Bowazonish post.
Nikita Synytskyy
Take 3 ounces of a spot report, 1/2 cup rant, 3 tea spoons of Useful Advice
(tm), a glass of brandy; mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with requests for
information. You will get this post. Here it goes.
Well, to make a long story VERY short, I've beaten Diablo on Normal and
forced my well into NMRE at a relatively ripe age of 27. FlyingToad is a
Dame now!
The longer version goes something like this: I started in the City of the
Damned, which I cleared out last night before stopping, but I decided to
clear it again - for experience, items and money. It was a mix of
lightning demons, Barlogs and Vile Mothers - nothing really threatening.
Having inspected the drops and decided that they are just the usual crap, I
moved on to the River of the Flame.
River of Flame was inhabited this time by Stygian Hags and their offspring
(annoying), Blood Maggots and their offspring (easy - strafe makes short
work of both maggots and children), and Barlogs - dealt with by the means
of Ice Arrow. As I got closer to Heyfasto, I started encountering
Mage/Fighter oblivion knights - and they gave me no end of grief. The
poison/cold ones were OK, but the fire spells nearly drove me into the
ground, because I had only 34% resistance. One hit from their fireballs
would drive my health down by 70% or more. Brr...
Luckily, I have found an amulet of 40% fire resistance; I swapped out my
bloodsucking amulet for fire resistance, and things got easier - although I
was left with just 3% life steal, from my gloves.
Chaos Sanctuary was the usual affair, with knights, barlogs and storm
casters; Strafe worked really well for those. The fact that Iron Maiden
does not work with ranged damage paid off immensely for me - the oblivion
mages could curse me till they were blue in the face, and it did me no harm
whatsoever. I remember Iron Maiden being a major problem for my barb.
Speaking of curses, oblivion mages sometimes use a curse that has the
animation of bluish-colored bubbles rising above your head and popping...
anybody know what it is?.. I could never figure out its effect, and I've
never played Necro...
Well, back to the bowazon's adventures... Popped the seals, killed the
packs. Here comes big D!!! At first I wanted to use the approach I used
with Duriel - run and fire guided arrows. It did not go too well, however,
because a) Diablo is better at catching up to you than Duriel is and b)
guided arrow takes lots of mana and does (comparatively) little damage. So
I switched to freezing arrow and, trying to keep some distance between me
and the big horny dude, started pumping him full of lead--or wood, as the
case may be!
There were a few VERY close calls - most of them not with the red
lightning, but with direct physical damage - if Diablo catches up to you,
he hits you for all he's worth. Well, prompt rejuv drinking saved my
bowazonish ass each and every time.
I always feel for Diablo a bit - he has lots of hit points, awesome attack
and stuff - but he has no backpack into which he can dip when things turn
sour - and sour they do turn eventually. Blue in the face, with ice arrows
sticking out of his butt, Diablo could take it no longer - he gave up and
died, dropping a unique plated belt, a healing potion and a Glowing Amulet
of Radiance (+5 total light radius).
I was off to NMRE!!!
Well, maybe Hell was a bit tough, but Act1/NMRE was easy as pie. I was
starting to wonder if fixing the King's series prefixes on bows would be
even advisable - in terms of gameplay balance. Strafe is absolutely
devastating here; on large open areas with large groups of monsters you
just press the button and watch you bowazon turn into a medieval version of
a machine gun. For monsters that got too close there was Ice arrow - to
stop them dead in their tracks and shatter them to prevent resurrection.
Sure, there were tough cookies - an Extra Strong / Extra Fast blood clan in
the forgotten tower was one - he would have been difficult to run away from
even on open ground; in the confines of the small levels the tower has it
was damn near impossible. May the dude that came up with Vidala's Fetlock
have a never-ending supply of beer and chips - he deserves it, for they
saved my ass there.
