Guide:Plagueazon v1.10, by Wuben

The Plague Amazon uses Plague Javelin for her primary skill. This character is effective in dueling, but must be played with skill and technique to succeed.

• Guide originally posted in the Amazon forum.

Diablo II Strategy Guide Info:

[edit]

• Patch: v1.10
• Gametype: PvP
• Class: Amazon
• Author: Wuben

INTRODUCTION

Since I rewrite this I don’t feel like posting another bla bla bla story. Anyways, you’re an Amazon that uses Plague Javelin as her main skill to kill opponents. This is not a one-hit kill build and thus requires a bit of tactic. It’s not as complicated as a WW-assassin, but not as easy as a Fire Sorceress. If you attend public games you will often be called the most terrible things for being “lame”. It’s not your fault that they don’t have stashgear to counter poison damage.

Let’s get started.

SKILLS

• 20 Plague Javelin
• 20 Poison Javelin
• 20 Lightning Fury
• 1 into all Passive moves
• Enough for lvl 16 Evade/Avoid/Dodge after +skills.

Above is a must. Plague Javelin and Poison Javelin are both useful and they synergies each other. In 90% of the battles you will use Lightning Fury a lot. Yes, you can get away with a level 1 lightning fury, but the more damage Lightning Fury does, the faster you kill your opponent. I was a bit sceptic about its uses when I first build my plaguer, but in this build it’s indispensable.

Level 16 dodges are my preference. You can go lower, you can go higher, but at level 16 the dimishing returns start to kick in hard. If you follow my gear suggestions below, you need level 3 dodges; 2 hard points.

The valk and decoy are useful in some battles and thus are worth one point. Same holds for pierce; to kill an army you want to have chance on piercing. Remember that you can put Decoy in town to create some confusion. In most battles I don’t bother with having a valk out, but sometimes the extra target can be your savior.

If you use a CtA bow, you will have to put one skillpoint into Guided Arrow. If you choose to build a GA/plague hybrid (powerful in teambattles; sometimes forbidden), you probably max GA and don’t bother with lightning fury. That’s another build really.

If you follow my build you will find that you have quite some leftover points. The one thing that is really useful is Charged Strike. It’s a nice finisher and actually can do some damage, even at 30 IAS. More important; it’s a synergy for Lightning Fury.

STATS

Just as always:

• Strenght: Enough for gear. Be aware that you do not (or partially) rely on the strenght of Storm Shield. Calculate before you build.
• Dexterity: Enough for max block while wearing Storm Shield.
• Vitality: The rest, like any non-sorc build.

GEAR

Helmet

You have 2 choices for a helm. The first, and my favorite, choice is the Crown Of Ages. Damage Reduction and defense don’t matter on it, but the resists and 2 sockets (a must) make it a beautiful helmet.

• Make sure to socket it with Resistance/Increased Attack Speed jewels. If you’re rich go for 15/15. If you’re a bit less rich aim for 30 single/ias jewels. What resist should be depend on your charms and preferences.

The second choice is a circlet. The circlet must have 2 amazon skills/20 Faster Cast Rate and 2 Open Sockets in order to beat CoA. I would probably use a 2/20/2os/mods circlet over a CoA if I would have found one. The big disadvantage of such a helmet is the lack of FHR

• Mods can be: Strenght, Faster Walk/Run, Resistances, Dexterity, Life/Mana. The usual stuff.

Weapon

The first thing that comes in mind is Titan’s Revenge. 2 Amazon/2 Javelin skills, 40 stats (or 20; depends on your setup) and 30 FRW make it a blessing for a plaguer.

I would like to mention Thunderstrokes. Simply for the fact that it has 15 IAS. If you happen to find some great circlet that lacks an additional socket, you might consider using Thunderstrokes. In most plaguebuilds it’s outclassed by Titan’s though.

