Changes

Certain Amazon Builds have been around nearly from the day Diablo2 became playable on the realms. Last time I tried to describe them I kind of forgot the old ways and just listed what was more accepted nowadays, many years later. A lot of changes have taken place, skillwise and itemwise. I felt it was time to elaborate the descriptions of the subclasses I listed and discuss the evolution that has taken place. First I will have to explain the main classes and then we'll dive into the subclasses.

One note in advance that whenever I give a list of items, it is only to give some options. They are often unique items or set-items. It is merely a guideline, because people are overall familiar with these items. I will most of the time not list the exact reasons for indicating them either. If you are not familiar with their names, you can check their statistics on Diabloii.net or the Arreat Summit and hopefully see what's so special about them (explaining every little detail of the items will make this guide tenfold in size). There are countless possibilities open, so feel free to experiment. Sometimes experimenting is only allowed within bounds though, but you'll know when you read the subclass themes. So here we go....

First an important explanation of amazon classes. We distinguish amazons in several classes related to the weapons which she actively uses throughout the game. She can be proficient in three weapon types, meaning that she can use certain skills with them to boost damage or to get some sort of special effect. She is non-proficient in all the other weapon types. The weapons amazons can specialise in are:

If an amazon uses two different weapons in both of which she cannot specialise she will not be a hybrid, but just be a Tankazon. Example: Sword using amazon with an Axe on weapon switch.

Generally speaking people look at the main amazon classes and think that it's all about skillpoint allocation. People think that Bowazons are amazons that do not allocate any skillpoints in the spear and javelin proficiency tree. Spearazons don't use the bow or javelin tree and Javazons don't use the spear or bow tree.

Most of the time the choice of the amazon main class is permanent, because once people invest points in either the bow, spear or javelin tree they tend to stick with it, but people are allowed to reconsider.

To be a pure class you have to use either two weapons of the same type or have an empty weapon switch. To be a hybrid class you have to use two different weapons. I don't think much more explanations are needed, but there have been a few bends to the rule.

Some subclasses may look a bit alike. Depending on the weapon used, some subclasses can be built for more than just one of the main classes. There are also a few themes that are/can be used for many of the subclasses and certain subclasses are known to be available or extracted from other character classes (in this case I mean extracted from a subclass belonging to the necromancer, paladin, barbarian, sorceress, druid or assassin).

I will describe the bow and crossbow skills, and the spear and javelin skills for every subclass, but the overall tips for passive skills I will list here before I dive into subclass area. Sometimes I do elaborate on their use. Also note that I sometimes give an overview of recommended skills, but do not list the required prequisite skills among them, or list over a total of the maximum 110 skills. This means you will have to decide for yourself which skills to sacrifice and which ones to build up.

Evade is the chance to move out of the way of both melee and ranged attacks when you are running. If you plan to run a lot this is the skill for you (56% at level 20). If you think you don't need it, keep it at level 1 (18%)

Theme: Like a sorceress this amazon relies on her manapool. In several of the previous patches, Freezing arrow and Immolation Arrow could not leech and thus mana had to be replenished the natural way, but with recent patches this has changed, a fact which can let many aspiring Mageazons breathe a sigh of relief. A Mageazon's two main skills, freezing arrow and immolation arrow, are very mana-intensive, so being able to leech some of that cost back is extremely helpful. There are two primary ways of regaining mana with a Mageazon - through mana leech, perhaps with the help of other skills that do physical damage such as Strafe, or through mana regeneration.

The theme of these subclasses is that a Frostmaiden does not pick fireskills nor does an Immozon use cold skills. This means that next to either cold or (NOT "and") fire damage, the amazon now has also physical damage at their disposal, which makes it easier to compete with immune creatures later on.

