Viable hybrid-build?

[Teknocide]

As my first try real try with amazons showed me what great fun you can have with the lightning skills ( :worship: ), i also noticed some weak points, namely LIs and their kin..

Well, this is no news to anyone, but it seems to me that the most commonly suggested course of action against LIs are jab. On my first amazon though, I decided to go with fend. Now, at level 84, she's currently at:

7 preqs in the Javelin-tree
20 CS
20 LS
20 LF
18 Fend
1 to all skills in the Passive & Magic-tree
0 to bow-skills

However, fend doesn't cut it, quite frankly. Even though it does its thing, it's so much slower compared to LF or CS, I rather just turn and run when I see a LI. This course of action does not ring well with what I was looking for, so I am possibly going to erase and rebuild the girl with new skill allocations.

BUT! Before I do anything drastic, I thought I'd bounce my ideas with you guys :)

Ok, so what I was planning was basically a hybrid amazon with focus on the lightning-skills, but with some extra tricks up her sleeve as well.

Planned skillpoint-allocations

In the javelin-tree:

5 - Jab, Power Strike, Poison Javelin, Lightning Bolt, Plague Javelin [preqs]
20 - CS
20 - LS
20 - LF

Passive-tree:

10 - one to each skill

Bow & Crossbow-tree:

1 - Magic Arrow
1 - Multi Shot
7 - Cold Arrow
14 - Freezing arrow

Total sum: 99 skillpoints


The thought behind this is that, with a good bow, I would be able to pump out enough arrows with MS and + to skill-items to kill faster than with Fend at level 20, since it's a faster skill and it can't be "interrupted"
Freezing arrow -- does this have any cast-delay? I've heard Immolation Arrow does -- would take care of the LI+Stone skins coming at me, and would be nice altogether for crowd control purposes.

Is this a viable build? Or will the nerfed damage on Multi Shot bring me down? Will Freezing Arrow really save the day when Javelins and Multi Shot won't do?

Tips and ideas are greatly appreciated!

[wangvicous]

Have you considered poison/strafe. The psn tree has very little syns and though it's spread over about a minute to a minute and a half, you would still have strafe to do damage while the poison is in effect. BTW this is all theory craft.

[Teknocide]

I have considered both poison-skills and strafe, but these two skills have two drawbacks as far as I can see it; many enemies are inherently immune to both lightning and poison, while it is very rare to see a combination such as LI+CI, on a normal monster. Uniques are always a wild card, but that's why I'd have multi shot to dish out some physical damage. I prefer multi shot to strafe simply because you shot your X arrows, and then you're done -- you don't have to stand in one point shooting around like crazy. Further more, since I won't invest heavily into my physical attack, I think it will be easier to actually hit what I want by using multi shot.

[mgill1772]

i say go with bow and play hybrid, i never looked back and i only used like 20 bow points but more woulda been nice, also if u really hope to use +skill to pump up MS from one point dont expect to get over lv 9 or 10 which is decent but i prefer lvl 15 or more, if u hyrbid i think wf is only choice for bow, if not wf then up'd buriza with freeze and no multi or u can use jab. seems like your have already concentrated the jav tree, if u wanna max cs ls and lf y not just do max jab also and use a demon arch.

[Teknocide]

if u wanna max cs ls and lf y not just do max jab also and use a demon arch.
I have tried a demon arch while using fend at level 18. Against multiple enemies this should really do the trick, I figured, but it doesn't. Having to click every monster you want to attack -- as would be the case if I used jab -- isn't a viable choice either. Question is, will MS be strong enough to take stuff out? I have a good buriza :)

By placing 7 points in cold arrow and 14 points in freezing arrow, I would get the highest possible damage with a total of +6 to bow & x-bow skills while using freezing arrow. Also, the mana-cost will be lower than if I had maxed Freezing arrow instead of splitting the skillpoints.

I might pump up MS a tad higher with my lvl 88+ skillpoints. Though I think I'm gonna go with this build! :D
Yay!!

