What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs

Not even all of the bowazon's strengths and perfect equipment can compensate for a lousy player. Despite the demand for Stone of Jordan, Silks of the Victor, Frostburn, and all that crap, the equipment demands of the amazon are relatively simple because they're based on one question: what kind of bowazon are you playing? Most go for offense, speed, higher resists, bonuses to find stuff, and skills, but this can change, depending on your bowazon's strategy. Start simple, and get the fancy stuff to suit your needs.

Weapons

Generally, crossbows are not recommended for amazons: they're for other classes, as can be seen the slight increase in attack speed they enjoy; the exception is the CKN. Amazons are better suited to take advantage of the faster bow; this is one of the most important things an amazon will ever use, and more time will be wasted on looking for a new bow than any other piece of equipment. For the Normal difficulty level, the goal for a new bowazon is to use a long war bow; for NM and beyond, the bow of choice is a matter of personal preference, though the standard bow is a gothic.

Some players make the mistake of believing that a bow with skills is automatically good. However, a bow is a weapon, and will be used like one. For example, a +2 skills bow (with a clvl-30 requirement) with 12-37 damage isn't worth anything because skills don't make up for measly damage. Bowazons aren't skills-dependent; as bowazons rise in level, +skill steadily becomes less important because most bowazon skills have definite caps on efficiency, which either cap out at the 10-15 point range, or don't need more than a single point. By the time a bowazon reaches her 50-70s, she will have a reasonable amount of points in her preferred skills, and any bonuses to those skills are more a luxury than a necessity as those extra levels hit the area of diminishing returns.

In the same vein, barbarian players often think that a simple 19-144 gothic is worth about ten SoJ, if not more. This is the other extreme: sacrificing everything for damage. A lot of factors go into the perfect bow, and while damage is the most important thing, damage is not the only thing; a truly good weapon will have at least five attributes, two of which will be dedicated to damage (optimally, King's and Merciless) and speed, leaving one prefix and two suffixes open. IMHO, the most important things on a bow are (in order):

1. Enhanced Damage: This is the most important property, but it is not the only property. Bowazons don't do as much damage as barbarians, so other attributes are needed. A decent gothic has at least 90~100 damage; once the bow exceeds 120 damage, you should be well-set. If your bow exceeds 140, you shouldn't be looking for another. However, before you trade everything for a high-damage bow, note that a bow that does more than 20-120 damage may be unnecessary to the point of redundancy; bowazons were doing well in A4H with bows that did no more than 69 damage during the time of the bow bug. These same bowazons are doing fine with bows that do no more than 100 to 120 damage; their survival is based less on gear and more on pure skill.
2. Increased Attack Speed: The second most important thing about a bow is speed; if it wasn't, more people would be using ballistae. A 150 damage gothic is hard to find, but not as valuable as a 130 with IAS: SIAS (of Readiness) is more important than a 10-point increase in damage, IAS (of Alacrity) is more important that a 20-point increase.
3. Cold Damage: The cold damage is an important add-on, but crucial for frostmaidens. A bow with 4-12 Cold Damage (of the Glacier) is preferable to one with 1-4 Cold damage (of Frost), as the former has a chill duration of 6 seconds, the latter 5 seconds. A nit, perhaps, but important for the dedicated.
4. Bonuses to Dexterity: At best, you want a bow with the "Perfection" suffix, giving around 16-20 points. (refer to "Dexterity.")
5. Life/Mana Steal: Having leech on a weapon means more flexibility in choosing a ring. If the bow has dual leech, this takes higher priority.
6. Bonuses to Skills
7. Bonuses to Attack Rating: In most cases, these will be included with Enhanced Damage. While +AR is important, its effectiveness experiences a severe drop in effectiveness due to the way AR relate to To-Hit percentages.
8. Reduced Requirements: A bowazon will not be able use a gothic bow without +STR and +DEX equipment before clvl-35-37. For those obsessed with DEX, Reduced Requirements is a very desirable trait to have.
9. Other Assorted Crap: Light radius, other elemental damage, resist, life replenishment. Of all the elemental damage to look out for, beware of poison: any amount of poison damage on any item you equip will prevent a bow from inflicting stunlock on your enemies. This is an exceptionally bad thing.

The more properties that a gothic can satisfy on the top five of this list, the more satisfying it will be; a god-like 100 is much better than a featureless 140. Again, the most important stat on any bow is the resulting damage. Personal playing style will dictate what kind of bow you want, but I tend to rate bows based on how close they come to my perfect bow, which would be a rare gothic or rune with the King's, Merciless, Archer's, Glacier, Alacrity, and Perfection affixes.

Etiquette for Bows and Trading

By the time you get to A3, you'll probably end up trading for an exceptional bow (or if you're polite and aware of netiquette, you'll simply get one for nothing). If you're looking for one, remember the requirements before accepting a free bow (as somebody out there could probably use that bow now as opposed to you using it later):

• Ballista (exceptional heavy crossbow): 80 dexterity, 110 strength, 24-45 damage, very slow attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 78-152. As far as I'm concerned, the ballista isn't a viable option for a high-level bowazon: it just isn't fast enough. However, Strafe isn't radically affected by weapon speed, and the minimum damage of a ballista packs quite a punch when you consider that its maximum damage is 10 points behind the gothic, resulting in more consistent damage. If you use a ballista, I'd recommend getting one with Alacrity to make up for the loss in speed.
• Chu-Ko-Nu (exceptional repeating crossbow): 90 dexterity, 80 strength, 12-32 damage, very fast attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 48-113. The CKN (also called the chu-ko-no) is a Chinese repeating crossbow. It has low damage compared to a gothic, but the extremely fast attack speed of a high-damage CKN can more than make up for this. Note that there is no difference between a SIAS CKN or an IAS CKN: both fire at 11fps.
• Double Bow (exceptional composite bow): 73 dexterity, 58 strength, 11-26 damage, very fast attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 39-95. This is the choice of some dedicated (or just plain addicted...) speedazons because the double is by far the fastest bow in the game. In addition, because the STR requirement of the double is low, more points can be invested in DEX, which equals a higher damage potential over time, especially with a high CS. Compared to the higher-damage rune or CKN, the faster double makes an excellent alternative.
• Long Siege Bow (exceptional long battle bow): 95 dexterity, 80 strength, 10-42 damage, fast attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 36-143. An alternative to the gothic, the damage and speed of a long siege bow is comparable to the gothic bow with lower STR and DEX requirements.
• Gothic Bow (exceptional long war bow): 118 dexterity, 95 strength, 10-50 damage, fast attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 36-167. For pure smash mouth damage, most bowazons strive to use a gothic: its theoretical maximum damage is ~162±5. An acceptable gothic has 20-110+ damage; for Hell difficulty, a bow of 30-120+ is desirable, but not required. If the gothic has any drawbacks, it is that with a minimum damage starting in the 20s and a maximum in the 100s, its average damage is inconsistent.
• Rune Bow (exceptional short war bow): 103 dexterity, 73 strength, 14-35 damage, fast attack speed; theoretical maximum damage: 48-124. I'm beginning to have newfound respect for rune bows: they have a lower maximum damage, but higher minimum damage than a gothic. In the opinion of some bowazons, minimum damage is more important because of the higher life, resists, and DR of your enemies in the NM and Hell difficulty levels; more often than not, damage can be augmented by passive skills. In addition, a rune is faster than a gothic; a standard rune is as fast as a gothic with Alacrity.

