View Full Version : Looking for amazon help!
Hi there!
I have Diablo2+LOD installed and would like to play in single mode with the amazone (she looks sooo sexy :heart::wink2:). But as I am not an experienced Diablo player I am not sure which strategy would be good for a newbie.
What tactic would you recommend me? What will be both easy and fun to play?
Thanks in advance!
WrongdayJ
08-09-2007, 22:55
Welcome to the Forums! :wave:
I really like the Amazon that uses the Poison Javelin skills. You can do a TON of damage, you stay clean and out of harms way, and you don't really have to have alot of exotic equipment. Seriously- I deliberately played a Poizon DEEP into Nightmare using only self-found non-magic/Rare/Unique/Set Items. She is as fun as any Amazon build out there.
Here's how to go about it (roughly):
Max Poison Jav and Plague Jav. Right there you will be doing approx. 16k damage over 16 sec. with a single Jav and you will only be at level 40 or so. The rest of your points can go into D/A/E, or Valkyrie (and Decoy), you can also invest in Pierce and Penetrate, too. As far as stat points go. . .the usual here. Pump STR until about 90-100. Dex- enough for descent blocking and AR, and the rest into VIT. Leave Energy alone. You shouldn't be hurting for Mana. . .but there are ways to fix that if you need to without investing precious points into Energy.
I won't recommend gear here because basically you won't need anything special until Almost Hell Difficulty. At that point, I think you will know exactly what your character needs- resists, +skills, Faster Run/Walk, Damage reduction, oh and did I mention resists?
If you decide to go another route, I am sure you will find PLENTY of other excellent builds to try. Amazons are a blast to play. Be sure to let us know which build you decide on- and keep us posted as to your progress.
:thumbsup:
If you are new too the game then don't pay that much attention to how good your build is. Make a zon and try the skills out a bit random according to what you think sounds cool from their descriptions. You'll not make a zon able to do nightmare or hell easy this way at the first try, but you'll have great time and learn a lot about the game and the amazon skills.
One you've tried things out you can start a new character and try to take her all the way baised on the knowledge your first zon gave you. OR try out a build mentioned in one of the guides.
Well, if you still insist on hearing about what's her strong and weak skills then I guess a few pointers shouldn't hurt. Lightning fury is devastating if you couple it with the pierce skill (must have for all ranged biased zons), charged strike can take bosses down faster then any other skill in the game with a couple synergies. Frozen Arrow works with cheap equipment and lets you freeze enemies in place while damaging them, The fire biased arrow skills work in normal but are to weak in hell difficulty. Strafe and multiple shot require ok bows to work well and are harder to make use of when starting from scratch. Valkyrie is the thoughest meat shield in the game so if you yourself cannot take many hits she can tank for you.
The poison skills get ridiculous damage but is inferior to the lighting javelin skills in terms of killspeed later on, still they do work and are easy to use.
The physical spear/java skills are less user friendly then multiple shot/strafe for the bows, and likewise require a bit more from your gear. Still it was the skills my sister used the most when she made her first amazon, I still remember her fending her way over the river of flame back in patch 1.00 :laugh:
Among the guides I recommend the fishyzon, FA/LF hybrid, good starting build for new players and totally hell viable.
Welcome to the Forums! :wave:
I really like the Amazon that uses the Poison Javelin skills. You can do a TON of damage, you stay clean and out of harms way, and you don't really have to have alot of exotic equipment. Seriously- I deliberately played a Poizon DEEP into Nightmare using only self-found non-magic/Rare/Unique/Set Items. She is as fun as any Amazon build out there.
Here's how to go about it (roughly):
Max Poison Jav and Plague Jav. Right there you will be doing approx. 16k damage over 16 sec. with a single Jav and you will only be at level 40 or so. The rest of your points can go into D/A/E, or Valkyrie (and Decoy), you can also invest in Pierce and Penetrate, too. As far as stat points go. . .the usual here. Pump STR until about 90-100. Dex- enough for descent blocking and AR, and the rest into VIT. Leave Energy alone. You shouldn't be hurting for Mana. . .but there are ways to fix that if you need to without investing precious points into Energy.