But overall level 27 bowazon is waaaay too hot for act1/NMRE. With strafe
and Ice arrow, very few things can harm her in the open areas, and only
certain bosses can do her in in the dungeons (extra strong/extra fast, or
LEB/ stone skin or something equally wicked).
By the way, I found my first ever ornate plate in the forgotten tower - a
Wraith boss dropped it. It is really crappy, Glowing of the Fox or
something, but Charsi will still pay 25 grand for it. Hell, it has 417
AC!!! It also requires 170 str, which is more than my bowazon will ever
have. I will probably sell it - unless someone posts here saying they want
it. It is yours, then!
Now, I need some helpful guidance and advice. I now use Ice Arrow as my
main attack. It is extremely useful because it stops monsters that get too
close, and it also has the ability to shatter monsters, which means they
won't be resurrected by shamans/mummies/whatever. It always hits, too,
which is very nice. With the 10% mana stealing that I have now, it
actually regenerates mana rather than using it. In short, it is very
useful.
Now, give me a good reason not to pump it to level 10 or so! The damage
increases by 4 (min AND max) with every level, the freeze duration
increases, the mana cost goes up by a negligible amount... Is there a
reason NOT to pump up this spell? I currently have it at level 4+1, and
sinking a couple of level ups into it is rather tempting, although I've
been resisting the temptation so far and pumping Strafe instead.
Well, that seems to be it... Longer than I though it would be!
Nikita.
EvilToad, lvl 35 barbarian
FlyingToad, lvl 28 bowazon
TaintedToad, lvl 24 paladin
IcyToad, lvl 21 jabazon - will probably be replaced soon.
--
CotDRSig # (83.3+sqrt(-23+3i))/0xFFF
LineNoise
<nik...@mondenet.com> gave us the following Prophecy:
>Take 3 ounces of a spot report, 1/2 cup rant, 3 tea spoons of Useful Advice
>(tm), a glass of brandy; mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with requests for
>information. You will get this post. Here it goes.
>
>Well, to make a long story VERY short, I've beaten Diablo on Normal and
>forced my well into NMRE at a relatively ripe age of 27. FlyingToad is a
>Dame now!
WooHoo!
<snip>
>Speaking of curses, oblivion mages sometimes use a curse that has the
>animation of bluish-colored bubbles rising above your head and popping...
>anybody know what it is?.. I could never figure out its effect, and I've
>never played Necro...
There's two that sort of fit the description. Decrepify looks kinda like a
blue cloud, and lowers your run speed, among other things, but only if you
stop for a second first. That's relatively obvious though, so I think
you're talking about Lower Resist, but I've always thought of that as being
more purple than blue. Check your character screen, you should have less
resistance than you used to have.
<snip>
>I was off to NMRE!!!
WooHoo! again.
>Well, maybe Hell was a bit tough, but Act1/NMRE was easy as pie. I was
>starting to wonder if fixing the King's series prefixes on bows would be
>even advisable - in terms of gameplay balance. Strafe is absolutely
>devastating here; on large open areas with large groups of monsters you
>just press the button and watch you bowazon turn into a medieval version of
>a machine gun. For monsters that got too close there was Ice arrow - to
>stop them dead in their tracks and shatter them to prevent resurrection.
For me it's not so much that King's and Merciless don't work, that's a game
balance decision, and I can live with it either way. What really bothers
me, is the fact that my bow description, and my character screen, have been
blatantly lying to me this whole time. So I'd really like them to fix it,
but something as simple as not allowing those prefixes to appear on bows
would be fine with me. Just so long as I can look at my character screen,
and not be lied to.
>Sure, there were tough cookies - an Extra Strong / Extra Fast blood clan in
>the forgotten tower was one - he would have been difficult to run away from
>even on open ground; in the confines of the small levels the tower has it
>was damn near impossible. May the dude that came up with Vidala's Fetlock
>have a never-ending supply of beer and chips - he deserves it, for they
>saved my ass there.
