This strategy no longer applies to the latest version of Diablo II. It remains here for archival use only.
Introduction
This guide is designed to give you an idea on how to design your own Bowazon. It is not a Bowazon map that maps everything out for you; rather, it presents you with many possibilities that will make your Bowazon unique from everyone else's. Granted, there may be certain similarities that are common to all Bowazons, but this guide was designed to encourage you to design your own unique Bowazon rather than simply present you with a map to follow.
The first section covers skill point allocation. It will give you an idea on how to distribute your skill points to design your own Bowazon. The attribute section does look rather like a character map, but this was necessary to present you with what is needed to make your Bowazon more effective in PvP (Player vs Player) and PvM (Player vs Monster).
The second section covers the passive skills. It will give you the pros and cons on the passives at various levels. This will also tell you the basics on how to survive in the later difficulties.
The third section covers the Bowazon attacks. It will present you with an idea as to which attack skills go combo well with other skills and some ideas and concepts behind using certain attack skills and combos.
The fourth section covers the dueling aspect of the Bowazon. This section was written based mostly on my experience when I was dueling. One part of this section was also written based on epod's experience (PvP verses a holy freeze/charge Paladin). These strategies were developed over the course of dueling more than 300 characters. More than 80 to 100 Barbs, 50 to 70 Sorceresses and 20 to 40 Necros, 25 to 45 Paladins and 35 to 55 Amazons from all level ranges were fought before these strategies were confirmed to work consistently.
The fifth and final section contains some passives and other skills that would benefit your Bowazon even more and make her life and yours a lot easier and prosperous in general.
The important thing to remember is to have fun designing your Bowazon. Utilize everything that you give her or else what you don't use will just wasted.
First of all, you must decide what skill will be your main attack. This is what you must max out first. Next you should decide how high you want your valkyrie to be. However, there comes the debate of whether having such a high skill level valkyrie is worth it. Is it possible to have a valkyrie at level 8 or even as low as 4 or 3 and still not encounter problems? Well, we will consider the pros and cons of each.
First of all, having a level 20 valkyrie will mean that you will have a hard time casting that thing. At level 20, its going to cost more than 100 mana, and since Bowazons generally put very little or no attribute points into energy, it is safe to say that most Bowazons can't afford to cast it more than once - that is, if they can cast it at all.
Now, a level 8 valkyrie will cost a lot less than a level 20 at 53 mana and a level 4 valkyrie will cost only 37 mana. Leaving it at level 4 allows you to spend more skill points on the other dodge or bow skills. Another advantage is that you can cast it more than once. In fact, at level 4 you can cast it several times before running out of mana. Valkyries get a random spear and armor attribute (such as cold damage or thorns) every time they are cast, so you can use this low mana cost to re-cast it until you get what you are looking for.
However, having it at level 4 means that it will die a lot more often in the later levels and difficulties. If you decide to get level 20 valkyrie, you can overcome the huge mana loss by having sufficient mana steal (about 10% or higher), and you should be able to cast it more than once without using any mana potions or going on a town run. With a level 4 valkyrie, you will have to place closer attention to how much life the valkyrie has as it will tend to lose life a lot faster. Whereas with a level 20 valkyrie, you can be sure that it will rarely, if ever, die before your next town run. If you feel that it is dying too fast, you can also use decoy to take some heat of the valkyrie's shoulder, since decoy is a low mana costing skill.
How to build a level 20 valkyrie: The trick to maxing out valkyrie, is that at level 49, you should have your primary attack and valkyrie maxed out and still have around 10 to 15 skill points to spare. So if I decided to use strafe as my main attack, I would put 20 points aside for strafe starting from level 1. Then I would get all the prerequisites for that skill as soon as possible. Then I would get all the prerequisites for valkyrie and I would raise both strafe and valkyrie AT THE SAME TIME with each level up. I should end up at level 49 with both valkyrie and strafe at skill level 20 and still have 10 to 15 skill points to put into my secondary attack or passive skills.
How to build a lower level valkyrie: First, you must decide how high you want your valkyrie to be. Then you decide what will be your secondary attack. Since you will have higher flexibility on skill point distribution, you should aim to get your valkyrie to its desired level before going into hell/nightmare mode. Most Bowazons reach nightmare/hell at around level 40 to 50, so you will have around 10 skill points to spend on your secondary attack or some of your passives.
Special note: In 1.04, valkyries will no longer have their HPs scaled up according to number of players in a given game and therefore you will have to be extra careful watching your valkyrie as it will die more often, especially with low slvl valkyries.
Attribute point allocation
Now for the attributes, you should put every spare point you have into dex. Although some Bowazons may get up to 170 str so that they can wear any armor, doing so defeats the purpose of a Bowazon. We do not want to in the middle of melee combat, so we DO NOT need high AC armor. We use the bow for its range and we should always be fighting at a DISTANCE away from where all the blood and guts are flying everywhere, otherwise known as melee range. This is why we are called Bowazons and not melee-zons or spearazons.
100 strength is enough for ancient armor, which is, at most, what any Bowazon really needs. In fact, getting a rare mage plate is even better than ancient armor and can save you 45 attribute points which can go into dex, but keep in mind that some of the stronger bows need a higher strength requirement. The highest strength requirement is 110 for the ballista.
Putting 1 point in vitality will give you an extra 3 life to your maximum life total. However, since you will be fighting at a distance, you won't be taking many hits anyway. If you do insist that you should have a good life total, then have vit at about 50 or 70.
Unless you already have some good armor which you want to use as soon as possible, at which point you may spend 5 points on str at every level up till you get your desired str, every level up you should add 2 to dex and 3 to str until you get 100 str at level 28 for ancient armor. This is the time where you will most likely find any ancient armors. Or, you could put 4 to dex and 1 to str until you get to level 37 giving 56 str for mage plate, which is also the time where you will mostly find any mage plates. If you intend on using the stronger bows, also keep in mind that you will need between 80 to 110 strength in order to use the 3 strongest bows, so you many want to follow the 2 dex, 3 str per level formula. Then its dex all the way until level 99.
However, if you still insist on wearing heavy duty armor, then you can go 4 str and 1 dex and when you get to level 39, you will just have 1 str over 170, which will allow you to wear any armor in the game. It is also about the time where you will have any chance to find an ornate plate. But keep in mind that by doing this, you will have a very low dex rating and will be doing really low damage with even a 130+ max damage bow.
As for what skills to get beyond level 49, it all depends on the Bowazon type you choose. Pierce is good, but don't put more than 9 points in it. Getting it over 50% is already really good enough; getting it past 70% is just wasting skill points. Penetrate is a more debatable skill. Some say max it out, some say somewhere around 6 to 10 is enough. I say get to 20 if you decide to go pvp against high level Barbs and, in some cases, high defense Paladins, or else, just get about 7 and you should do fine.
Popular Bowazon items
Stone of Jordan, any bow that has a maximum damage over 120, Silks of the Victor, Rare Mage Plates, Eye of Etlich, Tarnhelm, Goldwrap, Chance Guards, Tearhaunch, Treads of Cthon, Heavenly Garb, Goldskin, Frostburn, Bladebuckle, damage-based leech or dual leech items, The Hand of Broc, Slightly Increased Attack Speed Gloves.
