Revision as of 18:53, 21 October 2006

Javelin & Spear

All the skills in this tree work with javelins, either throwing them or using them for melee. When using spears, only the melee skills will work, since spears can not be thrown. All of the elemental type attacks in this tree are lightning or poison, there are no fire or cold attacks in this tree.

Javelins: There are many types of javelins to be found or purchased in Diablo II, but none are ever magical, unique, rare, or Set items. Just low quality, normal, and superior. In the expansion throwing weapons are much improved, and there are magical and rare javelins, as well as one (as of v1.09) unique Amazon javelin, Titan's Revenge. Javelins can be used for melee, but they are intended to be thrown, and will almost always do higher damage as a projectile. In addition there are various skills that only work with thrown javelins. The melee spear skills work with javelins or spears.

Javelins aren't a bad melee weapon; they have a quick attack rate when used with Jab, and most have a range of 2, better than a lot of one-handed melee weapons. You should use a shield with your javelin, check the various Amazon strategy guides for equipent appraisals.

Spears: All spears are two-handed, meaning you can never use a shield with one. Though spears have a slow attack speed for most characters, Amazons aren't too bad with them, especially with Jab and Fend adding to your attack rate. Spearazons are much less popular (and powerful, as of v1.09) than Bowazons or Javazons, but can be very strong through Nightmare, and are still viable and fun to play in Hell. One annoying aspect of spears, including the Amazon class-specific types, is their generally low durability, so get used to needing repairs pretty regularly.

Bear in mind that her passive skills in the aptly-named 'Passive & Magic' tree will further benefit the chosen skills in this tree.

As of v1.09, the fastest way to kill a single target for a Javazon or Spearazon is to have a big damage bow and switch weapons, using Guided Arrow with Piercing for the kill (a Buriza is probably the best option, with Piercing built in and huge damage). This is especially useful for killing dangerous targets, such as Might bosses, or bosses with Lightning, or especially MSLE bosses, as well as Physical Immune targets, which Spearazons have problems with. The bow-switch technique is frowned upon by purists though, and also requires you to waste a few points in bow prereqs, and of course requires you to have a good bow to switch to.

Damage bonuses are something to consider with javelins, or the Amazon class-specific spears. These weapon types add bonus damage from both dexterity and strength, usually .75% damage per point of each stat. Most other melee weapons are 1% damage per point of strength, with no damage bonus from dex at all. This means that you can add the same amount of bonus damage by adding to your Spearazons strength or dexterity, but it takes 4 points of dex/str to equal the bonus damage you'll get with a normal spear, such as a Pike or Lance. Dexterity is more useful to add than strength, generally speaking, since it increases your Attack Rating, Defense, and blocking, while strength just boosts damage (and helps you meet item requirements).

Level references are the character level your Amazon must be before she may place a point in that skill.

Prerequisites - Before you may place a point in a skill, you must have at least one skill point in all prerequisite skills, and have reached the required character level. The numbers in parenthesis are character levels, not the number of points you have to add to that skill.

Jab

Prerequisites:

• None

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• None

Description:

"Rapid attacks with a thrusting weapon". Delivering three rapid stabs to a single target, this early level skill is an effective melee attack. It can only be used with spears or javelins, not with swords or hammers or any other type of weapon. This was by far the best Spearazon skill in D2C, giving a very fast attack with any type of weapon. In D2X this skill is less powerful, since the weapon speed is now factored in.

The attack always has three hits, though the graphic may look like just two. This has been tested and confirmed in PvP and PvM.

Jab has been nerfed several times by Blizzard during game development. Pre-release it started with a bonus to damage, and increased 5% per point, and even had a flat 2 mana cost. Then during D2C it had no weapon speed check, so was always very fast. It's still considered overpowered by some players, so future changes aren't out of the question.

Jab use is easy early on, where you just target a monster and dice it up. With a decent spear a Spearazon can easily go through much of Normal with just this skill. Later in the game you'll probably want to use Fend more often, but Jab is still useful for hitting a single target repeatedly, especially if it's in a crowd of monsters. You might want to run in and kill a shaman quickly, to stop him resurrecting his warriors.

