This v1.09 guide describes how to build and play a Magic Find Javazon who uses Lightning Fury with Guided Arrow to kill bosses. Much of the information herein is obsolete in v1.10+, due to skill, item, and monster changes in the patch.

Strategy guide info:

Version: v1.09
Game type: PvM
Character: Lightning Fury Javazon
Author: Flux
Pages: One, two, three.

Strategy

Javazons are mostly constructed for the Cow Level. There are aspects of doing the cows that are easier and also more difficult than other areas, and you should prepare accordingly. For the cows you need very little resistance, but tons of blocking and hit points. You can of course get by with less in everything, but you are risking it. If you play HC like I do, then it's a bigger risk.

Here follows a level up guide, with extensive strategy info on the Cows and other areas you'll be playing long term. The level up guide assumes you are playing for real, killing things, working up levels, etc. If you are getting a turbo from friends, or self-turbo'ing with two computers, you can skip most of this, since you're just leeching exp until you reach LF time at Clvl 30 or 35, and can gain your own levels from there.

Boss Killing

Classic boss-killing position.

Using a Bow is the best way to deal with bosses. More explanation on why this is can be found elsewhere in this guide, in the Skills section and also Strategy section. Suffice to say, a few points in Guided Arrow and you can chew them up (from a safe distance) much faster than you could with Lightning Fury for the same target, or Jab/Fend with a spear or javelin, at melee range.

Positioning for them is basically the same as a Bowazon should use. Your Javazon is durable and able to tank with her high blocking % and shield, but in bow mode you're vulnerable. No blocking, and often much lower resistances, so you want to be careful.

Classic Boss-killing positioning

The screenie here shows the classic bow killing style, with a Valk tanking the boss (A Fire Enchanted, Aura Enchanted, Extra Fast Hell Bovine in this case) a Decoy between you and the Boss for safety's sake, and then the Javazon, firing away with Guided Arrow.

If the boss is against a wall, you want to shoot at an angle to him, so the shot will guide to the boss from the side, and be able to Pierce and hit multiple times. If you shoot right at a target against a wall you won't get any Piercing double hits.

Herding

This is a term used often in this guide and by Javazons, so you need to understand it. It's relatively self-explanatory, since the game meaning is almost the literal meaning. It's best used on the Cows, but you can do it in many other areas of the game, the principle is the same. Basically, "herding" is the process of running through and around the monsters, in order to attract a bunch of them to pursue you. You then lead them into a nice shape, cast a Valk or Decoy, and open up with the LF. Since LF kills huge mobs much faster than small groups, this is a very good tactic to employ.

Of course it's also quite dangerous. No other characters regularly try to attract huge mobs of monsters, since no other skills are more powerful the more targets they have. A Sorc might lead lots of monsters into her Firewall, but she'd be just as well off casting a new Firewall for every few monsters she encountered, the mana cost isn't a real issue.

For a Javazon, you can kill 25 monsters with fewer throws, and in less time, than you can 5 or fewer monsters. You can kill 100 monsters in a huge mob faster than you can kill 10 monsters. There is an upper limit, but the principle is the same. The more the merrier, due to how LF works. The more targets, the more monsters you pierce per throw, so the more bolts are sent out.

Herding in the Cow Level is the real art of playing a Javazon, and when you get good at it you'll be able to clear the level much faster, while using fewer javelins.

The best shape for a herd to be in is a line, several monsters wide. You want to be able to Pierce 4 or 5 or more targets with a single throw, and you want the monsters in the same direction, so the lightning bolts each LF sends out will travel through as many targets as possible. A huge ball of monsters works pretty well, but not as well as a long string.

If your throw hits one monster, and there are 10 others to his left, 10 lightning bolts will go off that way, one aimed at each monster, and if the 10 are all in a row, every single bolt will hit every single monster. If the 10 are spaced out, you'll still get 10 bolts, but each monster will be hit by just 2 or 3 of them, dealing far less damage.

