bow or crossbow?

Nekasrof · Post by **Nekasrof** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:51 pm

I have gathered the runes needed for Faith, and I am trying to decide what a should put them into.

I have a 4 socketed demon crossbow and a 4 socketed shadow bow. My amazon has a total increased attack speed of 120%, and she will get at least another 31% from the aura on Faith.

the shadow bow has a base speed of 0, and the demon crossbow is listed at -60. Where can i go to find the ias i would need to hit various break points with these two weapons?

According to the build guide, you need 157 ias on a hydra bow to hit the 8/2 breakpoint, so that makes me think that 151 ias on a shadow bow should hit 8/2, but i do not know for sure. I do not know anything about crossbows really, but that -60 speed just looks so fast...

i have also given thought to trying to get a hold of a 4os grand matron bow, but they are slow, and I really don't want to change my equipment.

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:07 pm

I have not played much amazon but my advice would be to wait until you find a hydra bow.

I believe the following to be correct:

A crossbow will never go below 3 frames per attack with strafe.

A shadow bow needs 23% ias with lvl 12 fanaticism and a hydra bow needs 39% to reach 2 fpa.

So imo there is no reason to choose lower damage here, 40% ias is easy to get.

edit:

Just checked and a Grand matron bow also needs 39% ias to reach 2 fpa, and that one does even more damage, with the added benefit of extra skills, so wait for one of those.

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:56 pm

The most popular for PvP is GMB, so I assume its the best choice. I rarely bother with bowazon's however so I may be incorrect...

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:40 pm

Grand Matron Bow is most common for both PvP and PvP. If you play PvM, you'd do most damage if you give the Faith to your merc and use a Windforce yourself, but maybe you want the Faith yourself

Nekasrof · Post by **Nekasrof** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:15 pm

i had thought about giving it to a merc... but i am using a might merc right now, and since fanat gives the highest damage bonus to the user, i figured i was better off keeping the faith for myself. Oh, I play strictly PvM, also.

Dottie, you "just checked" how much ias was needed on a grand matron bow to reach 2fpa, where did you go to check?

i will be very sad if crossbows max out at 3fpa, but that certainly explains why they are not popular.

Edit: well, i just thought to look at the str req on that demon crossbow, and it is 141... way out of my league (I have a base str of 60)...

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:32 pm

Unfortunately my favourite calculator have disappeared, so I use this one instead, which is much less transparent.

http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/wea ... ng=english

Nekasrof · Post by **Nekasrof** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:52 pm

Thanks, I spent some time playing with the calculator, and now that i see how easy it is to max the attack speed on bows, I will wait for a grand matron.

Ciba_Blue · Post by **Ciba_Blue** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:42 am

40s, +3 skills Grand Matron is ultimately the best for faith, of course there are other alternatives, but good call waiting for the GM, and gl with making it