A Secretly Explosive Build [ 2.5 Bowchantress Sorceress Build ]

While it didn't get as much of a boost from sunder charms as other sorceress builds, it's still quite fun to play with in 2.5 - and that is the bowchantress, or more precisely a bow sorceress that uses enchant to buff the explosions.
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#Diablo2

[@matthuck378]

One of the many things I love about D2 is how many interesting and weird builds there are. So many modern ARPGs seem to funnel you into "meta-builds", even in single player/solo. A spellcaster using a bow isn't even POSSIBLE in many (including Diablo 3). Melee sorcs can work too, and pretty much no game really lets you be a melee caster. Grim Dawn is also great like this. EDIT: I think the D2 Sorc is honestly the best character to play in the game because of how versatile she is, and how with no rare gear at all you can dominate at least through Nightmare. IMO, she's one of the best characters in any ARPG, ever.

[@Alzorath]

I really do wish more games understood "designing the power fantasy" - sadly a lot design to the challenge or design to grind with a focus on playstyle rather than fantasy.

[@kosterix123]

@@Alzorath Diablo 2 doesn't restrict much, you can do whatever you wish, all it does is throw enemy combinations at you and if you can handle those you have a good build. Another key point is that it uses percentages, not absolute numbers. Poor competitors simply say no. It's the equivalent of tabletop D&D.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

Awwwww yeaaahhhhhh Enchantress build le's gooooo Some friendly reminders: You can make a +9 Energy Shield Memory staff -- great for prebuffing, since every +1 adds a minute of ES duration. "Damage Reduced by N" and "Magic Damage Reduced by N" apply _after_ Energy Shield, which makes it relatively trivial to prevent all incoming health damage with a sufficiently high-level Energy Shield. For this reason, Gladiator's Bane and Safety crafted items can be quite effective as budget options. A Prayer merc with Insight will heal you at twice the normal rate (because of Prayer applying as a synergy to Meditation) and can do a ton to keep your tiny health pool and massive mana pool topped off. You're likely neglecting allres as an ES user; if this leaves your poison resist lacking, remember to chug a couple dozen Antidote Potions before leaving town so you aren't constantly at 1 life.

[@Alzorath]

Yup, ES is a a fairly complex skill to utilize :) - it's one of the few skills in the game that risks "eating up the video" since it's such a unique skill in the damage formula

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

@@Alzorath That it is! Great to see that the sunder charm makes Dreamless Enchant solo viable, as anticipated!

[@MatteoGariglio]

Very very interesting and nice-to-play build! Thanks for sharing!

[@Alfwin]

I always love the idea these kinds of builds that don't fit the "obvious" ways to play the class. I've never really played one, though.

[@Alzorath]

Yea, the only downside is they usually require some level of gear dependency, but this one is fun because there's a lot of options rather than having to say "you need this one item, to bring this build together" (like dream or dragon paladins/sorcs, or zeal-X builds)

[@jameshaulenbeek5931]

I like how Kuko is making a big comeback! I only played around briefly with the bug years ago, and sadly that was just before it got patched. It's always been a favorite.

[@Alzorath]

yea, back when each fire source increased the radius it was so much bloody fun :)

[@erick3755]

I would love you to show the glass cannon version where you bypass energy shield or use memory and put all those skills into fireball and firebolt. With dragon and 99% pierce you constantly proc fully synergized hydras to help out.

[@kosterix123]

more details on this build plz?

[@erick3755]

@kosterix123 honestly with the buff they made to enchant it is completely unnecessary, but the idea was you ran dragon armor for more fire damage via holy fire as well as the 12% chance to proc hydras. You then use memory to cast your energy shield and put all the points you normally put into ES/telekinesis into fire bolt and fireball to make the hydras stronger. In dense areas like cows your arrow will pierce 3+ times increasing the chances to proc the hydras which then murder everything you missed. It was fun, but again kind of unnecessary with how strong enchant is now.

[@kosterix123]

@@erick3755 Thank you. memory + dragon. Interesting! I don't follow what you refer to about Enchant, was that changed, when, why and how?

[@erick3755]

@kosterix123 so they made some changes in patch 2.6 that made enchant/demon machine even stronger (my dragon enchant build was before this update) below is the patch notes.: Fixed an issue where Fire Mastery's bonus to fire skill damage didn't apply to the additional fire damage granted by Enchant on ranged weapons. Updated the tooltip for Enchant to better reflect the skill's effects.