For those who seek a gothic to imbue, you'll start finding them in A3NM. Double bows can be found in A2NM, along with rune bows. If you decide to be a bowazon, don't sell any rare bows you find if you think they can be useful to someone. Rare bows are just that - rare - and a lot of bowazons spend the entirety of the NM difficulty without ever laying eyes on a normal gothic. They're not worth that much to an NPC, so it is best to give to those who need: consider it good karma.

Unique and Set Bows/Crossbows

While these are nice, they are of no use to a high-level bowazon. As with rare bows, save unique bows for newbie amazons: uniques have no level requirements, so they're perfect for them. Unique bows of note are:

• Blastbark Long War Bow: 6-36 damage, +1 to all amazon skill levels, 3% mana stolen per hit, +5 strength. If found early, this bow can be excellent for the beginning amazon. It has some qualities you will be looking for in a gothic bow: enhanced damage, skills, and leech.
• Doomslinger Repeating Crossbow: 6-12 damage, piercing attack, greatly increased attack speed, +1 to all amazon skill levels, +15 life.
  Stormstrike Short Battle Bow: 5-11 damage, piercing attack, lightning resist 25%, +28 attack rating, +8 strength, adds 1-10 lightning damage. The piercing compensates for the lack of damage: with the proper items (like an Eye of Etlich) and skills (Ice Arrow and Multi), these bows dominate large crowds, can be used as soon as clvl-10, and can take a smart bowazon to A4; concentrate on herding your enemies into large groups and mowing them down. However, their low damage is expectedly horrible against strong single enemies. Doomslinger was made for amazons who use Immolation Arrow because its damage and effects are independent of its horrible damage. In addition, the crossbow is incredibly fast (about as fast as a SIAS/IAS CKN), which means you can pump out elemental arrows at an unbelievable rate.
• Leadcrow Light Crossbow: 10-15 damage, +10 to dexterity, +10 to life, +40 to attack rating, 25% deadly strike, enhanced damage, poison resist 30%.
  Rogue's Bow Composite Bow: 4-8 damage, +60 to attack rating, 200% damage to undead, 30% deadly strike, all resists 10%. Deadly Strike is a chance of doing double damage. This is applied after CS, so if you have both, you stand the chance of doing quadruple damage.
• Raven Claw Long Bow: 3-10 damage, +3 DEX, +3 STR, 50% bonus to attack rating, fires explosive arrows.
  Hellcast Heavy Crossbow: 12-20 damage, fires explosive bolts, 15% to maximum fire resist, +70 attack rating, fire resist 15%, increased attack speed. Exploding arrows and bolts will not work with Multi or Strafe. Exploding arrows and bolts are independent of DEX scores. The Raven Claw, with its easy-to-meet requirements, is an excellent beginner's weapon from clvl-1 and upward.
• Witherstring Hunter's Bow: 3-9 damage, +50 to attack rating, adds 1-3 damage, fires magic arrows, greatly increased attack speed. Alongside the Doomslinger, this is one of the fastest bows in the game.

There are two sets made specifically for bowazons, and one set that is useful to everybody. All other sets are useless to the bowazon.

• Arctic Bow Short War Bow: 8-18 damage, 20% bonus to attack rating. The result of the Arctic Gear set is (with all equipment): +20 to life, 20% bonus to attack rating, adds 6-14 cold damage (duration: 4 seconds), cannot be frozen, cold resist 50%, fire, lightning, and poison resist 10%, slightly increased attack speed. The clvl requirement of this set is 2.
• Vidala's Barb Long Battle Bow: 3-18 damage, adds 1-20 lightning damage. The result of the Vidala's Rig set is (with all equipment): +10-11 to dexterity, +15 to life, +150 to maximum stamina, adds 1-20 lightning damage, cold resist 20%, enhanced damage, fastest run/walk, freezes target, piercing attack. The clvl requirement of this set is 14. The freezing part of the set isn't working correctly, otherwise this set would be invaluable.

Though it isn't a bowazon set, Iratha's Finery does deserve some attention. The result of the Iratha's Finery set is (with all equipment): +15 to dexterity, +5 to minimum damage, 10% to all maximum resists, all resists 50%, half freeze duration, poison length reduced by 75%. The clvl requirement of this set is 15. This set may serve you well into NM, or even Hell, as it grants some of the most insane bonuses to your overall resist scores. Note that the bonus to minimum damage doesn't work with bows.

Armor and Other Things

Rings

It is imperative that you obtain a set of life and mana leech rings as soon as possible: the principle of leech is quite literally the lifeblood of any warrior, as it places them over mages in terms of longevity, as high-level warriors can often drain five (or more) times their maximum life/mana with a single hit because they drain based on how much damage they do. This grievous oversight by Blizzard was caused in part by their shoddy beta testing and inability to see the potential of the high-damage weapons and skills of post-clvl-30 characters during those tests: had leeching applied to the maximum (or even current) life/mana of the creature being hit, the game may have been more balanced. Leech rings are simply the most flexible way in terms of equipment; percentages should start at 5-7%, not counting other leech sources from armor, helmets, and weapons.

Because leech rings are so important, you should always strive to find better rings as you go on. Good attributes for leech rings include a high +AR, DEX, one to four high resists (prismatic is nice), +life, +mana, %FMI, and remedial attributes like Thawing or Poison Damage Reduction. Dual leech rings are desirable, but in my personal experience, a character with two excellent single-leech rings is much better off than a character with two mediocre dual leech rings, even if the latter can leech for more. Of course, one can find two excellent dual-leech rings, but it is far easier to find two excellent single-type leech rings.

