump into Crit Strikes. This change here to lightning skills will surely bring in a very large amount of new build structures to be tested in pvp. In pvm I don’t think it will change too much. Javazons will still be dealing generally the same damage ouput but the hybrid points will allow them some room to play with by adding some unique emphasis on their CSer build.
- Plague Javelin is receiving a significant increase in its damage output through Poison Java synergy which is great, but I feel like this buff is in the wrong place and here is why. In the old days all of us Bowa enthusiasts tried so hard to make Plague Javelin a useful skill because it theoretically should provide a good defense point to stand near to deter telestomps, but in higher tiered competition it never really panned out well for one big reason. The damage output was just a bit too low to use as a hybrid skill. You’d need to go at least base 20 Plague and base 10 Poison Java to make it dangerous or you’d need to dip too far into poison related gear to make it dangerous and when you did that, you begin to lose your Bowa based gear & skills or CSer based gear & skills, which is more important to maintain as those are the primary attack methods whereas Plague is always secondary because you cannot win with Plague as primary. What we needed was a flat buff to the base damage of the skill Plague Javelin so we wouldn’t need to dip 10 more points into Poison Java or to dip gear slots for poison gear while abandoning gear dedicated to the primary attack methods of Bowa or CSer. If we could maintain the damage output on just a base 20 Plague Javelin without 10 points into Poison Java or by picking up poison related gear, Bowas and CSers alike could realistically & practically hybrid for the use of Plague Javelin a a defensive mechanic in pvp, which they are going to desperately need after looking at the sheer buffing that some of the other classes have are undergoing. If any devs are reading this, this is the most important part of my feedback that should be paid attention to. The other classes are receiving these buff styles that are allowing not only sheer number buffs, but like attack stacking. Example: The sorc’s skill cool-downs no longer effect each other. So a Sorc could cast Blizzard, immediately switch skill and cast Orb, and immediately switch skill and cast Firewall, and immediately switch back to recast Blizzard, rinse & repeat, avoiding cool-downs. This is a CRAAAAZY strong buff. A single Sorc in v2.4 is going to be capable of the DPS output “damage per second” of 3x Sorcs now. Many of the classes are receiving strooooong buffs like this, Druid & Paladin definitely up there in the categories of veeeeery stroooooong buffs for both pvp and pvm. What the Amazon is getting completely pales in comparison to the sheer buffing that those 3 classes have acquired not statistically but rather mechanically, to be to stack attacks and avoid cool-downs. The Amazon needs something more for both pvp and pvm. The easy answer here is to buff Plague Javelin directly. Give Bowas and CSers or even new Fend melee Zons, a secondary attack they can stack with their primary attacks from Bowa or CSer or Fend. The answer here is Plague Javelin. But the only way to make it worthwhile so the points into Plague are not wasted, is to buff Plague Javelin directly, not Poison Java synergies. No one will ever add to Poison Javelin to bolster Plague Javelin because it can never be a primary attack. The best they can do is give the Amazon a good solid secondary attack stack by just buffing Plague Javelin directly for both pvp and pvm. Amazon is going to need this in both pvp and pvm after the other buffs they are giving to other classes. The statistic buffs to Fend & Strafe is not going to keep up with the kind attack stacking they’ve enabled for other classes. They need to make sure all classes have some method of attack stacking or simply DO NOT create a situation where some classes are stacking attacks whereas others cannot. It’s going to create too large a margin between what classes are viable and which ones are not, in both pvp and pvm. Necro and Barb are the other two classes that did not get granted the ability to stack attacks. Regardless of the statistical gains they are getting, those gains will not compare to enhancements that Paladin, Sorc, Druid, Assassin are getting, in terms of their ability to now stack attacks for massively enhanced DPS values. They very seriously need to review the chemistry of this new intra-class dynamic here before releasing this patch.
- Slow Missiles lol. This is a nice buff but to be honest it’s not really needed in pvm, and it’s always been banned in GM pvp to begin with, at least usually it is. But now with this buff, this skill will definitely be banned in GM pvp and it will create ultra rage in public BM games lolol. I actually think it’s funny. Amazon needed this buff for BM situations, particularly vs. Necros who want to use Bone Prison.
- Reduce cool down of Valkyrie is great. This is actually great for both pvm and pvp. Valk is important for controlling mobs and directing the targeting of things like Guided Arrow or Bone Spirit or Light Sentry or AI summons & mercs. This is a significant buff to survival in both pvp and pvm actually.