[@DrEvil-os9dc]

Do you think bringing the zeal sorc back would be viable in resurrected/2.5? Or bring back the guided arrow sorc with hydra backup.

[@Alzorath]

generally, I'm not a huge fan of the zeal-sorc unless I'm specifically boss/unique hunting with it - since I hate the 'flee' effect. But it's still as viable as it earlier versions (it can one shot a lot of things on p1-p3 with the right gear) - the melee sorc that got nerfed hard was the bear sorc. As far as guided arrow sorc, I generally only use that as a backup setup for a tesla sorc - but it can do okay. (I would actually go bowchantress with hydra if I was going bow-hydra, though you do lose ES doing that)

[@ZachIdso]

The ice runeword is another one that seems like it was thought up specifically for this character along with the paladin. I think when using enchant people might often aim to take everything out with the bow alone but mixing in different spells, procs and a second weapon can really smooth everything over and open up a lot more possibilities when it comes to choice of equipment too. Plus it's just satisfying to use the right ability, or make the right move, at the right time

[@Alzorath]

I generally prefer it on the paladin of the two (since he is able to get the attack speed to make up for a lack of splash, and he also can boost the cold damage to accentuate its -% resist effect - while sorc only mirrors the -% res effect)

[@ZachIdso]

@@Alzorath Yeah he's fun to bounce back and forth between that and a second weapon too with different auras and combat skills getting their own hotkeys. Still the sorceress gets to play around with the frost nova on strike and has nice combos with the spells that aren't direct projectiles like meteor, firewall, blizzard, inferno etc. I'm pretty sure defense rating gets dropped when moving too so little tricks like teleporting away to keep monsters on the chase can be fun to exploit

[@greggen63]

Cool video and build! I have a question, though: I understood that attack rating didn't have too much effect on elemental bow skills, because the damage isn't coming from the physical side and the elemental part always hits (like a caster spell). Is that wrong? If so, I might need to rebuild my freezing arrow / exploding arrow Bowazon😅...although she seems to do OK with no specific investment in Dexterity.

[@Alzorath]

The explosion will always hit, so for single targets its fine, but since the elemental bow skills are not "auto-hit" on the arrow/bolt itself, you do need AR for pierce. This is because pierce requires a "hit" to actually pierce (it can pierce if "blocked", but it has to get past the AR/Defense phase). Sadly the elemental arrows have that as a disadvantage compared to lightning fury, since lightning fury is an auto-hit skill, so its pierces will always trigger.

[@greggen63]

@@Alzorath thank you for the explanation! I've learned something else today 🙂

[@rfphenom7691]

I really enjoy bowchantress builds. Actually this season my cold sorc started life through norm-nightmare as a bowchatnress with a raven. I really wouldnt mind making a dedicated build for one later down the line

[@Alzorath]

While not as fast as a cold sorc, they really are a ton of fun

[@Raor1820]

I found out this myself many many years ago :) was so fun and different.

[@Alzorath]

was definitely more fun in 1.09, but they've partially unnerfed it the past few patches in D2R.

[@blo5980]

How about use a 20%ias knock-back gloves and socket your demon machine with a fire facet?? It has the -fire res is the stat looking for.

[@dylanhopwood3773]

bow chantress used to be an amazing way to get some super leveling in cows but it relied on having someone to enchant you not be the enchanter getting a raven bow or something with explosive arrow and having a enchant sorc with max lvl shit meant you could go into cows at like lvl 14 and hit for like 6k with a normal shot

[@ins1ghtz]

2.6 just made this very interesting with the enchant buff

[@frankenstein3163]

Don't u want faster cast for teleporting ? PS. I have ben playing with build on maxroll. I see the 25-50 fire damage jewels does about 200 damage per a sec :P PPS. How often does piercing attack find a second target to hit ? Also dos the second target have exploding arrow or just the first hit ?