Some would suggest the SoJ (+1 to all skill levels, +20 to mana, adds 1-12 lightning damage, increase maximum mana 25%); I don't.

Armor

As mentioned before, armor isn't important when attacking from a distance and using tanks. Eventually, armor won't be chosen for defense because nothing should be able to approach you in melee combat; armor will be chosen on the basis of attributes. Desired attributes to armor and helms are +DEX, reduced requirements for heavier armor, resists, +life, +mana, DR/MDR, and FHR. Enhanced defense isn't a priority.

For gloves, you want +DEX, SIAS, resists, +life, +mana, and %FMI or more gold.

Desired qualities for boots are +DEX, resists, Tireless (heal stamina 50%), and FHR. One attribute that must always be on a pair of bowazon boots is increased run speed (of Pacing, Haste, and Speed, respectively). As a bowazon, you want to keep a safe distance between you and your opponents, and the best way to do that is to run faster.

Unique Armors

Unique Armors and Jewelry of note are:

• Eye of Etlich Amulet: +1 to all skill levels, +1-5 to light radius, +10-40 defense vs. missile, 3-7% life stolen per hit, adds 1/2 - 3/4/5 cold damage. With properties, this amulet is nearly perfect for bowazons. Because of the possible variations, look after the life leech percentage, defense against missiles, and hidden 2-12 second cold duration, which may be stacked on top of FA. This turns FA into a sickening über-skill, and the Eye into the über-trinket of the bowazon who enjoys a long freeze duration.
  Alternative: You can get by with a Fletcher's amulet, but keep a prismatic amulet on hand. Eventually, you'll want rare skill amulets; keep collecting these as no amulet is perfect until you get exactly what you want. Amulets with cold damage are available at level 41; there are no cold damage rings. Note that cold damage amulets have a duration of 4 seconds; for this reason, always keep an Eye - preferably a 10-12 second one - in your stash.
• Goldwrap Heavy Belt: 46 defense, +2 to light radius, 30% better chance of getting magic items, slight attack rate increase. This heavy belt has properties normally not found on belts, including the coveted SIAS and %FMI. For dedicated speedazons, there are few alternatives for this belt: Goldwrap is as valuable to bowazons as Wormskull is to necromancers. Most amazons I know have never replaced this, though a cold damage belt is a possibility.
• Greyform Quilted Armor: 8-11 defense, +10 to dexterity, 5% life stolen per hit, cold resist 20%, fire resist 20%, magic damage reduced by 3.
  Silks of the Victor Ancient Armor: 219-232 defense, +2 to light radius, +1 to all skills, 5% mana stolen per hit.
  Twitchtroe Studded Leather Armor: 47-50 defense, +10 to dexterity, +10 to strength, +15 defense, increase chance of blocking, slight attack rate increase. Greyform and Silks of the Victor - the lowest and highest of the unique armors - are among the best bowazon armors available, though I am strongly in favor of Greyform, which offers everything that a bowazon wants for armor: it is light, has leech, a nice DEX bonus, and decent defense against magic. Silks of the Victor is an excellent medium armor for elemental-heavy bowazons, not only for the +1 skills, which is nice, but also for the 5% mana leech. However, its lack of resistances is a liability. With its slight increase to attack speed and bonuses to STR and DEX, Twitchtroe is the armor for dedicated speed freaks. Like Silks, its lack of resistances can be detrimental later on.
  Alternative: Goldskin Full Plate (225-235 defense, +2 to light radius, +75 defense, all resistances +30, attacker takes damage of 1-10) is an excellent alternative, except that it's heavy weight limits mobility. Heavenly Garb Light Plate (216 defense, all resistances +10, regenerate mana 25%) is light armor: its mana regeneration can be useful. For those who like to duel, Blinkbat's Form Leather Armor (39-42 defense, +16 defense vs. missile, +25 defense, adds 3-6 fire damage, fast run/walk) is excellent because it's light and the 20% increase to speed allows you to run even faster than before.
• Hand of Broc Leather Gloves: 2 defense, +20 to mana, 3% life stolen per hit, 3% mana stolen per hit, poison resist 10%.
  Frostburn Gauntlets: 42-44 defense, adds 1-6 cold damage, maximum mana 40%. With the possible exception of Frostmaidens, Frostburn is bad for bowazons. The increase to mana is wonderful, but its only real benefit to the bowazon is cold damage, which has a duration of 2 seconds. Frostburn is invaluable until Ice Arrow becomes available. With no STR requirements, Hand of Broc is an excellent choice for beginning bowazons, providing both life and mana steal, reducing the need to locate these attributes on jewelry.
  Alternative: After Strafe is developed past slvl-10, the value of SIAS gloves with DEX becomes apparent, as they dramatically cut down attack time. All unique gloves are good for bowazons, depending on your skills of choice. A welcome starter is Bloodfist Heavy Gloves (+5 to minimum damage, +40 to life, fastest hit recovery). Amazons who use Immolation will enjoy the bonus to fire skills and mana regeneration of Magefist Light Gauntlets.
• Treads of Cthon Chain Boots: 8-9 defense, +10 to life, +50 defense vs. missile, 50% stamina drain, fastest run/walk. With its fastest run/walk, these boots are comparable to the equally useful to Vidala's Fetlocks, but Treads have the added bonus of 50 defense against missile attacks. Since the only common enemies that can be a problem are long-ranged attackers, it would be prudent to obtain these boots.
  Alternative: All unique boots (except Goblin Toe, as bows don't take advantage of Crushing Blow) are good for an amazon, but it is far easier to come across a set of Vidala's Fetlocks, which give the Fastest Run/Walk property with a +150 stamina bonus. The difference between Vidala's Fetlocks and Treads of Cthon is a subtle one: Vidala's adds a straight +150 stamina, while Treads essentially doubles stamina. (50% leech = +50% stamina.) For a low-level character with low stamina, Vidala's is better. By mid-to-high-levels, Treads will be more usable. You don't regenerate faster with Treads, but you regenerate more stamina per tick due to a larger stamina pool. After Treads stop being useful, gamble for rare boots with Fastest Run/Walk and Tireless, as well as other attributes.
• Tarnhelm Skullcap: 8-10 defense, +1 to all skill levels, 25-49% chance of getting magic item, 75% extra gold from monsters. The early boost to your skill levels will help your bowazon quite a bit, as will the increased gold and chances to find magical items. Another unique helm to keep an eye out for is the Undead Crown (44-50 defense, 4% life stolen per hit, half freeze duration, poison resist 50%). These attributes are quite useful to the bowazon and the trading value of the crown is relatively low. In the end, the choice of a helm is all up to you, though I'd recommend something with high resists, FHR, and DEX.

