doughboy’s PvM Plague & Fury Javazon Guide v1.10

[doughboy]

doughboy’s PvM Plague & Fury Javazon Guide v1.10

INTRODUCTION

“Poison is for noobs!” That’s the comment I read most when I play in public games. When I tell them I do 100K damage, they say “it’s over, like, 20 minutes noob!” So, I stop throwing Plague Javelins (PJ) and party members start dying. Who’s the noob now?! Also, the party can then clearly see that it takes longer to kill monsters without the aid of my Plague Javelins.

I created this guide to educate and enlighten players who want a successful 1.10 Amazon that can also solo and do well in 8 player games. If you’re a seasoned Diablo II freak (like I am), you already know that Lightning Fury (LF) is a tremendous monster killer. If it weren’t for those pesky Lightning Immunes (LI), LF would be all you ever needed. I have read other Amazon guides that combine bow skills with LF, that use Valkyries to kill LIs, and even other LF/PJ guides. I was never happy with the outcome of hybrids, Valks take way too long to kill, and the current guides for LF/PJ Amazons aren’t able to legitimately kill with poison. I decided to take a fresh approach:

Make a Poison Javazon with Lightning as a secondary skill.

Plague Javelins can do enormous damage, but is heavily reliant on +skills items and poison skill (pskill) enhancing items (Trang Oul's Heavy Bracer's is your new best friend). Also, poison damage takes time to kill. A Poison Javazon will have to find a way to survive until the poison kills the monsters.

With these two challenges to overcome you must ask, why put LF second to PJ? Simple, LF is a good killer without synergies and is not as item dependent. Really, this is all you need to understand when making a good PJ/LF Amazon.

POISON/PLAGUE JAVELIN EXPLAINED

-Each hard point placed in Poison Javelin (PoJ) enhances the damage of Plague Javelin
-Each point placed in Plague Javelin will enhance the damage of Plague Javelin but also increases the time that the poison lasts. It’s best to compare poison damage per second when choosing between your +skills gear and your pskill gear (see tables below).
-Poison DOES NOT stack.
-Plague Javelin has a 4 second casting delay (you cannot cast Plague Javelin, Valkyrie or Poison Javelin for 4 seconds) after throwing a Plague Javelin.
-Poison Javelin has a 0.5 seconds casting delay (you cannot cast Plague Javelin, Valkyrie or Poison Javelin for 0.5 seconds) after throwing a Poison Javelin.

INCREASED ATTACK SPEED

IAS will only enhance your LF and Jab attacks. Some suggest that IAS is not necessary since LF has the ability to kill large packs with one attack. I find that this is the exception rather than the rule. Not all monsters will be in tight packs and you will definitely need more than one LF attack to kill them. It's quite easy to reach the 11 frame break point so I recommend that as a goal. Do you need IAS? It's entirely up to you. It definitely does not help your poison attacks and wearing IAS gear takes away from poison skill enhancing gear. However, you'll find that you'll be using LF just as often as PJ and IAS will make the monster-slaying go smoother.

+SKILL vs PSKILL ITEMS

The dilema: You must wear a lot of +skills items to increase your Plague Javelin damage, but Trang's gloves and Bramble armor replace items that can give +skills. Remember, don't be fooled by the total damage listed in Character window. Each additional skill point to Plague Javelin raises the total damage, but also adds time to the attack. The best way to compare the damage is to convert it into damage per second (see table below for samples).

There is a breakpoint where pskill items produce higher damage than +skill items. A classic example is the decision between +3 Javelin skill gloves and Trang's gloves. If you are not wearing any pskill items, you will produce more damage with +3 Javelin skill gloves for Plague Javelin up to level 34. If you acheive Plague Javelin level 35 with +3 Javelin skill gloves, you should switch over to Trang's gloves. You would produce more damage with Trang's gloves at level 32 Plague Javelin rather than +3 Javelin Gloves at level 35 Plague Javelin.