- I can’t really comment too much on Dodge/Avoid changes because when I read it I’m not exactly too sure what they mean by this this wording: “The animation can now be interrupted and will no longer lock out the Amazon from performing other actions” What exactly allows the interruption of these? Like if I click an attack skill or click the ground to walk it will interrupt the dodge/avoid and effectively be like I am WSGing out of it? Is this what they mean? If that’s the case that’s great, completely agree with that change and that it was needed. But if that is not what they mean, then I am just not understanding what they mean by this yet ^^
- Magic Arrow is an excellent buff. This will allow any Bowa who was to use my guide as example, an even greater triple damage type method for dealing with physical immunes. So we’ll have sheer physical output, and then Light Bolt to convert physical to lightning, and then a greater conversion of physical into magic with Magic Arrow. This skill should have been designed this way 20 years ago. Excellent patching.
- Guided Arrow is receiving a slight buff of 5% to 7% per point added. This is a decent little buff that Bowa needed and it will be impactful in pvp for sure. But in pvm it’s not going to make much of a difference because Strafe is going to end up being the new single target killer for a ranged Bowa skill.
- Strafe is receiving a rather large buff where it will now deal standard attack damage amplified by its inherent ed% rather than being nerfed to 3/4ths weapon damage. This is extremely impactful in pvm. First of all, this not only will make Strafe on par with Multi at least in close to mid range but in probably about half the situations you are in after this buff, Strafe will probably end up yielding greater DPS vs. condensed mobs in close to mid range than Multi. Guarantee you Multi will still be better vs. truly high density mobs that number 20-30+ targets that span for 2 screens, such as in cows. But Strafe while running through more enclosed areas such as Arcane Sanctuary is definitely going to end up being more effective than Multi even if the creatures aren’t quite all in a straight line. Strafe will also now transcend the DPS values of Guided Arrow while attacking a single target. If you want to target a single target in middle of a large mob, GA will still be better obviously due to how Strafe targeting works. But if there is only one target on the screen, Strafe will surely out-DPS GA after this patch drops. What we are probably going to see, is a true split between pvm Bowa builds and pvp Bowa builds after this Strafe change. Pvm Bowas are now going to opt to max Strafe over Guided Arrow, whereas pvp Bowas will still need to keep Guided Arrow maxed and will leave Strafe base lv 1. Strafe can SOMETIMES be good in pvp if you can catch someone offguard with it at the right time, but this is extremely difficult to do vs. higher tiered opponents, and as such maxing Strafe for pvp will never be an efficient build structure. It is also too difficult to fool by casting a summon behind a Zon before telestomping in, which confuses the Strafe. Also in public games where many people and many AIs are in the field, Strafe targeting becomes a mess. Overall, I definitely feel like the change to Strafe is good.
- The Elemental Arrow changes are definitely along the lines of what I wanted to see, particularly the buff to Immolation Arrow. This 100% damage buff will make magezon builds actually viable in pvm. This change to Immolation Arrow even made me consider if I wanted to play through as a magezon during ladder season 1 for something different to do ^^ These changes however will effect nothing in pvp. These Elemental Arrow skills just doesn’t possess the inherent utility they need to be viable in pvp.