Putting It All Together

Nobody's perfect. My first bowazon, Kabbalah, was the sort of learning experience every player should have: a complete failure that was a lot of fun to play back when I was a newbie player who didn't know any better and didn't start asking questions or looking for guides (there weren't any) until I hit my 40s. I can look back now and laugh (you can look back and laugh too), but I really wished I had read Vehementi earlier. Fortunately, she had some respectable gear to pass onto Daikyu when I finally put her to rest at clvl-55.

After considering everything I did wrong, I stopped playing for two weeks and listened to everything more experienced bowazons had to say, read over as many forums as I could, and made a few quick trades to introduce my second bowazon, Daikyu, to USEast. She was a relatively well-balanced bowazon, retired at clvl-71. These are her ending stats and skills:

Templates

A quick look at the bowazon's superior skill tree will give many players pause at the sheer multitude of choice there are to make. While I push for a well-balanced bowazon with heavy passive skills, there are other viable choices to be made as well, based on a few key skills.

If anyone has an interesting idea for other bowazon templates, please contact me, and I'll look into it.

The Speedazon

An extension of the strafazon and multizon of previous versions, the speedazon was conceptualized by Golden Bow of the Amazon Basin, then perfected by Double Trouble. The speedazon's ability to kill rests entirely on her blinding speed: Goldwrap, Twitchtroe, gloves with SIAS and DEX, and a bow with Alacrity (IAS) are desired; this will take a bow up four to five notches in attack speed from an already blinding "Fast Attack Speed." In this case, a bow with heavier damage should be passed up for a slightly faster bow with a bit less damage, since the principle is that it's far better to cause a medium amount of damage with an insane rate of fire (RoF) than it is to cause a lot of damage with a standard RoF.

Not surprisingly, the speedazon's bread-and-butter attacks are Strafe and perhaps Multi, as the straight damage she can deal with these attacks will pile up faster than the slow but heavy-hitting power of FA, or the slow-leeching Immolation Arrows. However, Freezing and Immolation Arrows can and should be used to augment her already incredible offense. Her disadvantage is that her bows can't be anything less than IAS, and the fastest bows in the game have less straight damage than the standard gothic.

...the amazon has two things going for her over the other characters in the game...:

1. She can hit fast and run fast(er) than other characters (and monsters).
2. She can be even faster when the cold element is used.

Therefore, my thoughts were to utilize any and all weapons, armor, jewelry which would increase speed and use cold constantly without using skill points in the cold arena. Is he daft, you say? Well, nope. A good socketed bow with sapphires and skulls do the trick, thus giving you room to add increased speed gloves instead of the Frostburn that are usually used. If you're all laughing at the socketed bow part, keep in mind my open b.net character is clvl-42 with nothing but the socketed bow. Speed is what got her there and I'm continuing with my Realms character who's clvl-22 and climbing.

Lots who are into the math of the game or with other strategies will scoff at the socketed bow and so be it. I've gambled for better bows and haven't had the fortune to have a good one drop that would make me drop the socketed one I use now. If I find a bow with increased speed but without cold damage, I'd not use it. The slower I make my enemy and the faster I can move and shoot is what makes the speedazon what she is. There are many ways to play our amazon and that's what makes it fun. I for one like the fact that Golden Bow the speedazon rarely gets touched.

- Golden Bow

For a more comprehensive guide on speedazons, please refer to Double Trouble's Speedazon Guide. For more information on weapon speeds, please refer to Trucidation's and Crystalion's Weapon Speed Mechanics at the Lurker Lounge.

Frostmaidens are so cool, they're cryogenic. The concept of the frostmaiden was created by saddguy, named by the author (anything to avoid the then-current title of Freezazon!), then expanded on by other players. More vicious and controlled that your average bowazon, the frostmaiden doesn't blindly flail about with skills like Strafe or Multi, but selectively herds targets and uses Ice Arrows with a sniper's touch, waiting for the right moment - a multiple pierce - to unleash with her Freezing Arrows.

The frostmaiden's offense/defense is based on using her primary attack skills to take advantage of D2's interchangeable and cumulative chill and freeze times: a cold damage bow (5-6 seconds), Frostburn (2 seconds), a 10-12 second Eye of Etlich, and a cold damage belt (4-5 seconds) will have a total cold duration of 20-22 seconds. When combined with FA's 2 second or Ice Arrow's 2-5.8 freeze duration, a frostmaiden can freeze an enemy solid for 22-24 seconds with FA or 22-27.8 seconds with Ice Arrow. (In NM, these times are reduced by 50%, and by 75% in Hell.) A frostmaiden is an excellent addition to any multi-player game: she can play havoc with everything, and how much damage she inflicts will be secondary to her ability to chill things or stop them dead in her tracks.

Her narrow perspective demands she sacrifice or even ignore the development of other skills. For example, Multi is given a token five points to make the trip to clvl-30 easier; Guided and Strafe, a point or so for mana recovery; fire skills are avoided (though a high-level Immo pairs well with FA, especially after a good pierce). Critical Strike has no effect on the way Ice Arrow or FA works, so it may have anywhere from one to the token six points, and Penetrate means nothing to a frostmaiden's staple attacks. A high-level valk isn't required because FA negates its overall usefulness with its heavy damage and freezing effect; even if the valk dies, a few Freezing Arrows can take care of stragglers, freeze the survivors, and give enough time to summon a valk and run. This leaves a frostmaiden with few core skills: Ice Arrow, Freezing Arrow, Pierce, and quite possibly Immolation Arrow. These skills work wonderfully together, but the skill that makes a frostmaiden isn't Ice or FA, but Pierce: she must have a slvl-8-15 Pierce in order to maximize her killing power. The Pierce Bug allows the frostmaiden to use Ice Arrow as a "spotter:" she fires it into a crowd and checks how many things were frozen. If the results are good, then it's time for FA. (Remember, the Pierce bug determines Pierce by the Random Number Generator first, then keeps that result based on the XY-coordinates of where you click on the target. In other words, once it pierces that spot, it will always pierce until it is destroyed, or until a monster steps in front of the victim and fails to be pierced.) She then leeches back mana with more Ice Arrows, keeping monsters locked into place, testing for more Pierce, then striking with more FA.

If you can get your targets pinned close to a wall, line up FA so it pierces and detonates against the wall. You'll get two or more hits for the price of one. Always look for a piece of terrain behind the pack to shoot at. The extra detonation can only help you kill quicker.

