Classic Bowazon question regarding surplus skill points

[nobody]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

I've done the classic Bowazon build, starting with an -act5 Amazon
rushed through. I used /players 8 most of the way through, as I'm in
single player. This is fun 'cos I jump right to NM after the act5,
although it's a challenge without any gear.

At the end of NM, I go back and do the rest of the normal acts 1-4 to
acquire skills and resistances. Anyway, here's the build guide:

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=553

She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan. Following the
build, I've maxed out the skills Magic arrow, Valkyrie and Decoy. I've
put some points in Critical Strike and Penetrate, but I'm wondering
which of these two has a better return on investment.

CS seems to be important, because the valkyrie gets it as well. But each
skill pt beyond 10 seems to only up your chance by 1%, whereas Penetrate
gives additional Attack Rating. The build guide mentions keeping a "to
hit" of 90% -- newbie question, but how can I know what that is?

Any other advice of where to best put the remaining skills in this build?

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[Guest]

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Hi,

Nobody <anonymous@bogus.invalid> wrote in news:9ZV%d.79114$cQ3.960347
@weber.videotron.net:

>
> She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
> now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan. Following the
> build, I've maxed out the skills Magic arrow, Valkyrie and Decoy. I've
> put some points in Critical Strike and Penetrate, but I'm wondering
> which of these two has a better return on investment.
>

I haven't really built an Bowazon, but am planning to do so.

Magic Arrow is one of the weaker bow skills. Its possibly too late, but I'd
put a bunch of points into Strafe, which shoots multiple arrows at once.

If you want more points in Penetrate depends on your attack rating. In Hell
diff it should be at least about 5K.

Don't forget Dodge, Avoid and Evade for your own protection.

Regards,

Oliver

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Oliver Wenzel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Nobody <anonymous@bogus.invalid> wrote in news:9ZV%d.79114$cQ3.960347
> @weber.videotron.net:
>
>
>>She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
>>now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan. Following the
>>build, I've maxed out the skills Magic arrow, Valkyrie and Decoy. I've
>>put some points in Critical Strike and Penetrate, but I'm wondering
>>which of these two has a better return on investment.
>>
>
>
> I haven't really built an Bowazon, but am planning to do so.
>
> Magic Arrow is one of the weaker bow skills. Its possibly too late, but I'd
> put a bunch of points into Strafe, which shoots multiple arrows at once.

Well, the whole point of the mentioned build is to max MA and not waste
any points on other stuff. I agree that, at least until hell, this works
very well.

As far as I know, strafe wouldn't get you the MA bonus, would it? Strafe
only shoots regular arrows.

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[Guest]

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"Nobody" <anonymous@bogus.invalid> wrote in message
news:9ZV%d.79114$cQ3.960347@weber.videotron.net...
> I've done the classic Bowazon build, starting with an -act5 Amazon
> rushed through. I used /players 8 most of the way through, as I'm in
> single player. This is fun 'cos I jump right to NM after the act5,
> although it's a challenge without any gear.
>
> At the end of NM, I go back and do the rest of the normal acts 1-4 to
> acquire skills and resistances. Anyway, here's the build guide:
>
> http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=553
>
> She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
> now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan. Following the
> build, I've maxed out the skills Magic arrow, Valkyrie and Decoy. I've
> put some points in Critical Strike and Penetrate, but I'm wondering
> which of these two has a better return on investment.
>
> CS seems to be important, because the valkyrie gets it as well. But each
> skill pt beyond 10 seems to only up your chance by 1%, whereas Penetrate
> gives additional Attack Rating. The build guide mentions keeping a "to
> hit" of 90% -- newbie question, but how can I know what that is?
>
> Any other advice of where to best put the remaining skills in this build?
>
> --
> Help fight spam by "educating" the lax, zombie-hosting ISPs:
> http://pages.infinit.net/filmore/educateYourISP.htm

If useing magicc arrows they allways hit so pentertate is much of a waste

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Nobody wrote:
> I've done the classic Bowazon build, starting with an -act5 Amazon
> rushed through. I used /players 8 most of the way through, as I'm in
> single player. This is fun 'cos I jump right to NM after the act5,
> although it's a challenge without any gear.
>
> At the end of NM, I go back and do the rest of the normal acts 1-4 to

> acquire skills and resistances. Anyway, here's the build guide:
>
> http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=553
>
> She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
> now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan. Following the
> build, I've maxed out the skills Magic arrow, Valkyrie and Decoy.
I've
> put some points in Critical Strike and Penetrate, but I'm wondering
> which of these two has a better return on investment.
>
> CS seems to be important, because the valkyrie gets it as well. But
each
> skill pt beyond 10 seems to only up your chance by 1%, whereas
Penetrate
> gives additional Attack Rating. The build guide mentions keeping a
"to
> hit" of 90% -- newbie question, but how can I know what that is?
>
> Any other advice of where to best put the remaining skills in this
build?

I'm not sure where your remaining skills should go as I'm not familiar
with this build.

