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The Javazon is, as the name indicates an Amazon focused on using the Javelin weapons. As such she prefers to engage enemies from afar, though she is capable of taking on enemies in melee as well if the situation calls for it. Thanks to her long range playstyle as well as her passive abilities, she is one of the hardest to kill characters out there. This guide was written and tested for single player playthrough across all difficulties using patch 1.13. This guide will assume that the player has to rely solely on the items he finds when playing the character. The build will be aiming towards character level 84 as that is where usually the single player playthrough ends.
Playstyle[]
The Javazon makes use of the power of Lightning Fury to take down groups of enemies literally lightning fast, without being threatened herself. Thanks to Lightning Fury’s mass effect, she is most powerful when taking on large groups of monsters, preferably clustered together for maximum effect. To help her get into a favourable position, the Javazon uses the Valkyrie as a meat shield to hide behind, as well as a lure to get her enemies close together to get the most destruction with every throw.
Though the Javazon’s playstyle is very straightforward and she utilizes bare minimum of skills, she is one of the most powerful and tough character builds to play as well as one of the most fun ones. With each Javelin she can unleash deadly lightning storms that will raze entire armies to the ground, her faithful Valkyrie companion takes care of any enemies who manage to avoid the bolts that spread across the battlefield, and she has access to some of the most useful passive skills the game has to offer.
To balance out the character’s immense power, the Javazon suffers from one weakness. While other common monsters fall prey to her easily enough, lightning immune monsters become a slight problem. With her most powerful skills being purely lightning based, she has no choice but to engage these enemies with normal attacks (javelin throws are a waste, save your javs for Lightning Fury instead). However, this is where her passive skills come into play. Though normally a melee character’s normal attack would be too weak to engage groups of monsters with on higher difficulties (since the necessity to kill enemies as quickly as possible in order to survive forces the player to use the most powerful attacks), the Javazon elegantly avoids this problem by being nigh untouchable. Thanks to her various skills, she is easily able to dodge enemy projectiles and avoid even the most powerful attacks. Like a stinging insect, no matter how much the opponent tries to swat her away, she is always there, poking and attacking until the enemy is worn down. By lucky coincidence, it also happens that lightning immune monsters are usually not very physically tough, e.g. Baboon Demons or Scarab Demons. Though nothing can compare to the quickness with which she takes down groups of other enemies, she is quite capable of taking down lightning immunes in a straight up fight.
Attribute Point Allocation[]
Being a ranged character, the Amazon naturally depends mostly on her Dexterity to increase her lethality. In addition, she also doesn’t need to be as physically tough as other characters, since even when she has to engage in melee, she usually takes on only small groups of monsters and can rely on her Valkyrie as well as other skills to keep her out of harm’s way. In order to maximize her damage potential in case she has to engage in melee, as well as to increase her ability to avoid damage by increasing her defence and chance to block, the main focus of the Javazon should always be in Dexterity.
However other stats cannot be entirely forgotten. To be able to carry the best javelins available, the Amazon requires 127 Strength. However, that is not nearly enough to carry some of the more powerful armors or shields which she might need to increase her chances in a melee fight. With Strength somewhere around 160 you will be able to carry the vast majority of shields in the game (up to Monarch) as well as carry most of the Exceptional and Elite Armors available. As these two items generally determine the toughness (armor, resistances) of the character, it is best if your Javazon is able to wear some of the best items of these classes in the game. You might want to increase your Strength a little more if you find some good unique and rare high tier armor or shield, but generally ca 150 Strength should be good enough if you don’t want to dedicate too many points.
As for Dexterity, ideally you will want this stat as high as possible since as mentioned before, the higher your Dexterity the more damage you will deal with Javelins and the better you will be able to prevent enemy attacks from hitting you. However, your Dexterity can unfortunately provide only so much survivability, and unavoidably you have to dedicate some points into Vitality. It is up to your own preference how you distribute the points between these two stats but you should reach at least 151 base Dexterity in order to be able to wield any type of Javelins in the game. Anything beyond that is up to your own choosing, however as you can see in the picture, I went far beyond 150 Dexterity and can honestly say I did not miss the attribute points in Vitality one bit.