A high-duration Eye of Etlich is the cornerstone of a Frostmaiden; without it, her freeze duration falls apart at the higher difficulty levels, no matter how many cold damage items she has. With a high-level of Pierce, FA to destroy large groups, and a rapid output of Ice Arrows to leech back mana and to keep isolated enemies under control, a frostmaiden is a coldly effective (excuse the pun) killing machine in narrow areas like the Halls of the Dead and Tombs in A2, the Temples and Sewers of A3, and the Chaos Sanctuary. Her one problem will be anything immune to being frozen: champions, uniques, and bosses. For this, I'd suggest Immolation (slvl-12+) and/or Strafe (slvl-1+). Personally, I'd try Immolation as this could be useful when they're pinned to a Valk, but if you want to save points, Strafe is quite nice. A combination of the two - Strafing a burning enemy - is also a possibility.

While the gatlingazon and frostmaiden templates can be combined, the frostmaiden purist will sacrifice SIAS gear for cold damage items to lengthen freeze duration. She isn't worried about firing speed - everything will sit still until she's good and ready to kill it. The frostmaiden has two sides to her persona - the "nanny" and the "mistress." for team play, her weapon of choice is either a socketed bow (three perfect sapphires have a chilling duration of 9 seconds) or even a weak bow with +skills, IAS, and cold damage, Goldwrap or a cold-damage belt, and Frostburn (Frostburn over SIAS gloves because a larger mana pool may be needed due to less mana leech) as the longer freeze duration will help everybody in multi-player, making the frostmaiden an excellent aid for games - as I said, this is the "nanny" bow. You are the caretaker of everybody else and prevent them from biting off more than they can chew, but with a socketed bow, you're not going to get that much EXP because you might not be killing that much.

However, FA's damage is largely part of the physical damage of the bow, which is when the "mistress" comes into play. When it's time to solo, a frostmaiden pulls off the nanny bow and nice attitude and whips out the "mistress" bow - that big 100+ gothic with cold damage - to hurt those naughty monsters by taking full advantage of the damage Ice Arrows and FA are capable of. I would suggest a gothic bow: they're not as fast as runes or CKNs, but the payoff is in the average physical damage because FA uses the normal arrow damage to calculate its damage, both for the initial hit and splash, so it makes sense to make the splash damage as high as possible - and the gothic offers the best damage in the game. This means that a frostmaiden might have to have two bows in her inventory, her multi-player "nanny" bow (ice cream) and her high-damage "mistress" bow (ice cream and whippings!).

Without Multi, the frostmaiden will lack an AoE attack until clvl-30, which is hard on leveling, but when she hits clvl-30, she starts becoming pure Hell to deal with because of her ability to freeze and shatter multiple enemies. The frostmaiden's DEX can afford some leeway as well because her damage is coming from Ice and FA (though I still consider anything under 200 to be low). These points may go into mana, but it's best to use +mana items, as well as Frostburn (though its cold duration will be pathetically low in Hell, but it won't matter when it's stacked alongside other cold damage items). Like the hammerdin, one of the frostmaiden's main concern is mana: she'll need a large amount of it to fuel her slvl-20 FA. With her most significant skills being at clvl-30, she's more a spellcaster than the standard bowazon, so she may need to prioritize +skills and +mana items more as well: unlike other bowazons, she may actually get some mileage out of the SoJ. More so than any other character (with the exception of a tweaker sorceress), the frostmaiden takes a long time to mature, but with her destructive potential, the end result may be worth it: with a decent bow, a slvl-20 Pierce, and slvl-20 FA, she can easily glean the same benefits as a lance-using barbarian wearing Iceblink who specializes in Whirlwind on large groups of monsters with much less risk and no compromise to DR or overall defense.

There is currently no guide to frostmaidens. I might have to make one...

Building Your Bowazon Picture Book

For more information about pounding on bosses, please refer to saddguy's Boss Guide for Bowazons.

Baby Pictures

Your amazon starts out with some javelins and a shield. Use these for awhile, perhaps even switching out to a light one-handed melee weapon, as they're stronger than most of the bows you might find. With her low scores and lack of skills, as well as good bows and a relatively low AR, using the javelin and shield will actually help you get out of A1 faster than using a bow. At those first few levels, you can't afford to be picky, so make do with what you can and sell everything you find and don't need. (Hence, the advice on gear that increases your chances to find more gold and magic. Don't even buy anything until you hit clvl-5 or so because you'll keep on running into better and better stuff as the act progresses. (If you need to blow your cash on anything, gamble for a Tarnhelm and Hand of Broc. You'll be using those for a while.) Just upgrade, sell, and go on: A1 is the "scav phase" for your character, so don't even try to avoid it. All the clvl-50~90 characters had to scrape up their gold pieces to pick up a suit of superior studded leather armor at some point, and so do you. (Consider it to be your growing pains because once you start hitting the high 40s and 50s, you'll once again be hunting for your own equipment as opposed to trading and asking for it.) Because of the relative ease of the enemies in A1, items that add to your chances of finding more gold and magical items are recommended. As soon as you can access Multi and Cold Arrow, you're going to want to obtain a long bow, preferably with cold damage. You needn't bother with short or hunter's bows, since they don't do nearly enough damage, and a long bow is cheap enough to be readily purchased. Your stat points during this stage will mostly go to STR and DEX, to allow you to equip the better items that you'll be finding. After clvl-2 (pump all 5 points into STR to even out STR and DEX), I'd suggest a steady 2/3 distribution between STR and DEX until the desired STR score is reached. Your skills during this early stage will largely be going to prerequisites for other skills and passives. If you choose to use Multi, you can start practicing and investing early in A1.

Most of A1 should be fairly easy, except for the occasional boss or champion. Keep looking for better equipment, but your choices are rather severely limited this early on. The Smith will be a challenge, make sure you have lots of running room. A nearby well or jail cell (as the Smith can't open doors) can make this battle much easier. Alternatively, you can rush the Smith with a high-blocking shield (like Civerb's Ward), a fast one-handed weapon, and a lot of healing potions. For Andariel, stock up on antidote potions, and maybe stamina potions as well. Be sure to take out her lackeys first, as they are there to take divert your attention. Rushing Andariel in melee combat isn't recommended.