Treads are better. :-)
>But overall level 27 bowazon is waaaay too hot for act1/NMRE. With strafe
>and Ice arrow, very few things can harm her in the open areas, and only
>certain bosses can do her in in the dungeons (extra strong/extra fast, or
>LEB/ stone skin or something equally wicked).
A Bowazon is more than strong enough in NM, or in single player games, but
in Hell, or in multi-player, she simply can't keep up with the other
classes.
>By the way, I found my first ever ornate plate in the forgotten tower - a
>Wraith boss dropped it. It is really crappy, Glowing of the Fox or
>something, but Charsi will still pay 25 grand for it. Hell, it has 417
>AC!!! It also requires 170 str, which is more than my bowazon will ever
>have. I will probably sell it - unless someone posts here saying they want
>it. It is yours, then!
Go ahead and sell it, you're almost guaranteed to find something better,
and probably before you even come close to the strength required to wear
it.
>Now, I need some helpful guidance and advice. I now use Ice Arrow as my
>main attack. It is extremely useful because it stops monsters that get too
>close, and it also has the ability to shatter monsters, which means they
>won't be resurrected by shamans/mummies/whatever. It always hits, too,
>which is very nice. With the 10% mana stealing that I have now, it
>actually regenerates mana rather than using it. In short, it is very
>useful.
>
>Now, give me a good reason not to pump it to level 10 or so! The damage
>increases by 4 (min AND max) with every level, the freeze duration
>increases, the mana cost goes up by a negligible amount... Is there a
>reason NOT to pump up this spell? I currently have it at level 4+1, and
>sinking a couple of level ups into it is rather tempting, although I've
>been resisting the temptation so far and pumping Strafe instead.
There are only two reasons not to pump IA. One, is the increasing mana
cost. You want to be sure that it's cheap enough to break even on mana
steal. Two, is the fact that there are better places to put those skill
points. Namely Strafe. Once you have either maxed Strafe, or taken it to
at least 15, then you might consider putting more points to IA. But the
benefits for pumping a point into Ice, just don't stack up against Strafe.
At least they didn't last time I looked at it, which was before the bow
bug. I have had neither the time nor the inclination to reevaluate all of
this stuff post-bug.
>Well, that seems to be it... Longer than I though it would be!
Nah, it was just about the right length. Nice work on beating D.
>Nikita.
>
>EvilToad, lvl 35 barbarian
>FlyingToad, lvl 28 bowazon
>TaintedToad, lvl 24 paladin
>IcyToad, lvl 21 jabazon - will probably be replaced soon.
LineNoise
--
ICQ# 68214833
Laurelin - Level 59 Javazon (Fusion Mod)
_
Never anger a dragon, for you are crunchy and you go well with
Brie.
tcells
LineNoise wrote in message ...
>On Fri, 06 Oct 2000 22:51:08 -0500, the Oracle known as Nikita Synytskyy
><nik...@mondenet.com> gave us the following Prophecy:
>
>>Take 3 ounces of a spot report, 1/2 cup rant, 3 tea spoons of Useful
Advice
>>(tm), a glass of brandy; mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with requests for
>>information. You will get this post. Here it goes.
>>
>>Well, to make a long story VERY short, I've beaten Diablo on Normal and
>>forced my well into NMRE at a relatively ripe age of 27. FlyingToad is a
>>Dame now!
>
>WooHoo!
hear hear! celebrations tonight!
>
><snip>
snip
Check your character screen, you should have less
>resistance than you used to have.
I'll have to do this one day myself :)
>
><snip>
>>I was off to NMRE!!!
>
>WooHoo! again.
>
>>Well, maybe Hell was a bit tough, but Act1/NMRE was easy as pie. I was
>>starting to wonder if fixing the King's series prefixes on bows would be
>>even advisable - in terms of gameplay balance. Strafe is absolutely
>>devastating here; on large open areas with large groups of monsters you
>>just press the button and watch you bowazon turn into a medieval version
of
>>a machine gun. For monsters that got too close there was Ice arrow - to
>>stop them dead in their tracks and shatter them to prevent resurrection.
