DiabloII.net
Amazon Forum
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Immediately after the release of patch level 1.04, several authors updated their guides to reflect the major changes in that patch. While they were updating their guides, there was a large influx of players into the Amazon class who were coming specifically to find out how to best hunt other players ("PK"). By the time the authors had finished revising their guides, a few were so upset by attitudes of this new class of players, that they chose not to release their guides to the public. This problem has died down, and shortly after the release of patch 1.05, some of the authors reversed their decision and chose to publish the information again.

Of course, some guides did not need to be updated for version 1.04 - only the ones that dealt specifically with the Bow-using amazons required changes. Thus, guides like BrianDNA's for the Javazon and saddguy's about dealing with bosses are still good.

Patch level 1.04 corrected the major bow bug, which caused the "Enhanced Damage" attribute to be basically worthless. That patch also corrected the damage problems with Guided Arrow.

However, several other bow bugs and oddities were not corrected/changed in patch level 1.05:

2.1

Special effect bug. The only special effects known to work with bows are Piercing Attack and Elemental Damage. Freezes Target, Blinds Target, Slows Target, Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, Monster Flee, %damage to Undead (from Socketed diamonds or other sources), and Knockback do not work no matter what item produces the effect.

2.2

Freezing attacks from Vidala's set do not work. Vidala's set items were rendered mostly worthless as a result (the boots are okay). This is really a restatement of the bug listed in 2.1, but is worth mentioning in it's own "oddity" entry. Iceblink (a unique armor) does not provide a freezing ability to arrows, either.

2.3

Sapphires set into a socketed bow add their chill duration into the freeze duration of Ice Arrow and Frozen Arrow (as do the Eye of Etlich, Frostburns, cold damage war belts and bows of Frost). This may not be a bug, but triple-perfect-sapphire bows with the right supporting gear make for impressive freeze durations.

2.4

The unique bow that does not require arrows (Witherstring) still uses arrows for every special amazon arrow attack, rendering that property (nearly) worthless.

2.5

Strafe fires an extra arrow for allies that are on the screen. This is fun with Necromancers that have a lot of minions, but Blizzard has indicated that they were going to remove this in patch v1.03. They did not, but it makes me wonder if some future patch will remove this, "feature". Note, after being questions about this, I went back and tested the way the game was acting against the text in the previous sentence, since - older guides say that it is "number of enemies or number of allies including yourself". My tests show that the older guides are wrong, and then I saw that Icemage independantly reached the same conclusion that I had reached.

2.6

Pierce Bug. So long as you do not move and where you fire an arrow remains at the same spot on the map, your Pierce result for a monster that is standing still will be identical. This looks really weird when you freeze a monster, since you do not move and your enemy does not move, so you see your arrows either always pierce, or always fail to pierce. You can control this effect by moving your mouse pointer behind or in front of a monster, if you do not like the current result you are getting.

2.7

Same Damage Bug. Originally thought to be related to Pierce, and classified as part of the Pierce bug in older versions of this FAQ, it has since been determined that enemies will take the same amount of damage from each arrow fired at them (of the same type) when they stand still. This also looks really weird when you freeze an enemy, as each arrows deals identical damage, rather than the random value that you would expect.

2.8

Bows do not appear to be able to get the "of the Glacier" suffix, despite the information that Blizzard has published saying that it can happen.

2.9

"Adds Damage" bug. Items other than a bow that say they add to either the minimum or maximum damage do not work for bows. The character screen may show a damage increase, but that screen is notorious for how many errors it has had. The list of broken items are: Magical or Rare Rings of Measure/Excellence/Craftsmanship/Maiming, Magical or Rare Amulets of Excellence/Craftsmanship/Maiming, Iratha's Cord, Biggin's Bonnet, Duskdeep, Bloodfist, and Frostburn. Note that the cold damage added by a set of Frostburn gloves does work, it is only the Enhanced Damage clause that does not.

2.10

"Immune monsters Bug". Flying creatures that can pass over you (Apparitions in the Arcane Sanctuary, and Swarms can occasionally overlap the space your Valkyrie is standing in, and become immune to your arrows. Repositioning your Valkyrie by recasting her is the easiest way to allow you to start dealing damage again.

