- Jul 8, 2004
- 3,398
- 347
- 83
Stats
Skills
20 Strafe
20 Guided Arrow
20 Jab
10 Multiple Shot
6 Critical Strike
12 Penetrate
4 Pierce
Gear
The Planning Stage
I've always gravitated towards physical damage characters and I've pondered a great deal on the best ways to harness a physical damage character's best friend: Amplify Damage. It's such a devastating curse that I think Blizzard intentionally handicapped each existing source of it.
I wanted to actually utilize Brand as weapon, which meant that an Amazon made the most sense as a base character with her bow skills. Gear-wise, I needed:
When I was searching for a name, I wanted to use something to relate to Brand, since it's the lynchpin of the build. I looked on Wikipedia about actual brands, ritual scarring, and eventually tattoos. In Samoan mythology, Tilafaiga and her twin sister Taema were the first to bring the art of tattoos to the Samoan people.
Leveling and Observations
The hardest thing to wrap my head around was running into melee as a bowazon. It went against every instinct I had, after building many bow wielders. But if I wanted to Amp melee monsters, I had to stick my nose in there and take some hits.
The best monster mix was lots of weak ranged attackers like bow dart flayers or elemental archers, then I didn't even need to get into melee range to proc Amp. The worst monster mix was smaller groups of hard-hitting melee monsters like abominables, thorn hulks, or knights - I really had to be careful with how many were hitting me at once.
The ideal situation was when I quickly ran by a crowd, a passing swipe triggered Amp, and I was able to run a short distance away before vaporizing the amped monsters. Sometimes, I still hadn't triggered Amp after doing two run-bys, at which point I just pulled back and started shooting. It felt like the time I had spent trying to trigger amp's enhanced damage was now negated by having not fired off any arrows.
When faced with physical immunes, I usually tried to lead non physical immunes to them, so that I could take a hit from them instead. Most of the PI's I faced were ghosts and the fact that they stack on top of each other AND steal your mana, meant I tried to avoid getting hit by them if at possible.
Sounds like a lot of work to amp a monster, right? Well, the other lesson I learned was that not every monster has to be Amped. With a new toy like Brand, I felt the need to try and use it on every monster when I first equipped it. But that's not always efficient (1 or 2 monsters by themselves) or safe (frenzytaur champions, any unique pack with cursed). I suffered 2 deaths during my journey and both times I pushed the envelope just a little too far (taking Fangskin's charge right in the face and getting crushed by a pack of Doom Knights in the CS). It was after my first death that I swapped in Verdungo's (for the damage reduction, vit, and fhr) for Mav's Tenet (I was fast enough without the extra fast run/walk).
-
This was definitely a strange build to play and it wasn't until the last couple acts of Hell that I finally got the hang of mixing and matching all the tools in my toolbox.
I initially started with just Strafe and Multiple Shot as my two damage skills, but I ended up adding Jab and Guided Arrow to my skill set to fill tactical niches. Here's how I broke down when and where use each skill:
Code:
Lvl 83
Strafe Damage: 1267-1282 (w/ Might)
Multiple Shot Damage: 1119-1134 (w/ Might)
Guided Arrow Damage: 1681-1701 (w/ Might)
Jab Damage: 1654-1974 (w/ Might)
Life: 1275 (Bow mode) 1305 (Javelin mode)
Resists: 75 F, 42 C, 80 L, 56 P (Bow) 75 F, 67 C, 80 L, 75 P (Javelin)
Str: 118 | Dex: 186 | Vit: 186Skills
20 Strafe
20 Guided Arrow
20 Jab
10 Multiple Shot
6 Critical Strike
12 Penetrate
4 Pierce
Gear
Code:
Kira's Guardian 'Shael'
Highlord's Wrath
'Brand' Demon Crossbow*
'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Laying of Hands
Verdungo's
Aldur's Advance
Corruption Eye rare ring*
Bitter Loop rare ring*
Switch: Titan's Revenge / Moser's Blessed Circle 'Shael Io'
Merc: eth 'Infinity' CA / 'Fortitude' Archon Plate / Crown of Thieves 'ias jewel'
Charms (combined stats): 169 life, 75 min damage, 13 max damage, 14% frw, 8 str, 5% fhr
Brand
Demon Crossbow
JahLoMalGul
Two Hand Damage: 114 - 175
Durability: 21 of 40
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 141
Required Dexterity: 98
Fingerprint: 0x37b9cacb
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
35% Chance to cast level 14 Amplify Damage when struck
100% Chance to cast level 18 Bone Spear on striking
Fires Explosive Arrows or Bolts
339% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+301% Damage to Demons
20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
Knockback
Corruption Eye
Ring
Required Level: 70
Fingerprint: 0x8e80bde2
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
3% Life stolen per hit
+15 to Strength
+14 to Life
All Resistances +10
Lightning Resist +27%
Damage Reduced by 2
Bitter Loop
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x1e6a7b2d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+85 to Attack Rating
3% Mana stolen per hit
+13 to Dexterity
+38 to Life
Cold Resist +11%
Poison Resist +25%The Planning Stage
I've always gravitated towards physical damage characters and I've pondered a great deal on the best ways to harness a physical damage character's best friend: Amplify Damage. It's such a devastating curse that I think Blizzard intentionally handicapped each existing source of it.