More on herding techniques in the Cow Level, in the Specific Areas section.

Leveling Up Guide

Clvl 1-17

This should get you through Act One, though you can go up to Act Two a bit earlier, or later if you are leveling well in a big game in the Catacombs. I've gotten characters from 1 to 18 in Act One in one game in not much more than an hour; with decent twinked gear they leveled very quickly as I worked through the Jail and Catacombs down to Andariel.

Stats: Early on you should be adding to Str for equipping better gear, some Dex for AR, and some vit to stay alive. I plan on having around 60 Str and 109 Dex (minimum for Titans) by Clvl 42, with the rest in Vitality. Eventually you have to add more Dex, since you need 2.5 there per level to keep your blocking % steady. How much Dex long term depends on your shield's blocking %. You might want to add more str eventually to get up to 110 for Thundergods and Buriza, but that's in the future. Never add any Energy to a Javazon.

Skills: You are mostly just filling out your pre-reqs at this point. These skills you should get now, the (#) is the recommended long term goal.

Spear and Javs Tab: Jab (1), Poison Javelin (1), Lightning Bolt (1).
Bow and Xbow Tab: Fire Arrow (1), Cold Arrow (1), Multishot (1). All optional, you can wait until Clvl 40+ to put anything in bow, since you don't really need Guided for boss killing until Nightmare/Hell.
Passive and Magic Tab: Inner Sight (1), Slow Missiles (1), Dodge (10+), Avoid (5+), Critical Strike (8+). Getting Critical Strike up to Slvl 5 or so early on helps a lot in your leveling.

This is just 11 skills (or 8 if you skip the bow pre-reqs) when you'll have 18 points, assuming you do the Den of Evil and Radament, so put extras into Dodge or Critical Strike, or save them.

Equipment: What you wear isn't real important early on, as long as you survive. Though of course, better stuff = faster leveling. Khalim's Will is a great melee weapon to start off with, and use up through Act Three. Very fast attack and elemental damage. (You need to mule it before you enter the Durance of Hate or someone completes the Compelling Orb quest, or it will vanish.)

If you don't have any twinks, you can use javelins right from the start. They aren't real big damage, but then the monsters aren't real big hit points. Put a point into Jab right away and use that, it's faster than a normal attack, though you'll need mana leech to keep it up, and that's very hard to come by at this level. Throwing javelins does nice damage, but you'll run out quickly, and they get expensive if you didn't twink yourself a bunch of gold.

The Angelic Set is helpful, nice bonuses on everything, including MF% and Hps/Mana, and the weapon (with the full set on) isn't much behind Khalim's on speed or damage. Sigon's Boots and Gloves are nice for the IAS and 10% life leech, Death's gloves and one other item in the set gives 30% IAS also. Bloodfist has always been a great starter glove, but its even better in v1.09 with the added 10% IAS. Other items that add to your damage such as Duskdeep and Hotspurs are helpful early on, as are charms for AR, damage and elemental damage.

Strategy: Kill stuff. Quickly. In a big game. If you can get started in a big party game, and play the same areas with other new characters, it helps a lot on your leveling speed. You'll share in exp and have help if you get swarmed, as well as doing the quests in Act One on your way.

If you move up to Act Two early, there are usually Sewer Run games opening and filling up quickly. A few runs of the three sewer levels are quick, and you'll get to Clvl 18 or so. [Top]

Clvl 18-29

This is the second stage of your character development, before you reach Lightning Fury at Clvl 30 and become a real Javazon.