However, I gave this guide a cursory glance and it seems that it
expects your Valk and merc to do the majority of tanking/killing for
you. The Battlebranch is a Poleaxe, a normal unique polearm, unless you
upgraded it to a Partizan? If you haven't you could perhaps try other
weapons for your merc. The best one, I think, would be The Reaper's
Toll, the unique Thresher; you could also try the unique Ogre Axe,
Bonehew, or some of the new Runewords. This should help your killing
speed in Hell.

As for your Attack Rating/"to hit" question, if I understood it
correctly, hover your mouse over the "Attack Rating" box beside the
Dexterity box in your Character screen. This will bring up a "pop-up"
listing the per cent of the average chance to hit monster so-and-so.

Jill

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Nobody wrote:
> neithskye wrote:
> > Nobody wrote:

> > If you haven't you could perhaps try other
> > weapons for your merc. The best one, I think, would be The Reaper's
> > Toll, the unique Thresher; you could also try the unique Ogre Axe,
> > Bonehew, or some of the new Runewords. This should help your
killing
> > speed in Hell.
>
> Ok -- will have to wait to score one of these in SP.

Doh. I totally missed that you were playing SP, although I should have
known by you mentioning /players8. Please note that the new Runewords,
such as Insight and Obedience, will *not* work in SP. I'm sorry about
that; I should have been paying more attention.

As for the Reaper's Toll or Bonehew, if you haven't found them and use
the ATMA muling system, I could e-mail you an ATMA stash with them, as
well as some other goodies that may be of use to you if you'd like. Let
me know.

Jill

 

[nobody]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

neithskye wrote:
> Nobody wrote:
>
>>http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=553
>>
>>She's now at level 75 in act2 of hell. Killing monsters is very slow
>>now, even though my merc has a Battlebranch Partizan.

[snip]

> I'm not sure where your remaining skills should go as I'm not familiar
> with this build.
>
> However, I gave this guide a cursory glance and it seems that it
> expects your Valk and merc to do the majority of tanking/killing for
> you. The Battlebranch is a Poleaxe, a normal unique polearm, unless you
> upgraded it to a Partizan?

Thanks for the pointer -- already upgraded to Partizan (mentioned in my
first post)

> If you haven't you could perhaps try other
> weapons for your merc. The best one, I think, would be The Reaper's
> Toll, the unique Thresher; you could also try the unique Ogre Axe,
> Bonehew, or some of the new Runewords. This should help your killing
> speed in Hell.

Ok -- will have to wait to score one of these in SP.

> As for your Attack Rating/"to hit" question, if I understood it
> correctly, hover your mouse over the "Attack Rating" box beside the
> Dexterity box in your Character screen. This will bring up a "pop-up"
> listing the per cent of the average chance to hit monster so-and-so.

Thanks! In my 3+ years of playing, I have never seen that. But then
again, my first time playing a pally during the first week or so of the
game, I finally wiped out Diablo, without realizing that I could use two
types of attacks (left & right mouse)!!! RTFM... I never knew you could
do auras and attacks together... doh! This newsgroup has been a big help!

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[Guest]

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Oliver Wenzel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> "neithskye" <jill_bookerGREENEGGSANDSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in
> news:1111724638.843036.20250@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> but there is a patch for SP that enables all runewords - the new
ones and
> ladder-only ones like Duress. First entry if you ask google.groups
for the
> term "activate runewords".

Ooooh, thank you. It's been so long since I played SP I had no idea.


My point was, if you didn't know about this patch and just up and tried
a new Runeword in SP it wouldn't work, and I was just trying to clear
up any confusion caused by my previous post.

Jill

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Hi,

"neithskye" <jill_bookerGREENEGGSANDSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1111724638.843036.20250@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

>
> Doh. I totally missed that you were playing SP, although I should have
> known by you mentioning /players8. Please note that the new Runewords,
> such as Insight and Obedience, will *not* work in SP. I'm sorry about
> that; I should have been paying more attention.
>

but there is a patch for SP that enables all runewords - the new ones and
ladder-only ones like Duress. First entry if you ask google.groups for the
term "activate runewords".

Regards

Oliver

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

neithskye wrote:
> Oliver Wenzel wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>"neithskye" <jill_bookerGREENEGGSANDSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in
>>news:1111724638.843036.20250@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>>but there is a patch for SP that enables all runewords - the new
>
> ones and
>
>>ladder-only ones like Duress. First entry if you ask google.groups
>
> for the
>
>>term "activate runewords".

Thanks -- Has the runeword wizard application been updated for these?

> Ooooh, thank you. It's been so long since I played SP I had no idea.
>
>
> My point was, if you didn't know about this patch and just up and tried
> a new Runeword in SP it wouldn't work, and I was just trying to clear
> up any confusion caused by my previous post.
>
> Jill
>

Thanks to both for the info -- I knew about the runewords limit already
but not about the patch. I *do* use ATMA, but I've resisted the
temptation to download anything. I think the game would lose a lot of
its fun. ATMA is sort of cheating, but I was already muling with two
PCs. My wife and I play a lot together as a team, but she had been away
for work for 10 days while I was trying this Bowazon build

/Players 1 allows me to progress faster, too, although not with as much
experience ;-)

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