Bow Enchant Sorceress Build

Bow Enchant Sorceress Build Introduction

The Bow Enchant Sorceress is a meta build that’s a lot of fun to play with. It relies on Enchant, Explosive Arrow and Pierce to deal damage on an area. It can clear dense areas like the Cow Level surprisingly fast, and with a Fire Sunder charm it has no enemies to resist its damage. The equipment is quite surprising, as the best Fire Explosive damage dealing weapon is the incredibly cheap Kuko Shakaku. However in order to have an effective build, heavy investment is required to reach a high level Enchant.

The Bow Enchantress has a very unique playstyle. It has great survivability, as it attacks monsters from a distance, and with each hit the monsters need to recover before they can continue to approach you, making Fire Explosive Arrow a great skill to keep distance from monsters.

The obvious skill of choice for movement is teleportation, however this build won’t have a lot of FCR. Instead you should aim to have a high increased attack speed to shoot as many arrows in as little time as possible. Due to the special gear needed to be effective in PvM, this build is not an effective magic finder. 

Related Guides

Melee Sorceress Build | Foh Paladin Build | Berserk Barbarian Build | Meteor Sorceress Build

Gameplay

Attacking skills: You will use normal shooting as your main attack skill. Each shot will deliver a huge amount of damage (up to 30-40k), making you able to one-hit most monsters, especially if your merc wears an infinity. Farming the Cow level and other dense areas with this build grants you a very fun experience! You will also have plenty of attack rating thanks to your high level Enchant, so most arrows will hit their target.

Movement: You will use Teleport for movement, however you won’t have high FCR% to teleport at a fast pace.

Survivability: Compared to other sorc builds, the Bow Enchant sorc has very good survivability. This is partly due to the mechanics of Fire Explosive Arrow, and partly due to the playstyle, namely staying away from monsters and shooting from a distance. If you have Call to Arms or a Battle Order casting barbarian in your party, you will almost always be safe, even if you play hardcore. Having 75% all resistance on hell is a must, so if needed, buy resistance charms. You can also wear some damage reduction gear, such as the Verdungo belt or Crown of Ages. Always have Frozen Armor and Energy Shield casted on yourself. At higher levels you will be able to max out your Energy Shield, which will boost your survivability immensely.

Party and Solo play: The only difference between party and solo play will be casting Enchant on non-caster party members to boost Attack Rating and Fire damage. A high level enchant can almost double each party member’s damage. Your party will also benefit from your merc’s Infinity if you can afford one.

Magic Find: The build is not viable for Magic Finding

Stats

Strength: Have just enough strength to wear your gear

Dexterity: Have just enough dexterity to wear your gear.

Vitality: You can put a few points on it, but spare most of your stat points for Energy

Energy: Put all your remaining points on it

At higher levels, you can max out your Energy Shield with its Telekinesis synergy. At that point you can switch to an all-mana build by resetting your stat and skill points, and putting every available point on Energy. 

Skill Points

Fire Skill Tree:

• Max out Warmth
• Max out Enchant
• Max out Fire Mastery

Lightning Skill Tree:

• Put a point on Energy Shield’s prerequisites
• Max out Energy Shield
• Remaining skill points on Telekinesis

Cold Skill Tree:

• Put a point on Frozen Armor

Bow Enchant Sorceress Gearing Options

Helms

• Flickering Flame Runeword Helm ➤ The obvious helm of choice, also compensates for Fire Sunder resists

Amulets

• Mara’s Kaleidoscope ➤ The best choice for balanced defense and offense.
• Highlord’s Wrath ➤ The most offensive
• Metalgrid  ➤ A nice attack rating and defense booster

Body Armors

• Chains of Honor ➤ The best armor choice, adds +skill and resistances
• Skin of the Vipermagi ➤ An optimal choice if you want to teleport to bosses
• Ormus’ Robe ➤ The best for offense, ideally with +Fire Mastery
• Skullder’s Ire ➤ The best Magic Finding option.
• Stealth Runeword ➤ A good budget ladder starter.

Weapons

• Kuko Shakaku Bow ➤ A budget weapon that’s a cornerstone of this build. Socket it with Shael rune.

Shields

• None

Switch Weapons

• Call to Arms ➤ Almost doubles survivability with Battle Orders, every build needs a CTA.

Switch Shields

• Spirit Monarch ➤ Boosts Call to Arms’ Battle Orders and Battle Command

Rings

• Raven Frost ➤ Great for survivability and attack rating boost
• Stone of Jordan ➤ Best for damage boost and +mana
• Rare Ring ➤ 10% FCR, Triple resist rings are optimal choices

Gloves

• Frostburn ➤ Ideal for defensive purposes, adds a lot of mana for Energy Shield
• Magefist  ➤ Optimal for both FCR and +fire skill, the best offensive gloves

Belts

• Razortail ➤ A must have item for Pierce
• Nightsmoke ➤ A decent budget ladder starter.

Boots

• Triple resist 30% FRW boots ➤ The best choice for survivability

Charms

• Annihilus ➤ A must have item for every build.
• Sorceress Hellfire Torch ➤ Another must have item.
• Fire Sunder charm ➤ Another must have item to remove immunities
• +1 to Fire skills grand charm ➤ If you can afford it, try to have them with +life or +FHR 
• + All resistances small charm ➤  If you can afford it, try to have them with +life.
• + Life small charm ➤  If you can afford it, try to have them with +mana.

Sockets/Jewels

• Fire Rainbow Facet ➤ The best choice for damage boosting.
• Ist rune ➤ The best choice for Magic Finding.
• Um rune ➤ Use it for allresist boosting if needed.
• Perfect Diamond ➤ Can use it instead of Um runes in shields and helms.

Mercenary

Have an Act2 mercenary with Holy Freeze aura for crowd control.

Ethereal items don’t lose durability if your mercenary wears them, so having ethereal item bases for each gear slot is preferred due to the increased defense on armor items and increased damage on weapons. In many instances ethereal items that are great for mercenaries will be much more expensive than non-ethereal ones.

Mercenary gear:

Helm

• Any 3 socketed helm with 3 perfect diamond  ➤ increase mercenary resistances and survivability
• Tal Rasha’s set helm  ➤  a decent choice
• Vampire Gaze unique helm -  ➤ another decent choice
• Andariel’s Visage unique helm ➤ the best helm choice, socket it with 15%IAS jewel

Weapon

• Insight runeword  ➤ provides meditation aura so you never run out of mana
• Tomb Reaver unique weapon ➤ the highest mercenary damage choice
• Infinity runeword ➤ the best choice for offense if you can afford it

Body Armor

• Treachery runeword ➤ great for both defense and offense, a budget choice
• Fortitude runeword  ➤ the best choice for both defense and offense

If you'd rather skip farming you can quickly buy D2R Items from our D2R Store.