Some people like to use a rare or magic javelin that has 4+ skills (can get up to 6 javelin skills; just like a Trapclaw) and 30+ IAS. I would not give up the mods of Titan’s for such a javelin, but if you build around it, you can end up quite lethal.

Shield

Stormshield and Spirit. Both are vital to the build. Stormshield should be your main shield; it doesn’t need an explanation. You can socket a few things in it; Um, a Facet or a Ber. Um it if you lack good charms. Facet it if you feel like you don’t need the resistances. Ber it if you use a circlet and you want to hit the 50% DR cap. Spirit is mainly used as the shield that gives 2 additional skills to your Battle Orders. In some battles however, this will be your main shield. In the strategy section you will find more information about it. It’s necessay to hit 99 FCR in those battles.

Armor

The only armor you should consider using is Enigma. Yes, you will teleport with this amazon. You’re not a sorceress who won’t move her feet, but it is necessary in some battles. Sometimes a tactical repositioning teleport. Sometimes a namelocked attack. Sometimes just dodging. The strenght, FRW, DR and skills make it a beautiful armor, but the +teleport is invaluable.

Bramble is another armor that people like to use. The damage increase is the only really nice thing on it. Not worth giving up the ability to teleport. Mobility is more important than raw damage.

Amulet

It depends on what helmet you will use. If you use CoA, you need a +2 Amazon/18 FCR Amulet with extra mods. You can lower the FCR if you use a circlet; maybe you can even use a Mara’s.

Belt

Arachnid. It’s an ugly belt, but you need the 20 FCR if you use a CoA. Consider a crafted belt with FHR if you use a circlet.

Gloves

Trang-Oul’s Gloves. Beautiful gloves; 20 FCR and a damage/sec increase that is too good to pass up on. You might consider using 2 java/20 ias/mods gloves, but only if you need the IAS and you can sacrifice the loss in FCR. I can’t think of a situation where this would hold, but you never know.

Rings

One ring should be a Raven Frost. AR doesn’t matter, so get a 20 Dex one. Since plaguers are (just like trappers) partially IAS-based, you can’t afford to be frozen. The only time you can take of the raven is in a 1 vs 1 battle versus something that drains your resists. You can choose to absorb, but I would suggest to use high resist rings to make sure your resists are still maxed. The other ring should be a 10 FCR/mods ring. Mods can be dexterity, resistance (should be), life/mana. If you forsee that you will not take this ring off you can use strenght on it.

Boots

Your best bet on boots are rares with FRW/FHR/high res (fire/cold/lightning). Since those are impossible to find legally you may consider using dupes. I never did it, but it’s your best option really. A legal replacement is 25 Dex Shadowdancers. 30 FHR and 75 BO-able life is sexy. If you start using spirit you will probably find the strenght requirement to be a problem. How to solve it depends on your preferences. Have a 10 FCR/20 str ring in stash. Use 15 strenght Sandstorm’s, use another helmet when you use spirit. It’s up to you.

Inventory

Your inventory should hold a few things:

• A Torch; they are insanely cheap. Resistances are more important than stats, but you can probably afford a 18+/20 one.
• An Annihilus; Resistances are more important than stats.
• Skillers: It depends on your helmet choice, but with Dancers + CoA you need 2* FHR skiller + one FHR sc to hit the 86 FHR BP in SS mode. If you have some circlet you may want more FHR skillers. Fill up the rest with lifers. They are more useful than FRW ones.
• 10* small charms: resistances are more important than life. Combine those for the best effect. Make sure you have enough resistances stacked before Anya. I assume you know how the Anya bug works.

Stashgear

I have no idea about the rules on different realms. I will list some things that you can use. +Max Resists items are more useful than absorb items. More expensive as well.

