Revision as of 15:39, 12 January 2009

These skills are invaluable support abilities for Javazons, Spearazons, Bowazons, and every other build of the character. Boost damage, defense, accuracy, gain a magical tank, and more.

Inner Sight

Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None
Synergies: None.
Details: A curse-like debuff skill that lowers the defense of all enemies within range.

• Monsters under this spell's effect glow with a sparkling white light that can be a helpful aid to spotting them in dark areas.
• The spell's radius goes out from the Amazon herself, not from the cursor. It can therefore not be targeted or cast on enemies at the edge of the screen.
• Rogue mercenaries (Act One) cast this skill at random intervals during battle.

Lore: The lush canopy of trees covering the Amazon homeland allows little sunlight to reach the ground. To better adapt to their environment, the Amazons have developed a technique whereby they can attune themselves to the life forces in the surrounding area and transfer these energies into a source of luminescence. This enables the Amazon and her companions to see her enemies in shadow and darkness.

Critical Strike

Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None
Synergies: None.
Details: This extremely powerful skill gives a chance to deal a critical strike, doubling the physical damage of an attack with any sort of weapon. Loading up the points in this skill is almost mandatory for every Amazon build.

• Critical Strike does not boost elemental damage, such as from the various lightning spear skills, but it boosts the physical damage components of those skills, and the fire/cold bow skills as well.

Lore: Among the arsenal of techniques employed by the Amazon warrior is her ability to study opponents carefully and detect any weaknesses. She can then use these deficiencies in her adversary to strike at precisely those areas that will cause the greatest injuries.

Dodge

Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: None
Synergies: None.
Details: Allows the Amazon to dodge melee attacks while standing still or attacking. This is a very powerful skill, especially for melee-fighting Amazons, who generally want at least 50% in it.

• The Dodge animation is nifty, but only displays when the attacking animation is not in effect. The skill works constantly; not just when you see the animation trigger.

Lore: To anyone familiar with their natural agility, it should came as no surprise that the training regimen of an Amazon warrior includes exercises specifically designed to avoid potentially devastating blows in combat.

Slow Missiles

Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Inner Sight
Synergies: None.
Details: A curse-like debuff skill that slows the missles of all monsters within the skill's range. This skill works like a curse; affecting the archers, mages, etc themselves. It does not slow down missiles in the air when it's cast; it just makes the cursed monsters shoot very slowly for the duration.

• Monsters under this spell's effect glow with a sparkling white light that can be a helpful aid to spotting them in dark areas.
• The spell's radius goes out from the Amazon herself, not from the cursor. It can therefore not be targeted or cast on enemies at the edge of the screen. This is tricky when you want to slow the shots of a Lightning Enchanted boss, since you may have to run closer to Slow it, then retreat to fire your arrows from a safe distance.
• Slow Missile does not affect the casting or firing speed of the Hydras cast by the High Council.
• Slowed Meteors from Dark Lords are quite amusing, since the casting animation works like normal, but the rocks don't fall for quite a while.
• Slow Missile can be quite effective in PVP, and funny as well. Spells like Frozen Orb and Blessed Hammer will move at a snail's pace, stacking up dozens of casts in essentially the same spot.

Lore: Through strict martial discipline and focus, an Amazon warrior can attune herself to her environment and the dangers around her, allowing her to react to these hazards with superhuman agility. One aspect of this ability is her knack for avoiding missile fire. Just as the Amazon must master the bow and javelin, she must also learn to defend herself from these same weapons. When an Amazon uses this ability, incoming projectiles appear to move slower than normal, enabling her to avoid them.

Avoid

Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Dodge
Synergies: None.
Details: This skill allows the Amazon to avoid ranged attacks while standing still or attacking. It's less useful than Dodge since ranged attacks aren't as damaging, you're usually running when they come in (Avoid doesn't help when you're moving), and skillful use of Valkyrie, Decoy, and Slow Missiles should cut the danger of ranged attacks anyway.

• Avoid works against the charged bolts from a Lightning Enchanted monster. In earlier versions of the game LE bosses and Diablo's pink flamethrowing attack could create an Avoid-lock, where movement became impossible as the dodging animation repeated endlessly, but this was fixed in v1.09.
• Avoid can dodge Metors, but the area effect fire damage the Meteor leaves will still hurt.

Lore: This ability hones the natural defensive ability of an Amazon. If she stands still, she can predict incoming missile attacks and elude them before they reach her. Most Amazon people can do this if all of their thoughts to the task, but only a warrior trained in this skill can do this even whilst caught unaware.

Penetrate

Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Critical Strike
Synergies: None.
Details: This skill passively boosts the Amazon's Attack Rating. The use of this skill varies by Amazon build. Some skills have huge AR bonuses, or function as "always hits" attacks, so don't need much Penetrate. Some Bowazons may not use Penetrate very much simply because their dexterity is so high they don't need it.

• Penetrate only adds half the AR bonus to melee attacks. The full bonus is applied to ranged attacks.

Lore: The warriors of the Amazon Islands are legendary for their ability to strike their mark. Warriors with this skill are more likely to hit targets.

Decoy

Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Inner Sight, Slow Missiles
Synergies: None.
Details: This skill creates an exact duplicate of the Amazon wherever the cursor points. It will draw the attention of any monster nearer the decoy than the Amazon (or Valkyrie).

