bow druid few questions

[k']

First of all hi , congratz to laz for his tremendous job.I really like rangers characters that's y i play bow druid cuz i think despite his lack of support skills have the best bow skills.First :i can see elfin arrows ins't affected by +skills , would it be change in further patchs?
The gain of only1 second per level of mark of the wild would it be change too?Can the attribute challenge and level2 challenge be done with exclusively bow druid( with shadow avatar on support for immmunes), any advices are welcome.
1 last thing for laz if he reads me the viper unique bow is really cool but as other unique items there is ahuge problem with the possibility to cast ( in the case of the unique viper bow )mana coil who is useless and more embarrassin interrupt the attack.to be honest this is the only thing i don't like in median the possibility to cast spells when attackin, the game is tough and it's cool so i really don't like my attack bein interupted ,the cunsequences are death for weak characters like druid.Finally i had to drop this bow which i like.Maybe if laz can add in his further patch a recipe that remove the possibility of castin spells by attackin or addin unique without it.Thanx for havin readin me and im waitin for your tips.

[oneillz808]

you say that bow casts mana coil/

maybe you can invest in other skills that use up much more mana than bowskills and become a hybrid, like his spells or his minions, or simply by spamming mark of the wild [i know that costs a lot of mana!]

then once you do that, you can attack because mana coil's damage is based on how much mana you lost.

[k']

It was an exemple, when you begin you haven't much choice about weapons , and it' s disapointin havin a gud bow spoiled by this possibility of castin spells( even agood spell), the interrupt attack is belive me real annoyin, same thing for the unique scissors katars uniques" atom splitters "which cast several spells by strikin .For a warrior range or mellee it's a real pain

[oneillz808]

its all about tactics and playstyle... if you dont want the gear that casts procs, then DONT USE THEM.

[k']

Bein agressive is useless if you' re not interested don't post.Did you read me? I said a beginnin character like mine haven't much choice in weaponry .My entire post wasn't all about this point , there were few other things, so plz keep your flame for you.

[oneillz808]

take my advice or dont take it.

[xMeox]

if you are a beginner farm some gold and gamble a bether bow..
also there are some low lvl upgrade recipes what you can use!
or rerol rar bows! they are quite good in some cases! (dont try to rerol it to often because the ilvl will get down with every time --> look cubing recipes pdf)

the problem with bowdruid is: he is only as god as his equipt (bow)..
without, youll have less chance

it may be easier if you give us some details:
what lvl are you? and what act/difficult level? do you use charm or acied fiends?

[oneillz808]

its obvious that he is a beginner, because the items he uses which has useful procs, isnt good for his spammage attacks, therefore, the higher level gear means that they dont have useful procs that could stop spammage.

no, he didnt think of using charm, because then that would mean it would interrupt his attacks.

[k']

Im level 35 act 3 hatred.My character is beginnin it doesn't mean im a beginner:).I use bow skills only and shadow avatar and a shapeshifter mercenary.I don't use charm cuz i want pure bowskills .Nova shot for bosses or blindside, in dungeons spore shot, cascade elsewhere .I wish my character bein full attack.I found my own stuff alone and im not lucky even in gambling.

[oneillz808]

you wish your character being full attack, then read my earlier post, duh.
any items with procs will most likely interrupt your attack.

the solution - dont use it.
my explanations must be SO opaque.

[k']

Nevermind dude.Ill wait and hope to find a 6 sockets bow to make an ocean runewords, i hope it will be enough for terror.

[oneillz808]

good. in the meantime ill help you out with bows that may help you along the way.

bear, void, butcher, victory, firework, echo, mosquito, phantom, curse, starvation, typhaon, cyclops, tartarus, mouse, madness, shockwave, liberation, malakbel, and ocean.

most of these are runewords and the last few are jewelwords.

heres the link to median runewords -
http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.c ... words.html

heres the link to median uniques -
http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/uniques.html

these will tell you which item has procs.

[k']

Ty but i have all these lists:)To be honest it will be gud to know where to farm on early levels , i farm horazon pet but results are disapointin, other dungeons are too tough for me.

