Guide:Fuzzydodger PVP v1.10, by Gimmershred

The Fuzzydodger is an Amazon using the Beast runeword, enabling her to cast the Werebear skill. This build is viable for PvP but fairly weak in PvM, and is entirely dependent on fairly expensive equipment.

• Originally posted in the Amazon strategy forum.[1]. See the thread for extensive discussion of equipment pros and cons.

Diablo II Strategy Guide Info:

[edit]

• Patch: v1.10
• Gametype: PvP
• Class: Amazon
• Specialisation: Fuzzydodger (Wearbear Amazon)
• Author: Gimmershred

Introduction

Welcome to the wonderful world of hairy woman. The Fuzzydodger is an amazon build wich utilizes the beast runeword. The build was first posted on these forums by Sonnich as far as i know. Beast is a runeword made in five socket axes, scepters or hammers with the runes Ber+Tir+Um+Mal+Lum. Beast will give any char the freedom to use the druids’s werebear skill. As you can imagine you can’t make a Fuzzydodger without the beast runeword, so if you can’t afford one you can't make yourself a fuzzydodger. This guide is purely for pvp purposes since in pvm when you get swarmed you won't be able to do anything since you will be stunlocked. Although if you play safe and avoid being swarmed this char is almost unkillable in pvm.

My current amazonbear is named Fuzzy_Dodger on Europe Nonladder realm. It is a second rebuild and does pretty good in pvp. She is on account *xeno105 and if someone want to see her you can whisp me.

Note that this build is very very gear dependant. If you can’t afford most of the essential equipment you should not try to make one for pvp purposes and i can only say that this build is very annoying for pvm.

Why a bear amazon?

First of all let me tell you that you can only use normal attack when your amazon has changed into a bear. Now i can see you thinking why someone would make this crazy build anyways. Let me tell you why this build is pretty effective in pvp.

1)Dodge/evade/avoid all three work in bearform. And next to the fact that it works it looks awesome. Every time you d/e/a you will be shifting from bearform to druidform and back again. You will get these skills up to 58%-60% wich is a very high chance of avoiding a hit of every attack in the game.

2)You will get incredible life. Every point in vita spend will give your amazon 3 life. This is next to the barbarian the highest life you will get per statpoint spend. Next thing you do is cast battle orders from a call to arms runeword and after that you will change to a bear with your beast. With prebuff equip you can reach up to lvl 20 bo and lvl 15 werebear (+ Lycanthropy) , wich will give you a life increase of +- 230%. For example my own fuzzydodger reaches 4.8k life after bo and werebear and with prebuff she even reaches a whopping 6k life.

3)It is hard to get decent Attack rating with a normal attack you think? Don’t worry. The amazon has a handy skill named penetrate which will give a boost of 10% Attack rating per skillpoint.

4)Your damage output won’t be very high at first. But praise the 1.10 runewords. There are some so powerfull that your damage will become pretty good. You will also get a high % critical strike wich will double your damage. You will also get +-150% enhanced damage when you prebuff your bear.

5)This char has incredible Style

6)This char has incredible Style

All together you have a big chance to dodge all attacks in the game. You will have huge life and decent attack damage. Vs. Melee you have 75% block 59% dodge and 50% dr and up to 6k life. Imagine how long it takesfor example a ww barb before he can kill you. And not to forget you score a perfect 10 on the coolness scale.

Skills

Since you are only able to use normal attack in bearform you won’t be using any skills in the amazons javelin&spear skilltree or the bow&crossbow skilltree. However if you have trouble with levelling you could put one point in jab. Ok, so all your points will go in the passive& magic skilltree. Let’s discuss all the skills in there.

Inner Sight (1). It lowers the enemies defense. But maxed only with +-1000. Imagine duelling a paladin with 34000 defense. He will get 33000 def after you casted your maxed inner sight. Thus this skill is worthless. Put only 1 point in here as prereq.

Critical Strike (minimum @ lvl 16 with +skills from equip): This 1 is very handy. It gives a chance to do double damage. It has diminishing returns at higher levels but still you should get this at a minimum of 65%. Thats skillevel 16. At skillevel 20 you will have 68% chance on doing double damage. If you have skillpoints left you can put them either here or in valkery.