Deciding what equipment you want to use: Rather than asking, "is this a good bow or is this a bad pair of gloves," first of all you must decide what attributes will be good for your Bowazon. Having a high damage modifier on a bow is good, but it will be worthless if you use immolation as your main attack. You must prioritize the prefixes and suffixes in order of your preference. Do you want your equipment to give you a +slvl to all skills, or do you want your equipment to give you a high resistance, etc. These questions must be answered or else you will end up having an equipment set that is unfocused with prefixes and suffixes all over the place.
Leeching (a must): there are 2 type of leeching, damage based or kill based. Then there are 2 types of what leeching will leech, mana or life. Unless you use an arrow skill that is incompatible with damage based leeching as your main attack, damage based leeching is a must. The kill based type should only be used if damage based leeching is unavailable for some reason. The minimum ratio of mana to life leeching(damage based) is 10% and 5% respectively. Leeching will save you lots of time and gold as it continuously refills your mana and life and thus lets you use your skills indefinitely and keeps you virtually at full health.
+x to all skills: having equipment that gives +x to all skills is valuable. This will only add x skill points to all skills that you have at least one point invested in, not all the skills that you can get. So if you have to invest 1 skill point into 15 skills, and you have +1 to all skills, then this will provide you with 15 extra skill points (which are added evenly to each skill)! This can save you tons of skill points. Lets say that you wanted to have multishot, strafe, guided arrows, and immolation at level 20. If you had +6 to all skills, then all you would need to do is invest 14 skill points into each of those skills and the stacked +x to all skills will give you an additional 24 skill points that are automatically added into each of those skills. Using this is also the only way to use slvl 20+ skills.
Damage: having a high base damage bow (once/if the bow bug is fixed) will mean that you can deal more damage per shot when using arrow skills that uses a bow's base damage to determine the damage range. Higher damage means that you will get more leeching per shot and also means that it will take less time to kill other monsters. This includes elemental damage modifiers as well.
+x to attack rating (AR): this will provide you with a higher attack rating. This is compatible with penetrate to give you an even higher attack rating bonus. Having a higher AR means that you will hit more often and thereby save you time and arrows.
+x to dex: this will increase your damage range as your dex is used to determine your damage range when using arrow skills that rely on the base damage of your bow. Like the damage modifier, it will help you save time and arrows by letting you kill monsters faster.
+life or mana: this will increase your life or mana total. It is very useful as it allows you to increase your life and mana maximum without having to level up and invest valuable attribute points into vitality and energy.
Resistance: this will reduce the amount of damage you take when you take elemental damage and therefore allow you to take more hits before dying. This is extremely useful when you enter into an area where there are tons of elemental attacks flying around the battlefield.
Increased attack speed: this will allow you to shoot faster, allowing you to deliver more damage per time interval. This will also save you time, but not arrows.
Increased walk/run speed: this will allow you to move faster and therefore dodge shots easier and move into counter attack position faster and allows you to have a better chance to escape certain doom.
Cold damage: Although this is like the damage modifier, it is unique as it allows you to chill the victim and thereby slow it down. This is extremely useful as it limits the victim's mobility and offensive capabilities.
Treasure hunting: This increases the odds that monsters will drop magical, rare and unique items more often. Having a 150+% chance to find magical items will give you significantly more rares and magical items in general, but it is not guaranteed to do so.
There are more modifiers, but these listed above are the more important ones. Leeching is a must in most cases, but everything else is up to you. Do you want your equipment to produce a high +x to all skill levels or do you want it to produce a high resistance against some or all elemental attacks? Its all a matter of your preference and your playing style. Having a combination of several of these modifications is also viable if you want a balanced Bowazon, but remember not to have them spread out too much (ie. Only 20% magical find and 10% resistance) that their effectiveness is next to nothing. The most important thing to remember is that your equipment will also play a part in what makes your Bowazon unique. Having equipment that is focused around what attack skills and attributes you have designed will improve your Bowazon's capabilities tremendously.
When you fight monsters in the different levels, you generally have to attack from a distance. You should never attack at melee range. However, since monsters tend to be mobile, you will need something to distract them so that they will remain stationary and not advance towards you. The valkyrie and decoy are perfect for this. They can and should be used to "fight" in the front lines while you counter-attack from the back lines.
However, there comes the question about fighting ranged monsters, such as the undead archers in act 2 and undead knights in act 4. They can see a lot further than your screen and might not always aim for your front line minions. Fortunately for Bowazons, their arrows outrange all other ranged attacks in the game, excluding Diablo's fire nova and bone spirits. While your front line people are distracting the front, you can move back a bit further before you counter attack, so that there is less chance that any ranged attacks will hurt you.
One thing that any Bowazon should have is damage based mana and life leeching. The purpose of leeching is to continuously refill your mana as your mana consumption tends to be exceptionally high, and to refill your life in the event you take some injury. The percentages of each can vary, but generally its usually around 10% mana leech and 5% life leech. This ratio is usually enough to support any arrow skill you are using, letting you have virtual infinite usages of that skill, and refilling your life fast enough before you take the next hit. Once you get a really high damage range, you should be able to support all your attack skills with just 5% mana leech.
A special note to the Bowazons using elemental arrow skills: damage based leeching does not work with most of the higher elemental arrows (Freeze, Immolation, Exploding). Therefore, you should be careful how you use your elemental arrows because they are finite. You can carry some mana potions on you if you find that you are running out of mana too quickly.
Use of decoy: Decoy creates an exact duplicate of you on the battlefield. However, this duplicate will not attack. Decoy will provide you with an extra arrow per strafe. A decoy should be used when you are fighting a mob of ranged attackers. It should be cast right in front of you, between you and the attacking mobs so that is can shield you against most of the stray shots that do find their way in your direction. It can also be used to distract melee attackers somewhat, but do remember that if it takes damage equal to or greater than your life total or if the duration runs out, it will disappear, making it less effective than the valkyrie.
Use of valkyrie: Valkyrie is like the Necro's golem, it summons a spearazon in full plate to fight by your side. It has no skills other than a normal attack. Its magical spear and armor are determined randomly at the time of casting. While this does limit its damage dealing abilities, it primary use is like a more permanent decoy. It will fight to the death for you and will approach the closest hostile character closest to you. The valkyrie is like a HP tank - it can take many hits before dying and is well suited to fight in the front lines, or at least in drawing most of the fire. Like the Decoy, the valkyrie will grant you one extra arrow per strafe. A valkyrie should always be in the front drawing most, if not all, of the attention while you counter attack.
Use of decoy and valkyrie: Usually just a valkyrie is enough to draw all the fire and attention from the front lines. However, if ranged attackers also happen to be part of the mobs or if they mobs are too big, then also feel free to summon a decoy directly in front of you to draw some additional stray fire and stray monsters going after you.