[@Alzorath]

in order: It depends on what you're farming All extra fire damage also is carried with the explosion itself, so yes - extra fire damage is always welcome. Piercing triggers after the target is "hit" with the arrow (so you do need to get past the AR/Defense check) - when the pierce is successful, it will automatically try to hit the next target behind - explosions will happen on every target it does a hit check on (successful or unsuccessful). If you "miss" a target, the arrow will explode, and on a successful pierce of those, you'll get phantom explosions/arrows that do nothing (if you "hit" a target, the arrow will explode, and on a successful pierce, you'll get actual explosions/arrows that do full damage)

[@Parasmunt]

Enigma gives you life after kill which when taking out large groups is much more effective than life leech. It has damage reduction, massive str and plus 2 to skills and other things beside. Still the best choice imho.

[@Srga4pb]

Hi Alzorath, nice one. Crossbow enchantress is one of my favourite builds to play. Did you consider the act 1 fire merc with Mist? She also fires explosive arrows that work the same as yours, but hers carry much more damage as she casts her own explosive arrows with almost 1500 fire damage on their own. She fires at 9FPA and 100% pierce, but I am not sure exactly how often she chooses to use her exploding arrows. Edit: Yes, this merc choice doesn't offer another type of damage, but the concentration aura actually boosts yours and the merc's physical damage so you can dispose of fire immunes easier.

[@LosDoyerss]

100% chance to shoot fire arrow if you give her a Kuko bow.

[@ManifoldR]

​@@LosDoyerss "Fires explosive arrows or bolts" doesn't work on mercenaries

[@Srga4pb]

@@ManifoldR This is true. For the merc, Kuko only gives a visual as if every arrow were explosive, but in reality, that is not the case.

[@Alzorath]

yup, sadly arrow effects don't work for the mercenary :( - as far as the twin-rogue, it's fun for a bit, but I tend to prefer a2 or a5 mercs for it to compensate for the lack of summons - the a2 might merc is good if you're planning on farming a wide variety of areas with fire immunes

[@kwmcgreal]

Did you say the fire damage on charms and other gear is include in the the explosion radius??? Is that true for an amazon using the skill as well???

[@Alzorath]

Yes and yes (and in LoD 1.09 it would add to the radius too, but that was patched out)

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

Bonus info: Not only does the same principle apply to cold damage and Freezing Arrow, sources of freeze and chill stack their durations together, with any chill duration becoming freeze duration if anything provides a freeze effect. With many sources of cold damage (e.g. an inventory full of +cold dmg SCs), Freezing Arrow can freeze huge crowds for a very, very long time.

[@chesian]

Would love a vid from you comparing sorc bow vs pally bow playstyle with pros and cons!

[@Alzorath]

The Paladin has a lot more options to push bows up, sorceress is a lot more rigid in what she uses.

[@chesian]

@@Alzorath are they both limited to p1? P3?

[@Alzorath]

@@chesian they get a bit slow at p8, with the right gear the bowsorc can do p5 in non-fire immune areas pretty easily, generally I wouldn't run the ranger paladin at more than p3, but he can go a lot more places and not really suffer any speed loss.

[@chesian]

@@Alzorath cool thanks man!

[@MrAfinon]

Hi I would love to see the stats on this sorc, also will it be possible to play without infinity on merc?

[@Alzorath]

entirely possible without infinity - I've beaten hell with this without a merc, while still using stealth armor and lore from normal...with only one spirit (sword).

[@kosterix123]

2:50 the kukro is awesome and can be found in NM, I got two. Brand requires Jah which only drops in HA4+, or two Ber that only drop in HA3+.

[@waterwallets]

Your info is not quite correct. I’m not sure about Jah but I know you can drop Ber in Act 2 Hell, I have found one in Arcane Sanctuary

[@kosterix123]

@@waterwallets it seems you are right. Specter (Normal) Hell, Act 2, Arcane Sanctuary 1:356074 apparently high runes appear earlier in d2r.

[@kosterix123]

@@waterwallets yes thank you. Drop tables have changed from D2X to D2R, I updated my own manual to reflect this.

[@enguerranschatteman3352]

a really interresting build that you show us ! but how do you kill fire-immun boss/mob ? thx for D2R vid !

[@Alzorath]

Sundering + Flickering Flame for the endgame gear, but prior to that, it's mostly mercenary + the physical damage from your bows (which aren't terrible for p1)

[@enguerranschatteman3352]

@@Alzorath thx for the answer :)

[@enguerranschatteman3352]

@@Alzorath always on the subject of break mob with fire immune, it is great to put a "obedience" (-25% fire immune) on my merc ? do you think it is sufficient to pass the hell ?