Last but not least it is necessary to mention Energy. As you can see I didn’t dedicate a single point into Energy at all, however the Javazon is an extremely Mana intensive build. The Lightning Fury which you will be spamming for the entire game like there is no tomorrow takes ca 20 Mana on maximum level with each throw, so it will burn through your Mana reserves quite quickly. Don’t succumb to the temptation of dedicating attribute points into this stat. Rather, cut back on the Health potions in your belt since you will be finding them more often than using them; instead add in extra Mana potions. No matter what, you will be going into town quite often to replenish your stacks of Javelins, however it is best if you can avoid going to town more often than that because of Mana problems. Three full slots of Mana potions in your belt (that is 3 slots on your hotbar, each holding 4 potions so 12 mana potions in total) should be enough to last you all the way to 0 javelins in your inventory at which point you can go replenish both your potions and your weapons. Going back to town will already take up a lot of your time when playing; there is no need to increase that time any more.
Skill Point Allocation[]
IMPORTANT NOTE: The text below details the way I played the character originally. Since then, I have learned that Charged Strike's charged bolts will often hit the primary target if the target is large enough (e.g. Baal, Diablo, Duriel, Gargantuan Beasts etc.). Since the build struggles with killing single target enemies, I would recommend altering the build by moving points from Critical Strike and Dodge, Avoid and Evade, or, alternatively, from Critical Strike, Pierce and Penetrate, to max out Charged Strike to use as primary attack in melee. However, since that is not how I played the build, the text and video below will detail the original idea of the build.
Looking at the skill tab you will notice that all in all just two of your skills need to be maxed to already give you full offensive power…well almost full. The Valkyrie and Lightning Fury are pretty much self-explanatory as they are the core of the build. Just a note about the Fury though...don't waste your mana and your javelins against single enemies. Fury works best against groups of monsters, you are better off finishing single enemies in close combat. Only in case of uniques, super uniques and act bosses is it better to throw in Fury javelins against a single opponent from afar. Needless to say, the moment you hit level 30 you should start spreading points equally between Valkyrie and Fury…though I doubt anybody could get that wrong. As you can see I did not dedicate any extra skill points into any of the Lightning Fury synergies because each of them increases the damage by a whopping 1%. With Fury at max level that is +5 maximum damage per point! Holy! Awesome right? Right? Yeah, don’t even think about dedicating anything there, there are too many better skills to be taken.
If you really want to increase your damage potential, dedicate at least 10 points into Pierce. That thing is a killer. With Pierce at level 10 you will have a 70% chance of unleashing total mayhem with your javelins. If you thought Lightning Fury alone was good against clustered groups of monsters, wait till you see what it does with Pierce. The amount of awesomeness might lag your computer. The majority of enemies even at the end of Hell difficulty will just drop dead after about one or two Lightning Furies with Pierce. Not only will that save you a lot of javelins, it will also make it much easier on your Mana reserves. Though it seems like it’s just a silly passive skill with no real visually noticeable level progression and you might feel like you are just wasting your skill points by increasing the Pierce percentage this skill will give you your skill point’s worth like no other. When compared to the alternative (increasing Fury’s max damage by 5) it really is a no-brainer what to pick. When compared to any other passive skill in the game…it kicks ass anyway. After you get the skill to level 10, you can leave it be and add a few more points after the rest of your skills are maxed out.
