Diablo 2: Multiple Shot Bowazon

Yep, I got butthurt by the manual labour I subjected myself to in Bowazon Hardcore run. I now feel compelled to take a twinked Bowazon straight to Hell. For those who don't know, twinking is explained in this post, so please read that first.

Completed build (more or less): Bowazon Build Diablo 2.

Bowazon: Godly at First Level

This series of posts will cover my twinked Bowazon (an Amazon that wields a bow; an archer) from first level onwards to level 90 and Hell, or until I get bored. The twinkage is based only on what I have legitimately found, rolled or crafted in single-player mode. Basically, just what I had stuffed into the shared stash of PlugY, and scrounged up for the purposes of this post. For those starting out, I don't recommend going this far. This just points to what can be done, and I don't claim it to be anywhere near optimal. And it doesn't need to be. Hell is where optimal matters. This is just about us getting there with minimal fuss.

Our first level Bowazon, untwinked:

This first post is given over to basic first level preparations: twinking out the Bowazon before she has even stepped out to the Bloodmoor and killed her first mook. When she does step out, she'll be a nigh-unkillable plaguezon - at first level.

By virtue of my PlugY stash, here we have three baseline items with max sockets (armor, bow and mask) crowned by rare jewels with which we intend to encrust them. In regard to the arms & armor, Normal mode characters would have a snowball's chance in hell of finding them. This is Nightmare/Hell-farmed stuff that can nevertheless be utilized at first level. The jewels are certainly obtainable in Normal mode, however; it's how I got them.

Ok, first up is our bow. It's nothing special. Just a Battle Bow with five sockets.

Well, I guess it's sort of special in that it's perfect 15% ED, but that's actually meaningless here. Note that Dexterity requirement, though. Amazons only start with 25 dex. How are we going to be able to wield that? The answer is -15% requirement jewels. But instead of just socketing magical ones, we'll socket rare ones that flaunt extra mods - including the Jewel of Envy mod for that potent on-hit poison that I'm so fond of. Here they are:

And here is our jewel-encrusted bow:

Ok, second up is our armor. It's nothing special either. Just a set of Ancient Armor with four sockets.

Decent defense, but note that steep Strength requirement. How are we going to be able to wear that? Even a Barbarian starts with just 30 in Strength. Again, the answer is -15% requirement jewels. Four of them. Here they are:

And here is our jewel-encrusted Ancient Armor.

Ok, third up is our helm. It's just a three-socket mask.

We don't need -15% requirement jewels for this.

So here is our jewel-encrusted mask.

We have now gone from this:

To this:

Now we are ready to rip Act One a new asshole on /players8.

Multiple Shot Bowazon: Normal mode

I shall purge this land of the shadow.

Indeed, she shall... fait accompli...

As declared in Part I, this first level Bowazon is essentially a plaguezon by virtue of her arms and armor being encrusted with no less than twelve 20 poison over 2 secs jewels, stacked for the sum-total of 240 poison over 2 secs. She steps out into /players8 Blood Moor, fires an arrow at the monster, and depletes its deep hit point pool almost instantly thanks to the potency of her poison. Then she fires an arrow at the next monster. And the next one. Until the monsters are falling around her like leaves in autumn. How can we push this plague further, though? What makes the Bowazon a more effective plague-giver than, say, a double swing barb - or any other low level build, for that matter?

In a word, Multiple Shot. This skill, which becomes available to our Bowazon at sixth level (for us, that's just after the Den of Evil - the first quest), fires multiple arrows outward, like a fan. The broad radius of this fan hits multiple enemies with each shot, hits rear-ranked monsters that otherwise would not be targetable, and also hits the ones lurking just off-screen. As such, our Bowazon gorges on this skill. In Act One, one dozen arrows fan out to spread the poison plague. Halfway through Act Two, double that to two dozen. For twinks such as ours, this skill is godly. Two dozen arrows fanning out, hitting multiple targets, and inflicting 240 poison over 2 secs along with on-hit cold, fire and lightning from our charms, is too good to be true. But it is true. No low-level build can clear out mob-dense zones as quickly as this twink. No build comes close. At 20th level (Act Two), this plaguezon is capable of clearing out zones filled with hundreds of monsters - in the blink of an eye.