Some things that you will probably want to have:

• 160 Cold Resist Monarch
• 160 Lightning Resist Monarch
• Vex/Vex/Vex/Ruby Monarch and/or Hotspurs and/or Nozokan
• Lo/Lo/Lo/Topaz Monarch and/or Tgods and/or Wisps
• Gul’ed Andy’s Visage (or Shaeled) and/or Death’s Gloves and/or Iratha’s Amulet
• Cold and Lightning Charms (if you seriously lack that resist)
• Ort or Thul (or Um) Kira’s Guardian
• I probably forgot a few things, but you get the picture.

Switch

I saved this to the last. People’s opinions tend to differ here. I will list the few options you have. In this order I would use them:

• CtA weapon + Spirit shield: I think Lightning fury works fine enough for me and this way you have the highest level of Battle Orders; more life and duration.
• CtA Bow: This way you can have Guided Arrow as a finishing move. The bad side is a loss of +2 skills. Make sure to skill Guided Arrow if you choose this. I’m not sure what bow is best to use, but try to hit a nice FPS.
• CtA weapon + Dream shield: Sounds like a great option, but I doubt its uses. I’m sure people will disagree. Prove me wrong please.
• Faith Bow: This way you will give up the life increase entirely and this is a different build really, but if your gear is well enough or if you team up with a barbarian constantly this might be very lethal. Most gear suggestions that I made won’t hold in this build, so you’re on your own there.

STRATEGIES

There are a few strategies to come up with. I will go into detail in the classes below, but I would like to mention a few things.

There is a difference between Plague Javelin and Poison Javelin. Plague is the higher level skill and spreads a cloud of poison over a duration around ~20 seconds. Your damage should be above 85K to be really effective. The more the better of course. Plague Javelin is your main attack.

Poison Javelin has higher damage, but a longer duration, making it less useful in most battles. It doesn’t make a cloud like Plague Javelin does, it just leaves a trail of poison as far as the javelin ranges.

Poison Javelin is not as powerful as Plague javelin but there are some situations in which it is useful. The main advantages of Poison javelin are the bigger range and the shorter casting delay, making it a spamable spell.

You should use Poison Javelin mainly versus sorceresses and other fast teleporting characters. If I suggest using Poison Javelin I will mention it in the strategy section below.

Another thing to keep in mind is the way people react when they have 1 Hit Point left. Some people run away (to town or to a certain death). Those are pretty easy, just hit them once and they’re gone.

Others will go all out on you. Even though most are too reckless, you should be careful. A Wind Druid can end up doing a lot of damage with one good NL teleport, same goes for a Bone Necromancers. Don’t think that you have won when they have 1 life, finishing them off is the hardest part really.

Most people do not know how to counter poison damage. The most easy way to do this is to use +Maximum Poison Resist items, just like a regular resist. Where poison differs is in how Poison Length Reduce works. There is a Penalty of 40% and 100% in nightmare and hell respectively on PLR. This means that you need 175% PLR to reduce the duration of poison in hell to a minimum. It also means that if people do not use any PLR item that your duration in hell will be twice as long.

The last thing that I like to mention is the way to finish off people. You have 4 different ways (5 if you use Guided Arrow on switch): Lightning Fury, Poison Javelin, Charged Strike and Plague Javelin. Started with the most important.

Lightning Fury is quite powerful; it will be around level ~45 and if you follow my suggestions you have 1 synergie maxed. Lightning Fury is fast, has a “surrounding” effect, breaks on walls and minions and turns invisible after a while.

With surrounding effect I mean that if you hit someone within a few pixels that it will still do damage. Kind of hard to explain, but try and you will see. For example: someone runs to the left and you would like to hit him. Do not namelock, but throw where you expect him to walk to actually hit him. I was a great aimer after I played with my plaguer for weeks.

Lightning Fury breaks on minions. Throw a Javelin into the army of a Wind Druid and he will get hit. Of course, his Cyclone Armor will absorb the hit in 99% of the cases, but if, for some reason, his Armor is gone and he’s poisoned, he will be at your mercy.