Dodge (20): This skill will give you a chance to dodge melee attacks when standing still. Coupled with 75% block this willl make you a char that is very hard to hit for meleeattacks like whirlwind and bowazons. Get this skill at lvl 20 for 56%. Lvl 21 for 57%, lvl 24 for 58%, and lvl 26 for 59%.

Slow missiles (1): You can cast this skill on annoying casters like fireball sorc and bone necs before you switch to bear. 1 point in it is enough, you won’t be using it very often, since you need to be close to them to attack anyways.

Avoid (20): This will grant you a chance to dodge any missile attack when standing still. Max this skill. It will also dodge attacks like foh, traps etc, when you are standing still. 65% at lvl 20, 66% at lvl 21, 67% at lvl 23, 68% at lvl 25, 69% at lvl 27

Penetrate (20): This 1 definitely needs to be maxed. It’s your main source to boost your attack rating. Without attack rating you won’t be able to hit anything.

Decoy (1): Can be handy to cast before you start a meleeduel. Might take some attacks off of you because she has the same ability to dodge/evade/avoid as yourself. Not that important. Only 1 point

Evade (20): This will give you a chance to dodge any attack while you are moving. You will be on the move a lot when you hunt down many different chars. Get this skill at lvl 20 for a 56% chance. 57% at lvl 21, 58% at lvl 24, 59% at lvl 26.

Pierce (0): Useless skill. Don’t put any points in it.

Valkyrie (1): Same as with the decoy. Remember that you get a cast delay after casting valk and you won’t be able to cast werebear for a few seconds. If you have skillpoints left cause of a bit lower d/e/a either put them here or in critical strike.

Equipment

Ok there are a few things we want from our equipment. I will give a list starting with the most important things.

1. Damage output
2. 75% block
3. 85% faster hit recovery
4. 50% damage reduction
5. Stats
6. Resistances
7. Life
8. Faster run walk if you can’t get them on your charms

Damage out put is number one. Since you won’t have any damaging skills except a little bit of enhanced damage and the critical strike skill it’s important to get a nice damage weapon and nice other modifiers on other equipment. So let’s start off with the weapon. First you have to know one thing. The bears attackspeed almost only depends on your weaponspeed. It is very important to use a fast weapon. Sometimes ias on other gear helps you hit 1 frame faster but not very often. You will only use beast to become bear. After that you can switch to another weapon or take beast off and you will still stay a bear.

Weapon choices

Grief Phaseblade: This beats all the other weapons hands down. Make sure it has a minimum of 32% ias on it to hit a 6 frame attack.

Eth rare Matriarchal javelin with quickness mod (40% ias) and good ed/stats. Get 20% ias on your gear for a 7 frame attack. Do not use eth titans. They are way too slow.

Botd Berserker Axe: This has good damage too. Also gives + 30 stats. Make sure to get 30% ias on other gear to reach a 7 frame attack instead of 8. Still 1 frame slower then Grief and speed is very important.

Oath Scourge: This one has good maximum damage but a low minimum. Make sure to get 10% ias on other gear to reach a 7 frame attack instead of 8.

Beast Berserker axe. If you can only afford 1 weapon. Fanaticism helps a bit with attack rating. Make sure to get 15% ias on other gear to reach a 7 frame attack instead of 8.

Doom Berserker axe. Holy freeze can be very handy, but it’s a slow weapon. You gonna need 35% ias on other gear for 8 frame attack.

Azuwrath phase blade. Damage is not that great but shael it and you hit a 5 frame attack.

I Strongly advise on using a grief Phaseblade.

Shield

Only 1 choice here that everyone can afford. Stormshield socketed with a nice –req jewel or an um or pdiamond. Good block and 35% damage reduction. Vs casters you could throw on a phoenix shield + enigma armor for the frw or a good res shield.

Gloves

Bloodfists. You need to reach the 85% faster hit recovery break and bloodfists give a whopping 30. Draculs are a nice choice too for the open wounds it has wich is very nice against barbduels wich take a long time, although i personally don’t like lifetap.