PLAGUE JAVELIN AND DUELING

The Amazon’s PoJ and PJ damage can get up over 100k. Sounds like a great player killer build doesn’t it? Not really. The problem is delivering the poison. The following factors cripple a PvP Plague & Fury Javazon:
- Casting delay of 4 seconds for Plague Javelin
- Plague Javelin only travels a limited distance before exploding
- Poison Javelin has low damage per second
- Does not always hit. Sometimes, monsters or hostiled players can walk through the poison cloud and not be affected

When your PoJs and PJs do land, there are still more challenges to overcome:
- Paladins and Assasins have skills that reduce the length of poison
- Poison takes time to kill
- Poison won't actually kill your opponent, you'll need an additional hit to win the match
- Some opponents will run into town after getting hit

I must say, even though I die a lot, my Plague & Fury Amazon is very fun to duel with. I change my strategy depending on the opponent. If they can teleport, I spam PoJ, if it lands I’ll finish them off with LF. If they can’t teleport, I’ll take my chances with PJ (and the crippling 4 second cast delay). I have, on occasion, killed godly Barbs and Paladins with a regimen of PJs and LFs. Of course, some big-time luck with evade and blocking helps. However, most enemies are able to avoid my attack, and when they don’t, they can still kill me before the poison takes its course.

SKILLS

Javelin & Spear Skills
1 Jab (a one point wonder)
20 Poison Javelin
1 Lightning Bolt
20 Plague Javelin
20 Lightning Fury

Magic & Passive Skills
1 in all passive skills (your gear will take you up to the appropriate levels)
20 Valkyrie

Recommendation for Rest of Points (in no particular order)
Decoy – gives Valk extra life and adds an extra tank
Pierce – this helps LF a lot (try not to go over level 16 including items due to diminishing returns)
Charged Strike – good against groups and has good synergy with LF
Power Strike – higher damage than Charged Strike and has good synergy with LF
Lightning Strike – lower damage than Charged Strike but Chain Lightning can kill faster
Lightning Bolt – not highly recommended since it has lower synergy with LF

MERCENARY

You want a tank! Only an Act 2 or Act 5 mercenary need apply. Your Mercenary along with your Valkyrie will attract most monsters away from you and will also crowd them into big packs. Throw a couple LFs or PJs and they’re toast! I recommend Defiance and Holy Freeze Act 2 Mercs. Act 5 Mercs are a good choice if you don’t want to go through the hassle of leveling your Merc.

STATS

Strength – enough to hold your gear
Dexterity – I recommend enough dex points for max blocking (see table below)
Vitality – everything you can spare
Energy – base (Meh, you can buy mana pots from NPCs in 1.10)

GEAR

Listed below is my recommended gear. You want to get the highest +skill possible while balancing Enhanced Poison Skill Damage, Increased attack speed (IAS), Resistances, and Mana/Life refill techniques (leech and per kill). Feel free to try your own combinations.

Helm
Crown of Ages – +1 skill, damage reduction, resists. I recommend two IAS jewels or poison facets.
Mavina’s Diadem – you get enough IAS to reach a decent breakpoint and also get +1 skill if you use the belt.
Harelquin Crest (Shako) – +2 skills, damage reduction, magic find, it’s good for any character.

Armor
Bramble – really expensive, but can give your PJ a mega-boost in damage. Not to mention resists, 13 life per kill, and 50% faster hit recovery! (I recommend an Archon plate. Zons just look badass in them!)
Chains of Honor – +2 skills, 65 resists, damage reduction.
Skin of Vipermagi - +1 skill and up to 50 resist (with Um Rune).
Arcane’s Valor – +1 or +2 skills, faster hit recovery, and vitality.

Belt
Mavina’s – only to be used with diadem. Mana leech, 20 strength (2 item bonus).
Thundergod’s Vigor – the natural choice. +3 LF, +3 Power Strike, 20 Strength, 20 Vitality, Lightning absorb.
Arachnid Mesh – +1 skill
Razor Tail – Piercing Attack (33) and 15 Dexterity

Gloves
Trang Oul’s Heavy Bracers – your best friend.
Rare/Magic Javelin Skill gloves – any +skills to javelin are nice. Try to find some with IAS as well.

Boots
Silkweave – I like these for the +mana per kill (and you can kill a lot with LF/PJ)
Sandstorm Trek – fast hit recovery, strength, vitality, poison resist.
Marrowwalk – strength, dexterity, and bone prison charges!
Waterwalk – dexterity, life, defense vs. missile.
War Traveler – magic find, strength, vitality.