• Only one Decoy can exist at once; casting a second will dispel the first.
• Decoys exactly mirror the Amazon who cast them. If she changes equipment, the Decoy will instantly change appearance as well.
• Decoy's hit points are based on the hit points of the Amazon who casts them. They last for the duration of the spell, or until their hit points are exhausted. They can not be healed.
• Decoys will take a step or seem to stumble if hit repeatedly. They will also sometimes trigger Dodge and Avoid.
• In earlier versions of the game, a Decoy's presence would allow the Amazon to fire an additional shot with Strafe. This is no longer the case post-v1.09.
• Decoys do not receive the Amazon's equipment stats; just her hit points.
  • Decoys have no armor, but some resistance, by the following formula: Resistance = level * 4, capped at 85.

Lore: Amazons derive another benefit while learning to fight in the rainforests of their homeland. They learn, through misdirection and deception, to fool attacking forces into thinking there is another Amazon nearby. This subterfuge causes enemies to waste time and energy hunting down false prey while the Amazon moves in for the kill.

Evade

Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Dodge, Avoid
Synergies: None.
Details: This skill gives the Amazon a chance to avoid melee or ranged attacks while walking or running. (Dodge and Avoid only work while standing still or attacking; not at all while walking or running.)

• Evade is more useful for melee Amazons than ranged attackers, since melee fighters will often run up to monsters, or try to dodge incoming projectiles. It's generally less useful than Dodge or Avoid, though.
• Evade lock was a problem prior to v1.09, when Amazons would sometimes get stuck in the Evade animation and be unable to run away from a ranged attack. This was most often seen with Diablo's pink flamethrower attack. The bug was corrected in v1.09.

Lore: A warrior skilled in Dodge and Avoid may eventually learn this additional ability. Once an Amazon has sharpened her defensive concentration to this level, she will eventually be able to dodge blows and other attacks while moving. This skill can also help keep the Amazon from harm as she moves out of the way of an exploding siege engine or avoids the wrath of an enraged Sorceress!

Valkyrie

Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Inner Sight, Dodge, Slow Missiles, Avoid, Decoy, Evade
Synergies: Valkyries receive bonuses from points spent in the following skills:

• Decoy: +20% Life Per Level
• Penetrate: +40 Attack Rating Per Level
• Critical Strike
• Dodge
• Avoid
• Evade

Details: Valkyries are powerful magical tanks. They spawn with high defense and hit points, and can stand up to a tremendous amount of damage. Their attacks aren't generally very powerful, but in v1.11 they can kill weaker monsters, plus they spawn with random equipment that changes the color of their armor. Some Valkyries can spawn with very useful mods, such as "% chance to cast Frost Nova" on armor, or or "% chance to cast Amplify Damage" on their spears, for instance.

• Valkyries regenerate health at a good rate. They can also be healed by NPCs in town, or the Paladin's prayer aura. Recasting is also an option, but their equipment will be rerolled randomly, and it's sometimes worth making an effort to preserve a Valkyrie with helpful modifiers.
• Valks receive the same benefit from the Dodge/Avoid/Evade skills as the Amazon. They never display the animation, but they will make the sound sometimes, and their stats are helped. More details below.

Hidden Valkyrie Stats

• Resistances: The Valkyries' resistances are equal to their level * 2, to a max of 85. So a level 10 Valkyrie will have +20 Resist All. Valkyries also get a hidden synergy bonus from Decoy, where every physical point in Decoy will add +2 Resist All. The whole formula comes out as = (Valkyrie level + Base Decoy Level ) * 2
• Magic Level: The equipment that a Valkyrie is spawned with is based on her Magic Level, i.e. the ilvl that her equipment is spawned with, therefore denoting which mods can be spawned. The Magic Level of any Valkyrie is equal to a base of 25 at level 1, and increases by 3 for each level.
• Dexterity: Valkyries recieve a bonus of Dexterity of +12 per level. A level 12 Valkyrie will have 144 dexterity points. Valks gain bonuses of attack rating and defense much like any character, but this is not reflected in their skill description.
• Valkyrie Health = 440 * (1 + 0.2 * (Valkyrie level + Decoy Level - 1))

Lore: When a warrior has proven her devotion to Athulua through her brave deeds and exceptional skill in battle, the Goddess shows her favor by granting a spiritual emissary to aid the Amazon. These emissaries of Athulua are called Valkyrie, and they are the spirits of the greatest heroes from the Amazon people. The power to summon a Valkyrie is the greatest honor that an Amazon warrior can receive. It is believed this gift is a sign that your place beside the Goddess is assured when you pass from this world-perhaps even as a Valkyrie.

Pierce

Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Critical Strike, Penetrate
Synergies: None
Details: This skill gives the Amazon's projectiles, javelins, bolts, or arrows, a chance to pass through a target and continue on, possibly hitting a second (or third, or fourth) enemy. Each target takes the full damage of the attack, including all possible skill bonuses, elemental hits, etc.

• Pierce is most noticeable when monsters are in a tight cluster or a long row, such as in narrow hallways.
• Pierce pairs very well with Lightning Fury, but helps a lot on all of the bow skills (especially Strafe) and other ranged attacks as well.

Pierce's true power is revealed with a look at the odds of hitting multiple targets. More points don't make that big a difference in the odds of hitting two enemies, but the odds are compounded when figuring if a given shot will hit three or four or five enemies. This makes a huge difference when using a skill that triggers on each hit, such as Lightning Fury or Immolation Arrow.

Lore: After long hours of training, an Amazon warrior's bow arm can develop tremendous amounts of strength. With this strength, and some additional training, the Amazon is able to maximize the power of her bow, enabling her to penetrate multiple targets with a single arrow.

References

Diablo II Manual