Speaking of passive skills, I highly recommend spending about 3-4 skill points in each of the avoiding skills (Dodge, Avoid, Evade) as these skills will make you the untouchable little biting insect I mentioned earlier. Let us analyze the situation shall we? First off let us take into consideration that the Javazon is a ranged character. She doesn’t go charging headfirst into swarms of monsters. She only closes in when necessary and that is usually when she is dealing with single survivors against whom using Lightning Fury would be a waste, or when dealing with lightning immunes which usually (except for Burial Grounds, Mausoleum and Crypt) are spread out quite thinly throughout any given region. In addition to this, she uses the powerful Valkyrie which draws most of the fire. Therefore she will be taking very few hits to begin with. Depending on your Dexterity and your shield, you might have anything between 50-75% chance to block (you would have to carry a really crappy shield to have any less with ca 160 Dexterity). That means that only about half of the few attacks aimed against you will hit. From these, thanks to Dodge, Avoid and Evade, only ca 65% will have a chance of actually taking your health. And from these, thanks to your armor, no more than say 80% will strike you (if your character has as low a defence as mine did, which was 700). With as little as 700 defence and 50% chance to block, only 25% of attacks aimed against you will actually hit you. With just 700 defence and 75% chance to block, only 13% will. With any better defence, even less. Therefore, even if an enemy actually decides to attack you, in the majority of cases that attack won’t do anything. To make things even better, Dodge, Avoid and Evade trigger against skills against which normal block or defence wouldn’t work, e.g. Gloam’s Lightning, Hierophant’s Blizzard or even Mephisto’s Skull Missile. I should perhaps also mention the fact that your Valkyrie will have the same chance to avoid attacks as you do. Need I say more? TAKE THOSE SKILLS!
Then there are the Critical Strike and Penetrate skills. How you distribute skill points between these is entirely up to you. However, dedicating more than 10 skill points into Critical Strike is probably a waste as the level progression slows down considerably past level 8. The skill will however help you deal with single monsters in melee a little faster so it is a good idea to have at least 5 points in it. Whatever skill points you have left you can dedicate into Penetrate. Since the Amazon has no Mastery skills like the Assassin or the Barbarian, increasing your attack rating is very important. Though Lightning Fury itself will always hit regardless of your attack rating, your javelin itself can add a significant amount of damage to your throws on the primary target (or secondary, tertiary etc. if Pierce triggers) as well as make melee combat a much more reliable way of defeating your enemies. Any spare points you have after your core skills are maxed out will generally go either into Critical Strike, Penetrate or Pierce, so its up to personal choice which one you increase a little more.
If you feel the need and have some spare points you don’t want to place into Penetrate or Pierce anymore, you can put a few into Decoy to increase you Valkyrie’s health; however, seeing as Valkyrie is already by far the toughest summoned unit in the game and has INSANE health regeneration, it is unlikely that she will be dying much at all and you can always simply summon another if she does.
Last but not least I should mention the Slow Missiles…just use it from time to time if you are under a barrage of arrows and other projectiles. There is absolutely no need to spend points here but it is a nice utility skill from time to time.
Gear[]
There isn’t really much to say about gear since we are dealing with untwinked single player, however there are a few things about javelins that I think I should mention.
At all costs, avoid javelins which have stacks of 40 or less! Regardless of how powerful the weapon is, nothing is worth having to go back to town every two minutes. Don’t waste your time and energy trying to make it work, just settle for weaker but more plentiful javelins. Fortunately a lot of rare and unique javelins have either replenishing quantity or increased stack size…sometimes both. Stick to those if you can unless you find some which are so superior that it would be foolish to resist. Also, since Lightning Fury is very much a crowd skill, it doesn’t work that well against single monsters which will make killing some Super Uniques (especially Act Bosses) quite lengthy. Even though your Fury will be dealing the most damage with the best javelins, in such long fights it is better to just buy a few extra stacks of javelins (or better yet keep a couple of good rare ones in your stash for such occasions) and use those to deliver the Lightning Fury damage. One way or another you will have to go back to town for repairs anyway but at least you can fire off a lot more shots before you do. I hope I don’t have to say that this is absolutely compulsory against the Ancients.
Finally, if you find a good one-handed unique item, think about whether you might not make a use of it regardless of its type. Since you will necessarily have to engage in melee combat from time to time, sometimes it is better to have a dedicated melee weapon that you can swap in instead of your javelins to get some better melee performance. However, use only one handed weapons this way so you don’t have to sacrifice your survivability for their use. Alternatively you might use bows, so you don’t have to close in to fight lightning immunes, however if you do find a good enough bow, you might as well hire a Rogue who can use it better than you. Since Valkyrie will be tanking enough damage by herself, you don’t really need to have a Mercenary or a Barbarian for the close quarters combat. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Well, folks, that's all for this build. Hope you enjoy playing it;-)
| Amazon Builds | ||
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| Bowzon by Muroidea • Javazon by DeathMars |