Bowazon Multi/Immolation & Multi/Guided

Written by: Funguskeeper

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectDiablo2/comments/jp2qg9/bowazon_multiimmolation_multiguided_build_guide/

Date: 7th November 2020

= Introduction =

You can use this guide as a full physical build, and ignore immolation arrow completely, if you so chose to do so, replace Immolation Arrow and all its synergies with Magic Arrow and Guided Arrow to still have means to deal with physical Immunities. Immolation Arrow has a 0.5 sec CD, and leaves fire on the ground for boss killing or against Physical Immunities, this can be great while you level since the damage is there no matter your gear. I would recommend you switch so Guided arrow later on when you have decent gear to clear bosses quickly without any problems.

You can start this build as a Multishot amazon almost right from the start (level 6 unlock), but I would recommend you went either into fire right from the start, or go the route where you place your points into magic arrow, since every 10 hard point, you will get additional arrows, up to 3 max. If you put all your points into Multishot from level 6, it might drain your mana faster than you can replenish it, but if you're lucky and find yourself a source of Mana Leech, you should have no problems dealing with mana while leveling.

You can go for Strafe for boss killing, I just dislike the skill so I wont mention it any more. If you feel Strafe is your playstyle instead something else, go for it.

There is two ways to build this, either Multishot/Immolation hybrid, or Multishot/Guided arrow. The burn damage from Immolation Arrow stacks on the ground which allows you to burn down bosses super fast with minimal gear. The Magic Guided Arrow route will save you a lot of skill points because the Immolation route can be very point heavy.

I will not be mentioning Mercenaries in this guide, because I personally do not use them before I reach very end game, if they are not very well equipped, they have a tendency to die over and over. There's a lot of great mercenary guides out there that knows a lot more about them than I do. On top of this, mercenaries now have way more gearing options, which I believe deserve a separate guide just for them.

Disclaimer

Everything written in this guide is up to debate, since this mod will have new numbers and some new changed items, the meta wont settle for the first season since we need a lot of info to be sure about things. When that's said, see all skill points, attributes and gearing as a suggestion over a correct answer. I will personally make sure all guides I write will be tested by someone and the guides will be edited when new information arises.

= Changes =

Bow Amazons are not the spec with the most changes, but I still think there's some interesting changes worth mentioning.

Itemization
The largest difference from vanilla, IMO, is the change in items, your not suddenly chasing one specific item because its twice as good as the second best slot. Now, your able to get mana either on kill, or leech from different sources you previously couldn't. Contributing to this item shift, is because the dev team added pierce, Enhanced Damage and Cannot be Frozen to way more items, so now your able to use different rings, and use a different belt.

I'm presenting four different endgame bows, and there might even be more, the ability to corrupt and socket uniques, makes faith bow challenged for the BiS now. When you see a unique item in the game, always remember, a lot of hidden power lies in good corrupting + puzzleboxing.

Ability changes

 * Magic arrow: 100% pierce, higher flat magic damage, scales 50% weapon damage, and adds 1 additional point every 10 hard point, to a maximum of 3.
 * Multishot: Reduced the mana cost, but greatly reduced the range, so it covers one screen instead of two.
 * Guided Arrow: Now has 100% pierce, and can hit the same target 3 times, so you can now go 20 points guided arrow or magic arrow for end game, and drop Immolation completely. Guided Arrow always hits.
 * Strafe: Now received No next hit delay, which allows more arrows to hit the same target, and reduced the arrows from 10, down to 5, which results in less time stuck in the attack animation.
 * Fire and Cold arrow: Adds additional arrows every 4 soft point, so you will be able to go full elemental Multishot, but that's for another guide.
 * Exploding Arrow: Larger AOE, and the explosion now triggers on every pierced target.
 * Inner Sight: Now reduced enemy % attack rating and defense.
 * Evade: Scaling FRW added.
 * Dodge: Added FHR per hard point, and animation removed.
 * Penetrate: -5% Enemy defense per hard point.
 * Valkyrie: Level 20 and 30, gives another Valkyrie, now uses power strike and moves faster.

= Viability =


 * Can I level as this build?: Yes, from level 6, but you can put points in passives and Magic Arrow up until it unlocks.
 * Early Ladder Viable: Yes, but its one of the more item dependent builds, you might have to save all currency for level 42, and grab yourself a Lycander's Aim if you can afford it.
 * End Game Solo Viable: Yes.
 * End Game Group Viable: Yes.
 * Hardcore Viable: Yes.
 * Uber Trist Viable: Unknown before testing new Ubers.
 * Uber Diablo Clone Viable: Unknown before testing new Diablo.

