Certain Amazon Builds have been around nearly from the day Diablo2 became playable on the realms. Last time I tried to describe them I kind of forgot the old ways and just listed what was more accepted nowadays, many years later. A lot of changes have taken place, skillwise and itemwise. I felt it was time to elaborate the descriptions of the subclasses I listed and discuss the evolution that has taken place. First I will have to explain the main classes and then we'll dive into the subclasses.

One note in advance that whenever I give a list of items, it is only to give some options. They are often unique items or set-items. It is merely a guideline, because people are overall familiar with these items. I will most of the time not list the exact reasons for indicating them either. If you are not familiar with their names, you can check their statistics on Diabloii.net or the Arreat Summit and hopefully see what's so special about them (explaining every little detail of the items will make this guide tenfold in size). There are countless possibilities open, so feel free to experiment. Sometimes experimenting is only allowed within bounds though, but you'll know when you read the subclass themes. So here we go....

Main Classes

First an important explanation of amazon classes. We distinguish amazons in several classes related to the weapons which she actively uses throughout the game. She can be proficient in three weapon types, meaning that she can use certain skills with them to boost damage or to get some sort of special effect. She is non-proficient in all the other weapon types. The weapons amazons can specialise in are:

Bow or Crossbow
Spear
Javelin

From this we have defined four main classes.

Bowazon: The pure Bowazon is an amazon that only uses bow or crossbow-type weapons.

Spearazon: The pure Spearazon is an amazon that only uses spear-type weapons.

Javazon: The pure Javazon is an amazon that only uses javelin-type weapons.

Tankazon: The pure Tankazon is an amazon that does not use weapons in which she can be proficient. This means no spears, no javelins and no bows or crossbows.

The Hybrid: Next to these pure classes we have the mixture class, the Hybrid. A hybrid is a character that actively uses weapons from two different proficiencies or one weapon from a proficiency and one weapon in which she is not proficient. There are 6 hybrid types.

Bow/Javelin
Bow/Spear
Javelin/Spear
Bow/Weapon, in which amazons can't specialise
Javelin/ Weapon, in which amazons can't specialise
Spear/ Weapon, in which amazons can't specialise

If an amazon uses two different weapons in both of which she cannot specialise she will not be a hybrid, but just be a Tankazon. Example: Sword using amazon with an Axe on weapon switch.

Definition of being a pure class

Generally speaking people look at the main amazon classes and think that it's all about skillpoint allocation. People think that Bowazons are amazons that do not allocate any skillpoints in the spear and javelin proficiency tree. Spearazons don't use the bow or javelin tree and Javazons don't use the spear or bow tree.

I'm now going to state that this is not true. All the decisions you have made for your amazon concerning skillpoint allocation have no influence on being a pure amazon or a hybrid. It is the usage of weapons that puts you in a category. When you are leveling up you may not have set your mind yet or you are experimenting with certain skills. And anyone can make a little clicking mistake when assigning skills. You can always change the weapons you use, but you cannot go back on skill choices. Skillpoint allocation therefore should not define the main class you play. Your final decision on which weapons to use (and thus to a degree on which skills you will keep using) will define what class you are in the end.

Note that: Skillpoint allocation often does define the subclass you play.

Take for instance the Javazon. She uses purely javelins to either throw them or use them as a melee weapon and for that she can pick spearskills to aid her in battle. A Javazon does not have to be purely ranged, though she can be. Take a Tankazon using a two-handed axe like Hellslayer. She can easily discard the axe and start to use a spear for the rest of her "life". The switch from axe to spear will make her a Spearazon for the rest of the game even though she has no skillpoints allocated in her specific proficiency tree. The reverse is also possible.

These example show that even a Bowazon can have skillpoints allocated in the spear and javelin tree; that Javazons and Spearazons similarly can have skilpoints allocated in the bow and crossbow tree; and that Tankazons can have points in any tree. The distinction lies that pure classes no matter in which skill tree they invest points, they will not be able to use them all.

