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View Full Version : The Dexabrid - LF/Strafe - Titans/uWWS try one today :D


Shanksie1337
24-07-2004, 21:00
Hi Folks

Don’t worry, it’s not another 6000 word guide, it’s meant to be a brief introduction into a char I have just finished as I think others may be interested in this build. I also want to say from the start that I don’t claim this build to be an original great leap of amazon character building theory, it’s more of a “I have had lots of fun with her, so I’ll post and see if anyone else fancies it” kinda thread

She came into existence as I was running out of character spaces on my play account and I was thinking I wanted to make a Upp’ed WWS (UWWS) strafer, but I didn’t want to delete my LF cowazon so I thought I’d make a LF/Strafe hybrid, then whilst having a look on the forums I got reading Sorcyones base vita-zon guide and decided that whilst I was at it I’d have a base life zon.

Taking this further I decided to try base str aswell, and the Dexabrid was born.



So onto some details:

Stats:
Str = base (if possible, otherwise as low as you can manage)
Dex = all
Vita = base
Energy = base

Skills:
20 LF
20 Strafe
20 Penetrate*
17 Valk**
1 into each pre req and 1 into the rest of the passives.

*base penetrate is a possibility but I am too lazy to bother swapping out a Demon Limb every time I start a new game.
** I usually max Valk and decided to try her at slvl 17 for a change – more can be added here as desired.



Equipment:

As this is not meant to be a guide I will simply list what to wear and why, and I may offer the occasional alternative. Feel free to wear what u want tho!

UWWS “ShaelShael” = DS *clvl, 40 res, Amp damage and 40IAS when sheal’d.
Shako “IAS” = I don’t want a low life base vita zon and +2 skills, 10 PDR, MF, and mana are always good.
Skullders “IAS” = She doesn’t have massive amounts of mf and this armour gives me about 1/3 of her total. Yes I know an Enigma here would solve the str issue, but I will never own an enigma as it’s over-rated pvp tosh, and yes I can easily afford one. Besides I need something I can put an IAS jewel in.
Razortail = 15 dex and 33% pierce.
Laying of Hands = 20 IAS + huge boost vs demons.
Cat’s Eye = +25 dex +20 IAS
Ravenfrost = 20 dex, good AR, Damage and CBF.
Dual Leech ring = The only “hard” item to get as ideally you want dual leech + str.
WT’s = +str +vita and + damage.
Titans = Obvious choice really.
Splendor = +skill, mf, +mana.
Anni = 20 stats where possible, but the higher the better. Not too vital if you go the Enigma route (shame on you:p).

Merc:
Gaze
Shaftstop
Reapers Toll

With this setup she can easily solo anywhere in the game because she has:
Speed: 110 IAS and 8/2 strafe
Versatility: 3 types of damage, Lightning, Physical and Magical plus Amp + Decrep to help remove PI.
Damage: 1-1000 LF for crowds, 700- 1100 strafe with ~90% of double damage, lvl 20 MA from UWWS.
Block: Due to massive dex she will have max block with any shield in LF mode.

Con’s
Have to wait until a high level to be able to wear full gear, either for Enigma or Anni, but levelling up is fairly easy, once you get to lvl 25 put on a Mahim-Oak for +10 str and a Twitchthroe then you can wear most items.



Ok my character:

“Jwhordan” lvl 79 Strafe/LF hybrid

Gear:
Shako “IAS”
Skullders “IAS”
Razortail
WT’s
Laying of Hands
Ravenfrost 20/238
Rare Ring: 6LL 7ML +16 str
Rare Amulet: +2 Amazon +max +min +dex – gives slightly less max but much more min than a Cat’s Eye, and the 9/2 strafe (86 IAS bp) is fast enough for me
Anni: 20/17/8

Skills (IN GEAR Javelin / Bow)

D/A/E = 10 / 7
Valk = 17 / 14
Pierce = 71%+33% / 63%+33%
Penetrate = 29 / 26
Crit Strike = NA / 49%
LF = 31 / NA
Strafe = NA / 26
7 Spare skill points already at clvl 79

Stats (Javelin / Bow / Base)

Str = 117 / 97 / 49
Dex = 481 / 461 / 401
Vita = 52 / 52 / 20
Energy = 47 / 37 / 15
Life = 709 / 709
Mana 338 / 323

I’ll say it again, she rocks and has done since lvl 42 (titans), I spend equal time in bow/jav mode depending on my mood, anyone with some Counterstike experience will understand, it’s like having an M4 instead of a pistol – both sides are just as deadly. LF a pack, waste most of them and mow the rest down with strafe or vice versa – Strafe a pack then when they have bunched about your minions toss a LF in to finish the job.