Rings
Stone of Jordon x2 – I tried Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band but ran into mana problems.

Amulet
Mara’s Kaleidescope – +2 skills, +5 attributes, resists!
Rare Ammulet – look for +2 skills, resists, and mana leech
Eye of Etlich – +1 skill, life leech
Highlord’s Wrath – +1 skill, IAS

Weapon
Titan’s revenge – +skills, life leech, replenishing. Your only choice.
Call to Arms – on weapon switch for Battle Orders

Shield
Sigon’s Tower – What!? Yep, read it again. +1 skill, high chance to block.
Stormshield – damage reduction, resists.
Monarch with 4 Sockets – you can achieve -20 resistance/20 enhanced poison or lightning damage!
Headhunter’s Glory – resists and maximum of 3 sockets.
Lidless wall – for use with CTA on weapon switch. Otherwise, only use this if you are not going to block.

INVENTORY

Annihilus – duh.
Javelin skill charms – as many as you want to carry. Each additional +skill gives increasingly higher poison damage (see table below). This is due to the multiplier from poison skill enhancing items (Trang’s gloves, Bramble, and Poison Facets). These items multiply the poison damage after +skills items, so more +skills items means more damage!
Resist charms – focus on lightning and fire resist.
Faster hit recovery – see table below for break points.
Life charms – life is always good.

MY SETUP

Helm – Mavina’s Diadem /w Poison Facet
Armor – 45 pskill Bramble Archon
Belt – Mavina’s
Gloves – Trang’s
Boots – Silkweave
Rings – SoJ x2
Amulet – Mara’s
Weapon – Ethereal Titan’s
Weapon Switch - CTA & Lidless
Shield – Sigon’s with Perfect Diamond
Inventory – Annihilus, 6 Java charms, cube, and 2 tomes

Plague Javelin damage with my setup - 81330 Max Total Damage (4569/sec)

ULTIMATE POISON SETUP

Helm – Shako /w Poison Facet
Armor – 50 pskill Bramble Archon
Belt – Arachnid's Mesh
Gloves – Trang’s
Boots – Silkweave
Rings – SoJ x2
Amulet – Mara’s
Weapon – Ethereal Titan’s
Weapon Switch - CTA & Lidless
Shield – 4 Facet Monarch
Inventory – Annihilus, 10 Java charms

Plague Javelin damage with this setup - 131236 Max Total Damage (6628/sec)

PLAYER vs. MONSTER STORY

My Zon was around level 50, I was leveling in Nightmare doing Baal runs in an 8 player game. This guy with a Barb says “poison is for noobs, go home noob!” So I tell him that I do 70k poison damage and he says “over like, 20 minutes noob!” I say “whatever…” and I stop throwing my Plague Javelins. True story: he and 3 other players died! At this point, we were doing Lister’s crew and the whole party was getting knocked around and stunned. Once they died, I started throwing Plague Javelins again and Lister’s crew dropped dead in about 10 seconds. I felt bad for the other players who died, but I needed to make my point. Poison can kill!

PLAYER vs. PLAYER ADVICE

I have dueled experienced duelers and newbies. Against the newbies, I win about 75% of the time. I usually throw one Plague Javelin, if it lands, they’re dead. Against the seasoned duelers, I die about 80% of the time. The odd time that I win, it’s because I stay alive long enough for the poison to drain my opponent down to 1 life. I have to first get lucky enough to either hit them with a javelin or make them run through my poison cloud. It can take anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds for their life to drain. If I’m against a melee char, I’ll try to tank and finish them off with Jab or LF. If I’m against a caster, I’ll run around avoiding their attacks and throw LFs. I find I have the most success vs. Barbarians and Paladins (except Smiters). Any well-built dueler will own you.

CONCLUSION

My Plague & Fury Javazon is by far my funnest PvM character to play. Sure, poison takes a more time to kill; sure, the cast delay is hella-annoying; and sure, LF is a mana-*****, but I just love the ability to kill big packs of monsters with one click of the mouse! I also love watching the monsters’ life semi-slowly drain away (it’s not that slow if you follow my guide!).

