Diablo 2: Twinked Multiple Shot Bowazon: Part II - 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 has Amns out the ass. 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).

Next up: Nightmare mode!

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