- New Runewords in relation to Amazon → Allowing Insight in a Bow is great! Don’t get me wrong, it’s great. Bowas really needed a more convenient way to tag DPS output during a walkthrough. On the other hand, it pretty much eliminates any relevant purpose to use any other bow outside of Buriza, Windforce, and then Faith. But you know what? Maybe that’s fine. So we are looking at a progression of finding the first decent 4os bow you get around lv 30 more than likely and bam you have an insight that is nearly as good as a Goldstrike. Then of course you want to aim at obtaining a Buriza through trading the moment you get a decent mid level rune, and then of course aim at that Windforce the moment you find like an Ist or something around there. Then work on building that Faith. If someone were to give you a good hand-me-down or if you played a character first in the season and saved a 4os bow for your Bowa to start, the runes to use an Insight will be lv 27 so you’d want to aim at having a 4os Gothic Bow or a Large Siege Bow, which bother hover around 26 to 30 average damage and are usable at lv 25, to hold you till you can get that Buriza. But seeing as how the runes to make Insight are so abundant, you can easily just work with whatever you get at the time. On the other hand, The new runeword Mist for bows, is disappointing. It’s not that the runeword is BAD, it’s that it’s not good enough for the investment of Cham and Gul, to be a useful midway option on the journey to obtaining a Faith. First of all, this runeword even if in a Hydra Bow, is only about as effective as a Buriza even with that Concentration aura. No one is going to burn a Cham & Gul into a Mist when they could just use Buriza. Second of all, Windforce is just a lot better than Mist statistically and can be obtained even early season with just an Ist rune. Thirdly, the Concentration aura on it is kind of a problem actually because ideally the Bowa wants to have an Act 2 Offensive Might Merc wielding a Pride Polearm for a much higher level Concentration in conjunction with the Might, and then of course the Bowa gets Faith to have the triple aura with Fanatacism. So not only are Buriza & Windforce equal or better bows in terms of DPS output than Mist, but they are also both obtained through far cheaper means than building this Mist runeword. The Concentration aura would be nice at early end-game before you had a chance to build Pride and/or Faith, but this is simply not realistic because it requires Cham and Gul. If Mist required like “Um Shael Amn Ith Nef” ok, now that would be worth making and using for awhile. But as soon as any of those runes required go above Um, people are just going to save that rune to trade to get a Windforce. What I would have liked to see was a new bow runeword that actually helped make magezon builds viable. Ice doesn’t get the job. All Frostmaidens or Magezons eventually realize that the physical damage on Faith and the Fanat is just worth more than what Ice provides, even on Frostmaidens or Magezons. What they needed to do was drop a new good runeword that made the usage of the new buffs to all Elemental Arrows, awesome and comprable to physical Bowas in pvm.
Some side notes, other thoughts, about the current proposed patch changes in general:
- I am generally happy and excited about these changes. I was worried at first but after reading the intended changes, I liked the direction they were taking in terms of enabling more diverse build structures. This is an excellent route to take. For example, condensing synergies for a skill into 3 synergies that are all a little higher than normal, rather than needing to add to 4 synergies to get the DPS output. This enables more points to be skewed across the builds in diverse ways.
- However, I do feel there is too much general power creep happening statistically in attribute-tied ways across the intra-class dynamic. This is also important and I really hope the game devs see this and consider it. → Diablo 2 is already a game where end-game characters are clearing Chaos sanctuary in 3 minutes solo in an 8 player game, as well as Baal runs. With too much power creep we are very seriously going to be looking at 60 second Chaos clears and more waiting around for spawns at Baal than actual fighting because mobs are going to spawn and be dead in .15 seconds even from mediocrely built characters. I am afraid that this feel of “entering a game and it’s done in 60s” is going to very quickly become redundant and extremely obnoxious. This problem will become exasperated and infinitely complained about in this forum when an end-game post patch character can enter a game with such high DPS and kill speed, that in about the 6 minutes that he enters “Hell a1 let’s start” he can clear Baal, Chaos, kill Mephisto, kill Andariel, and probably have time to find Duriel with a 10 minute run if he really wanted to. The absolute clear speeds from these buffs we are about to get, is just too much power creep in a game that does not need power creep. I’ve been saying it for a long time now, we need a reason to STAY in games with each other longer for one main reason and that is “Social Cohesion”. D2 games flip way too fast already. You don’t have time to meet anyone and chat before objectives are completed and people begin leaving games or games are ruined by guys picking off act bosses before players get to them. It’s we are constantly needing to make a new game every 10 to 15 minutes or in some cases 3 to 6 minutes when people are following runs. The enhanced lv 85 areas will be good for this, when it comes to closed groups of friends who follow each other’s private games. But the enhanced lv 85 areas will not be so good for public game social cohesion. People will just fight over the lv 85 areas and fight over drops. Due to this, when it comes to public game play, high levels want to find games where they are the only high level who is farming those areas so they get all the drops and all the XP. This is what leads to public games being ruined when some guy wants to walk through the game and make friends while doing it but there is always a lvl 90+ Hammerdin clearing the game and ruining all the quests, just about every time a game is created. Sheer attribute-tied power creep is not going to help this problem. It will make it worse and probably put more stress on the servers because it will likely double the amount of new games being created constantly. And this is going to be really annoying to keep up with for any player. The mechanical patch changes to allow more build diversity is great and excellent in every way, but the sheer attribute-tied power creep absolutely needs to stop. Diablo 2 does not need power creep for the aforementioned reasons above.