This is a mandatory skill for any Spearazon, as a pre-req for Impale and Fend at the very least. Whether you plan on putting a load of points into it or not is up to you; it's a good killer of single targets, though Fend does more damage and can be used on single targets effectively, with a little trick (see Fend for more details).

Power Strike

Prerequisites:

• Jab

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Lightning Bolt: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Charged Strike: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Strike: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Fury: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level

Description:

"Adds lightning damage to javelin and spear weapon attacks". Another melee-only attack skill, Power Strike adds a bit to your Attack Rating, and some lightning damage on top of your normal spear attack damage.

Power Strike's mana cost and Attack Rating increases are identical to Jab, but it is a very slow attack, and the overall effectiveness is far less than Jab. Points in Power Strike add just to your Attack Rating and the added lightning damage, there isn't any benefit to the base spear or javelin damage. This is not a skill you want to sink a lot of points into, since the lightning damage is tiny even at Slvl 20.

Poison Javelin

Prerequisites:

• None

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Plague Javelin: +12% Poison Damage Per Level

Description:

"Throws a javelin enhanced by poison, which leaves a trail of poison clouds". Great looking animation for this one; it leaves a green trail of expanding poison clouds behind. The javelin will poison anything it strikes, as will the vapor trail poison anything that walks through it. The poison damage isn't very high, but it is effective early in the game, when monsters have low hit points and no poison resistance.

Poison Javelin is best aimed in front of a pack of approaching monsters, rather than at them, since you want them to walk through the vapor trail to poison the largest possible number of them at once. It can of course be aimed at monsters as well, and it's good there to kill things that won't walk into the trail, such as Fallen Shaman.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR.

Poison Javelin is replaced by the higher damage Plague Javelin, so just one point in this one is advised.

Impale

Prerequisites:

• Jab

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• None

Description:

"Increases attack damage but degrades the weapon". This skill adds substantial damage and accuracy to the Amazon's melee spear attack, but there is a much increased chance that your weapon will lose durability. The Impale attack is slow and accompanied with a cute little grunt.

This skill can be useful against Lightning Enchanted monsters, since you do big damage, and land fewer hits than Jab and therefore take fewer Charged Bolts in return, but it has no other benefits. More than one point in Impale doesn't make much sense, since the damage bonus is 300% with just one point, and additional points only add 5% each. Weapons lose durability about 10% of the time ordinarily, so 25% at Slvl 20 Impale isn't that much worse. An indestructible spear would be very good with this skill, though the attack rate is still so slow that it's best used in special situations. If you can land 3 Fend hits in the time of 1 Impale, and Fend is doing +250% damage, it's obviously a far better option.

Lightning Bolt

Prerequisites:

• Poison Javelin

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Power Strike: +3% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Charged Strike: +3% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Strike: +3% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Fury: +3% Lightning Damage Per Level

Description:

"Changes a thrown javelin into lightning". A nifty graphic and sound effect accompany this skill, which turns a normal javelin into a sizzling bolt of lightning.

The baby brother of Lightning Fury, this skill looks nifty and can be useful early on, but is in every way improved upon by Lightning Fury at Clvl 30.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR.

Lightning Bolt is useful only as a pre-requisite for the more powerful skills lower in the tree. Converts 100% Physical Damage To Elemental Damage

Charged Strike

Prerequisites:

• Jab
• Power Strike
• Poison Javelin
• Lightning Bolt

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Power Strike: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Bolt: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Strike: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Fury: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level

Description:

"Enchants thrusting weapon with charged bolts". This skill imbues a spear or javelin melee attack with added lightning damage, as well as emitting Charged Bolts through the target, where they will scatter off and perhaps damage other nearby monsters.

A step up from Power Strike, this skill adds more lightning damage, but has no bonus to Attack Rating, and a steeper mana cost. It looks cool and can be sort of fun, but it's not really useful other than as a prerequisite skill. It is limited by the fact that you never emit more than three Charged Bolts, no matter how many points you have in the skill.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR.

Plague Javelin

Prerequisites:

• Poison Javelin
• Lightning Bolt

Casting Delay:

• 4 seconds

Synergy Bonuses:

• Poison Javelin: +10% Poison Damage Per Level

Description:

"Enchants javelin with poison explosions". A more powerful version of Poison Javelin, Plague looks identical in flight, but upon impact it bursts into a poison nova that has a larger radius with every added skill point.