Frostmaidens focus their build initially on doing massive cold damage. They max the cold skills Cold Arrow and Freezing Arrow. At times they even max Freezing Arrow, but that's an extreme - it adds precious little to Freezing arrow, only increasing it's freeze length (and 20 points for a quarter second of extra freeze length in hell isn't worthwhile). They try to get as high as a freezing length with these skills as they can through the use of some items and charms. Since Frostmaidens should be able to spawn Freezing Arrow without having to switch to alternative skills too often, they need a good balance between manaleech and physical damage.

For dual-immune cold/physical creatures, the Frostmaiden is forced to use either lightning, fire and poison damage charms or switch to a bow that does good fire, lightning or poison damage. Either that, or she must rely on a mercenary doing these sorts of damage, or one with the ability to remove the physical immunity, perhaps by use of the unique Thresher, Reaper's Toll.

Immozons max Fire Arrow, Exploding Arrow, and Immolation Arrow. Immozons are a lot harder to play with than Frostmaidens because it's natural not to choose any source of cold damage for these characters. The lack of a chilling factor for the Immozon can be fixed by a few different methods.

For physical immunes Fire Arrow, Exploding arrow and Immolation Arrow will all do well, but for fire immunes you need another damage type. You can use Multiple Shot and Strafe for if you choose physical damage and build your Immozon as a Vamp. You can also build the traditional way and deal by using either lightning and poison damage charms or switch to a bow that does good lightning or poison damage (remember that cold is rarely used for this subclass), such as Skystrike.

After these elemental builds I could discuss my elemental Maiden, but since that build can be created for both Spearazon and Javazon alike, I'd best discuss that later. So it's now up to discuss the builds that have as a main purpose the doing of physical damage. First up...

The theme of the Dexazon is to invest as much as she can into acquiring the highest dexterity possible. This means they increase their physical damage tremendously. They also focus on at least 1 physical damage skill, but are also sometimes found to make use of 1 or more low-level elemental skills against physical immune creatures. There are two major ways to build a Dexazon : Focussing purely on damage, or focussing on speed.

Strength to wear items/base

Dexterity: rest

Vitality: some/base

Energy: base

* Pierce: 8+ (65%+)

A Speedazon goes for the maximum amount of speed possible in killing creatures. I would have loved to refer everyone to Dinho's Speedazon guide, but that is not listed in the Strategy Compendium. Therefore I have to sum up a few main points.

4 socketed armor (60%)

The Sniper is one that attacks from afar. The main skills are Guided Arrow for single targets, and Multiple Shot for groups. Magic Arrow is used as a backup against physical immunes. Guided Arrow gives the illusion of being heat-seeking and Magic Arrow looks like the same soaring fast projectile. There is little to say about this amazon, other than that she is often fast and does incredible damage. She can have any setup, but most of the time it will be Speedazon related. She will go for a fast hit and run tactic. This involves fast run and often a good Evade skill value because she is running most of the time.

Pierce: 8-20

The Multi-Strafer uses both Multiple Shot and Strafe to her advantage to attack as many creatures as she can at the same time. When monsters come from only one side, Multiple Shot is put to use and when they come from several sides Strafe will be used. She is another intermediate of the Dexazon and the Speedazon, except that she does not take the luxury of picking any elemental skills. She puts her skillpoints in other skills beneficial to her theme of doing physical damage against multiple creatures. She must use charms, gear or weapon switch in order to get elemental damage. To succeed with both of these skills, she needs good attack rating, which is partially provided by high dexterity and for the other part provided by high Penetrate. A good to great value for Critical Strike is a nice addition to her damage and high pierce should not be forgotten.

Pierce: 8-20

There is a subclass called the Multizon, which uses a maxed Multiple Shot as main attack. Very powerful for crowd control and good for players who don't want to bother about adjusting the "fanning out" of Multiple Shot. Clicking closer to you makes Multiple Shot fan out more, clicking further away from you makes it shoot arrows closer together.

Pierce: 8-20

Another subclass that has emerged lately is the Burizon. This CrossBowazon's only true features are that it uses the powerful crossbow Buriza-Do Kyanon in conjunction with maxed elemental skill and/or strafe. It is one of the easiest classes to make and a real cookiecutter. Many people hate this amazon because she's so easy to play with. The reasons I will list below.

