Origin: Thanks to multiple Trav runs and multiple trades I've managed to make myself a 'Faith' GMB. It's gonna go PvP eventually, but that's not why I've made it. Arguably GMB is the most powerful weapon for a Dexazon, and Multishot is one my top five skills in the game.
Name: Not named after the bow, but after Faith, the "Dark Slayer" from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The name of the runeword is just a pure coincidence
. Faith, a level 85 Amazon
Code:
Str 76/108
Dex 404/425
Vit 20/ 20
Ene 15/ 15
Life 1,159
Mana 253
(after Battle Orders)
Resistances: 75/75/80/75
LCS highlights:
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Multiple Shot: 20 Arrows at 8 frames per attack
PHYSICAL DAMAGE ONLY
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== Attack == | Damage | Avg | incl DS/CS |
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Multiple Shot | 588-3,131 | 1,859 | 3,367 |
MS vs. Demons | 746-3,969 | 2,357 | 4,268 |
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Guided Arrow | 854-4,542 | 2,698 | 4,855 |
GA vs. Demons | 1,064-5,659 | 3,361 | 6,087 |
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On top of that, every arrow:
1-30 Lightning Damage
5-17 Fire Damage
4- 8 Cold Damage over 3 seconds (0.75 second in Hell)
15 Poison Damage over 3 seconds (a cheap Prevent Monster Heal)
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65% Critical Strike
46% Double Strike
81.1% Total Chance of double damage
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15% Crushing Blow
10% Open Wounds
55% IAS for 8 fpa, achieved at 52%
100% Chance to Pierce
AR: 18.4k
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9% Life Leech
9% Mana Leech
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7 PDR
Defense 4.7k
FHR 52% [6 frames @ 52%]
D/A/E 49%/52%/49%
Skills
Valk: 20 [cast at 29]
D/A/E: 4/1/4 [11/8/11]
Critical Strike: 9 [16], Penetrate: 20 [27], Pierce: 2 [9]
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Multiple Shot: 13 [19]
Guided Arrow: 18+ [24]
Magic Arrow: 1 [7]
Comments on skills:
I love Multiple Shot, and much prefer it Strafe. I wrote an essay about it in my previous Dexazon thread. Read the "Multiple Shot" section there, if you're curious. I decided to learn to use Guided Arrow and that was more fun than I was expecting it to be. I maxed Valk for once, I was curious on how that'd work out. She's quite a tank, I have to say. I love high level Valk. Honestly, I forgot that she gets the cool weapon at 17, I thought it was at 27, so I strove for that. Oh well.
Gear:
Weapon: 'Faith' GMB (13 Fana, +1 skills)
Switch: beta-'CtA' + Lidless
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Helm: Kira's Guardian (@70, socketed with a 15 IAS / 55 AR jewel)
Armor: 'Fortitude' AP (29 ResAll, 1.25 Life/level)
Belt: Razortail
Glove: Laying of Hands 1.07 (Yeah, that's on top of 75 FireRes... Overkill anyone?)
Boots: Gore Rider
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Ring1: Rare (16 Str, 4% LL, 5% ML, 114 AR, 29% ColdRes, 24% PoisonRes)
Ring2: Rare (16 Str, 5% LL, 4% ML, 6% FireRes)
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
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Charms: Cube+2xTome
GC's:
4x Passive Skiller (1x 40 Life, 1x 15 Life, 1x 6 Dex, 1x Cold Dam)
1x Shimmering/FHR (@13/12)
SC's:
1x 5 ResAll/FHR
2x [Resistance]/Life (8FR/20, 8CR/18)
3x AR/Life (18/17, 23/18, 12/18)
3x Elemental/FHR (2x Cold/FHR, 1x Poison (3sec)/FHR)
8x 20 Life SC (one with 5-17 Fire Damage)
Comments on gear:
I didn't want to go for the highest speed breakpoint, since that's kinda tricky. You need to wear an IAS belt and a 45IAS circlet. Which I may do some other time, but for this time I went with a 8-frame attack. Now, the point of all of this is of course that since I'm carrying the 'Faith' myself, my moron can carry Reaper's Toll. That's unlike in my previous Dexazon, Sophie.
Once I decided that I want 8-frames only, settling for my perfect Kira's socketed with an AR/IAS jewel was a pretty straightforward choice. That left me pretty much covered for resistances and CBF. Two cool rare rings which compliment each other quite nicely, I think. With enough haxx 1.07 damage charms she'd be more powerful, but she did fine just the way she is.