2.11

The unique bows that give the Piercing ability (Stormstrike, Ichorsting, Doomslinger) give that ability to missile-like Sorceress spells if the sorceress is carrying the bow. This skill is most interesting with Glacial Spike.

Note that the "invisible arrows bug" for both Strafe and Multishot are gone as of patch level 1.05.

3.1

Several people have reported that the Crushing Blow ability of Goblin Toe boots starts to work on Duriel for a javelin-using Amazon after she (or possibly anyone else) dies and recovers her body in his lair. This is not supposed to happen, but makes the battle there quite easy, speaking from personal experience.

3.2

The Evade skill reacts poorly to Diablo's "Lightning Breath" Attack, because it locks an Amazon in place while a small "evade" animation runs, giving Diablo time to zero in on you and cook you in your armor. At 25 packets of damage a second from his breath weapon, you spend forever dancing in place ... which is NOT GOOD.

3.3

Superior Javelin class weapons with identical properties except damage will merge when you stack them together. The one that is "underneath" wins, so always have your highest damage superior in your inventory when you do this.

Several people have reported that dying is not required to activate the crushing blow property of Goblin Toes against Duriel, but testing against Duriel is a painful experience.

Other things may be broken or weird, as well. I simply do not know about them, yet :).

Slim. Very slim. Even at the perfect level to try to get that perfect bow, a rare bow (with the maximum of 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes) will be the "King's Merciless" bow "of Slaughter" that everyone dreams about maybe one time in 12,500. Since many rares will have less than the maximum 3/3, your chances are actually much lower than that number.

As saddguy (a forum regular, turned lurker) put it, an imbue is just like a gamble, where all you are sure of is that the item will be a rare. How often have you received a good rare from a gamble? My answer to his question is: two times, since July. And I gamble 1 million gold (or more) a week in the game.

In other words, your three imbues will most likely be junk. If you are the lucky one to get the 160+ damage bow, well, :P.

This is a close call. Chu-Ko-Nu (CKN) crossbows fire more often than Gothic bows do, so have the potential of outperforming the Gothic Bow. Rune Bows and Double Bows are also worth looking at. All three of the lesser types of bow require less STR to use, which allows you to increase the damage-dealing Dexterity attribute, and all three fire faster than the Gothic does.

Neither. Both have their uses and weaknesses, and most high level Amazons that I have seen use both. A short list of strengths for both:

11.1.1	Strafe uses less mana at higher skill levels
11.1.2	Strafe auto-targets, even things you can't see
11.1.3	Strafe deals more damage per arrow
11.1.4	Strafe and Pierce allows each arrow to hit every monster, if you get them to line them up properly
11.1.5	Strafe can hit a target more than once with a single mouse click

11.2.1	Multishot has a longer range (vast may be a better term).
11.2.2	Multishot's animation finishes faster, allowing you to run if needed
11.2.3	Multishot puts more arrows into the air per second when firing into packs
11.2.4	Multishot allows you to pick your target area
11.2.5	Multishot will only hit a target once

The two ".5"s require a little explanation - there are times when you want the monster in front of you to eat every arrow (Strafe does this), and there are times when you want every monster in the area to get hit (Multishot does this).

Strafe also fires an extra arrow for each minion (Decoy, Valkyrie), ally, or allied minion that are in range. Those arrows are distibuted to nearby enemies, who are thus targeted two or more times by a single strafe. It is fairly easy to butcher a single opponent if a Necromancer with dozens of minions is hanging around - a high level Strafe turns an Amazon into a firehose of arrows.

There are three other useful arrow skills that are discussed often: Guided Arrow is useful in player vs. player fights, and deals nearly as much damage per arrow as Strafe does. Frozen Arrow works very well with cold damage bows, belts, amulets and the like - especially the Eye of Etlich (a unique amulet). Finally, Immolation has its place, but it tends to do very little damage unless you pour a lot of skill points into it.

The most organized members on this Forum happen to be on the USWest Realm. A few of us hail from the other Realm servers, single player games or even Open battle.net, but we never seem to have the same 8 player games that US West has. I finally gave up and migrated to US West, myself.

A common meeting place in December was the "diabloii.net" channel, but the person who was maintaining the bot in that channel had some software problems that prevented him from continuing to do so. Since that time, I have never seen people in that channel :(.