:flip:

[mgill1772]

i cant believe u felt jab was ineffective with demon arch, but ya buriza freezer will work for u, id up it if u have high % one and lvl yer might merc, imo its more fun to play bow on switch n e way. i think buriza is a lil slow with multi no knockback and doesnt always hit; at least with freezer the ice portion will always hit

[flapserdk]

Instead of investing 7 points in CA and 14 in FA, I will recommend that you just put one point in CA and FA, and put more point in the Magic and Passive tree. Critical Strike, Piercing, Valkyrie are all very useful skills, especially Piercing is handy when you use LF.

I have an slvl 90 Hybridzon, and her secondary attack is FA (1 point), and it works great, despite the low cold damage, because the LI monsters are frozen, but my FA has also 2,4 k physical damage (I use WF).

My Ama has been using a Buritza whith great succes (until I got WF hehe). The Buri has a high cold damage and also 100 % piercing) and it is a cheap bow.

Good luck from Necro King

[Teknocide]

I have an slvl 90 Hybridzon, and her secondary attack is FA (1 point), and it works great, despite the low cold damage, because the LI monsters are frozen, but my FA has also 2,4 k physical damage (I use WF).

May I ask what you have in DEX? :) I was planning to go with 75% block and minim str for upgraded ethereal titan's (ie 97) and the rest in VIT. Do I need to boost DEX more to do good damage?

[mgill1772]

what shield/armor would u like to use may be valuable consideration then over str for javs, ss has big str req as does wf, my hybrid sometimes where sacred CoH which has huge str req, str increases jav damage so i dont think too much is necessarily a bad thing, i use around 125 vit in equipment. u may want more, i dunno if u want more damage then put more in dex and str, i can tell u that my hybrid can play n e where in game successfully, and uses prolly like 20 bow points, the rest jav and passive. if i ever remake i would use 30 bow pts prolly as jav is way stronger then bow and many times itjust to use the javs........i mostly made this char into a hybrid cuz i got a wf and eth javs break and have to replen, and if play thru the game alot its can get annoyin to have to wait so havin good bow alternative is really nice. i do think u wanna hit 90 ias if u play with wf and go freezer or multi, its not that hard to do i use ias jewel in wf, shako, loh and highlord. having that ias in shako helps in javs also.

[Denzik]

It looks like you hybrid should work, my experience with killing lightning immunes comes from having a great Merc, and a Great Valkrire... I let them do most of the damagewhile i sit back and ocassionally toss a plague javy. My merc doesn't use anything special, he's got leech life from tal's helm and he uses a mediocre non eth Reapers Toll. He's also holy freeze aura. I only spent 1 point into Jab, and a few in plague javelin. Holy Freeze Slows them, and while he's hitting with the reapers, he's casting decrepify which also further slows them down. This is beneficial to throw some more poison javelins while they're moving in super-slow motion or opt to go with Demon arch and jab, run in and poke till your heart's content! Oh and that valkrie is also a tank at high levels.

Teknocide- Earlier your menioned you see a lot of poinson and lightning immunes? The only poison and lightning immune i've EVER come across is Pindleskin which is once out of every 7 times i run him. Nothing the merc can't handle :)

[Teknocide]

Teknocide- Earlier your menioned you see a lot of poinson and lightning immunes? The only poison and lightning immune i've EVER come across is Pindleskin which is once out of every 7 times i run him. Nothing the merc can't handle :)

There are skeletons all over act 5 that are poison + lightning immune. Non-boss monsters that is.. usually, they cast lightning charges at me and succeed pretty well with killing me :\

I was thinking of getting a buffed up valkyrie to take care of the LIs, but I don't like to rely on mercs or minions to do my killing. A successful build -- in my eyes -- can stand on its own throughout the game, and kill anything that comes up before it without delay.. kinda like a hammerdin ;)

Anyhow, I nixed my old lady (and by that I mean that I removed my old char and started over again) so we'll see how successful or non-successful my build will be. If it works out all right, I might even write a guide! ;)

Cheers all! :drink: