Proc'azon Guide v1.08

I debated on whether or not to post this build... it has been very fun to play (at least for me) and doesn't seem overly cookie-cutter. Well, I'll post this just to make a contribution to this forum since I haven't seen any other similar builds, so here we go...

This bowzon is a strafer Baal runner. Although she has to walk to the throne room (no enigma yet), she can clear everything in between at a fairly good pace. Her gear setup was initially selected to go up against Burning Souls and other Worldstone nasties that usually insta-kill those without enough resists. Well, it turned out better than expected =)

Base Stats: 145 STR (or whatever is enough to hold your planned gear), 300 DEX (required for high AR to max strafe hit probabilities), 80 Vit (all I could spare for this build), 15 Energy(default)

Skill Distribution: 20 Strafe (duh!), 20 penetrate (go all-out on AR), 20 Valkyrie (your uber tank), 20 Guided Arrow (you can choose another skill besides GA, but this is the best fast-mover killer and works well for PvP), 3 Multishot (only used occasionally, can be raised to 6 by L90), 3 critical strike, 1 cold/ice/freeze arrow, 1 all other passive/magic skills, 1 jab (optional).
3 spare points to assign elsewhere by L90, including multishot, freeze arrow, or critical strike, or the fire arrow tree.

Primary Gear:
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Bow: shael'd WF is the primary bow. The secondary bow should be either a 2x shael'd Hellrack or Witchwild String (for phys-immunes when amp-dmg isn't going off as needed)

Armor: Tal's Armor (ptopazed or IAS-jeweled) - main source of resists and magic-find

Helm: Harly Crest (ptopazed or IAS-jeweled) - damage resistance, magic-find, +life, +mana, +2 skills

Belt: TGods (elemental dmg, +vit, lightning absorb), Goldwrap for the Baal kill shots

Gloves: Laying of Hands - holy bolt procs, good fire resists, very good damage bonus vs. demons. Another option: Lava Gouts - 20% IAS, fire resists, adds fire damage, and L10 enchant proc's effect for more AR and fire damage

Boots: Gore Riders (awesome percentage with strafe), War Traveller (for Baal kill shots)

Rings: Wisp Projector(lightning absorb, lightningbolt proc's, MF), Carrion Wind (leech, twister-stuns). For Worldstone Chamber, switch out Wisp with Ravenfrost (Anti-Freeze and huge AR-boost). Also keep Nature's Peace around for those pesky reviving mobs such as greater mummies and shamans.

Amulet: Atma's Scarab (breaks phys-immunity - VERY important)

Charms: Annihilus (+18 stats), Gheeds Fortune, 2x shimmering grand charms, 2 passive/magic skills grand charms, any other dual-stat SC's you need to cover resists

Mercenary Set-up
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My two recommendations:

-Act1 cold arrow merc with Riphook bow + Blackhorn's Mask + Duriel's Shell.
Pro's: Easy to level, tends to survive easier since she avoids close range combat with monster swarms. Casts Inner Sight very often to lower enemy defense and increase strafe hit %'s. The Riphook/Blackhorns gear combo slows monsters to a crawl, but unlike the Act2 holy freeze merc, this slow-effect is unresistable. Also has Prevent-Monster-Heal and Open-Wounds for additional kill speed.
Cons: Doesn't deal out nearly as much quick damage as the Act2 merc, but will provide more defense long term due to gear's slowing effects.

-Act2 nightmare defensive merc with Rockstopper, Shaftstop, and Reaper's Toll
Pro's: Outputs lots of damage and has very good health; decrepify from Reaper's Toll breaks physical-immunities
Cons: More difficult to advance since he dies a lot at lower levels. He always rushes into combat. Without (enigma) teleport to pull him back to you, he will be difficult to manage. I recommend going this route only if you plan on getting Enigma other other teleport item.

How this Build Works
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Despite how badly Blizz nerfed the bowzon, the class still has a couple of notable skills going for it, particularly Strafe. Although strafe's damage is now .75 x base bow dmg, it still lauches 10 arrows/attacks against all available per strafe sequence once maxxed at L27. Minimum strafe shots = int(strafe_level/3) + 1, so it is important to max strafe to make it a single-target slayer.

