Diablo II v1.05 (HC) OG Bowazon

[TWolfMech]

After having completed my v1.00 playthroughs with all characters, I thought it would be nice to add one more playthrough for the pre expansion era. On my first Amazon I focused mainly on spear- and javelin skills, since the ED on bows and crossbows didn't get calculated properly before patch 1.04.

Enter the v1.05 Bowazon: Valeska

Clip from Nightmare Cow Level.

What a machine! The moment you get a decent amount of Mana Leech, this Amazon starts shredding enemies! Multiple Shot is our bread and butter, offering great damage with high efficiency. It really helps leeching Mana back quickly. Add in the Cold anc Ice Arrows as 1 skillpoint-wonders and you are pretty safe throughout Normal difficulty.
Once you get to Immolation and Freezing Arrow though...
This is where the fun begins:

Clip from Nightmare Barracks, fighting the Smith.

No cooldown on Immolation Arrow turns it into a DPS monster!
Meanwhile, Freezing Arrow is providing us with even more crowd control and safety. And like the other cold damage skills, it does so with only 1 point invested.
However, both Freezing Arrow and Immolation Arrow have another, almost broken mechanic:
Our bow's weapon damage get's added to the explosion damage of both skills!
Considering that the arrows can pierce and cause another explosion behind the first target.

Nightmare was a breeze. Especially, after getting this beauty, sponsored by Duriel:

This build makes you feel invincible at times!
BUT we are playing one of the older D2 patches here, which do have a way of humbling you very fast!
So I spent a lot of time on my Sorceress on v1.00, farming the Cow King non-stop and using up most of my remaining Imbue quests.
Here are the results:

I dont think i ahve anything to sayabout the weapons!
Fun fact: I even got a Lance that roleld over 300 damage, but thought it would be better in the hands of my Barbarian.
Eye of Etlich and the belt Storm Strap are very interesting in particular. The cold damage on both of those items increase the cold and freeze duration of our skills by a huge amount, even in Hell difficulty.

But then... The Slap!

Clip from Hell Travincal.
Geleb Flamefinger was not in the mood! I felt dizzy for a moment!
Almost lost my hardly farmed gear here! This would have been embarrassing!

I decided to avoid the rest of the council after crushing the orb and went straigth for Mephisto. Luckily the council member in Durance Level 3 didn't have any dangerous auras or other abilities.
We ended up safely sniping Mephisto from across the moat with our Immolation Arrow and were on to Act 4.

Since Immolation Arrow was doing so good, I decided to put some more points into the skill until it got to base level 10. (11 with Eye of Etlich)
The rest i started to dump into Guided Arrow for the final Diablo fight. Something I regretted after this:

Clip from Hell Diablo Fight.
Wow! After getting tired by how slow the Guided Arrow was killing Diablo and being to afraid to use my Lance in close combat , I decided to get a bit of extra damage from Immolation Arrow.
I got more than just a bit. This skill is a beauty! If used correctly and combined with Freezing Arrow, along with Eye of Etlich and the cold damage belt i was wearing, you can do stuff like this.

Clip from Hell Cow Level.

Final words:
I'm running Immolation/Freezing/Ice/Guided Arrow, Multiple Shot, Strafe and Jab+Fend.
And my Zon is only level 49!
I can still max out Lightning Fury, if I kept leveling, which, while not that strong, can still have decent damage in Hell difficulty.
Btw I skipped the Izual Quest, which gives 2 more skillpoints...

It was a great time to be an Amazon in the pre expansion era.
And even with Immolation Arrow getting nerfed with a cooldown in LoD, I can hardly wait to try out the piercing Guided Arrow in the future!

 

[Manny]

lol @ The Slap!! I felt anxious for you trying to TP out of there.

 

[TWolfMech]

lol @ The Slap!! I felt anxious for you trying to TP out of there.

I did a couple challenge runs in the past that didn't allow save & exit until the end of an act.
Sometimes I still try to play through these dangerous situations because of that.

 

[thrasher_565]

300 damage on a lance is quite good thought 180 was about max. might be able to use it for urdurs leveling but i dont no.

 

[TWolfMech]

300 damage on a lance is quite good thought 180 was about max. might be able to use it for urdurs leveling but i dont no.

180 was max on the Pike, I think. The Lance only got added into the game in 1.04.
It has very low durability though.
A lot of people used Martel de Fer, too. It has better min damage and durability.
Or if you are lucky, you can find a failed unique with 5 times the durability.

 

[thrasher_565]

180 was max on the Pike, I think. The Lance only got added into the game in 1.04.
It has very low durability though.
A lot of people used Martel de Fer, too. It has better min damage and durability.
Or if you are lucky, you can find a failed unique with 5 times the durability.

1.00 had the lance just was rare. i got one and thought that was easy and i sold it... people think its not in the game because of that 1.00 guide... but its not all the useful vs a pike witch can be failed unique. you can get + durability but i think it gos from like 25 to 28 or something...
but for urdurs killing might be useful thow they hard to find so... maybe a rack?

dont no how 1.04 works with ww i no was nerfed. maybe the fix the rage problem.