Most of the time the choice of the amazon main class is permanent, because once people invest points in either the bow, spear or javelin tree they tend to stick with it, but people are allowed to reconsider.

Definition of being a hybrid

To be a pure class you have to use either two weapons of the same type or have an empty weapon switch. To be a hybrid class you have to use two different weapons. I don't think much more explanations are needed, but there have been a few bends to the rule.

1. You may have read Flux Lightning Fury Javazon guide in which he describes that he uses Buriza on his weapon switch for which he has maxed guided arrow. Well... to his reasoning he stated that the crossbow isn't used that often so technically he would still be a pure Javazon. Given the former explanation this assumption is false. He actively uses this bow to fight act bosses, boss packs, certain kind of immunes, so by his own statements he says he's using two different weapons to great extent. It is important for survival and therefore, the Javazon the way he describes it is a hybrid. Some people will disagree with me, but I feel this is bending the rule just a little bit too much, since you really rely on both weapons.

2. When playing you solely use javelins, but when you face Duriel you decide to use a spear instead. Immediately after Duriel you ditch the spear and keep using javelins solely. Since this really is a one-time occurrence you are not a hybrid, though you have used it actively. This example is very debatable since the usage of the spear is important for survival.

3. When doing magic find runs you have the option to equip your mercenary with additional magic find and let him do the killing while you switch to weapons that contain more magic find. For instance, you are a Bowazon and just before you get the final blow on an act boss, you switch to an Ali Baba sword and a "Rhyme" shield and let your mercenary kill the boss. In this case you are not "actively" using the sword. Just switching weapons to see how impressing an amazon looks with a sword or just for the sake of gaining more magic find does not make you a hybrid or stray you from your class.

In this case you don't use the sword or shield and hence you are not a hybrid, but a Bowazon.

Conclusion: The definition of your amazon class is dependant on how actively you use weapons of a certain type.

I hope you understand the concepts of the main classes by now. If you're still clueless then it's probably my way of explaining things. You may disagree and on that I can only say: "To each their own, but this is the generally accepted rule".

Every main amazon class can be played in many different ways. Over the years we have clearly defined several of these classes and labeled them as a "Subclass". Every subclass uses her skills, weapons or gear in a special and unique way, which separates her from the rest of the amazons.

Some subclasses may look a bit alike. Depending on the weapon used, some subclasses can be built for more than just one of the main classes. There are also a few themes that are/can be used for many of the subclasses and certain subclasses are known to be available or extracted from other character classes (in this case I mean extracted from a subclass belonging to the necromancer, paladin, barbarian, sorceress, druid or assassin).

Overall Passive Skill tips

I will describe the bow and crossbow skills, and the spear and javelin skills for every subclass, but the overall tips for passive skills I will list here before I dive into subclass area. Sometimes I do elaborate on their use. Also note that I sometimes give an overview of recommended skills, but do not list the required prequisite skills among them, or list over a total of the maximum 110 skills. This means you will have to decide for yourself which skills to sacrifice and which ones to build up.

Inner Sight lowers the defense by a set number. Later in Hell monsters will have defense of in the hundreds and maxed Inner Sight will only lower the defense by 73. It's not extremely helpful later on, but early on it is very nice to use. In dark areas it illuminates the creatures in range, which is always 13.3 yards. I wouldn't put more than 1 point in it though.

Critical Strike adds a chance of doing double physical damage. This is very helpful to increase the amount of life or mana leeched. When your amazon does good physical damage this mod will become more meaningful. When your amazon does low physical damage it will not help that much. For Magazons for instance, it's often not a skill to play with. Overall a value of 50% (level 8) is profitable enough, though some will prefer a higher chance. Be wary of diminishing returns at higher skilllevels.