Stats: You should still be adding mostly Strength and Dexterity, and probably reaching your max Strength, at least for the immediate future. You don't need any Strength (25) to equip Titans, so just get enough Str at this point to cover your other equipment. The most you ever want is 110, for Thundergods and Buriza, and you can't use those until the 40's, so since that Str would be wasted now, wait until the late 30's to get your Str higher than 60 or 70. You need Dexterity forever, 2.5 per Clvl for your blocking, but as of now you don't really need it that much, since you should have plenty of AR with a point in Penetrate at Clvl 24. You might catch up some on Vitality in here, if you added all Dex/Str early on for AR, damage, and equipment reqs. A rule of thumb is at least 10 hps per Clvl, so 200 at Clvl 20, etc. You'll want to be higher than that if you turbo and are into dangerous areas early, but the big hps small charms are around Clvl 30-39 reqs, so by then you can add 100 or 200 pretty easily from charms.

Skills: From 18-29 there aren't a lot of pre-reqs, and two skills come in you want a lot of points in. However you don't really need them now, and you are mostly saving up for Clvl 30, when you should have at least 8-10 skill points saved. These skills you should get now, the (#) is the recommended long term goal.

Spear and Javs Tab: Plague Javelin (1, or possibly more if single player), Impale and Fend are also possible, but not recommended.
Bow and Xbow Tab: Guided Arrow (15+). Optional, if you are waiting until Nightmare or later to get Guided going.
Passive and Magic Tab: Penetrate (1), Decoy (1), Evade (10+).

Equipment: You should be working into your better gear here in most cases. Resistance is becoming somewhat important (you can ignore all but a little Fire and Lightning until Act Four). You have to stop using your Khalim's before you finish Act Three, and mule it, because it will disappear once you enter the Durance of Hate. That or an Angelic Sabre won't cut it in Act Four and Five anyway. If you are doing a spear, then you should be using a pike by now, with as much IAS equipment on as you can wear. Twitchthroe (Unique Studded Leather) is helpful while you still don't need much in resistance, and you can really use the 20 IAS and bonuses to stats.

You can equip some of the lower hps charms by now, and resistance charms as well, and should be using several Sharp or AR or Damage charms for your melee damage, if you have them to use.

If you went early points on Bow, and have several in Guided already, you can use a bow with that for very fast killing after Clvl 18. It's hard to find a decent bow with that low a Clvl req, and to get the mana leech you need to keep it going, but in the Clvl 25-30 range a decent rare bow, Exceptional perhaps, will be much faster than a pike, with reasonable Str/Dex requirements.

Strategy: Ideally you have a friend to help you through Act 2-4, and you can get to Act 5 and get the Ancients at Clvl 20 or soon after. That will take you right up to Clvl 26. You don't gain any useful skills at Clvl 24, Clvl 30 is your goal, so it won't help you kill faster really, but exceptional bows are mostly Clvl 25 requirement, and if you have one of those to use with Guided, that can be a very fast move. Mainly though, Clvl 25 is when the big exp penalties come off, for being a lower level character against higher level monsters, so if you can get to Act 5 here you'll gain experience very quickly in parties.

If you progress normally, playing in public games or solo, you'll probably want to get to 24 or so in Act Two. The Canyon and Arcane Sanctuary are very nice level up zones in this Act, faster than anywhere in Act Three for your character. I don't like the Tombs since there are so many skeletons (worth next to zero experience) in the way.

Try to find an Act Three game like "Kill Mephisto" and party up there. Usually someone has the Durance WP, or can get another character with it. No one likes to do Act Three, it's big, slow and dangerous for low hps chars in crappy equipment. I generally skip the Black Book quest here, saving it so I can cheese the book to Nightmare and Hell. That quest is quite safe on Nightmare also though, so do it here if you want and save the NM book to take up to Hell, where the Ruined Temple is often a stair-trapped death box. It's just that you generally want to get to Act Four and then Five as quickly as possible, and people come back to do the Act Three quests later. [Top]

Clvl 30-41

Here you start to see what you've been working for. As soon as you hit Clvl 30 the game changes drastically, as you start building up Lightning Fury and Pierce, and using that as your main attack. Mobs vanish in seconds, you grin at the destruction, and can't believe how quickly you run out of mana and stix.