Pierce: 0

(idea of Kirsty)

'''Conclusion''': most important mod to have is probably to have a form of pierce. The second mod important to have is elemental damage. Then physical damage, leech and things like knockback and bonus skills start to kick in.

There are a few more subclasses possible for Bowazons, but they can be created for other amazon main classes as well, so I will discuss them where they are best put to right or list them at the end of this overview. First I'll continue with Javazon subclasses.

The Javazon can be created in many ways, but since so many of the skills that synergize one another work well together in use, it's difficult to define exact subclasses. I have seen two good general guides with personal preferences, which are listed on the amazon forum. They belong to Talon and Angry. And I hope that one of the guides gets put up on a page.

This Javazon uses Lightning Fury as its main attack and a nice guide on do's and don'ts is supplied by Flux. Note however that a true Javazon class does NOT have a bow or crossbow on weapon switch. Flux describes a hybrid subclass in truth, but for a Lightning Fury build, his guide is the one to check out. A few pointers I will give right here.

Energy: Try and rely on mana leech and mana per kill, rather than having a large mana pool - a large mana pool only helps at the beginning, letting you get off one or two more attacks, while replenishing mana in some way will be far more helpful.

The Staticzon focuses her attacks and often also the rest of her gear on doing lightning damage. This subclass can be created for both Spearazon and Javazon. Picking a lightning skill is often not the only way how lightning damage is delivered to her foes. If a Staticzon has chosen to also use items that give good lightning damage, she can deliver this damage by doing a melee attack that quickly hits one or more foes. That means fend and/or jab comes into play. I will list below the lightning skills that can be considered.

Valkyrie will help by giving you a strong tank, while the other two will increase the damage dealt by the rest of your lightning skills.

The Poison theme can be applied to all amazons. All you have to do is get many sources of poison damage. For knowing which sources to pick I refer you to the Second Tao of Poison article. The theme for Javazons is that next to using poison from gear, she uses her poison skills as main attack. There are two kinds of javelin skills that can be used together when fighting creature packs. The main skill is Plague Javelin which you throw to one side of the creature pack. The other skill is Poison Javelin which you can use to attack the monsters on the other side of the pack until the Plague Javelin poison has ended. One can also instead of Poison Javelin use a melee skill to inflict poison damage on your foes. Be aware that to best use poison is not to attack creatures that are already inflicted with it.

The skill for Bowazons is Multiple Shot or Strafe to inflict as many creatures as possible. Try to get something that has no Poison on it - if you carry poison damage on your attack, it will interfere with the poison damage being dealt by your Poison/Plague javelins, which will slow down your overall killing speed. Good choices for bows are ones that are quick, or easy to equip, potentially with other sorts of damage on them in case of physical immunes - Buriza-Do Kyanon is an excellent crossbow choice, while slow, it has all the peircing you need and can do both physical and cold damage. Ravenfrost rings also provide free cold damage, letting you stick with other faster bows. For actual bows, depending on your amazon's level, good choices include Skystrike (for extra lightning damage and good speed), Goldstrike Arch (capable of casting Fist of the Heavens, excellent speed and damage for it's level, and bonus damage/attack rating against demons and undead), as well as the typical top-end choices, Windforce and Eaglehorn, plus the Silence or Breath of the Dying runewords in Crusader or Hydra bows.

There are a few more subclasses possible for Javazons, but the following are more specific to the Spearazons so I will discuss them here.

The Spearazon's main feature is the ability to do a fair amount of damage, accurately, to a large number of enemies quickly. Defense, damage reduction, high life and the ability to dodge attacks - maybe, see Fend - are very important as defense whereas high attack rating and chance to do a critical hit are important for attacking. The skills that are mainly used for physical damage are Jab, Impale and Fend. Depending on the choice of the Spearazon this has led to three specific subclasses. They can be created for Javazons also, who have an additional bonus of blocking with a shield.

