Untouchable Swordmistress strategy

[nicothemaster]

I just recently started a pvm nonladder passive-only zon and she never died (im still mad i didnt go with hardcore) Shes now level 82 with semi-rare equipment but when facing bosses, including ubers, she never gets hit. Why is this, you may ask? well this is because she has very high dodge/avoid/evade, she has full blocking. When she does get hit it isnt very effective because she has full resists and cta on weapon switch 2. Heres how to build her:

Stats: Ur choice on strength depending on what equip u decide to use. I have less then 100 and can still be godly in hell.Dexterity must be enough for full block while using a 75 block shield. All the rest goes to life. No energy. If u question this u r quite the noob :lol:

Skills: My zon has her skill points arranged like this: 20 decoy, 20 valkyrie, 5 dodge, 5 avoid, 5 evade, 20 critical strike, 20 penetrate. Extra skills go into passive skills of your choice (but definitely not pierce)

Gear: There is no need for high defense gear here since this zon never gets hit. This is my zon's gear: duriels shell (people laugh at this but it gives nice life bonuses, resists, and cannot be frozen) lightsabre (not too strong but it works well for me) 2 bul kathos rings (+ to life is nice and the skills is good 2. The most important part though is the life leech) Mara's Kaleidoscope (+attributes means +life so thats good. Also gives resists and skills) laying of hands (350% to demons works well on bosses, with critical strike it does massive damage) credendum, aldurs boots (life, 40 run/walk, indestructible)
and Whitstans guard (75 block and low strength requirement)
Lastly get some incredibly rare passive grand charms with life mods and a good anni (also a torch if u can but i dont have 1 and im still great in hell) If u still dont have full resists then socket the helm/armor/shield with um runes. If u do then get ber for the shield and prubies for the helm and armor.

On weapon switch 2 try to get a 6 bo cta flail and a spirit shield (if u cant get spirit shield use a sigon set shield) This is for the battle orders life warcry and the shield is to give + to skills to power that up.

Mercenary: The best mercenary for this guide would be the a3 or a1 merc. You dont need a barb or guard since u and ur valkyrie make great tanks. You need and act 3 merc or and act1 merc to get rid of physical immunes. Id pick act 3 since they are unnafected by the iron maiden curse (the only possible way youll die) The mercs equip is of your choice. I picked a1 merc for but 1 reason: to give her faith. This bow gives fanaticism to the user and believe me thats very helpful.

***NOTE: although decoy may not seem like such a great skill it is necessary as a life synergy for valkyrie and it helps lure large gruops of enemies away from you. Have fun!!!

****My suggestion is that u should replace lightsabre with azurewrath when u reach level 85. This is because azurwrath is much stronger BUT best of all it has the same dex/str requirements so that may be helpful :)

[buttershug]

What about a beast runeword weapon?
You can't be killed in bear or wolf form. AFAIK if you do suffer deadly damage you revert to human form with 1 life. Of course most times you are instantly killed with the next tiniest bit of damage. But there have been times I was a wolf then suddendly I"m human with 1 life, and was able to full rejuv in time.
And there are other decent mods as well.

[Indemaijinj]

Regarding the armor there are several runewords you could look into. Some of the more inexpensive ones are actually really interesting.

More specifically I am talking about Duress and the new runeword Treachery.

Duress gives you some much need Faster Hit Recovery and adds some Crushing Blow and Open Wounds, excellent, bordering to necessary mods when your primary attack is not doing so much damage.

Treachery is perhaps even more interesting. As you said before you could hardly care less about armor points, but the 40% IAS is undoubtedly going to help. What really makes this armor a treat is the CtC level 15 Venom mod. A level 15 Venom would do a great deal to alleviate the Attack Rating problems you are bound to experience sooner or later. Oh yeah, and the poison damage is certainly a welcome addition as well.

Then there is the good old Passion runeword. Again a cheap one. It will allow you access to both a level 1 Berserk and a level 1 Zeal. Doesn't sound of much, but is a godsend for a build without a native attack skill. I suggest placing it in a Cryptic Sword since they are both effective and stylish. The monster fleeing mod is annoying though.

Another source of Crushing Blow/Open Wounds/Deadly Strike is the Guillaumes Face helmet though it may clash stylistically with the rest of your gear.

[Omikron8]

While a passive shield zon is quite hard to kill, at the same time it is quite hard for her to even land a hit due to the horrendous block rates for amazons with non-thrusting weapons.

[fredsta54]

I suggest you use a dagger on this build. Yes it works and i have seen some decent passive matriarchs whos primary weapon is fleshripper.

