Basic Armor and Jewelry

For more information on gems, runes, jewels, unique and set items, please refer to the Horadrim Library and the Arreat Summit.

Amulets

Amulets have one primary offensive use for the bowazon: leech. The other stuff — +10-20 AR, +damage, +16-20 dexterity — is nice, but for the most part, it's all about leech. The assumption here is that leeching amulets will be used. Aside from this, amulets are primarily reserved for defense against the elements, attribute bonuses and +skills.

Rare amulets are an excellent option; the most favored are +2 skill amulets with prismatic and mana leech. Other attributes — one or two high (31-40%) resists (16-20% prismatic is nice), +41-60 life or mana, 5-35% MF, +skills when available, triggered spells (direct-damage skills like Chain Lightning or Ice Blast that activate upon striking does not work with bows) and remedial attributes like Thawing/Warmth or 25-75% poison damage reduction — are up to the preference of the player.

• Nokozan Relic Amulet: 20% faster hit recovery, fire resist 50%, +10% maximum fire resist, adds 3-6 fire damage, +3 light radius, rlvl-10.
• Eye of Etlich Amulet: +1-5 light radius, +1 skills, 3-7% life stolen per hit, adds (1-2) to (3-5) cold damage (duration: 2-10 sec), +10-40 defense vs. missile, rlvl-15. This is perfect for low-level bowazons: low level requirement, +skills, cold damage, and life leech all rolled into one package. A good bowazon or dedicated frostmaiden can use a good Eye for her entire career. Because of the possible variations, look after leech percentage and the hidden 2-10 second chill duration, one of the longest of any item in the game.

The Eye of Etlich has a hidden 2-10 second cold duration. The cold duration on this amulet will combine with other cold attack spells, so you can, for example, get a Freezing Arrow that lasts 3 seconds on Hell Difficulty with a 10 second Eye of Etlich. Remember that cold durations are 1/2 in Nightmare, and 1/4 in Hell Difficulty.

— Arreat Summit

• The Mahim-Oak Curio Amulet: +10 defense, +10% enhanced defense, +10% bonus to attack rating, all resistances 10%, +10 all attributes, rlvl-25.

Though the Crescent Moon gives dual-leech, another way to get one is to craft a Horadric Blood amulet. The recipe is: magic amulet + magic jewel + Amn + perfect ruby; the standard attributes that come with every Blood amulet are 5-10% faster run/walk, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life. There is a possibility for +skills, 3-8% mana leech and 16-20% prismatic resists.

Rings

Rings have one primary offensive use for the bowazon: life leech. The other stuff — +100-120 AR, +damage, +10-15 dexterity — is nice, but for the most part, it's all about leeching. The assumption here is that leeching jewelry will be used. After leeching, rings are primarily reserved for defense against the elements.

Good attributes include one or two high (31-40%) resists (12-15% prismatic is nice), +31-40 life, +41-60 mana, 5-25% MF, +skills when available and remedial attributes like Thawing/Warmth or 25-75% poison damage reduction. Dual leech jewelry is desirable (and extremely hard to obtain), but in my personal experience, a character with two excellent pieces of single-leech jewelry is much better off than a character with two mediocre pieces of dual leech jewelry, even if the latter can leech for more.

• Nagelring Ring: magic damage reduced by 3 +50-75 attack rating, attacker takes damage of 3, 15-30% better chance of getting magic item, rlvl-7. As always, the returned damage will not work with ranged attacks.
• Manald Heal Ring: 4-7% mana stolen per hit, replenish life +5-8, regenerate mana 20%, +20 life, rlvl-15. Mana leech no longer spawns on rare or magical rings, so this is one of the few times one can obtain it from a ring. The replenish life is close to the maximum amount of life regeneration a ring can get (+6-9). The extra mana regeneration isn't really that helpful to the amazon's relatively low mana pool, but every little bit counts (said the old lady as she pissed into the ocean).
• Stone of Jordan Ring: +1 skills, increase maximum mana 25%, adds 1-12 lightning damage, +20 mana, rlvl-29. The increase in mana is added with other items that increase the maximum amount of mana, so two Stones of Jordan would increase your base mana by 50%.

