Return to d2: Uni, a shooter of Fire and Magic arrows, no cold this time.

[Boro]

So I started her up. A Fire/Cold/Magic arrow amazon. Her name is Uni, and she will go using the three basic arrow attacks. Fire, Cold an Magic arrows.

So, what goes into making a character?

Well, first we need to see what we go against.





Look at the hell portion of health. Now keep in mind that monsters regenerate. Finally, monsters who lose a good portion of their life (at least 8th) get stunned a little. That gives us an idea of how much damage we need to do. At least a few thousands.

So, Fire, Cold and Magic arrows. 

Magic arrow is the simplest, it gives our bow one damage (+1 min and +1 max) per level. This is before %enhanced damage is applied, making the small number misleading. Amazon Basin players call amazons focusing on magic arrow Sniperzons. It also converts a percentage (1% per level) of physical damage to magic. Goodish against ghosts. Not so much against Horadric Ancients in hell (Immune to Magic)

Fire arrow converts some portion of damage to fire (45% at skill level 21, 2% per level), and adds fire damage to the attack. (63-70 at skill level 20, 123-140 at skill level 26, and 219-249 at skill level 31) It also gains 12% fire damage from each point spent in exploding arrow (skill bonuses from items don't count), but I don't know yet if it affects the converted damage or just the base fire damage.

Cold arrow does the same, but supposedly lower physical attack damage and cold damage, to account for the inherent utility in slowing enemies (that are susceptible anyways).

And most importantly: NONE of them increase my attack rating when using them, so my chance to hit is actually the one that gets listed when I have my normal attack up. Silly bug.

However, Penetrate gives me a nice attack rating boost. (35% + 10% per level above the first), and thus will get increased as much as I can spare skill points into it.

So To get there, I fired up a calculator, ( https://diablo3.ingame.de/diablo-2/calcu...n&char=ama mind the ads, use a blocker if necessary.) combed the basin forums, looked up sites, and came to the conclusion that the damage will depend entirely on my weapon, will be most likely weaker than my near-5k damage firebolts, and with no teleport to back it up, I'd need a sturdy tank to hide behind.

I haven't decided yet on how much I'll pump into Decoy and Valkyrie. Between Penetrate and the three arrow skills, I won't have many points left to make them tanky summons. (Decoy to draw fire and Valkyrie to distract everything else)

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Gear:

I expect at least +3 to all amazon skills by mid-nightmare. 

Getting a Lore runeword helmet is fairly straightforward: Bully the Countess until she drops a Sol rune, and/or craft it combining lower runes she drops more likely. Same with the Ort (although you get one free in act V), 

Same goes to making a Peace runeword armor. Shael, Thul, Amn. They are all readily available from the Countess, so all the more reason to hit her up.

Of course, I'd like to find more, but that will depend on what drops, and what I can gamble. I know that bows, circlets and amulets can roll an affix for amazon skill levels (+1 to all amazon skills.), Bows and gloves can roll for +1-3 to the Bow and Crossbow skill tab, and Gloves, Amulets, and circlets can roll for the +1-3 to the passive and magic skill tab. So there are plenty of potential upgrades to find.

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To sum it up:

I will try using Fire, Cold, and Magic arrow (In D1 Rogue style), with some minimalist Valkyrie and Decoy use (the analogue for D1 golems). I expect at least one armor and one head piece easy to set up using low level runewords, and I will try gambling or crafting for gloves, amulets, and circlets, as usual.

My damage will depend almost entirely on the amount of +skills and base weapon damage I can achieve, so no projected average damage here like with Cinderella. If I find an elite (hell-difficulty) bow, I will try imbuing them.

If things go wrong, I'll drop the cold arrow using up one of Akara's resets, and distribute it between the Valkyrie and Decoy, or all into explosive arrow for synergy purposes.

Let's see how it goes.

[T-hawk]

Fire arrow converts some portion of damage to fire (45% at skill level 21, 2% per level), and adds fire damage to the attack. (63-70 at skill level 20, 123-140 at skill level 26, and 219-249 at skill level 31) It also gains 12% fire damage from each point spent in exploding arrow (skill bonuses from items don't count), but I don't know yet if it affects the converted damage or just the base fire damage.

I'm pretty sure the 12% synergy only applies to the base fire damage, not any of the converted physical damage.

I think dropping the cold arrow will make more sense overall. Three attack skills is spreading pretty thin, with no points left for synergy bonuses. Fire arrow would be the main stay with the magic arrow for fire immunes.

