bow druid

[Khargon]

So I never bothered to make one of these till today and I must say I'm very impressed by the dmg output. I haven't been following any guide really, just putting points where I see fit. Does anyone who's tried a pure or mostly bow druid have any tips for me before I do something that could be bad later in lvls?

[thorin]

Hiho,

I wont give any skill hints, because most guides do a good job. But with items, try to get as much slow/fear as you can and knockback for your bow.

As a distance fighter, you wont need high monster numbers of vitality. Every time I make a new bow druid I´m aiming for something about 10k life, dexterity is your friend, so push up as much as you can (strenght if you´re using an crossbow).

Boneclasp unique gloves are (in my eyes) the best for any bow druid/amazon.

Jewelword Ocean for example in a sacred recurve bow made with ias/max dmg jewels is pretty good (got knockback).

[Khargon]

thanks I'll take that advice into account, I wonder how this druid will do in uberquests though. Will knockback work on bosses? I honestly don't know since I really never have knockback on any other character I've played in Median.

[PopizzdioJazz]

i think aerial had some guide on druid using cascade and a bow that casts time strike on striking. raven something.
kills stuff when they aren't on screen yet.

try that.

i tried nova, works fine, but not my favorite character, slow and boring, imo.

[thorin]

Real bosses like Diablo or Baal cant be knocked back others like for example Lucion can be. Well, I´m using my druid for farming purpose only, for some ueberlevels like the cathedral he´s quite useless because of it´s lack of tanking qualities.

Most uberlevels are possible, but this depends heavily on your gear and stats.

But in my eyes he´s the best char for fast cow level runs, even at players 8 my druid rushes through it like there were no enemies.

http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oceanco0.jpg
Screenie of my Ocean bow.

[aerial]

i think aerial had some guide on druid using cascade and a bow that casts time strike on striking. raven something.
kills stuff when they aren't on screen yet.

try that.

i tried nova, works fine, but not my favorite character, slow and boring, imo.

Bow of the dead - sacred unique.
This is best physical dmg bow in median, but rare ;]

[Khargon]

ya that may not be so easy to come by

[thorin]

Bow of the dead - sacred unique.
This is best physical dmg bow in median, but rare ;]

Bow of the Dead
Short War Bow (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: (769-808) to (872-916)
Required Dexterity: 806
Required Level: 75
(spawns only in Level 121 areas)
50% Chance to cast level 15 Time Strike on Striking
+(51 to 100)% Bonus Damage to Bloodlust
+(281 to 300)% Enhanced Damage
50% Bonus to Attack Rating
-25 to Vitality
+(1.5 per level) to Dexterity (Based on Character Level)
(51 to 75)% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Huh? Why should this bow have the best physical damage in Median?
Because of Time Strike?

[aerial]

3/2 weapon damage
length of fuse 1.2s (lv15)

Time strike hits really fast (in comparition to other more popular ctc timestrike sources as raven or the raven unique). So each hit is followed by 3/2 weapon dmg. When it cascade mobs are hit before they attack you. Regular slows target is enough to hit with timestrike moving mob also.
And remember its still lv75, so 9x upgrade possible, and 6x p.topaz.
Ive found this bow definately best for pure physical druid, zon and scattershot barb.

[Khargon]

3/2 weapon damage
length of fuse 1.2s (lv15)

Time strike hits really fast (in comparition to other more popular ctc timestrike sources as raven or the raven unique). So each hit is followed by 3/2 weapon dmg. When it cascade mobs are hit before they attack you. Regular slows target is enough to hit with timestrike moving mob also.
And remember its still lv75, so 9x upgrade possible, and 6x p.topaz.
Ive found this bow definately best for pure physical druid, zon and scattershot barb.

lol you always have so much info about items and builds for Median, I swear you are like THE Median Guru.

[pza]

i guess not. i guess the real guru is brother laz himself
aerial just knows because he cheated chars to 120 to test if they work. isn't that right, aerial?

anyway, thats a different topic.

the best druid bow is oldpatch-thorn. i've still got one with ~600 damage and it's by far the most awesome thing i saw BUT, since it's not avaiable any more (the current one is not half as good (read: overpowered) as the old one), i'd choose the druid bow set or the crossbow set. nice damage output even with crossbow+belt. the slow attack speed does not matter that much when you use cascade.

another option is to try to craft something (with the 600atc recipe), though i'd only suggest it if you have a lot of patience, because it's everything else than probable that you'll get a kickass bow. BUT, it can have everything you've ever dreamed of. and maybe more.

i don't agree with bow of the dead thing. it depends alot on the area you're plaing. if you're playing cowlvls, the cows are much faster than the fuses. i don't like timestrike, i believe.

one more thing: tao is your friend find out what it is

[Baerk Konnevala]

Actually I thought level 15 Time Strike had only a .6 second fuse (no fuse time at level 21 after all). Which combined with hit slows target and the monster going into hit recovery means pretty much guarenteed time strike hit.

[Delreich]

Actually I thought level 15 Time Strike had only a .6 second fuse (no fuse time at level 21 after all).

Nope, 1.2 is correct. Starts out at 4 seconds, drops 0.2 per level.

[aerial]

aerial just knows because he cheated chars to 120 to test if they work. isn't that right, aerial?

Its not necessary, faster way is to look into mod files, search for skill formulas. Creating test chars can be another step, just to confirm idea wich was born before.
I think i had few original ideas, wich were quite fun to discover. Im glad few players could try it and have fun trying new builds after inspiration - that was my only intention. Sadly thats considered as a cheat (or whathever it is, evil testing) by few (one?) ppl.

I definately dont think im even close to be a 'guru' of something. There is many very expirianced clod players (and other mods), also mod makers - with huge d2 mechanics knowladge - they are guru's if someones already using this word.

@Baerk Konnevala - 0.6s is on level 18 afaik (0.2 step)

[Moja]

heheh I love aerial's builds... (think of more plz ;x)

Anyways, nice cheap and powerful bow solutions are runeword Bear (el-ko-thul) and jewelword Shockwave (worse). Some people like Void runeword too, but I prefer the reliability of knockback to the unpredictability of freeze...

[Khargon]

Real bosses like Diablo or Baal cant be knocked back others like for example Lucion can be. Well, I´m using my druid for farming purpose only, for some ueberlevels like the cathedral he´s quite useless because of it´s lack of tanking qualities.

Most uberlevels are possible, but this depends heavily on your gear and stats.

But in my eyes he´s the best char for fast cow level runs, even at players 8 my druid rushes through it like there were no enemies.

http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oceanco0.jpg
Screenie of my Ocean bow.

finally found a decent bow and made myself an Ocean too and I don't regret it(not like it was hard). It makes doing some of the uberquests MUCh easier with that knockback/freeze.