This skill is impressive, and can be very useful for crowd control, as you can nail dozens of monsters with one shot. The thrown javelin deals your normal javelin damage, including the physical, and adds the poison damage on top of that. Your poison damage from charms and equipment is added to monsters you actually hit with the javelin (might be several of them, with Pierce) but not to the actual poison cloud, which is what hits most monsters.

This skill is most useful with large packs of monsters, where you want to have all of them dropping hit points at the same time. One point here can be useful to prevent huge packs from healing over time, though with the 3 second duration, you'd have to keep hitting them with it regularly.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR.

This skill isn't really enough damage to be used successfully as your main attack past Nightmare, especially not in a big game, unless you really crank up the skill points. Players have reported success in smaller Hell games with lvl 30 or 35 Plague Javelin. Most Javazons will use one point as a prereq only, on the way up to Lightning Fury.

Fend

Prerequisites:

• Jab
• Impale

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• None

Description:

"Attack all adjacent targets" {up to 12}. The Amazon can use this skill to strike at multiple targets much faster than she could stab each target individually with her normal Attack. There is also a bonus to Attack Rating and Damage.

This skill was much improved in D2X, where it deals bigger damage, hits faster if you have IAS equipment, and has the main hitting bug fixed. In D2C Fend was very hard to use due to a bug that if the first poke missed, all the others would. It's still iffy to use in D2X, often letting you target a monster that's not actually in range when you are desynched from the realm server, and causing a bad case of the whiffs. Experts advise that you target a monster you are sure is in range each time, and click every attack, rather than just holding down the button. Putting it on your left click, rather than the right click can be helpful, and it's not a good idea to use it while holding Shift.

Fend doesn't have a fixed maximum number of hits, unlike Zeal, and if you have 20 monsters swarming you, all in range to stab at, that's how many stabs you'll do. The first and last stab seem to always go at whichever monster you have targeted, so point out a big one.

One useful trick is to remember that Fend works like Strafe; you get an extra poke for your minions that are nearby. So keep your Valk and Merc handy, and cast a Decoy as well and you'll get four pokes at single targets, making this more effective than Jab for boss-killing.

This is the best skill for most Spearazons, and should be maxed out.

Lightning Strike

Prerequisites:

• Jab
• Power Strike
• Poison Javelin
• Lightning Bolt
• Charged Strike

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Power Strike: +8% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Bolt: +8% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Charged Strike: +8% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Fury: +8% Lightning Damage Per Level

Description:

"Enchants thrusting weapons with chain lightning". The most powerful of the Amazon's lightning enhanced melee attacks, Lightning Strike emits bolts of Chain Lightning from the targeted monster towards all nearby monsters. Like the Sorceress' Chain Lightning, these bolts will bounce from monster to monster, potentially hitting each demon with many individual bolts.

Note that this is not a melee version of Lightning Fury (unfortunately). The Chain Lightning is much less effective then the blizzard of lightning bolts a Javazon gets with Lightning Fury, and players who have tested this are sure the actual damage dealt is much lower than the skill lists.. A relatively disappointing skill, all told.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target with the Lightning bonus attack, if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR. Your actual physical spear attack does check AR though.

If you are going to try an elemental Spearazon, this will be your main skill, so you'll probably want to max it, though even with 20+ points it's not very effective.

Lightning Fury

Prerequisites:

• Poison Javelin
• Lightning Bolt
• Plague Javelin

Casting Delay:

• None

Synergy Bonuses:

• Power Strike: +1% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Bolt: +1% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Charged Strike: +1% Lightning Damage Per Level
• Lightning Strike: +1% Lightning Damage Per Level

Description:

"A lightning bolt that splits on impact". Formerly called 'Zeus Bolt', this skill imbues a thrown javelin with a powerful thunderbolt attack, and adds lightning damage to the normal javelin damage. The real damage boost is from the streams of Lightning that are emitted towards every monster in range.

