Light Javazon Q's

[Qvick]

So i made me a new amazon.
Got to lvl 70 and now i have some questions, or want some opionons on my choices to come.

I have maxed charged strike, lightning strike and lightning fury and have 1 point in their pre req's.
I have 1 point in all passive and magic skills except decoy and valk.
I have 0 points in the bow & xbow tree :yes:

Where do i go from here?
More synergies, lightning bolt or power strike?
Do i put points into decoy and valk?
1 point in valk and go with whatever my +skills leaves me with or get her to lvl 17 or whatever after + skills? (currently +7 skills, +10 when i get 75)
Do i need more raw points in D/A/E, 47% 55% 47% at lvl 75 with my current setup?

Block? using a spirit monarch now and thats not the best shield for blocking, but i figured + skills would be more usefull (note, this is a PVM char)

My current equipment is as follows:
Lore, made in sallet
Viper, crappy resists
Tgods
Sandstorm trek
Spirit monarch
Sigons glove, changes to 2 skill 20 ias when the str from my torchs kicks in.
Rare amu, +1 skill, 10 str, 8 dex, 90 mana
2 x Manald heal. Dunno why really, the ml doesnt do much it seems.
Titans, 191% ed, 8% ll

merc has tal mask, guardian angel and an insight bill to help my always empty mana ball...

any suggestions for cheap'ish upgrades there? :yes:

I guess thats it.
If anyone made it all the way trough, i know there are guides and whatnots around, i just want some fresh opinions from YOU!

thank you!

[KremBanan]

I have maxed charged strike, lightning strike and lightning fury and have 1 point in their pre req's.
I have 1 point in all passive and magic skills except decoy and valk.
I have 0 points in the bow & xbow tree :yes:

Where do i go from here?
More synergies, lightning bolt or power strike?
Do i put points into decoy and valk?
It all depends. Some go without a Valk, some do. Save up points and try for yourself. If you do just fine, then you dont need one. If you feel you need a tank, then Valk is the best in the game.



1 point in valk and go with whatever my +skills leaves me with or get her to lvl 17 or whatever after + skills? (currently +7 skills, +10 when i get 75)
This also depends. Some go 1pt, some go 17 and some max it. If you decide for a Valk: start with one point. Test it. If you feel she dies more than you like, put some more points into her untill she survive long enough for your likning.



Do i need more raw points in D/A/E, 47% 55% 47% at lvl 75 with my current setup?
For PvM, no you dont. 1pt is enough.


Block? using a spirit monarch now and thats not the best shield for blocking, but i figured + skills would be more usefull (note, this is a PVM char)
NN for max block in softcore PvM. In softcore PvM, it is all about offense imo. If its hardcore, I would go with max block(in another shield than Spirit)



My current equipment is as follows:
Lore, made in sallet
Viper, crappy resists
Tgods
Sandstorm trek
Spirit monarch
Sigons glove, changes to 2 skill 20 ias when the str from my torchs kicks in.
Rare amu, +1 skill, 10 str, 8 dex, 90 mana
2 x Manald heal. Dunno why really, the ml doesnt do much it seems.
Titans, 191% ed, 8% ll

merc has tal mask, guardian angel and an insight bill to help my always empty mana ball...

any suggestions for cheap'ish upgrades there? :yes:
There are plenty of threads and guides for a Javazon. The most common equipment are listed there.

[NASE]

It all depends. Some go without a Valk, some do. Save up points and try for yourself. If you do just fine, then you dont need one. If you feel you need a tank, then Valk is the best in the game.

Most people don't take a valk because they have to take d/e/a aswell - d/e/a interrupts attacks - and because it takes 5 points just to get one point valk. However, he already has points in d/e/a and therefore, the benefit of a one point valk and one point decoy is much larger then 2 miserable synergy points. Certainly as valk and decoy can take some damage making the interruption of d/e/a a bit less.

If you already have points in d/e/a, slow missile and inner sight, I don't see a reason not to take one point in valk and decoy.

[KremBanan]

The reason to not go for Valk/Decoy(even if you have points in DAE), is more damage. Points not spent in passives, is points in LF/CS synergies.