Oh me, oh my, would you look at that glorious fan.

Needless to say, each and every arrow is utterly lethal. Woe to he, she or it that steps within the bounds of such a fan. Woe to the mobs.

Woe to all.

The above fan shows as four volleys deep on the playing field by virtue of +IAS.

Once we get Pierce at 30th level and Razortail at 32nd, this is going to get insane, because that stacked Pierce grants us %chance that each arrow hits one enemy, penetrates it, and then hits the enemy behind it as well. That said, there is something to note here: Multiple Shot already has a degree of pseudo-pierce in that it allows us to hit enemies that are deeper in the ranks which would otherwise not be targetable with a conventional shot. Still, Pierce will give us the real deal along with that troll-face that we like to have permanently stamped on our countenance as we play this amazing game.

Ok, let's break down the itemization progression of the twink.

On /players8 we reach sixth level just after the Den of Evil. We add three Sigon's Complete Steel set pieces: Gage, Wrap and Sabot. Most notably, this grants us +30% IAS, 10% Life Steal and +20% run/walk. Also, the Wrap grants us 16 pot slots for mana pot-chugging (gorging on Multiple Shot makes us a mana addict, but we won't be an addict for long).

Adding the other set items is nice but it reduces our killspeed (a big no-no).

At 7th level we add a pair of Nagelrings.

Note that Attacker Takes Damage of 3. If we drop our Ancient Armor and add Sigon's Shelter we will have Attacker Takes Damage of 26 total. Then, if the monsters come up and so much as breathe on us, they will rip themselves a new asshole. Curiously satisfying, but that's a slow way to kill things and we forego 80 poison over 2 secs. No.

Here is Blood Raven getting one-shotted on /players8. Note how being mobbed by the undead is of no concern to us. Ancient Armor just gives us so much D.

Here is the super-fast, super-violent Treehead Woodfist getting one-shotted amidst a mega-mob:

Boom. Everything just died in one second flat. We like that.

Super-tanker Griswold put up more of a fight. Two shots.

At 10th level, we add the Nokozan Relic amulet. Not because we need to, but just because we can.

At 15th, we get a nice mana and life boost by adding a pair of Manald Heal rings.

We sub out Nokozan for the Eye of Etlich which grants us +1 all-skills and on-hit cold.

We also add Raven Claw on switch for when we run out of mana or get sick of chugging mana pots. And for its *boom* factor (a small fireball with a bit of handy splash). I could have bejeweled it but didn't bother.

Act One boss, Andariel. Variety is the spice, so I just sprinted in and gunned her down with Raven Claw. The mooks fell by the wayside due to its fire-splash.

Thus, Act One gets a new asshole ripped for it. Note how we bothered neither with runewords such as Stealth and Zephyr nor even Nef Knockback (as per the Hardcore run). The runewords are as weak as piss in comparison to my first level arms and armor. And enemies that die instantly don't need to be knocked back.

At 18th, Perfect Skulls aka pskulls come into play. pskulls are valuable to us because of their 3% mana steal. As you can see, we have no shortage of pskulls. But we hold off until 20th in order to open up our five-socket Superior Reflex Bow, which grants us +3 all-bowskills (not all that important because this build is currently non-synergistic in its skillset - and mostly will remain so, even in Hell). We have now addressed our mana problem for the most part, with the exception of enemies that cannot be leeched such as skeletal undead. Otherwise, our mana pool now stays peaked at max. It won't drain unless we're stupid or facing off against non-leechable mobs (which are rare). If it does get depleted, it's one or two plinks of Magic Arrow to get it peaked again (or in the case of non-leechable mobs, a pot-chugging or we just switch to Raven Claw in order to take 'em out).

Thus, we can gorge on Multiple Shot like never before. Which means the mobs are dropping quicker than ever before. Which means our level progression starts to steepen again.