The thrown javelin hits a target, and shoots out a lightning bolt (not Chain Lightning) towards every monster in range. The number of bolts increase with more points in the skill, but it only shoots one at each target; you don't shoot 10 at one target if you only have two monsters on the screen and Slvl 9 in the skill. The real key is that with Pierce you can hit multiple targets with each throw, and each hit will send more lightning bolts out. A good throw that has say 20 monsters in a pack, and hits 4 of them, would send out nearly 80 bolts, with each bolt dealing around 250 damage at Slvl 20. That's 20,000 damage with one throw!

Pierce is very useful with LF for the following reason. The percentages listed are the chances of Pierce working on a given target. The first target is the % listed on the skill info in the game. The second target is the % chance of Pierce working two times in a row: (.71 x .71 = .5041 at Slvl 10).

As you can see your odds for hitting the first target increase a little, but the odds of getting 3 or 4 or 5 hits increase much more with higher levels in Pierce, making them very worth it if you're doing huge mob areas, such as the Secret Cow Level.

The javelin will emit bolts when it hits a wall also, so this works well if the target is near a wall, since if Pierce activates there will be target damage, and then bolts coming back from the wall as well. If you have a stubborn single target, maneuver the boss so that he's right next to a wall, column, rock, tree, cottage, etc. Anything that you can throw through the monster into the wall, for the Piercing bonus.

Lightning Fury is one the very best skills in the game for any character, especially when used on mobs. You want to try and gather up as many monsters in the same area as possible, and this has given rise to the popular cow level tactic of "herding". It can be used in many other areas of the game as well, and is the key to success with Lightning Fury.

This is an "always hits" skill, and will always hit the target if you aim it correctly, regardless of your AR.

This skill is it for a Javazon; most will want to max it out for the fastest killing speed possible. If you are using other skills as well, you might just put 10 or so points into this, which is enough to be quite effective, and will save you points for other skills.

Passive & Magic

This tree was originally called 'Healing, Movement and Repair' but as the skills changed, Blizzard changed the name to better reflect the collection of skills and spells in it.

There are six passive skills in this tree, most of which are highly-recommended for every type of Amazon play. The three defensive skills, Dodge, Avoid, and Evade are all great for being hit less often, and are especially useful as Bowazons and Spearazons have no shield to help with blocking attacks. For dealing damage, Critical Strike {Clvl 1} and Penetrate {Clvl 18} are both very useful for all types of Amazons, adding to damage and accuracy, and Pierce {Clvl 30} is essential to boost for any projectile-launching Amazon, whether javelins or arrows/bolts are the projectiles of choice.

Although the Necromancer rules the summoning and control areas of the game, the Amazon possesses two minion skills as well. Decoy {Clvl 24} and Valkyrie {Clvl 30}. Both will take some heat off the Amazon, but only Valkyrie can inflict damage on her foes, and is mobile and longer-lasting.

Most of the skills in this tree have "diminishing returns", which means they increase quickly with the first few points you put in, and then add much less bonus at higher and higher levels. Despite this, some of them are still well worth multiple points, since with some skills adding just another percent or two is very useful.

Inner Sight

Prerequisites:

• None

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"Lights up nearby enemy monsters making it easier for you & party members to hit." This skill works much like a Curse, striking the monsters within the radius and adding a penalty to their defense that lasts for some seconds, as well as putting a little light over their shoulder, making them easier to see.

The uses are both better visibility, and lowered monster defense. The defense penalty is very useful through normal, but becomes less so by nightmare, and does very little by hell difficulty. If you are only using Inner Sight for the illumination, it's better to use Slow Missiles; they have the same radius but Slow lasts longer.

Casting Inner Sight is a spell, you will do it faster if you have fast cast equipment, and you can be interrupted if hit while casting it. You will also be interrupted if you Dodge or Avoid while casting. The animation will complete, but the monsters will not light up.

In D2C Inner Sight could be aimed, and the 13.3 yards radius would extend from wherever you clicked. This is no longer the case, and after v1.08 the center of the radius is always your character. You might need to run up closer to the target to be sure the spell effects it.

Multiple castings of Inner Sight won't stack. The more recently-cast simply replaces the earlier one, whether the sama Amazon casts it or another Amazon. Inner Sight does stack with Slow Missiles though, monsters or players can be effected by both of them at once. More points in Inner Sight can be useful if added by equipment, but it's not worth multiple skill points, since the bonus to -Defense is very small, and you can duplicate the time increase just by recasting it.

