Revision as of 17:46, 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).