25th level opens up the Edge runeword, which is our "time to go and kill Duriel" bow thanks to its +372% damage against demons roll and its +IAS breakpoint over the pskulled Reflex. I did not have access to a three-socket Reflex for a base, so a less damaging three-socket Stag will have to do (both have +3 all-bowskills, though).

Edge is the runeword I couldn't get going in Hardcore mode simply because I didn't get extra-lucky on the Amn drop at the Hell Forge. Well, my stash is Amn-packed. Thus, we have Edge.

Why does Edge not replace our pskulled Reflex on all fronts? Because pskulled's mana leech outstrips Edge's mana after kill. To reiterate: Edge is wielded against Duriel, Meph, Diablo and Baal. Against mobs, it's pskulled Reflex all the way, baby.

Now, 29th is the big itemization breakpoint for physical-based damage dealers. All kinds of great stuff comes into play: Venom Grips, String of Ears and Rattlecage are the highlights. We don't gain as much from their collective crushing blow mod as barbs do, and it won't make any difference against the mobs who are falling about us like confetti, but crushing blow is key for quick kills on Bosses.

Our pair of Manald Heal rings are also swapped out for a pair of Stone of Jordan ones. The Spirit Shroud ghost armor grants +1 all-skills and the Cannot Be Frozen mod. This mod is helpful against upcoming Act Bosses such as Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo and Baal. It is not vital, though.

We are at Duriel and already we are thugged out to the point of being end-game-ready.

Here are the 29th level items that pertain to the above character sheet, along with a few other recent additions (all of which was worn against Duriel - see below):

Yep, 25th opened up Howl Tusk for Attack Causes Monster to Flee 25%, and Knockback 100%. Great mods, but they just are not needed because the enemies are dying before they can even get a sniff at us.

That's 60% crushing blow for use against the bosses.

The 'zon-flavored Peace armor runeword comes into play at 29th as well. However, it doesn't blow my hair back.

Act Two boss, Duriel. Stand and deliver that crushing blow and 'zon critical strike. Barely even saw him slither towards me. Four rapid-fire hits and the god-bug is squished.

Now, at 32nd level, a single item represents an incredibly powerful breakpoint: Razortail. This unique 'zon-flavored belt flaunts a 33% piercing attack mod which stacks with our 'zon's own Pierce skill, making 100% Pierce easy to get. It depends on how deep the ranks of the mob are, but we notice a major decrease in our workload once this belt is equipped. To spell it out, our Multiple Shot arrow-hail is now hitting the front-liners, passing through them, and then hitting the ranks behind them as well. This makes us very happy.

Ok, we are fast-tracking to Nightmare mode now.

Meph is squishy for a boss. He basically appeared, managed to squeeze out a weak fart, and then died.

Diablo is drilled down to nothing in no time, and from point-blank. In stark contrast, my Hardcorerunner took 10 mins to take him down. Plus she had to grind up five levels beforehand whereas the twink is naturally over-leveled at this point, due to its far superior killin' power.

Ok, Act Five. At 35th level we favor Steel Casque for the mana steal. For now, this is preferable to Guillaume's Face (34th). It will also be preferable even to 'zon's Valkyrie Wing (44th).

We have a vast selection of unique bows and crossbows available to us in our stash; most of which have been ignored up to this point because they're just not all that impressive. However, at 39th Witchwild opens up (double-socketed with pskulls).

But is quickly subbed out at 42nd for Lycander's Aim.

The mana steal on both of those - along with the vastly improved damage - is why they were wield contenders as replacements for the pskulled Reflex. Lycander's is a huge, huge step up. Our arrows now feel like laser beams. We are going to cakewalk Act Five.

Multiple Shot arrow penetration through heavily armored Moon Lord tanks, courtesy of stacked Razor Tail/'zon Pierce.

Left: More super-tankers. Untwinked, these things are scary af. Right: Frozenstein and his mob being drilled.

Yep, now that's what I'm talking about.

Raven Frost ring x2 at 45th:

Gore Rider war boots at 47th:

Since I've given crossbows no love, how about the Buriza-Do Kyanon ballista?