[Qvick]

Thanks for the input.
Im still undecided on the valkyrie issue. So far ive had absolutely no need for one, might be cause im still in nightmare and kill everything before it gets anywhere close to me :yes:
My bow ama's always had valk's so i do know how awesomely cool they are.
Hadn't even thought about what NASE said, about not getting d/e/a at all, that would have made sense... but then again, ive never been known to make smart decisions :crazyeyes:


As for the Synergies, i figure ill get enough points to max atleast one more. power strike or lightning bolt, does it matter which one? i mean, are either one of them usefull at all? playin around with a skill calculator maxed powerstrike shows some pretty funny numbers, 7-12254 dmg with my current gear. But i guess its still CS and LF that gets used most, or LS maybe.
Anyways, does it matter what synergy i max?

sorry bout typin so damn much.
ill shut up now... for a while atleast... maybe... prolly not...

[KremBanan]

It doesnt matter what synergy you pump.

[Geministorm]

I think there is some use for the Valk, especially in Hell where there are more aggressive mobs and a good amount of LIs. The Valk makes a good meat shield between you and some LIs if you come up against a large group of them and your merc goes down, gives you enough time to bring up a portal. If you get around +9 skills, then I'd say the investment of 8 in Valk plus prereqs is worth your effort, I really don't think stuff lives too long regardless.

But, I think the real difference maker is getting an Infinity on your Merc (NM Act 2, Holy Freeze aura). If you give your merc some +skills gear (Lore helm and Vipermagi are cheap and readily available), you can break the immunity on most LIs and that is the game changer. As long as you can keep your merc alive, you'll be wading through mobs pretty quickly with few worries. The main worries are LE LIs and some LI bosses where the Infinity doesn't break the LI. For those cases, you still have Jab, but I've also found that a little Plague Jav can go a long way, especially if you have a lot of +jav skills.

I stuck with maxing CS, LF and LS and got 1 point in all of the passives. If I had known what good gear I'd have by now, I would have saved points in Valk, but now I'm putting the rest of my points in Plague Jav. Whenever I come up against a mob whose LI isn't broken (or if my merc dies), I throw a Plague at the group and come in with Jab to mop up. I haven't seen any LI/PI/PsnI mobs in the Acts.

This is how I would rebuild my Furizon (less points in Valk next time) with +9 skills equipment;

Jab - 1
Poison Jav - 1
Power Strike - 5
Lightning Bolt - 1
Charged Strike - 20
Plague Jav - 11
Lightning Strike - 20
Lightning Fury - 20

Passives - 1 each
Valkyrie - 8

[Neuuubeh]

Why holy freeze merc? He is only going to be a hindrance in cow runs and similar, personally I'm yet to see how a Holy freeze merc would help :X. Never felt the need of one.

Valkyrie is a source for lost skillpoints, I'm kinda really annoyed I put 1 in it. I'd much rather work on getting a more surviving merc with that infinity than a valkyrie which doesnt really do much.
maybe its just me?

[Qvick]

I did put a point in valkyrie on that ama, i found that i had more use for decoy tho.
However, the first ama is now history as i remade her.
The new one is now lvl 83, only passives i did was 1 point each in critical strike (61%), penetrate (+155%) and pirece (77%) with +12 skills. have 3 points saved up, still thinking about getting a decoy =)
Maxed LF, LS, CS and power strike. working on lightning bolt now.
Currently +17 to the jav skills. making LF and LS slvl 40 using tgods.

Got infinity for my merc, other then that he usues tal's mask and guardian angel for now, made me kinda broke to put the ama together. better merc gear have to wait =)
Haven't had much immunity problems so far, well, Emilio tends to die alot and that gives me problems =/

Done a few cs runs. it feels kinda slow still but im getting there. still have to get skillers to up my dmg some =)
Its so much fun to kill hell diablo in 2 hits tho =)

[NASE]

@ Geministorm: +skill don't help in breaking immunities. Infinities slvl will always stay what is says on the weapon. You can't get it higher.

@ Qvick: if you put 3 points in decoy, you have about the most standard high equipment javazon out there. So you're fine with that. I just want to say that running cs isn't that smart. Oblivion knights use IM to often so your merc has to die sometime. Why not run something that doesn't have OK - like pits, ancient tunnels or the river of flame - same wp as diablo though other way?
The first place of act 5 - fridged highlands(?) - in 8 player games doesn't seem that bad either if all you want is leveling.

[Geministorm]

Why holy freeze merc? He is only going to be a hindrance in cow runs and similar, personally I'm yet to see how a Holy freeze merc would help :X. Never felt the need of one.


