a guide to bowazons: passive/magic skills: decoy

Clvl: 24
Prerequisites: Inner Sight, Slow Missiles.
Effect: Creates a duplicate image to distract targets.
Properties: Minion, casting speed is subject to faster cast rates.
Synergy from: None.
Synergy to: Valkyrie: +20% life/slvl.

The amazon uses Decoy the same way a modern-day sniper does: present the target with an easy distraction and pop its head off the second it shows itself. It's the oldest trick in the book, but I don't think enough players appreciate the value of Decoy after they gain Valkyrie.

Let's go over the basics: decoy has 110% of your bowazon's maximum life, lasts for 10 seconds, and costs 19 mana to start; with each level, it gains another 10% of your bowazon's maximum life, lasts another 5 seconds, and costs progressively less mana per casting. At slvl-10, your decoy will have double your bowazon's maximum life for almost a minute; at slvl-20, it rises to triple your bowazon's life for 105 seconds. It has resistances, is able to dodge attacks, can be cast repeatedly, and monsters are attracted to your decoy even when you're standing in plain sight. Unlike other minions, allies can't move through your decoy. It is more or less an low-cost immobile minion that stays exactly where you cast it: there are countless uses for this.

You should be experimenting with sniper/decoy tactics long after your bowazon gains valkyrie. Decoy is particularly handy in conjunction with Valkyrie and Slow Missiles; monsters and tracking spells like Guided Arrow and Bone Spirit'll lock on the first available target, which should be the decoy or valkyrie. It's also useful as a substitute valkyrie — you can cast a decoy, wait for your valkyrie to walk over to that spot, and when her attention is occupied with monsters, recast the decoy elsewhere.

Decoy...can be very useful for casting about 2/3 into a room when you first open a door, or for casting a few inches away from the valkyrie to detract a few of the monsters. If you set up a nice isosceles triangle with valkyrie and decoy, you end up with a very nice line of strafe-able targets, and the valkyrie doesn't suffer from having every single monster attacking her. Decoy can also absorb some "seeker" missile damage if she's between you and the caster. This is most useful against the [finger magi] in Act IV and occasionally the oblivion knights and their bone spirits. The seeker missiles will detonate on the first target they find, and anything that lessens the damage you or your valkyrie takes will make the entire battle more successful in the long run.

For example, suppose there are 30 targets rushing my valkyrie and bowazon. Fortunately, the 30 targets are broken into two manageable groups of 15 apiece, with group A coming in from the 2 o'clock position and group B coming in from the 6 o'clock position. (Look at a watch and you'll have a decent idea where this is going.) My bowie is going to run to the 9-12 position to Strafe, Freeze and Immolation Arrow, but I can't rely on my valkyrie to hold the attention of 30 targets at once (either the valkyrie is going to move when I don't want her or some of them will start looking for other targets...like my bowazon), so I pop a decoy at 3-5, diverting some monsters from my valkyrie. So we've now prevented one large group from being a hazard to my valkyrie and we want this to happen, whether my valkyrie has 1,000 or 5,000 life; though only 8 targets can surround her at once, a lot of targets in Hell have attack ranges of 2 or greater, meaning that my valkyrie will be set upon by more than 8 targets, perhaps 10 or even 15 at once. However, by using repeated castings of decoy, I not only prolong the life span of my valkyrie, but control the spacing of battle by luring monsters as far or close to my valkyrie as I please.

Although it does no damage (normally), decoy is one of the great power skills in the game. It's not just your own personal crash test dummy to throw into nasty mobs, it's a precision tool for affecting the actions of the monsters, once you learn how their AI reacts to the presence of a fake character.

These tips apply to other castable minions as well, but for many of these uses decoy is superior because the nature of decoy permits more predictability and control.

She's cheap — she can be cast over and over as the situation requires.
She doesn't move at all — she goes right where you put her, she won't be drawn out of position, and she won't blunder into new monster packs and wake them up. And she never attacks posts.
She never sets off LEB sparks, or pops dolls or FE bosses...see below for an exception.