Life leech rings can be obtained via crafting; the recipe for Horadric Blood rings is: magic ring + magic jewel + Sol + perfect ruby. The standard attributes that come with a Blood ring are +1-5 strength, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life — when combined with its preset 1-3% life leech, a Blood ring can have up to 10-11% life leech. With its relatively low cubing cost and highly desirable properties, these are arguably the best life leech rings a bowazon can hope to have…if the right mods can be rolled up, of course.

To get much dexterity from a ring as possible without using Raven Frost, the recipe for a Hit Power ring is magic ring + magic jewel + Amn + perfect sapphire; the standard attributes that come with a Hit Power ring are +1-5 dexterity, 5% chance to cast slvl-4 frost nova when struck, attacker takes 3-7 damage. This type of ring can have up to +16-20 dexterity. Both crafted rings can spawn with 12-15% prismatic resists, +1-15 strength/dexterity and 3-8% life leech.

Armor

As mentioned before, armor isn't important when attacking from a distance and using tanks, so it isn't chosen on the basis of defense, but attributes. (And looks, of course; other people have to look at your bowazon in the channel too, you know.) What this basically means is that when it comes to armor, anything goes, so check every rare you can. The only restrictions a bowazon should observe are to avoid heavy armor like scale, plate and full plate (and their exceptional/elite equivalents) and to avoid armor that requires more strength than her bow.

Desired attributes for rare armor are +10-15 dexterity, reduced requirements for heavier armor, 31-40% resists, +41-60 life, +31-40 mana and 10-24% FHR. Enhanced defense isn't a priority. Note that all LOD armors can be socketed; recommended runes for a bowazon would be Tal, Ort, Thul, Ral or Um, though a scintillating jewel can give 11-15% to all resists with lower level requirements and the chance of a good suffix.

• Greyform Quilted Armor: 28-31 defense, +20 defense, 5% life stolen per hit, magic damage reduced by 3, cold resist 20%, fire resist 20%, +10 dexterity, rlvl-7. Greyform is a personal favorite, offering everything that a bowazon wants for armor: it's light with low Strength requirements, leeches life, has a nice dexterity bonus and decent defense against the elements. A CD2 bowazon can use Greyform as her evening gown for her entire career. Even in LOD, Greyform's excellent attributes also give it the status of "gold standard" armor, along with Goldskin; when selecting new armor, I still compare it against these two armors. Socket this with a resist rune for greater efficiency or use a resist jewel with IAS (beware the rlvl-31 of jewels of fervor, however).
• Twitchtroe Studded Leather Armor: 57-60 defense, +25 defense, 25% increase chance of blocking, 20% faster hit recovery, 20% increased attack speed, +10 dexterity, +10 strength, rlvl-16. With its increased attack and recovery speed and bonuses to strength and dexterity, Twitchtroe is an excellent option for those who are looking to make a pure speedazon, but it lacks resists and other options give it the status of "specialist armor." Twitchtroe offers the highest amount of IAS possible in armor without sockets.
• Goldskin Full Plate: 333.2-405 defense, +120-150% enhanced defense, +2 light radius, all resistances 35%, attacker takes damage of 10, 100% extra gold from monsters, rlvl-28. Goldskin offers the highest prismatic resist of any CD2 armor and is exceeded only by Skin of the Vipermagi and Smoke. The extra gold is an interesting mod: the only other armor to have this is Wealth. Note that Goldskin is heavy armor. This is an excellent CD2 armor, but for LOD, Skin of the Vipermagi, Smoke and Lionheart would be better options.
• Rockfleece Field Plate: 202-241.5 defense, +100-130% enhanced defense, requirements -10%, damage reduced by 10%, +5 strength, damage reduced by 5, rlvl-28. Rockfleece is the only CD2 armor to offer physical resistance.
• Silks of the Victor Ancient Armor: 436-512.6 defense, +100-120% enhanced defense, +1 skills, 5% mana stolen per hit, +2 light radius, rlvl-28. Silks is an excellent medium armor for elemental-heavy bowazons, for +skills and mana leech, but it lacks resists. For CD2 bowazons, this is the only +skills armor and it offers mana leech with a cool-looking graphic. The LOD bowazon would be well-advised to look over the Spirit Shroud, Skin of the Vipermagi or Skullder's Ire.
• Rattlecage Gothic Plate: 328-335 defense, +200 defense, 25% chance of crushing blow, hit causes monster to flee 40%, +45 attack rating, rlvl-29. With its crushing blow for offense, HCMTF for defense and slight boost to attack rating, Rattlecage is an excellent option for CD2 bowazons but it lacks resists.