Rings + Amulet

You have 2 options here. 1) angelics amu+rings for the ar. 2) 2x raven+metalgrid for nice ar, res and 40dex you can use for getting 75% block. I personally favor the second option cause vitality points are so important. Also keep a dwarfstar and whisp projector in your stash for some absorb. If you have running problems you could use cats eye.

Armor

Fortitude is king here. 300% enhanced damage is something you really will appreciate. Another option is enigma for frw and strength tweaking or Chains of honor for the resistances. If you can’t afford fortitude use a Duress armor in melee duels.

Boots

Many options here. I like shadowdancers a lot. With the strength from stormshield it’s not hard to get the requirements and it gives 30% fhr and 20-25 dex. Other options are gore riders (30%frw, ow, cb) or Aldurs boots (40% frw/fire res and life).

Helm

Best would be a rare ama circlet with frw stats and res socketed with a shael. If you use angelics and are having resist problems you can use a shaeled or ummed kira’s. Lots of resist, up to 40% fhr when shaeled and cannot be frozen are all awesome mods. Rockstopper ain’t so bad either (Fhr resists and damage reduction).

Belt

If you have a bb throw it on her. Else use verdungo’s for more Dr and life. Or tgods vs those nasty lightning chars. If you still haven’t enough attack rating you oculd use hsarus belt+boots.

Switch + Prebuff equipment

• Call to arms
• Beast
• Spirit shield (+2skills) or Lidless (+1) or Sigon shield (+1)
• Enigma (+2 skills)
• Shako (+2)
• Mara’s (+2)
• Soj or bul kathos (+1*2)
• Arachnid or BB (+1)

You can get up to lvl 20 bo and lvl 15 werebear and lycanthropy. Keep a demon limb in your stash and use the enchant charges if you need more attack rating.

Charms

Fill your needs here. Mostly try to get max damage/ attack/ rating/life charms. This can especially boost your life with giant leaps.

• Also get a amazon torch and annihilus off course.
• Fhr , frw and res charms are good possibilities too off course.
• Don’t forget to hit the 85% fhr breakpoint.
• You really don’t need any passive skillers.

Stats

• Strength: Only enough to wear your equip. Try to use +strenght from other equip and torch and anni to keep it as low as possible.
• Dexterity: Enough to get 75% block with your Stormshield. This means you need 193 dex at lvl 85. Don’t forget to count in the dex you get from ravens or angelics and other gear
• Vitality: Everything you can manage goes into vitality. The 3 life per vitalitypoint spend gets boosted huge by bo and werebear + lycanthropy.
• Energy: 1 point to be different. Or none off course.

Sample Character Stats

For an example what you can achieve.

• Fuzzy_Dodger. Amazon level 82.

With prebuff lvl 20 bo and lvl 15 werebear she gets the following:

• 6k life
• 5226 to 6109 damage with critical strike already taken into account.
• 10k Ar with metalgrid dual ravens.
• 59% dodge , 69% avoid, 59% evade
• 75% block with stormshield
• 50% damage reduction
• 75% fire/cold/poison resist 80%light res at hell, all a little bit stacked
• 92% faster hit recovery

Note: I am using grief+forti and lots of damage/ar/life charms. Also i use the ravens and a high stat ama circlet and a good torch and anni to reach str requirements and dex requirements for max block.

Dueling Strategies

I will post the most common builds you will see around in pvp. And with them a number between 1 and 5. 1 for the most easy builds, 5 for the "impossible to win from" builds.

Paladins

Smiter (5)
Forget it , your amabear will never defeat smiters. Just put walk on and walk away from them and they probably never kill you either. You could try to hit them at the moment they switch from charge to smite but it’s pretty hard since the moment is short and their defense is sky high.

Foh'er (3)
Make sure you got yourself a 4topaz monarch in stash and a tgods. Make sure you got for the rest enough res to nullify their conviction. If they are dumb and stand still to foh you , just use your forti/grief setup and run at them and kill them. If they walk/passive charge a lot switch your forti for an eni and take a kirás (lo’d) on your head. Foh is also a skill that you will avoid/evade a lot and with your high res you can take pretty many hits.

