General Noob Questions

I know that most people playing D2 in modern ages are long-time veterans and mostly very experienced players, but when I dabbled with the game years ago I never took the game by the neck or became very acknowledged or progressed in it at all, and now that I'm trying to get back into the game, I find it very exciting and refreshing but I lack to grasp very basic concepts still. Kind answers and swift replies would be greatly appreciated despite my lack of understandings for the game. If asking these basic questions is an annoyance to the rules of the forum, I've scanned through guidelines and didn't intend to cause any type of inconvenience, I just think players can help me understand concepts better than trying to search for really old information that may be inaccurate to this specific server.

(1.) - Why would Ethereal items be desired? To my understanding they are just items that eventually break and cannot be repaired. Someone mentioned in the suggestions that being able to make an item Ethereal would be a cool feature, why would someone want non-repairable items though??

(2.) - My main and current character is a 62 Bow Amazon, I luckily haven't used or wasted my stat/skill reset yet. I've spent points mixed in some passive skill, and a mixture of Strafe and Guided Arrow, and I think I should have focused on just one of those.. What would you consider the best well-rounded skills build for PVM and PVP? I want to be fairly effective at both of them. Just listing the skills and the levels would help me.

(3.) - Stats, some of my stats are obviously effected by certain equipped items, they are currently 94 Strength, 223 Dex, 120 Vit, and 50 Energy. I understand that strength high enough for gear is required, and bow zons do need a high dex level, and everything else should be dumped into Vit. What should my stats be? How would you distribute them as a level 62 Bow Zon?

(4.) - Gear, I presume that harder difficulty modes reward you greater item drops, do both minions and bosses on Nightmare mode drop significantly better items than on Normal? Should I only rely on Hell mode drops once I can handle it to get the best drops? Which bosses are known for dropping which items? What type of stat bonuses in gear should I look for as a Bow Zon?

(5.) - Charms, as a Bow Zon, what charms should I be aiming to carry in my inventory? What is the name of the charms, and their effect? and what drops them?

(6.) - Cow level, does cow level work in this server? and are there certain rare drops that I should keep in mind that the cows drop?

(7.) - Multiple accounts from a single IP address. My significant other and I want to both enjoy the game at the same time from the same wireless network, will we run into any problems trying to both log on from two different accounts at the same time? Can I run two clients by myself to trade myself on two different accounts?

(8.) - How do I run a secondary client in windowed mode? I presume that two full screen clients will not run together simultaneously.



Thank you very much for your time.

 

1) some runes have the Indestructable mod,and thus can't be broken.the reason people desire Ethereal weps is because they do more damage,and ethereal armor because of higher defense (can be glitched to have over 6k defense,very nice on Mercenaries since armor/weapons on them won't break).

2)for pvm,Multi Shot and Strafe,for PVP,Multi Shot and Guided Arrow.

3)Depends on how you like to go.some go full Dex (Glass Cannons,making them stronger,but also making them easy to 1 shot kill,others put in about 100 Vitality and the rest Dex,to make them more durable.the choice is yours.

4)a lot of stuff thats descent you can find in NM Travincall and Hell Travincall,for a lot of the better stuff like Griffins,COA,etc,you'll need to look in Hell like the Pits,Nilathak,Baal,etc.

5) well most go for 3 max damage/20 attack rating/20 life small charms (don't know the exact name of them off hand).

6)yes,cows DO work on here,and on here,and can be very beneficial,they can drop all kinds of uniques,and up to a Jah rune,as well as jewels,gems,etc.

7)yes,multiple accounts are allowed.I run 2,sometimes 3 at a time,until my computer screams.lol

8) right click on the shortcut and go to properties.look under the shortcuts tab and under target,you will see Diablo II\EuropeBattleNet.exe".after the .exe,make a space and put in -w,then hit apply and you will start in windowed mode from then on.

Good Luck,and welcome.If you need any help.you can add me as a friend and message me in game.My account name is Mpmeyers.

 

^ This. I would only add that cows can drop runes up to zod, not jah.

 

Thanks all, appreciate the responses for the morning, also would like to thank the Sorc Character "Afternoontea" for spending hours teaching me and running me last night, and helping my Amazon to be much more effective, big kudos.

Anyone know good places/mobs to farm +life small charms in Hell?

 

Go and farm Worldstone Keep. I make like 20-30 runs/daily - there are a lot of spirits (black souls. ect), they can drop high runes. You can also find good charms here.