Don't be fooled by that +100 IAS. It NEEDS it. And you will have to add more than a Shael to get this beastly crossbow on par with Lycander's attack rate. Still, its bolts could penetrate an engine block. Bad ass. End-game Baal certainly knows as much. He got popped like a party balloon.

So there we have it: a full fifty levels at the conclusion of Normal mode:

It's the first time the Ancients haven't leveled me up (the wiki is wrong that you always gain a level).

Multiple Shot Bowazon: Nightmare mode

Nightmare mode is a big step up from Normal mode. Mob density is increased and the monsters are stronger, faster, and have more special abilities. Elemental resists are more important in Nightmare mode, too. Untwinked and under-leveled, Nightmare mode can feel like hitting a brickwall. But twinked and over-leveled as we are, it can actually feel easier than Normal at times. Nightmare is also less tedious in that we have +run/walk items as well as the Enigma runeword's Teleport at 65th.

You will note that I'm not covering merc twinking. tbqh, I couldn't be assed until Nightmare's end. With a build like this, mercs are irrelevant in Normal and Nightmare. Everything is just dying and even the Valkyrie summon just dicks around, running to the corpses of monsters that have already been slain. In Hell (to be covered in the next post), this will ofc change.

Rummaging through my stash, I find a few items that I neglected to add in Normal mode. Shame on me.

42nd level: Lava Gout unique battle gauntlets for their +20% IAS and %-chance 10th level, 6 minute duration Enchant. This is a Hell-proof item along with Razortail.

50th: The Cat's Eye unique amulet for +30% IAS, +25 Dex and +30% run/walk. This is another Hell-proof item.

We have another good ammy at 50th, too: Crescent Moon for 14% mana steal. But at this point we have enough mana/life steal from our other sources. 

The Andy drop. We're not concerned about Nightmare drops so much, but it's nice to net Skin of the Vipermagi.

Nightmare Duriel.

Strafe will punch holes into him, and bore a tunnel right through his guts.

Upon being summarily slain, he coughed up a Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest death mask. Update: Later, I found another one in Chaos, too. 

At 66th, this will be our new headgear due to its life/mana leech.

59th: Fortitude runeword put into wire fleece armor. 300% enhanced damage, ftw. Nice +life, nice +resists.

En route to Mephisto, we encounter a super-unique who moves like the wind and is as tough as nails:

See that fiery swirl about me? That's Lava Gout's Enchant kicking in. Bad ass.

60th: Atma's Scarab. On-demand amplification? Sign me up. Amp is great with Strafe and Magic Arrow, but it's AoE is too small to be of much use with Multiple Shot. Not every arrow in the fan can trigger the amplification. Only the central couple of arrows. Still, this is a great, great proc.

Meph gets lined up in my sights, gets amplified by Atma's, and then his hitpoint pool gets chunks taken out of it with each volley of Strafe.

Meph drop:

63rd: Laying of Hands set bramble mitts for +350% damage against demons. Says it all. Yet another Hell-proof item.

Middling Hell Forge drop: Lum (37th). Nightmare Hell Forge can drop up to Um (47th).

65th. Epic itemization breakpoint: Faith in a hydra bow or Ice in a great bow.

Ice is fast-tracked onto my Act One cold-based Rogue Sister by first giving her a major strength boost through an ethereal Giant Skull bone visage.

Bowazon: Time to take out Diablo?
Rogue Sister: You bet.

Amplified and drilled. Awesome battle.

Drop was crap.

These are the two highest level unique ranged weapons that I have in my stash. 71st level Gut Siphon demon crossbow and 73rd level Windforce hydra bow.

However, they are underwhelming when up against Faith. I tested Gut Siphon's Slow Target by 25%, and it just wasn't worth having on-switch. otoh, Windforce can be Shael'd for +IAS. It's basically Hell-proof if your merc wields Faith. But merc with Ice and player with Faith is good enough for now.

Oh, here is another beast that one could work with if they wanted to: Hellcrack colossus crossbow with two sockets:

Nightmare minions of destruction. Note how I don't bother to move, and don't bother to summon the Valkyrie tank. Getting lazy, I guess. :P

Nightmare Baal. Again, the amplification - followed up by Strafe volleys from Faith - is what gets the job done.