Rune Word Armor

There's only one rune word for armor on normal, but it's not a bad one at all.

More information on runes and rune words can be found at the Runes and Rune Word sections of the Arreat Summit.

• Stealth 2-socket armor (Tal + Eth): magic damage reduced by 3, +6 dexterity, +15 maximum stamina, poison resist 30%, regenerate mana 15%, +25% faster run/walk, +25% faster cast rate, +25% faster hit recovery, rlvl-17.

Belts

As with armor, belts aren't chosen for defense, but attributes; thus, any type of belt will work. Desired attributes to belts are +16-19 dexterity (pre-v1.08), +16-20 strength, 10-24% FHR, 1-4 cold damage, 31-40% resists, +41-60 life and +11-20 mana.

• Goldwrap Heavy Belt: 34-35 defense, +40-60% enhanced defense, +25 defense, 10% increased attack speed, 30% better chance of getting magic items, 50-80% extra gold from monsters, +2 light radius, rlvl-27. This belt has properties not found on rare belts: 10% IAS and 30% MF. Nosferatu's Coil vampirefang belt is the only other belt with IAS and Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth mesh belt is the only other belt with Magic Find (10-15%). For dedicated speedazons, there are few alternatives: Goldwrap is as valuable to CD2 bowazons as Wormskull is to CD2 necromancers.

For bowazons who can't or don't want to use the IAS belts, there is always the Horadric Blood belt. The recipe is: magic belt/mesh belt/mithril coil + magic jewel + Tal + perfect ruby; the standard attributes that come with Blood belts are 5-10% chance of open wounds, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life.

Gloves

For gloves, you want +10-15 dexterity (pre-v1.08 gloves can spawn up to +19), 10-20% IAS, +21-30% resists, +31-40 mana, +skills, 3% life/mana leech and 5-25%MF or 41-80% more gold. After Strafe is developed past slvl-10, the value of IAS gloves becomes apparent, as they dramatically cut down attack time. All exceptional unique gloves are good for bowazons (though the only ones with IAS are Lava Gout battle gauntlets with 20% IAS), depending on your skills of choice and for the sake of space, are not listed here.

• Hand of Broc Leather Gloves: 13-14 defense, +10-20% enhanced defense, +10 defense, 3% life stolen per hit, 3% mana stolen per hit, poison resist 10%, +20 mana, rlvl-5. With no strength requirements, Hand of Broc is an excellent choice for beginning bowazons, providing both life and mana steal, reducing the need to locate these attributes on jewelry. Because amazons gain so little mana per level, the +20 mana is a boon as well. These gloves have the lowest requirements of any dual-leech item in the game. Rare and magical gloves and circlets with leech or even dual leech, do exist, but can't be worn until clvl-21.
• Bloodfist Heavy Gloves: 15-17 defense, +10-20% enhanced defense, +10 defense, 10% increased attack speed, 30% faster hit recovery, +40 life, +5 minimum damage, rlvl-9. These are the only set of normal unique gloves with IAS. Because magical gloves of readiness are not available until clvl-15, Bloodfist would be the first pair of easily-equippable IAS gloves your bowazon could use. (Though Arctic Mitts are available for use at clvl-3, they require 45 strength.) The faster hit recovery, addition to minimum damage and extra life are also very good for a low-level bowazon.

The best gloves for the bowazon, however, are Horadric Hit Power chain gloves. The recipe is: magic chain gloves/heavy bracers/vambraces + magic jewel + Ort + perfect sapphire; the standard attributes that come with Hit Power gloves are 5% chance of casting slvl-4 frost nova when hit, attacker takes 3-7 damage, knockback.

For bowazons who already have knockback, there are always Horadric Blood heavy gloves. The recipe is: magic heavy/sharkskin/vampirebone gloves + magic jewel + Nef + perfect ruby; the standard attributes that come with Blood gloves are 5-10% chance of crushing blow, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life. Like Blood rings, these gloves can have more life leech than usual — around 4-6%. Either glove can spawn with the coveted 20% IAS, +skills to bow or passive skills, leech and %MF. With its relatively low cubing cost and highly desirable properties, these are arguably the best gloves a bowazon can hope to find…if the right mods can be rolled up, of course.