Stats: You should be to the requirements for your javelins at 30 ahead of time, so check to be sure you know how much Dex they require. Few javelins require much Strength, so it's mostly about Dex, which you'll need a lot of eventually anyway. Get your Strength up for whatever equipment you'll be using. Thundergods is 115 Str and Clvl 47, Buriza is Clvl 42 and 110 Str, but you don't need to use it at that point, when so many other bows are more than enough for Nightmare. Str gives you nothing other than a little bit more throwing weapon damage, and item requirements, so you never want to have any more than you must. Watch that your hps don't get too low, since you often take off +hps gear for +skills stuff around here. Since you can use most Hps charms now, if you have those load up on them as much as you can carry, and take off the +dmg/AR charms you had on for your melee days, which are now over.

Skills: You want to put a point into Lightning Fury every level, without fail. You also want at least 10 points in Pierce as soon as possible, and probably 4 or 5 in Valk, though one is enough if you are playing in MP games. It's good to have 10 skill points saved at Clvl 30, and more than that don't hurt. If you have help from a friend you can get up through Act 1 and 2 in Nightmare, getting the bonus points there. If you have a lot of help you'll be all the way to Hell, possibly even Act Five hell, and will have more quest reward points for killing Izzy, but if you are getting that sort of turbo, you really don't care about points, since you just need to sit still and leech exp.

Spear and Javs Tab: Lightning Fury (20). Max it ASAP.
Bow and Xbow Tab: None required. Freezing (1) possibly, if you are going to use it in rare emergency situations.
Passive and Magic Tab: Valkyrie (10+), Pierce (15+). One in Valk is enough initially, but you want to pump Pierce almost as fast as LF.

Equipment: This is the key at this point. You want as much +spear skills and +passive gear as possible here. Check the Equipment section for specifics, but if you have +5 or 6 spear skills at Clvl 30, it will make things much easier. The best set up at Clvl 30 would be:

Gloves: +2 spear tab, Rare.
Armor: +1 to all, several Uniques.
Helm: +1 to all, Tarnhelm or Lore, or +2 passive tab circlet, Rare.
Amulet: +1 to all Eye of Etlich or Rare, or +2 spear tab, Rare.
Rings: +1 to all, Stone of Jordan.
Javelins: +2 to spear tab, Rare. (Rare amazon javelins can have +1-2 spear skills inherently, magical can have +3, so you could get magical with +5, possibly.)
Shield: +1 to all (Sigons)
Boots: There aren't any boots with +skills.
Charms: +1 skill tab charms are Clvl 42 req.

This is good for a maximum total of +7 spear with +6 to all, for a total of +13 spear at Clvl 30. That would be awesome, you could do Nightmare Cows with that and have no problems, much less normal Cows or Act Five. Once you get to 30 and have things to kill in a big game, you'll level up very quickly, multiple times per game, so don't worry so much about your equip at 30 if it's not great, you'll be adding skill points very quickly anyway.

You'll want to carry at least two stacks of javelins here, since you'll usually throw every one you have very quickly. Having some mana charms at Clvl 30 can help a lot also, since you'll be low on mana most of the time. Try to get 300+, which isn't hard if you have an SoJ or 2. Frostburns are nice just for the mana in here. You need a lot more mana now than later since your javs do much less damage than Titan's will, and you'll be hitting fewer monsters per throw if you aren't in the cow level.

Strategy: You'll probably be in Act Five at this time, and you want to join big games and just tear stuff up. There aren't any LI monsters in Normal (or even Nightmare) so you shouldn't have any problem killing at a terrific clip. Bloody Runs are okay, but ideally you'll get in on big games and can do other areas of Act Five also, where the exp per kill is better. Baal runs are great, down through all of his minions, if not Baal himself, (you'll find him about impossible to kill with LF, so if you don't have some in Guided yet, good luck). The minions are worth a ton of experience, and you can slaughter them. Tight knots of multiple monsters are your bread and butter.