Thus, just like Normal mode, Nightmare mode gets a new asshole ripped for it. We don't get cocky, though, because Hell mode is coming up.

75th level: We gained a full 25 levels in Nightmare mode:

For comparison, here we were at 50th:

Says it all.

Multiple Shot Bowazon: Hell mode

The hail is penetrating -

- the decimation is total -

- the reanimates are legion.

Reminder of the parameters of play: Hell mode /players8 with solo twinked-out Bowazon.

Well, here we are in Hell. We are not Hell-proof but we are Hell-ready. In addition to par-for-the-course sensible skill allocations, we have hit major itemization breakpoints that should carry us through; namely:

• Faith runeword in hydra bow (recap pic). Almost every mod is pure awesome-sauce. These include Level 15 Fanaticism aura, 330% enhanced damage, 300% attack rating bonus and 10% Reanimate: as Returned. On-switch: Call to Arms for Battle Command and Battle Orders barb survivability skills? No. I have it on another character but my Bowazon just doesn't need it. Instead, I have Harmony on-switch for its 10th level Vigor aura. Gets me from a-to-b in no time.

◦ Update: Windforce unique hydra bow, Shael'd (pic). Part way through Hell, I decided to upgrade to Windforce because it's simply more damaging with its scaling Maxium Damage based on character level mod, and the fact that my Rogue Sister can then wield Fanaticism-aura'd Faith instead of Holy Freeze aura'd Ice. Throw in the IAS boost and this results in a significant DPS increase (though at the expense of more comfortable - and safer - play).

• Fortitude armor runeword in wire fleece (recap pic). 300% enhanced damage. 200% enhanced defense. 20% level 12 Chilling Armor when struck. +life. +resists. It doesn't get any better than that for our bowazon. Update: Plonked Fortitude in an Archon (pic).

• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest set death mask (recap pic). Already had one in my stash but have also found two in this run, as well. 10% mana steal. 10% life steal. Mana and Life Steal are absolutely mandatory for any bowazon. Don't have them? You're dead. +resists and +life are just icing. For now, this is my source. Andy's Visage or good rare headgear are certainly options if I can find them in my stash...

◦ Update: I found Andariel's Visage unique demonhead in my stash for even more IAS, life leech and +2 all-skills (pic). At the same time, I changed the wield to Windforce hydra and got my vital mana leech from that glorious unique bow (7% roll) instead of the above death mask (10%).

• Razortail unique sharkskin belt (recap pic). +15 Dexterity and 33% Pierce that stacks with 'zon Pierce. Don't need to say anything else.

• Laying of Hands unique bramble mitts (recap pic). +20% IAS, 350% damage to demons. Bad ass.

• Gore Rider unique war boots (recap pic). The decision between these and War Traveler was easy because I couldn't find the latter in my stash. 15% Crushing Blow, 15% Deadly Strike, 10% Open Wounds and +30 run/walk is good enough for now, though. Update: My Wartravs (pic).

• Raven Frost unique ring (recap pic). Its Cannot be Frozen mod is mandatory for us. I don't have a godly rare ring yet, so I just wear two of these. I tested 2x Wisp Projector for the Lightning proc, but no. Just like Amplify it won't trigger on every arrow in the fan. More's the pity! :P Its Oak Sage can give a nice life boost that stacks with Call to Arms, but I didn't bother.

• Cat's Eye unique amulet (recap pic). This is our main ammy by virtue of +30 IAS, 30% run/walk and +25 Dexterity.

• Atma's Scarab unique amulet (recap pic). We swap out Cat's Eye for Atma's when facing off against bosses. Why? Its devastating Amplify proc (Necro skill).

You will note that I lack the Annihilus small unique charm (70th) and Hellfire Torch large unique charm (75th). Well, that's because I can't find them in my PlugY stash.

