Brevan wrote:
+Fire or +Cold damage to attack (like the 250-500 on Wonder) is added to both the strike and area effect of bow skills (Exploding or Immo Arrow (not the flames), and Freezing arrow respectively). So, if you get +250-500 Fire damage, then the monster hit by an exploding arrow takes extra 250-500 for being hit, and then if he's in the radius of the explosion, the explosion does an additional 250-500 fire damage more than it normally would. This makes Mavina's set peices very nice for a bowzon or NM Elemental Rogue.
A critical problem with your choice of gear is that On Attack spells never fire from bow weapons. Only On Strike works. This means "Ice" gets and extra 550 damage from the level 50 FrostNova, while "Wonder" will never cast Blizzard or FOrb.
Holy Auras reduce enemy resistances by 20%, and can even break immunities if the monster has up to 104% resistance. However, the damage added to attack by these auras is negligable (+80-90 for level 12 HolyFreeze). This aura is one of the reasons "Ice" is still much better than "Wonder" (also, "Wonder" has a typo, it has -24%Res not -30%Res).
The physical damage of the bow never affects the elemental damage by the rogue, except when they're using Ice or Fire arrow (NM and Hell Rogues only use these 25% of the time). However, one of the reasons rogues are nicer in many situations than an A3 merc is because the rogue can leach life, so a sturdy bow is a good choice. Another big benefit of the rogue is how easily she procs curses (Amp and LRes exist on bows).
Rogue's faster-attack breakpoints are horrible. The last breakpoint for a rogue is something like 10 frames per attack (2.5 attacks per second). At worst they are someting like 1.7 attacks per second. Also, they don't appear to be slowed down by the "reload penalty" of crossbows, so stuff like Buriza is a nice mid-game weapon.
Some points related to the above:
1) "Ice" is far better than "Wonder" for rogues, but it's still not that great.
2) Runeword bows aren't that great for elemental bow attacks because of the capped +Dmg to attack.
I'd recommend the following:
1) Use Mav's gloves, belt, and hat. There's lots of +Elemental dmg, they should be easy to get since no one plays elemental bowzons. The 3 peices together give 50% pierce, will will top-up your rogue's pierce to 100%. Piercing explosions are very important for improving your damage.
2) Consider Hellrack crossbow. It has plenty of physical damage for leach, 3 open sockets for Uber Gems (the +Dmg and -12%Res will work great). There is an unconfirmed rumor that the +30ImmoArrow oSkill will give your fire rogue +30ImmoArrow. I think Hellrack should also be easy to get, since bowzons seem to prefer the faster-attacking Bows over crossbows.
3) For whatever armor you select, if you just want damage, then socket it with Facets. Trade for the low 3/4% types that people seem to sell or something (these are still surprisingly hard to get).
Thanks!
Someone told me about hellrack. Thats why I'm going with fire merc.
3x bloodstones in it will add Adds 320-480 Fire Damage 960-1440(not including the 250-500 ele it adds) -36% to Enemy Fire Resistance. I was also told that it caps immolation arrow at level 3? not sure though.
How hard are Rainbow Facet (Fire: Fire Ball) to get?
Mavinas helm and belt are a must. I was considering lavagoat gloves for ias, fire dmg, enchant, and negative enemy res. I'd like to get 2 eye of flame rings as well for more damage. Not sure what to do for armor and boots. Maybe COH until I can get a War armor.