TABLES

Faster Hit Recovery Table

FHR ----- Frames
0% -------- 11
6% -------- 10
13% ------- 9
20% ------- 8
32% ------- 7
52% ------- 6
86% ------- 5
174% ----- 4
600% ----- 3

Increased Attack Speed Table

IAS - Frames per attack - Attacks per Second
0% ----------- 14 -------------------- 1.7
6% ----------- 13 -------------------- 1.9
16% --------- 12 -------------------- 2
30% --------- 11 -------------------- 2.2
52% --------- 10 -------------------- 2.5
89% ---------- 9 --------------------- 2.7

Dexterity required to reach max block of 75%

Char Level - Sigon's - Stormshield - Headhunter's
70 ------------- 167 --------- 161 ------------ 248
75 ------------- 178 --------- 171 ------------ 265
80 ------------- 189 --------- 182 ------------ 282
85 ------------- 200 --------- 192 ------------ 298
90 ------------- 211 --------- 203 ------------ 315
95 ------------- 222 --------- 213 ------------ 332

Poison Damage Table I (Max total damage)

I have posted the maximum total poison damage and maximum poison damage per second for Plague Javelin skill levels 30 to 40 while wearing poison skill enhancing gear. The two scenarios that I have included are (1) Trangs glove, which is 25% enhanced poison damage and (2) Trangs glove plus 45% enhance poison damage, which can be achieved by wearing a 40% bramble plus a poison facet. These figures illustrate the relationship between +skill items and poison skill enhancing items. These tables assume 20 skill points in both Poison Javelin and Plague Javelin (synergies maxed).

Skill ------ Plague Javelin Total Damage-------
Level ------- 0%ED ----- 25%ED ---- 70%ED
30 ----------- 21694 ----- 27118 ----- 36880
31 ----------- 24398 ----- 30498 ----- 41477
32 ----------- 27214 ----- 34018 ----- 46264
33 ----------- 30143 ----- 37679 ----- 51243
34 ----------- 33184 ----- 41480 ----- 56413
35 ----------- 36338 ----- 45423 ----- 61775
36 ----------- 39604 ----- 49505 ----- 67327
37 ----------- 42983 ----- 53729 ----- 73071
38 ----------- 46474 ----- 58093 ----- 79006
39 ----------- 50078 ----- 62598 ----- 85133
40 ----------- 53794 ----- 67243 ----- 91450

Poison Damage Table II (Max poison damage per second)

Skill -- Plague Javelin Damage per second --
Level ------- 0%ED ----- 25%ED ---- 70%ED
30 ----------- 1486 ------- 1857 ------- 2526
31 ----------- 1627 ------- 2033 ------- 2765
32 ----------- 1767 ------- 2209 ------- 3004
33 ----------- 1908 ------- 2385 ------- 3243
34 ----------- 2048 ------- 2560 ------- 3482
35 ----------- 2189 ------- 2736 ------- 3721
36 ----------- 2330 ------- 2912 ------- 3960
37 ----------- 2470 ------- 3088 ------- 4199
38 ----------- 2611 ------- 3264 ------- 4439
39 ----------- 2752 ------- 3439 ------- 4678
40 ----------- 2892 ------- 3615 ------- 4917


SPECIAL THANKS
Blizzard – for making this addictive, crack-cocaine-like game!
NJaguar & Rishodi – for helping me become wealthy (in 1.09) thus allowing me to obtain all my gear.
D2items.com – for providing an excellent skill planer.
Diablo2.de – for providing the IAS table.
Namelezz – for providing the FHR table.
Unknown – someone posted a pure Poison Javazon guide on d2jsp forums, but I don’t remember his name. Please pm if you’re reading this now. You spent the remainder of your skill points beefing up your Valk.
Toorn88 – for helpful suggestions.
Shanksie1337 – for helpful suggestions.
basvanlola – for helpful suggestions.
det – brought up the +skill vs pskill discussion.
Some kid on Bnet – who helped me test out poison stacking.

[Parapsycho]

Good guide!
Im starting one Now in SP, so it will be mostly untwinked at the start. I dont get to do much trading...

[Teknocide]

- Poison won't actually kill your opponent, you'll need an additional hit to win the match


From what I've heard on these forums, poison from skills can actually kill. I haven't confirmed this myself.