Hiring a rogue merc early in the game is helpful even if you don't need the bow damage she adds, since she'll cast this skill constantly, for free.

Critical Sight

Prerequisites:

• None

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"A chance that your attacks will do double damage". This passive skill increases the percent chance of your total physical damage being doubled. When it's successful you'll see a small flash of light on the target.

This double damage is calculated after all other bonuses, but does not include elemental damage. If you have a Deadly Strike item, you will roll for one, and if that fails you will roll the other, but never get both at the same time; no quadruple damage bonuses.

This is the first skill point for most Amazons, and it remains very useful for the entire game for most characters. Most players raise this one to the point of diminishing returns, which is around 50% and Slvl 8. The added damage is great for killing faster, leeching more from the bigger damage, stunning with a powerful hit, etc. More points than 8 or 10 are up to you, and depend on your character type.

Javazons deal most of their damage with Lightning Fury, and don't get as much of a boost from this, though it will still help them leech enough mana back when the actual javelin hits. Bowazons, however, really benefit from more in this, especially if they are using Multishot a lot. If you are shooting 20 arrows every MS, and most of them are hitting (say in the Secret Cow Level), in just one quiver that's 350 x 20, or 7000 arrows. Just 1% more Critical would give you around 70 more double damages, and if you're doing 1000 damage, that's 70,000 more damage from just 1% more Critical Strike, on just one quiver of arrows. You'll fire a lot more than that every single game.

Dodge

Prerequisites:

• None

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

Passive. "A chance that you will dodge a melee attack when standing or attacking". Dodge will avoid hand-to-hand attacks while you are stationary, either standing still or attacking. Works while attacking with a spear or javelin or bow, as long as you are standing still.

A very useful skill, this one lets the Amazon take fewer hits from melee attackers. Great for Bow or Spearazons, since they have no shield and would be hit by almost everything otherwise. Javazons like it as well, since the Dodge is checked only on hits that aren't blocked, and with a good blocking % shield, this can cut the hits you take way way down. If you block 75%, and then Dodge 50% after that, you're only taking damage from 12.5% of successful attacks.

Dodge works all the time, usually without any sound or animation, which fools some into thinking it's not working that often. When you aren't doing anything else, the animation will often trigger, and it is nice, the Amazon ducks in a side-step sort of move, and makes a "Yip!" sound effect.

Points in this one are mandatory, how many should be balanced by your needs. If you feel you are being hit too often, then more points would help. Bowazons stay back from the action and don't get into melee range that often, so they can go with less in this skill. Most Amazons go with at least 35 or 40% here, and 50% at Slvl 12 is a common rule of thumb.

Slow Missiles

Prerequisites:

• Inner Sight

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"Slows the ranged attacks of nearby enemies and makes them easier targets". This skill will substantially slow all ranged attacks, including arrows, javelins, quills, and many spells: meteors, Frozen Orbs, all bolt or ball type spells, Charged Bolts, and many more. Does not work on nova type spells, nor on the projectiles from Andariel, Mephisto, or Diablo.

Slow Missiles works just like Inner Sight in many ways. It can't stack with multiple castings, but it does work on players or monsters, and can stack with Inner Sight, though you only see the glowing star once, even if both are in effect. If you are using this one to help you see monsters in a dark area more easily, use this, rather than Inner Sight, since Slow Missiles has a longer duration.

In D2C this skill was targetable, but after v1.08 and in D2X it is not; your character is always the center of the radius, so you'll often have to run up to be sure you are in range before you cast it.

Multiple points in this aren't a common choice, but it's very helpful to have at least 3 or 4, for the longer duration, especially if you are using it to stay alive when battling MSLE bosses. You might need 20 or 30 seconds to kill the monster, and you don't want to have to run back up mid-battle to try and refresh the timer. A few +skills points are very helpful here.

Avoid

Prerequisites:

• Dodge

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"A chance that you will elude a missile attack when standing or attacking". This passive skill is very useful in some areas, but the ultimate utility depends on your playing style. Bowazons often find it more useful than Dodge, since they are being shot at more than hit melee. However missile attacks aren't as dangerous since you can usually use your minions to draw enemy missiles away, and projectiles tend to do a lot less damage than melee hits. Avoid doesn't help against LE monster sparks.