It gets harder, wait on for the durance ;) then it gets easier again :)
>
>For me it's not so much that King's and Merciless don't work, that's a game
>balance decision, and I can live with it either way. What really bothers
>me, is the fact that my bow description, and my character screen, have been
>blatantly lying to me this whole time. So I'd really like them to fix it,
>but something as simple as not allowing those prefixes to appear on bows
>would be fine with me. Just so long as I can look at my character screen,
>and not be lied to.
>
agreed totally shoddy workmanship.
>>Sure, there were tough cookies - an Extra Strong / Extra Fast blood clan
in
>>the forgotten tower was one - he would have been difficult to run away
from
>>even on open ground; in the confines of the small levels the tower has it
>>was damn near impossible. May the dude that came up with Vidala's Fetlock
>>have a never-ending supply of beer and chips - he deserves it, for they
>>saved my ass there.
>
>Treads are better. :-)
rares are better than both 8^)
you should be starting to look very seriously for some nice boots now as
they can take a long time to find and later you'll be more concerned with
getting bow/armour.
vids and treads are both nice but try and find 2F (fastest speed Fastest hit
recovery) boots, undobtedly they'll come with a bit of resistance as well.
Getting 2Fs allows more freedom with belt and armour as you do want fastest
hit recovery and need speed on the boots.
>
>>But overall level 27 bowazon is waaaay too hot for act1/NMRE. With strafe
>>and Ice arrow, very few things can harm her in the open areas, and only
>>certain bosses can do her in in the dungeons (extra strong/extra fast, or
>>LEB/ stone skin or something equally wicked).
>
>A Bowazon is more than strong enough in NM, or in single player games, but
>in Hell, or in multi-player, she simply can't keep up with the other
>classes.
we could if bow damage and bonuses were worked out implemented properly. In
terms of getting hits on creatures straffe/freeze rocks all over WW, but
there simply isn't enough being put out. Add to that the increased leech
effect and I think that the bowazon would be clearing a bit faster than the
barb who has a couple of auras to think about when they're cast on him.
IMHO in multi NM chaos runs about the only thing (+-5 lvls) which is going
to keep up with a 55 zon (with good equip) is a high twitch ice queen.
(Poor old necros have to tp too often). Put two zons together and it's
sunday lunch in the park.
>
>>By the way, I found my first ever ornate plate in the forgotten tower - a
>>Wraith boss dropped it. It is really crappy, Glowing of the Fox or
>>something, but Charsi will still pay 25 grand for it. Hell, it has 417
>>AC!!! It also requires 170 str, which is more than my bowazon will ever
>>have. I will probably sell it - unless someone posts here saying they
want
>>it. It is yours, then!
>
>Go ahead and sell it, you're almost guaranteed to find something better,
>and probably before you even come close to the strength required to wear
>it.
plain ornates are more useful - you can imbue them (not that a zon would)
>
>>Now, I need some helpful guidance and advice. I now use Ice Arrow as my
>>main attack. It is extremely useful because it stops monsters that get too
>>close, and it also has the ability to shatter monsters, which means they
>>won't be resurrected by shamans/mummies/whatever. It always hits, too,
>>which is very nice. With the 10% mana stealing that I have now, it
>>actually regenerates mana rather than using it. In short, it is very
>>useful.
>>
>>Now, give me a good reason not to pump it to level 10 or so! The damage
>>increases by 4 (min AND max) with every level, the freeze duration
>>increases, the mana cost goes up by a negligible amount... Is there a
>>reason NOT to pump up this spell? I currently have it at level 4+1, and
>>sinking a couple of level ups into it is rather tempting, although I've
>>been resisting the temptation so far and pumping Strafe instead.