Also good charms can be find in Lower Kurast bugged chests.

 

This is NOT my guide, this is a ZVA guide/build from a guy I dueled with years ago, on another server. :thumbup1:

Perfect PvP Bowzon vs All Guide


Table Of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Items
3.Charms
4. Stats
5. Skills
6. Stradegy
A. PvM
B. PvP


Here are some expressions i will be using and what they mean.

frw- faster run walk
ar- attack rating
dmg- damage
ga- guided arrow
switch- 2nd weapon
120/45- 120ed 45ias
kb- knockback
ss- storm shield
eth- etheral



1. Introduction- Alright to start off my name is Bill, and my specialty is bowazons. If you disagree with my guide go look at one of the noobish ones also listed, but if u want to have a good zon follow this guide. This zon will work in both zon vs all and zon vs zon. I will not list a poor mans version because this is not that expensive of a character to build. Follow this guide and u will own. Ya this is considered a "glass" bowzon, but i dont like the ****ing word glass.


2. Items-

Helm - 120/45 with either 30frw or 40+life. 3os 30frw helms are really expensive, i personally use a 40 life 120/45.
Armor- Perfect Life Per Lvl Fort, resistance doesnt matter on this zon. I use a ap.
Gloves- 20ias KNOCKBACK dex gloves, this zon will be absolutely horrible without the kb gloves, they are gm so if someone says bm /squelch.
Weapon- 14ed perf GMAT faith, no matri faith- they ****ign suck cock.
Ammy- Cats eye, dex frw and we need the ias.
Belt- Nosf Coil, ias slow target, str, life leech for pvm.
Boots- Wt, adds dmg,10str,10vit,frw.
Rings- Str, Dex, Ar ring. and a 20dex 200+ar raven.
Switch- Hel'd SS, and eth titans for frw.


3. Charms

Gcs-7x- Max,Ar,Life,2x- 1passive 7frw
Scs, 10x Max,Ar,life
Torch- 20/x/
Anni-20/x/x


4. Stats

Str- Most likely base
Dex- Everything else, 1dex=1%ed
Vit- Nothing, zon dodges doesnt tank.
Energy- Change ur password and forget it if u think about putting stats in energy.

My zon has 33 str,447dex,20vitality,15energy with no gear on.


5. Skills

At lvl 88 my zon has naked

20-Guided Arrow
11-Multi Shot ( max arrow action )
1-Strafe

16-Critical Strike
1-Penetrate
16-Dodge
15-Avoid
16-Evade

1-Jab


6. Stradegy

A: Basically in pvm strafe when lots of guys and they will die. In baal runs dont multi because kids will cry ur laggin them, just strafe. I wouldnt advise using a bowazon for pvm anyways.


B: Alright now the fun stuff. The bowazon is a pretty balanced dueler, however ill tell you right now the characters that will rape this zon are, auradins, GODLY shield barbs, a good dysenciing smiter, and a good ww sin. All others u should be able to take care of. I will give u advice on how I duel common duelers.


Hammerdin- Spam Multi when far away, when about to get hit make sure ur walking cuz u will block/dodge more. Namelock guided arrows and switch and run when close. You should knockthem back and get time to run away. You should beat most hammerdins.

Smiter - Run away and knockthem back with arrows, if its a godly one who dysynchs ur ****ed however.

Ele Druid- Spam when far away, when u can see them use strafe to kill bear/wolves/sage, without sage they should die easily with a few guided arrows.

Fc Zon- Stay the **** away from it and spam arrows, i hate those characters. 1 hit and ur done.

Bowzon- Multishot, when about to get hit switch and hope u block/dodge. Stay close enough just so u can see them on ur automap and spam multi in there direction.

Trap Sin- Dont get mindblasted, let them come to you and namelock guided.

WW sin- keep your distance by running with switch, namelock guided and fire away knocking them back.

Psn Necro- Max block will beat you, however not many make max block psn necros so just namelock guided and strafe his summons.

Bone Necro- If he bone prisons u 1 or 2 guided wil get rid of that, just use strafe to kill summons and guided arrow him.

Lite Sorc- Dont let it get close to u, spam multi and when it gets close switch and run and guided arrow.

Blizz- This should be easy, just run away and spam multi.

Orber- Guided arrow and multi, DO NOT CHASE an orber worst mistake.