It works just like Dodge, always helping you, while you only see the animation or hear the sound effect occasionally, when nothing else takes priority. The animation and sound effects are identical to Dodge.

How many points to add is up to each character. Like most of the Amazon's passive skills, this one goes up quickly, but hits diminishing returns hard around level 6. 50% at Slvl 7 is a common rule of thumb. If you are only doing melee areas or areas where the melee attacks are so weak you can just ignore them (Secret Cow level, Halls lvl 2, WorldStone lvl 2, etc) you might only put one into Avoid as a pre-req.

Penetrate

Prerequisites:

• Critical Strike

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

Passive. "Additional chance to hit for ranged attacks". This skill adds substantially to the Amazon's Attack Rating with either ranged or melee attacks. Prior to v1.09 this skill only gave half the listed bonus to melee attacks, but that nerf was removed, and you get the full bonus with missile or melee now.

Most amazons put a point or two into this one immediately at lvl 18. How many points to put in eventually depends on other factors. More points in dexterity, either stat points or from equipment, will mean you need less in Penetrate, since Penetrate is a % based skill. Most higher level Bowazons like to be upwards of 80% to/hit for their level, and how much penetrate you need to get to that depends on your dexterity and other item bonuses.

If you are going with lower dexterity and putting the points info vitality (Hardcore or dueling) then you'll generally need more Penetrate. Spearazons tend to need more vitality and strength, and therefore have less dexterity, so may need more Penetrate to make up the AR difference. Bowazons can do less Penetrate, depending on their weapon and skill choices. Numerous arrow attacks hit every time without an AR check, so if you are using Guided, Fire Arrow, and Freezing Arrow only, you don't actually need any Penetrate at all. A Bowazon should evaluate Penetrate based on her Multishot and Strafe needs.

Decoy

Prerequisites:

• Inner Sight
• Slow Missiles

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"Create a duplicate decoy". Creates a mirror image of the Amazon, exactly duplicating her armor and weaponry, at the spot you target when you click. The Decoy even changes weapons when you do, matching your current appearance exactly. This skill was originally called "Dopplezon", a name everyone seems to like better, so of course Blizzard changed it.

Monsters will attack the Decoy just as they would you or another player or a Valkyrie, so it's very useful to draw their fire or attention away from you. It can be used similarly in PvP, possibly confusing your attacker. You may only have one Decoy at a time; casting another one makes the first vanish, and you can only cast them in valid locations that you have a clear line of sight to.

Decoys don't move or attack, but they can share in auras and Warcries, and do damage if they have the Thorns aura (but not if you have any thorns equipment on, they don't share that), or if monsters have Iron Maiden on them when they hit the Decoy. Decoys will occasionally appear to walk if they are knocked back repeatedly, such as by Urdurs in Act Four.

You get an extra shot with Strafe and an extra stab with Fend if you have a Decoy visible on the screen. One helpful change in D2X is that Decoys and all other minions can be walked through. It was possible to become trapped behind a Decoy in earlier versions of D2C, and they were even used by sneaky PKs to trap party members next to dangerous monsters, or block doorways.

Decoys are excellent scouting tools, and should be used frequently when you are advancing in dangerous areas, especially when there are ranged attackers, such as Oblivion Knights. You can also use them to keep yourself from being cursed by Succubi or Oblivion Knights, preserving your Shrine bonus, and they are great to attract charging explosive minions, which will blow up on a Decoy while dealing her no damage at all.

Decoys have the same hit points as the Amazon who casts then, and if you have a lot of hit points they can be more durable than a low level Amazon, in small Normal diff games. They last as long as the skill level duration allows, but will vanish sooner if they take more damage. It can be scary to cast a Decoy into a mob and see it vanish in an instant, and think how long you'd last. Your Amazon is more durable than a Decoy since you have defense and Dodge/Avoid, as well as resistances (in theory) but seeing how long one lasts under attack can be a good gauge of how careful you need to be around a given monster.

Decoy is also a useful back up; if your Valk is fighting a very nasty monster (like a Might boss, or Duriel) you should cast a Decoy between you and the boss, ideally off to the side somewhat. As long as the Decoy is closer to the boss than you are, the monster will go for the Decoy rather than you, which should give you time to cast another Valkyrie.