>
>There are only two reasons not to pump IA. One, is the increasing mana
>cost. You want to be sure that it's cheap enough to break even on mana
>steal. Two, is the fact that there are better places to put those skill
>points. Namely Strafe. Once you have either maxed Strafe, or taken it to
>at least 15, then you might consider putting more points to IA. But the
>benefits for pumping a point into Ice, just don't stack up against Strafe.
>At least they didn't last time I looked at it, which was before the bow
>bug. I have had neither the time nor the inclination to reevaluate all of
>this stuff post-bug.
mines on lvl9. In NM you can easily use it all the way through and get
great value from it. It's also very useful in hell. Freezing rules the
hell chaos run though, so if you've got a big mana leech setup, you can go
that way. Either way you'll want straffe, but you really don't need it more
than 10 in NM. I'd balance the two for now, especially if you are enjoying
using ice, with piercing arrow it becomes awsome.
If you play most games in groups then freezing is the way to go prob 3:1
ratio of straffe:freezing allocation until FA becomes too expensive for your
setup, if you play mostly solo, 1:1 straffe:ice with straffe 2/3 lvls
higher. Don't forget immolation :) and plan a point on freezing before you
open the seals in NM.
these are just meant as rule of thumb, maybe the best is to increase
ice/freezing at a rate you can easily compensate with straffe's leech (even
though you have it covered right now).
>
>>Well, that seems to be it... Longer than I though it would be!
>
most enjoyable tho
LineNoise
<tce...@Xcapmon.com> gave us the following Prophecy:
>>>Sure, there were tough cookies - an Extra Strong / Extra Fast blood clan
>in
>>>the forgotten tower was one - he would have been difficult to run away
>from
>>>even on open ground; in the confines of the small levels the tower has it
>>>was damn near impossible. May the dude that came up with Vidala's Fetlock
>>>have a never-ending supply of beer and chips - he deserves it, for they
>>>saved my ass there.
>>
>>Treads are better. :-)
>
>rares are better than both 8^)
If you're talking about pure running shoes, no they're not. If you want
resists and stuff, (and who doesn't), then you are correct.
>you should be starting to look very seriously for some nice boots now as
>they can take a long time to find and later you'll be more concerned with
>getting bow/armour.
>
>vids and treads are both nice but try and find 2F (fastest speed Fastest hit
>recovery) boots, undobtedly they'll come with a bit of resistance as well.
>Getting 2Fs allows more freedom with belt and armour as you do want fastest
>hit recovery and need speed on the boots.
I've been gambling on any type of boot they offer me for many levels now,
but I haven't seen anything good enough to replace my Tearhaunch Greaves.
>>>But overall level 27 bowazon is waaaay too hot for act1/NMRE. With strafe
>>>and Ice arrow, very few things can harm her in the open areas, and only
>>>certain bosses can do her in in the dungeons (extra strong/extra fast, or
>>>LEB/ stone skin or something equally wicked).
>>
>>A Bowazon is more than strong enough in NM, or in single player games, but
>>in Hell, or in multi-player, she simply can't keep up with the other
>>classes.
>
>we could if bow damage and bonuses were worked out implemented properly. In
>terms of getting hits on creatures straffe/freeze rocks all over WW, but
>there simply isn't enough being put out. Add to that the increased leech
>effect and I think that the bowazon would be clearing a bit faster than the
>barb who has a couple of auras to think about when they're cast on him.
>
>IMHO in multi NM chaos runs about the only thing (+-5 lvls) which is going
>to keep up with a 55 zon (with good equip) is a high twitch ice queen.
>(Poor old necros have to tp too often). Put two zons together and it's
>sunday lunch in the park.
Even better, you take that same Amazon, and pair her with a Tweaker Sorc,
fast-casting Static Field at level 20+. I don't think you can find any
other two-character combo that can clear areas as fast as these two can.
And it's still just as nutty when you get to Hell/4.
<snip>
LineNoise
--
ICQ# 68214833
Laurelin - Level 59 Javazon (Fusion Mod)
_
It is far more impressive when others discover your good
qualities without your help.