- Amazon, Necro, and Barb, are not getting nearly as large of buffs as Assasin, Sorc, Druid, and Paladin. As I said before, we aren’t just looking at attribute statistic tied buffs here, we are looking at how mechanical changes will effects things. Removing cool-downs is a MASSIVE buff. What Sorcs and Ele Druids are going to be able to do after this patch will be insane in both pvm and pvp. They need to cull back these enormous buffs or make sure Amazon, Necro, Barb are also given some ways to stack attacks like this for the sake of both pvm and pvp or we will inevitably have a large margin of discrepancy between what is viable and overly strong and what is weak and undesirable to play at all, in both pvm and pvp. It’s already begun with Assassin. Assassin changes thus far have made the class incredibly bloated and overpowered in pvp.
~ Sorry for the thesis. I had just exited a discord conversation about all of this and then pretty much came here and regurgitated it all in this thread for the entertainment of anyone who was bored enough to actually read all of this ^^
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Whats the best all around jewel you would recommend socketing into a Stormshield?
The 156 str req is a bit stiff tbh.
Depends on how much IAS you have while javside.
You want to make sure you’re maintaining 90%ias for max 9fpa throw.
Mat Javs, Winged Harpoons, Hyperions, are the fastest and can achieve 9fpa with only 90%ias.
If you have less than 90%ias javside, just put a 40%ed/15%ias jewel into the Stormshield.
If you have 90%ias javside already, you’re open to use a godly rare jewel in the Stormshield.
These are the kinds of mods you are looking for in a godly rare jewel.
Just remember to avoid the jewel bug. In other words, do not put a jewel into the Stormshield that has both enhanced % and +min or +max. For it to not bug, it has to have only enhanced damage % or only max and min. Don’t blend the two or it bugs.
- Prefix +10 all res
- Prefix 30% enhanced damage
- Prefix +9 max damage
- Suffix +10 min damage
- Suffix +4 life replenish
- Suffix -15% requirements
^ You’d want to find something like that if you didn’t need to use the 40%ed/15%ias.
~ Edit
The jewel bug only allows ed% and +max/min if it’s put into a weapon. It always bugs if in helm armor or shields. Sorry, I actually misinformation originally.
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ok thank you very much!
I think its the first time I disagree with you. PvM Java got nerfed pretty hard. Brutally at lvls 30-50 and a bit less all the way to Infinity. Thing is they took synergy to CS from LF and LF is not a skill you take for its synergy (like for example Teeth are) you take it to max it. Removing synergy from the skill you max anyway, cant be considered a buff. While overall CS actually got buffed by 40% (go figure), you need 50 SP to break even - that doesnt really free points its locking them. It is actually even more painful with Fend buff, which could be alternative to LR wand. Right now it seems you may be better of going LF/Fend + passives and then respecing.
As for Ele buffs - Kuku is already most optimal way to get you going (with Strafe + Peace second) if it will get in the range of the EA buff (higher skill lvls) then it may make starting ladder with bowa much more pleasant.
40ed/15@ias
or
40ed/ -15% requirement
Very nice write up!
20 chars
@TSBoyer
You mentioned for the PVP build to have Lacerator and Double Up’d Swordback Hold for the open wounds. However, is open wounds viable? Versus a player, the damage is divided by 4. With a missile weapon versus a player, the damage is divided by 8.
Is it still worth it to use these items?
The Lacerator is mainly for Amp Damage proc.
The Swordback Open Wounds is mainly for dealing with EShield Sorcs.
EShield prevents all hard damage from touching the Sorc’s life bar. However, Poison and Open Wounds goes directly under EShield and effects the life bar normally.
When you use both Lacerator and Swordback Hold, the combination of Amp Damage and the Open Wounds will tear apart EShield Sorc.
Swordback Hold in ZvZ specific matches also matters over the course of time. If you fire a volley of GA let’s say, and you know they will hit, if you swap to that Swordback before they land, that bit of Open Wounds does matter.
I’ve seen a lot of people lately say this about “ranged with open wounds is bad” and this is simply not true. It doesn’t deal a much damage as melee OW does, but melee OW is honestly OP in pvp. Ranged OW certainly deal good damage still.
You can also use that Lac & Swordback vs. a few other things:
- BvC who has no shield = Lacerator & Stormshield can be easy kills if he doesn’t know how to keep pressure on you. Against a BvA with a shield however, you absolutely must use Stormshield.