During NM and the mid-development stage of the Furizon, he helps slow stuff down I suppose. I don't use Physical attacks enough for the Might aura, nor do I need extra defense from the Defiance aura. I mostly do Pit runs with my zon and help out my other builds that get to Hell, so the Infinity + Holy Freeze puts the majority of mobs at a disadvantage. Enemies that are slowed swing/fire less often, so I take less risk.

If I rebuilt, I may rethink getting a Valk, but between 30-60 clvl she was a good meat shield with her insane regen and prior to me getting better and better equipment to help with with survivability. I really don't have problems killing anything speed-wise. Andariel (et al) goes down in what seems like one CS strike, so my damage seems more than sufficient with just CS, LS, and LF maxed. The Valk's most apparent use is when your merc goes down, or you meet a few LI that don't get broken and then she helps spread the damage while absorbing a ton too. When I've met LI/PI, she resumes her role as a meat shield that can keep the mobs off me while I throw a Plague Jav at them and let the poison do it DoT. If I can kill Diablo in three CS strikes as opposed to 2, is it that big of deal?

Thanks NASE, I didn't realize that the +skills didn't work on the Infinity (guess I need to do some homework), that's good to know. I think I'll re-equip him with a Vamp Gaze or something instead...

P.S. I find the decoy slows me down too much since I use her mostly as a scout or to keep stuff off of me for a couple of extra seconds, but really her use is very limited to me. Maybe the same could be said about the Valk, except that she rarely goes down and never gets "lost" like some summons do, which makes her a pretty decent tank/meat shield.

[Qvick]

I did chaos sanctuary just for the for awesomeness of killing diablo in 2 hits =)
Emilio's problem wasnt as much IM as his, at the time, low resists i think. The knights were mostly dead before they could cast, or i tele'd on them so they decrep.
But the big guys, pit lords or venomlord's or whatever, their evil inferno got him killed several times.

As for immunities that cant be broken. I usually skip those since theyre mostly lightning enchanted and my lightning resist is something like -40, hehe.

My mf-runs or whatever i should call them usually includes pretty much everything, hehe. not baal and dia, but the rest of the act bosses. shenk, eldrict, pindle.
lots of act 1, i like killing those carver/fallen camps =)
the pit, countess and summoner for keys.
i haven't tried Nihlathak yet... anyone run him/her/it on their java?

[KremBanan]

If you got Enigma or teleport amulet, use it for repositioning your merc. When he get IM'ed you tele. That way he gets away from poking a monster.

Also an eth Shaftstop and eth Gaze gives him ~50%dr. That will make him stay alive for 2-3 hits, which gives you time to give him a full Rev Pot.

[lumpor]

I suggest you put 1 point in valk, then prebuff her to at least level 17 every time you leave town. She dies rarely anyway.

[Qvick]

Im goin without dodge, evade and avaoid...
so no valkyrie =)

[Geministorm]

i haven't tried Nihlathak yet... anyone run him/her/it on their java?

Two words; Nature's Peace.

Get the ring, or if you're really rich/lucky, Tyreal's Might.

[Qvick]

Did Nihlathak a few times today. wasnt to hard, even without natures peace, altho i can see how it would be usefull =)
Didnt get any keys there today tho, but it leads to my next question...
How do we do against the mini übers or whatever theyre called, the organ droppers?
been way to long since i been in there, dont remember at all what kind of mobs there are or what theyre immune to.

[gbones]

How do we do against the mini übers or whatever theyre called, the organ droppers?

Need physical damage as the pitlords are immune to all forms of spells...

So if you're farming keys on your toon of choice you have two options:

Sell the keys
Make a zeal/smite paladin and do organs/uber trist

[shamx]

well depending on your skill point distribution and gear you can get quite a bit over that, my zon is currently only 78 and she already does about 12k lite dam which is fantastic, only problem is the Light Immunes which can easily be fixed by an infinity merc.....

Thanks for the input.


As for the Synergies, i figure ill get enough points to max atleast one more. power strike or lightning bolt, does it matter which one? i mean, are either one of them usefull at all? playin around with a skill calculator maxed powerstrike shows some pretty funny numbers, 7-12254 dmg with my current gear. But i guess its still CS and LF that gets used most, or LS maybe.
Anyways, does it matter what synergy i max?

sorry bout typin so damn much.
ill shut up now... for a while atleast... maybe... prolly not...

[brunopeppers]

i don't play with valk, and put the rest of points in jab, just because i found an ethereal titan, so i use might merc. (with insight) and fortitude, give a very good physical damage... i will post a picture of her