This isn’t as long as I planned it to be, but the general idea is there, and I’ll end by repeating that I don’t for one minute claim this is original, but it’s bloody effective and excellent fun.

ToadKiller
24-07-2004, 23:05
Do you think this would work with minimal Strafe skill (enough for 10 arrows...slvl6?)? I'm trying to decide on a back-up skill for my LF zon. The only problem would be DEX, since I went the typical Javazon route and put most of my points into Vit: would I have to use Eaglehorn to hit?



TK

Shanksie1337
25-07-2004, 00:28
i dont want to sound like a hippy, but it's all about balance :D

slvl 6 strafe with minimal dex wouldn't give anywhere near the balance my zon has, tho it might well be do-able, your LF would be much more efficient than your strafe but strafe would help with the LI's.

Kaptain_Insano
25-07-2004, 01:22
I have about the same Zon going except I'm single player untwinked and have added some points to strength. It will be hard without the gear waiting for me but I'm thinking of using ChS for bosses...let me know what anyone thinks. This character was difficult at the beginning but is better now around lvel 42 with some not bad equip.

ToadKiller
25-07-2004, 01:23
Not really worried about balance; as you guessed, it would be strictly for killing LI's. My other "plan" is to spend 1pt in Guided and get a Buriza--this is a ladder character, and Buriza/Guided is about the cheapest LI "solution" that I know works.

I'm all about cheap :)


TK

shmiddy
25-07-2004, 08:48
Hi Folks

Don’t worry, it’s not another 6000 word guide, it’s meant to be a brief introduction into a char I have just finished as I think others may be interested in this build. I also want to say from the start that I don’t claim this build to be an original great leap of amazon character building theory, it’s more of a “I have had lots of fun with her, so I’ll post and see if anyone else fancies it” kinda thread

She came into existence as I was running out of character spaces on my play account and I was thinking I wanted to make a Upp’ed WWS (UWWS) strafer, but I didn’t want to delete my LF cowazon so I thought I’d make a LF/Strafe hybrid, then whilst having a look on the forums I got reading Sorcyones base vita-zon guide and decided that whilst I was at it I’d have a base life zon.

Taking this further I decided to try base str aswell, and the Dexabrid was born.



So onto some details:

Stats:
Str = base (if possible, otherwise as low as you can manage)
Dex = all
Vita = base
Energy = base

Skills:
20 LF
20 Strafe
20 Penetrate*
17 Valk**
1 into each pre req and 1 into the rest of the passives.

*base penetrate is a possibility but I am too lazy to bother swapping out a Demon Limb every time I start a new game.
** I usually max Valk and decided to try her at slvl 17 for a change – more can be added here as desired.



Equipment:

As this is not meant to be a guide I will simply list what to wear and why, and I may offer the occasional alternative. Feel free to wear what u want tho!

UWWS “ShaelShael” = DS *clvl, 40 res, Amp damage and 40IAS when sheal’d.
Shako “IAS” = I don’t want a low life base vita zon and +2 skills, 10 PDR, MF, and mana are always good.
Skullders “IAS” = She doesn’t have massive amounts of mf and this armour gives me about 1/3 of her total. Yes I know an Enigma here would solve the str issue, but I will never own an enigma as it’s over-rated pvp tosh, and yes I can easily afford one. Besides I need something I can put an IAS jewel in.
Razortail = 15 dex and 33% pierce.
Laying of Hands = 20 IAS + huge boost vs demons.
Cat’s Eye = +25 dex +20 IAS
Ravenfrost = 20 dex, good AR, Damage and CBF.
Dual Leech ring = The only “hard” item to get as ideally you want dual leech + str.
WT’s = +str +vita and + damage.
Titans = Obvious choice really.
Splendor = +skill, mf, +mana.
Anni = 20 stats where possible, but the higher the better. Not too vital if you go the Enigma route (shame on you:p).

