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| A lightning bolt is released per monster in range (few yards)
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There is currently a problem with Lightning Strike in the sense that it does not do the listed lightning damage. The Chain Lightning effect also does not seem to always hit all the monsters in range. It is speculative that a higher value of attack rating will boost the damage of the Chain Lightning and it is also debated if lightning sources from your gear influences the lightning damage of the skill. Highly problematic and thus another lightning skill may be better to use in version 1.09.
Ranged skills will benefit from more amount of piercing chance. Especially Lightning Fury will be incredible when it hits more creatures after piercing releasing incredible amounts of lightning bolts.
Because you are going to fight with melee lightning skills you will have to be able to defend yourself. For this you need to get a good balance in blocking with a shield, defense, optional damage reduction gear and at least get a good value for dodge. Getting good values for avoid and evade are less important, but should still be considered valuable.
What is also important for fighting melee is the ability to hit hard and hit continuously. For this a good balance between attack rating, leech and physical damage is a must. Critical Strike and Penetrate will be more important skills to invest in.
'''The recommended skill choices are'''
Jab: 1
Fend: 1-20
Charged Strike: 1-20 or Lightning Strike: 1-20
Lightning Fury: 10-20
Dodge: 12+ (50%)
Avoid: 1-7 (18-50%)
Evade: 1-12 (18-50%)
Critical Strike: 8+ (51%)
Penetrate: 5-10 (first boost dexterity to a decent value for damage and maxed blocking, then increase Penetrate to increase your attack rating to at least a recommended 85%)
A good mercenary to have for Lightning Strike is a Blessed Aim act 2 mercenary. If you choose to not use this skill you can pick any mercenary you like. The most well-liked mercenaries are those from act 2, either with a might or defiance aura.
=Poison Viper/Poison Wench=
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.
Mods that are very helpful with poison are Prevent Monster Heal which does not allow the inflicted creature to use her natural health replenishment for an extended amount of time, and Chance to make a monster flee the scene so they walk away from you to perish from their affliction.
Poison Javelin is good for playing in early normal, but it will be less impressive later on. Plague Javelin will keep doing well, but for this skill to be really helpful you need at least 10 to 15 bonus javelin skills.
'''The recommended skills are'''
Jab: 1
Fend: 1-20
Poison Javelin: 20
Plague Javelin: 20
Dodge, Avoid, Evade: 1
Critical Strike, Penetrate: 1
Normally you would think that the last skills need to be boosted to a fair amount and nice percentages, but this will already be done by all the +skills gear that you will be wearing.
The skill for Bowazons is Multiple Shot or Strafe to inflict as many creatures as possible. One of the better Ranged weapons is the Pus Spitter which has some nice poison damage and the chance to cast Lower Resist upon attack. Another weapon of choice is a Venom runeword weapon (Tal-Dol-Mal), that can also be created for Spearazons.
=Spearazon Subclasses=
There are a few more subclasses possible for Javazons, but the following are more specific to the Spearazons so I will discuss them here.
=Spearazon=
The Spearazon's main feature is the balance between defense and attack.High defense, damage reduction, high life and the ability to dodge attacks 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.
The main statpoint allocation of Spearazons is:
Strength: up to 200 for damage increase and ability to wear items.
Dexterity: 100 to 150 to get a nice basis for attack rating. For amazon specific spears it also increases damage.
Vitality: the rest. Life leech of 15% is the average recommended amount.
Energy: base value will be enough, given the fact that Spearazons have high physical damage, a minor amount of manaleech will suffice.
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. 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.
=Jabazon=
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 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, though these
=Impalazon=
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.
=Fendazon=
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. If you want an easy time with your Spearazon or Javazon, go with fend. With every minion standing close to you, you will hit every nearby monster an extra time. With minion I mean Decoy, Valkyrie, Mercenary and party members. Minions of party members don't give you extra attacks. This would be a little bit too intensive if you were fighting with say... an Overlord Necromancer by your side, which can have over 80 minions of his own.
Fend is only a little bit bugged because not every of these extra attacks seems to hit even when the screen does indicate it to be so, but on average you won't have any problems with the skill..
=Tankazon=
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.
