Been playing ES for many years on and off, haven't played much of the new stuff (since the mod went installer).
So after the dissapointment that was D3 I'm back into ES and loving it - I can kill mobs and they drop interesting stuff not oh another rare wand, hope it doesn't suck too bad
Started an untwinked amazon and breezed through normal, found Firebrander at lv 5 which made my day, walked through act 1 and 2. Fire resistance started annoying me near the end of act 2 so I gambled Quiveraiden which is a great bow and I'm still using it, that's the first problem.
Had a blast in the lost farm and then the Marsh of Pain which way overleveled me
but with the cash from exceptionals in my pocket I went gambling for Achilles, socketed everything and rolled through the rest of normal, okay again I was lucky in the Marsh of Pain and The Black Armour dropped, total defense 950 nothing touched me.So now I find myself near the end of act 1 nightmare and my glass cannon build is catching up with me, mobs are slowing gaining ar and normal trash has about 50% chance to hit me, archers are becoming irksome. Then I was ambushed, almost died (I know, the Trouble and Strife was offloading and I was appearing to be interested at the same time I opened a door into a room, became instantly cursed, slowed and poisoned and my Valks were no where to be found!)
So we come to the second part of my title, I know I need to upgrade my eq but I locked into a set and worse a set delivering a fair portion of my damage! So if somebody could give me some advice, I will lay out my character.
So to round off my eq,
Tarryn, Level 50 Amazon
Head Hijikata's Heart-blood (socketed with a Yo for res)
Body The Black Armour - not sockted coz I'm lazy
Amulet - Rare with some resist all (it's old about level 25)
Ring 1 - Rare with some resist and dex
Ring 2 - Dragon's eye
Glove - Achilles socketed with an A (min damage rune)
Belt - Achilles socketed with a flawless topaz
Boot - Achilles socketed with obsidian
Weapon - Quiveraiden socketed with flawless Ruby
Yes I found my hachigane at level nine and never took it off, the damage reduction and 20% FHR were too good. That Black Armour may be for assassins but the hit blinds target has been a godsend for a strafer.
As for skills, kept it minimalist, have I think it's +3 skills, nothing amazing, went for the two valks and decoy just to try it out and they're really effective. Trying to keep my strafe low to prevent animation lock and pumping points into legendary arrow for the synergy and Valk to keep them alive.
Since bow is the most important thing to a strafer I'm going to discuss that here,
I don't really like rare weapons, just me so I would want to use a unique or set if I can. Lixo's flight looks good and I have already found the ring (two actually) but I have run into another problem with gambling exceptionals, I can see this taking a long time!
The only other normal bow that looks good would be Kashya's Issue but the difference wouldn't be great.
So I see two options,
Option 1 base item upgrade to Long Siege Bow/Tuigan bow (9-26/7-33) base difference, cost three blemished gems and a couple of runes, not that expensive but also not a huge difference.
I was going to say Lixo's Harp was a Cedar bow but I checked it's a gothic bow, I can gamble that! But that only leaves me with two of the four set items...so
Option 2 is the more expensive route, I would still need Lixo's flight and coat, so grab a magic demonhide armour, craft it with the p gem from anya then use Secret Recipe 5 and another two p gems and make a set item, then do the same for a faceguard. Six p gems later and one full set!
Just noticed that Lixo's set would not interfere with Achilles so I could run both
Is that wise? The -40% ld is killing my resistance in nightmare but I need that damage.I am much higher level than Lixo's requirements but this is my first char so I expect that.
Should I consider the next set up Aanna's ? I would have to craft/SR all four set items so that's like 12 p gems but that set does some serious damage (even if Ballista lack style)
Any other suggestions?
Thank you for the advice about BRW, at first it was really slow going, everything down there was about 80% to hit me and my strafe only at 70%, I cleared two rooms before I realised I wasn't getting anywhere with those Raven Imps , surprisingly tough little sherbets compounded with their shaman's constantly rezzing and I was at a stalemate.