There is also a special mod called Deadly Strike, which does the same thing as Critical Strike. Observing people will then think that both effects can be put to work, quadrupling the damage, however this cannot be done. Whenever you have both Deadly Strike and Critical Strike the game code will not add both effects at the same time. It will either do Deadly Strike or Critical Strike or none of the two.

Slow Missiles slows the projectiles of ranged attackers by 33%. This includes arrows, elemental missiles and even the charged bolts released by lightning enchanted creatures. A very handy skill to have and it's range is as for Inner Sight a steady 13.3 yards. It also illuminates the creatures and is a good replacement for Inner Sight. The higher the skilllevel, the longer it lasts. Normally it doesn't take long to kill creatures so it's enough to keep it at level 1. However a few additional points won't hurt. Level 5 gives 32 seconds, which is probably enough for you.

Penetrate increases the attack rating of your character. This works for all attacks, melee and ranged. Some skills don't require attack rating and if those are your main attack skills, don't bother putting many points in this one. You can check which skills require attack rating quite easily. Simply look at your character screen and check the box where attack rating is normally displayed. If it shows a number, the skill needs attack rating to hit monsters. If it doesn't show a value, the skill will automatically hit (auto-hit) and don't require any attack rating.

You can balance your attack rating value with increasing dexterity and increasing the penetrate skill. Dexterity gives damage bonus for amazon specific spears, bows and javelins. It also gives bonus to blocking for shields. It's therefore best to boost dexterity to a good height and then allocate some skillpoints in penetrate to increase attack rating. At least put 1 point in it.

Decoy is a skill that creates a copy of yourself which you can use to draw enemies out of hiding places or distract their attention from you. A Decoy has the same amount of life as you and can thus take as many hits as you. A level 1 Decoy may vaporise because the skill duration has ended, but it could have taken a lot more hits. Thus, when your life is low (<600) stick with level 1 Decoy, but when your life is higher (>1000) consider putting at least 5 points in it so that the duration lasts longer. A life value in between of course deserves 1-5 points. Cast your Decoy far in front of you to lure out creatures or cast it to the sides so that you won't be surprised by flanking attackers.

Valkyrie creates a Heavenly shining spearfighter to aid you in battle. Well... aid is a big word, since she does pitiful damage. She can take quite a few hits at higher levels and is handy to use together with Decoy. Send your Decoy to one side and cast your Valkyrie to the other side. Overall she is costly in mana at higher levels and because she does little damage people prefer to keep her at low levels. The idea is to find a balance between recastability (level 1) or duration (level 20) and overall the better balance is a skilllevel of 5 to 8.

Pierce will only help for ranged attacking. The arrow shoots straight through an enemy to hit whatever creature is behind it. It can pierce multiple targets and is incredibly helpful with many of the bow and javelin skills. Overall a value of 65% (level8) is enough, but more is always handy. Diminishing returns are worth it. Some items give a piercing bonus. This bonus is cumulative with the skill and therefore be careful with allocating too many points in this skill. Extensive testing has shown that 100% pierce still has a chance to not pierce. This may indicate that the mod from item and skill do not stack, but more research has given the indication that pierce may more likely be capped to 95% (as are many things in the game... chance to hit, maximum resistance, etc...)

Item	Pierce percentage
Razortail belt	33
Storm Strike	25
Kuko Shakaku	50
Ichorsting	50
Doomslinger	35
Buriza-Do Kanyon	100 (95)
Demon Machine	66
Vidala Set Bonus	50

Dodge/Avoid/Evade

The amount of points allocated in these skills are really personal preferences. They have high diminishing returns, but it can be worthwhile in some cases. Especially for Spearazons and melee-Javazons will these skills need some attention.

Dodge is the chance to move out of the way of a melee attack when you are standing still. This is a very good skill to have when you are in the front of battle. It is less impressive when you are a ranged character whose purpose is to not get in contact with melee enemies. Depending on what type of player you are and your experience/choice of using Decoy, Valkyrie and/or mercenary, either keep it at level 1 (18%) or get it to higher levels (50% at level 12 is nice. 56% at level 20).