In the case of jewelry, get a life-leeching ring first, then a mana-leeching ring. These are easy to find so strive for a leech of 6-7% of each, but if a rare leech gets tossed your way, use it. Leech rings aren't the most useful things at this moment (because your damage is so low), so try to find rings that add to strength, dexterity, and most importantly, life, mana, and chances to find more gold. (Once you get to A2, the situation will most definitely change as your enemies become harder and more numerous, but by this time, Multi and Ice Arrow will be available, which is when the leech rings really begin to shine. In the long run, don't wear a ring that doesn't add any sort of leech unless you're absolutely sure that another piece of equipment has that leech type adequately covered!

Not surprisingly, any unique bow at this time would be appreciated. If someone is giving one away, by all means, take it.

In A2, you'll start to find some better equipment. Buy yourself a nice short battle bow, the increased damage will make things a lot easier; if someone offers a Stormstrike or has one for trade, take it: it is going to serve you well here. If you've reached clvl-18, Ice Arrow works great against the undead, as does Exploding Arrow. Where you place your stats depends a lot on the items you're finding. If you find a great piece of armor, go ahead and bump up strength; otherwise, focus more on Dexterity. Your skill points can continue to go into passives, but you should start saving some of them for Penetrate, Pierce, Strafe, and Valk. (Yes, you're planning this far ahead!)

The universally-despised Duriel awaits at the end, and he can be maddening for a straight bowazon. However, his melee attacks are nowhere near as damaging as his charge, so a point into Jab will be well-used at this point, as will a good sword and a high-blocking shield. If you're playing with a group, it isn't as important, since you can get one to engage Duriel while pelt him with arrows.

Prom Pictures

A3 can be frustrating, since the fetishes are small fast-moving targets. Multi or Strafe is helpful here, since you don't have to target accurately with them. Continue to upgrade your equipment, placing your stat points as necessary to equip the stuff you find. By now you should be close to activating Strafe, if you haven't already, so place some points in there. Make sure you save a couple for clvl-30, because there are three nice skills you want to get. The Council Members can be tricky, but Decoy can help to take some of the load off. The mercenaries you can hire in this act are actually useful, so make sure you always have one.

Do not skip Travincal. Everyone else does it, I know, and for good reason: they suck. Every unskilled, overpowered, number-crunching, whiny, little Frozen Orb-lobbing sorceress, Whirlwinding barbarian, minion-needy, Iron-Maiden-flinging necromancer, hammerdin, and strafazon would rather just go straight to the Durance and kill Mephisto because their little one-trick pony ride is over the second they set foot in Kurast's capital and start getting fire walls, blizzards, poison spit, lightning bolts, and those zealots thrown at them. Travincal is by far the hardest test of a your skill in the entire game thus far: elemental damage coming from all eight directions, too many walls, obstacles, and levels for any one skill to be effective, at least two butt-kicking uniques and scattered mobs of capable melee monsters and spell casters, all set up in an even battlefield. No hard drive lag to work against you (àla Duriel), no excuses about entry lag (àla the third level of the Durance), no one really powerful unique to worry about (like the seals of the Chaos Sanctuary), and no excuses for losing. This is about as fair a fight as the monsters are ever going to give you, plain and simple, and most players can't deal with it. Deal with it. This is your test; you may be ready for A4, but if you're so scared of Travincal that you'd rather just waste three entire stages of experience to get past it, then you just can't play the game. There are a thousand ways to kill everything in Travincal: find one.

Your mark, Mephisto, isn't a problem; the Council Members - particularly the infamous extra fast, lightning-enchanted Bremm Sparkfist - and annoying blood lords are the problem. Against Mephisto, you can either use Ice Arrow and try to dodge a lot, or simply spray his general direction with Multi or GA. With life or mana steal, you can tell when you've found him by the swirly effect. By this point you should have some mana steal; if not, you should consider gambling for rings or Hand of Broc.

By A4, you should have Strafe, but at this point, it is still inferior to Multi for coverage. You want to use Strafe in situations where you might get swarmed, like the Plains of Despair with those annoying burning and black souls. If you find a nice rare long war bow, you should be doing enough damage to keep your mana full. Izual will take a long time to kill, just keep casting Decoys in his lap, he'll die eventually; this is one of the few cases you'll want to use Magic Arrow - because of Izual's high life, the chances you'll use up 250-750 arrows are good, especially if you're in a multi-player game. Hephasto is a dangerous opponent, use Ice Arrows and Decoys to slow him down. If you have it, Immolation Arrow is useful against these monsters.

Diablo isn't that tough...if you know what you're doing. Take down a lot of arrows, run to a corner of the Chaos Sanctuary which looks like a "+" (the walls extend from the corners slightly) and get Diablo on the other side of one of the "short" walls from you. Make sure you have some mana steal, then happily plink away with GA (fire at an angle - the arrow will "bounce" back and hit him), settle down, drink a cup of coffee, and wait for the Quest dialog box to appear. You may need to shift positions once in a while, as Diablo sometimes has a tendency to poke his head around the corner. Do not use Decoy, do not use Valk if you don't know how to use them as tools to reposition Diablo back to his proper spot. If you think it takes too long to waste him with a bow, you can max your Lightning resists, and take out Jab again with a nice pike, or a 3DT and a good one-handed melee weapon.

Graduation Photos

Somewhere in NM, you'll get Valk, and somewhere in the second half you'll find your first gothic: save this until clvl-35~38 to get the most out of your imbue. Try to get something with close to 100 max damage. If it isn't great, then you still have two more tries. Once you get your STR up to 100+, any remaining points should go into DEX.

NM shouldn't be too much harder than Normal, since you'll be getting much better equipment in the form of exceptional items. You should have all prerequisites and passives filled out now, and should be pumping either Valk or your primary attack skill (Multi or Strafe).

Leveling

For much more information on monsters and their levels, please consult the Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo II Darkness for more information.

Leveling is tricky business, so here's a summary. This guide isn't going to deal with the specifics, so don't treat this as canon. You'll want to stay within 5 levels of whatever it is you're killing, but there are some cases when this is unavoidable. The best place to level in Normal is either the Bazaar to Upper Kurast in A3, as the wide-open spaces and a cold-casting mage can take you a long way. In addition, you should just be getting Strafe and Decoy, so now's a good time to try them out. A warning, however: the temples, with their enclosed spaces, can be dangerous, so tread carefully. After that, you're off to A4 and those idiot venom lords, leapers, finger magi, urdar, and Izual, which can net you enough experience to go to level 30-31. Your worst enemy in A4 is The oblivion knight (who just happen to be everyone's worst enemy).

