Guide BUILD - Chaos Bowazon

Introduction
This is a guide for a chaos-focused bowazon. It's built for PvM, being able to clear Chaos Sanctuary or any other area solo and relatively quickly. It seems the bowazon is a lost build, overshadowed by the LF javazon. It makes sense as the javazon seems superior in many ways, and outputs such high damage without needing top shelf gear. But whether it's nostalgia or pure sadism, I always found bowazons fascinating. So I bring you my guide for the chaos bowazon. Credit to @Fatty180 for pushing me to do this after doing a few runs with me.

Breakpoints
There's a very detailed wiki here: https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/amazon-tables-ias-fcr-fhr-fbr-frw-and-some-more.582627/
This covers everything amazon related, but I'll summarize what you'll be looking at with this build.

FHR - Doesn't really matter, you shouldn't be getting hit anyways but I'm at 8 frames
FCR - Doesn't matter
FBR - No shield doesn't matter
IAS - This build uses Faith GMB so you need only 20ias to hit 5,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 strafe speed even with lowest (LVL 12) Faith roll

Stats
This is a pure dex, glass cannon build. Kill everything before it has a chance to touch you.

Str: Enough for gear (My highest is GMB @ 108)
Dex: Everything else
Vit: None
Ene: None

Skills
Java
Nothing

Passive and Magic
Inner Sight: 1
Slow Missiles: 1
Decoy: 1
Penetrate: 1
Dodge/Avoid/Evade: 1 each
Valkyrie: 20
Critical Strike: 20 - my gear offers 0% CB and DS so this is critical (lol) for me
Pierce: I put 4 into this, so with +skills I have 73% chance if I take razortail off. I may respec and only use 1 pt, but I had so many extra points it didn't matter really

Bow
Cold Arrow: 1
Multi-shot: 1
Guided Arrow: 20
Strafe: 20
Magic Arrow: whatever is left

There is some flexibility/debate with bow skills. I feel that 1 pt is enough in multi shot because with +skills I have 15 arrows, which covers the CS fine. I avoided ele arrows because they need heavy synergies to be strong, and my Mav's bowazon is a magezon anyways. I went with max guided for Diablo. Takes down single targets quickly. Magic arrow is good for PI monsters, you can choose to max this instead of guided if you're struggling with them. The occasional 1 or 2 PI monsters in CS hasn't been an issue for me so I went guided.

Gear
This guide is based around using a Faith bow. There's certainly an argument for using Brand (or Ice I suppose) and using an A1 Faith merc, but I prefer the A2 merc for the extra damage and tank. I will list what gear I use, but there are plenty of other options if you don't have/don't agree with my choices.

Helm - Kira's Guardian
I desperately needed resist, so this is where I got it from
Gloves - Laying of Hands
20 ias, 350% dmg to demons, 50% fire res..perfect for this build
Belt - Razortail
Pierce, dex, can't argue with that
Boots - War Travs
Str, Vit and 15-25 dmg work well here
Armor - Fortitude
This is needed for the 300% ED, the other mods are icing on the cake
Weapon - Faith Bow
Make in a +3 skill GMB and hope for a good roll. I got 1/12 and it's still slicing thru mobs like a hot knife thru butter
Rings - Ravenfrost / Dual Leech
With Kira's you don't need the CBF from Raven, but the extra dex is always nice. You will need some mana leech from at least one of these slots
Amulet - Cat's Eye
IAS, dex, FRW..made for a bowazon
Weapon Switch - Harmony Bow
I made in +3 GMB and use for Vigor

Inventory
Torch and Anni as usual
I use 4 bow skillers because I found some with str/dex, but they're not necessary. If they're clean you might as well use 3 SC's instead.
Max/ar/life SC/GC
Resist SC/GC
You will be very short on life, and possibly resist (I'm not maxed on light or poison still) so try to use this space to make up for that

Merc
As long as you're the one using Faith, I don't see any other option than A2 Might. Holy Freeze might help you survive a little bit longer, but I dish out so much damage so quickly I never worry about having to retreat or kite mobs.