The answer to that depends on what level you are. Any character of Level 1-25 should be in Regular Difficulty, as the game penalizes the experience you gain from killing a monster that is many levels above you or many levels below you. The formula changes after level 25, and the penalty from the new formula is not nearly so bad. I usually move from Act 1 to Act 2 between levels 12-16 depending on the character, Act 2 to Act 3 between levels 18-24, and Act 3 to Act 4 between levels 23-37.

You actually get better experience per kill in Act 4 of Regular Difficulty than you get in Act 1 of Nightmare Difficulty, so you may want to stick around there until level 30-35. Another reason to hold back: If you die in Regular Difficulty, you do not lose experience, while if you die in Nightmare or Hell Difficulty, you do.

After that, as a rough rule of thumb, when you are in Nightmare Difficulty, you should be able to handle the same act and area as you were in Regular Difficulty 25 levels before. (So Act 1 from Levels 26-40, Act 4 from Level 50-60). If you can easily work those areas, go farther into the game until you start having trouble. Stay there until it becomes easy, then advance again.

Hell Mode is similar, only at a difference of 50 levels (So Act 1 from Levels 51-65...). Again, push yourself to the place where you can still kill quickly, without being at risk of dying every few seconds. Your ultimate goal is Act 4 in Hell Difficulty. If you can survive that without dying, then that is where you should level to get the most experience.

Having said that, you want to pick places where you find a lot of monsters that you can kill quickly. The most common areas that people mention that they use for levelling are: Lut Gholein Sewers, The Halls of the Dead, The Arcane Sanctuary, The Canyon of the Magi (Act 2), Lower Kurast, Kurast Bazaar and Upper Kurast, Kurast Sewers (Act 3), The Outer Steppes, The River of Flame (Act 4).

Note some areas are easier to navigate (survive) than others, even though the others are "earlier" in the game. Almost no-one uses Duriel or Level 3 of the Durance of Hate (Bremm Sparkfist) for levelling as it is just too easy to die and lose all of those hard-won experience points.

So, in summary - get beyond Level 25, then find the farthest point in the game where you can kill easily, kill often, and not die in the process. Use that area to level up. Race through the dangerous areas like Travincal to complete the quests and to gain access to the safer areas, and then don't go back. If your area is popular, find another zone to work in that is not so heavily populated, but is still relatively far into the game.

Trucidation is the one who discovered the bow bugs in patch level 1.03 (he was working on a mod for Diablo 2 at the time, and was trying out some new equipment that he created when he noticed that things were ... weird). Many of the regulars here (myself included) thought that Truc was crazy when the first descriptions of the bow bugs came out. Then we tested, and found that Truc was correct. Truc posts here occasionally, but seems to hang out at the Lurker's Lounge more often.

Jarulf has a great deal of internal knowledge of the game. He's an Admin around here, so every once in a while he enlightens us on some obscure fact that we are debating.

Vehmenti wrote one of the original guides for a bow-using amazon, and started many of us down the path of the archer. Much of V's early advice is still accepted wisdom, although a few of his opinions have been shown to be ... hasty. In comparison to the original Paladin guide that determined that Blessed Hammer was useless, V's early guide did quite well. Vehementi left Diablo 2 some time ago, but has been known to pop back up in the forum from time to time.

Gaile is the diabloii.net administrator that spends the most time reading and replying in this forum. The others stop by from time to time, but Gaile is ... one of us :).

The forum regulars you will get to see on your own. Many of the senior players have drifted off (it has been more than 8 months!), and then suddenly reappear only to vanish a few days later. Many older "names" from this forum still lurk around here, and post from time to time. By my count, I was part of the third wave of players to come into this Forum, and several waves of new people have come after me.

Before I answer that, I need to explain my definition of the term "PK". To me, PK is the act of stalking and killing another player, who does not want to be stalked and killed. I refer to fights between willing characters as "Duels", although that term is a little inaccurate for an N-way battle where N > 2.

I believe very strongly that ambushing and killing an unwilling fellow player shows a complete lack of respect for that other player. I believe that everyone is worthy of respect and should be treated that way, until they prove through their actions that they are not worthy of respect. Note that newbies should be treated with respect - being "new" is not a good reason to pick on them.