Spearazons benefit most from act 2 Mercenaries. Might and Defiance are probably the most favorable mercenaries, but one shouldn't underestimate the value of the other ones - particularly the Holy Freeze mercenary if you're using Fend with a two-handed spear. Barbarians make equal impressive tanks as act 2 mercenaries. Act 3 mercenaries can provide you with an elemental damage type you have not covered in your own build and act 1 mercenaries when used correctly are perfect for some ranged support.

The Jabazon is the amazon (Spearazon or Javazon) who uses Jab as her main attack. Jab is the melee skill that enables you to deliver the most hits over time. It is not incredible for doing high physical damage, because the skill gives rather low bonus, but it is an impressive way to deliver elemental damage and crushing blow to creatures at a tremendous speed. Every jab attack makes you hit one creature three times. The downside is that it only hits one creature, but it does hit three times rapidly, which makes it an excellent boss-killing attack when paired with high amounts of crushing blow.

The Impalazon is the amazon (Spearazon or Javazon) who uses Impale as her primary attack. It does incredible damage, but there are two significant downsides to the usage of Impale. First of all it is extremely slow and second of all, with every hit there is a chance that your weapon will lose durability. This is a skill that will drain your cashflow for repairs, but the damage sure is worth it. It will help greatly to have increased durability on your weapon or a self-repair mod so you can keep using your weapon for a considerable amount of time. You also should have some sources that contain increased gold dropping on monster deaths. That'll help with repairing.

The Fendazon is the amazon (Spearazon or Javazon) who uses fend to clear her path. Fend is the most powerful attack for the melee amazon, increasing her damage and attack rating by a large amount and giving her the ability to hit multiple monsters multiple times. That's not to say that Fend will make everything easy - there is currently a glitch with it that makes it so that when you dodge/avoid/evade an attack, the rest of the hits in your Fend series will miss, though you still have to complete the animation. This means that you will either have to deal with the fact that you will be doing a great deal of missing, or will have to go without dodge/avoid/evade, which would also leave you without a valkyrie, as these are prerequisites for her. That said, she does do a great deal of damage over time, so long as she's actually hitting, and can be a rewarding - not to mention novel - build to play.

The Tankazon is an amazon that does not use spear, javelin, bow or crossbows as weapons. She only benefits from the usage of passive skills. Whilst this seems a large disadvantage over other amazons it really is not. The extra physical damage, elemental damage and crowd control that skills provide can be replaced by a different setup of your character and by playing with certain adapted techniques.

The one-handed Tankazon will have more points left because he can save up on Penetrate. A chance to hit of 85% will be quite adequate. Left over skills can be put in Dodge, Avoid or Evade, or they can be used to max Critical Strike or boost Slow missiles, Decoy and Valkyrie.

Subclasses... one can hardly call them subclasses, but they have gotten a specific name. I am pointing towards Swordazons, Axazons, Macazons and Throwazon. Basically they just only wield weapons of these specific types. I can say which weapons are often preferred.

Other favorite weapons include Cruel elite weapons and weapons with large elemental damage.

There are many hybrid subclasses available and I urge you to do some experimenting with skills you like and create a hybrid of your own. None of the hybrids have flashy names, but there are two known variants that have been seen in use.

Lightning Fury is one of the few Spear and Javelin skills used together with an assortment of Bowskills. This is an excellent hybrid, and used by a great many PvM amazon players. The idea is to be able to use Lightning Fury against large groups of tightly packed enemies to deliver high amounts of lightning damage, which you can then follow with switching to your bow to deliver the final blows, while leeching back the mana you spent using Lightning Fury.

