First of all, let's start with a quick reading of the amazon section of Arreat Summit. That'll save me a little bit of trouble.
The most important part of enjoying your character is knowing your character. Knowing your character — its strengths, weakness, limitations, and potential. All technical jargon aside, very character model (or "build" for short) has two very simplified parts at its core: permanent decisions, and everything else.
"Everything else" involves equipment, charms, hirelings, and anything else that doesn't involve investing points. If you don't like something, you can always backpedal and get something else. However, equipment is built entirely on the other part of your character: any amazon can hold a bow, but it takes a specific setup of attributes and skills to make her a bowazon; as you keep playing and developing preferences for certain kinds of gear and builds, your character builds will become more specialized, as will your equipment choices.
The permanent stuff on involves everything you can't reverse about your character: attributes and skills. (You know, everything you wish you could re-spec.) Once you click that red "plus" sign, you're committed to your decision, and no backsies allowed. Most people find themselves on their ninth or tenth bowazon build simply because a skill point has been wasted here or there, or perhaps they've found themselves planning around a piece of gear that didn't turn out the way they expected. I've personally built around eleven bowazons in softcore trying to find just the right blend of attributes and skill points to fit my style, and I was still working on it when I retired from the game.
For example, if you intend on crafting your bowazon into a frostmaiden (a bowazon focused on cold damage and the use of Freezing Arrow), then you're going to have a certain skill and attribute point allocation in mind. Then you're going to pick a hireling. Then you're going to pick equipment that can properly exploit your bowazon's skills...or at least to your satisfaction: your equipment won't only focus on damage, but cold damage as well. Your build's equipment wouldn't work as well on a build focused in the use of Strafe, and vice-versa. If you're interested in creating specialized bowazon variants, this guide will attempt to accommodate you, though it's focused mostly on the general bowazon.
The following section will feature attributes and skills. You'll notice that recommendations for attributes are quite vague: that's because there is no best answer for everything. For example, the preferences between a bowazon in softcore and hardcore will be very different, and even among softcore bowazon players, there will be a wide range of opinions around where attribute and skill points should go. A majority of bowazon players are into maximizing dexterity, but that's only after they've met the strength requirements for their gear. If you find yourself getting hit a lot, then go ahead and invest in vitality and life bonuses until you start getting your "bowie legs" and gear that can help you out, then start readjusting your bowazon's vitality from what you think you need into what you know you need.
In the end, the bowazon is all about the player, because at the end of the day, your bowazon is your baby, and nobody else's. She's going to have little tweaks and edges that are based on your style of play; sometimes these little personal touches are minimal, but sometimes they can be radical enough that only you can play your bowazon effectively. As a player, you'll probably spend more time figuring out what your personal preferences for these are long after you've obtained what you believe is the "best gear possible."
On the whole, the section on attributes will focus on my preferences and priorities, as well as my rationale for these opinions. Your opinions may differ: that's good. However, if you have no opinion on the subject, please consider my suggestions to be a good framework for the basic softcore bowazon. (I don't play hardcore, but I've done my best to keep HC bowazons in mind.)
We'll start with attributes and the bowazon's unusual attribute distribution.
The basics on attribute allocation haven't changed a bit from v1.07 to v1.10. Even with the multiple corpse system of v1.10, it's strongly suggested that your bowazon be able to equip everything without having to equip other items first, or at least make sure that the equipment that adds to your strength or dexterity can be worn without the aid of additional items.
In accordance with the bowazon stereotype as a glass cannon, it's likely that you'll spend more time and resources developing the offensive side of your bowazon, even if your bowazon is a Hardcore character. The absolutely complete guide to how weapon damage in inflicted can be found at Tommi Gustafsson's Weapon Damage Calculations. This is merely a summary.
Let's summarize everything you need to know about defense now: a bowazon's strength is avoidance. If you don't let yourself get hit by anything, then you don't need defense. Resistance, you need; defense, you don't. Just keep your distance, make sure your valkyrie is always up and taking point, the hireling's not doing anything stupid, cast Slow Missiles often, use your decoy whenever you're not sure what's ahead of you, keep your eyes open, and you'll be fine.
last updated: Monday, May 25, 2009
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