I won't recommend gear here because basically you won't need anything special until Almost Hell Difficulty. At that point, I think you will know exactly what your character needs- resists, +skills, Faster Run/Walk, Damage reduction, oh and did I mention resists?
If you decide to go another route, I am sure you will find PLENTY of other excellent builds to try. Amazons are a blast to play. Be sure to let us know which build you decide on- and keep us posted as to your progress.
:thumbsup:
Hi WrongdayJ! Many thanks for the advices. I will follow them.
You mean that the javelin must be thrown? Then how do I replenish its quantity? This will be a ranged attack?
Just to avoid any misunderstandings, my amazon should be developed like this:
Poison Javelin - 1 point at level 6 (later up to 20 points).
Lightning Bolt - 1 point at level 12 (prerequisite)
Plague Javelin - 20 points (and after that spending points to Poison Javelin).
So far I will need 41 skill points. What about some passive or magic?
Critical Strike - up to 5 points spent early in the game
Dodge - up to 5 points spent in Act III.
Avoid - 1 point only at level 12 (prerequisite)
Penetrate - 1 point is sufficient (prerequisite)
Evade - up to 5 points
Pierce - 20 points
This makes 37 points with a total of 78 points. Where should I spent the other 22+ points?
Stats of the amazon: each level I should do:
Str - 1, Dex - 0, Vit - 4, Mana - 0, or
Str - 1, Dex -1, Vit - 3, Mana - 0?
WrongdayJ
10-09-2007, 19:51
Yes, the Poison skills are Ranged. You throw the Javelin and then stand back and watch things around you wither and die. Rapidly in the case of Plague Jav.
To repair your Javelin supply, simple go to the town Blacksmith and have them 'repair' your equipment. Your javs will be replenished. Unless you are using ethereal ones, in which case when they are gone, you are gonna have to get some other ones.
Your skill point distribution looks good. I like to also do a couple points each into Dodge, Evade, and Avoid. Penetrate and Pierce are also excellent to put a couple points into. The main bulk of your left-over points can go into Valkyrie. You need some 'meat shields' out there to gather all the enemies together. Then when you send in the big Plague Jav. . .it will get them all with the cloud.
As far as stat points. . .there is no right or wrong way to allocate stat points as long as you end up with a well balanced character in the end. The ways you stated in your post would work fine.
Seriously though, Kijya is kinda right. If this is your first experience with Amazons or DII LOD. . .you may want to experiment a bit with your 1st build. See what you like. You are on the right track, though, to make a very powerful character.
Keep us posted.
Hi again!
I tried to make several screenshots of my amazon, but when pasting a dark blurred image appears :(
Anyway, she is 16 level now, just finished the 1st quest from Act II. She has 46% block rate, with 20-46 poison damage from the javelin.
Don't go full poison, you are going to regret later on. Poison is a slow killer, even with good gear it isn't that super fast. This means that if you team up with stronger players, you are going to be close to useless as they will kill monsters before your poison damage has done any damage. Count in the fact that poison is on a timer, a 4 sec timer for plague javelin. What are you going to do in that time? Really, you want to have a second skill. You have two option, lightning fury maxed. Or one point freezing arrow with a 6soc P saphire bow. this gives you up 20 sec in normal or 5 sec freezing time in hell. this way you have something to do while the timer runs, and you will provide safty for you and your party, making you not useless. Maxed lightning fury is a hell vaible second attack. those are the good optoin.
One last thing, don't put 20 points in pierce. Just safe some pgms or runes and get razortails (belt). this gives you max pierce with only 9 point in pierce(skill). The rest of the points can go to more usefull skills as a second attack or valk/decoy.
P.S. don't get me wrong, pierce is one of the most important skills, so important that you can use one gear slot just to get enough of it.
P.P.S. what realm are you on?
