ias affect strafe?

does anyone know if ias affects how fast you shoot with strafe and also i was wondering if it would be better to upgrade a gold strike or a lycanders aim?

Yes IAS affects strafe. As for the bow upgrade I wouldn't really upgrade any of those. The added reqs for STR would end up losing you damage in the end (points wasted in str could have gone into dex for more damage and higher attack rating). If you are going to upgrade a bow that is in the same caliber as these you should really look into a Witchwild String. WWS kicks ass. Don't get mislead by the stated avg damage. When you factor in Deadly strike per clvl, Chance to cast Amp Damage (actually good chance to cast because % to cast is per arrow), and the options you have with the 2 sockets (I suggest Shael Nef)

Here are the stats:
Two-Hand Damage: (32-35) To (75-81) (53.5-58 Avg)
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 65
Required Dexterity: 80
Base Weapon Speed: [0]
+150-170% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Fires Magic Arrows [Level 20]
2% Chance To Cast Level 5 Amplify Damage On Striking
+ (1 Per Character Level) 1-99 % Deadly Strike (Based On Character Level)
All Resistances +40
Sockets (2)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

Every single mod on the bow is very useful for any bowzon. In my opinion the only bow that beat this are WF and a BOTD crusader.

what kind of bow is that and what would it be if i upgraded it? also yeah the damage looks pretty bad to me because 53.5-58 even times 2 is not really that much because 100 physical before other mods seems kind of crappy unless this fire magic arrows thing ups the damage i dont see how besides the resist this could be that helpful, becuase 2% is not really that high of a chance to cast amp damage. maybe it is just me but i think the a gold strike would do better damage and the chance to cast foh seems nice to me because i am making a freezing arrow/ cold arrow/strafe zon. also i dont know the ias tables for zons but gold strike has 50 ias on it already.

but thanks for your opion WWS will probably be my switch weapon because of the nice resist bonus.

here is gold strike

Two-Hand Damage: (30-35) To (150-175) (90-105 Avg)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 95
Required Dexterity: 118
Base Weapon Speed: [10]
+200-250% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+100-200% Damage To Demons (varies)
+100-200% Damage To Undead (varies)
50% Increased Attack Speed
5% Chance To Cast Level 7 Fist Of Heavens On Striking
Replenish Life +12
+100-150% Bonus To Attack Rating(varies)


and lvl 7 foh does 240-290 light damage and i figure that it will trigger about once every two strafe because it has a 1 in 20 to be triggered. and with strafe ill be shooting 10 arrows at a time so imo this would be a better bow but i do agree that the str and dex req for a hydra might make this not worthy to upgrade.

Here are the stats of an upgraded WWS. Take note of the minimum and avg damage. The deadly strike and chance to cast amp damage are all huge factors.

Witchwild String Diamond Bow: 89-108 damage (98.5 avg), +150-170% enhanced damage, fires magic arrows [slvl-20], 2% chance to cast slvl-5 amplify damage on attack, (1/clvl)% deadly strike, all resistances 40%, sockets (2), rlvl-61

Back in December I had a post and screenshot of my Upgraded Goldstrike asking what I should socket it with (ended up going with shael). I had been using it until I heard from a friend about the WWS. After 1 pit run with the WWS I was convinced it was a faster killer and overall better bow than my upgraded and shaeled Goldstrike.

It also depends on your goldstrike stats too. If you got kick ass goldstrike then by all means use it. A near perfect goldstrike would definitely be 2nd on my list of bows. Only dropping to 3rd at when at clvl 90+ when the WF + to max damage really starts getting nuts. Only problem is a Perfect goldstrike is, in my opinion, the rarest item in all of D2. If I ever were to find one I would sell it. If you had one on USWest ladder I am positive it would go for at least $100 on ebay.

Either way, try them both and tell us what you think. I wouldn’t count on a lot of amp damage if your primary attack is going to be FA. The WWS works better on strafe/multi zon builds. But I would be interested in hearing your results.

yeah my gold strike is a 235% so i think it is pretty decent and i am going to use strafe as my main skill but i will use freezing arrow for imune to physical. so do you know what the fires magic arrows does? i do also like the resist so that is definatly a reason for my switch weapon. i will probably shael my goldstrike for it to have 70 ias on the bow its self but i have no idea what the breaking points are. what is the damage on your upgraded wws using either strafe or multi? because i am still doubting the killing power because i am still thinking that 98.5 physical even times two is just not that much. but i will try it because i do like it the resist.

Heres a copy of a post a friend of mine made on another forum. I hope it helps.

Well, I couldn't connect to battlenet for a while today, and decided to take my single-player amazon through a pit run to see how well she did. She uses an upgraded WWS with one shael and an empty socket right now. I set the number of players to 5, and was dumbstruck in that she cleared the pit in a 5 player game in nearly the same amount of time as my buriza-wielding realm zon does in a single player game.

The reason that I noticed is that with a larger amount of players in the game, the amp on WWS really gets a chance to shine. Whereas in a single player game, most monsters die in just a couple strafes, not letting the amp have a large effect, monsters lived a bit longer(with 5x the hitpoints, duh). This meant that amp triggered on most groups of monsters(except for devilkin), and between amp and deadly strike, the majority of my attacks did 4x my listed damage. Coupled with the faster attack speed of WWS (at 9/3 after IAS on equipment), she easily outperformed the buriza. This is not nearly as noticeable in single player games, where most things die before the amp gets to have a large effect. If you do single-player pit runs, the WWS doesn't really get it's chance to shine. However, if you MF in multiplayer games, the WWS performs much better than it appears to on paper. There is absolutely no comparison between using her WWS versus the unupgraded goldstrike that she has on switch- the WWS killed things far faster.

If it helps figure out how exactly to figure in the amp damage mod on WWS, I noticed that on average, it would trigger on every other or every third strafe that I did. Statistically, it should be somewhere around every 5 strafes, so I guess I might have been lucky, but then again, piercing and hitting additional targets with the arrows probably helped trigger it more often. In a one-player game, this usually doesn't hit too many creatures, or else it often hits monsters when they are already near death. However, with higher monster hitpoints, they tended to form tighter clumps around my merc/valk and lived longer, meaning I usually got many more monsters amped per casting, and they still had enough hitpoints left when amp went off to make a very significant boost in my damage output.

yeah i am definately gonna try it but i was just a little unsure of the damage. but ill try it out and then form my own opion because that is how i like to find out things first hand ill post back when i get to try it out.

anybody know what fires magic arrows does yet? and how this affects your damage?

Fires lvl20 magic arrows:

When you do a normal attack it would instead fire a lvl20 magic arrow. All the benifits of a lvl20 magic arrow applies to your normal attack.
Such as:
-uses no arrows from your quiver
-Converts 20% of your physical damage to magical damage
-Adds 181% to your attack rating
-Damage +20


If you have ever use a Kuko Shakaku and done a normal attack you would know what I am talking about. Except that bow fires explosive arrows.

wow that is cool too bad it doesnt work with strafe.