[ConFusion]

Very nice guide dude, good job :)

I might even start playing diablo again and test this poison thingy. Nah... maybe later ;)

[doughboy]

From what I've heard on these forums, poison from skills can actually kill. I haven't confirmed this myself.

just to clarify for everyone, this applies to PvP only.

i've done some testing and am quit experienced with this. it's not actually poison that kills. some people think it's cold damage. i myself am not sure what it is. it's possible to get a one hit kill on a player, but this player must have low life and low poison resistance. i get my one hit kills against players that are around level 60. if i go against level 80 chars, i no longer achieve one hit kills.

also, if you ask a pure poisonmancer how he kills, he'll tell you he'd be up a creek without his fire golem ;)

[Sephiroth[TR]]

i dueled a poison ama and i notice when i got 1 life and i walk in to another one of those poison cloud i die !! and no im not being hit but just walk in to a cloud can kill...

and poison necro only needs to do 2 nova and everything is usually dead :/ the first one reduce to 1 life second kils...

[blockcipher]

This sounds very similar to a guide that was created pre-LoD. It's BrianDNA's Javazon guide. I believe you can still find it at either the Amazon Basin or the Lurker Lounge. It's a bit more in depth, but very outdated. Still, it's a good read.

[tl998]

Wow... SoJ x2 as the ONLY choice you put up there. Can this build do well untwinked or nearly untwinked in PVM?

[doughboy]

perhaps i was a bit hasty there. dual bul kathos' rings would do. and then ravenfrost, dwarf star, or wisp for their absorb properties (pretty standard stuff).

thanks for you feed back :thumbsup:

[Angry]

i think you should change out your +jav gloves to +passive gloves.

+2 to jav gloves will increase your fury and your plague dmg (synergies don't work with +skills right?) so each +1 to jav skills gives you 2 points of worthwhile skills

+2 passive gloves increase your dodge/avoid/evade valkyrie, critical hit, penetrate, pierce, and decoy. so each +1 passive gives you 6-8 points, depending how you focus

for skills where you aim for a certain number (d/a/e, valk, pierce, crit) passive charms and gloves free up those points

for instance on my old javazons i would always aim for 75% pierce and 50% d/a/e and i would wear +2 passive gloves w/ 20 ias and 2-3 passive charms.

so that means you need 12/7/12 for d/a/e and 12 for pierce to hit the numbers i choose for my build, wearing +5 to passive skills (not including titans) i would only have to get 7/2/7 and 7 respectively for those passives to get my numbers, for those 4 skills i saved myself 20 skill points. those points can go into maxing poison for synergy, maxing jab as an alternative attack, points into GA for a hybrid, valkyrie, etc.

with titans revenge, which still seems the main weapon for javazons, +2 passive gloves and 2 or 3 passive charms, the cost of your passive skills decrease by a huge amount, which wearing gear with javazon skills only raises the effective dmg for a few skills, because synergies don't increase with +skills. meanwhile the points you saved in the passive tree can definately increase your dmg output as well as your balance.

i also don't suggest going out of your way to look for +skill items or passive grand charms. +4 or 5 is great already, more than +7 is excessive and isn't worth the sacrifice of run/walk charms, resist, etc...

[doughboy]

i think you should change out your +jav gloves to +passive gloves.

+2 to jav gloves will increase your fury and your plague dmg (synergies don't work with +skills right?) so each +1 to jav skills gives you 2 points of worthwhile skills

+1 or +2 to LF doesn't make that much of a difference. Boosting the synergies for LF is the BEST way to do optimal LF damage. in my guide, if you actually read it, i included a breakpoint where trangs gloves give more POISON damage than +skill gloves.

+2 passive gloves increase your dodge/avoid/evade valkyrie, critical hit, penetrate, pierce, and decoy. so each +1 passive gives you 6-8 points, depending how you focus

for skills where you aim for a certain number (d/a/e, valk, pierce, crit) passive charms and gloves free up those points

My Zon has around level 12 passive skills (boosted by my +skills items) which I think is sufficient. critical hit & penetrate are not useful for a POISON & LIGHTNING BUILD. my valk is level 32. do i really need to take her to level 34? the answer is NO.