Every Tankazon will need a Mercenary and a few are very handy to use. A Holy Freeze act 2 mercenary is a favorite which allows you to have a better crowd control, slowing monsters so you can deal with them more in a one-by-one base. Might mercenaries make up for the lack of damage, though good Tankazons can get 2000 average damage without this mercenary quite well. Defiance is another well used mercenary and maybe strangely, a Blessed Aim Mercenary allows you to ease up on investing in dexterity and Penetrate. Other mercenaries have their benefits, but as a Tankazon you really get more advantages with and act 2 aura mercenary.
Casting Decoy and Valkyrie will limit the amount of hits you receive and can be very important for survival. With high life the Decoy is especially put to good use with a skill level of 5 to 8. Tankazons do great with with the mod Crushing Blow, which lowers the health of a monster by quite an amount.
As Tankazon you can use either a two-handed or a one-handed weapon with a shield. The stat point allocation and skill point allocation for both these choices will differ a little bit.
'''Two-handed Weapon'''
With a two-handed weapon your physical damage will be a lot higher than when you are wielding a one-handed weapon and a shield. The downside is that you will be more open to taking hits. The overall statpoint allocation for wielding two-handed weapons is as follows:
* Strength: 200 to 300. Tankazon weapons benefit most from high strength for physical damage enhancement. Only throwing weapons equally benefit from strength and dexterity, concerning receiving physical damage bonus.
* Dexterity: around 100. Not too much. For two-handed weapons, dexterity only is needed to boost attack rating, but that can also be achieved by putting skillpoints into Penetrate. One can also put less points into dexterity and get "fine" small charms that add good attack rating bonus and even maximum damage bonus, which is multiplied by high strength.
* Vitality: rest. Life can also be boosted by charms or gear, but it is best to get it to a fair amount by itself.
* Energy: base. No points are needed because the only mana using skills will be Decoy, Valkyrie and Slow Missiles. Base energy is enough for that.
More skill points will go into Penetrate because of the low dexterity and more will go into Dodge, Avoid and Evade because of the lower defense capabilities of the two-handed weapon wielders. If you prefer stat points over skill points, then max out Penetrate and only put points into dexterity to get a good chance to hit. A chance to hit of 85% will be quite adequate.
'''One-handed Weapon'''
Tankazons that wield one-handed weapons will have a very important feature, namely the shield. With a shield there is a chance to block an attack, however it has been tested that for weapon users other than dagger or javelin, a shield will have a horribly slow recovery rate for other one-handed weapon using amazons. The statpoint allocation will be like this:
* Strength: 150 to 200. More strength will boost physical damage, but the one-handed Tankazon needs to save a few points for dexterity.
* Dexterity: 150 or more for maxed blocking. The maxed chance to block is 75% and can be seen by checking the defense rating of your character. Hover above the value and it will show the chance to be hit and the chance to block attacks. Blocking is level-dependant, so keep an eye on it and invest in dexterity if you want to keep it to 75%. Because dexterity will be high, this means that attack rating will also be very high and less points are needed in Penetrate.
* Vitality: again deserves the rest.
* Energy: again not needed because only Slow Missiles, Valkyrie and Decoy will be cast.
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==
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.
* Swordazon: One-handed: Head Striker, The Atlantean and Lightsabre. Two-handed: Crainte Vomir, The Vile Husk, Todesfaelle Flamme, Swordguard, Doombringer, Grandfather
* Axazon: One-handed: Butcher's Pupil, Guardian Naga. Two-handed: Stormrider, Boneslayer Blade, The Minotaur, Messerschmidth's Reaver, Hellslayer
* Macazon: Onehanded: Dark Clan Crusher, Fleshrender, Earthshaker, Baranar's Star, Schaeffer's Hammer. Two-handed: Bloody Tree-stump, Gavel of Pain, Immortal King's Stone Crusher, Cranium Basher
* Throwazon: Deathbit, The Scalper
Other favorite weapons include Cruel elite weapons and weapons with large elemental damage.
=Hybrid Subclasses=
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, Bowazon=
Lightning Fury is one of the few Spear and Javelin skills used together with an assortment of Bowskills. This is described in detail by Flux, so I feel no need to further elaborate.
=Mother of the Elements=
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:
* Strength: to wear items. Main way to boost physical damage for leeching is dexterity.
* Dexterity: to 200, not really boosting damage by a lot, because this is mainly boosted by mana leech.
* Vitality: to delight. Whatever you need to survive.
* Energy: rest, to get a steady mana pool.
