skip d/e/a good iead?(pvm jav)

[sweetalmonds]

just wonderin if anyone did this before and if you were happy with the results. im making light jav and just got to thinking that it will save points for synergies but most importantly no getting stuck in dodge animation while trying to attack. this would be especially annoying in baal runs and trav runs with many hydras and baal casting decrep <_< with my gear plan i'll have max resist and block just little dr from one ber. hopefully thats good survival for pvm. the other thing is there's no valk but that's really not a main concern if i have a tank in my merc. so iso some oponions thx

[Banjotron]

Well, even if you only have moderate +skills, one point in each will end up allowing you to avoid ~50% of what gets thrown at you. This can be hugely useful.

On the flipside, you are already point-starved. Even if you went pure offense, the minimum level a lightning javazon can complete her synergies at is lvl 95. Add the fact that dodge animations can sometimes cost you more damage than the dodge itself prevented, and it becomes tricky.

It's really hard for me to come down on either side definitively. I will say that I wouldn't rely on your merc to be a decent tank. Unless you get an Act 2 defiance merc, then drop a guardian angel and an excellent defensive helm on him, I feel none of the mercs are really tough enough to cut it as a tank in hell.

[DH Amazon]

I don't like those d/e/a but I like Valkyrie (one more meat shield, takes some heat from souls etc..., so you can throw more freely). But those d/e/a are like max block, not needed, but nice to have when ...

In baalruns decoy (takes 1st set of hydras), so you can throw as fast you want. Decoy also takes lots of heat away from Merc when hydras are around.
Decoy works in Travi too.

Why fight so close, that Baal can decrepify curse you. That curse never bothered my ranged attackers in throne.

[NASE]

It is considered the best option if you manage to maintain high killing speed. Dead monsters can't hurt you making valk and d/e/a obsolete.

P.S. Just remember to abuse decoy when ever you can. Even with one point, it should be quite powerful in such a build.

[sweetalmonds]

k i decide to skip it then, too annoying.

so what fhr would you recommend then my gear will probably look like the following

titan
enigma
moser 2x ias/res
griffon ias/res for 63ias bp or facet for 46
trang glove
arach
frw/(10)fhr/res boots
raven
fcr/ml ring
cats eye
torch
anni
some skiller and life/frw/res/fhr combo in scs
68fcr bp i liek tele it gud



one fhr jav gc and 2x 5fhr sc would go to 32 or treks with one fhr gc? im afraid of not having max res with treks.

[Shejken]

I've made several Javazons on HCL. On the first one i used d/e/a, decoy, Valk.

But on the other 2 Javazons i put all my skills in synergis to LF. And I never had any problem surviving. You could use decoy as safty skill. But your merc should be enough to tank those monsters that do not die in 1-2 LF or CS.

Maximize your Damage all the way!

I didn't even use Infi on my merc (to expensive at the time) and i had little problem to solo all hell in 8ppl games.

[Hrus]

d/a/e is the problem sometimes, but sometimes it saves your but. On top of it, you can have valk (which can save you too - she's sometimes more durable than my merc even against Lister). If you have decent equip to slay all monsters in seconds, you are probably better without it. But I have seen (my friend's zon) how fast the life goes down when you accidently fires LF when surrounded with dolls or when you meet pack of 20 hell witches and get amped.
Hydras can be effectively shut down by placement of decoy/valk.

[Shejken]

d/a/e is the problem sometimes, but sometimes it saves your but. On top of it, you can have valk (which can save you too - she's sometimes more durable than my merc even against Lister). If you have decent equip to slay all monsters in seconds, you are probably better without it. But I have seen (my friend's zon) how fast the life goes down when you accidently fires LF when surrounded with dolls or when you meet pack of 20 hell witches and get amped.
Hydras can be effectively shut down by placement of decoy/valk.


Yeah, but you have to have some own skills aswell. That will save your *** every time (well, when B.Net is laggy, nothing can).

A Javazon is a very safe offensive character, if you play her right. Even without d/e/a.

[tinncann25]

I dont think anyone answered his fhr question, but if you are going to pvp it is essential to have 86fhr.

[StLife]

Is it possible to cast Valkyrie using a Harmony bow on switch? Or would it disappear once you switch back to your main gear?

[NASE]

It would disappear eventually.

It will disappear when the game checks to see that minion that run around are valid minions, or something strange like that.
It doesn't work, same goes for other summons - like peace. Once you switch away from the item holding the charges, you risk losing your minion.

[PFSS]

I prefer no d/a/e. When I have it I find that it tends to save me from hits by single lone monsters (which I am more than capable of taking one hit from before striking back) but when faced with crowds I get stuck in dodge lock (or whatever it's called) until they kill me because I can't get attacks off.

Just my preference.

[phor]

I agree with most of the sentiments about d/a/e, but I'd also like to add that from my experience with my SP Fishyzon, I had a LOT of trouble keeping an act2 merc (even defiance) alive to tank for me in Hell.
I had to end up switching out his gear constantly to keep resists/absorb up for whatever uniques and act bosses I would run across. It was a giant pain in the ***.

If you're rich, you may not have this problem, but I certainly did.

For that reason, I'm now building a new Zon that's using a high level Valk to tank and an act1 or act3 merc to add a tertiary damage type from the back lines. I know it will be a bit slower going, but I also hope that this way I'm less likely to get stuck in those areas where my merc was just dropping over and over again.

[Shejken]

phor: I'm not sure what a "fishyzon" means, but i'm not familiar with your problem with Merc dying every so often. If you have decent gear on your Merc, like Insight Polearm, Duress, Tal Helm or such and some semi-good gear on yourself 1.5-2k Fury atleast, I cant see why your merc is dying. Maybe you need to change Gameplay.

Either way, skip d/a/e :)

[phor]

phor: I'm not sure what a "fishyzon" means, but i'm not familiar with your problem with Merc dying every so often. If you have decent gear on your Merc, like Insight Polearm, Duress, Tal Helm or such and some semi-good gear on yourself 1.5-2k Fury atleast, I cant see why your merc is dying. Maybe you need to change Gameplay.

Either way, skip d/a/e :)
Fishyzon is the name for the Lightning Fury + Charged Strike + Freezing Arrow build.

How could changing gameplay affect if my merc was running in and dying or not?
They're very difficult to control without teleport (which I definitely did not have).

Just to clarify, I wasn't having trouble against normal mobs. But there are many areas in which a well geared act2 merc just isn't a good choice such as the chaos sanctuary (iron maiden) or radament's lair (no leech vs skeletons).

I wasn't playing on bnet with that character, so I couldn't make any of the great runewords that everyone uses. During nightmare he was mostly wearing Duriel's Shell and Rockstopper, which worked great, but once we got to hell, even with two high resist pieces like that, his resists were barely out of negative. And that means practically 1 shotting himself on any LE unique, which happened a LOT. And he definitely couldn't tank any act bosses with those resists.