[xMeox]

Thorn - JW
extrem cheap! and the procs doesnt interupt you (maby they do but i never realiced it --> doesnt matter)

[oneillz808]

i recommend the quest/act bosses and leveling up.

say in act 3, you could just continuously hunt mephisto and travincal on players 8.

you can also do treasure hunting. repeated runs of the inner cloister/cathedral chest can give you unique items, but most of the time, its just gold, but you can use that for a chance at gambling as well.

you can do baal runs up to level seventy-seventy five.

thats the level i recommend before going into terror.
if youre of that level and you still want to farm in hatred, then you can try the very fun uberlevel in kurast. its always by the waypoint in spider forest.

-meow;

no it doesnt

[k']

Ty

[Doabli]

Elfin Arrow doesn't gain extra damage from +skills because its purpose is a skill point sinkers for ranged chars (it would be very overpowered to let +20 skill points give +400% damage in an instant, they'll ignore the +max level synergies and go for max Killer Instinct + max Acid Fiends) . Personally I feel that the bonus is okay without +skills.

Mark of the Wild - if buff duration is increased then just replace it will a passive skill instead (this is Shadowform's problem) .

[k']

Thanx doabli.The search of high damages for bow druid is like graal quest:) But that is what this this make this character interestin.But i stay on my point of view that mark of the wild should last longer and it will be cool to have a permanent color skin for mark of the wild to see when his effect finished.

[pza]

i have a pure bowdruid too and i do it like that: see monsterhorde, run away a few meters, cast motw, shoot something (sporeshot or cascade) into the direction whre the monsters are, until there's no more leech animation. go on, rinse and repeat. and don't forget too look onto the floor for "teh gozu itamz" (information: i left MotW at level 1 and let +skills do the rest. the skill has diminishing returns, so imo it's not worth maxing it.)

actually on early levels, rune/jewelwords are the best way to get a good bow. now for the procs: they only interrupt you if the casted skill has a spelltimer. if you attack from a good distance (what you will do in later levels) you will have the time to wait for the procs to be casted. no need to hurry. most casted spells are normally even very powerful, unlike in CLoD, where some runewords were simply useless because they had a chance to cast x.

[Brother Laz]

First :i can see elfin arrows ins't affected by +skills , would it be change in further patchs?

Are you talking about the +ED% self-synergy? As you probably know, synergies aren't affected by +skills, including self-synergies. Yes, this is on purpose.

The gain of only1 second per level of mark of the wild would it be change too?

Lrn2recast.

Can the attribute challenge and level2 challenge be done with exclusively bow druid( with shadow avatar on support for immmunes), any advices are welcome.

Not without support skills. What's it with all the druids who refuse to get Charm?

1 last thing for laz if he reads me the viper unique bow is really cool but as other unique items there is ahuge problem with the possibility to cast ( in the case of the unique viper bow )mana coil who is useless and more embarrassin interrupt the attack.

It is not useless if you manage to drain your mana.

to be honest this is the only thing i don't like in median the possibility to cast spells when attackin, the game is tough and it's cool so i really don't like my attack bein interupted ,the cunsequences are death for weak characters like druid.

This only applies to timered skills, and it is a D2 engine bug. I'm sure you'll find that the benefits of most outweigh the delay. (Eg. +500% enhanced damage, temporary invulnerability, self heal, ...)

......

same thing for the unique scissors katars uniques" atom splitters "which cast several spells by strikin .For a warrior range or mellee it's a real pain

Neither interrupts your attack, because they don't have a skill timer.

It appears that proc-based builds are actually among the most powerful, especially physical procs (Time Strike, Arrow, ...) and some of the support skills (Unholy Armor, Vanquish, ...). The latter do have timers and briefly interrupt your attacks, but then if you cast them manually, they have a cast animation.

[pza]

one of MANY builds that are based on chance to cast x.

[Logger_120]

Not without support skills. What's it with all the druids who refuse to get Charm?

I don't know. I was wondering the same thing.

Everyone wants to make a "pure" bow druid but then QQ's about not having support/defensive skills. THEN DON"T MAKE A PURE BOW DRUID!!!!!!! Charm is the best crowd control skill in the game. USE IT.

[oneillz808]

LMAO!

i wish people were like this at the start of ladder with my mindblast assassin >.>

[DemonicAngel]

Not without support skills. What's it with all the druids who refuse to get Charm?

Not my playstyle.

I'm not a "if you can't beat them, join them" type D2 player, more like a "Go out fighting!" I don't want my enemies on my team... I want them dead.

[pza]

gosh, does noone use hcmtf? or at least kb? its more than sufficient i found... especially hcmtf which is so easy to obtain...