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Knockback Bow Guide

by Ms. Gentur

Game Etiquette  |  Bow Selection  |  Strategy  |  Minions  |  Support Characters

Introduction

In this guide, I hope to point out the finer aspects of the knockback bowazon, with emphasis on strategy changes, game etiquette, bow selection, and support characters/minions. Using knockback with a bowazon in LOD is in most cases a double-edged sword. It makes for excellent crowd control, and does a tremendous job of keeping monsters away from you. However in co-op play, knockback bowazons can be quite perilous to the party they are playing with if not utilized properly. This guide will illustrate how to use knockback and not get your teammates killed, it will also give some insight as to what you can do as a player teamed up with a knockback bowazon to make yourself more useful, and keep yourself alive.

DISCLAIMER: The information is based on my experiences and my experiences only. If you find your experiences differ from my own, I claim no responsibility for lost exp, time, angry sorcs PK’ing you after you knock 5 moon lords into their general direction, etc. 

Game Etiquette

When using a knockback bowazon, communication is essential towards keeping you in good standing with your fellow questers. A simple notification in the beginning of a game, such as Just so you all know, I’m using a Knockback bow, so if you don’t want unexpected monsters flying towards you and targeting you for revenge, please don’t be on the other side of monsters I am firing at. Now this may seem a bit pushy, and may even sound like you’re taking an undue leadership position to those with a more sensitive ego, however 9 times out of 10 your teammates will thank you for the information, and will be happy to comply, to save their own skin.

But, there’s always that one time the conversation usually follows as such: 

• Unhappy Player A: Could you please remove the Cleglaws, they really make me nervous.

• Knockback amazon using Cleglaws: Ok. (Yes don’t be a jerk, comply.)

But, what if you’re not using Cleglaws? You can’t exactly remove that Nef rune at the drop of a hat, so the convo would continue as such.

• Knockback Amazon using Nef rune: I’m not using Cleglaws, this is part of my bow, and I told you how to avoid getting hurt with this.

• Unhappy Player A:.

Most players will not step up and ask you to leave the game, although often times I really wish they would. Most of the time though, you will encounter this one out of 10 in a public game, where characters are really more loose cannons and not exactly the best team players. In planned co-op games, most players will be more than happy to accommodate your knockback zon, and will find her to be a vital part of their team. Just remember, communication is key. 

Bow Selection

In selecting a bow for your Knockback amazon, this question must be considered:

Do I want to kill quickly, or keep enemies pinned more effectively? 

This is indeed a question of speed vs. damage. Not all of us are lucky enough to have a cruel ward bow, which would definitely provide the best of both worlds (no I’m not trading it). So it is very likely that you will have to choose between the two. If you’re mainly a solo player, the choice is very obvious. Damage should be the number one concern, using knockback to keep the monsters off of you long enough to kill them before they get too close. However in a team play situation, this may not always be the case. If there are more amazons/sorcs/paladins in the game to make up for the lack of damage you might deal, I would wholeheartedly suggest sacrificing a bit of damage and go for a high speed bow; which will enable you to knockback more monsters in a shorter amount of time. If  our support characters are playing like they should, this will be a much-appreciated asset.

The other question you may wish to ask yourself is where you plan on getting your knockback. Will you use Cleglaws, which will enable you to remove the knockback when you wish, but will sacrifice a lot of speed/dex/resists/magic find in those godly zon gaunts you really want to use. Or will you go ahead and socket your bow with a Nef rune, giving you no way to remove the knockback, yet freeing up your hands to get those extra great mods?

Once again, I believe this goes back to a question of whether you’re soloing in public games, or spend most of your time with trusted teammates in private co-op games. In a public game or soloing, I would suggest using the Pincers, simply because that slows target by 25% will only help you further your goal of keeping enemies off of you long enough to kill them. Not to mention if you’re co-oping in a public game, you can avoid the often times awkward conversation between Unhappy player A and Knockback Ama using Nef rune.

But, if you’re in a private game with people who know what you’re using, there is no reason to use the pincers. The extra speed from your Gaunts will help you fulfill your goal of knocking back faster, and will (hopefully) boost up your resists if you happen to be running at the front of the line.

A note on Cleglaws and cold damage

I cannot confirm the validity in this, as it seems to be what I have experienced only, but it seems that when you use cleglaws with cold damage, the knockback % is significantly reduced, yet this does not occur with the Nef -runed bow. Anyone who can provide any additional research on this subject, feel free to contact me.

Strategy

Here is where the knockback amazon truly differs from her former self. With one simple modification an entire new subclass is created, with completely new rules for effective play.

In my experience as an amazon (and I have had lots) the strategy has always been to fire, fall back, fire, fall back, and collect the loot when the monster(s) finally drops. Once knockback was enabled on bows, it took awhile to get used to being the offensive line, instead of the one giving up ground. Your knockback amazon will be the most successful at what she does if she does not give up that offensive initiative. Knockback zons are FAR more aggressive than standard bowazons, and should be played as such, keep taking ground from the monsters, keep pushing them back, and you’ll go far.

In the event that you’re playing in confined spaces, or in an area with lots of water/shorelines (act 3) you have an even greater tactical advantage in the ability to pin monsters down, allowing you or your teammates to wipe them out easily as they try to regain their footing. This works much better vs. boss monsters or a pair or trio of very hefty monsters (i.e. Urdars) as opposed to a large pack of smaller enemies. Don’t try to pin 5 oblivion knights to the wall, it won’t work.