...synergies don't increase with +skills. meanwhile the points you saved in the passive tree can definately increase your dmg output as well as your balance.

i also don't suggest going out of your way to look for +skill items or passive grand charms. +4 or 5 is great already, more than +7 is excessive and isn't worth the sacrifice of run/walk charms, resist, etc...

remember, i never suggested ANY passive grand charms. you were the one who suggested them. try making a POISON javazon without any java grand charms... your damage will be very low compared to mine. REMEMBER, we're emphasizing POISON too, not just Lightning.

and thank you for "reading" my guide. however, i do suggest you browse through it again. my build emphasizes +skill items to boost Poison skills. not +skills to boost passive skills.

[gvandale]

just to let you know the deal on poison, you can reduce someone to 1 hp with an initial 'poisoning' and then would need to trigger it again to kill them.

pn necro's need 2 pn's to kill
pj ama's need 2 pj's to kill
rabies druids just need to run after 1 hit (dont know why they are 'special)

this is fact, and i've seen it time and time again. especially since i have a sick pn neccy

g

[Cario]

Hi,

I converted my old java zon from 1.09 to 1.10 to a poison zon (well I did have 40 skill points spare), and she was quite a blast. (well she still had a low lev valk, but I couldn't bother rebuilding her fully)
Since I didn't have all the poison gear (aka Bramble and tangs gloves) I still found myself using LF more than either of the poison skills in 8 player hell runs. For solo or low player number games this build is quite effectivethough; even without the high end gear. I ended up having about +12 java skills with gear and charms, which was comfortable enough.

On a related note...
I've got a question to max out your poison damage. Has anybody tried to use deaths web wand on a zon yet? My thinking is that since you can throw a PJ towards a monster/opponent, the damage part of the skill hasn't taken affect yet. If I then switch to the wand, the enemy poison resistance should be lowered by 40-50%. Does this mean that my damage from the javlin would be increased by the same ration while I'm on deaths switch?
I'm sure this would be a fun effect in PVP, with a sudden increase in damage.

Cheers,
Cario

[doughboy]

On a related note...
I've got a question to max out your poison damage. Has anybody tried to use deaths web wand on a zon yet? My thinking is that since you can throw a PJ towards a monster/opponent, the damage part of the skill hasn't taken affect yet. If I then switch to the wand, the enemy poison resistance should be lowered by 40-50%. Does this mean that my damage from the javlin would be increased by the same ration while I'm on deaths switch?
I'm sure this would be a fun effect in PVP, with a sudden increase in damage.


i've done this on baal. the -50poison resistance sounds great, but it only reduces killing time by a small amount.

in pvp, the -50 isn't necessary. i can take opponents down to 1 life in about 3-10 seconds.

[Angry]

+1 or +2 to LF doesn't make that much of a difference. Boosting the synergies for LF is the BEST way to do optimal LF damage. in my guide, if you actually read it, i included a breakpoint where trangs gloves give more POISON damage than +skill gloves.

items which give + skills do not boost synergies. so gear which adds to LF and other related skills does not boost the dmg any more than 1 hard point into LF would. i know you need all your +skills for your plague, but for LF it doesn't matter.

My Zon has around level 12 passive skills (boosted by my +skills items) which I think is sufficient. critical hit & penetrate are not useful for a POISON & LIGHTNING BUILD. my valk is level 32. do i really need to take her to level 34? the answer is NO.

i realize you have higher +skills than most, no you don't need any higher valkyrie, but in your guide you suggest +jav skill gloves, and i was saying that +passive gloves are better. if you have high end equipment then of course its not a problem, but if you're going with medium range gear without all of the +skills you have, then +passives make much more of a difference. if you only have, i'll pick an arbitrary number, say +5 to all skills and +2 to jav skills from titans, and you're looking at either +jav skill gloves or +passive gloves. now yes, the +jav skills will increase your dmg on plague and extend the time for about .8 seconds, fine. but because you have less +skills items, you have to put more than 1 point into each of your passive skills, which might mean that someone couldn't afford to max poison jav. if you were instead to wear +2 passives, you could afford 2 more points into poison javelin, say, and increase the dmg by 20%.