Ebugged upped Howltusk - knockback and monster flee is useful for once
Ebugged upped Shaftstop - had one on mule, DR is nice
Eth upped String - LL/DR
Eth Dracs - LL/lifetap never procs, everyone dies too fast
Eth upped Goblins - CB is good for Diablo
Highlords - I think every merc I have uses
Carrion Wind - I use this on most mercs
Eth Pride CV - This is huge for me. Cham isn't cheap, and most people don't make Pride cause it can be a waste, but the concentration aura helps so much with damage. Of course I rolled a LVL 16 but that's just my luck.

Strategy
Use multi shot for big crowds, strafe for hallways/tight spaces or packs of 10 or less. I usually approach a crowd, spam a couple multis, then switch to strafe to clean up the leftovers. If you're getting bum rushed often, cast your decoy and valkyrie right before launching the waves of arrows. For PI mobs just kill everything else first, then switch to magic arrow and you should be able to take them out in just a few shots. For Diablo I cast a decoy on his spawn spot, he always ignores it anyways though. Try to let your merc/valk hit him once or twice to gain aggro before shooting. Your life/rez will probably be low and it only takes a couple shots to RIP you. I've never died in CS with this build, but I've had a couple close calls. If you get in a pinch, cast valk/decoy right in front of you, switch to Harmony, and run like the cops are behind you.

A Look Inside

The ~5k strafe damage is misleading because critical strike procs so often, it's usually double that. 583hp is no joke, don't get hit much. I sometimes bring my barb in for BO before the run, but even then I'm only at ~1.8k hp. It's really not important though because I rarely, if ever get hit.

Conclusion
This has been one of my favorite builds since the inception of Diablo 2. The ability to spray arrows and off mobs without seeing them is priceless. A typical Chaos run might take me ~8 mins or so, which is certainly high compared to many other builds, but I don't care. I have a blast doing it. The FRW from gear + Harmony switch makes up for not having tele somewhat, and having 2 tanks plus a decoy means I keep my bulbs full constantly. The high physical damage output makes leech powerful incase you do end up getting smacked. I hope you enjoyed this, if you have any comments/questions/suggestions let me know. *TimmyDeezNuts

 

love it, thyvm for the input

 

Not only do you love, but also the player's server floor)

 

Gona try this one out mate , seems like a fun change // yours Twinss

 

the cow bowzon memorial!

 

I would suggest using cold arrow instead of magic because of better convert rate from physical, using a gmb faith since you only need 50ias or 55 if you get 12/13 to get last break point of strafe and not going more then 17 points on valkyrie with bonuses since it doesnt change a lot; about the gear since you rearly getting hit why would you care getting max res kira is absolutely not needed i am with 751 life and 32 all res on hell and doest have any problems you could use 3 socket dex tiara with 3 ed jewels or rare 2 ama with bonuses or even giant skull bone vissage; about the merc build i would suggest using the reapers toll you wont see it directly but this will increase you dmg output and will break physical immunities

 

About diablo target you with lighting there is a spot between him and the lighting where the skill dont do any dmg

 

Hi i will post my skills , gear , stats so you might like something and maybe change something in your build if you need to.
Stats:
Str:Enought for equip
Dex:Everything else
Life:None
Energy:None
Gear:
Weapon : Windforce(shael)
Helm : Kira(15ias)- Mavina(15ias) or 30/45/120 if u have it
Amulet: Cats Eye
Armor:Forti
Gloves : Laying of hands
Rings:2 Ravens
Belt:Razortail
Boots:War Travs
MErc : Faith (ward bow)15/1 , Andariel's, Leviathan , highlord , Gores , NosCoil , Raven , Crafted gloves
Inventory : Anni , Torch , posion charms
now for skills i maxed MultipleShot insted of strafe because you are locked in animation and Multishot has more AOE and i clear Chaos quite fast
and its quite fun.Max guided arrow , multipleshot ,penetrate x20 , critical strike x20, few in pierce and the rest of Passive and magic x1.
I do 5067-11k Guided,3753-7809 Multishot,magic arrow 5011-10k, Strafe 3766-7954.
I have no problems with leach i shoot before seeing monsters so i dont get hit at all.
Hope i helped in some way.