Once in awhile you may find yourself in a situation like this:

• Foolish Knockback Amazon A: Whahahahaha a narrow corridor with 5 monsters packed in, see how quickly they fly back into the large open space into which I cannot see in front of me

• Foolish Knockback Amazon A blindly runs past the hallway into the open room, where he is met by the recently regrouped 5 baddies along with 10 of their pals::

• Foolish Knockback amazon A: AAAAARGHHH!!!

There is a very simple way to avoid this:

DON’T DO THAT! Believe me, this happens more often than you might think it does, and is a common mistake I have made, and have seen other Knockback Zons make. Over aggression will get you killed, play smart, cast a valk into the room to see what’s there, and don’t move into the open room until you have a clear view of what you’re up against. Line of sight is most definitely a fleeting privilege with the knockback Amazon, but do your best to keep an eye on where the monsters you’re knocking back have gone, and how many friends they have invited to the party

Special rules most definitely apply to some of the more unusual, yet very popular areas of play in LOD. The most significant of these is the cow level (I can see this section being obsolete once cow runs get boring.) Not only do you have a greater chance of getting your teammates killed using knockback in cow level, but they can just as easily get you killed as well. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to implore that your teammates stick close by you, because in all reality the rule of the offensive line is almost completely thrown out the window when you have cows coming at you from all directions, which increases peril to your teammates who might wander off a few yards from you to catch that random straggling group of cows.

The problem with people is, they panic. if they see cows flying in all different directions from your knockback bow, they are likely to move to a different area leaving you to deal with the stragglers they have awakened in their panicked state. It’s a response to which you can place no blame, and it seems the only way to keep this from happening is to make sure your cow hunting party is ALWAYS the eye of the storm.

The age old debate. Strafe, or Multi, or both? It has new significance to the knockback Amazon, and careful consideration must be made when choosing, or employing both (this is always the best route BTW)

If you ask me what I use more often with my knockback Amazon, I will say strafe. Why? Because it’s a habit. I have always played strafeazons. I will never play any other type of amazon but a strafeazon. It just feels more comfortable to me, and with LOD I really don’t like the dmg cut too much. Pinning large groups of monsters is much more feasible using multi/pierce, and might make your efforts in a single front battle much more effective. However the drawback to using multi/pierce with knockback is a very widely unacknowledged human error.

For those who might have a bit of experience playing a knockback amazon, we tend to make the mistake of concentrating far too much on the pack of monsters who are falling back, and not pay too much attention to what else might be around us. Stragglers are a problem, and can ruin the entire balance of your attack if you’re not careful. For those of you who do choose to use multi with knockback, please keep in mind that if you do tend to leave stragglers behind here and there, you will end up losing a bit more ground on your attack line than a strafe/knockback zon would, as you reposition to lump that straggler in with the group of monsters you were previously knocking back.

Minions

I won’t go into too much detail on minion choice; it should be fairly obvious. A Barb Mercenary is essential you your gameplay in giving you a hefty tank who will continue to keep the monsters busy at the front line. Valks, in all their stupidity, are still necessary to give that added support to your merc and maybe keep him from taking so much dmg, but they play a limited role in the attack strategy of the knockback amazon.

The real interesting question is the role of the decoy. Is she obsolete with the knockback amazon? In many ways yes, but it can be viable in certain ways. Foolish Knockback amazon A could have saved herself a lot of pain in running blindly through that corridor into the open room, had she simply cast a decoy, seen what it attracted, knocked the monsters back from the decoy and taken the ground that the decoy once occupied. The role of the decoy hasn’t really changed a whole lot; it’s just not likely your decoy will see enough of the monsters to be as useful as she once was.

Support Characters

So, you’re not a Knockback Amazon, but you want to know how to deal with one in your party eh? Well the rules tend to be different for each support class, as they should be. I will outline a few of those strategies as follows:

Melee characters: You’re going to swing and miss. A lot. Think of it as reduced durability burdens on your weapon hehehe. I think the best way to be an effective melee class support char for the knockback amazon is to make like the barb merc and keep to the front of the line. You won’t be hitting as much, but they won’t be hitting you very much either. It’s a fairly common sense approach to the gameplay style.

Sorceress: Let’s illustrate what the Fragile and lithe Sorceress should not do with another one of our adventures with Knockback Amazon A:

Knockback Amazon A: Hey moron what are you doing????

Uber Socer teleports behind pack of enemies and attempts to firewall them to death with her l337 skills::

Uber socer: WHAAAAAAAAA.

This should be very obvious. Watch where you’re stepping/teleporting/whatever.

Other amazons: Really, nothing different, you use a ranged attack, you’re not stupid enough to run behind the enemies your fellow zon is knocking back, you’re ok. I have noticed a really nice combination is to have two Bowazons with high dmg weapons and a knockback amazon with an IAS rig and 3 barbs for tanks. This team setup has proven to be of optimum efficiency in games I have participated in.

Conclusion

Well, I hope you might have gleaned a bit of wisdom from all of this, and I hope it may have enticed you to try out the knockback amazon subclass. Any further questions/comments can be directed to me at Rhythmusmaschine@AOL.com

Thanks much for reading,
Ms. Gentur Knockback bowazon from hell.