P.P.P.S. one last advise, do you hellforges alone (a4 q2). They are the main source of wealth. You will get good runes from this quest in the end, after some tries, and lots of gems too. to important to share.
WrongdayJ
12-09-2007, 19:41
. . .Don't go full poison, you are going to regret later on. Poison is a slow killer, even with good gear it isn't that super fast. . . Count in the fact that poison is on a timer, a 4 sec timer for plague javelin. What are you going to do in that time? Really, you want to have a second skill. . .
I agree with you that a second kill skill is needed in the Late Nightmare/Hell timeframe (as a backup for Poison Immunes).
But a synergized Plague Javelin can do over 20k damage in 16 seconds. Hardly what I would call useless. Also, Poison Javelins can damage for up to a minute or more in length. . .meaning that monsters can't regenerate or heal for over one minute- while taking almost 30k in damage at the same time! Again, hardly useless- especially when one factors in the regeneration rates and hit points of some monsters in Hell. Poizons do not kill Bosses swiftly, but they do kill the other 99% of monsters (especially crowds of monsters) effectively and are very nice to have around as a party member. When I party up with friends in hell. . .I'm the one that ends up killing that monster that is LI/FI/PI/LE stone skin extra strong, yada-yada. Because I can chuck a Javelin from 1/2 screen away and just jog for 16 seconds untill he drops.
I say, go full tilt poison, then worry about the backup damage skill after your main attack is maxed and synergized.
crawlingdeadman
12-09-2007, 20:26
hello and welcome to the forums:thumbsup:. the best way in my opinion to learn a character or build is to read guide on what other people have done. here's the sticky with a bunch of zon guides. http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=325914
One last thing, don't put 20 points in pierce. Just safe some pgms or runes and get razortails (belt). this gives you max pierce with only 9 point in pierce(skill). The rest of the points can go to more usefull skills as a second attack or valk/decoy.
P.S. don't get me wrong, pierce is one of the most important skills, so important that you can use one gear slot just to get enough of it.
P.P.S. what realm are you on?
P.P.P.S. one last advise, do you hellforges alone (a4 q2). They are the main source of wealth. You will get good runes from this quest in the end, after some tries, and lots of gems too. to important to share.
he said he was going single player so saving pgems for trade will be pointless unless he's going to do some Multi player trading.
@ WrongdayJ: and what are you going to do when a good hammerdin joins? Bye regeneration, bye damage over time. Close to everything drops within the second. That's 1.25k damage per second, A good lightning amazon will out perform you in damage.
@ crawlingdeadman: and to believe that I look in his post to see if he wasn't single player. Anyway, even more reason to go hyrbide.
Still, how usefull is pierce for poison builds? doesn't the cloud explands enough without pierce? doesn't plague javelin has short fly time? Don't you have terrible cth?
crawlingdeadman
12-09-2007, 22:53
i was leveling a poison zon and once i hit lvl req for razortail i put it on. i immediatly hit a pack and had the plague jav hit the first monster and do the explody thing, then continue on to the next one and do the same. pierce is freaking great with poison. you can cover a screen with one plague jav if enough pierce. cth might slow it down in hell though, you're right.
WrongdayJ
13-09-2007, 00:06
. . .@ WrongdayJ: and what are you going to do when a good hammerdin joins? Bye regeneration, bye damage over time. Close to everything drops within the second. That's 1.25k damage per second, A good lightning amazon will out perform you in damage. . .
NASE. . .um. . .I don't party with Hammerdins. :grin:
On a serious note, my Lightning Zons are better killers than my Poizons- but only with regards to killing Bosses. As far as general gameplay vs. crowds and other fodder. . .my Poizons rock just as hard as the Lightning zons any day of the week. I even run cows with my Poizons. They are THAT good with crowds. Pierce just flat makes Poizons awesome. Once I figure out how to post screenshots I'll post a shot of 1/2 a screen covered in poison clouds from 1 Plague Jav.