= Early Ladder Gear =

In the early ladder, you are chasing a few specific items, these items either provide you with Attack Speed, Attack Rating and most importantly, Mana Leech. Multishot is a mana heavy ability, but because it deals a lot of physical damage, and in a large area, your wont need much leech to sustain yourself.

Mana leech can be found on rare rings and amulets, 2-3% on rings and 3-4% on amulets at lower levels.

Weapons


 * Lycander's Aim - Go To Early weapon IMO, provides all the mana leech you need to spam multishot forever.
 * Melody - This can be made in a base with +Bow skills, great for Immolation damage.
 * Harmony - Good pure Multishot bow, deals decent element damage on top of physical and has vigor aura for high MS.
 * Goldstrike Arch - Another decent choice, if you chose to farm Chaos Sanctuary, high Demon/Undead damage.
 * Cliffkiller - Decent bow for most builds, provides skills, attack speed, Enhanced damage, flat damage and knockback, but you will need to seek your mana leech somewhere else.

Helmets


 * Lore - This helm gives good early stats if you cant find a unique, well spend Sol Rune.
 * Valkyrie Wing - This helm provides everything you can ask for in a early helm(This might be the best helm before your BiS helm)
 * Tarnhelm - +1 skills, great Gold and Magic find.
 * Radiance - Great early helm, Enhanced Damage, decent Attributes and small Physical Reduction.

Body Armors
 * Stealth - Solid low armor, FRW with FHR and mana regen.
 * Smoke - FHR, great defense and high All Resist. Great defensive option.
 * Peace - Amazon skills, Crit and FHR.
 * Treachery - High Attack Speed and good FHR, Venom on Striking.
 * Trang-Oul's Scales - High defense and great FRW.
 * Rattlecage - Offensive option, with Enhanced damage, crushing blow and Attack Rating.
 * Silks of the Victor - + Skills, FRW, Mana stolen per hit.
 * Skullder's Ire - +1 skills and very high MF.
 * Lionheart - Poor mans Fortitude, decent Enhanced Damage, many Attributes, and All Resistance.

Gloves
 * Any gloves really, chase 20% IAS if possible, but it can take a while to get good rare gloves.

Boots
 * This slot is open, you can chose any boots you like, just get movement speed and the desired resist/MF you want.
 * Waterwalk - 40% FRW, Dexterity, high flat life, probably the best boots you can get early ladder.

Belt
 * Razortail BIS - This belt provides us with much needed pierce, BUT if you get your pierce from other sources, you can change your belt to another.
 * Goldwrap - This belt provides everything you want from early ladder. 20% IAS, decent Gold and Magic find.

Rings
 * Manald Heal Ring - Get 2 of these and your set for mana leech, you wont need it on any other gear.
 * Nagelring - Provides decent attack rating, a little mana after kill and up to 40% MF.
 * Raven Frost Ring - Cannot be Frozen is mandatory. If you can get Cannot be frozen on other gear, grab this ring.

Amulet
 * Saracen's Chance - Now rolls up to 50% Enhanced Damage + all attributes and all resist.
 * Crescent Moon - A good source of Dual leech and a little attack speed.

= End Game Gear =

Weapons
Runewords should be made in a Grand Matron Bow with +3 Bow skills.

Faith - Fanaticism Aura, very high % Attack rating, and reanimate dead, works great as meat shields.

Windforce - This bow is competitive with Faith now, since it can be corrupted, and on top of that, puzzleboxes for 4 OS.

Eaglehorn - Great physical bow, it provides almost everything you can ask for a Multishot build, apart from mana leech. This bow is a upgrade from Lycanders, but its not as strong as Windforce or Faith, keep in mind this bow might also be quite a bit cheaper, so you can test your luck with corrupts, and this bow will do very well for you before you get ahold of a Jah or Windforce. Spend a Lum+Pul+Perfect Emerald to upgrade the base to Elite

Wrath - Now a solid option, and a very reliable way to both obtain High demon/undead damage, Amplify damage, to break some phys immunes and Cannot Be Frozen. Downside of this weapon is the lack of Enhanced damage, but this bow will be a very strong supportive bow to do undead/Demon damage, and apply Amp damage for your whole team. Buriza-Do Kyanon This bow might seem a little odd. But spend a Lum+Pul+Perfect Emerald to upgrade the base to Elite, and you can get 550+ max damage on this bow, and that is WITHOUT corrupting. it has 100% pierce, which means you can skip many points in pierce and skip Razorfang belt. 80% IAS which lets you hit a high breakpoint easily. Solid end game option.

Helmets
Andariel's Visage - High Strength, 20 IAS, +2 All Skills and a good source of life steal.