'''Skill choice is'''
Plague Javelin: 20
Lightning Fury: 20
Freezing Arrow: 20
Immolation Arrow: 20
Because you need all the prerequisite skills you may not be able to max them for a long time. The best thing is to moderate a few skills which will still have an optimal result. These skills are Freezing Arrow and Lightning Fury. Compared to the other two skills, these are impressive enough at level 10, whereas Immolation Arrow is best at 20 and Plague Javelin even needs more than 30. The playing tactics are easy enough. First you cast a Decoy and Valkyrie in front of you. Then you throw a Plague Javelin and switch to your bow. Shoot a few Immolation Arrows with a Freezing Arrow in between or shoot just one of each and switch back to javelins and throw some Lightning Fury's.
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: =="The Elemental Maiden"==
I guess that brings us to my own customized idea for an amazon build. It can be created for any amazon classes, but is best put to right as a Bowazon. This is not a full guide, but a good introduction on the idea.
Main points
- The Elemental Maiden is independent of elemental skills, but relies on elemental damage originating from gear. This means every equipped item must contain a source of elemental damage and to specify even more; the Elemental Maiden uses a 4-socketed armor and a 3-socketed helmet filled with elemental damage jewels and elemental damage jewels only. It is nice if there is a second mod on it, but the main thing you want is the highest amount of elemental damage you can get. The weapon often also contains 6 sockets, yet a unique or magical weapon that adds high elemental damage is also allowed. All sockets used must include elemental damage.
- Elemental damage must be diverse and plentiful and the usage of sockets will be the best way to accomplish it. The usage of charms however must not be forgotten. All four elements must be accounted for in about equal proportions.
- It is very effective to deliver the large amount of elemental damage from the gear by some sort of crowd control skill, so that it effects as many creatures as possible at the same time. For Bowazons this is either Multiple Shot or Strafe and for Javazons and Spearazons this is Jab or Fend. Tankazons will be best put to use with Holy Freeze Act 2 Mercenaries because they have no crowd effecting skill.
- I have found that an amazon with only points in Multiple Shot, fend, jab or strafe, can excel throughout the entire game and finish Hell without even allocating any other skills or assigning any statpoints other than for item requirements. Only some extra Attack Rating is needed. I have tested this two times for a Bowazon and a Spearazon and I feel that with some changes to the playing technique this subclass can be viable for less extreme players.
- Furthermore, elemental damage skills, if used are merely a nice cookie and good for diversity in attacks so you don't get bored. They aren't needed or supposed to be used as main attack, but they do add some good elemental damage.
The build in the way that I play it is very challenging and is not recommended for new players. I will list my preferences and explain what you can do to play with options that I don't use. After creating many amazons and playing many different variants I have learnt to play with a very extreme style.
Resistance
For my Elemental Maidens I have -100% resistances in Hell. This is not really a problem for Elemental Maidens that use Multiple Shot or Strafe as their main attack, but can be troublesome for those that use Jab or Fend and come into melee range often where they are open to elemental attacks. My suggestion for other players is to get high fire and lightning resistance in Hell (50%-75%), to get moderate cold resist (0%-25%), but to leave poison for what it is and cure it with antidote potions.
Defense
Defense... I don't bother since I rely on my Decoy. Mercenary is not often used, but from time to time depending on area I do cast a Valkyrie. For melee-amazons I cast Valkyrie more often. High defense just isn't possible for the Elemental Maiden. She uses socketed armor, helmet and in the case of Javazons socketed shield as well. This leaves no place for Enhanced Defense mods, so by default, the defense rating of your Elemental Maiden will be terribly low. Nothing that can be done about this other than caution. A defiance mercenary will not help much, but a holy freeze mercenary will be more profitable in preventing monsters to hit you often.
Life
My vitality will be kept at base which keeps my amazons with less than 400 life throughout the entire game. For melee-Elemental Maidens I get it up to about 500, sometimes 600. Well... for less extreme players it is recommended to get around 600 life for Bowazons and 800 or more life for Javazons and Spearazons.
Leeching and physical damage
My own preference for Elemental Maidens is to go with as little physical damage as possible and not worry about leeching. Life will be replenished by a few minor replenishment mods and by using health potions. Mana is no problem due to high energy and useful mana charms and mods like mana per kill. For other people however I recommend getting an average magical or unique bow and socket it with elemental damage jewels, gems or runes. Too high physical damage will ruin the idea of the elements doing the killing, so extremely high dexterity or physical damage is prohibited. I'm afraid you will have to make use of multiple sources of manaleech and lifeleech instead. (Note: I'm certain people will change this limitation in the future, like the leeching issue with Magazons is changed, but what can you do?)