Hammerdin (1-4)
These duels depend very much on the defense of the hammerdin in question and the luck you have on your evade/avoid. If they stand still in their hammerdin don’t go in or try to approach their blind spot. To reach their blindspot you need to run in from the southwest going to the northeast. You surely get there alive and if they don’t move they are dead meat. If you notice they run away when you get in their deadspot don’t try it again. Otherwise wait till they move to their next spot where they gonna lay hammers and try to get in a few attacks. If they tele on top of you just stand out of their hammers and namelock them with shift+attack. When they then tele on top of you you do 2 attacks and run away again, rinse and repeat. The best of the best hammerdins you can’t beat but the not so good ones you have a fair chance against.

Zealot (2)
Now these or the more fun duels. The nasty thing is their attack isn’t interruptable and they hit fast and hard. The good thing is you are by far the best tank of the too. Just put you run off and walk up to him and start wacking. If he is charging it’s not a real problem for you because it will almost never hit and it gives you a good opportunity to get some hits in.

Barbarians

BvB (4)
These barbs got some high defense. Try to put on your angelics rings+amu and use enchant from demon limb. These duels are going to take a long time. First of all make sure you have some source of openwounds (draculs for example) Bvb barbs are most of the time pretty honourable dudes. So you can ask them not to manapot and either tank their ww till they are out of mana or try evading their ww with walk on until they run out of mana.

When they don’t manapot you got a fair chance to beat em.

If they whirl straight over you you namelock them and shift+attack.

If they are trying to outrange you with ww put walk on and try to catch em between the end of a ww and the start of a new one. Although you won't win vs the best , duels still are loads of fun and will take a long long time.

BvC (2)
These can do some serious damage. But they don’t have block and their defense is not up to par in comparison to bvb barbs. You can seriously put many of these to sleep. Same tactics as vs bvb.

Wolfbarbs/Bearbarbs (1)
It kinda depends on their attackspeed. When they attack fast they might be tough. The ones I dueled either had too low damage or too slow attack speeds to lock me so they weren’t a real thread to me. Some of them use doom as a offhand weapon to slow you, but without a shield they are dead meat anyways.

Amazons

Bowazons (1)
Ha, these kind of amazons are easy. It’s almost unbelievable how many arrows you can tank. The only problem can arise when you don’t have enough frw and they are good at run/shoot/run tactics. First of all you should switch your amu for a cat’s eye eni and if you notice that you still lack on the frw then switch your forti for an eni. That should give you the upperhand in the running department. Most of these duels start of with them a few screens away shooting at you. Keep your hand at the run/walk switch button all the time. Walk up to them until they stop shooting and making a run for it. At that moment switch to run and chase them. Every moment you see a big volley of arrows coming at you quickly press the walk button again. Rinse and repeat, almost all of them are dead meat. Most of them will die once you get the first hit in (they can take like 2 to3 hits from you while you take loads of arrows from them).

Charged Strike zons (3):
These can be nasty duels, but with the right equip you have a good chance. The problem with them is that you get locked by the many bolts released by charged strike. To get a hit in you have to get their damage to be as low as possible. Get your res up, use a tgods and a whisp projector. You can take many hits but there is a low chance of you actually landing an attack. Try to get the first hit in and they will either get hit or get dodgelocked or gettin block animation to give you a couple of new opportunities to get a few attacks in.

What also can help to kill them is to use a 4shaeled griscaddy. Combined with the nice damage charms you have and the forti it still does enough damage and you will hit at 4fpa wich gives you the opportunity of locking them up.

Poison javazons (?):
Get good frw and put on deaths gloves. Try to avoid their clouds and chase them. Not much to say about it really. Never met one, but i suppose they have good life, good block and also a good chance to dodge your attacks.