- Necro = Lacerator & Swordback if he is pure VITA and has no block. If he has max block, you’ll need Javelins & Swordback so you can throw Lightning Bolt to under his block % and deliver the Open Wounds. If you don’t use this method, max block necro is a losing match up for Bowazon. ← See these Open Wound procs are more important in pvp than most people realize.
- Same thing with Ele Druids as with Necro ^ Depending on if he’s max block or pure VITA, depends on which method you’ll want to use. If he’s pure VITA with low block you can get away with wielding Lac & Swordback. Sometimes you may want to do Lac & Storm because the Storm has DR% vs the Tornado damage. Other times, and usually honestly, in higher tiered duels, vs. Druid it’s better to go Javs & Phoenix if he is pure VITA. When it gets close to you, try to land high pressure physical Fury side damage as quickly as possible before it teles away or has a chance to stomp you. That immediate high pressure Fury with Phoenix is what will chew through summons immediately and allow you to hit the Druid to cull his offensive before he lands it. It is often in this situation vs Ele Druid that the extra offense from Phoenix is more worth defense than Stormshield, in this particular match up. IF he’s max block you’ll need to use jav & Stormshield as he will be able to get through initial missile spam and stomp you and you’ll need the DR% vs. Tornado. You also can’t Light Bolt him for any meaningful damage while wearing Stormshield because you have no Open Wounds and his Cyclone Armor will sorb the Light damage. So you end up having a difficult match vs max block Ele Druid.
- Hammerdins = Chew these guys up with Lacerator/Swordback proc swapping. If they are using Charge/Smite you’ll need to use Javs & Storm or Phoenix. Also with auras after this next patch, Phoenix is going to become important vs Holy Fire spam.
- Assassin = Again, depending on what its build is, depends on what you can get away with. But generally vs most Assassin builds, you’re looking at wanting to stay jav & Stormshield.
- Bowas = Kiting and using Swordback Hold is very effective but you will need to stay with Javelins. If you swap to any weapon other than Javs or Thrown Daggers on an Amazon, your block speed goes WAAAY down and it won’t be worth it vs. another Bowa who is constantly throwing missiles at you. Here you need to well understand how to walk and how to run and when to do it, to make sure you have max block when arrows begin to hit. Also, if the other Bowa gets too close, if you can tag it with a melee strike on Jab, the Open Wounds will be a lot more damage. The use of Swordback in ZvZ though, requires a certain type of ZvZ gear swap though. This includes use of Vampire Gaze for more DR% bowside, Verdungo, and a 60/160 Jeweler’s armor. Best way to engage other Bowas.
- Against CSers or any other zon hybrids, if you can kite away from them, you can win easily with bully statistics. You just need to have equal or more FRW than they do.
- Again EShield Sorc = Lac/Swordback just destroys EShield Sorcs or any Sorc for that matter. Just understand how to proc swap the Amp/OW “where you fire some GA and then swap and hold Lac/Sword while the GAs hit”. The Amp/OW will proc when the GA hit, so long as you are holding Lac/Sword when they hit. Smart Sorc who REALLY want to kill your Bowa will stat for EShield and max block. In this event, you have to use javs & Swordback. So you can throw Light Bolt to get under the block % to deliver the OW. This is the hardest EShield to deal with and it has a reasonable chance of actually killing you.
But to answer your question more directly with a different kind of a perspective, if you were in let’s say a ZvZ and it would normally take you 12 successful GA strikes to kill the other zon, with Open Wounds working off Swordback, it would likely only take you about 8 to 9 strikes to kill that same zon. This is good rough estimate of the OW effectiveness on ranged. Of course there is more to the tradeoff of this than what it seems, as you would be losing some block speed which effects your ability to defend when players get close range, but I’m not going to go into all of that here just yet ^^
When they hammer out this new patch, which I’ve been waiting for, there will be a new updated pvp techniques list in this guide. I didn’t want to write it up yet imminently before a patch dropped, because a lot is going to change.
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Thank you for the quick reply, and as always, extremely thorough. I completely overlooked the amp mod on the lacerator.
Read through your 2.4 forecasts now looking forward to your 2.4 assessment now that PTR is live (especially on the zon).
Would be interested in seeing a pvp commentary on the build to understand how to duel properly similar to your pvm showcase!