[@Alzorath]

sadly the -% res on the mercenary only applies to attacks made by the mercenary - so while it will boost the damage they do with your enchant helping them (which you should always do for all but a3 mercs) - it's not going to be super important. That said, Obedience is just a good mid-tier runeword in general, and you can't really go wrong using it prior to end-game gear

[@enguerranschatteman3352]

@@Alzorath the thing is i have absolutly no luck in game, i run Andariel for hours every day, and i loot always the same thing that i don't need lol. So i haven't the rune for Flickering Flame. so i search for other solution with the thing i have. Thx for the help and good continuation ! i really like your vid

[@CornyCF]

I haven't any of the armor what unique armor do you choose?

[@Alzorath]

I would put resistances as the most important goal on armor here - which means runewords are going to be better options than most uniques.

[@Exceclint]

Does Fortitude armor work? Specifically the 300% ed?

[@Alzorath]

sadly only on the physical damage you do.

[@securatyyy]

You would lose the conviction, but enchant works with a1 fire mercs as well. More booms

[@Alzorath]

that it does :)

[@RareFXChrisC]

Do you prefer the Brandchantress or the Demon Machinetress more?

[@Alzorath]

depends on what I want to farm - generally demon machine or kuko win out for this specific build, just for cost vs reward aspects

[@dakotahsteier5481]

would be kewl if venom proc'd on AOE explosions. poison bow assassin would be sick. she has decent stuff in her kit to support it too, burst of speed + death sentry.

[@Alzorath]

Weirdly, I always wished there was an actual poison arrow skill - always felt it fit bows far more than javelins.

[@your_eulogy2688]

It's a fun build for p1 with sunder charms and flickering flame it might be a lot better than when I tried it on NL. Demon machine ftw

[@Alzorath]

yea, generally anything higher than about p3 or p5, will need to be looking at swapping to a one-punch sorceress variant (which are melee builds)

[@your_eulogy2688]

@@Alzorath so many fun builds this ladder. Made a fireclaw druid AND a Shockwave one. Used ravenclaw on my pally while leveling with holyfire until after nightmare so fun. Off meta builds are my favorite!

[@kristopherleslie8343]

It’s fun and serious 😂

[@sim.frischh9781]

"Reasonable" isn´t exactly the term that comes to mind when i think about Diablo 2 XD

[@Alzorath]

well, reasonable in the context of punching the devil in the face ;)

[@shayneaugustine9791]

It's me, I'm the cult following... I also rush people through normal and nightmare on console on Fridays and enchant lower level players to help level

[@Alzorath]

Enchantresses are such a great team player sorc setup - works well with so many groups, outside of pure caster setups (even then is great for mercs)

[@shayneaugustine9791]

@@Alzorath it's just fun seeing a bunch of lvl 15's just destroy cows in normal because each of them are hitting for 1k fire damage

[@tony9526]

Just saw one of these in chaos runs lol

[@Alzorath]

They are a ton of fun :) - just sad that so many people ignore the odd builds lol

[@chesian]

i've decided to give this a shot...any reading on base options for brand？ ：）

[@Alzorath]

I'm a fan of the demon crossbow base for this particular build - and it works good for a number of setups. That said, for paladin and amazon brand users, crossbows are less favorable.

[@chesian]

@@Alzorath meaning resell/trade value not as great right? check. for stats...your final build did you stick with ES? what base vit/energy did you end with?

[@Alzorath]

I did stick with ES - but kept vitality - but this is very specific to a non-casting version of this (if you were say a Hydra + Bowchantress setup - you'd want the energy investment instead). Mainly this is a mitigation for poison, where as on casters - you'll be using your mana for both life buffers AND casting, so keeping it high (and as such, boosting regen) will be more beneficial.

[@chesian]

@@Alzorath I'm at lvl 85 now pretty much got all slots equipped except body armor and stuff on switch. Went non casting. Slapped a 15/35 into the demon machine. Fun solo play build 👍 Still working on gearing the merc too. At the moment using A2 blessed aim for the AR boost.

[@grantpearson7105]

Awesome setup. Though I'd prefer to use a faceted armor.