Mercenary
A2 Might Mercenary
Weapon: eth Reaper's Toll (ED/IAS jewel)
Armor: 'Fortitude' DS (@26, 1.25 Life/level)
Helm: Andariels' Visage (27 FireRes/IAS)
Overall
Fun: 10/10
Difficulty: 6/10
Future: Not really. I'm not running much nowadays.
The Journey
As per usual I was hitting stuff over the head with a big hammer until I could equip a synergized 1.09-Ravenclaw. That took care of Normal, obviously. I entered NM at about level 40, equipping a 'Harmony' made in a Matriarchal Bow. Now, equipping a bow requiring 187 Dex at level 40 is tricky, and I figured since I'm spending so many points in Dex anyway, I can be true to form and become a Dexazon straight away. That led to the one and only death. Annoyed, I equipped a few life charms which carried me over till I could equip gear giving me resistances and 'CtA'.
Hell was a lot of fun, /p3 except for Meph, Diablo and Baal. I entered at level 77, I think. I wanted to equip Kira's before I did. The Returned spawned by 'Faith' are actually pretty cool. They may not move with teleports, portals and so on, but sometimes there are quite a few of them. After playing Fishymancer enough one starts to understand that random targets wondering on screen add quite a bit of safety. I mean, I didn't die in Hell. Granted, I had over 1k life, which is a bit against the idea of a Dexazon, still. Between the Merc, the powerful Valk and random skellies on screen, it was safe.
This lady's damage is about 80% of what my Windforce dexazon was doing, but on the plus side my moron was carrying Reaper's Toll. That wasn't always working that great, I play my MS-zons crazy aggressive, so most of the time the guy was left behind, so no Decrep triggering either. But every time I got in trouble, or I encountered PI monsters, he made himself very useful. It sometimes took a moment to trigger, but then they went down more or less OK.
Guided Arrow is pretty neat. Always hits and works off 100% of bow damage, so cool. Here I'm using it to kill Duriel. In general, 'Faith' is very neat for hitting stuff. Ignore Target Defense on top of 300% AR bonus. I mean, it's a Dexazon, sure, but I got to 18k AR without putting almost any AR on my charms.
Hellforge was a Gul and I got an "almost" moment in CS. It was about this time, in Act 4, when the Decrep started to kick in more often on the non-PI monsters, which helped a lot with kill speed. Monsters are tougher in A4 & A5, enough so that I had to run back much more often, giving the Merc chance to hit stuff.
Here I'm starting to fight the Ancients with MS to hit them all, and later I finished them off with Guided Arrow. Done at /p3 cause I forgot, no problem, just a bit longer. In WSK3, the PI witches were a bit of a nuisance. Gudied Arrow took down Baal off screen easily. Not my fault he pushed me away
Faith vs. Windforce
As I said I love Multiple Shot, which has tougher breakpoints to reach than Strafe. Shooting WF fast means you need Fanaticism from 'Faith' from the Rogue. So you don't have Decrep. Using 'Faith' it takes crazy 1.07 charms (which I don't have) to get the same bang, but the Decrep will make up the difference. And I quite like the "Reanimate as Returned" mod. Both are awesome bows.
Future Bowzons
When it comes to physical damage oriented Amazons I want to do three more Dexazons:
- 'Cham' Windforce Strafer (already made the bow, so halfway there
)- Minimum Damage 'Faith' Diamond Bow Multiple Shot zon (I've got some awesome charms, and other stuffs, time to use that for something darn original, no?)
- A 'Silence' Strafer (Medusazon she's called, I think)
Thanks for reading!
--Greebo|||Good stuff!
Nice to see other people use Buffy as a source for names. I must have made and lost several "Buffy"s, a couple of "Anyanka"s and a "Willow" or two in D2, but I've never done a "Faith" yet.
I've never tried MS, being a fan of Strafe, I might have to give it a go in the future.|||That's a impressive setup. Well done
|||Nicely done! And those rings are quite nice, particularly the first one! I haven't played a good MS zon since 1.09, to be honest, so perhaps it should be added to my long list of builds to explore... I do have good damage charms from 1.07 for which this would be a good application.|||Hard points in strength on a Dexazon? No max damage charms? Non-negative resists? You're not doing it right. |||Very nice! I have to say I enjoyed MS+GA in 1.09 (slow Buriza), so it's very nice to see a similar build (albeit with much better equipment) being a fun build in 1.13.And, serious props for those stylish Bowazons you have planned. I'm especially interested in reading about your MedusaZon - I very briefly considered one for 1.09 after I found my Vex.