When combined with "process effect on striking" gear such as wisp projector and carrion wind, you'll notice these "proc's" going off quite a bit due to the sheer number of attacks/strikes being made per strafe volley. The large number of individual attacks directly multiplies the odds of these procs activating in a given time frame. Atma's Scarab proc's amplify damage -- when it triggers, it hits an entire crowd and makes the fight much shorter. Wisp Projector proc's lightning bolts -- bolts won't do much damage individually, but they will activate often, netting lots good damage long term. Carrion Wind's Twisters stuns and damages mobs -- helps vs. hard + fast hitters like Blood Lords and Minions of Destruction.
NOTE: Only effects-on-striking will work with bows, while effects-on-attacking will not. This is very important, since this prevents most rare/crafted items from being bow-proc's viable.

This build's primary damage output engine is Atma's Scarab combined with WindForce (or any other high physical damage bow). Using the latter two items, single arrows can hit for up to 8k on lucky shots (deadly strike or crit strike, amp-dmg) -- more if Crushing Blow goes off, and amp-dmg will due to the huge number of arrows being delivered. Combined with Crushing Blow, I've seen Baal's health cut to 50% in just a few arrow volleys. Each strafe volley has the potential to deliver 80k dmg, so non-blocking mobs go down VERY fast. Yes, casters will still always have higher damage output, but this class build can hold its own in any situation.

Amplify damage lowers physical resists and can break physical damage immunity by dropping DR below 100%. This permits the strafer to mana/life leech off such normally un-leechable targets. Amplify damage will not break phys-immunity DR is still > 100% after amplify damage. For such hard targets, this bowzon can either go magic-arrow, Hellrack, or both. Such a kill will be slow, but no arrows nor mana will be spent wearing down such a mini-boss. Just make sure to kill off the easier targets first.

The equipment selection above doesn't hit the 120 IAS breakpoint to get 2 frame strafe shots. It's easy to get: replace shako with 15% IAS-jeweled Mav's helm, and replace ptopaz in Tal's Armor with 15% IAS jewel. You'll lose some MF, life, and mana, but you'll make the 120% IAS breakpoint.

Typical Routine: Strafe everything (duh). Against Baal, strafe until he's under 50% life (crushing blow's effective limit). Amplify-damage should trigger at some point -- once it does, switch to Guided Arrow if there are no Festering Tentacles nearby (these will eat you up otherwise). Why Guided Arrow? Two reasons: 1) GA apparently has some reduction to block percentages (not sure what this exact figure is at this time). 2) Guided Arrow does much higher physical damage that a single strafe arrow, so Amplify Damage will augment these hits to greater amounts if they go through unblocked. I've been running a few tests, and GA seems to do more damage once Baal is under 50% life and has the Amp-curse on him. Once the amp-dmg wears off, switch back to strafe to maximize Atma's proc-effect activation chances.

Put on any high-percentage magic-find gear once Baal's near dead, and finish the job =) His Festering tentacles actually help you leech back life/mana -- just walk out of their range and strafe away. In the meantime, avoid his mana-void flame thrower by staying just out of its reach. When facing runners or targets moving laterally instead of directly at your zon, or when you have to take down a specific target in a crowd quickly, use Guided Arrow.

The listed equipment isn't terribly expensive in ladder any more, so it should be fairly easy to assemble.

Good luck, and please post here if you have any questions related to this build.

Revision Info:
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1.00 - initial post.
1.01 - Changed recommended Act1 merc gear. Vamp Gaze = life leech for more rapid self-healing.
1.02 - Changed recommended gloves to Laying of Hands for Holy Bolt procs and +350% dmg vs. demons (Baal goes down much faster). Excellent fire resist.
1.03 - Changed recommended Act1 merc armor to p-topaz'd Skulder's Ire (extra magic find)
1.04 - Updated recommended Act1 merc gear to use Riphook, Blackhorn's Mask, and Duriel's Shell for 50% slow effect and prevent monster heal.
1.05 - Added Witchwild String as a secondary bow for beating physical-immunes
1.06 - Updated Typical-Routine Section. Special Props to Marta-Fastshot for the info about GA's reduced block properties
1.07 - Updated strafe + proc's effects explanation, and clarified what proc-items can be used with bows.
1.08 - Added Lava Gouts as another glove option (thx to both Elusive and Scythe33 for the suggestion. Keep 'em coming!)

Page 2: Useful information from the original thread