Despite the demand for top-of-the-line gear, start simple then get the fancy stuff to suit your needs: higher-end equipment is made to complement your skill as a player and familiarity with your character's build, not to cover your lack thereof. If you're a poorly-skilled player with a Goldstrike Arch gothic bow who obtains a Windforce hydra bow, nothing changes: you're just a poorly-skilled player with a better bow. However, if you're a good player, then you'll be able to outperform a less skilled player any day of the week because the real thing always shines through.
In LOD, there is an incredible variety of weapons; also, the use of charms and runes can boost the capabilities of a character without taking up valuable equipment slots or even more valuable attribute points. Bowazons have the most overall variety when it comes to ready-made end-game equipment within a single item class, most of which are exceptional and among the most powerful items in the game, easily obtaining her end-game weapon by the time she hits clvl-50 or so (around A2-3NM), while other warrior classes don't obtain suitable elite weaponry until clvl-70 and up.
Still, what was true in CD2 is true in LOD: not even all of the bowazon's strengths and perfect equipment can compensate for a lousy player. Despite the amount of space given to items, skill and understanding are still the most important aspects of the bowazon, especially the changing demands of her equipment. For this reason, all general stages of a bowazon's equipment will be covered, starting with weapons, followed by jewelry and armor, then finishing with sets, runes, and jewels appropriate to the bowazon's level of development.
Rule #1: The most important piece of equipment for the bowazon is the bow. In terms of trading, effort, and time, you'll probably spend more on obtaining a good bow than just about any other piece of gear. Every other piece of equipment your bowazon possesses should be centered around making that bow more effective, as well as keeping the bowazon alive; if it doesn't, then it's probably useless.
These sections cover rare, unique, magical, and rune word weapons.
Rule #2: Every piece of equipment a bowazon has should either prop up her bow or keep her alive. Generally, this means life and mana leech, resistances, IAS, skill bonuses, +life, +mana, and attribute bonuses. In most cases, you can rely on certain pieces of equipment to supply you with your needs. For example, I almost always use rings for life and mana leech, even when I can get leech from my bow, circlet, or gloves. (When you've been using rings for leech since v1.02, you tend to fall into habits like that.)
These sections cover rare, unique, Horadric, magical, and rune word armor, helms, belts, boots, and gloves.
These sections cover rare, unique, Horadric, and magical rings and amulets.
This section will cover set items, as complete sets, partial set bonuses of particular interest to the bowazon, and individual set items that stand out as potentially useful in and of themselves.
In D2, there are three complete sets made specifically for bowazons and three complete sets that prove useful to the bowazon. All other sets, as a whole, are of little use to the bowazon. All pre-expansion sets have additional bonuses to individual items if other pieces of the set are worn; some of these will prove to be useful to the bowazon. With the exception of class-specific sets, expansion sets won't give bonuses to individual items if other pieces of the set are worn.
This section will cover all the rune words a bowazon can use.
For more information on items and affixes, please refer to the Horadrim Library and items section of the Arreat Summit. For more information on bows, please refer to ZenDragon's Bow Bible v2.0. Also check the Premium Bow Comparison and Bow Comparison & Socketing Guide articles at diabloii.net.
last updated: Monday, November 03, 2003
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