High Level valkyrie(15+): Since its going to cost most, if not all, of your mana to cast this thing, it is very obvious that you won't be able to recast this thing again until you run to some monster to leech some mana. Recasting the valkyrie to put yourself in a better position is rather tough due to the high mana costs, so you are going to have to wait for it to follow you as you proceed deeper into the later stages. One thing that you should remember is that valkyries are no longer invulnerable because their HP are no longer scaled according to how many players are in a particular game. However, these valkyries should be able to take a substantial amount of hits before they fall, giving you plenty of time to refill your mana supply and recast it again when needed.
Low Level valkyrie(10-): A low level valkyrie means that it will cost a lot less to cast, meaning that you can and should recast it every time you run into a mob. Just cast it right in the middle of their group or right in their face and begin your counter attack at a distance. However, do note that if it is too low on life, it might actually die before you can kill everything attacking it. This is usually not a problem as you can simply recast it again. However, uniques like Hephasto and Bremm Sparkfist can and will turn low level valkyries into sidewalk stains in 3 hits or less (usually 1 or 2 hits) so using a valkyrie that is too low against uniques is a problem in its own, especially in the higher difficulties. Since valkyries no longer have their HP scaled according to the number of players in a given game, they will die very quickly, so keep a close eye as to how much life your valkyrie has as you will be recasting her many times.
Dodge, Avoid, Evade: These skills should be avoided in general. Just put 1 point into them for the valkyrie and forget about them. They are usually more of a liability rather than helpful (lock animation) and should only be used as the prerequisite for valkyrie. Granted, the ability to avoid any type of attack is valuable. However, the dodge lock animation will keep you immobilized for about 1 second, which will give any monsters chasing you some extra catch up time to get to you. Sometimes it's not that bad. However, when you get to hell and the hoards really start breathing down your neck, the last thing you want is to stand still for 1 second while moving into a better position. The cons of these skills sort of out-balance the pros.
Many will argue that having a good dodge/avoid can sometimes be a lifesaver. Dodge and avoid can only activate when you are standing still, which is useful because the only time you will be standing still and get attacked will be when you are counter-attacking the monsters attacking your valkyrie. For this reason, you may want to put more points into dodge and avoid. However, Evade should never have more than 1 point invested in it because it only activates when you are moving. Granted, the ability to avoid ranged attacks while moving is valuable, but the only time you would be running would either be to move into a better counter-attack position or just plain running for your life. Having yourself stop all of a sudden for 1 second can be very annoying and can sometimes be fatal (especially when facing Diablo or Lord de Seis and his undead knights.
Whatever your final decision is, the important thing is to remember that you should not invest too many points in these skills because the increase in chance that these skills will activate will per skill point will decrease as the skill level increase.
While the valkyrie is getting the life beaten out of her and your decoy is shielding you from any stray shots that manages to miss your valkyrie, you must decide to how kill all the monsters surrounding and attacking them. Although there are 10 arrow skills in the bow tree, there are actually 6 arrow skills. 4 of the 10 are just weaker versions of 2 of the final arrow skills at the bottom of the skill tree. First, what you must consider is how many attack skills you want to specialize in. Here are some possible double combos:
Strafe: These Bowazons only use strafe to exp. Because it comes with the highest damage modifier (slvl*5%) of all the skills, when combined with a high dex, damage can go as high as 600 to 700 damage per shot or possibly 800 with a good enough bow (if the bow bug is fixed in patch 1.04). Always costing 11 mana per attack, even with 5% mana leeching you have an extremely good chance to get more mana back even with one enemy on the screen. Keep in mind that with the current 1.03 patch, you will get 1 extra per minion, ally, hostile character or hirable that you have currently on the screen. There is only one weakness in strafe that you have to worry about: strafe lock. While the Bowazon is "strafing," she will be unable to move until the strafe animation ends. Fortunately, strafe lock usually doesn't last long enough for it to be a concern; however, if you are not careful enough, you may end up right in the middle of a huge mob of abyss knights and pit lords. Once these Bowazons max out strafe (which should be around clvl 46) they usually invest in a second skill.
Multishot: Strafe is strong, but it is a bit slow. Multishot is faster, although weaker, and in a sense it is a lot stronger than strafe once monsters start flooding the screen. Bowazons using strictly Multishot do not have to worry about strafe lock, they have another problem to worry about, running out of mana. Multishot's mana cost will increase as its slvl gets higher, therefore, Multishot-zons will have to be careful how they shoot because Multishot also does not auto-aim like Strafe. Also, each Multishot volley can only hit any target once, so its effectiveness does decrease as less and less monsters occupy the Multishot hit zone.
Which one is better? Strafe or Multishot?
There is no answer to that question. There are too many cases when Multishot will be better than Strafe and vice versa. To sum it up, Multishot will be better than Strafe more targets enter the screen while Strafe will be better than Multishot when there are less targets on the screen. It is a good idea to use both of them in PvM since they are both equally effective over the other under most, if not all, conditions.
Strafe and Multishot: Strafe is powerful, but its fire rate is not even close to what multishot can produce. The concept behind what makes multishot powerful is not the damage it can produce per arrow, but the total damage it can generate per shot. For example, if there are 5 monsters on the screen it may take strafe about 1 to 2 seconds, depending on the speed of your bow, to hit all 5 monsters. However, it will take less than 1 second for slvl 4 multishot to hit them all. In the space of 1 strafe attack, you can probably fit in 2 multishot attacks. As more and more monsters fill the screen (this is very common in Act 2 and Act 4), you will see that it will take strafe longer and longer to complete one attack, while you can fit 3 or even more multishot castings in that time.
A higher multishot will produce slvl+1 arrows, giving you an impressive 21 arrows per multishot attack within the space of just one normal arrow attack when maxed. However, high slvl multishot requires more and more mana to cast (3+slvl) and each multishot attack cannot hit a monster more than once. The trick in using this combo is to know when multishot or strafe will kill a mob faster. Something very common is to use multishot to weaken most of the monsters, if not kill most of them, and then strafe the rest. Recommended slvl multishots can be slvl 4, 6, 12 or 20 (if you think you can support it). However, since each multishot cannot hit a monster more than once, getting a slvl 12+ multishot may result in a lot of wasted arrows. If you intend to exp in an area with tons of monsters (ie. outer steppes) or wish to treasure hunt a lot, then you may wish to invest in a high level multishot.
Strafe/Multishot and immolation: Immolation is a powerful skill. At slvl 20, the attack does a rather inferior (especially to monsters with resistance to fire and damage) 118 to 124 explosive damage and 119 to 121 fire damage per second for up to 23.6 seconds. However, its true power is harnessed when you start stacking immolation fires together. Stacking 5 immolation fires together will produce an immolation fire capable of doing a staggering 595 to 605 per second. Stacking 10 will produce an amazing 1190 to 1210 damage per second fire. However, immolation has its own set of problems. It is unable to harness the benefits of damage based leeching. Therefore, Bowazons using immolation as one of their main attacks will either have to find some way to replenish their mana quickly or "ration" their attacks until their mana can regenerate fast enough so that they can produce some more immolation attacks. One way to remedy this is to combo immolation with an attack skill which can harness the benefits of damage based leeching.