At the moment that a PKer chooses to ruin someone else's day for their own amusement, I stop respecting the PKer, and that person becomes fair game. Thus, I cheer when a PKer is handed their ear. The same thing applies to someone who chooses not to pull her (or his) weight, but who lurks around scooping up decent magic items as they drop.

I will ignore PKers who post in this forum, as will many others regulars. The other regulars may not concur with my reasons, but the effect is the same.

Having said that, I feel very differently about player vs. player duelling. A contest between willing opponents is a sight to behold, and a very exciting test of skill. Those battles are fun to watch. Just don't challenge RainyCloud unless you feel like dying ... a lot.

I'm quoting Vaidency, here:

   > Gothic and Rune bows do not actually fire at the same speed,
   > whether the game says they are both "fast" or not.  With no
   > speed enhancements, a Gothic bow takes 15 frames to perform
   > a normal attack and a rune bow takes 13.  A Chu Ko Nu takes
   > 12 and the Double Bow is the fastest bow in the game at 11.
   > To get an idea of the speeds here, Diablo 2 calculates 25
   > frames per second.

The two most commonly discussed armors for bow-using amazons are the unique armors Greyform and Twitchthroe. Greyform has two decent resistances, MDR and a bonus to Dexterity, which Twitchthroe adds to both Strength and Dexterity, as well as increasing your attack speed with a bow. Both have relaitvely low defense ratings, but bow-using amazons really should not be in melee range, anyway. Twitchthroe's blocking bonus does not work unless you have a shield, alas.

However, other armors can be useful, and should not be dismissed out of hand. For example, rare Mage Plate armor with good bonuses may suit your amazon much better than those two uniques. Goldskin, Heavenly Garb and Darkglow have significant boosts to resistances. Boneflesh and Silks of the Victor both have built in leeching, but they are heavier armors and increase stamina drain when you run.

Iceblink deserves special mention here, as it would be the perfect armor if the freezing property worked with bows. It does not work with bows, however. Still, it works quite well with Fend, so finding one of these might be enough reason to start a Spear-using amazon.

I hope this helps, and Happy hunting!

Targetam
L67 Frostmaiden, USWest (Baroness Targetam_II)
L66 Bowazon, USEast (Baroness Targetam)
L54 Hammerdin, USEast (Lord Kentucky)
and Miscellaneous others.

No, I am not a great player of the game, but I do have to work, and that means that I play during the laggiest hours of the night. (Targetam was slain by Infector of Souls. Targetam was slain by Stygian Hag. Targetam was slain by Fallen. sigh).

Oh, and to the Diabloii Admins - You have my permission to reformat and repost this information anywhere you want on your site. Ditto for any other Amazon forum site. Yes, I am making this FAQ Public Domain.

FAQ Change Log for version 2.11: 2001-02-21 through 2001-02-23

• Exceeded the character limit on a forum post with this revision, so converted to HTML
• Fixed table of contents entry for "when is patch 1.06 coming out", which used to say "1.05".
• Added a call for a new Spearazon guide to section 1.
• Restored oddity entry for the three unique Piercing bows and Sorceress missile skills.
• Restored oddity entry for stacking superior javelins with different damage values. Figured out why it failed the last time I tested it - I used one with Enhanced Damage, and another with both Enhanced Damage and Enhanced Attack.
• Removed comment about "other bugs from version 1.03 may still exist", as they have all been removed or restored, as appropriate.
• Added pointer to Spirea's rare/imbue site.
• Added comment that "Cracked" and "Superior" have no effect on the imbue results.
• Added another link to Double_Trouble's guide in section 10.
• Fixed pointer to Double_Trouble's guide.
• Added pointer to Trucidation's Weapon Speeds information.
• Added pointer to Addiction's Guide.
• Added section 19 - "best armor".
• Updated the statement "it has been more than 6 months" to say "8 months".
• Jarulf clearly stated that he has never had access to the Diablo 2 Source code, so I have ripped that comment out from the "who's who" section.
• Updated character levels to be more accurate. I'm now more powerful on US West (cough) than I ever was on US East.