Nikita Synytskyy
tcells wrote:
>
(liberal snippage throughout this post)
> >
> >>Well, maybe Hell was a bit tough, but Act1/NMRE was easy as pie. I was
> >>starting to wonder if fixing the King's series prefixes on bows would be
> >>even advisable - in terms of gameplay balance. Strafe is absolutely
> >>devastating here; on large open areas with large groups of monsters you
> >>just press the button and watch you bowazon turn into a medieval version
> of
> >>a machine gun. For monsters that got too close there was Ice arrow - to
> >>stop them dead in their tracks and shatter them to prevent resurrection.
>
> It gets harder, wait on for the durance ;) then it gets easier again :)
Yeah, I remember that durance was a bitch. The vampire lords with their
damned firewalls, the super-fast undead stygian dolls... brr...
> agreed totally shoddy workmanship.
>
> >>Sure, there were tough cookies - an Extra Strong / Extra Fast blood clan
> in
> >>the forgotten tower was one - he would have been difficult to run away
> from
> >>even on open ground; in the confines of the small levels the tower has it
> >>was damn near impossible. May the dude that came up with Vidala's Fetlock
> >>have a never-ending supply of beer and chips - he deserves it, for they
> >>saved my ass there.
> >
> >Treads are better. :-)
>
> rares are better than both 8^)
>
> you should be starting to look very seriously for some nice boots now as
> they can take a long time to find and later you'll be more concerned with
> getting bow/armour.
>
> vids and treads are both nice but try and find 2F (fastest speed Fastest hit
> recovery) boots, undobtedly they'll come with a bit of resistance as well.
> Getting 2Fs allows more freedom with belt and armour as you do want fastest
> hit recovery and need speed on the boots.
Well, my gambling effort is pretty broad for now - I'm gambling for
1)Bloodfists
2)Frosties
3)more Fetlocks
4)treads, since people say they are so good
5)good belts; not looking for anything in particular, it's just that belts
are cheap to gamble on.
My gambling spoils of note so far are the Fetlocks and "Hand of Broc",
unique leather gloves with 3% life and mana steal, +mana and some
resistances - both currently owned by my bowazon.
As for fast hit recovery, I don't find it so useful for the bowazon - I
don't get hit too often. Melee classes need it much more, but even then it
isn't as crucial as it was in D1 - the dreaded stunlock is not nearly as
bad!
Well, I found the freezing arrow to be a literal life saver! This way,
very few monsters get too close - they just get frozen in their tracks with
the first freezing arrow, and shattered with the second. For many of them
one arrow is actually enough. The freeze duration is not really that
important here - all I need is maybe a quarter of a second to fire off
another arrow. The shattering effect is of course a bonus - no annoying
resurrections in acts 1-3 are definitely nice.
Freezing arrow also makes the bosses a lot easier, since you can run away
from them much easier. Isual, Heyfasto and even big D were made a lot
easier because most of the time they were blue in the face, frozen to
half-death.
> these are just meant as rule of thumb, maybe the best is to increase
> ice/freezing at a rate you can easily compensate with straffe's leech (even
> though you have it covered right now).
Well, for now the freezing arrow brings in more mana than it takes, so that
is a Good Thing (TM). I still plan to raise Strafe to at least level 10 in
the next level ups... and then there's the "pierce", which should get at
least a couple of points, and also valkyrie, which you can never have at
too low a level... so the ice arrow definitely has some competition. It
will definitely take some balancing of the damage vs. mana cost vs. other
skills.
Thanks for your input guys!
Nikita.
EvilToad, lvl 35 barbarian
FlyingToad, lvl 28 bowazon
TaintedToad, lvl 24 paladin
IcyToad, lvl 21 jabazon - will probably be replaced soon.
SpicyToad, lvl 8 jabazon - replacement for above
PoisonToad, lvl 7 necromancer - I suck at playing necros
--
CotDRSig # (83.3+sqrt(-23+3i))/0xFFF