Strafe is the prime choice for this task as it does have the highest damage modifier of all the Bowazon skills and also has a low mana cost of only 11. Combining immolation and strafe against uniques is very helpful as it allows you to do a tremendous amount of damage in a short period of time. Multishot can also work when the hoards are very big, but generally for smaller mobs, strafe is by far the best skill for mana leeching. Whatever you decide to use is up to you; just remember that the objective is to refill your mana as quickly as possible so that you can immolation attack some more.
If you can support it or wish to do so, you can even get a third attack skill. Here is one such combo:
Multishot, Strafe and Immolation: If strafe is good for one situation and multishot is good for another one, why not use it together with immolation to counter one of immolation's biggest weaknesses, incompatibility with damage based leeching? The trick to this combination is to use immolation first to do some initial frying with some stacked immolation fires, then use either strafe and multishot to refill your mana and re-immolation some more or use strafe and multishot to finish off what is left.
What about the rest?
Guided Arrow: Although the homing ability of this skill is valuable and unique, there are other skills that, by far, outshine this skill damage dealing abilities. However, its use in PvP is unparalleled as its homing ability makes it one of the best PvP abilities in the game. Multishot comes in a close second in terms of PvP effectiveness primarily because of its spread. However, the high mana cost, no damage modifier and one hit per target per volley restriction makes it fall short behind Guided Arrow in terms of PvP effectiveness.
Freeze arrow: This skill is like firing a freeze bomb. It will explode on contact and will freeze any monster near the point of impact. While its ability to freeze groups of monsters is valuable, the length of the freeze decreases drastically as you get to the higher difficulties. Many Bowazons tend to use this skill as sort of a desperation tactic to give them some extra time to get into better counter-attack positions. However, its use as a main attack pales in comparison to immolation, strafe and multishot (Note: this skill will only chill in PvP and will not freeze other duelers). It should only be used to give yourself more time to better position yourself.
Exploding / Fire arrow: These are just weaker versions of immolation, so it is better to have them just at slvl 1 and invest in immolation arrow.
Cold/Ice arrow: These are just weaker versions of freeze arrow, so its better to have them just at slvl 1 and invest in freeze arrow (Note: Ice arrow skill will only chill duelers, not freeze them). Cold Arrow is also a prerequisite for strafe, and therefore must have at least 1 skill point in it before you can get strafe.
Magic arrow: This attack is practically useless. Other than serving as a back up when you run out of arrows and being the prerequisite for the physical arrow tree, it has no other use. The slvl-1 damage modifier pales in comparison to the other physical arrow skills.
Unique combo: When Keada told me how he constructed his Bowazon, I was actually surprised at the potential of his design. This Bowazon requires the use of one of the unique bows with the piercing attack ability. Since this special pierce works 100% of the time, combining it with immolation will produce devastating results as piercing immolations will improve its damage dealing potential per shot tremendously. However, there is one flaw to this set up in that you will not get very high damage when using strafe or multishot to help recharge your mana as unique bows tend to have really poor damage ranges.
Equipment setup: Some equipment for dueling: Treads of Cthon, Blinkbat, Goldwrap, Tarnhelm, The Undead Crown, The Eye of Etlich, The Stone of Jordan, Twitchthroe, Slightly Increased Attack Speed gloves, Fastest run boots, Death's Sash, Greyform, Vidala's Fetlock, Damage based mana or life leeching, Fast Gothic Bow, or Very Fast Chu Ko Nu.
The purpose of this set up is to give your Bowazon the best mobility that you can possibly get. Now, consider the following scale, at 1 end we have high dex, at the other end, we have high vitality. You must now decide which end of the scale you want your Bowazon to be close to. It is not wise to have your Bowazon reach one end of the scale because she will have a tremendous disadvantage when a duel specifically calls on the other aspect of your Bowazon. Having your Bowazon very close to the dex end but having some vitality at about 50 total (or sometimes 60 if you wish) is about optimal.
1.04 patch: The 1.04 patch made a significant difference in PvP for a Bowazon. Our attack powers basically tripled to quintupled, depending on the bow and GA slvl used. This will definitely cause a significant change in the tactics used by the other classes when facing the new Bowazons. In 1.03, a PvP Bowazon was all about pure defense. Due to the nature of the bugs, offense was somewhat lacking because all the other classes tended to attack the Bowazons, so Bowazons were usually put on the defense due to low HP totals and damage. Now in 1.04, everything is different. We now have more powerful weaponry at our disposal and this has forced some of the opposing classes to take a more defensive approach.
The art of defense: This is where a Bowazon truly excels in. GA's, multishot and in some cases strafe are excellent attack skills. Tanking with really high HP is a possibility, but, dodging is even more effective. Counter-attacking is a very powerful strategy.
PvP skills:
Multishot: This is an extremely useful skill. Its is almost as useful, and in some cases more useful, as Guided Arrow is. The higher the slvl of this skill, the more effective it becomes, especially in long range attacks. Its range is shorter than Guided Arrow's range, but the spread more than makes up for the shorter range. Multishot carries no damage bonus with it. Your normal damage is your multishot damage, also note that each volley can only damage a target once. This skill should be as high you can support since its mana consumption is rather high at higher slvls. Typically, you should be able to fire at least 6 to 10 shots with out any form of mana recharge, other than natural regeneration. This should prevent you from mana draining yourself.
Guided Arrow(GA): This is one of the most powerful PvP skills in the game. Max it as soon as you can. Higher slvls of this skill will provide you with a lower mana consumption and a higher damage bonus. GA moves really fast, it tracks its enemies, but it can be outrun by some "speed" chars and it is blockable through the use of shields. Therefore, relying 100% on this skill will not make you invincible.
Strafe: This skill is rather limited in PvP. The auto-aim that it provides is usually more of a liability than an asset. In order to use this skill effectively, you must learn when to use it such that the auto-aim does not prove to be a liability. Strafe is useful for its shooting speed. When you summon a valkyrie and a decoy, you will fire 3 arrows extremely fast(triple arrow strafe). Its damage bonus is also a plus, but its effectiveness is rather limited so you may wish not to max this skill. However, do have at least 1 point in this skill as "triple arrow" strafe has its own useful applications in pvp when multishot and GA will not do the job.
Immolation/Freeze Arrow: The fire and cold arrow trees does the least amount of pvp damage of all the arrow skills, but they do possess 1 unique properties that the physical arrows does not have. They can damage through shield blocks. Its application has some uses, but it requires good aim and judgment from the Bowazon if it is to be used effectively.
Passives:
Critical Strike: This is a very useful PvP skill. The chance to get a critical strike is actually what your average damage increases by. At slvl 20, the chance to get a critical hit is 68%. Therefore, if you have a average pvp damage of 100, critical strike will actually increase it to 168! This skill is definitely worth maxing.
Penetrate: This skill has its uses. It increases your chance to hit, which is very valuable. Hitting more often means that your opponent will die faster and thus give you less trouble. Having 1 to 5 points in this skill is usually enough.