Assasins

Trapassassin (2):
If they tele around they can be very annoying. The good thing is they can’t lower your lightning resistance and you seem to evade/avoid pretty damn good against traps. Use the anti-lightning gear mentioned before and make sure you hit the highest faster hit recovery break you can get (i always use my shaeled circ, bloodfists, shadowdancers and a 5%sc to hit the 85% break) Tgods, whisp and forti will get your light res to 90 with some % absorb. Count how many times the traps have shot. If they shot 8 times you run up to the assa. You tank the last 2 hits of their traps and the traps will dissapear. If it’s a bad assa she will try to recast the traps while you are facing her. She is probably dead then cause all your hits will hit since you aint locked by traps anymore. If it’s a good assa she will try to run/tele away and lay 1 trap at a time. If you run fast enough you still get a few hits in. Rinse and repeat. If it’s an assa who only stands still and spams mindblast then run up to her and you might kill her just by attacking her. If she tele’s you gotta have some luck in catching her and her making wrong tele’s try to see if she tele’s in patterns might help you a bit.

WW-assa (2-4)
I give this a rating 2-4 cause it all depends on the playing style of the assasin. First of all put your deaths gloves on, otherwise they hit pretty hard. They seem to hit you more often then ww barbs.

1. WW-assa who doesn’t use traps or mindblast too often (2).

They aren’t so hard, you just stand there and use namelock shift+attack

1. WW-assa who uses either lightning traps or wake of fire and a good deal of mind blasting (4).

The traps won’t hurt you much but they will put you in evade/avoid and it will be very hard to still hit them while they ww over you then. Your best bet is to stay out of their trap range, kill their merc when he drifts off and wait for her to come or lure her just out of trap range. If the mindblast and tele on to you it’s a good thing. I had many assa’s who died cause they thought they could tele on top of me after a mindblast. With some luck you immediately half their life away at that moment.

Kickers (1)
Put on your dead gloves and just let them come and whack them silly, or chase them off course. If they use very leet venom cause of 6s facet weapons etc. Make sure you counter this with enough stacked poison res.

Druids

Furydruids (1-2)
Furydruids who don’t use wolves or don’t recast them after they die are pretty easy to beat. Just make sure you take out those wolves first when they are a bit away from him. Also if in the middle of the duel his oak gets close to you give it 1 hit and immidiately target the druid again. He either looses much life or he goes recasting his oak. If he runs off to recast it, switch to running real fast and chase him. To switch back to walking immediately after he recasted it.

Winddruids (4)
Same as what goes for the charged strike zon. You have a good chance of getting totally locked. First thing to do is try and attack anything around him and hope that your torch will go off. This will annihilate his wolves+oak. Otherwise try to isolate his wolves and hit them 1 for 1. If he tele’s away too much and too far to recast a lot, then forget about this tactic and just try to tank him. Never cast slow missile on them, it will lock you even more since you have to be close to them.

Sorceress

Fireballers (3-4):
Again they can lock you up , but less bad then for example the winddruid or cs zon. At the start of the duel circle around them in amazon form and cast slow missile on them. Then go into bearform. Get enough frw good res and maybe a dwarfstar or nokozan amu. You tank a lot and most of them will make a mistake at some point wich will give you the chance to kill em.

Lightsorc (1-4):
Same as with firesorc but they won’t lock you up unless they use charged bolt as their main attack.

Blizzsorc (2-4):
It will take them quite some time before blizzard ever hits you and with your dual ravens you can take at least 2 hits from even the best blizzsorc. Vs weaker blizzsorc you can take more hits. Again get around 100% frw and chase them like mad. Try to not get to greedy on the namelock cause they will guide you through the same blizzard a few times then.

Orbsorc (2-4):
Their damage is weak but good ones are staying offscreen all the time. I like to trick them that i run to town after a while at wich point they tele close to you for a full orb hit. At that moment you turn around to them and whack them in the face. Off course also in this case there are plenty off orbsorc who aren’t godly and make some telemistakes in the long duel vs you.

Necromancers

Bonenecro’s (2-5)
You seem to evade/avoid spears and bone spirits pretty good. But you have to get past their bone armor. With your grief/forti setup you will hit it off in 1 hit though. I play pubs a lot and somehow i don’t see many necro’s use decrepify wich would be a killer to you. I see plenty of necro’s using bone prison though. First of all make sure you slow missile them, then chase them. If they use bone prison then put on your enigma and fight in ama form. There is always time to tele out when a necro is slow missiled , even with the 17 frame tele you have.