I think I may know where that Cham came from! Glad to know it's being put to a very stylish character. I'll be putting the Ber to use soon as I'm gearing up for my 1.13 vs 1.09 WW Barbs project.|||Quote:
Good stuff!
Thanks!
Quote:
Nice to see other people use Buffy as a source for names. I must have made and lost several "Buffy"s, a couple of "Anyanka"s and a "Willow" or two in D2, but I've never done a "Faith" yet.
Hmmm... Well, I have a Buffy, Faith, Willow, Dawn and am now questing Hell with a Wesley
. No Anya though, yet. Cool idea for a name. Can't think of a good character though. If only Paladins were female, that'd so fit. Darn it, should've called one of my Avengers Lord D'Hoffryn. Quote:
I've never tried MS, being a fan of Strafe, I might have to give it a go in the future.
To each their own. Before I played through the entire game with MS, I used to like Strafe more, too. MS gives control over what you're doing, doesn't put you in lock and it doesn't have the D/A/E bug. I see MS as offensive and aggressive and Strafe as defensive, run and shoot kind of skill.
But everyone should play their bowzons the way they enjoy them
Quote:
That's a impressive setup. Well done
Thanks!
Quote:
Nicely done! And those rings are quite nice, particularly the first one! I haven't played a good MS zon since 1.09, to be honest, so perhaps it should be added to my long list of builds to explore... I do have good damage charms from 1.07 for which this would be a good application.
Thanks!
Yeah, I liked the rings for symmetry. 16 Str and double leech on both.
The first one (16 Str, 4LL, 5ML, 114 AR, 20-ish Poison and Cold Res), when it dropped, I thought "Oh come on! Couldn't it be Fire and Light???" But now, I like it more like this. Most characters doing physical damage (95% I think) will want to wear LoH and HLW anyway. This ring nicely compliments the resistances from these two items.
1.07 damage charms are great for this. I spent my runes on min-damage charms, and I'm gonna do a min-damage MS-zon, too, but Max is the more efficient way, no question.
I think people rely on Strafe way too much. I mean, it has it's uses, but every physical damage zon can use a 10-12 arrow volley of MS once in a while. Like in Flayer's Jungle for instance.
Just how long is your list
?Quote:
Hard points in strength on a Dexazon? No max damage charms? Non-negative resists? You're not doing it right.
I know, I'm sorry. I feel like I'm betraying The Great Amazon by questing with a Dexazon with maxed resists and over 1k Life. What can I say? I'm a wuss.
Quote:
Very nice! I have to say I enjoyed MS+GA in 1.09 (slow Buriza), so it's very nice to see a similar build (albeit with much better equipment) being a fun build in 1.13.
Ah, the wonders of GA in 1.09... That's kinda the one thing I wish I had done in the "past", but I have too many projects in 1.13 as is.
Quote:
And, serious props for those stylish Bowazons you have planned. I'm especially interested in reading about your MedusaZon - I very briefly considered one for 1.09 after I found my Vex.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that one, too. Although I have to say, I'm not expecting a great killspeed. Meh, I can always do Hell at /p1 instead of /p3.
Quote:
I think I may know where that Cham came from! Glad to know it's being put to a very stylish character. I'll be putting the Ber to use soon as I'm gearing up for my 1.13 vs 1.09 WW Barbs project.
Yeah, the Cham WF should be lotsa fun. Have fun with your Barbs!
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Thanks for all the comments!
--Greebo|||Quote:
I know, I'm sorry. I feel like I'm betraying The Great Amazon by questing with a Dexazon with maxed resists and over 1k Life. What can I say? I'm a wuss.
You should shave your head as penance
But nice character. 24/100 so there is still long way ahead of you...Name is close call, 8 fpa BP is close call and moron is moron
Why do you insist on such high breakpoint for fhr? D/A/E mess you much more then actually being hit no? Nice char overall and waiting for that Cham'd WF zon writeup (but make it in spirit of true bowazon next time 
)|||Ah, an amazing girl you got there Greebo Bowzons have always been one of my secret lovegirls.. Keep up the good work! 
|||Quote:Yep, I've gone and made a Dexazon without a single point in Strafe
You are dead to me...
Seriously, nice character. By the looks of your future plans, you are a fellow lover of physical damage bowazons. Good man.
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