Tweaking My WF Build

[:1]So I've been working on several characters since starting up again a month or so again, but I really think my favorite at the moment is my WF Bowazon. As such I'm trying to maximize its power before the ladder reset and was looking for any suggestions.

This is a PvM character only

First my stats.

Strength- 144 (134 required for WF, + 10 from WF, don't want to strength glitch equip on)

Vit- Base

Energy-Base

Dexterity-Rest

I don't really see what I could change with the stats, but any suggestions are still welcome.

Now equipment.

Helm- Andariel's Visage (30 Str, 10% Life Leech, socketed with IAS jewel)

Bow- Windforce (Socketed with Amn)

Gloves- Laying of Hands

Boots- War Travelers

Belt- Razortail

Rings- 2x Ravenfrost (both 19 dex 230+ AR)

Amulet- Cat's Eye (also have Highlords but I like the FRW on this)

Armor- Superior Dusk Shroud Fortitude, 28 res all, lowest life roll.

Switch- Harmony Great Bow (helps with Physical Immunes)

In my stash I have a number of life/AR/Damage/Poison charms, as well as a 16 stat zon torch. I also have an Atma's scarab I can put on if I run into any really nasty physical immune (namely venom lords, their elemental resist is so high that Harmony takes forever)

Merc: A1 Cold Arrow

Weapon- Faith Great Bow (Lvl 14 fanat, 2 skills)

Armor- Treachery (don't remember the base, good for IAS and Fade makes up for Andy's -fres)

Helm- Andy's (8% LL I believe)

This is really where I'm looking for suggestions. I will be rolling another Fortitude in a 15%ed Superior Great Hauberk today so I will get more defense and hopefully a better life roll (plus it looks better). The other fortitude will go to one of my other chars likely, although I would consider using it on my merc if people think I will really need it, but I don't think it would change my killing speed at all really.

As for the other equipment I'm definitely open to other ideas. I think Fortitude is a given. I will not sub out the WF for a Faith GMB since this is a WF build. I had a shael in the WF before the Amn (was using Dracs but switching to LoH gave me the IAS but lost me some leech), but if my calculations are correct I hit the last multishot/guided arrow breakpoint with my current setup (with fanat on) so I don't need a Shael. Any other options for socketing, as I feel I could get away with only the LL from Andy's? I would love a Jah for the ITD but I don't think I want to pay that much for one. Any other ideas?

I'm pretty sure LoH and War Travs are the best bet for this build, I used Gores for a bit but I prefer the War Travs slightly. Razortail likewise is sort of a necessity for 100% Pierce. I'm looking for a decent Ias/ED jewel for my Andy's as well. I could get a CTA on switch but I get hit so rarely health isn't really an issue, just trying to increase kill speed. Ideally I would upgrade the Torch, the RFs and get an Anni, but those are all obvious things, I'm more looking for problems with my build.

Finally Skills:

This could actually probably use more fixing than my equip. I am a multishot zon mostly, so don't suggest switching to Strafe (also having Faith and not using multishot is just a plain waste).

I have +5 to all skills I believe (torch + Andy's), I will list the hard points spent though. I'm level 86 with all skill quests done, so that's 97 hard points

Jav/Spear: None

Passive/Magic:

1 in all prereqs

? Critical Strike (I don't remember exactly how many, but I think I hit 59% after + skills)

1 in each of Dodge/Avoid/Evade (+ skills brings them to 6 which is fine)

4 in Pierce (+ skills brings to lvl 9 which is 69% which gives 100% with Razortail)

20 Valk

10 Decoy?

20 penetrate

Bow/Xbow:

1 in all prereqs

15 multishot (+ skills brings me to 20)

20 guided arrow (used for single monsters/bosses)

1 Strafe (+ skills brings to 6 which gives max 10 arrows)

The rest of my points will probably go into decoy.

Any ideas what to change with this? Since my Valk is my only tank and I have low health she needs to be maxed and have a decent decoy synergy. Very little can kill her. Any other ideas though?

Any help/ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, even if its only a tiny tweak.

Thanks in advance|||There is not really much to suggest on this build, you pretty much have the optimum setup available. Your skill placement is all correct, and your obviously going for a dexazon build which works great sinct your using cat's eye (25 dex) and 2 ravenfrosts. With a max level of penetrate you should not have any attack rating problems so I feel that the ignore target defense of the Jah would be a waste as hitting standard monsters should not be a problem and it doesn't work against bosses.