Stats and skills
My statpoint allocation for all Elemental Maidens will be like this:
Strength: to wear items. For Spearazons keep a maximum of 200 for item requirements. Do not boost it further for physical damage with non-bow weapons because you will ruin the theme. Dexterity: up to 200 for a good attack rating value and to wear items. Don't use it for damage increase for the same reason not to pump strength.
Vitality: as said I keep it at base. I don't leech, so potions are the way to regain health. Only for melee-amazons do I choose about 75 vitality instead of energy. Other players will benefit from a vitality value of 100 to 150.
Energy: the rest. Even though I have stated that you can finish the game with only using Strafe, Multiple Shot, Jab or Fend which require little mana, you have the option to use other elemental skills as well for a little bit more diversity. I will discuss that below.
Depending on if you play Bowazon, Javazon or Spearazon I would pick the following skills for the Elemental Maiden.
Bow skills:
Multiple Shot: 15 to get 16 arrows, but better is
Strafe: 6, to get 10 arrows. Higher is possible if you are planning to leech mana and life.
Pick elemental skills for diversity and another good source of elemental damage. Do not use them more than Strafe or Multiple Shot.
Freezing Arrow or Ice Arrow: 20
Immolation Arrow or Exploding Arrow: 20
Other Bowskills: 1, guided arrow is costless considering you're put quite a few points in energy.
Spear and Javelin skills:
Jab: 1. Jab can only hit one creature and more damage isn't needed unless you are considering leech
Fend: 1. Fend already hits all nearby creatures, so it's fine at level 1. More points to boost a bit of physical damage. The attack rating bonus can be equally nice.
Javazons and Spearazons can also pick elemental skills for diversion. Do not use them more than Jab or Fend.
Charged Strike: 20 (Spearazon or Javazon).
Lightning Strike: 20 (Spearazon or Javazon)
Lightning Fury: 20 (Javazon)
Plague Javelin: 20 (Javazon)
Other Spear and Javelin Skills: 1
Passive Skills:
Slow Missiles: 1-5
Decoy: 1-5
Valkyrie: 5-8
Pierce: 4 (49% chance to pierce will do fine for the secondary ranged elemental skills. Higher values are better but it's not really needed for Javazons and Spearazons who use a melee crowd control skill. For Bowazons it's best to put it a bit higher, but consider using Kuko Shakaku which has an innate 50% chance to pierce, which gives a total of 99%)
Penetrate: 5-10 for good Strafe/Multiple Shot attack rating.
Other Passive Skills: 1
For other people I recommend 1 to 5 points in Critical Strike.
I also recommend when going into melee range to pick about 50% chance to Dodge, Avoid or Evade and when staying ranged to get about 35% chances.
Weapon choices:
Bow: Kuko Shakaku (fire), Sky Strike (lightning), Venom (Tal-Dol-Mal, poison), Pus Spitter (poison), 6-socket bow, magical bow with good elemental damage (can be bought at act vendors).
Javelin: magical javelin with good elemental damage (can be bought at act vendors).
Spear: The Tannr Gorerod (fire), magical spear with good elemental damage (can be bought at act vendors), 6-socket spear.
Tank: The Vile Husk, Lightsabre, Baranar's Star, Hellslayer, Messerschmidth's Reaver, Stormspire, many more
The best socketing options for Weapons, armor, helmet and shield are listed below. It's overall best to socket with jewels because you can have more useful mods spawning together with the elemental damage mod. Try to get hold of a few rare jewels with two elemental mods if you can. You may be wondering how one can accumulate soo many jewels with good elemental damage.
Simple... craft them. The tactic is to keep flawless gems and upgrade them into perfect gems. Whenever you find a new jewel when you are leveling up, try the cube recipe a few times, but when it doesn't work, don't keep the jewel for too long.
Long meaning, don't keep the jewel when you have gained a few levels, because the mods on the jewel will be lower than the capacity of your level, find a new jewel and try crafting with that. Overall, the higher the monster level is, the better the chance for getting better elemental damage mods. Do not hesitate to change your gear often when the elemental damage seems to be getting low and certainly do not hesitate to re-run early areas in search for flawless gems (don't pick up jewels there).
This can also be done for getting elemental damage charms.
[[Category:Amazon Strategies]]
[[Category:Amazon]]