Your fhr aint bad if u use dagger, iirc thats y they used (in addition to fleshripper being sick)











Fred

[Indemaijinj]

My daggerzon plans on using:

Fleshripper, Treachery, Kira's Guardian, Gore Riders, a pair of good Blood crafted mittens, and a load of resist/life and AR charms.

I am undecided as to the shield, but I guess she can make good use of my one and only Stormshield.

She probably ends up using the Angelic combo, so getting proper elemental resistance is going to be a bit strained. Therefore the Kira's rather than something more offensive, like a Guillaume's Face.

[middleman35]

Well having actually built a Zealing amazon thru to lvl 80 something I'll give ya my take on this very fun and stylish build. Though mine was built with dueling in mind (yeah I know, but she is probably still the most fun dueler I've ever built), some important points are still relevant.

Yes block rates are terrible for non-thrusting (javs, spears, daggers are thrusting), but there are actually 2 ways around this. The common way is just to accept it and equip a fleshripper. The more difficult (and I've never been one to take the easy way out) is to use Zeal from the Passion runeword. Here the trick is that Zeal is uninterruptible, so if u can achieve a 4-hit Zeal cycle your block speed becomes (temporarily at least) irrelevant. However, achieving a 4-hit cyle (@ lvl 4) is actually harder than it sounds (at least whilst maintaining acceptable block/AR/damage).

My eventual set-up during ladder season 2 was Shako, Fortitude, Passion Phaseblade, Stormshield, Highlords, Ravenfrost & a rare with AR/life/resists/leech for PvM, +2 Passive Gloves, and Hsarus belt and boots (for the AR based on clvl partial bonus). Sure she didn't win a whole lot, but she was definately unique! If I ever decide to revisit her (which I feel like doing all of a sudden, lol, beware USE SCNL Zeal Duel games!), I'd definately try and get her an annihilus, as the +1 all skills would allow me to drop the highlords and run Angelics combo freeing up the boots/belt slots. Also considering a significant reason for using this char would be style, Shako really has to go, that thing is a crime on a Zon. Possibly a Delirium circlet?

As regards PvM, she was actually quite a blast to play, as she would charge headlong into packs and usually come out the other side. The chance to make monster flee mod, whilst annoying sometimes, can actually be a lifesaver if your getting swamped. And having a handy beserk to take down Physical immunes is always nice, especially when it doesn't significantly increase your chances of being hit.

As my build was built more for PvP Melee dueling, I only had a point in valk for leveling help (though a switch harmony helped out), and the rest of my skills were 20 Critical Strike, 20 Penetration, enough in Dodge/Evade/Avoid for 50-60% chance of evasion then one-point wonders in valk and pre-reqs, and a couple into bow skills for a little versatility. Spare points went into inner sight to lower opponents defense.

Have fun with your build, and if anyone sees a Zon lurking around USE SCNL Zeal games then I guess I've decided to give her another go!

[nicothemaster]

Now middle man i was wondering a zon using passion.... would it be good if they used berserk over zeal? considering they have block and dodge i dont c y they need defense. Unfortunatley that would mean that passion would have to be a spear or polearm :( (im also use scnl accs are nico_0475 and zeeks)

[Indemaijinj]

Spear or polearm? Why not a staff? GoGo Passion Shillelagh!

Honestly, staves is a reasonable choice since they tend to have such low requirements you can spend the far majority of your points in Vitality.
If you are going two-handed and are not planning on using heavy armor you can leave strength at a very low number. If you are not blocking you don't need any dexterity investment either.

And if you are going for fashion points why not use a twohanded sword? Zon's with two-handers look totally boss.

[middleman35]

I definately would not recommend 2-handed beserk for a zon. Without a shield, you'll take 4 times as many hits, and have a lot more trouble with your resists. Also, if you use beserk, all your damage will be magic damage, so no leeching :( Beserk is a useful skill for taking out physical immunes, but without block your avoidance will only be 50-60%. When you get swamped by a nasty boss pack and your trying to take them out one at a time with beserk, and not leeching, your not going to last 3 seconds.

[sheepe2004]

What about a beast runeword weapon?
You can't be killed in bear or wolf form. AFAIK if you do suffer deadly damage you revert to human form with 1 life. Of course most times you are instantly killed with the next tiniest bit of damage. But there have been times I was a wolf then suddendly I"m human with 1 life, and was able to full rejuv in time.
And there are other decent mods as well.

if your going to use a bear zon dont have any points in d/a/e. I saw one once and everytime she dodged she got deshifted, then dodge animation, then reshifted. Would be so much cooler if there was a bear dodge animation.