[@Alzorath]

A jeweler's of the whale would be pretty solid for it

[@grantpearson7105]

@@Alzorath Do you know if an enchanted frenzy merc with dual HoJ and Dragon would have level 46 holy fire and -40% fire res?

[@fluorescentmug8333]

Moo moo !

[@Alzorath]

MooMooBOOM!

[@LosDoyerss]

Upped Kuko with shael rune is still better than demon machine. It takes higher Dex but it's worth it. Not to mention it's much cheaper than Brand bow.

[@Hagelnot]

I'm playing around with a Holy Fire Bowadin using upped Kuko shael but planning on making Brand. In the char planner however the dmg isn't much better + you loose the most of pierce chance. However against Fire immunes the higher physical dmg will help a lot, I hope^^

[@Srga4pb]

@scott shelters What makes Kuko better than Demon Machine? For it to be faster, you need 102IAS. Or Faith, but for this build Mist is much better than Faith on the act1 merc.

[@Alzorath]

for single targets, yes, kuko is better - for cows and stuff though - demon machine tends to be better if you're doing proper clumping and piercing.

[@toilagamer]

Is it just me or there's no sound? Also, demon machine has lower attack speed than kuko shakaku? How so? This crossbow has -60 base speed, while kuko has 0 base speed.

[@Alzorath]

Should be act 5 town music and voiceover (was good on my post-upload check), could be an issue with the KZbin CDN though - there have been issues recently (this post may be doubled, since I ironically hit an error posting it)

[@aarion17]

How do you even find a crossbow that she can use

[@Alzorath]

depends on which one you want - there's options for this build in every difficulty (Ravenclaw can drop in mid-late normal, while kuko and demon machine can drop in nightmare, but you probably won't get the stuff for Brand until the end game)

[@aarion17]

Raven claw is one she can use? Because there are a lot of crossbows she can pick up, but I can’t get her to shoot any of them. Do I need to somehow combined the bolts?

[@Alzorath]

@@aarion17 every character can use every weapon - bows require arrows in the off-hand, crossbows require bolts in the off-hand.

[@DoubleBilly]

Cult Following = Yes

[@LTTrikampis]

its funny that sorc bow builds does more damage then amazone bow build,something not right...

[@Srga4pb]

This is also true for the bow paladin vs fire amazon. I call my fire amazon 'wannabe Basanti' (Basanti is my fire act 1 Merc).

[@Alzorath]

yea, the sorceress and paladin can do a lot of weird stuff (so can the necro to a lesser extent lol)

[@kristopherleslie8343]

I would pay any amount to be able to transmogrify her to white armor and call her storm trooper 😂

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Cmon bro you know she had those pew pew vibes

[@Alzorath]

yea, but she hits her targets ;)

[@kristopherleslie8343]

@@Alzorath she actually does unlike them guys hahahah

[@kristopherleslie8343]

She shooting nades lol

[@Alzorath]

Oh lord, bless this holy sorc grenade, that it may splode thine enemies, in thy mercy

[@kristopherleslie8343]

@@Alzorath she makes that 🎢 fun

[@kristopherleslie8343]

@@Alzorath coincidence that in Call of duty zombies this is a class

[@RickBomhof]

infinity detected- time to close the video and resume grinding

[@Alzorath]

infinity boosts its damage, but isn't necessary for functionality.

[@mikeyy2s]

enchant ormus is best armor

[@Alzorath]

would be a fun option, though tweaked up holy fire is a pretty strong addition to the arsenal

[@mikeyy2s]

@@Alzorath dragon is definitely more fun as you said but ormus, especially with a facet, is just so much raw damage

[@DonaDagger]

Hehe I love my bow sorc

[@Alzorath]

one of the more enjoyable non-standard builds

[@likemusicnotcomments]

just forget you can upgrade unique items?

[@Alzorath]

No, just don't want to waste stat points on insignificant amounts of damage (Brand has decent %ED and Deadly strike - Kuko and Demon Machine have low %ED and No Deadly Strike, so going physical is a waste of time on them)

[@likemusicnotcomments]

@@Alzorath cool thanks im a moron and i dont play d2 myself so i wouldnt know...right?

[@JohnSmith-ly2qp]

Seen you needed infinity and clicked off. If I need that much currency why not just play the sorc as normal.

[@Alzorath]

Never said at any point in the video that infinity is "needed" - as said in the video, there are budget options for the important effects of infinity.