Valkyrie - To taste, either none if you feel safe, 1 point for a weak tank, or aim for level 17 for a great tank<br>

The name is made up, but the idea is well-known to exist. Not many play it, but the build is quite viable. Basically this amazon maxes the four most damaging elemental skills. To fully benefit from the elemental damage, they possess as many +skills items as they can. Because of this, all other skills that are normally boosted to a fair amount can be left at base. To use the elemental skills one needs to be able to leech quite a bit and is often build as a variant of the Vamp. Good dexterity or high mana leech next to the +skills will be important to replenish the mana cost of the skills. The stat points will be allocated as following:

Overall the rule is that Lightning Fury nor Freezing Arrow should be used as main killing tools, but that the other two skills get used to full potential as well.

Kirsty's Creation:

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A few interesting subclasses have sprouted from the minds of a few visionary people that I want to share with you all. There are many more themes available if you only use your imagination. Hopefully the following ones will inspire you to come up with a theme of your own.

The Demon/Undead Hunter uses mainly items that give damage bonuses when fighting Demons and Undead creatures. The usage of sockets is again one of the ways to increase the damage of your character versus these creatures. It was kind of extracted from the Paladin subclass, the Undeadhunter, which uses the Sanctuary as his main aura to dispatch of the undead with little difficulty. The gear of choice is listed below. Skill- and statpoint allocation is all up to the player.

Pearl: 25-50% ED vs Undead, 25-50 AR vs Undead

The Goldfinder theme was brought up by me as a guide on accumulating loads of money for gambling. After testing it showed to accumulate over a million gold when doing a Mephisto Gold find run, killing all creatures in sight and picking up all gold stashes that dropped. The listed gear shows the best way of accumulating better gold find. Skill- and statpoint allocation is all up to the player.

No specific Bowazon, Javazon or Spearazon weapons

An idea we got from the forum was to create a passive amazon, like there is a passive paladin, who kills through thorns and items that give "attacker takes damage of X" and a "chance to cast spell when hit". Through some misunderstanding I thought that this subclass was called the Angel build, so I referred to her as the Angelzon. Later I found out that this was an error, that the Angelzon is an amazon build that I know better as the Stormcaster. This amazon uses items that give a "chance to cast spell on attack" and a "chance to cast spell on hit" to give a nice display of assorted skills.

Now I'm kind of in dubio on how to call both these amazons, but I will describe their gear anyway.

Passive amazon that relies on mercenary to kill, but more so on items that give "chance to cast skill when hit" and "attacker takes damage of X". A Thorns Act 2 mercenary is a must have. The idea is to cast a Decoy and a Valkyrie into the monster packs and have the thorns aura take effect. The idea was also that Decoy and Valkyrie spawn with the same "chance to cast spell when hit", but it doesn't seem to work, sadly. Gear is listed below... skills... well.. just Slow Missiles, Decoy and Valkyrie and 1 into their prequisites. You don't want to Dodge/Avoid/Evade with this build.

Mercenary armor: Hwanin Armor: 10% level 3 Static Field when hit

"Chance to cast spell on hit" and "chance to cast spell on attack" are the main characteristics of this build. Mainly this theme was designed for Bowazons which use mainly crowd control skills like Multiple Shot, Strafe and Freezing Arrow to trigger their spell effects, which results in a really impressive show. Often "Blind", "freeze" or "dim vision" is among the triggers, simple to keep monsters in one place while the spell effects kick in.

Helmet: Coif of Glory: Blind, Ondal's Almighty: 10% level 3 Weaken on attack

Armor: Iceblink: Freeze

Amulet: Atma's Scarab: 5% level 2 Amplify Damage on attack

Weapon: Pus Spitter: 4% level 1 Lower Resist on striking, Buriza-Do Kyanon: Freeze, Skystrike: 2% level 6 Meteor on striking, Witchwild String: 2% level 5 Amplify Damage on attack, Magewrath: Blind, Goldstrike Arch: 5% level 5-7 Fist of Heavens on attack

Gloves: Hellmouth: 4% level 12 Firestorm on striking, 2% level 4 Meteor on striking, Laying of Hands: 10% level 3 Holy bolt on attack

I hope this was informative... it sure was a lot to type. Egads!

Greets

''Celine, aka Kirsty''

[[Category:Amazon]]