The Amazon has no "Unsummon" skill, unlike the Druid and Necromancer, so there is no way to get rid of a Decoy or Valkyrie. You can always cast another one in another location though.

Most players just do one point to Decoy. It's nice to have the longer duration, but this isn't a benefit many players want badly enough to add more skill points, if they can't wear +skills gear to get it.

Evade

Prerequisites:

• Dodge
• Avoid

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"Grants a chance to escape any attack while moving". This passive skill allows the Amazon to not be hit by ranged or melee attacks. This is basically Dodge and Avoid in one, but it only works when you are moving, either walking or running.

There were problems with "Evade lock" in earlier versions of Diablo II, where sometimes when you ran and tried to Evade (such as passing through a firewall or especially Diablo's PLBoD) your character would stop moving and get stuck in the Evade animation, leading to a quick death. This problem seems to have been eliminated with v1.08.

How you play should determine your Evade needs. If you are a careful Bowazon, always advancing behind a Valk and Decoy, not prone to running through monster packs, then you don't really need any Evade at all, other than the one pre-req point for Valkyrie. On the other hand a Javazon who is doing a lot of Cow herding will want a lot in Evade, both to stay alive and also to not to be slowed down by hit recovery as she's trying to slalom stray cows around the perimeter of a huge herd.

Valkyrie

Prerequisites:

• Inner Sight
• Dodge
• Slow Missiles
• Avoid
• Decoy

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"Summons a powerful Valkyrie to fight by your side". The Amazon's version of a Golem spell, Valkyries look like an Amazon in gold plate mail with no helmet. They are always armed with a spear, and appear in a flash of light, walking around and battling any mob of demons fearlessly. They are excellent tanks and shields, but aren't very good at killing things, due to low damage.

One nice change in v1.08 was the random equipment on a Valkyrie. Each time you cast one they are generated with magical armor and weapon, with random stats. You can get Valkyries that emit Charged Bolts or even Frost Novas when hit, ones that strike with cold damage or even Amplify Damage bonuses on their weapons, and more. Occasionally you'll summon one with such useful bonuses that you might want to return to town when she's low to get a heal from the NPC.

Valkyrie is an extremely useful skill, and 99% of Amazons have one summoned all the time. She's your tank, let the monsters attack her while you kill then from a distance, or run up next to them for your melee attacks, then retreat before you get swarmed.

Valks are very durable; their hps scale up in Nightmare and Hell, as well as in any game with more players joining; just like monster hit points do. In a big hell game, even a level 1 Valk is like a walking brick wall, able to absorb enormous damage before dying.

You should use your Valkyrie wisely, cast her where she'll do the most good. You don't need to wait around for her to walk into the action, just cast another one right where you want it. Keep an eye on her hit points in her profile image to the top left of the screen. You can't feed her potions, but you want to know if she's about to die, especially if she's all that's between you and some big nasty beastie. In very tough fights you'll be casting Valks constantly, as they get killed off by a Might boss pack, or Duriel, etc. Learn the continuous skill system, where you hold down the right mouse button and switch hotkeys as needed. No clicking, and it's faster; in a big fight you might go MS, MS, Valk, Freezing Arrow, MS, Valk, MS, Freezing, Guided, Valk, etc, in that order. Cranking out a new Valk every few seconds while only shooting other skills long enough to leech back the Valk' cost is scary, but necessary at times.

The Amazon has no "Unsummon" skill, unlike the Druid and Necromancer, so there is no way to get rid of a Decoy or Valkyrie. You can always cast another one in another location though.

How many points to put into Valk is open to debate. If you are only in Hell games with lots of players, 1 is probably enough. If you are doing solo runs or are in small games and have very low hit points, or lag a lot, or are Hardcore and nervous, you'll want more points in Valk to be safe, and should probably recast her every time she's anywhere near low. Higher level Valks also have a wider pool of potential mods on their random equipment, but since you don't know what their mods are unless they have something visible graphically, this isn't a real big bonus. The mana cost can get expensive if you keep adding to Valk, so consider your mana pool and how fast you can leech it back if you're getting your Valk up to high levels.