Avoid is the chance to move out of the way of a speeding projectile when you are standing still. It's good for both ranged and melee amazons, but again, depending on what experience you have with Decoy, Valkyrie and/or mercenary. Keep it at 1 (24%) if you know you don't need it or boost it a bit higher if you're uncertain (65% at level 20).

Evade is the chance to move out of the way of both melee and ranged attacks when you are running. If you plan to run a lot this is the skill for you (56% at level 20). If you think you don't need it, keep it at level 1 (18%)

Bowazon Subclasses

Magazon

Theme: Like a sorceress this amazon relies on her manapool. She has more mana than life and replenishes it the natural way. Like the sorceress the main idea is that she can spawn her most mana-intensive elemental skills without interruption or the pressing need to drink mana potions. In several of the previous patches, Freezing arrow and Immolation Arrow could not leech and thus mana had to be replenished the natural way.

Over the patches people have come to see Magazons as amazons that mainly use the elemental skills Freezing Arrow and Immolation Arrow. That they needed a lot of Energy and mana replenishment gear was not visible by the skills they use. Nowadays, manaleech is available for these skills and a second Magazon class has emerged, one in which manaleech is used to replenish mana. People still consider these new Magazons (also referred to as Vamps) as true Magazons because they somewhat wrongfully have that idea stuck in their head that:

Magazon = Freezing Arrow + Immolation Arrow

and they totally forget the fact that Magazons invest a lot of points in energy and the importance of mana.

Magazons are also often found to use +skills items to boost the damage of their elemental skills to kill quicker, but that is personal preference.

I will describe both of the Magazon subclasses.

Magazon build A: "the traditional Magazon"

The Magazon is considered the amazon that spends the main part of her statpoints in energy. Well.. some say all points should go in energy and that strength and dexterity requirements should be made up with items and charms. In this case the Magazon walks around with extremely little life unless it is made up by items or charms giving either vitality or life bonus.

The traditional Magazon relies on mana and mana replenishment gear to keep her manapool intact like a sorceress, while she is using the most mana-intensive skills available. Her build is not oriented on doing physical damage nor on leeching and therefore the damage she does is purely elemental which originates mostly from her skills. By choice she is often found to use a weapon that does do high amounts of elemental damage types other than cold or fire.

Skills that are predominantly used are Ice Arrow and Immolation Arrow as her main attacks or Freezing Arrow and Immolation Arrow. She does not use any of the central bowskills because these mainly require Attack Rating. With low dexterity these amazons don't have high attack rating and hence don't use these skills a lot. Guided arrow sometimes does get used to deliver possible elemental damage that is on the bow to a single stray monster.

The reason for the difference in the choice of cold damaging arrows can be related to the fact that both skills do good and similar damage. Ice Arrow does strong damage, though on only 1 (or after pierce a few more) creature(s) whereas Freezing Arrow is a high mana costly area attack. In hardcore Freezing Arrow often cannot be used continuously due to the fact that in hardcore many points are put in vitality and less in energy, so less mana is available.

Why not also Exploding Arrow is chosen nowadays relates to the fact that Immolation Arrow has a timer now and therefore can only be spawned once in a while. This lowers the mana cost over time and in between each Immolation Arrow the Magazon can now change to her cold damaging skill. In the traditional days, Exploding Arrow was a skill open for choice.

For this Magazon, some good sources mana and mana-replenishment gear are more or less these: (no strength value means no requirement or that it's a magical item, in which case requirement is item-dependant).