Lightning Fury turns invisible when it travels too far. I don’t know the technical details, but I guess it works more or less like IBS. Practice in hitting people offscreen to surprise them or catch them offguard.

Poison Javelin is your second finisher. If your opponent has one life, another poison trail will kill him. If you poisoned someone and he’s teleporting like crazy, you can start throwing Poison Javelins like a madman and you will eventually kill him.

Charged Strike is useful in situations where your opponent is so close that you can attack him easily. I don’t recommend using this often, but in some battles you will find yourself using CS to finish your enemy off.

Plague Javelin is useful in battles versus Chargers. Look below for more information. Both Plague Javelin and Poison Javelin should rarely be namelocked. Try to tactically choose the places where you will throw your cloud; be unpredictable.

Amazons

Bow Amazons

Be in their face all the time. Namelock + teleport on them and start spamming Poison Javelin. With some luck you will hit him, since most bowamazons have low life it will drain them pretty fast. Finish off with a lightning fury.

If they’re a hybrid (CS/GA); approach them, but don’t let them get too near. Their life won’t be great, so you can use poison javelin as well here. Gear: Normal

Charged Strike Amazons

Let them chase you. If they chase you; run through Plague clouds and watch them die. If they try Lightning fury; hit poison javelin and let them chase your after all. Do not try to tank them or you’ll be dead in no time. Yes, you have to be very defensive versus there, which isn’t a great way to make friends in Public games. It’s them dying though.

• Gear: You may consider having some extra stacked Lightning Resists. Spirit mode if possible.

Plaguer Amazons

Matter of skill. You can consider using a Gul’ed Andy’s Visage to neglect some of their damage. Use poison javelin. The one who hits first usually wins.

• Gear: Gear with +Max Poison Res and/or PLR items if needed. Spirit mode if possible.

Assassins

FireTrappers

Never duelled a good one. They can stun like hell, so be careful. If you use some sort of +Maximum fire resist items, you counter most of their damage though.

• Gear: Maximum Fire Resist if needed. Spirit mode if possible.

Lightning Trappers

A hard match up in my opinion. If they are offensive you need to make sure that they will land in your plague cloud. Then dodge until you can kill them.

If they are defensive you need to get them moving with either Poison Javelin or Lightning Fury. Poison Javelin will slowly drain their life which results in an uncareful trapper in most cases. If you’re really in trouble, make sure to use some +Maximum Lightning Resist.

• Gear: Maximum Lightning Resist if needed; Spirit mode if possible.

Kick Assassins

They tend to die fast. Have a cloud ready and just watch them try. I have never met a Kicker that could damage me seriously. I haven’t met a good one, I guess.

• Gear: Consider using +Maximum Poison Resist and/or PLR, make sure that you do not lose FHR in the process.

Whirlwind Assasins

Another hard match up. Let them come to you and have a cloud ready in all cases. If they Dflight or teleport near they will most likely get poisoned. Finishing off a WW-sin is hard. I had the most success with just tanking and throwing LF constantly.

• Gear: Consider using +Maximum Poison Resist and/or PLR, make sure that you do not lose FHR in the process.

Barbarians

Singers

Read Kick Assassins again.

• Gear: Normal.

Any non-bvc Barb

They are easy. They can’t reach you and will die eventually. Don’t fear them.

• Gear:: Normal

BvC Barbarian

Your worst enemy and if played correct it’s an impossible enemy. That is, if they know how to counter poison. If they don’t I’d say that the plaguer has the advantage. Leaping won’t work as good on Amazons (when you’re moving that is) as on other characters. Walk around and use Plague Javelin when you are sure that it will hit them. Do not fool around with BvC’s, they can kill you very fast.

• Gear: Normal.

Druids

Shapers

Don’t get hit.

• Gear: Normal, or Maximum Fire or Maximum Poison with PDR gear.