The problem you'll usually have is small packs. There aren't many areas in Act Five that have huge mobs of monsters, and that's what you want for your LF to be at maximum effect. You'll also need to try and hit multiple monsters with every javelin throw to leech enough mana back to keep using LF, but this is hard without big packs, your low % Pierce, and low damage javelins. More on actual tactics later in this section.

The best places to level are covered more later, but you can do well just about anywhere in Act Five/Normal until Clvl 40. Higher than that you'll want to do the Worldstone, or Ancients Way to keep gaining quickly. Clvl 45 or so is where exp in normal starts to really slow down, but you'll likely have gone on to Nightmare before then anyway.

There's not really any reason to do the NM/Ancients now, even assuming you got a turbo to Act Five/Nightmare. You'll probably be leveling very fast playing normally, and you can get the four or five level boost that 20million gives you at Clvl 40, and get immediately high enough to use Titans, but it's just a small time saver. If you are planning on going to a very high level, 20m (and 40m for the hell Ancients) can save you hours of playing time once you are Clvl 95+, while now you can get 20m in minutes, in a big game. [Top]

Clvl 42-60

At 42 you get Titans (assuming you have one waiting for you) and you can almost hear the angels sing. This will probably double or triple your weapon damage, give you a larger stack with replenish, more bonus skills, etc. The difference in your damage and how much you leech per throw makes a huge and immediate difference, and by Clvl 45 or so you'll be feeling quite cocky, especially if you have other good equipment.

A Javazon with a good weapon, especially Titans, is a killing and leveling machine. You can clear out anything in Nightmare (other than act bosses) as fast or faster than any other character of your level, including Sorceresses. There are a few Lightning Resistant monsters, but even they will die very quickly to the amount of damage you can deal. Things are better balanced out in Hell, but in Nightmare you are Lord (or Lady) of all you survey.

Stats: You should be adding all Dex and Vit through here, with possibly some Str if you need to get into heavier equipment. If you are going to use Thundergod's you need 110 at Clvl 47. You need 110 for Buriza also, but you really don't need one yet. You should get your long term shield by now, and see how your Blocking % on it is. You want 75%, or near there, but you don't really need that until Hell cows, since they hit so hard. You might add more to Vit for now, getting your hps up there to survive elemental attacks which are more common in Act Five than the Cow Level. This all assumes you aren't turboed to the Hell Cows yet.

Skills: Get Lightning Fury maxed, get Pierce to 15+, add a few more to Valk, and don't forget the protective skills of Dodge and Evade. As you gain levels, you'll be removing much of the +skills stuff you had on at Clvl 30. Slvl 20 or 25 LF is plenty to kill with in Hell cows. Slvl 40 would be nice, but it wouldn't be all that much faster. You can kill massive hordes of cows with 8 or 10 throws at Slvl 20 LF, and the same horde with 6 or 8 throws at Slvl 35 LF. Faster, but not that much, which is why I recommend doing Magic Find equipment.

Better to be fast and profitable than faster and gain nothing but experience.

Equipment: You should be into most of your long term gear, though if you have a +2 amulet, Elite armor, or some sets like Tal's, you'll have to wait for 66 or 67 to get it all on. You should be using a bow by now for boss killing, but you don't need to go to a Buriza yet. Nightmare bosses don't have that many hit points, and no physical resistance, so you'll do fine with Magewrath or Kuko or Lycanders Aim or some other exceptional bow, especially since they have +skills on them, and you probably don't have that many points in Guided Arrow yet.

Strategy: You can in theory do the Hell cows pretty successfully at this point, if you have gotten turbo'ed enough to be in Hell already. It would be dangerous since you probably have 500 hps or so, and would die in one or two cow hits. Any bit of lag or an error in herding and you might be dead. It's more reasonable to be in Nightmare, in Act Five or doing the NM Cows.

Nightmare Cow runs are difficult, mainly since you have trouble finding games to do them in. Most Nightmare games open and close quickly, as people level or clear an area and do a new game. You can't see NM games once you beat Baal, so you'll either need a friend to spot them for you, or get on with another character who is in Nightmare, spot the game name, then switch to your Javazon.