[Boro]

Fire arrow converts some portion of damage to fire (45% at skill level 21, 2% per level), and adds fire damage to the attack. (63-70 at skill level 20, 123-140 at skill level 26, and 219-249 at skill level 31) It also gains 12% fire damage from each point spent in exploding arrow (skill bonuses from items don't count), but I don't know yet if it affects the converted damage or just the base fire damage.

I'm pretty sure the 12% synergy only applies to the base fire damage, not any of the converted physical damage.

I think dropping the cold arrow will make more sense overall.  Three attack skills is spreading pretty thin, with no points left for synergy bonuses.  Fire arrow would be the main stay with the magic arrow for fire immunes.

From synergy to fire arrows we are looking at some 100-300 base damage gain (depending on the +skills Uni gets). Maybe Valkyrie/Decoy is a better investment.

So far I am cruising through act 1 on players 8. Magic Arrow is almost free, and 3 points in critical strike make me feel comfortable damage-wise. I tried getting good bows from Charsi, but the all-important 3socket hunter's bow eluded me. 

Cold Arrow Aliza graced me with her presence once more, and I will keep her (not alive, mind me, but back from the dead via revive money) for the rest of the journey. Back on my failed paladin I saw the damage she can do. That way I'll keep the tri-elemental theme going too.

At level 15, with some 50k gold to spare, I took a jab at Gheed's short battle bow on gamble offer, and I got a decent one that doubled my previous magic arrow damage.

Countess down, she gave a Ral rune, not what I needed, but with three I can cube them up (craft) later into an Ort rune. Now I just need to get there.

[KingOfPain]

Make it a Girls Night out. Almost every time I made a Zon I used a rogue merc. That's part of the fun and challenge, doing traffic control of the mobs and keeping the merc from running into crowds.

[Boro]

It is happening. Andy died right after I dinged level 20. I even forgot to put on the poison resist belt I had stashed for the occasion, so combined with antidotes I had "merely" 70% poison resist. Reward was a Ruby, some rares, and a fire resist/attack rating rare ring, a direct upgrade from my previous Bronze Ring. Aliza survived the encounter. My inventory didn't... I need to find the cube soon and deal with the chips (cubing some into purples this time, not going the upgrading every chip route again I think)

yes, I stashed alternate gear, so now I'm mostly sporting fire resist, ready to face the Sewers tomorrow. Gear description to come later.

Skills so far:
Inner Sight 1
Critical Strike 3
Magic Arrow 13
Penetrate 3

[superdeath]

Did you do some major grinding? I usually hit Andy around 14? if not sooner. Or does the bowazon just need more levels to kill it?

[Boro]

No, in fact I skipped some of the jail/cats/tamoe highland. I just set myself to /players 8 - that way enemies take roughly similar amount of time to kill as in hell, and I don't fall behind the level curve for bosses. And I fall asleep/get bored during playing normal a little less.

[Boro]

I got a little sidetracked in Grim Dawn, but after a bunch of countess runs, I got myself a stealth armor. That 25% faster run/walk is something I can't imagine living without.

[superdeath]

If only playing a bowazon/anything with arrows/crossbow bolts didnt need to restock the damn ammo.. id give it a try. Im too much of a hoarder to need inventory space for ammo.

[KingOfPain]

If only playing a bowazon/anything with arrows/crossbow bolts didnt need to restock the damn ammo.. id give it a try. Im too much of a hoarder to need inventory space for ammo.

Far in the ancient past, Amazons found their glorious arboreal city of Tran Athulua under siege by the pirates of the Twin Seas. These cut-throats were determined to turn the Amazon Islands into their base of operations. The conflict lasted many months as the pirates laid in for a long siege. During the battle, supplies ran short, and the Amazon archers found themselves without ammunition. Realizing that their defense rested solely upon the ability of the archers to keep the corsairs at bay, the priests of the city prayed to Athulua to aid them. In answer, Athula infused the minds of the Amazons with the power to harness their natural spiritual energies. One by one the archers melded their determination and will into shards of physical force that they then unleashed from their bows by the thousands, firmly routing the corsairs back to sea.

Magic Arrow requires no arrows (making more Inventory space). This may be useful if you run out of arrows. CLvl
 1 skill, can start right off with it.

Here my barb showing the noob merc how it's done.



Cuz you know, Magic Arrow s so useful and popular, they made 5 unique bow with it

Witherstring

Widendraw

Witchwild String

Magewrath

Widowmaker