1.06 i seen 300 pikes i do beleave. its posable durability was fixed too.

what they did was probably decress ww speed and incress weapon damage.

 

[galaxyhaxz]

Are you sure you got a Lance in 1.00? Prior to 1.07, the drop tables only contained normal items, and instead whenever a normal item drops on nightmare/hell (like a Pike), it would roll a chance to upgrade it to the exceptional version, using the upgrade code in the text files. The code for a different item was put as the Pike's upgrade type by accident, and no other normal item has the code for Lance. You cannot shop or gamble exceptional items either. The only other thing I can think of are maybe racks.

Edit: did a bunch of rack runs in both 1.00 and 1.05, and I was unable to get any exceptional items at all from them, so only monsters/chests can drop Lances, and Pikes upgrade to Great Pilums in 1.00.

 

[fearedbliss]

@thrasher_565 I don’t think it’s cause of the 1.00 guide. The 1.04 patch notes say this:

• Lances, Holy Water Sprinklers, Grim Helms, War Clubs, and Stilettos can now be dropped by monsters and chests.

So unless there is another way to drop a lance outside of monsters and chests in 1.00, I don’t think you can get them in that patch.

 

[TWolfMech]

@thrasher_565 I don’t think it’s cause of the 1.00 guide. The 1.04 patch notes say this:

• Lances, Holy Water Sprinklers, Grim Helms, War Clubs, and Stilettos can now be dropped by monsters and chests.

So unless there is another way to drop a lance outside of monsters and chests in 1.00, I don’t think you can get them in that patch.

I can't remember Lances or any of the listed items dropping in that patch either. Could they have been in the game files, but they just don't drop?

 

[fearedbliss]

That’s correct. I believe they are in the files but not enabled.

 

[thrasher_565]

im like 99% lance dropped in 1.00. i no it was 1.00 because i found it rof well maggot levelling. but i do have memory problems...eyes can play tricks on me so.. only way to prove it is to find it.

rare from hell rof and think magic from cow king or posably white don't remember or what difficulty it was on.
i also read somewhere some one asked if it can drop and they said yes. but was not too useful. damage wise its not much more damage like 20 more damage then pike...

i looked at other patches and found items drop that dint have it on the file so... i don't really no.

the odds of getting good roll on a lance is vary slim vs re rolling pikes so pikes will still be better. chance at like 2 barb skills, ed, max damage, w/e damage or steel.

 

[Manny]

lol @thrasher_565 you got slapped by the fact check gang. you OK bro?

 

[TWolfMech]

I mean, I just added a Lance to a 1.00 character via Jamella editor v3, so that shows that they existed in the game files. But would have to find one to prove that they could actually drop. Haven't seen a single one in 5 playthroughs and extensive farming with my Sorceress.

Btw: I can recommend Jamella v3! (Has to be v3! The other doesn't work!)
It's the only editor that can generate pre Expansion items. It does so by randomly generating the number of the mods you choose on a rare item, so in theory, all items you create in that editor can actually spawn like that in the game. Just getting the right values is tricky, especially since the editor often displays the wrong numbers.

But would recommend beating the game first! Don't ruin your experience by cheating!

 

[Manny]

@TWolfMech I have tried using editors in the past and I always feel icky just loading the thing up, lol. Like my boys Brevik and Hu are standing behind me like... bruh, what are you doing....??

 

[TWolfMech]

@TWolfMech I have tried using editors in the past and I always feel icky just loading the thing up, lol. Like my boys Brevik and Hu are standing behind me like... bruh, what are you doing....??

I originally planned to use them to recreate GERBarb, the first level 99 on ladder, but because of how the editor randomizes the stats on certain items, I wasn't able to rebuild that character.

Still, it is a nice tool to use for testing.
For example: I figured out how to increase the freeze duration of Iceblink in pre Expansion. All you need is additional cold damage from Eye of Etlich or a belt that rolls with cold damage. This also helps with the stun duration of Freezing Arrow.

 

[galaxyhaxz]

Yep, all the items that don't drop in 1.00 are still in the game's files and perfectly functional, all they did was fixed the codes in the text files so they'd drop in 1.04, you can actually make the change yourself and they will drop in 1.00 but I guess that's cheating.

Prior to 1.07 items did not store their stats, instead they only saved the item seed and then regenerated the item each time a game is started, similar to d1. However they ran into issues with morphing (like d1) so they changed it in 1.07. This is why you can't edit the stats in Jamella, you must select affixes and have it brute force seeds that will generate that item. I use Jamella V3 all the time for testing out different bugs and builds in pre LoD, it's a must have alongside Hero editor for 1.07+.

 

[thrasher_565]

maybe i was playing 1.03? thats on the cd as i didn't get 1.00 off ebay then but i really don't no. i do no i had a lance at some point. but who knows maybe i mixed a different patch with another in my head? i no the lance is broke and gets you a spear. but i also looked in to files and got items that were not on it so i have no idea. un till we find it that is... unless there 2 different 1.00 patches?