In NM, the prime places to level aren't obvious, but any Lady will tell you that the prime leveling spots are the Sewers of Lut Gholein and Canyon of the Magi (and their Tombs) in A2NM: the enemies are high-level, not too fast, not too smart, bunched up like sardines in a cramped up area which means that your Strafe will not be flying wild, and best of all, they're meat for a bowazon with Strafe, Valk, and FA. You can shoot from clvl-31 to 45 in these spots alone (with repeated visits, of course). In addition, the sewers are somewhat bow-friendly, so if you haven't found a rare exceptional bow yet, one may drop here. It would be prudent to join in the middle of game that has 5 players or more to capitalize on the life bonuses that your Valk enjoys with more players. The point of this stage is to boost your main skills and learn how to use them in conjunction with Valk and Decoy. A3NM is a bowazon's paradise for experience - especially the Spider Cavern and Arachnid Lair - and treasure - especially bows. I've found that the Spider Cavern and Arachnid Lair in particular are excellent places to level, as the enemies are tightly packed in bottlenecked caverns, limiting their mobility. In addition, almost every enemy in these two locations are meleers, making them wonderful extensions of the Sewers and Canyon of the Magi.

Killing Diablo in NM can be a trying experience for a bowazon, as Evade Lock is inevitable. Spraying him from off-screen with Multi has proven effective for a number of bowazons. Expect this battle to take a long time, preferably right after a level up to avoid the experience penalty.

The Post Office

Past this point, you should now have a well-crafted killing machine (or a draft of one); the only real advancement you'll see is in levels and equipment. Your basic skills and strategies will not change for Hell, your damage will continue to improve as you pump points into DEX and Strafe if you're using it. And as soon as you wear out your welcome in A3H, go to A4H where you can join in the 'zon fests for experience and prizes. Bowazons can take time to mature, but they are powerful once they get all of the different aspects working together.

Attitude and Presentation

For a long time, amazons as a whole (and bowazons in particular) have the reputation of being the most mature, courteous, sensible, honorable, fair, and business-minded of the classes, but with the new influx of players coming in with v1.04 and the newfound independence of bowazons, this reputation may change. As a member of the "old" bowazons, I would prefer that it not. In amazon chat rooms and forums, there are certain rules to be observed:

• "Multiple Shot versus Strafe?" is a stupid question to ask.
• The Amazon Camp and Amazon Strategy Forums are places of shop talk, not some nonsensical economic system built up on stupid rings.
• There is no such thing as too much DEX. This is such a thing as too much everything else, including questions about where to put your skill points. There are at least four excellent guides on the web that give excellent advice on skills.
• The Immolation versus Freezing Arrow argument is a matter of personal preference. Don't even bother asking.
• Bows take up anywhere from six to eight squares of inventory space, and if a bowazon wants to give one away, that bowazon says so. Don't beg for a bow, wait for someone to make an offer.
• Make friends. Make friends with as many people as possible; playing with strangers is a tiring thing, and it's always good to have people you can trust.

Now be Good Kiddies and Share

The bowazon's role in a large group (or any group) is support and cover fire: she eliminates weaker enemies and ranged attackers and softens up tougher targets while the melee fighters take out the targets with higher priority and other melee fighters while her Valk adds another tank to the team. At higher levels, she can use Freezing Arrow to play the part of the caretaker, strategically targeting threats that other players can't reach or don't notice.

Being a good teammate is more important than being a good player; I tend to believe that this is the most important part of the multi-player aspect of D2 only because there's so little of it to be found. In an eight-player run through A4 (or any act, for that matter), regardless of difficulty level, good teamwork is a must: every player must define themselves as part of a greater whole and adopt the role that they were made for. Those that want to play the game because they like the game, not because they want to powergame with their über-character, collect a ton of SoJs or the "best rares on b.net", or just plain "lose", those are the guys you want to party with. To everything you can about your character choice and to be really skilled in them gives you much respect (or at least some sense of accomplishment), especially to yourself, even if it is just a game. And the best part is that when you're really skilled, you can outplay the cheesy players handily and know that you're better than them.

If a team is incoherent, it may be a good idea to make suggestions according to level and ability, and use everyone involved. A good carpenter never throws away wood, and a good general never throws away warriors. If they're stuck in situations where they can't fight, have barbarians use war cries and hold up the front with the Valks. (For God's sake, use your Grim Ward!!! few have any idea how useful this skill really is, especially when you're about to be surrounded.) Use the auras of paladins either defensively (Salvation or any other resist aura) or offensively (Concentration or Fanaticism: Concentration is the de facto aura for a bowazon partner. If there are a lot of valks and golems, Thorns is a nice choice). While they can often be the team, necromancers are best suited for the role of indirect damage, using curses to the advantage of their partners (Iron Maiden and Amplify Damage are two favorites, and Lower Resist is gold around sorceresses. Another curse that isn't too bad is Confuse, which is best used on unique monsters. The unique will not be affected at all, but his minions will be.) Sorceresses cause tons of damage, but in an 8-player game, Frozen Orb should be reserved as a finisher, while Static Field becomes the primary attack: better results, less mana wasted, and less lag. In an 8-player game, a slvl-20 Static Field will shorten a monster's life bar much faster than a slvl-20 Frozen Orb, even with Cold Mastery. Paladins are a mishmash of everything, from spellcaster to straight fighter, but they tend to know their roles well because it takes a brain to play a paladin correctly. If a player is in a different act, or on a level-gaining trip, don't invite them to the party (so long as they're not in the way), simple as that. Most of the time, they just need to level, so leave them alone, and invite them when they ask for it.

Etiquette

I find it best to be proper in response to all reasonable requests (note the word "reasonable"), but to constantly push for self-reliance: there are few cases (like being in danger of losing an irreplaceable everything) when another player really needs the help of another. (The usual solution is to gain a few levels, save up some gold, go hunting for equipment, or whatnot.) While multi-player is encouraged, a character should be able to finish an act (but not necessarily the boss) by herself before moving on to the next. Otherwise, she's just not ready for that act. Hence, a character who is being thrashed in A3 should move back to A2 to gain levels (preferably while moving through the entire act) and prepare themselves for A3, not ask for the help of another (unless it is Hell difficulty, where everything is hard).

This being said, one should exercise proper conduct at all times, even on b.net. Especially on b.net, since words - and the way a person presents those words - mean everything: there is no body language, no effective ways to communicate sarcasm, and no facial expressions to follow. People tend to respond positively towards a polite person, and the attitude one displays under the cover of anonymity is, more often than not, what that person is truly like. Metal is tested by fire; man is tested by his words.