Pierce: It has no use in pvp other than in some very rare cases when fighting a Necro. Either have 1 or 0 in this skill.
Inner sight: This has no use in PvP. Just 1 point for pre-req and no more.
Slow Missile: This is useful in a duel when fight a Necro or a Bowazon. When fighting against a FO sorc, SM will actually increase its effectiveness. It will make FO easier to dodge, but in the hands of a skills Sorceress, they can use it trap you and kill you. Therefore, unless you are certain that you can kill the Sorceress before this happens, it is best to avoid using this skill when facing them. Just 1 point is enough.
Dodge/Avoid/Evade: These skills are rather limited in PvP. They do have benefits, but they are not worth it to have more than 1 point in each of these skills.
Valkyrie and Decoy: These skills are needed for "triple arrow strafe". Have one in both of them and no more.
Equipment:
The Bowazon is rather unique pvp character. A Bowazon uses different equipment setups for different situations. You can easily fill up your entire inventory, stash and cube without knowing it because there are so many setups that a Bowazon. However, most setups will have the following in common:
SIAS, IAS: This will allow you to shoot faster and thus let you pull hit and run tactics easier. These mods do stack so that you can shoot even faster.
Mana Leech: This is what will boost your mana. The more leech you have, the more mana you will get back per hit. The percentage of leech that you should have depends on your dex. For high dex chars, 4% is usually enough. For high vit/low dex zons, about 8% is usually enough.
Life Leech: This will allow you to refill your life. This usually benefits high dex zons more than it benefits the high vit zon in a duel verses Sorceresses, Paladins or Necros, but in a duel facing a Barb, this has absolutely no use for a high dex zon, while high vit zons can use this to their advantage.
+ X to all skills: This will allow you to save many skill points, especially when you can't decide which passive to increase. So why not increase them all for free by using a high +X to all skills?
Fastest Run/Walk: This will allow you to move faster and thus allow you to use hit and run tactics more effectively. These do stack so that you can run even faster.
+Life/+Dex: These will allow you to live longer and hit harder. Meaning you can take more damage and deal out more to increase your chances of winning.
Common setups:
Treads of Cthon
Blinkbats or Twitch
Goldwrap
Rare SIAS gloves
Tarnhelm
Leech or dual leech jewelry
Eye of Etlich
Stone of Jordan
Gothic Bow or Rune bow or CKN
Any item that gives high +dex and +life.
Basics: Bowazons are ranged fighters; they must always stay out of melee range from any class, meaning they must always be moving. Bowazons are not aggressive characters, they are counter attack characters and they must finesse their victories by constant dodging and moving rather than by powering their way to victory. Guided arrow is arguably the BEST pvp skill any Bowazon has simply because it is virtually undodgeable unless the enemy has a shield or extremely high defense ratings or can move extremely fast (ie. teleport). Multishot comes to a close second place because it is harder to dodge than GA is, but since its damage dealing ability falls short, GA is a more popular choice. Hit and run is a good strategy, but counter-attacking is the more effective one. Strafe also has its uses in PvP, but they are more limited in their use by many PvP Bowazons because GA simply outshines them in its ability to hit its target. Always remember to start firing Guided Arrows at the beginning of any duel when they are far away to get in some free shots.
Unique Bowazon advantages:
Stun/Block lock: When ever any char takes damage equal to or greater than 1/12 of their total HP, they will enter into a stun lock animation. No matter what you are doing (running, attacking, etc.) you will enter into this animation. The duration of this lock is determined by how much damage was done over 1/12 of their total HP, but the precise formula is unknown. There are also some skills that can resist or prevent stun lock. Block lock is a stun lock animation that is played whenever you block a ranged attack with a shield. Whenever either of these animations comes into effect, the victim is unable to do anything until the animation ends. For a Bowazon, it is possible to shoot arrows fast enough such that you can keep them in a stun/block lock sequence such that a new stun/block lock animation comes into play before the previous one can play itself out. This is an extremely powerful weapon. However, to achieve this, a really high damage and shooting rate is required. But nonetheless, its usefulness is not limited to just achieving indefinite stun/block lock, it can also be used to slow down speed chars to give you better mobility.
Hitting ratio: One of the main emphasis of PvP is dodging and hitting. In Diablo 2, a Bowazon will by far have the highest hit per hit attempt ratio of all the classes. Their attacks are very devastating and are very hard to dodge. Most other classes invest the bulk of their stat points in vit since most hit per hit attempt ratios are rather low. Bowazons have an additional option of investing in damage because of their high hit per hit attempt ratio.
Leeching: Now that we have more powerful weapons at our disposal, leeching will now play an even bigger role. Since Bowazons have the highest hit per hit attempt ratio, leeching will occur more often and since we now have stronger damage ranges, we will now leech more per hit.
Player vs Player Barbarian: The almighty Barbarian is one of the tougher classes to kill. High level Barbs can have well over 1500 or even 2500 HP. Most will have fastest run boots, with a maxed or semi maxed increased skill to help them out pace the Bowazon. This is the worst type of Barbarian to face, but a smart Bowazon can win. The trick is always go on the defense and counter attack every time he attacks.
The first thing to consider is that all characters in the game MUST stand still for an instant before they can initiate any type of attack. If the Barbarian catches up to you, they must stop briefly to initiate ANY type of attack. This is their biggest weakness that you must exploit.
You must have your own set of fastest run boots. Vidala's Fetlock is an excellent pair of boots to wear because it provides fastest run with an excellent stamina boost. Blinkbat is also useful because it stacks with fastest run boots. The second thing you must have is a high enough attack rating to ENSURE that every arrow you shoot WILL hit him because you won't get many shots off. Also, high level Barbs can have well over 4000 to 6000 defense with stone skin and shouts and hence we need a high AR. Although running will promote a 100% to be hit ratio for the Barb, when you get them to stop with stun/block lock, the next arrow that will hit them will hit them while they are standing and if this is the case then defense will apply. Therefore, it is very important that you make every hit count because you will not be getting many attacks if the Barb plays properly. The last thing you will need is a bow with the fastest attack possible. This means getting a bow with very fast attack and a few slightly increased attack speed items.
The next thing to consider is what attacks are actually threatening. His melee attacks, leap attack and whirlwind are actually the only forms of attack that any Barb has (stun, frenzy and such like are just improved versions of his melee attack with some extra modifiers added to his melee attack). Of the three, only whirlwind presents any real danger.
Leap attack can be dodged easily by making a 55 or greater degree turn and all melee attacks can be dodged by either running, or even walking, straight away from the Barb. Doing so will not only put some distance between you and the Barb, but it may also allow you to attack once or twice with guided arrow (try 3 to 5 times if you are feeling lucky). Note, Leap attack is extremely bugged in v1.03; if you are moving while they land on you, it will not do damage to you, but will stun lock you. It will always have knock back attached to it when the Barb lands. The only guaranteed way to limit its effects is to be as far away from the Barb's landing position as possible as these bugs are rather unpredictable.