Wind Druids

A fun duel in most cases. When they teleport in, make sure you’re near or in a cloud. If you can, throw a LF immediately in his army to make it disappear. This way he will get poisoned and if you’re lucky his oak is dead as well. He will “run” to regroup. This is your chance to become offensive, or you can wait for a new attack. He can’t do anything versus the poison so he will attack soon enough.

Repeat above tactic (usually 1 time will do) until he’s at one life. If he has Max Block using Lightning Fury will be too risky, so make sure he lands in another cloud that will take care of him. If he doesn’t have Max Block you can try Lightning Fury, but another plague is just as easy.

Do not ever try to tank a Wind Druid; they will tear you up.

• Gear: Normal.

Fire Druids/Shamans

I don’t know. Never duelled a good one. I think he will try to outrange you with Fissure. Try poison javelin to get him poisoned at least.. Plague will override Poison so hit Plague when he comes in.

• Gear: +Maximum Fire Res gear

Necromancers

Poison Necromancers

You have the advantage. He has to be close to you, so have a cloud in between. You can outrun poison nova, or dodge it. An uphill battle for him.

• Gear: Gear with +Max Poison Res and/or PLR items if needed.

Summoner Necromancers

If they don’t use Decrepify in combination with Clay Golem you stand a fair chance. Summoners are slow and without the Marrowbug they don’t have a decent secondary attack anymore. Make sure he teleports into clouds and his army will slowly die. If he’s stupid enough to get poisoned, just fury his army; this will hit him.

• Gear: Normal

Bone Necromancers

Lure him into a Plague Javelin. I haven’t met one that I couldn’t catch, if it’s hard use Poison Javelin. This will enrage him and if he’s aggressive and skilled make sure that you pay attention. Finish off with either Fury or Poison Javelin.

• Gear: Spirit mode

Paladins

Hammerdins

If he’s teleporting; be on the move, have a cloud under you and watch him die easily. If he’s charging, it’s harder. Remember that he has to be pretty close to get a hit in, so have poison around you all the time. Run/teleport to directions from which he didn’t came. It’s impossible to get a LF hit in, so use poison and watch him suddenly die. Hard battle though.

• Gear: Spirit mode

Liberator

The superior version of a Hammerdin. If you run, he will charge you. If you walk you’re a sitting duck for his hammers. If you teleport you take the risk of him teleporting onto you (with superior FCR). It’s essential to have a cloud around you all the time. He has the advantage though.

• Gear: Normal

Smiter

Let them come to you. If they charge; walk/teleport while they die. Finish with another plague (walk through it).

• Gear: Normal

V/T Paladin

Superior version of a smiter. If you have good charms it’s an inferior version though. Stack resist without losing your block. Use valk + decoy in this battle; this will give you some extra time.

• Gear: Normal with heavily stacked lightning resists.

Magedin

I’ve never duelled one. Just stack resist and look at the charging Hammerdin description.

• Gear: Stacked Light resists; use spirit if possible.

• Auradin: Worst build ever. Stack resists depending on the element they use. If they see that they hardly damage you, you can just poison along. He will charge through or in it and die.

Gear: Stack the right resist.

Sorceress

Lightning

I find them pretty hard actually. They tend to namelock and kill you. Run around in curved lines to avoid the lightning. Use either Poison or Plague javelin. When down to 1 life they’re dead meat.

• Gear: +Maximum Resists is your friend.

Fire

Can be hard, they do not namelock that often. The battles tend to be pretty long; but you’re not in a hurry. Just make sure that Plague or Poison hits before you have taken too much damage.

• Gear: +Maximum Resists is your friend.

Blizzard

Not that hard for a plaguer. It’s like chess, you put a dangerous zone here, I put one here. You should win.

• Gear: If she’s good; stack Cold Resists.

Orb

She has to be close to hit you, but you kill faster than he does. You’ll connect a plague soon enough. You should win.

• Gear: If she’s good; stack Cold Resists.