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.

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 +3-5 dexterity, reduced requirements for heavier armor, 21-30% 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 requirements, life leech, a nice dexterity bonus, and decent defense against the elements. A Classic bowazon can use Greyform as her evening gown for her entire career. Even in LOD, Greyform is a gold standard armor, along with Goldskin; when selecting new armor, I still compare it against these two armors. Socket this with a resist jewel for greater efficiency.
• 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 Classic 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 Classic 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 Classic 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 Classic bowazons, this is the only +skills armor and it offers mana leech. The LOD bowazon would be well-advised to look over the Spirit Shroud, Skin of the Vipermagi, and 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 Classic bowazons but it lacks resists.

Belts

As with armor, belts aren't chosen for defense, but attributes; thus, any type of belt will work. Desired attributes to belts are +6-9 strength, 17-24% FHR, 1-2 cold damage (duration: 2 sec), 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. Goldwrap 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 Classic bowazons as Wormskull is to Classic necromancers.

Gloves

For gloves, you want +6-9 dexterity, 10-20% IAS, +31-40% resists, +11-20 mana, +skills, 3% life/mana leech, 16-25% MF, and 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.

• Cleglaw's Pincers Chain Gloves: 8-9 defense, knockback, slows target by 25%, rlvl-4. Cheap, low-level and easy to find, these gloves possess two attributes are invaluable to a bowazon: they slow down a target and knock targets back. Knockback isn't 100%, but when it works, it's nice to knock the targets into a wall to inflict near-infinite stun lock on them. Like the Holy Freeze aura, slows target can't be resisted by anything. Slowing down a target with every hit'll make any target an easy target and by combining knockback with efficient herding techniques (like using a minion as a wall or using crossfire), she can corral groups of targets in corners and walls and cream them with a flurry of attacks, resulting in knockback, stunlock, slow down, along with any other non-elemental effects a bowazon has at the time.
• 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 — jewelry, 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 basic unique gloves with IAS. Because magical gloves of readiness aren't 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, additional minimum damage, and sickeningly high extra life are also very good for a low-level bowazon.

Footwear

Desired qualities for boots are +3-5 dexterity, 31-40% resists, Tireless (heal stamina 50%) and 10% FHR. One attribute that must always be on boots is 10-30% faster run/walk. As a bowazon, you want to keep a safe distance from your opponents and the best way to do that is to run faster.

• 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 don't have resists. If your bowazon needs resists, a good pair rare boots 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.

Helmets

For the LOD bowazon, the best options lie in circlets; they have lousy defense, 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 +6-9 stats, +skills, 10% FHR, +damage, 10-20% FRW, 31-40% resists (with 12-15% prismatic being the best), +41-60 life/mana, 3-9% life/mana leech and Visionary (+(1/clvl)% AR). Circlets don't 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, +life, and dexterity. All basic unique helms are good for bowazons. 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. 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 Classic); these attributes are quite useful to the bowazon. This is the only ready-made helm with a bonus versus the undead.