Merc:
Gaze
Shaftstop
Reapers Toll

With this setup she can easily solo anywhere in the game because she has:
Speed: 110 IAS and 8/2 strafe
Versatility: 3 types of damage, Lightning, Physical and Magical plus Amp + Decrep to help remove PI.
Damage: 1-1000 LF for crowds, 700- 1100 strafe with ~90% of double damage, lvl 20 MA from UWWS.
Block: Due to massive dex she will have max block with any shield in LF mode.

Con’s
Have to wait until a high level to be able to wear full gear, either for Enigma or Anni, but levelling up is fairly easy, once you get to lvl 25 put on a Mahim-Oak for +10 str and a Twitchthroe then you can wear most items.



Ok my character:

“Jwhordan” lvl 79 Strafe/LF hybrid

Gear:
Shako “IAS”
Skullders “IAS”
Razortail
WT’s
Laying of Hands
Ravenfrost 20/238
Rare Ring: 6LL 7ML +16 str
Rare Amulet: +2 Amazon +max +min +dex – gives slightly less max but much more min than a Cat’s Eye, and the 9/2 strafe (86 IAS bp) is fast enough for me
Anni: 20/17/8

Skills (IN GEAR Javelin / Bow)

D/A/E = 10 / 7
Valk = 17 / 14
Pierce = 71%+33% / 63%+33%
Penetrate = 29 / 26
Crit Strike = NA / 49%
LF = 31 / NA
Strafe = NA / 26
7 Spare skill points already at clvl 79

Stats (Javelin / Bow / Base)

Str = 117 / 97 / 49
Dex = 481 / 461 / 401
Vita = 52 / 52 / 20
Energy = 47 / 37 / 15
Life = 709 / 709
Mana 338 / 323

I’ll say it again, she rocks and has done since lvl 42 (titans), I spend equal time in bow/jav mode depending on my mood, anyone with some Counterstike experience will understand, it’s like having an M4 instead of a pistol – both sides are just as deadly. LF a pack, waste most of them and mow the rest down with strafe or vice versa – Strafe a pack then when they have bunched about your minions toss a LF in to finish the job.

This isn’t as long as I planned it to be, but the general idea is there, and I’ll end by repeating that I don’t for one minute claim this is original, but it’s bloody effective and excellent fun.

eh? resists?

Shanksie1337
25-07-2004, 18:08
For the love of god, don't quote the whole bloody post!
As for resists - it's a pvm zon what the heck do i need resists for?

ToadKiller
25-07-2004, 18:16
One or two more questions:

Why The Pit? I haven't played in awhile, so I'm curious why this spot is worthwile.

Also (sort of related to the resists q's): how do you kill some of the Act Bosses? Duriel, Diablo, and Baal?

Shanksie1337
25-07-2004, 18:42
ok :D

1. The pit - because it's a TC 85 area (ie the same as WSK / Chaos Sanctuary etc), so ANY item can drop and so can rune's / jewels etc. Plus all the good base items, ie ETH BA / CB can drop there. The Pit is everything Mephi isn't - mephi is quantity but rarely quality, but the pit can yeild nothing for 5 runs then something like an Astreons or Tal's armour etc can drop - so quality over quantiy.
Plus the pit is easy to get to - outer cloister wp act 1 and back thru the monastary gates to Tamoe Highlands and there are lots of easy kills in the pit and the exp is good.

2. Strafe + Merc + Valk - it isn't quick like for example a Blizz sorc, but very few zon builds are good act boss killers, unless you use high synergised charged strike for example. She MF's basically everywhere BUT act bosses so she is a perfect compliment to a Blizz sorc - when u get bored of running bosses you swap to your zon and go clear out all the high TC areas:
The Pit
Chaos Sanctuary
River of Flame
Crypt
Mausoleum
Ancient Tunnels
and ofc Cows :D

Not all mf chars have to kill act bosses, this zon, and imho most zons, are much better at killing lots of monsters quickly as opposed to killing one boss quickly.

