Do I need Charged Strike??

[Kaptain_Insano]

Hi all,
I am a Strafe/LF hybrid playing single player offline(untwinked obviously) level 49ish. I originally wanted to make a bowazon but found her too dependent on gear so i switched to LF for crowds. Now i am debating to sink some skill points into ChS for bosses and big guys. What should I do? i still dont' have any super equip either. In the end I'm going to run shy on skill points if i want

Penetrate
Strafe
LF
ChS
CS
Pierce
Valk

[HCTwinJava]

Jab. Get a fastest and biggest possible spear that you can get, and go jab Duriel to death. Andy/Meph are relatively easier. A good lvl valk is enough to tank them, making the battles easier.

Make sure yuo have good life leech in spear mod (the higher the better), and when dealing with Diablo, 75% resists to F/L help a lot. Get a high lvl Valk and a good merc when dealing with NM/Hell ancients and Baal, so you won't fight a losing battle (their life regen could be faster than you could hurt them). Baal will be very hard to this hybrid untwinked, regardless.

[Kaptain_Insano]

is one point in jab enuff to take on the bosses with a not too bad spear? So does that mean that Charged Strike is a no go. And then maybe eventually i'll find a good bow and maybe some titans. I still want to have close to or max the following
Strafe
Penetrate
LF
Valk
some in pierce and critical strike
Not sure about FA and CA combination with untwinked no mana leetch
So in my single player game should i go for FA/CA or maybe charged strike or simply put one point in jab and use it .

[Sh4dovv]

cs is only good with alot of synergies and +skills...like blessed hammer...so dont really bother with cs

[Kaptain_Insano]

Ok thank u for that advice. But since i"m single player and use LF and strafe as my two main skills what do i use to pack a punch for bosses? is 1 in jab enuff? Should i go FA/CA untwinked with mana leech problems?

[HCTwinJava]

since i"m single player and use LF and strafe as my two main skills what do i use to pack a punch for bosses? is 1 in jab enuff? Should i go FA/CA untwinked with mana leech problems?

jab: 1 is enough. extra pts would be wasted.
FA: 1 is nice and is enough. if the freeze time is not long enough, add as many cold charms as you can, until you can freeze monters long enough to allow you to use other attacks (or valk+merc) to finish them off. you will still rely on LF/strafe most of the time. mana leech should never be a problem if you can leech and strafe non-stop nearly forever (unless monsters don't allow leech).

[Jek]

No points is needed in penetrate, go go gadget Eaglehorn/HoJ. My most succesful amazon was a almost pure lightning zon, only 1 point in strafe and FA. :)

CS doesn't need many synergies to work, with just maxed LF a Titan and another +1 skills somewhere you'll release eight bolts each dealing 1-1388 totalling 24-11104 on bosses.

with one more maxed synergy it'll deal 40-18048.

[ToadKiller]

I don't think you can count on finding an Eaglehorn in single player :)

The answer to your question is: there isn't a good answer. Limited to just the equipment you can find yourself, you'll most likely have to build around what you find.

One nice thing about single player is you don't have to worry about dropped games, so you can take your time killing end bosses. That's basically the method I used with my single player Javazon: slow and slower. Put 1pt into Jab, get the highest 1-hand damage Jav you can find (you might try crafting safety javs), and poke them (slowly) to death.

An alternative method is to use some other 1-hand weapon with high damage.


TK

[HCTwinJava]

In terms of wpns for dealing with act bosses, there are four options:

1- spear: a fast way against individual bosses.

I know a bowazon jabbing with a spear appears to be scary, but since you play SP and I play HC most of my time, you have less fear than I do. i built and played roughly two dozens of zons, and none of them ever died to any act boss.

If you have high life leech and enough resists, you are in fact safer in spear mode than in bow mode. If you don't, just drink red pots, and back off to buy more whenever you see your belt is about to be empty.

Leech + resists + potions + high enough lvl = you are not taking more risks in spear mode than in bow mode.

But as a bow-using zon, you probably don't have enough str to lift the best spear you find, so just use the best one that you can use.

Note: if you run out of mana in the middle of jabbing a dangerous foe like Hell Diablo, you are essentially putting your zon in great danger.


2- javelin: from very slow to impossible, unless you have L dmg from skills (CS etc). It's very likely that Hell Diablo/Baal stay full health regardless of how you jab with your javelin.


3- bow: ok with a decent bow (and good enough gear), but hard without one and without a good skill (FA etc), nearly impossible with a poor bow and strafe/GA.


4- other wpns: awkward, to say the least. You may very well either lack enough str to use them, or lack enough dex/AR or dmg-boosting skills (like Barb's Conc) to effectively use them. It's probably okay to use one against Norm/NM bosses. but in Hell, perhaps not worth even a try.


The above opinions only apply to a zon built to use a bow (hybrid or not doesn't matter) and built to eventually go through hell diff lvl.

[ToadKiller]

2- javelin: from very slow to impossible, unless you have L dmg from skills (CS etc). It's very likely that Hell Diablo/Baal stay full health regardless of how you jab with your javelin.

4- other wpns: awkward, to say the least. You may very well either lack enough str to use them, or lack enough dex/AR or dmg-boosting skills (like Barb's Conc) to effectively use them. It's probably okay to use one against Norm/NM bosses. but in Hell, perhaps not worth even a try.


The creatures (and Act Bosses) are a lot weaker in single player than in multiplayer.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, I tried Hell Diablo with my new Ladder Javazon. It took 4 trips for potions, but he fell rather easily to Jab and a non-upgraded Titans (total Jab damage 282-516). I left my Merc behind (dead to Iron Maiden), so had only my Lvl18 Valk for help. Even With my lowly 50% blocking, it was a lot easier than I thought it'd be.



TK