now this is all hypothetical, however i'm suggesting that you add +passives gloves to your guide simply because in cases where the high end gear isn't available, +passive skills gloves have proven, to me, to be more accessable and effective than any other glove out there for a javazon. when you get better gear, more options definately show up, however when you have very few +skills, i feel that passives are the ones for which you should look to aquire first.

remember, i never suggested ANY passive grand charms. you were the one who suggested them. try making a POISON javazon without any java grand charms... your damage will be very low compared to mine. REMEMBER, we're emphasizing POISON too, not just Lightning.

and thank you for "reading" my guide. however, i do suggest you browse through it again. my build emphasizes +skill items to boost Poison skills. not +skills to boost passive skills.

i think there was a misunderstanding with the passive skill charms. i didn't mean to imply that you had suggested them; i brought them up but suggested that they're not that important. i realize that java charms are more important for your build.

i realize that your build boosts +poison skills, it is one of your build's staple skills. on the otherhand, i think you should take into account the readers who might not be able to gather the +12 skills on the items which you have. i don't think it would be a very good idea for a character with lesser gear to run around with low passives for slightly better killing speed, the focus on killing speed can only come after the minimal requirement for staying alive is met, and i strongly believe that decent passives are part of that requirement.

anyhow whether or not you like or use my advice is your descretion, i mean only to comment constructively, i don't want you to get the impression that i don't like your build or gear choice etc, i'm simply giving some advice that i think might help your guide, as a compendium guide writer myself, i simply realized that your gear portion is fairly high end, which makes your guide less accessable, and i believe the point of a guide is to try to get as many people to try it as possible.

anyhow i'm ranting again, your guide is very complete, and it looks viable. i was asked, when i wrote, to include the stats of my javazon, and maybe it'd be nice for you to do the same. it gives players a solid goal, or target, of the final product. they can see how much life and str and take a look at the skill levels etc. i didn't mean to give the impression that i thought badly of your guide earlier, just i had a few suggestions is all, good luck

[ShakeitLikeasin]

Interesting guide doughboy, I am gathering the gear for my first javazon and I think I'm going to use your build. Here' my question though, can I make a viable PJ/LF build with an enigma armor? I try to make all my characters strong enough to tele to baal in an 8 person hell game (my own kind of test), survive long enough to throw up a tp, and then let everyone else jump in. Here's my potential set-up:

Helm: Mavina's, shako, or CoA (1 soc), (5/5 poison or 5/4 light facet waiting)
Armor: Enigma
Gloves: Trang's gloves or laying of hands
Belt: T'gods, Mavina's, or any other belt
Kicks: Silkweaves
Ammy: Maras
Rings: Soj and raven frost
Weapon: Eth upped titan's
Shield: SS, Sigon's, or 4 socket Monarch (not sure what I would socket it with).

I'm certainly going to make her and play around with the gear, but I wanted to see if you had tested yours with an enigma. Thanks in advance.

[doughboy]

yes ShakeitLikeasin, it's certainly viable. you won't have damage as high as mine, but you will still be able to kill monsters quickly. however, you might feel weaker when joining games with more than 4 people.

[danc133]

I thought I'd add one thing as an option to help some players that don't have the high end gear (us poor people) or the ones that also play alot of SP. While leveling up and even end game having a wand with charges of Lower Resist can be a big help. Even a lvl 1 lower resist grants a -31% to poison. I have seen them spawn from NPC's with lvl2 which is -37% a 5+ radius and a 22 sec duration. This can work well if you herd the critters, curse, poison with your pierce causing it to trigger a couple times. I love doing this with my hybrid, (which leans more towards lightning) the concept is similar, and cast my decoy on top of them to hold them a second.

just my $2 worth (.02 with inflation)

First round is on me :drink: :buddies:

[doughboy]

nice tip! i'll drink to that :drink:

[ConFusion]

Just a question to doughboy: Do you think this build is viable without a lot of +skill gear? Like +5 or so all skills in the end w/ TO gloves, no facets and no bramble.

[doughboy]

Just a question to doughboy: Do you think this build is viable without a lot of +skill gear? Like +5 or so all skills in the end w/ TO gloves, no facets and no bramble.

sorry, it's not a poor-man's build :(

you really need the +skills and/or bramble to be able to kill with poison.

imo, the best PvM cheapy builds are summon necros and hammerdins