Footgear

Desired qualities for boots are +10-15 dexterity, 31-40% resists, Tireless (heal stamina 50%) and 10% FHR (higher amounts do not spawn post-v1.08). One attribute that must always be on boots is 10-30% faster run/walk (pacing, haste, speed). As a bowazon, you want to keep a safe distance from your opponents and the best way to do that is to run faster. All unique boots are good for a bowazon.

• Treads of Cthon Chain Boots: 22.4-24.6 defense, +30-40% enhanced defense, +12 defense, 50% stamina drain, 30% faster run/walk, +50 defense vs. missile, +10 life, rlvl-15. With its faster run/walk, these boots are comparable to the equally useful Vidala's Fetlocks.

Please note that set or unique boots generally do not have resists. If your bowazon needs resists, a good pair of rare CD2 boots (pre-v.07) would be the best solution. In LOD, small and large charms of inertia give 5% faster run/walk and grand charms give 7% faster run/walk.

If more life leech is needed, there are always Horadric Blood boots. The recipe is: magic light plated/battle/mirrored boots + magic jewel + Eth + perfect ruby; the standard attributes that come with Blood boots are replenish life +5-10, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life.

Headgear

For the LOD bowazon, the best options lie in circlet-class items (circlets, coronets, tiaras, diadems). Circlets have lousy defense (the base varies from 10-60), but helms aren't chosen for defense but attributes and circlets have the best pool of attributes in the game. Desired attributes to circlets are +16-20 stats, +skills, 10% FHR, +damage, 10-30% FRW, 31-40% resists (with 16-20% prismatic being the best), +41-60 life/mana, 3-9% life/mana leech and Visionary (+(1/clvl)% AR). Circlets do not have strength requirements.

In the end, the choice of a helm is all up to you, though I'd recommend something with high resists, FHR (which does not spawn on helmets as of v1.08) and dexterity. All exceptional unique helms are good for bowazons. Note that all LOD helms can be socketed; all rules that apply to armor apply to helms.

• Tarnhelm Skullcap: 8-10 defense, +1 to skills, 25-50% chance of getting magic item, 75% extra gold from monsters, rlvl-15. An old standby of unique helms, the early +skills will help your bowazon quite a bit, as will the increased gold and chances to find magical items. It also looks good with Twitchtroe studded leather armor, Iceblink splint armor or Skullder's Ire russet armor. The recommended socket would be a perfect topaz, for a 49-74%MF, the most one can get out of a helm.
• Howltusk Great Helm: 54-64 defense, 35% damage taken goes to mana, +80% enhanced defense, magic damage reduced by 2, attacker takes damage of 3, knockback, hit causes monster to flee 25%, rlvl-25. What makes this helm nice is the HCMTF and knockback, both of which add to your bowazon's defensive potential. However, for pure attack options, Cleglaw's is still a better choice.
• Undead Crown: 72.5-112 defense, +30-60% enhanced defense, +50% damage vs. undead, +50-100 attack rating vs. undead, half freeze duration, 5% life stolen per hit, poison resist 50%, +40 defense, +3 skeleton mastery (necromancer only), rlvl-25. This helm offers leeching, significant resistance to poison and a decent bonus against the undead (for CD2); these attributes are quite useful to the bowazon. This is the only ready-made helm with a bonus versus the undead. Crowns are among the best-looking headgear for the bowazon and look good with almost anything.

Rune Word Headgear

More information on runes and rune words can be found at the Runes and Rune Word sections of the Arreat Summit.

• Nadir 2-socket helms (Nef + Tir): +50% enhanced defense, +10 defense, +30 defense vs. missile, slvl-13 cloak of shadows (9 charges), +2 mana after each kill, +5 strength, -33% extra gold from monsters, -3 light radius, rlvl-13.
• Lore 2-socket helms (Ort + Sol): +1 skills, +10 energy, +2 mana after each kill, lightning resist 30%, damage reduced by 7, +2 light radius, rlvl-27.
• Radiance 3-socket helms (Nef + Sol + Ith): +75% enhanced defense, +30 defense vs. missile, +10 energy, +10 vitality, 15% damage goes to mana, magic damage reduced by 3, +33 mana, damage reduced by 7, +5 light radius, rlvl-27.

If ready-made helms are unavailable or more life leech is required, there are always Horadric Blood helms. The recipe is: magic helm/casque/armet + magic jewel + Ral + perfect ruby; the standard attributes that come with Blood helms are 5-10% deadly strike, 1-3% life stolen per hit, +10-20 life.