Sephiroth[TR]
25-07-2004, 19:59
thats about the build that my ama has wich i also use for FD

But personly irc its 5% extra dmg for 1 lv strafe.. wich is imo not worth it i just got max amount of arrow from skil and putted rest in to Multi or some extra in strafe..
I like multi way more than strafe :P

only different with my build is i got max GA( for the dueling fun :P )

For dmg ? wel my dmg arent really impressive but i can solo the whole game, So its good enough

2k GA with botd bow
1.3k lighting fury ( only the lighting dmg counted) titans itself almost do 2k with my poison added...

Stats with gear
str 19x
dex 30x
vit 30x
energy BAD BAD BAD !!

about 1.3k life and max res in hel with crapy bow dmg :P and lighting fury dmg :P But all good enough to be useful in a 8 player game :D

chipmc
25-07-2004, 21:54
I suppose if you wanted some additional boss killing power you could take those points you put into Penetrate and use them to max Charged Stike. This is a dex build, losing Penetrate shouldn't hurt much.

Shanksie1337
25-07-2004, 23:08
true, but i build 95% of my zon's without considering resists as they don't need them if they keep a safe distance away. If i tried to ChS Diablo i'd be toast before i got half way there :)

ToadKiller
25-07-2004, 23:22
ok :D

1. The pit - because it's a TC 85 area (ie the same as WSK / Chaos Sanctuary etc), so ANY item can drop and so can rune's / jewels etc


What's a "TC 85 area"? The creatures I saw when I went there are listed on D2.Data.Net as being TC66. Or am I missing something? Like I said, I haven't played in a while.


EDIT: Nevermind, I think I get it. I went back with MF gear and one of those Devil Kin dropped Steelrend Gauntlets (crappy ones, but what the heck?).

Seems kind'a broken though :)


TK

cuibono
26-07-2004, 11:01
What's a "TC 85 area"? The creatures I saw when I went there are listed on D2.Data.Net as being TC66. Or am I missing something? Like I said, I haven't played in a while.

"TC 85 area" is not a good term. (In fact there is no TC 85.) Area_level 85, or mlvl 85, is more accurate. You are correct to note that many mobs in the Pit cap out at TC 66, which means that while they have the mlvl to meet qlvl requirements for just about any item (Windforce is qlvl 80, e.g.), they cannot drop from the best TCs. But some regular mobs in The Pit can drop up to TC 69. I believe that's the highest a non-champ/boss can drop in The Pit, can anyone confirm? Anyway The Pit will also contain champs and bosses, which can drop from all TCs and meet all qlvl reqs.

HCTwinJava
27-07-2004, 19:34
As for resists - it's a pvm zon what the heck do i need resists for?

resists needed only in killing other ppl?

Shanksie1337
27-07-2004, 20:23
yeah - i should have stated this was a PvM build - was phished when i posted it tho :D

This definately isn't a PvP guide, and any useful PvP information accidentally mentioned is pure fluke !

Any well played zon has no need for resists, the only real exception to this rule is WSK and Gloams / Burning Souls. Everywhere else should cause no problems at all.

musafat
27-07-2004, 21:16
what does WWS stand for?

cuibono
28-07-2004, 11:42
what does WWS stand for?

Usually it refers to Witchwild String, the unique short siege bow. A nice little bow. Some people think it's the second best bow in the game.

Shanksie1337
28-07-2004, 13:59
and whilst i am at it:

uWWS - upgraded WWS [to Diamond bow] (can only upgrade on L, but as the season has just ended you can now buy uWWS on NL).

and yeah, if it isn't the 2nd best it is third :) tho some will argue it's simply the best :) mentioning no names :lol:

squigipapa
28-07-2004, 23:25
For the love of god, don't quote the whole bloody post!
As for resists - it's a pvm zon what the heck do i need resists for?

I was going to say the exact same thing, quoteing the entire post for 2 words!!!

On Topic, this looks almost exactly like my hybred javazon that I have, except I went with a little higher pierce, and opted for T-Gods as opposed to razor.. as well as mav's helm + IAS for 45% on the head. The tough part though, is that I find that I always tend to use one skill more than another with a character, then I feel like I wasted a build. however, I am very, very happy that I have a great straif when I run into a screen full of LI's. :)

Looks pretty solid .. nice work.