FAQ Change Log: 2001-02-11

• Rewrote the guides section entirely, to point out why the guides where rewritten but not released under 1.04, and why they have now been released. Basically, it was to combat the PK mentality of people like "Timmy the Power Gamer".
• Massive editing in the bugs section, including a reinforcement that Strafe fires arrows based on total number of nearby friendly and enemy units. This used to be "or", but it is no longer.
• Split the "Pierce Bug" into the "Pierce Bug" and the "Same Damage Bug", as they are two different things, but seemed related because they were most obvious when firing Ice Arrows.
• Restored the "Adds Damage" bug
• I couldn't accuse Blizzard of having vaporware as version 1.06, so I doctored the text to keep the reference to ESR's Jargon File.
• Added my definition of a perfect bow
• Added Kurast Sewers to "where to level" section
• Fixed Bremm's name

FAQ Change Log: 2001-01-13

• A few more typographical errors. I wonder if I will ever catch them all?
• Fixed version number that the FAQ was for to mention patch level 1.04B/C.
• changed saddguy back to a forum regular ... he's just lurking!
• Added bow speed numbers for the favorite bows
• Added to guide location commentary
• Added stacking superior javelins to "bugs and oddities"
• Changed Goblin Toe vs. Duriel, since Icemage_999 found out that anyone dying in Duriel's lair allowed the boots to start working on someone else.
• Added Ice arrow to the comments about the chill duration oddity
• Changed Trading Forum reference to be a Marketplace reference
• Added Act 2 sewers to the level-up list. D'oh!
• Added pointer to trade value forum for rating items
• Added Double Bow to "what to imbue" list, after watching Double_Trouble use his speed-gear equipment on US West.

FAQ Change Log: 2001-01-05

• Fixing more typographical errors, and adding new ones!
• Put in correct link to the Lurker's Lounge (I was using their Forums link. Bad Targetam. Bad!)
• Pointed out that AK404's guide is current, and that BrianDNA's guide was never wrong for patch 1.04
• Added bow bugs back into the FAQ. Including two types of "Invisible Arrows".
• Added in other bugs section, which renumbered everything from Q3 on.
• Noted that imbuing at L26-28 can be good, but with a loss of all chance at the "King's" prefix
• Added link to the Chaos Sanctuary in the "find more information" section.
• Added my Anti-PK rant. It probably does not belong here, though :).
• Removed a duplicate reason why Strafe was good. (Mana cost)
• Added the "Valkyrie Damage" answer, lifted from a reply I posted earlier today
• Added direct link to the list of trading forums on diabloii.net
• Added comment about Strafe working well with Pierce, which hints at, but does not come out and say, that Pierce and Multishot do not work as well together.
• Changed all pound-sign references, after realizing that they were changing to this: #####.

FAQ Change Log: 2000-12-25

• Removed "Bow Bug" text, as patch level 1.04 annihilated that section. Left in pointer for Bug Bytes section.
• Added Lower/Upper/Bazaar Kurast to "where should I level" section.
• Added comment about Horadric Cube + 6 skull recipe, which muddies the waters for the "what should I imbue" question.
• More typos cleaned up

FAQ Change Log: 2000-12-17

• (Some) typographical errors cleaned up. New ones added, apparently.
• Removed the "What class should I party with" question.
• Added the "Where should I level" section.
• Credited Warhog for the diabloii.net channel bot.
• Borrowed Icemage's versions of the Special effects bug, the Pierce bug and the Ice Arrow Splash bug verbatim from one of his posts, with permission. Also borrowed some of his "where to find more information" edits.
• Added the bug that causes Apparitions to take no damage in some locations in the Arcane Sanctuary.
• Added the "Of the Glacier" bug.
• Added a comment to the "rate my item" section about including every attribute on the item.
• Added Eye of Etlich comments to "rate my item" section.
• Added a paraphrased version of saddguy's comparison of imbuing to gambling.
• Added Vehementi to the "Who is" question.
• Added pointer to diabloii.net Bug Bytes section.
• Updated my character level.
• Wanted to add a pointer to AK404's most recent guide (the one on the Amazon Basin is one revision old), but could not locate the link for it. No more nice drawing of a bowazon player pointing her gun at a computer monitor, I guess.

FAQ Change Log: 2000-12-14

• Initial version created, just after CIHost forced Diabloii.net to move to a new server.