Ok I need alittle better guidence than the cluttered howto guides...

[MeBaD]

I was getting borderline bored of D2 than found a eth mar pike with +3 jav skills. It does 229 base dmg .. so I looked on rune mule and sure enough had a jah and vex left. traded jah for zod... and made a 1100+ dmg botd. So now I'm like .. "cool a new char that I have no clue how to build... should be fun".

I see fend is kinda like zeal, but I really have no idea what the heck to put points in and stats.

I wanna do a botd pike zon, I got a 70 kira with a um, fort w/ 27 (or 30) res. And some other stuff. Really not sure how to go about building this char.. heh.

Any idea's ?

build orders?

The guides are good and all, but they are realllly cluttered and when you break it down they just have 1000 segestions on how to build and nothing like , "for a jab/zeal style zon - do this"

cheers,
MeEvil

[windwingwind]

Ur pike reminds me of a thread I read long time ago....hope that helps

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=356774&highlight=botd+spearzon

[Wmeredith]

EDIT: I guess a "mar" pike is a Mat pike, eh? Disregard my comment suggesting another build. I'd make a CS/Jabber zon with that thing, fend is buggy.

Um, fend is super-buggy. That's a killer weapon you've got there, but I would skip the fend-a-zon. I've built probably 25 zons, over 4 years, and the only ones I never saw get over lvl90 was my 2 fend-a-zons, they're just frustrating to play. The bug goes like this, if you miss once during your fend attack all subsequent attacks miss as well.. So you're a sitting duck (like being strafe locked, but you can't leech since you can't strike.)

That's my $.02, I hope it helps, and sorry for the discuragement. I just don't want you to get your fend-a into hell and feel like you wasted your time like I did... twice:rolleyes:.

My choice for Jabber gear:
Shako (15 ias)
Your Badass BoTD Pike
Cat's Eye
Fort/ Arkaine's Valor/ CoH
BK ring
Ravenfrost
Gorerider's
Dungo's Belt
Laying of Hands

This will give you 115% Ias with that Pike. This will let you hit a nice BP for jab and CS, which are the two skill I would go with. Oh, and Jab is a one-point wonder; your points will be better spent on CS, it's synergies and your passives.

[windwingwind]

@Wmeredith : it's a zon only pike, if u look closly :).

[MeBaD]

@Wmeredith : it's a zon only pike, if u look closly :).

mat pike... correct ;) (zon only)

thx for the tip on fend :) I have the pike on my faith zon now .. had some fun in a baal run last night but she doesn't take a hit too well .. lol.

question - crit strike and penetrate still work with melee weapons (to add "zon crushing blow" and AR)

checking out the thread too thx wing

[windwingwind]

Yes crit strike and penetrate work with melee attack too. Crit strike grant chance to do double dmg, not curshing blow, sorry to say.

[MeBaD]

Yes crit strike and penetrate work with melee attack too. Crit strike grant chance to do double dmg, not curshing blow, sorry to say.

yea "zon crushing blow" lol

i get the idea :p

[Omikron8]

I myself did the unthinkable and recently made a fendazon too who is sitting at 70 now and waiting for me to find an ethereal matriarchal spear (for botd) in a few thousand years (with my luck).

Basically valk and might (or holy freeze) merc must occupy almost all of the monsters for you to finish a fend cycle without being interrupted.

You can try a no D/A/E (which also means no valk) fendazon build but that will be incredibly fragile and regular hit recovery (1/8 or 1/12 of your hp i believe) will still interrupt you.

Fending with jav + shield is even worse because then you also have to worry about block interruption.

Basically charging in and fending with D/A/E build is not an option, you have to play extremly slowly and be cautious, quite the opposite of what this build is meant to be.

[YogiRat]

I've read about the no D/A/E fend builds but never had the nerve to try it. What if one used Peace armor for the valk and used charms and items to get her hit recovery speed down to 5 frames?

[Omikron8]

well peace has some problems

pretty much no res
crappy defense
no other worthwhile mods except for valk

if a merc could trigger the peace valk that would be nice but blizzard disabled that possibility

i'd stick with stone or duress or prudence on the zon herself