Item	Name	Req Str
Helm	Harlequin's Crest Peasant Crown Victorious Circlet	50 20 -
Armor	Que Hegan's Wisdom Skin of the Vipermagi Stealth (Tal-Eth)	55 45 -
Gloves	Frostburn Magefist Dragon's Gloves	60 45 -
Belt	Gloom's Trap Razortail Serpent's Belt	58 20 -
Boots	Silkweave Caster Boots Dragon's Boots	65 - -
Amulet	Civerb Icon Bahamut Amulet Amulet of Enlightenment
Ring	Stone of Jordan Manald Heal Bahamut Ring Ring of Enlightenment

To adapt the bow requirements to the choice of picking a high energy value and having a lot of mana for the skills, it leaves basically the following main choices.

Item	Req. Strength	Req. Dexterity
Kuko Shakaku Skystrike Doomslinger Langer Briser Pus Spitter Venom (Tal-Dol-Mal)	53 25 40 52 32 Bow	49 43 50 61 28 Bow

This leads to a statpoint setup of:

Strength: up to 65
Dexterity: up to 65
Vitality: your preference depending on softcore and hardcore play.
Energy: rest

Note: one can only put points in energy and fix strength, dexterity and life issues with items and charms.

The tactics are easy enough. Use Immolation Arrow, provided the monsters are immune and switch to your preferred cold skill unless your foes are immune to that. Freezing Arrow pins your foes to the spot, on which Immolation Arrow lays down a smoldering wall of fire under their feet. By using a Valkyrie, a mercenary and a Decoy as bait you have little problems with your foes.

The idea is to get a good freezing time by using the cold skills and for that you can add cold damage gear and a few charms to lengthen the freezing time (each charm adds 1 second chill/freeze duration in normal, this is ½ in nightmare and ¼ in hell). This helps greatly for your Immolation Arrow fire damage.

Add a few lightning damage or poison damage charms for cold+fire immunes, or use a fitting bow that does lightning or poison damage. Magical ones can be bought at act vendors, but you can also socket your own. Try to find a 4-, 5- or 6-socketed bow and use either Topazes, Ort runes and jewels to add lightning damage, or use Emeralds and Tal runes to add poison damage.

The recommended skill choices are:

Ice Arrow: 0-20
Freezing Arrow: 10-20
Exploding Arrow: 0-20
Immolation Arrow: 20
Guided Arrow: 1 just in case you meet stray creatures or cold and fire immune in one.

Passive skills extra notification:

Critical strike, only 1 as prequisite, no physical damage is done so no need to amp it. Penetrate, only 1 as prequisite, all skills used are autohit Pierce: in the 60% or higher will be okay. That's level 6 or higher. The rest can go into the other passive skills to your delight.

To max the usage of your pierce skill leave the skill at:

4 points = 49% if Kuko (innate pierce is 50%) is used
8 points = 65% if Doomslinger (innate pierce is 35%) is used
8 points = 65% if Razortail (innate pierce is 33%) is used

Magazon B: Modern Version, also called "Vamp"

This Magazon type relies more on leech than on natural mana replenishment, hence the name Vamp. Over the last months I've chatted with numerous people and I've come to the conclusion that people make Magazons in other ways too and with some limitations I second the thought that they are still Magazons. They're now more numerously used than the "old" version. One point brought up is physical damage and leeching.

To most, the definition of a magazon is an amazon that can keep her manapool intact and can still shoot her most mana-intensive elemental skills. Her killing is mainly done with these skills, but it will not be all that bad to revert to other skills at the same time. Regaining mana by manaleech seems okay to them. Where Sorceresses have "warmth", Amazons have "leech". The statpoint allocation then changes into something this.

Strength to use items, can be up to 115
Dexterity to about 200 for Attack Rating and Physical Damage increase
Vitality to your delight
Energy the rest

This may be a big sacrifice to energy, but with all the items you can have to boost your manapool and with a bit of manaleech, you'll have no problems at all. You may not replenish your mana like a sorceress anymore, but to most, since the tactic of using this amazon still revolves solely around the usage and maintenance of your extensive manapool, it is. Debatable for sure.

The limitations in my opinion lay upon these Magazons is that the main killing is done by elemental skills, that they still put many points into energy (100 at least in my eyes) and that they have more mana than life. They also have to be able to leech enough when they are using the elemental skills and not switch to physical damage skills in between.