- Atma's Scarab, The Gavel of Pain, The Vile Husk, The Cranium Basher, Witchwild String - Only a tiny 2-6% chance to cast
- The Gavel of Pain - Only 3 charges of the curse
- Lacerator - A whopping 33% chance to cast!
...and a 50% chance to immediately to overwrite it with Terror - The runeword Brand - Wow, a 35% chance to cast on being struck and it can only be made in missile weapons
I wanted to actually utilize Brand as weapon, which meant that an Amazon made the most sense as a base character with her bow skills. Gear-wise, I needed:
- To run fast to quickly proc Amp on melee monsters and to quickly escape once Amp triggered
- Hitting the 6 frame FHR breakpoint so that I could take a hit and then get out of melee range before being overwhelmed
- A decent amount of life, resists, and damage reduction to survive all the extra damage I would be taking running into crowds of monsters
- Boosts to physical damage to take advantage of Amp.
When I was searching for a name, I wanted to use something to relate to Brand, since it's the lynchpin of the build. I looked on Wikipedia about actual brands, ritual scarring, and eventually tattoos. In Samoan mythology, Tilafaiga and her twin sister Taema were the first to bring the art of tattoos to the Samoan people.
Leveling and Observations
The hardest thing to wrap my head around was running into melee as a bowazon. It went against every instinct I had, after building many bow wielders. But if I wanted to Amp melee monsters, I had to stick my nose in there and take some hits.
The best monster mix was lots of weak ranged attackers like bow dart flayers or elemental archers, then I didn't even need to get into melee range to proc Amp. The worst monster mix was smaller groups of hard-hitting melee monsters like abominables, thorn hulks, or knights - I really had to be careful with how many were hitting me at once.
The ideal situation was when I quickly ran by a crowd, a passing swipe triggered Amp, and I was able to run a short distance away before vaporizing the amped monsters. Sometimes, I still hadn't triggered Amp after doing two run-bys, at which point I just pulled back and started shooting. It felt like the time I had spent trying to trigger amp's enhanced damage was now negated by having not fired off any arrows.
When faced with physical immunes, I usually tried to lead non physical immunes to them, so that I could take a hit from them instead. Most of the PI's I faced were ghosts and the fact that they stack on top of each other AND steal your mana, meant I tried to avoid getting hit by them if at possible.
Sounds like a lot of work to amp a monster, right? Well, the other lesson I learned was that not every monster has to be Amped. With a new toy like Brand, I felt the need to try and use it on every monster when I first equipped it. But that's not always efficient (1 or 2 monsters by themselves) or safe (frenzytaur champions, any unique pack with cursed). I suffered 2 deaths during my journey and both times I pushed the envelope just a little too far (taking Fangskin's charge right in the face and getting crushed by a pack of Doom Knights in the CS). It was after my first death that I swapped in Verdungo's (for the damage reduction, vit, and fhr) for Mav's Tenet (I was fast enough without the extra fast run/walk).
-
This was definitely a strange build to play and it wasn't until the last couple acts of Hell that I finally got the hang of mixing and matching all the tools in my toolbox.
I initially started with just Strafe and Multiple Shot as my two damage skills, but I ended up adding Jab and Guided Arrow to my skill set to fill tactical niches. Here's how I broke down when and where use each skill:
- Multiple Shot: MS' huge range made it an ideal scouting tool when faced with areas filled with fast, dangerous monsters like dolls. Fires fast, so great for when I needed to fire and move around lots of incoming projectiles.
- Strafe: Best against one or two targets when I felt safe enough to remain in one spot. Strafe's stream of arrows was the best bow skill for disrupting and pushing monsters far away from me with Brand's knockback. Narrow corridors and Pierce meant I could consistently hit every monster in a line with each Strafe cycle.
- Guided Arrow: Excellent for when I needed to fire and really run against one or two really dangerous monsters like extra fast Heph or the Ancients. Also good for quickly picking off particularly troubling monsters in a crowd of other monsters (gloams, OK's, mummies) since GA did the most damage arrow for arrow out of my three bow skills.
- Jab: Sometimes, when I ran into a crowd trying for an amp proc, I got surrounded, and that's when I switched to Titan's and Moser's. I always had max block with my big investment in dex, and so I had time to safely jab my way out of trouble. Also good against bosses where it was prudent to just stick close and avoid dancing around trying to avoid projectiles. (Why no Fend? I don't have any points in D/A/E, so I wouldn't trigger the Fend bug. However, Fend is best with two-handed spears with big weapon range. I needed a shield for my melee weapon switch to deal with really dangerous monsters wailing on me. Then if I'm using a shield, successful blocks would trigger the Fend bug, so I scrapped that idea)
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