a guide to bowazons: dexterity

Dexterity (118~187+)

Amazons start with 25 dexterity.

The average bowazon thinks about DEX every eight seconds: it raises damage with bows and attack ratings, so it isn't unusual for high-level bowazons to have base DEX scores in the 300s. Suggested target ranges are:

70-80: siege crossbow, double bow, colossus crossbow, ballista, short siege bow.
90-98: large siege bow, chu-ko-nu, demon crossbow.
103-110: rune bow, gorgon crossbow, great bow, ceremonial bow.
118-121: gothic bow, blade bow, crusader bow.
132: diamond bow.
143-146: spider bow, ward bow.
152-155: grand matron bow, pellet bow.
167: hydra bow.
187-188: matriarchal bow, shadow bow.

Bows obviously have very high DEX requirements. Oh, but wait, there's more:

The formula for dexterity bonus damage is: + bow's base physical damage × (dexterity/100)

What this means in practical terms is that you get a bonus to your total damage score equal to 1% of your bow's damage for each point of dexterity your character has. So if you have a bow that does 25-100 physical damage and you have 200 dexterity, you get 50 points added to minimum damage (25 × 200/100) and 200 points added to your maximum damage (100 × 200/100). Assuming no other damage modifiers, the damage in your character screen would show 75-300 damage.

In addition to increasing damage, each point of dexterity adds 4 points to Attack Rating (AR) and every 4 points of dexterity adds 1 point to Defense Rating (DR).

— Icemage

Dexterity adjusts your Attack Rating: an amazon's base AR is 5 × (dexterity - 7) + 5.

In softcore, investing in heavily in DEX is a fairly safe bet. You'll be taking great pains to avoid direct confrontation and hiding behind minions, but it pays off with higher damage and a strong AR base. Your bowazon's defensive ability will suffer, but as explained under Defense Rating, this has little impact on the bowazon's playing style.

In HC, you might want to stop investing in DEX after your bowazon is able to use the bow you want, then start pumping vitality and skills like Critical Strike and Penetrate to compensate for the lowered damage and AR. However, as I have no experience with HC, this is only a suggestion.

...as a HC bowie, that you still will want a high DEX in the end. You will just want to pump VIT as well, so your final DEX will usually end up lower than in SC. As a rough guideline for HC phys damage bowies, I like 100 STR and 250-300 DEX (points spent, not final totals), with the rest going into VIT. Generally I take DEX to 100, then VIT to 50, then DEX to 200, then VIT to 75, then DEX to my final target, then the rest into VIT from that point on.

— Raccoon_TOF

Where can I get extra dexterity?

Equipment:: Rare gloves, rings, body armor, boots: +1-15 dexterity.; Rare amulets, circlets, bows, crossbows, magical rings, gloves: +16-20 dexterity.; Magical amulets, circlets, bows, crossbows: +21-30 dexterity.; Various unique, set, and rune word items give varying amounts of dexterity.
Sockets:: Emeralds of varying quality in helms and armor: +3-10 dexterity.; Rare jewels of daring: +4-9 dexterity.; Ko rune: +10 dexterity when socketed in anything.
Charms:: Small charms: +1-2 dexterity.; Large charms: +2-5 dexterity.; Grand charms: +3-6 dexterity.; Annihilus small charm: +10-20 dexterity.; Hellfire Torch large charm: +10-20 dexterity.

What should be apparent here is that the bowazon doesn't require STR to inflict damage like other warriors, a ton of VIT to stay alive, or energy to use skills. With the blanket nature of a bowazon's prime requisite and the nature of her passive skills, all she really needs is DEX and compared to even a sword & shield barbarian with his high STR and VIT, she comes out on top because she isn't sacrificing anything or compromising her playing style, proving her inherent superiority in attribute choices above all other classes. A bowazon that puts almost all of her points into DEX isn't a variant (like the titan barbarian who focuses almost exclusively on STR), but the norm; the only argument among most bowazon players is how many attribute points shouldn't go into DEX.