Whirlwind does pose a problem because it hits from all sides surrounding the Barbarian. However, the real problem lies in the fact that the Barbarian also moves when they use this skill, meaning there is a possibility that they can hit you even though you are running.
Whirlwind has one weakness, it MUST move in one direction only. You cannot turn while in whirlwind mode. This is the advantage that you must take to counter whirlwind. When you hear the whirlwind sound, you must make a 90 degree turn relative to the path of the whirlwind. This will move you out of range of the Barbarian because if he misses, he will be forced to move in the direction he is currently moving at and away from you. This is your chance to get in 1 to 4 guided shots, depending on how far he "whirls" to.
However, if he is using a long range weapon, like a pike or spear, then you will definitely get nailed when you make a 90 degree turn, due to the longer reach of the Barb. To avoid getting nailed while beside the Barbarian, make a 45 degree turn relative to the whirlwind to get yourself off his longer reach when you are beside him, then make another 45 degree turn relative to the direction you are facing while running.
This will allow you to avoid his whirlwind. Whirlwind always travels at a set speed unless the Barb is chilled or slowed. Therefore, with a pair of fastest boots, you can literally dodge any whirlwind, if you turn correctly while running and have good timing and reaction.
Sometimes a Barb will accidentally click WW on you. If this ever happens, he will continue to WW towards you until he actually hits you. However, WW mode is slow so you can easily run forward a few steps, fire a few GA, put some more distance between you , fire some more Gas again
Barbarians with shields are even tougher to handle because their shield can deflect some of your arrows, and you need every hit you can get with guided arrow. However, using a shield means that they CANNOT use any of the longer ranged melee weapons, meaning that whirlwind will be a lot easier to dodge. Also, block lock will also become a factor in the duel as you can block lock him and slow him down. Just make sure you have plenty of stamina because it is going to take a long time to kill this Barb.
If you are able to do enough damage to "stun lock" the Barb indefinitely, then you will have the advantage. Just use guided arrow and continuously stun lock them. If you can stun lock them sometimes, then you may be able to get off a few more shots per counter-attack opportunity. Just be careful not to over counter-attack and get carried away. Even some stun lock is better than no stun lock.
Now comes the Barbarian chasing Bowazon part. If the Barbarian can run faster than you, what do you do? Well, if he is directly behind you, make 20 to 45 degree turns to get him off your tail. This is priority number one - never let the Barbarian give chase directly behind you, because what they can do is once they are able to touch your back, they WILL whirlwind and kill you.
You must trick him into trying to cut you off from your sides or give chase while he is at your side. This is the only way to position yourself so that you can dodge the whirlwind. When he is directly beside you, he will have to make a slight turn towards you and get you into range for whirlwind. This is your chance to dodge whirlwind by the method described above. When he is temporarily out of range, nail him with guided arrows. You must "outdance" him to win.
special note: many high level Barbs(70+) usually make one critical mistake while they duel and this mistake will allow even a Bowazon below level 60 to win. The mistake that many of them make is that they attack way too much. If I can dodge one of your whirlwinds, I dodge 30 of them. Many Barbs fail to realize this and their continuous whirlwind attacks is what actually causes them to die to a Bowazon 20 to 30 levels below them because each miss gives me the opportunity to get some more Guided Arrows into the air.
However, what happens if you run into a Barb that does not WW until you attack? Since they will usually have more stamina then you will, they can wait till you are out of stamina then WW you when you walking. Let us consider the 2 different types of Barbs again. A speed shieldless Barb will have no shield to protect them, and this will make them very vulnerable to multishot. High dex zons will have a slight edge over high vit zons in this battle because they can stun more often with non critical hits and thus will be able to slow the shield less Barb down more often. However, this advantage is negligible. If a shieldless Barb has a whole train of GAs chasing him, one stun locking multishot and he will stop dead in his tracks and allow all the GAs chasing him to hit him. Shield Barbs are a little bit easier to handle because carrying a shield will also carry block lock with it, which multishot can exploit easily.
Player vs Player Necromancer: Since their Bone Spirit (BS) does outrange your Guided Arrows and they usually carry shields while they duel, Necros will pose a huge problem when dueling. All they have to do is camp in one position and just lob BSs at you and you will never get close enough to slow missile them.
Unless he cheats (town run, uses pots, shrines and wells), he will only have natural mana regeneration to regenerate his mana and possibly some uniques to increase the mana regeneration. He will not be able to keep up the BS barrage forever. You, however, have mana leech on your side on top of natural mana regeneration and any unique mana regeneration, and therefore will regenerate your mana faster. Most likely the Necro will summon a golem to fight with him, perfect for some mana leeching. If he does not summon one, then summon your valkyrie so that she sees the Necro and goes after the Necro, forcing either to give up his camping position, target the valkyrie instead of you or summon a golem. Force him to spend all his mana, by making him repeatedly summon golems and firing BSs until he is mana dry then move in with the slow missile. Once you have him slow missiled, victory is yours as then you can simply stun/block lock him until he is dead. Just be careful as to not let him run directly up to melee range and BS you, as even though those BSs are slowed, they don't need to travel anywhere to hit you.
One thing to be careful of is BP. A Necro can use that to slow you down so make sure that you are not too close to the Necro when you cast SM. If you find that you are still dying when you try to SM him, then run around a house or X shaped corners and make the chasing BS disappear into the house or X shaped corners then SM then circle in and SM them. One special aspect of SM is that it works through walls, so you can actually hide in a house and SM the Necro when he is out side of the house. Just be careful as he might BP you in the house.
Once the Necro is slowed, either he finds some way to hit you with his slowed BS or he will run. Chances are he will run. His objective is to stall long enough such that the SM duration will run out so that he can use normal BS again. BS is all that they have, without it, they have nothing that is remotely threatening. If he is using twitch and sigon's shield, then he will be slower than you if you are using fastest run boots and blinkbat. As you give chase, he will try everything to slow you down, cast some BS in your running path to slow you down, BP or BW or even decrepify. No matter what he does, he will have to stop before he can cast anything. In that case, he will be on your screen. No matter what he does, just recast SM on him to reset the duration. Eventually, he will run out of mana and will be force to run only. When that happens, you can then begin your final assault. Since you do move faster than him, all you need to do is fire multishot in such a way that is will hit him, causing stun/block lock. This will stop him dead in his tracks, then just keep firing GAs or mutlishots until he is dead.
This duel is all about getting SM on the Necro without dying. Once the Necro is SMed, victory is practically yours.
Player vs Player Paladin: This is Epod's strategy on how to beat holy freeze/charge Paladins. Through exploiting the strafe bug by summoning a decoy and valkyrie to fire 3 arrows per strafe, the idea behind this strategy was to throw a decoy in front of the Paladin as they charged towards you. The decoy would force them to either stop and kill it or run around it, giving you time to get a few strafes in. When they kill you decoy, summon another one. If they run around your decoy, hide behind your decoy and keep strafing when you get the chance.