NM Bloody Runs go very fast, generally 5 or 6 minutes, so if you are trying to join those to do Cows, you need to get in as the game goes up, and just fly through the Cows. This is the best Exp you can get at this point, you can get about 50% more exp doing a full cow level solo than you would leeching in the Bloody in an 8 player game. (This ratio remains about the same in Hell, you always gain more doing an area solo in a big game than you would the same area in a big party.)

The one benefit is that you'll see very few others doing the NM cows, so if you do find a good game, they'll probably be all yours. [Top]

Clvl 61+

You will have no problem handling the Hell cows at this point, assuming you can get there. Hell Act 1-4 is dangerous in many places, and you'll have problems doing the Act Bosses solo, especially Diablo, so you should try to get into a party, or have a friend help you out. You need more resistance for this than you ever will for Cows, so use a Mosers instead of a Rhyme, Lionheart instead of Wealth, etc. This is all much more important HC than SC. If you don't care about dying, then just do whatever, take on Hell Diablo solo if you want, etc.

Once you reach Act Five you aren't free and clear to Bloody Run though, unlike the other leeches. You don't want to do Bloody Runs, and you need to Kill Baal to be able to do Hell Cows. Getting to Baal isn't hard, a Javazon is well-suited for clearing the WS out. The hard part is Baal himself. You'll probably be low resistances in Bow mode, and Baal is all about big elemental damage. It can be quite suicidal to take him on solo in a big game, especially if you don't have a very big damage bow. You can kill him with LF, but it would take a long time, and many trips to town for mana and javelin repairs. Try to find a party to clear Baal, or have a friend help you.

Stats: You need to keep your blocking as near 75% as possible, and add 2.5 Dex per Clvl to keep your % steady. The rest should go to Vitality, unless you are planning on using a Buriza in Hell, and still raising your Str towards 110. You want to have 1000+ hps for hell cows, and the more the better. 1500 isn't too hard to reach with good equipment, lots of vitality, and some hps charms.

Skills: You've had LF maxed for a long time, so you'll want to get Dodge and Evade to 12 or so each, perhaps add some more to Critical Strike and/or Valkyrie, top off Pierce, get Guided to 15+, etc. If you find your Valk is dying too quickly, put more points in it. If you don't have that much mana and need lower cost Guided to kill PI bosses, put more in Guided.

Equipment: You should get into your final equipment at Slvl 66 or 67, unless you have some Elite Uniques still waiting, like Arkaine's Valor. If you have reached the Hell cows, and are going to play there (almost) exclusively, then you should load up on GF/MF, since you won't need much resistance.

As you gain in levels and your hps go up, you can remove hps charms, and put in resistance, or MF charms instead. You'll also be finding lots of good stuff to save or use on your other characters, so at least the character starts to pay off. Enjoy muling your loot, your character is now a success.

Strategy: I skip the Hell Ancients now, especially Hardcore. They are difficult and dangerous, you ideally want to be in a party with a Druid and Barbarian for the maximum hit point bonus, and Javazons aren't of much use in killing single targets, especially ones with Lightning resistances. You go to Bow mode on the Hell Ancients, you are taking a big risk, losing your blocking ability. Even if you are sure you can kill them, it's a 40m bonus, which is nice, but you can get that in a couple of big cow games now. If you are planning long term, save them for Clvl 95+, when you'll be getting 4 or 5m for the same amount of kills that give you 30m now. At Clvl 98 +40m can save you hours of leveling. At Clvl 60 it saves you minutes.

You can gain a ton of exp per Cow run at this point. Ideally you find Bloody Runs or other games where everyone else is in some other area of the game. You must be careful partying in the Cows, if someone else kills the King you will usually lose the ability to open up your own cow levels, which basically ruins your character. [Top]

Navigation

This very long guide is spread over 3 pages.

Guide:Javazon v1.09, by Flux, Part III

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