Bolty's Note: Diablo II version 1.04 changed the way bows (and Amazons in general) worked, but the change would have never come about if it weren't for this discovery.

I just found 2 more bugs with bows/strafe.

First of all, a minor bug. Bows don't benefit from +damage modifiers that are not on the bow. Bloodfist will not improve bow damage, even though the character screen says it does. But something like +19 max damage on a bow works fine.

Second bug is with Strafe. The +x% damage from Strafe is to your TOTAL damage, already with dex damage bonus included! For example, for an amazon with a bow doing 100 damage, level 20 strafe (+100% damage) and 300 dex the character screen will show:

100*(1 + 3 + 1) = 500 damage

The actual damage done is:

100(1 + 3)*2 = 800 damage

So Strafe works exactly like the barbarian weapon masteries. The critical strike skill will then have a chance to double this 800 damage. Maybe Blizzard did this to compensate for the non-working guided arrow damage bonus? j/k...

Anyway, some kind of a confirmation from the bowazons (or should I say Strafazons?) would be nice. Something like "Yeah, that would explain the huge damage I'm doing" or "No, you're completely nuts" would be great. (I'm asking this because I could have possibly overlooked something that would add this extra damage from strafe apply to the whole damage... well, I can't think of anything that might do that)

Bolty's Note: Did you catch the third sentence?  Trucidation realized just a few minutes later the implications of the "minor" bug he found, and posted a reply:

I couldn't get damage enhancement to work on bows. Like King's or Merciless won't do a thing for your damage. I remember Thecla (I think) posting tests of shooting a lightning spire and Izual with a normal gothic bow and an enhanced long war bow (I think). The long war bow had damage a bit higher but it took up to twice as long to kill things. Well, I guess you're right, the damage enhancement doesn't seem to work.

I guess this is why the extra strafe damage isn't noticeable! The low damage on a Gothic Bow (10 to 50) when used with high dex and high level strafe would balance out and would feel like the damage on your character screen is more or less accurate.

So the max damage for a Gothic Bow would be 54 to 69, if both of Performance and of Slaughter gets picked with their max values. This reminds me of the ongoing ebay auction on a 150 max damage gothic bow, going for something like $800 if I remember correctly.

Anyway, does this seem accurate? Is this what everyone is experiencing?

Bolty's Note: It sure was accurate.  Bows with enhanced damage had no real damage bonus at all until version 1.04, when the enhancements were made to work (and Strafe was nerfed to not add to total damage anymore).