You are now open to much more items. Take the items from the first Magazons and add the following to the list of options. They are either heavy or good sources of manaleech:

(no value means no requirement or that it's a magical item, in which case requirement is item-dependant)

Type	Item	Req. Str	Req. Dex
Helm	Valkyrie Wing Stealskull Vampiregaze Tal Rasha Mask Circlet of the Vampire	115 59 41 55
Amulet	Crescent Moon Amulet of the Vampire
Ring	Manald Heal
Weapon	Lycander's Aim Magewrath Goldstrike Arch Eaglehorn Bow of the Vampire	95 73 95 97	118 103 118 121

The skill choices also change because now you will not need to grasp to Ice Arrow or Exploding Arrow anymore to possibly save mana and you are open to the physical damage skills as well. However, physical damage skills should only needed occasionally. One does not use them in between Freezing Arrow and/or Immolation Arrow when one runs out of mana.

The most widely used physical damage skills are Multiple Shot (multiple targets hit) and Guided Arrow (always hits 1 target, enhanced damage), though Strafe does better than them when looking at the overall scheme (multiple targets hit and enhanced damage). Depending on creature immunities will the physical damage skills be used quite often.

The recommended skill choices are:

Freezing Arrow: 20
Immolation Arrow: 20
Either Multiple Shot to about 15 arrows or Strafe to at least the 10 arrows
Guided Arrow kept at 1 (little flaw in my former summary of subclasses. You have enough mana for this skill so no real need to upgrade)

Critical strike is now put to about 50% (level 7) to aid your physical damage and leech Penetrate is used somewhat for your Multiple Shot or Strafe. Pierce comments and other passive skill comments are still the same.

The tactics have thus changed a little bit. You shoot Freezing Arrow and Immolation Arrow and leech enough for your manapool in the process. With good balance between physical damage and manaleech you won't even have to switch to a physical damage skill. The tactic of first freezing and than burning still holds. You spawn the physical damage skill against certain immune creatures and in tougher areas. For fire immunes you simply keep spawning Freezing Arrows, but for cold immunes you have to use Immolation Arrow. Due to its timer you can use your Strafe and Multiple Shot skills in between.

The usage of a Valkyrie, a mercenary and a Decoy as bait remains the same. To get a good freezing time, again, use Freezing Arrow, gear that adds cold damage and cold damage charms (each charm adds 1 second chill/freeze duration in normal, this is ½ in nightmare and ¼ in hell). Add a few lightning damage or poison damage charms for cold+fire immunes will help you again in hell.

The bow that is probably easiest to use for Modern day Magazons is Lycander's Aim. Skills, energy, okayish damage and manaleech.

Choose your own way for defining and building your Magazon.

Magazon Subclasses: Frostmaiden / Immozon

Subclasses within a subclass: Frostmaiden and Immozon. These two amazons are related to the Magazon in the sense that they specialise in one of the two elemental types, but most of the time also use a physical damage skill on the side. They again rely on some sort of natural regeneration of their large manapool or fix it with manaleech depending on how they prefer to define their inner Magazon. Stat choices and gear choices can differ from the traditional Magazon to the modern Magazon.

Traditional Magazon	Modern Magazon: Vamp
Strength: up to 65 Dexterity: up to 65 Vitality: to delight Energy: rest	Strength: for items Dexterity: 200 for AR and damage leech Vitality: to delight Energy: rest

The theme of these subclasses is that a Frostmaiden does not pick fireskills nor does an Immozon use cold skills. This limits the subclasses to just one damage type and it is often seen that instead of picking a build related to the modern Magazon. This means that next to either cold or (NOT "and") fire damage, the amazon now has also physical damage at their disposal, which makes it easier to compete with immune creatures later on.

Guide:Amazon Subclasses v1.09, by Celine

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