Giant Skull - Now gives you up to 35% pierce which allows you to free up belt slot. Now has much higher crushing blow and 60% Enhanced damage. Now has 0 sockets, so we can potentially get 3 sockets, which again, gives either 45% All res with um's for Dungeons, or 45% Attack speed for Glass cannon.

Veil of Steel - This item is very strong, it has 0 sockets naturally, so you can corrupt 3 sockets, on top of this, it has both enhanced damage, stats and all resist, so its the best of both world.

Kira's Guardian - Great defensive option, high All resistance and Cannot be Frozen.

Vampire Gaze - Dual leech

Valkyrie Wing - Enhanced Damage and great FRW if you want to farm Keys.

Body Armors
Fortitude - This have had its Enhanced damage reduced to 200% instead of 300%, so it might not be the only armor you chase now. Still a very strong Offensive Choice.

Chains of Honor - A very good defensive option, especially if we need all resistances capped for dungeons.

Templar's Might - This armor can become as strong as fortitude, it now provides level 8 Might aura, and on top of that, allows for both corruption and puzzlebox sockets.

Enigma - +2 Skills, 25% FRW, very high Strength, high Magic Find. This armor provides % Max hp and % Damage Reduction also. Gives 3 blink charges, making you able to teleport, with a 8 second replenish charge time.

Upped Twitchthroe - Up to 30% IAS, can be a good choice if you want to run Windforce and hit 89 IAS breakpoint.

Gloves
Rare gloves with +2 bow skills and 20 IAS, here you can roll resists + Str/Dex on top. Only go for the bow skills if your going Immolation route, +skills wont do much for Multishot or Guided arrow.

Laying of Hands - IAS, Demon damage, Fire resist.

Ghoulhide - IAS, Undead damage and Mana leech.

Soul Drainer - IAS, 20% Pierce, which opens belt slot, Dual leech.

Boots
War Traveler Battle Boots - BiS boots IMO, they give high flat damage, which scales off your Enhanced Damage, and they provide the highest Magic Find in boots.

Sandstorm Trek - High Poison Resistance, FHR and up to 15 Vitality and Strength. Great all around choice.

Waterwalk - High life, Max Fire Resistance. Great all around choice.

Aldur's Advance - High FRW, Life and Fire Resistance.

Goblin Toe - Offensive option, gives Enhanced Damage and Crushing Blow.

Treads of Cthon - Another source of pierce to open up other gearing choices.

Gore Rider - Pure offensive option, Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike.

Belt
Razortail - This BiS belt provides us with much needed pierce, BUT if you get your pierce from other sources, you can change your belt to another.

Nosferatu's Coil - IAS, Life leech, Deadly strike, str and mana after kill.

Thundergods's Vigor - If you can get pierce on another slot, this is my go to belt, decent str/dex, but the survivability of this item is underrated, 5% max light res with potential 10% light absorb. If you die in diablo 2 late game, it's often lightning damage.

Verdungo's Hearty Cord - Great defensive option, high Vitality and Damage Reduction.

String of Ears - Life leech and Damage Reduction.

Rings
Raven Frost Ring - Cannot be Frozen is mandatory. If you can get Cannot be frozen on other gear, grab this ring.

Dual leech Dex/Str ring with either damage, resists or MF.

Bul-Kathos' Ring - The new highest damage option for physical damage.

Amulet
Mara's Kaleidoscope - +2 all skills, high All Resist and a few All Attributes.

Metalgrid - Good source of flat Attack Rating, high All resist, and allows you to summon level 16 iron golem.

Highlord's Wrath - +1 skill, 20 IAS, lightning damage and deadly strike. Do take notice, Deadly Strike, and Critical strike, do not stack, but are rolled individually.

Atma's Scarab - % Attack Rating and casts Amplify Damage.

Crescent Moon - This is not the best, but its 10% IAS, and dual leech, its a good source to get leech, if you struggle getting it elsewhere.

The Cat's Eye - High FRW, 20% IAS and high Dexterity.

= Stats and Skill Allocation =

Option #1: Multishot + Immolation Arrow
This build is very point heavy, which does not allow for many passive skill points. This is a 88 Skill point build.


 * 1 Magic Arrow
 * 20 Multishot
 * 20 Fire Arrow
 * 20 Exploding Arrow
 * 20 Immolation Arrow
 * 1 Crit
 * 1 Pierce
 * 1 Penetrate
 * 1 Dodge
 * 1 Evade
 * 1 Dim Vision
 * 1 Slow Movement

With + amazon skills, you should get your pierce, penetrate and crit up quite high. This build MIGHT be obsolete if Guided arrow proves to do almost the same damage on bosses as Immolation Arrow does. It depends greatly on your gear.