I also have neither access to a Grand Matron bow nor Matriarchal bow. These could potentially give me +3 bowskills on top of Faith or another runeword. However, I'm happy enough with Windforce hydra. Plus, the build is almost wholly non-synergistic in its skillset, so +skills are not going to shake the earth. Bottom line: Faith with +3 bowskills and +2 allskills still won't outstrip Windforce. Not with this build, anyway. Update: Faith in a Matriarchal Bow (pic).

***

We don't need to be optimized in order to beat Hell. We just need key items and a sensible build. That said, any changes to this twinking will be covered in this post, and after beating Hell I may attempt optimizations on the twink in order to tailor to farming purposes.

Act One Rogue Sister mercenary:

• Ice runeword in great bow (recap pic). Holy Freeze aura to slow mobs down. She upgrades to Faith when I upgrade to Windforce hydra.

• Stone armor runeword in ethereal-bugged ornate plate (recap pic). 3861 defense. Update: Got an eth-bugged boneweave going (pic). 4140 defense and lower strength requirements.

• ethereal Giant Skull bone visage with one socket (unsocketed) (recap pic). +35 Strength enabled fast-tracking to Stone in a heavy base, such as ornate/boneweave. I don't have a second Andariel's Visage for her, much less an ethereal one.

Yep, we're sitting pretty enough atm though we are still flying by the seat of our pants at certain points. Total Hell mastery requires optimizations that go beyond the purposes of this write-up - at least, at this point.

So let's get to it, shall we?

***

Den of Evil: the beauty of amplification:

Boom! Goodbye, Corpsefire.

Let's zoom in on that one. I just really like that "amp-pop" sound.

Flanking Griswold with Magic Arrow. It's funny because he died.

MA is hot-knife-through-butter. It will ofc cut through physical-immunes BECAUSE MAGIC (Griswold can spawn as physical immune + stoneskinned).

Treehead Woodfist foolishly preoccupied with fanaticized Faith reanimates:

The confidence to battle on multiple fronts as we storm the Black Marsh...

Awesome.

Once she gains the strength required to wear it, I reward my Rogue Sister with Stone put into eth-bugged ornate (as per).

Actually, I got an eth-bugged boneweave going. Slightly better D and lower strength requirements - for future merc-twinks.

Hell Andy. Faith reanimates are resilient tanks. They won't kill a damn thing but by god will they hold the fort. Even one is incredibly effective. Get a legion going and it's casual mode. Here Andy can't even kill them after she vanquished the Valkryie (which can be resummoned, ofc).

Hell Duriel. Amplified and then torn a new one. Nothing new to see here.

Ok, so things got messy against the Council of Six in Travincal. My merc died and the Valkyrie was not worth resummoning as it was utterly useless in regards to staying power.

The sheer speed and mobility of the Council meant I couldn't line them up for a Strafing very often. This was one of the rare exceptions.

Still, it doesn't matter. The Council can be problematic on ocassion for even optimized characters built to farm it due to the highly varied AI and random property changes of each encounter, and each monster. (My Hammerdin owns them on /players8 95% of the time.)

I also can't say Blood Lords - headed up by three super-uniques - were easy as I descended to Meph's lair at the bottom of Durance.

Meph himself was much more tameable, post-amplification.

Meph drop.

Hell Hellforge runedrop:

Grand Vizier of Chaos:

Diablo:

Diablo drop:

Level 83: Andariel's Visage unique demonhead.

At this point I also sub out Faith hydra for Shael'd Windforce hydra, and give the merc Faith instead of Ice. This is just to kill Baal quicker. I prefer the Faith/Ice combo for more general play (player wielding Faith gets way more reanimates than merc doing so, for example).

Jah drop in the Crystalline Passage!

Lister the Tormentor and its minions of destruction:

Baal: Magic Arrow.

Baal drop:

It's over.

87th level stats at the time of Baal (doesn't show Call to Arms buff, which I had active for +life because she is an extreme glass cannon):

There is lots of work to do on the build and its equipment (resists suck, for example). But this was enough to beat Baal. 

For comparison, here we were at 75th level (end of Nightmare mode):

And here we were at 50th (end of Normal mode):

But we've actually only just begun.. next up is Epic Bowazon Max Spawns Extreme.

***

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