To really max out your damage you can do a couple things, if you think you can do without the amn in the windforce, switch it out for an ohm, that will provide a nice 50% on your weapon, although ohm is still fairly expensive, another option is put a ed/ias jewel in your weapon, and then you can take the ias jewel out of your helm and put something else useful. If you feel you still want some element of crushing blow you can throw a ber in the windforce, but once again slightly costly.

Cheap alternative? Put a nef in for knockback, or an eth for -25% target defense, which in fact does work against bosses if only at half efficiency.|||Well I was figuring with the Jah I could respec and not have to worry about penetrate, which would give me a few more points for decoy and a higher strafe. But yes it is quite pricey.

I'm looking for a nice ED/IAS jewel, but they are reasonably expensive to very expensive, and chances are it would go in my helmet. Ohm is ok but since WF already has like 250% ED its effects arent as great. Ber is interesting to help with bosses, but this char isn't much of a boss killer no matter how you set it up (minimal MF too).

Eth is interesting but I think I prefer the Amn. If I can get a very good dual leech ring I could sacrifice one RF and maybe consider one, but as you said I don't really have problems hitting. Nef would be useless since WF has built in Knockback.

Thanks for the suggestions though, I suppose I've just gotta find some nice jewels to fully tweak it.

Also, that new fortitude I said I was rolling came out with the Max life roll and 29 res. Essentially perfect and in possibly the perfect armor for my build. SWEET!|||Forgot about the built in knockback of windforce, so yes Nef would be pointless, you could use the Jah and respec like you suggest but as I said it wouldn't help you hit bosses, if your not worried about running bosses then the ber is also useless, as you only really need the crushing blow for them. Your original post made it seem like you could get by without the amn which is why I suggested the rune change. I still think Ohm will probably be the best choice, I know 50% doesn't seem like much, but since its in your weapon the base number your multiplying against will make the overall damage numbers higher.

Weapon with 250% ed * dex bonus * Fanac bonus * Fort bonus * (LOH demon bonus if applies) versus a weapon with 300% ed with all those bonuses could turn out to be a pretty sizable number.|||For a pure MS zon, I'd go with Highlords for the amulet. You have Harmony on switch for when you need to cover ground, and the ~30% DS you get from Highlords will add a lot more to your DPS than the 25 dex.

Also, like he said, you dont need Amn on your bow, find something to boost your physical damage. Check your stated CTH in the LCS, with all your stats and Faith merc it should be pretty close to 95% already, which is essentially what you'd get with Eth or Jah, so it'll be up to you if you think you'll get more DPS by boosting your damage or your CTH.|||I tried Highlords for a while, but due to the way CS and DS are compounded 30% DS is equivalent to adding only about 12 to my chance to do double damage. Now that is significant but I don't think it makes up for the FRW and Dex bonus.

I think I'm going to socket an Ohm. That should be an increase of about 1/7th of my damage which is quite significant.

One last thing Pyro, when you calculate damage the Bonuses from Fort/Fanat/Loh/Dex are added together, not multiplied. Just a heads up (the only one I'm not sure about is Dex)|||Scollin i am under the impression that if DS fails then it rolls CS or the other way around. If you were to switch war travelers for gores and cats eye for highlord you would have around a 60ish % chance to CS and a 45ish % chance to DS throw in some 20 ias crafted GG gloves and a ber rune in your windforce and your looking at also having a 45 ish % chance to CB.|||Quote:








Scollin i am under the impression that if DS fails then it rolls CS or the other way around. If you were to switch war travelers for gores and cats eye for highlord you would have around a 60ish % chance to CS and a 45ish % chance to DS throw in some 20 ias crafted GG gloves and a ber rune in your windforce and your looking at also having a 45 ish % chance to CB.




Ya that is how it works. But like I said the formula would be

Total CS= Cs (60%) + (1-CS)*(DS)

= 60% + 40%(30%)

=60% + 12%

which is why I said it effectively adds 12 percent.

I don't really think I need the crushing blow, its only a major help against bosses and this char is not an effective boss runner no matter what I do (resists and health are far too low|||Sorry, I should have been more clear in my formula through the use of paretheses, I know that all sources of off weapon ED get added together and then multiply against the weapon damage. With already a 60% chance of double damage from critical strike, I agree with your position that adding a highlords would not be that efficient of a use of the amulet slot.