 

600 HP = instaloose, i think
i prefer 2.2k HP with BO. Ok, u got a less damage, around -20%. But much tanky.
Ofc u coulda play glasscannon, but i prefer to mark guides like your as @notfornewbies@

 

Its dexazon, there is no vita on purpose and 1,8k hp after bo is way too much to die anyways

 

@Karxh
Multi has no benefits after reaching 24 arrows so u should just pump points till u reach that .As for op the wf/ merc faith combo + all dex has alot more dmg not just 20% more .. not to mention that u get kb that helps alot more than some life ,mana leech and one open socket.Also, even tough ds/crit doesn't just add up highlords deals alot more dmg than cats and has a nice light rez bonus that helps with rezists . Also u should waste helm slot with kira for rezist as for cs u only need fire rez for wenoms and mby some light(not really) get that from inventory(charms) and use some other helm in your case if u want to keep the faith as a primary weapon guillhame or giant skull for the kbk + 2 sockets were u can put some ed jewels in.P.s i just noticed that u are using strafe mostly so i would highly consider using an atma's sacarab. yeah mb quinn

 

I belive you wanted to react to some1 else

 

Hi, I made a char around this build and it was fantastic, Good job man.
One Question: Anyone do the math to see what is better YOU with the Faith bow or merc with one. I mean really we break it down to
Act 2 Merc = Might Aura lvl ?? + Pride Aura lvl 16
Act 1 Merc = Faith Aura lvl 15
Seems like losing both of those for WF bow seems like it will hit your dmg hard. But I havn't really dont the math.
If no one does the work for this I will do it later tonight I just dont know the lvl of Might Aura that the merc gives you I am sure its somewhere online.

Update:
Act 2 Merc Might aura is lvl 19 at 93 = 220% dmg increase
Pride Weapon Aura is lvl16 gives = 285% dmg increase

Act 1 Merc Faith aura = 288% self / 144% Party dmg / 33% speed

Seems like you lose alot of dmg if you switch from Faith bow on your self to Windforce. Question is is the Windforce bow really that much better in dmg ? Thats some real math.

 

I love challenges, I will try this build. Wish me luck, I will be back for sure

 

just built this one and love it!

 

Well, I am a big friend of windforce Bowazon over Faith GMB just for the low cost/effectiveness ratio.
First of all, why would you compare a minimum pride with a perfect Faith? Whether u go down to fana lvl13 or pump concentration to lvl20.
Secondly, Maths isn't as simple as you quoted it out. All those physical dmg auras are handled as off-weapon %ed. Now in addition both builds would use a fortitude (another offweapon source) and you will use LoH Gloves in CS for that 350%dmg vs demons without doubt (another source of offweapon %ed).
Now look at the on-weapon %ed or bonus dmg. An OHM'd wf will have 300%ed on hydrabow (39 average dmg) + 3,125max dmg/lvl.
Let's take for example a lvl90 Amazon using windforce:
4x39 + 140 = ~296 average dmg.

A Faith bowie would get 345%ed on a perfect base GMB (43 average dmg):
4,45* 43 = ~191 average dmg.