Decoy is often thought of as a bowazon skill, but this guide was originally written for a melee amazon. Regardless of what flavor of amazon you play, good decoy play will make you a much more effective spearazon, ranger javazon, tankazon, or dropazon (heavy melee javazon). Unless you're "dogging it" in an area where you completely overpower everything, you should always put a decoy up if there are any significant number of monsters visible.

Position is all-important in decoy use. Don't hesitate to recast it as needed. In an unexplored area, decoy (or equivalent minion) can be cast to scout, we all know that.

Between your party and archers, LEBs, abyss or oblivion knights, it can (temporarily) block arrows or energy bolts. Better yet:

Off to the side of a line between you and a ranged pack, it draws missile fire away from your party. Attacks that pass the decoy don't bore on through the party and have a chance to hit people in the back ranks.
Behind monsters it frequently makes them turn their backs to you. Free hits!
Flanking a mob it splits the mob's attention and reduces the number of swings you are exposed to in melee.
In a crowd it can cluster the enemies nicely for area spells.
In a pack of archers it will have the opposite effect: cause them to stop shooting and disperse away from the decoy. This gives your party a break from their concentrated fire.
Somewhere behind you when you tank, it can backstop you and absorb the attention of leakers shooting past you, so they don't attack the sorcs and other backliners.
Decoy and valkyrie thrown to your left and right can, with you in the middle, form a wall to dam up an onrushing mob and safely contain it.
Behind a boss it can prevent knockback from moving him.
Right behind you it can prevent knockback from moving you; consider this when Baal's cold wedge is shoving everyone away like shuffleboard pucks.
Beside you it's 100% damage reduction against every melee attack that winds up aimed at the decoy instead of you.
Beside your mercenary it can take the heat off him and possibly allow him to leech back enough life — especially in really dangerous fights where you might need to be drinking the potions yourself instead of feeding the merc.
Cast successively farther away it can (usually) lure monsters. The monsters move toward and attack each successive decoy; you reposition it with additional castings to draw them in the desired direction. This can be used to clear a jammed doorway and get into a room, or to safely control a nasty boss like a Conviction or Holy Shock aura or MSLEB — you can even move him away and park him if need be.
In front of someone you're protecting, it's like a pylon, adding a measure of safety in case you get distracted and monsters slip by you.
By a trap it can block a fire bolt or dart, although the damage from these is so low it's hard to bother.
On a stairwell or in a doorway it can bottle up a crowd of monsters. It will physically block passage while it lives.
On an exposed flank it can guard against rushes from side passages while you focus your attention closer at hand.
With a Thorns merc a decoy can get kills! Attackers suffer reflected damage even when striking the decoy. It probably works with Iron Maiden as well. Aside from sheer entertainment value, this might be useful against truly stupendous one-hit-killer bosses you don't want to get close to.

With a relaxed finger on the right mouse button, you can hover over a moving critter and tap the button to cast decoy — she'll appear next to the critter even if it's moving at high speed, even if it's teleporting. This is of limited use, since you're giving up precise placement, but it's kind of nifty. You can even have the decoy appear next to a teleporting boss's arrival point if your timing is just right.

Another place that a decoy comes in handy is the Worldstone Keep, where Baal has the annoying tendency to launch an elemental attack at anything that stands still for more than a few seconds. The catch is that Baal can only target one thing at a time, so a long-lasting decoy can be a boon if it's left in the right place (which is hopefully, far, far, away from your bowazon).

Consider also that a decoy is invaluable as a portable shield against ranged attacks: it doesn't move, it has high priority for monster attack AI, and it's cheap. Despite its importance, not too many points should go into Decoy, not until you're done developing your other skills — unless, of course, you want to beef up your valkyrie. (Note that every point in Decoy gives +88 life to your valkyrie, the same amount of life she gains per slvl.) Generally, you want to aim for a balance between life and duration.

Decoy (one to maximum)