Then there are the hammerdins, with their high level blessed hammer, concentration, or might. These hammers can have an impressive damage range of 500. A few hits from these things is enough to send any Bowazon reeling. Fortunately, Guided Arrows outrange these hammers, so you can stand outside the hammer's rotating range and just fire Guided Arrows at the Paladin. Eventually the Paladin will realize that the hammers aren't doing anything to you and might run towards you or charge you. If this ever happens, use epod's strategy on dueling holy freeze/charge Paladins. Or, you can slow missile the Paladin to neutralize his hammers, or you can run straight up to him and then use epod's strategy (this was also his suggestion).
Another type of Paladin to watch out for are vigor/charge Paladins. Epod's strategy does not work against these Paladins. The first thing you must realize is that you will never be able to outrun these Paladins. The second thing you must realize is that you cannot counter attack effectively enough to kill these Paladins before they kill you. I changed Epod's strat such that instead of hiding behind a decoy, you slug it out with the Paladin. As usual, you fire some GAs(or multishot if you can support it) at the beginning. Once they get on your screen, however, the GA will never be used again unless you manage to stun/block lock them into place. You must have a valkyrie and decoy summoned before he enters your screen. This will allow you to use triple arrow strafe. Charge has a "stun/block lock window" meaning that if you somehow hit the Paladin when this window opens, you can actually get stun/block lock on the Paladin to abort the charge! Hitting this window is very tricky, so triple arrow strafe is used to ensure a higher chance of success. However, triple arrow strafe is only effective at melee ranges, so what do you do when he is not in melee range. GA is out of the question because it is easily dodge, but multishot is a different matter. At close to medium range high slvl multishot cannot be dodge. Therefore, you should use multishot to get some free hits while they are running around. This will also give you a chance to stun/block lock them. If this ever happens switch back to GA to finish them(only do this if you are certain that they cannot move). Eventually he will charge right into you. When this happens, use multishot and then switch to triple arrow strafe. Then it's a race to see who can kill each other faster. Unless he run away, you should be constantly using strafe until one of you dies. If he zeals with concentration, then you can step back one or two steps and resume strafing him. One very important factor to this strat is hitting the stun/block lock window. If you can hit it before he makes the charge swing, then he will be stuck in stun/block lock until he can escape the lock and the charge swing will not occur and thus you will take no damage.
Player vs Player Sorceresses: They are the easiest for the Bowazons to kill. Just make sure that you have death's sash, a few stacked Slightly Increased Attack Speed items, and a fast or very fast bow 200+. Then you are ready to beat level 80+ sorc. What inexperienced Sorceresses duelers will do is teleport towards you to FO you. If this ever happens, just fire a whole stream of Guided Arrows at her; even if she teleports past them, they will still follow her and the instant she stops teleporting to FO you, they will all converge and stun/block lock (if she has a shield) her. Usually you will be able to pin her down before she gets too close to you to FO you. Then you will be able to keep her locked down indefinitely until she dies. There might be a occasion where they somehow manage to teleport right beside you. If this ever happens, run the opposite direction. If you have fastest run boots stacked with fast run from Blinkbat, you will be able to outrun FO (I am not joking). FO and its ice bolts always travel at a set speed and unless the Sorceress is slow missiled, they will always move at that speed. By running directly away from her, you can actually outrun it without taking any damage (only with blinkbat and fastest run boots as you will be moving just fast enough to avoid the FO's power). Don't worry about her coming after you, she still has to deal with those 6 to 10 Guided Arrows that converge on and nail her. After you have dodged one FO, continue your Guided Arrow barrage until she runs away or dies. If you find that the Sorceress can offensively tele/FO faster than your GAs can hit her, then switch to multishot as hit has a much better chance of hitting its target.
There are some Sorceresses that have fastest blocking stacks, fastest hit recovery stacks or fasting casting rate stacks and this will enable her to get a few ice bolts or FO out in between "locks". If this ever happens, pay close attention to your life as you may not be able to kill her before she kills you. If you are getting low on life, then run a few steps away from her and start your guided stream again. The important thing to remember is to keep at least 1 Guided Arrow in the air at all times so that it will stun/block lock the Sorceress to buy you some time so that even if you run, you will have time to start firing again before she begins her next FO assault.
(Defensive power) If she is a smart Sorceress, she will never approach you and make you approach her. In this case, what you must do is make small advances towards her while firing Guided Arrows at her until she is cornered or decides to teleport towards you. There are two things she can do: she can teleport away, or (if she sees an opening) she will try to the teleport/FO combo on you. If she teleports towards you, then refer the strategy on how to beat offensive Sorceresses. Otherwise, Guided Arrow "push" your way to victory or declare a draw because there is actually no way you can chase down a Sorceress.
One final Sorceress type to watch out for are "fps killers", these Sorceresses will cast and stack well over 30 level 20+ firewalls and hydras to "camp" in one position. While your Guided Arrows do outrange those 2 spells, the real danger is that all that fire will drop your frames per second to about 0 to 2 frames per second unless you have a really good video card and processor. I used a Voodoo 3 2000 and a celeron 500 MHz and still had my fps drop from 51 down to 0 to 2 fps. This "fps killing" can also be performed by stacking high level blizzard, only to a lesser degree. So unless you have a system that can get around this "fps killing", its a good idea not to duel these Sorceresses.
One final word, slow missile is a no-no. They will actually increase the effectiveness of FO rather than decrease its effectiveness, as each FO will have the ability to hit you more than the 3 times. If they dump that stuff everywhere, you may be left with nowhere to run.
Player vs Player Bowazons: This is basically a draw as both Bowazons will most likely have guided arrows maxed. There is simply no guaranteed way of winning unless someone makes a mistake. Attacking the Bowazon directly will give the other the advantage and they will use guided arrows until you run out of range or until you die. Its usually a stalemate. High slvl avoid and evade can help you take more arrows, but the idea is to put yourself on the defense and your opponent on the offense. If you can do that, then you will have a definite advantage. It is more of a mind game than anything else. As long as you remember not to attack the other Bowazon and remain on the defense, than it is highly unlikely that you will die.
Player vs Player Spearazons: Just treat them like a spear wielding whirlwind Barbarian that can only attack up front. If they are using javelins, just turn on slow missile and use guided arrow on them, or even better, multishot, which is very hard to dodge even with the speed decrease chiefly because of the spread.
Player vs Player Javazons: They are a rare breed indeed. They will in most likely hood have high slvl dodges and most likely use sigons. However, they lack the ability to get close without getting killed with multishot volleys or even GA artillery fire due to block, stun and evade lock. In the event that they manage to get close, the first thing they will cast is SM. You should proceed to do the same. Javazons have only 2 potential ranged attacks, the poison based and lightning based javelin throwing. Both of these attacks can be severely handicapped by having sufficient resistances to them. Also GA and multishot will out range these attacks so in all likely hood, Javazons will not use these 2 skills against you. All that remains is cleglaw pincers with jab, fend and impale. The damage on javelins are too low for fend and impale to net much benefits over jab so most likely they will choose jab over the other 2 spear/javelin skills. When they get close enough to use jab on you, then most likely you would have been SMed. At this point, it is a good idea to summon a valkyrie, SM them too and summon a decoy when they get to melee range to use triple arrow strafe. Under the influence of SM, it is highly unlikely that any of their javelin throwing attacks will hit you, provided you are careful. The Javazon must somehow lock you down with cleglaw pincer jabbing to kill you, but you will have triple arrow strafe to use on them if they get to melee range and they have to get through your multishot mines to get to melee range. This is enough to kill any Javazon. They usually will not do enough damage to kill you through continuous jabbing before you have a chance to use triple arrow strafe in the event that they manage to get you in a stun/knockback sequence with jab.
