The PvP Bowzon

 

Gloves

 

There are a few useful mods that you can get from gloves, but there are really only three main choices.  Laying of hands is the amazons classic gloves offering ias and  quite abit of fire resist.  Then there are draculs offering life tap(beware this is classed as BM with CH) and open wounds also a nice bit of strength.  Then ther are a rare pair of gloves with ias and other useful mods like knockback(im prety sure most people view this mod as BM) then any other extra useful mods are always welcome, be they resists or attributes or +skills(passive or bow).  If you cannot afford the above then a magic pair with 20%ias and any useful mods are welcoms(be aware you can only get +2 to skills on rare and +3 on magical).

 

An easy way to get some prety good gloves is to buy them off the venders as they can seel you very decent gloves(for instance I bought +3 java 20%ias pair once).

 

cheap: magic/rare pair with ias

medium: Laying of hands

Expensive: Draculs/rare pair

BEST:Godly rare pair with ias knock back + skills and life/resists or something similar

 

 

 

 

 

Belt

 

The belt is the part that can help you reach an ias breakpoint or if this is not an issue then can gain quite abit of life/dr or pther useful mods from.  Goldwrap is a cheap belt offering 10%ias and thats about it, but is the only NON BM belt with ias.  The other belt with ias is Nosferatu's Coil with this belt you get ias, strength and slow(slow is BM).  Then if you have already reached the breakpoint you want then I recomend Verdungods, this gives a huge life boost and 15%dr also some FHR.  If these are out of you reach then a magical/rare is most likely your best bet.

 

Cheap: Magical/rare

Medium: Goldwrap

Expensive:Nosferatu's Coil/verdungo's

BEST: Verdungos/Nostferatu's coil(depends on wether you are playing BM or not)

 

Bow

 

This is the part that you entire build should be based around, as this determines how much ias you need and how useful your %ed is.  With the edition of the new runewords faith has appeard.  Now this gives the amazon insane power and gives her the ability to reach 7fpa quite easily.  But the biggest debate is what bow to place this in.  The commen belief is a grand matron Bow is the best as you can get +3 bow and crosbow skills which of course is a significant advantage.  Npw the matriarchal bow also offers this ability(at EVEN less ias) but has significantly less damage.  Now there is also the option of a shadow bow which can hit the 7fpa easily as well but does not have the ability for the + skills.  Now the only way you can decide which boq to use is to look at the rest of the

gear you are going to use and see how much ias you have, bearing in mind if the GMB spawns with a low level of fanat it will be nearly impossible to reach 7fpa without loosing fortitude.  As the only way is using ik or sigons comb which means you loose wts and knockback or skills from gloves

 

That is all there is to say about faith really, if you are not going to use faith there are plenty of other decent bows out there.  There is of course the great wf which offers insane max damage but you will be stuck with 8fpa, although this bow is pretty cheap nowadays.  Hand of justice is a great bow and because it doesnt have any knockback is less BM than wf.  If these are out of reach for you eagle is still a good bow although the damage is limited, and then there is witch wild string which is very versitile and when upgraded can offer pretty decent damage as well.  Also the is BoTD alot of %ed and

quite a few other nice mods but is pretty expensive.  Although it is very possible faith could become BM in which case this would be the next best option(as wf is already BM).

 

Bows that need mentioning are rares and cruels.  Now these can spawn extremely nicely, im not going to list the possible mods here as there are so many nice combinations but these tend to be very expensive

 

cheap: wws

medium: eagle/wf/BoTD

Expensive:HOJ/Faith/cruel/BoTD

BEST:rare

 

 

weapon switch

 

This is often underestimated on most characters, but can be very useful in various situations.  Undoubtably the best option here is call to arms with lidless wall(or another + 1 skills shield).

But also titans+ stormshield can be used, this will give you block dr, fast run/walk all very useful in a duel.  You could also have another bow on switch for instance wf on switch to faith, if your merc has faith and gets killed therefore you loose the aura, but you can switch to faith to retain attacking speed etc.

 

cheap(ish): titans + stormshield, or harmony (this offers vigor which greatly increases your speed)

medium: wf(or another bow, wws is another gd example)

expensive: Call to arms + lidless

BEST: Perfect Call to arms + up'd lidless

 

(if you have enough strength then spirit is better than lidless, BUT I DO NOT advise putting points in strength just for spirit)

 

 

charms

 

There are so many combinations you can use here, run/walk charms are very useful flthough run/walk has diminishing affects, so you do not need too many(I aim for a total of about 100%faster run/walk).  Then this is also one of the large suplies of life for this char, and then if you can afford charms with max damage and ar on as well then all the better.

 

cheap: run/walk and life charms

medium: run/walk and life charms with 2nd mods

expensive: run/walk and life with damage and ar

BEST: 3/20/(run/walk) and 3/20/20(please be aware of dupes so 3/20/19 are probably a better idea)

 

iv) Socketing

 

Here I cannot decide much for you at all because you could have almost any combination of gear yielding different possibilities, but basically try to counter your weaknesses, ie if you are just off the next breakpoint then socket with an ed/ias jewel or something, if you are low on resists then um is a very useful rune.  The most important though is the ias, really in pvp you want 7fpa, although 8fpa can manage, lower than that you will probably start to struggle.

 

v) mercenary

 

There are a couple of possibilities here, depending what you want from your merc.

 

Act2 nightmare offensive merc (might aura)

 

As for equipment for this guy life dr, ias and %ed on armour and helm and any high damage weapon, thats if you cant afford some of the newest runewords which offer auras.

 

if you using a might merc then he himself will not actually end up hitting people in pvp much, so if you can afford it you want auras that will benefit you.  As there are so many possiblities with how you kit out your merc ill just list some top end equipment.

 

pride war pike

dragon archon plate

delerium(in any helm)

 

this is just one possible kit for a merc, for instance you could change to

 

BoTD war pike

fortitude armour

crown of ages

 

I just personally get act2 mercs just for their auras, not their killing abilities.

 

Act1 Fire rogue

 

This merc actually has a chance of hitting an enemy in a duel due to their range.  This affects what gear you give them as in pvp they will never be able to take many hits, therefore I advise basing them around damage, except for the following.

 

the new runeword harmony offers vigor which means you can run ALOT faster the best bit is that it isnt very expensive either.

 

other than harmony they can use faith(since they will also then give you the fanatisism aura then you can use a different bow your self to get even more damage.

 

As for armour fortitude, then an ed/ias helm

 

As for other cheaper mercenary armours and helms the following are all useful

 

shaftstop

stone

duriels shell

 

gaze

shako

crown of thieves

 

 

vi) useful links

 

Take the following link for a great ias calculator

 

http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english

 

this site is useful for general d2 information

 

http://www.hut.fi/~tgustafs/diablochars.html

 

and then of course there is arreat summit which is great for looking at item stats etc.

 

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/

 

Hope this Helps people with some of their questions

 

Richard