Fire- All they do is spam, this should be easy.

BvC- Namelock guided arrows, when far away spam multi shot, if he throws on a shield it will be harder, but u can beat him. WHen he teles on top of u to ww, switch to shield and walk to block/dodge.

 

This is default ZvA build, but it has lack of frw for desynching and is 1 hit=ko. I personaly prefer 60 vita/40 dex splash with cube ca in inventory (2.5-3k hp with bo). I also use x10 3max/xx/3 frw sc's, x1 451 poison dmg sc, and rest max dmg/ar/life sc's.

 

Awesome good information, I am going to start my charm/rune farm tonight

I actually switched to a light javazon, using lightening strike and lightening fury for multi-target, I find the javazon builds much easier and more convenient, making a very deadly and effective bowazon did not seem like an easy task, they seem to be one of the more complex builds to master, especially if you plan on defeating a lot of people in pvp. That being said, not to be an inconvenience, but what specific strategies and stat/charm builds would you guys use differently for a Javazon instead of Bowzon? I realized that some of my poison jav skills contribute to additional poison damage for my lightening strike. I plan on sticking to mostly lightening strictly and I am very content with my skill build. I'd like to know more about which stats I should spend if I reset them because I have a hard time realizing how much additional stat bonus I will receive from my gear, I end up getting more str or energy for example, when I end up wearing my guild. It's difficult for me to rationalize how much excess I will have in stats that I don't want too much of, when should I stop adding to str? I was thinking like 120ish str including gear bonus, relatively close dex, all the rest dumped in vit, and minimum energy. Sound good?

 

PVP/PVM JavaZon Build Guide:​

:thumbup1:

SKILLS:

20 lightning fury
20 power strike
20 lightning bolt
20 charged strike
20 in the other synergie

total level for all synergies to get max dmg: required level 94!

and MAYBE 1 skillpoints in dodge, evade and avoid (with +skills this will increase to a nice chance of dodging attacks!)

Here's the objectives you should acheive in order of priorities:
89% IAS (I haerd of a 140% Bp, however I never tried it)
86% FHR
145%+ All resists (+Anya's quest)
10K+ Cs Dmg
lvl 12 D/A/E
As Much Mana and Life as you can get (Obviously)
As Much FR/W as you can


HEAD:

1. Griffin's Eye - Obviously the best Helm due to the +% Lightning Dmg, -% Lightning Res

AO:
Rare Zon Circlet - +Skill - Fr/W - Strg - Dext - Res - Os) Some circlets are very good, but I still think that griffin is better.
Shako - +Skill, Life, Mana, Dr
Valkyrie Wings - +Skill, FHR, Fr/W

ARMOR

1. 60 IAS // 60 All Res Armor of [+life] *** - You need it reach the 90%IAS Bp *

AO:
60 IAS // 60 All res Armor of Stability [+24% FHR] *
Enigma (MagePlate or Dusk) - +2 Skill, Fr/W, Teleport [see the dueling section] , Life, Strg [Javazon with a Dusk Nigma are Sexy wink.gif ]
Chain of Honor - +2 Skill, Resists, DR, Strg
Skin of the Vipermagi - +1 Skill, Resist

Notes:
* If you use the armor giving FHR, you'll get Life Gcs, if you use an armor giving life, you'll get the FHR Gcs
** +20 // -20 Lightning Armor isn't a good choise because even with godly dmg, you wont reach the target without decent Resists
*** 60 IAS // 60 Res armor refer to a 4os Magical Armor (Jeweler's) socketed with 4x 15 IAS // 15 All res Jewel

WEAPON

1. Titan's Revange * - +4 Skills, Fr/W, Strg, Dext

2. Thunderstrokes ** - Better Dmg, -15% Lightning Resist

AO:
Magic Javelins ?, basicly you can get non-eth low dmg Titans 4 Pgems so theres not a lot of alternative weapons...

Notes:
*Dont spend to much on ETH High % Titans, non-eth 150%ed are still as good, just less sexy
** Only the +4 to Jav and Spear matter on T-strokes.
You'll rather use them in some situations, see the Dueling section
*** If you're rich enough to grab some +5-6, +20-40% Ias Jav, well do it.
However, I never tried them and I heard that these magic javelins aren't good, but unfortunatly I never tested them.