Don't beg for gear, ever. Trade, call in a favor from a friend, or be receptive to the occasional high-level who likes to give away stuff (but don't make it a habit. Those high-level players do it to be nice, not because they're obligated to help.) Don't ask anyone to help you kill a boss for you, ever. If you can't get past a boss, then gain some levels, get some gear: the bosses are what cull the weak, impatient, and stupid from the smart, persistent, and strong.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE ANNOYING AND HARD TO READ. Unless you're Hunter S. Thompson, use them sparingly; type was designed to be set in both upper- and lowercase with ascenders and descenders so they'd be easier to read. It has been that way for hundreds of years; don't expect to break this rule anytime soon. Those who use capital letters are either too stupid to type properly or too inconsiderate to find the CAPS LOCK key, forgetting that capital letters EQUATE TO SHOUTING ON THE INTERNET.

Trading Guide by Chronoshock 1.0

I'm getting sick and tired of people making stupid offers, here's the important realities of trading, Learn them well:

1. Three prefixes and three suffixes on a rare and that's it.
2. Stone of Jordan (SoJ) is the only +1 ring.
3. +2 amulets are hard to get and +2 rares are even harder.
4. Nobody wants set items or gems.
5. +2 skills weapons mean nothing if the damage sucks.
6. SoJ has dropped in value. (Read: A lot).
7. A whole lot of crap items will not trade for one really good item.
8. Non-(SoJ, Silks of the Victor, Goldskin, Frostburn, Ume's Lament, Eye of Etlich, Wormskull, Magefist, Spectral Shard, Iceblink, etc...) uniques are crap and lots of them will not get you good items.
9. Unique weapons are horrible.
10. A ton of the "popular uniques" will not get you the highest-end exceptional rare. You have to trade rares for rares (although some inexperienced traders might trade a high-end exceptional for a bunch of Silks).
11. Maximum possible damage on a CKN is ~108±5 damage.
12. Maximum possible damage on a gothic is ~162±5 damage.
13. Maximum possible damage on a martel de fer is ~309±10 damage.
14. Maximum possible damage on a rune bow is ~119±5 damage.
15. Maximum possible damage on an executioner's sword is ~176±5 damage.
16. Maximum possible defense on an ornate plate is 897.

If you see items significantly higher than these numbers, they're fake. For other weapons, please refer to Trucidation's and Lemekim's Maximum Possible Weapon Damage Table

Dueling Etiquette: Player versus Player

Though I can see to the ends of the earth
Still I ramble this treacherous path.
Over my shoulder I glimpse the corpses gathering.
This day I walk the Way of the Beast.

Hiroaki Samura, trans.

PvP is not my favorite activity; refer to PvME's Bowazon Dueling Guide and ChunLi's Bowazon Guide as references on dueling as a bowazon. The advice I give to prospective duelists is; one, don't go hostile on anyone for no reason at all. Be a duelist, not a player-killer. Potions (of any kind) are not allowed in duels. Try to keep it fair and note that clvl-1-29 is its own special area, then 30 on up; it is clearly not fair for a clvl-31 character to duel a clvl-28 character, much less a clvl-45 to take on a clvl-20. There is no such thing as a "fair loot duel."

Mathematics

• Dexterity Bonus Damage: bow's base physical damage × (dexterity/100)
• Standard Skill Damage: base damage × ([stat modifier + skill modifier + 100]/100)
• Strafe Damage (v1.03): base damage × ([dexterity + 100]/100)([strafe modifier + 100]/100)
• To-Hit formula: 100 × AR/(AR + DR) × 2 × alvl/(alvl + dlvl)
• Valkyrie and Monster Life Bonus: total life = base life × # of players
• Valkyrie Item Level: 25 + (3 × valkyrie slvl)
• Weapon Speed formula: # frames = {256 × (base + 1)/[(100 + SI)/100 × 256]} - 1

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for advice and permission to reprint previously published material:

• The Amazon Camp at USEast, the Amazon Basin, all good sportsmen for making this game more enjoyable than I had hoped, Amberyl (Tortolia), Arcinstone, Bejinxed, Chuck, ChunLi, Chronoshock, Concillian, Corwin Brute, Crystalion, Double Trouble, DSYee, Eric Mooney, epod, Evo IV, Golden Bow, Icemage, Ignatz, Jonathan Fine, The Korg, Lemekin, LineNoise, Malphigian, MEEni (MEEnie), MEEschief (DrNiceGuy), Me'rana (Teiran), Nicholas Yu, Princesscupid (Princesscupid), saddguy, Serinda, Skandranon, SpartanHoplite (GD-3), st.victor, Talys, Targetam, Trucidation, Vehementi, Windhallow (Windhallow), Wolfsong (fenris14), Xanathar76, Xelen (Xelne), Xet (Xettie)
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Jolt Cola
• The Tannahill Weavers, for hours of entertaining bagpipe music.

Resources and Related Reading

No surprise that most of these guides are stored at the Amazon Basin, home of the best reference material for amazons on the net.

• The Amazon Basin Forums
• the diabloii.net forums
• The Chaos Sanctuary
• diabloii.net
• Lurker Lounge
• The Amazon Basin
• "Why Multiple Shot is Better than Strafe"
• Dharmaserf's Spearazon Guide
• Nicholas Yu's Amazon's Guide to Diablo II v1.23. Obsolete.
• Trucidation's and Lemekim's Maximum Possible Weapon Damage Table
• Trucidation's and Crystalion's Weapon Speed Mechanics
• Vehementi's Bowazon Guide v1.03. The basis of just about every bowazon guide (including this one), it is obsolete.
• Bolshoi Too's Javazon Compendium v1.0
• Saddguy's Boss Guide for Bowazons v1.0
• LineNoise's Bowazon Guide v1.0
• PvME's Bowazon Dueling Guide
• ChunLi's Bowazon Guide v1.06
• Icemage's Bowazon Guide v1.5
• Icemage's Bowazon Guide v2.0
• BrianDNA's Javazon Guide v4.0
• Megaera's Spearazon Guide
• Double Trouble's Speedazon Guide

You have explicit permission to reproduce this document for your own, non-commercial, private use. This document may be reproduced and posted locally on Internet sites without explicit permission, provided the file is not altered in any way and proper credit is given to the authors. This document, being published on the Internet, is automatically protected by international copyright laws; altering of this document or inclusion in printed or other forms is expressly prohibited without prior written consent of the authors. The most current version of this document may be found here; critiques, suggestions, and comments may be sent to AK404.

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