Free for All dueling: While Guided Arrows are the prime choice for 1 v 1 duels, multishot is the best for ffa duels. The important thing to remember is to never be in the middle of the battlefield. Staying away from all the action will help you survive enormously, while multishot will allow you to hit multiple targets all at the same time.
Things to remember: Bowazons usually cannot take more than 3 hits of any kind. It is imperative that you avoid everything while you counter attack. You must always be on the alert and when you are not shooting, you should be running.
Combo duel skills: Against some classes like the Sorceresses, some people "combo" skills together to get the job done. An example facing an offensive Sorceress would be first summoning a decoy and valkyrie first, then use Guided Arrows to lock her down in one place and finally using a "triple arrow" strafe to finish the job. Another one would be facing an non-shield Barb. Cast a decoy and valkyrie first, then use Guided Arrows initially to get some free hits. If you do enough damage to stun lock them, then they will either have to avoid your minions or ww through your decoy/valkyrie to regain some life and get closer to you at the same time. This is the perfect time to switch to "triple arrow" strafe to do more damage faster than Guided Arrows (be careful that you don't get too carried away and end up getting hit by the ww). When facing a Paladin without holy freeze, what you can do is use Guided Arrows to block lock them into place and use immolation to keep them block locked while they burn in your fire as you stack more and more fires together. This is also another way to duel rather than relying on just one skill exclusively.
Dueling without Guided Arrows: Although Guided Arrow is one of the best skills to use in dueling, it is possible to duel with the other arrow skills such as immolation and multishot. Strafe isn't that well suited for dueling when used by itself since the autoaim it provides is more of a liability than an asset. Unless an opponent is running directly towards the strafe arrows, all they have to do is make a slight turn and they will be able to dodge the arrows. Picture a Barb running a perfect circle around your Bowazon. Strafe will never be able to hit the Barb because of the autoaim. Strafe lock is also a bigger issue to consider in PvP, especially "triple arrow" strafe, because unlike PvM, your opponents will be moving extremely fast and can get you into melee range very quickly. If you are strafe locked, you are in big trouble.
If you intend to duel without Guided Arrows, the first thing you must master is how to "lead a shot." This means predict a path that your opponent will take and shoot an arrow in such a way that your opponent will "run" into it. No matter how powerful of how high of a slvl is at, if your arrow does not make impact with your opponent, it is next to useless. You must be able lead your shots perfectly or else they will miss your opponent. Granted this is easy to perform with multishot because of the huge spread, but to do this with immolation or freeze arrow is no easy task. This is the reason why strafe isn't well suited for dueling, because you cannot lead a shot with strafe. When using arrow skills with splash damage, one viable tactic is to "bank" your shots off walls, trees, or any obstacle near your opponent so that even though you miss your target, he still takes splash damage. Although this tactic isn't exactly very effective, it does damage none the less. You must be able to dodge all of your opponents attacks while leading all your shots perfectly. This adds another level of skill to dueling with a Bowazon because you have more factors to consider and is extremely challenging since you must think up of new ways to deal damage to your opponent without Guided Arrows.
One tactic to make it easier to predict the path that an opponent will take is to place a decoy or valkyrie around you and lure your opponent into attacking it for some leeching. If they do so, they are an easier target to hit because they will be stationary for a brief moment. However, if they have a significant amount of leeching, they may be able to leech more life than the amount of damage that you can do. Its sort of a gamble.
The important Passive skills that any Bowazon should have...
Critical Strike: This skill gives your Bowazon the chance to do double the damage. Every critical strike hit is shown by a gold spark that will flare up for a second on the unfortunate victim. Since this skill is always on, you will always benefit from it. Try to have it at least above 40%.
Penetrate: This skill effectively increases your attack rating by a percentage. Even at level one, your attack rating increases by 35%. So if you have 1000 attack rating, with level one penetrate, you will have 1350 attack rating. Combining this with Inner Sight will turn that armored tank defense rating, that Barbs usually have, into paper.
Pierce: This skill will allow your arrows to go through targets and will allow you to damage more than one enemy with one shot, thereby increasing the total damage possible with each shot. The chance for pierce to occur depends on your skill level, but even at 50%, about 50% of all your shots will damage more than one enemy and 50% of those piercing shots will damage a third one and so on, which will increase your total damage potential by more than 50%. Combined with multishot or even strafe, it will produce devastating results.
Decoy: This skill will draw attention away from the Amazon. Although this skill is limited, it application is necessary until valkyrie is available and even then it can still be used to assist in diverting most or even all of the fire away from the Amazon. The decoy will disappear after a certain amount of time has passed or if it has taken damage equal or more than your total life.
Valkyrie: This skill is of paramount importance to any Amazon in general as it will not only draw attention away from her enemies but will also attack them, filtering all experience it gains to its caster. It does not die due to time; it only dies when it has no more life left, making it more useful than decoy in every sense.
Slow Missile: This skill will reduce the speed of all hostile ranged attacks by 67%, making it move at only 33% of it original speed. This skill is important when facing hoards of ranged attackers or more importantly, hostile Necros or Bowazons. Granted, frozen orb is practically undodgeable, but slow missile will make it dodgeable by slowing it down enough. However, note that using slow missile will also increase its ability to do damage and if they cast that everywhere, you may be left with no place to go, so you may not want to use it against frozen orb Sorceresses. Fortunately, this only applies to frozen orb, so feel free to use it against all other ranged attacks. In a pvp match facing ranged attackers (except against frozen orb) slow missile practically guarantees your victory.
Other powers that all Bowazons should have:
Mana and life steal: Generally, damage based mana and life leeching will be a prime asset to any Bowazon. Although damage based leeching does not work with immolation or freeze arrow, it works with every other bow and crossbow skill. Imagine strafe or even multishot with damage based mana and life leeching and around five to ten monsters on the screen. Think how much life and mana you can get with each strafe or multishot casting. Note, Immolation, Freeze and Exploding arrow skills cannot take advantage of this because damage based mana and life leeching does not work with them. Kill based leeching will work but is usually not effective enough, but some leeching is better than no leeching, as the old Diablo 2 saying goes.
Cold damage: This generally works well with any type of archer. It works very well with strafe or guided, but it works the best with multishot because of the higher fire rate, greater ability to damage, and ability to chill more monsters faster. Making monsters "cold" will give any Bowazon generally an easier time to set up their strategies.
Generally, a cold based weapon something very good to have and damage based mana and life leeching is a must.
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