SHIELD

1. JMOD (Jeweler's Monarch of Deflection) - 4x 15//15'd - Using this shield allows you to use Enigma Instead of the 60//60 Armor

2. ATOD (Artisan's Tower Shield or Deflection) - 3x 15//15'd - Cheaper, but you'll have to stick with T-strokes or you wont reach 89%IAS

3. Stormshield - Def, ICB, FBR, DR, Res, Strg

AO:
Spirit - +2 Skills, FCR, FHR, Vita, Res (Against Caster) - Since FCR doesnt matter you can get a pretty cheap Spirit (Except Against Casters + Enigma)

Moser's Blessed Circle Res, ICB, FBR (Nice cheap alternative)

BELT

1. Thundergod's Vigor - Skills, Strg, Vita, Max Light resist, Lightning Absorb

2. Arachnid's Mesh +1 Skill, 10% slow target *

AO:
Rare Belt: Some Zon rather use rare belts with - FHR, Strg, Life, Res
Verdungo's Hearty Cord - Vita, Dr, FHR **

Notes:
* Some Dueler says that Thundergod is BM because it gives extra light res and absorb, in this Case Arach or a Rare belt is the best
** Some Dueler says that Arach is BM because it slow target, in this case use a Rare Belt or Verdungo

GLOVES

1. +3 Javelins and Spears / +20% Ias - Still my favorite choice. You need them to reach the 89% IAS Bp

AO:
Rare Zon gloves - +2 Javs and Spears, +20 Ias, Strg, Life etc. (I still rather get +1 skills than minor mods but well there that's your personnal choice.)
Gleclaw's Pincers - Knock Back
Any 20IAS Gloves

BOOTS

Theres no perfect boots in this case, what you're aiming for is Fr/W FHR Strg Vita Resists

1. Godly Rare Boots (Such as Sspurs or Gspurs)
Godly boots, but almost all unperm or very expensive, if you dont know what they are you better stick with treks.

2. Sandstorm Treks http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/uboots.shtml *
Fr/W, FHR, Strg, Vita

AO:
WaterWalk[/B] - Life, Dext, Fr/W
Any Boots with good Fr/W or mods mentioned above

JEWELRY

Ammy:

1.Mara's Kaleidoscope - +2 Skills, Stats, Resists

2.MetalGrid - Defence, Attack Rating, Resists

3.Highlord's wrath - +1 Skill, 20% IAS, Lightning Resist

4.Cat's Eye - Dext, IAS, Fr/W

AO:
Seraph's Hymn

Note:
*There's godly crafted Amazon Ammy but well if you get one that is better than Mara, go for it.

Rings:

1st: Raven's Frost * - Dext, AR, CBF

2nd: Bul-katos' Wedding Band ** +1 Skill, Life

AO:
Rare Ring (Strg, Dext, Resist etc.)

Notes:
*You need at least 1 Raven to have Cannot Be Frozen (You just can't duel without this)
**You can also use Stone or Jordan to get more mana, but well I rather have Life.

CHARMS

Hellfire Torch:
*If you dont know what is a Torch just do a quick research you'll find it quickly
Obviously as high as you can...

Annihilus
Obviously as High as you can...

9x Harpoonist's Gc of [Life] or [FHR] *
Obviously as high as you can...

10x Small Charms:
Aim for: FHR, Resist, Life, Strg

Many combinaisons, see the shortcut for more informations on every charms

General Explanation:

*If you use the suggested Gear, you'll have 5 Open socket [4x Armor or Shield - 1x Helm]
Some people will put Light Rainbow Facets in everything, wich is a mistake.

*I rather use +15% IAS // +15 to all resist Jewels to reach the highest IAS BP as I can.
If you cant afford such Jewels, Prubies, Um or anything you have is still a good AO.

*You must get 86% FHR, my suggestion is to use:
Sandstorm (20% FHR)
6x FHR Scs [+ Mod if you can] (30%FHR)
3x FHR Harpoonist's Gc (36% FHR)

*I think that reaching the 176% FHR Bp is useless since you'll cruelly lack of other stats
*Once you reached the FHR BP, get charms with as much life as you can.
*Fr/W is important 4 a Javazon and a Light Armor (Let say a Dusk Shroud) is a clever choice, and its also sexy
*Your D/A/E fpa will always be 6, no matter your FHR.