Option #2: Multishot + Guided arrow
This build is way less point heavy for it to feel complete, which lets you easily pump up your passives and fill inventory with damage charms. This is only a 69 Point build, I would probably max my Passives and Inner Sight, or you can go for 3 Summon Valkyries at 30 points, and spend all Synergies for Valkyrie.


 * 20 Magic Arrow
 * 20 Multishot
 * 20 Guided Arrow
 * 1 Inner Sight
 * 1 Slow Movement (Synergies with Magic arrow)
 * 1 Crit
 * 1 Pierce
 * 1 Penetrate
 * 1 Dodge
 * 1 Evade
 * 1 Dim Vision
 * 1 Slow Movement

Attribute Allocation
This part is always a personal preference, there's rarely a correct answer.

Pure damage build
Strength: Enough to equip desired gear. Dexterity: Rest, every Dex gives you 1% Enhanced damage. Vitality: Aim for about 1000 life with all gear and torch equipped. This is enough for you to not get one hit by most things, now you can life steal back up. Energy: None

Tanky route for either HC or if your unsure you can survive dungeons
Strength: Enough to equip desired gear. Dexterity: Rest, every Dex gives you 1% Enhanced damage. Vitality: Aim for about 1500+- this amount lets you take a few hits before dying. Energy: None

= Charms, Corruptions & Sockets =

Charms
Fill out as you see fit.
 * Grand Charm Skiller with + Bow Skills if you want Immolation damage higher.
 * Grand Charm Skiller with + Passive Skills if you want passives higher.
 * Gheed's Fortune High Gold and Magic Find, with Reduced Vendor Prices.
 * Annihilus +1 All Skills, 50-100 Life, 25-50 Mana, 10-20 All Resistances, 5-10% Experience Gained.
 * Hellfire Torch +1 Random Class Skill, 50-100 Life, 25-50 Mana, 10-20 All Resistance.
 * Small Charms with desired resist. (11 max)
 * Small Charms with high life. (20 max)
 * Small Charms with Magic Find. (7 max)
 * Small Charms with Flat damage + Attack rating to increase physical damage. (3 max damage + 20 Attack rating max)

Corruptions
I will not write down what's the best corrupt for every slot, because it's simply impossible to do. There's too many different corrupts. Also this is different from one individual to another, if you like Magic Find, go for that, if you need a specific resistance to cap all, focus that.

Sockets
All Resist in Armor: Um Rune provides 15% All Resist. All Resist in Shield: Um Rune provides 22% All Resist. Perfect Diamond provides 19% All Resist.
 * Attack Speed in Weapon: Shael Rune provides 20% IAS. Jewels can Provide 15 IAS + up to 40 Enhanced Damage.
 * Damage in Weapon: Ber = 20% Crushing Blow. Lo = 20% Deadly Strike. Gul = 20% Attack Rating. Zod = Indestructible. Jah = Ignore Targets Defense. Only use if you hit IAS breakpoint.
 * Magic find in Weapon: Ist Rune provides 30% Magic find.
 * Magic find in Armor and Shield: Ist Rune provides 25% Magic find. Perfect Topaz provides 24% Magic Find.

= Breakpoints = Amazons Faster Hit Recovery Frames

As Bowazon you should not have much problems, as you are getting hit very little, but try to go for 32 FHR, which can be achieved very easily.

Amazons Attack Speed Frames with a Grand Matron Bow

This shows how much IAS you need to stack, to reach different breakpoints, with different Fanaticism Auras. If you can get to 8 frames, I would recommend it, Bowazon feels amazing with very high IAS. To get 92 IAS, you will need to have IAS on, Gloves, Belt, Amulet, Helm and go with Upped Twitchthroe, which I don't think is worth it. Settle for 8 frames, which is IAS on 3 items, which should be relatively easy to get while still maintaining highest damage output.

Amazons Attack Speed Frames with a Windforce

As we can see here, it's way easier to obtain a high frame IAS by using the Faith Runeword, over the Windforce.

Windforce has the potential to be better if you get a good corrupt on it, and roll sockets. If using the Windforce bow, I would go for either 56 or 89 IAS Breakpoint, if you go for 89, you need to get IAS on almost all items. You can build more raw damage into the bow if you settle for 56 IAS. If you want to socket your Windforce with Shael runes, you can do that, but it will be a damage loss compared to socketing with more Damage runes.

= Farming Locations = This section will be short, because, as either Multishot+Immolation or Multishot+Guided arrow, you can clear all content of the base game and maps.

Uber Tristram and Uber Diablo are still unclear, I will update this section when we have more info.