At this point you see that the base dmg of your weapon is much smaller. Now let's look what lvl15fanatism Aura would give us:
288%ed (144% for ur party) off-weapon %ed, 110%ar (not necessary in pvm imo), 33% attackspeed which works on the base attack speed.
You must now take all sources of your off-weapon %ed to get a clean calculation what this means:
Fortitude 300%, LoH 350% (vs demons only), ~500dex = 500% (for pvm builds) Might Aura Merc ~220%ed (lvl19), Pride Merc 345%ed (lvl20). I ignore any jewels here you would put into tiara/Giant Skull/Kiara and any dmg bonus from max dmg charms and wartravelers.
For Windforce you get: 17,15 * 296 = ~5076 average dmg.
For Faith GMB: 20,03*191 = ~3825 average dmg.
At this point you see why weapon dmg is so important compared to offweapon dmg. And windforce beats Faith Gmb in terms of rawr dmg ANY day!
Now lastly lets look into attack speed.
You can make a wf bowie with 90ias (4frames) and socket Ohm in it without act1 faith merc. A Faith GMB bowie would need 3sox tiara/diadem with 45ias to reach the 2frames bp (just to mention here how much cost good tiaras/diadems with 3sox + suffix + jewels...). Otherwise you will only reach 3frames. The speed difference between 3frame and 4 frames is...minimal:
First of all Strafe (3frames is maximum here due to a bug):
80ias windforce is maximum - easy to reach.
18ias lvl15 Faith GMB maximum - well, not to mention how easy this is. More ias wont give you anything because of the 2-3frames bug on strafe.
You see that there is absolutely no reason to go for Faith GMB + use strafe. Windforce will also add knockback effect which can trigger on all strafe salves making it the 100% better bow here.

Now let's look into multishot / guided arrow:
Windforce: 89ias = 4frames = 2,77 attacks per second. Higher caps would be 147ias (requires 60ias armors over fortitude, not recommended) and 292ias (not reachable)

Faith GMB lvl15 fana: 22ias - 4frames (as wf), 46ias - 3frames = 3,12attack per second, 92ias - 2frames = 3,57 attacks per second.
You can only reach 92+ias with a 3sox tiara and nosferatu belt + 20ias amu + 20ias gloves. That means you lose pierce on razortail + knockback on giantskull. So you would either lose 350%dmg vs demons and use crafted kb 20ias gloves (these can be really expensive with good stats) or wont have knockback.

At the end of the day you would have 0,35attacks per second more than a windforce amazon or you will lose pierce/knockback/dmg vs demons on LoH gloves.
In my opinion using Faith GMB over windforce in pvm is just...none sense. It's much less dmg, you would need much more expensive equipment to make her hit 2frames on multi/guided arrow and lose alot of effects like knockback/pierce/dmg vs demons. Faith GMB is just for pvp for those rich players who can afford 40/15 jewels and 3sox tiaras...
And I close the faith/gmb discussion with a screenshot of my pvm bowie in town (no auras from merc) with equipment/inventory which would cost 3bers on top

 

i Think best Merc build will be focused on Atma's Scarab Amulet, comfort frw, fhr and ias on diferent hero weapons.
Yes 1st weapon Faith, but second can be eth Titans or any other

Merc 2act Nightmare Offensive w Pride

1) Pride in eth Giant Tresher\Tresher
2) upped eth Lava Gout Gloves for Attack Rating, Fire res and Half freeze
3) M'avina Belt
4) Any (2soc) Tiara, Head, w 2x jewel 15ias + bonus on your choice
5) Eth bug-def Enigma rw in light armor
6) Atma's Scarab Amulet
7) Any Shadow Dancer Boots
8) Bul-Kathos 5% Ring
in this build: 30fhr (10frame), 50ias w no aura(5frame) and max frame w aura Fana, +3 to all skill, 5% life stolen, frw depend what head use (can be up to 125)

Merc 1act norma w Harmony

1) Atma's Scarab Amulet
2) Harmony rw in Ward Bow or Diamond Bow
3) upped eth Lava Gout Gloves for Attack Rating
4) Raven Frost Ring
5) Razortail Belt (upped)
6) Eth bug-def Fortitude or Chains of Honor rw in light armor
7) War Traveler Boots or upped eth (153 str req) if gloves, head or body have +str
8) Any (2soc) Tiara, Head, w 2x jewel 15ias + bonus on your choice
50ias merc for maximum speed with Ward Bow or Diamond Bow, need 13 Fanaticism on char