Thanks again for the awesome guide and thorough explanations!
Don’t be fooled by new Impale boys, base lv 1 Jab is still better as the go to single target crusher:
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Hi,
A lot of writing and nothing to show.
- Guided Arrow - Attack Rate: 7 frames (3.57 hits per second)
- Multiple Shot - Attack Rate: 7 frames (3.57 hits per second)
Basically this is all you need. You can change gloves for PVM using “Laying of Hands”
Link to the build → [bowzon] d2 maxroll gg/d2planner/o20106gh
They’re saying impale bypasses defense and block, and is uninterruptible. I think they also said on a thread a few days ago that D/A/E do not disrupt attacks or movement anymore, so that means it’s just a matter of slugging it out at melee range now. I think the real point of impale may now be to 1-shot people, depends on whether you can get sufficient attack frames w/ ebotd and stuff. Just theorycrafting but it looks like nothing can outrange a zon now with D/A/E not locking you on the spot anymore, so the point may just be to get a guided train on them and then see if you can 1-shot them when they get close. You can either impale or jab them but without other offhand multipliers other than fort or 160/60, jab is probably only useful for kb lock or getting a quick attack before they tele away. But if you think they are going to stand there and attack a few times then just impale them for the 1-shot. I reckon in some MUs you don’t really need jav+ss on switch
Impale is simply not practical to use:
- You can no longer weapon swap from bow to jav or jav to bow while maintaining a name lock because D2r made it so skills not attached to the currently equipped weapon are red and locked out and that when you swap to a different weapon, any previous skill equipped that was redded out, will default to normal attack. In the old D2original, you could obtain a name lock with GA on right click and swap to Light Fury on bowside before swapping to Javside, and then when you swap to Javside it would maintain the name lock and automatically begin firing Light Fury with the name lock. This could have been used with Impale in the same way, to attempt to surprise someone who came in on a telestomp. This cannot be done in D2r without playing an impractical game of finger-piano, revolving around using unsummon skill on right clicks during swaps before changing to an actual skill to maintain the name lock. This is not so easy to do as it seems. You’re worrying about toggling 3 buttons to do this rather than 2, and in pvp when a split second matters everything, this ends up being rather impractical most of the time.
- Impale is also just very very slow. To actually land a blind haymaker Impale like this, you would need to hope that the opponent tried to tele in at the exact right frame for the Impale to actually strike at the end of its animation. If the opponent came in early or a little after, he would see the Impale animation and just tele right back out before the slow strike landed. This is not difficult to do with a 125%fcr Necro or a 200%fcr Sorc, as examples. This also isn’t to mention that during the Impale animation, the Zon is locked into a position for what is considered “too long” for pvp. In the time it takes for that Impale to land, a ww Barb or a Smiter as example, will kill you before you can frw away. And no, there is no possible way to survive a Barb WW using GriefZ/BeastZ if you are standing there with no shield. The Zon needs to keep moving and it needs 75% block and 50% DR.
- The range won’t matter off a 2hander. Everything that you fight that’s melee just teleports on top of your head anyway. In this regard, a javelin’s melee range is as good as a War Pike or Matriarchal Spear, but the javelin is much faster and allows you the 75% block and 50% DR Javside.
- But ultimately, the biggest flaw with Impale is not only its speed which is impractical in pvp, but for some reason Impale does not work with Critical Strike. Due to this, the base damage off of individual Jab strikes deals just as much damage as an Impale but they strike much much faster and roughly 4x to 5x in the time it takes Impale to land once. Watch that video I posted again, notice that the Impale strikes do not crit, but the base lv 1 Jab strikes nearly all crit and hit very hard and very fast.
If they were to allow Impale to crit and if they increased its animation speed a little bit, the skill could be useful. But as it is now, Impale isn’t even on the list of viable skills to use in pvp or in pvm for that matter. Even if it were unblockable, it’s just way too slow to realistically land a strike on any pvper who is paying attention who wants to win.
As far as pvm is concerned, using 2hand weapons is just a bad idea in hell diff. When that unique pack of Death Lords rides up on you with Extra Fast Fanat Cursed while they all are using Frenzy on you, it’s a no win situation unless you’ve got ranged to use or 75% block and heavy DR% to sustain.
I am not saying that a person can’t or shouldn’t play a fun melee zon build using Impale, but I am saying that a base lv 1 Jab is better than a lv 20 Impale because it really really is.