I am playing in Single player. Is that a problem?
I noticed that Plague Javelin has a large cast time (about 4 seconds) and after the initial cast I usually continue to bombard the enemies with the normal throw attack.
Btw, I am getting closer to Duriel. I am afraid of him. What should I do to defeat him as quickly as possible?
Yes that is a problem, you don't want to go single element through hell. You nearly have to hybride or you will get pwn'ed by PI. This is the solution of the casting delay too. Then you have something to do.
Duriel, What lvl are you? If you can get a good valk or decoy, you can always try to stay away from him and let poison do the trick. If not, try getting crushing blow with a fast weapon. There most be one or the other cheap runeword for this IIRC. Let me have a look.
[edit]
amn tir, strength. Though that seems to be to expensive for act 2 single player unless you run the countess untill you have the runes.
An other otion is to craft blood gloves, though this needs perfect gems. I guess you don't have much of that either.
Just remember that normal duriel is one of, if not the hardest, boss. After that it should be a bit easier.
Try getting some more lvl, this will help you.
I am playing in Single player. Is that a problem?
Not a huge problem, but dual attacks (poison + some other attack) will give you more versatility. One more thing, by being in single player you can change player setting so you get more experience. Type /players2 or /players4, etc. all the way up to 8 in the message box brought up by hitting your Return or Enter key.
Btw, I am getting closer to Duriel. I am afraid of him. What should I do to defeat him as quickly as possible?
Act 2 Merc armed with a Spear or Polearm stuffed with 3 topazes for high lightning damage. Give him good armor, preferably socketed with rubies and a helm socketed with rubies so he has a lot of life. Get Decoy if you are at a high enough level. Better yet Valk. If you use the /players8 trick, you can level a lot in Canyon of the Magi and be high level (26-28) before you run into Duriel. Make sure your Merc is the same level as you. Distract Duriel by casting Decoys and poisoning him, possibly taking a few hits for your Merc as he pokes Duriel. If you have a shield, several points in Vitality, and a few points in Dodge/Avoid/Evade, you should be able to survive Duriel quite well. This is one of the reasons why Javazons (Amazons who use javelins) are tough and make monsters cry. :wink3:
Ooh, that's a lot of information. I will see what I can do ;)
She is now level 19.
Str 43, Plague Jav does 46 - 64 Dmg.
Dex: 50, block chance: 27%
Vit: 74, Life 315
Equipment:
Cleglaw's Claw
Bloodfist heavy gloves
Gorefoot heavy boots
The rest is bright-yellow/normal weapon and doesn't need mentioning. I am at quest 2, in the search for the last piece of horadric staff.
crawlingdeadman
13-09-2007, 17:53
Act 2 Merc armed with a Spear or Polearm stuffed with 3 topazes for high lightning damage.
make one of the gems a saphire so he'll slow dury w/ cold.
Hmm, how do I make a random gem a saphire???
I can only upgrade them to the next level when I have 3 of the same level.
Anyway, I killed Duriel. My merc (yes, with gemmed spear with poison) died several times. Every time he died, I went back to Lut Ghollein (grrr, what a name?!) and resurrected him.
The beast dropped a set ring. So far, I have 4 items from 4 sets :(
After finding an Arctic belt, the Countess dropped a much better set belt - Death belt - stating "Cannot be frozen". But Duriel managed to freeze me! Why is that???
Btw, 22 level now.
WrongdayJ
13-09-2007, 19:38
Duriels aura is not really regular cold damage. It's condsidered a 'demonic effect' rather than an elemental one. . .this is why you were still chilled even with the 'can not be frozen' mod.
That being said. . .the '1/2 freeze duration mod' DOES work with Duriel. Go figure. But his pulse is pretty frequent and you never really get unfrozen if you are close to him at all because you just get pulsed again.
It's just like the enemies effected by the Paladin's Holy Freeze aura. Even monsters that are immune to cold are still slowed by the aura.
vBulletin® v3.8.4, Copyright ©2000-2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.