Pierce

Prerequisites:

• Critical Strike
• Penetrate

Casting Delay:

•  ?

Synergy Bonuses:

•  ?

Description:

"A chance that your missile will continue through its victim". This passive skill works only with ranged attacks, but is very useful there, allowing any projectile the Amazon throws or fires to pass through up to four targets, potentially hitting five monsters. This skill was much improved from the initial version of it upon game release, where a rather serious bug kept any elemental attacks from triggering if they Pierced. So a Freezing or Immolation Arrow, or Plague Javelin, would not activate if Pierce did. This was especially bad with Ice or Freezing Arrow, since those were shot to stop the target, and if Pierce worked, the monster would turn blue for an instant, but would not freeze. Since this was fixed Pierce has become a very valuable skill.

Pierce is great with all bow skills, allowing multiple monsters to be struck by each arrow, and putting fire or cold on anything it hits, if one of those skills are used. It also boosts javelin attacks, especially Lightning Fury.

This table shows the odds of multiple Piercings as you increase your skill points in it. The percentages listed are the chances of Pierce working on a given target. The first target is the % listed on the skill info in the game. The second target is the % chance of Pierce working two times in a row: (.71 x .71 = .5041 at Slvl 10).

As you can see your odds for hitting the first target increase a little, but the odds of getting 3 or 4 or 5 hits increase much more with higher levels in Pierce, making them very worth it if you're doing huge mob areas, such as the Secret Cow Level.

How much Pierce a Bowazon wants varies, depending on her skill choices and weapon. Some bows give 100% Piercing, so you don't actually need any points in the skill (Kuko and Buriza). Testing has shown that Piercing doesn't work 100% of the time, regardless of your bow or other bonuses (+piercing is found on some unique items) but is capped somewhere around 95%, but that's not going to effect your play too much.

At least 70% is a good rule of thumb, and if you are counting on Guided for your boss killing, you'll want it higher, probably 80% or more. Pierce helps a lot with Freezing, Immolation, and Strafe as well as Multishot when dealing with huge mobs. For smaller mobs you don't need Pierce with Multishot, since you'll have more arrows than monsters anyway.

Bow & Crossbow

The Bow is the weapon of choice for Rogue players from Diablo I, and there are a lot more options and techniques to using a bow in Diablo II than there were in Diablo. Long gone are the days of shooting nothing but a steady stream of normal arrows, in Diablo II there are ten bow skills to boost your attacks, which are also assisted by several skills from the Passive and Magic skill tree. There are also a number of types of bows and crossbows in Diablo II, all of them with varying damage, firing rates, and strength/dexterity requirements. See the Bows and Crossbows page in our Items Database for full info.

Prior to v1.04, all bows were bugged, and the damage from any sort of +%damage modifier, such as Kings, Merciless, etc did not work. A 10-50 gothic bow with +100% damage would list as 20-100, but would actually do 11-51. Since this problem has been fixed, Bowazons have become a lot more effective, and they are among the best characters in D2X.

All bow skills require some mana to use, (Two exceptions, Magic Arrow at Slvl 13+ is free and Guided Arrow at Slvl 33+.) which makes some sort of mana steal equipment mandatory for any successful Bowazon. At lower levels it's usually hard to keep enough mana, but as your bow damage goes up, boosted by better bows and more points in dexterity, you'll find it easier to steal enough mana to keep up a steady attack of bow skills, rather than having to alternate normal attacks with the more damaging bow skills. When using a low damage bow, or shooting monsters that have very few hit points, it's actually more beneficial to have +mana per kill bonuses than mana leech.

Though two of the early skills, "Magic" and "Multi-shot" Arrow allow (as well as Strafe later on), help on arrow economy, one by creating an arrow from mana and the other by splitting one arrow into many, this isn't a real benefit since there is seldom a shortage of arrows, and in any event they are cheap and plentiful to purchase from an NPC in any act.

Bear in mind that her passive skills in the aptly-named 'Passive & Magic' tree will further benefit the chosen skills in this tree, as will two other, non-passive skills: "Decoy", which creates an immobile decoy, and "Valkyrie", which creates an ally, a minion much like the Necromancer's, to fight for you or just distract monsters, giving you free shots at them.