GEAR SHORTCUT

Stats

It's like every other normal melee char:

Strg: Enough to wear Gear
Dext: Enough to Max Block
Vita: all
NRG: None

89% IAS Javazon:

Griffin's Eye 15/15'd
Enigma (Dusk Shroud)
Titan's Revange
60 // 60 JMOD (A white Monarch is still good, but FBR and ICB worth it so much)
Thundergod's vigor
+3 Jav // +20% Ias Magic Gloves
Sandstorm Treks
Mara's Kaleidoscope
Raven Frost
Bul-Katos' Wedding Band

Hellfire Torch
Annihilus
3x FHR Harpoonist's Gc
6x [Life] Harpoonist's Gc
6x FHR + [Life//Res] Scs
4x Life + Res Scs

Call to Arms + Spirit

This Zon should Allow you to kick ass

95% Ias
86% FHR
10.743K Cs Dmg (With all Synergie Maxed)
205 All resists (Only the All resists, single resists from Scs or TReks aren't included) (According you have Perfect Gear)
95% FR/W
Max Block
Lot of Life
Possibility to teleport

Cs v C Javazon

Here's the built I'm used to use against casters that you cant kill by throwing javelins.

It's the same as above, you just switch armor 4 nigma and when you get close to them, just tele near. they wont expect a Java to tele so use the confusion to 1-hit-ko them with your Cs.
It's also a great way to move faster with FCR gloves + spirit and to dodge WW barbs and Caster's attack
and it's damn funny to Tele with a java in duels because no1 expect this biggrin.gif

Get as much Resists as possible since Enigma has no resists

PvM Build: (Cheaper Version)

Shako - Valkyrie is still a nice choice 4 PvM
Enigma - Coh - Vipermagi
Titans - Thunder-Strokes (Mostly against Bosses)
Stormshield - Phoenix - Spirit (Depending on the situations)
Thundergod's vigor
FCR Gloves (I like Trang Gloves)
Sandstorm Treks (Basicly, any boots will do...)
Raven Frost
Any Other ring... take the best you have
Highlord's Wrath

This build isn't really expensive and allows you to have fun PvMing, the great lack of this built is the IAS, since it's really hard//expensive to get some on a javazon.

 

I have two titans revenge so that when i run out of ammo quanity I can just swap, and I have aquired one thunderstruck jav. Honestly which one is the way to go? The + to skills on titans is really nice but some people tell me thunderstrucks are better for light javazon simply because of light dmg. What should I go with? FHR is really important to me just as much +life, I really need to get me that circlet helm, maybe I can farm some decent items and trade someone. I wish there was a steady place for charm farming but they are just random in general. Seems like it doesn't matter if I'm simply killing Fallen or farming on Council Members, anything is possible with charm drop I think? Am I right? Charms are completely random? It must take a while to grab onto a large number of good +life charms. I owe a thanks to everyone msging me and also posting info on my thread here, and even more-so the people in game helping me, especially Tea <3


ALSO: I noticed some people trying to get price checks for their items, and currency is something called "ber"? What is "ber"? and where do I obtain "ber"?

 

titans is definitely the best weapon for a pvm java. an ethereal one is even better. (upgrade it if you have the requirements of dex+str).
about the charms thing, its the best to farm high level areas to obtain nice charms. flame river etc.
ber is a rune which you can get by mfing,cubing or trading. cube 2 sur = 1 ber
you need ber for specific rune words, for example enigma and infinity.

 

I spend about 2 hours trying to collect useful charms from strong areas and I've managed to obtain 2 charms that give +life but they are both under 20. How long did it take you to get 20 good small charms for life? Is there large and grand charms that give better ratios of +life than small charms? I believe I was told +life small charms will add up to the most. Should I try to even out +FHR with +life? or should I worry more about +life than +FHR? Thanks for any input.

 

Hi, small charms will give you the max life if you whant to fill your inventory than lc, or gc. You will find them eventualy, i find sc 20 5 fhr or 20 5 res in travi or nihla areas, you will need to get some pacience but they will be droped eventualy.

 

Thank you mate, I will take your advice. I think I should focus on small charms, how do I get an Anni??

 

Doing travi runs you will find soj ring easy, then sell it to akara and uber will apear and give you an soj as a gift.

 

life/fhr charms doesnt exist at all.
its not wrong to check the list below for worthy charms, because life is not all to look for:
http://forum.gamesymbol.com/f842/[info]-list-items-prices-informative-v1-13c-532547/