发信人: hugo_y(Go)
整理人: hugo_y(2002-01-07 14:00:17), 站内信件
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Introduction
Javazons, Amazons who use javelins (often called "stix") to throw at targets (usually with Lightning Fury as their main/exclusive skill) are a newly-popular character, and a lot of fun to play. Vastly improved from their FPS-unplayable state in D2, many of the top ladder characters are now Javazons. Very versatile, Javazons are able to clear any area in the game, magic find very well, and best of all, play solo while racking up massive experience, far more than the party exp leeches stuck in Bloody Hills runs.
Javazons don't require much specialized equipment, the skills to add to are quite simple, and though techniques vary, any Javazon with decent gear and some playing skill can kill things very quickly in just about any area of the game, and dominate the level-up race once she reaches the Nightmare and Hell Secret Cow Levels.
Javazons aren't especially good for boss killing, especially in big games and especially Act Bosses, though they can be effective Hell Meph runners with good equipment (teleport amulet). Their best item run, other than the cows, is a Pindleskin run, or a full Act Five 3 SuperUnique run. Javazons are the fastest possible character for that run, and all these runs are described in detail in the Specific Area section.
Some common abbreviations used in this guide.
I = Immune. Lightning, Fire, Cold, Physical. LI, FI, CI, PI.
E = Enchanted. Boss Modifier. FE, CE, LE, etc.
MS = Multi Shot, Boss modifier. MSLE is very bad.
lvl = Level. Character, Monster, Item, Skill. Clvl, Mlvl, Ilvl, Slvl.
LF = Lightning Fury, your main skill.
MF = Magic Find. Item modifier you want. Read about it here.
GF = Gold Find.
Complete Guide?
This guide has my recommendations on how to best play a Javazon at high levels. I've tested a lot of styles, half a dozen Spearazons back in D2c, a 40's Javazon there also, as well as 56, 91, and 97 Javazons in D2X, all with a variety of skills to compliment LF, and this guide recommends what I've found to be by far the most powerful build.
If you want to have an uber-powerful character, follow the steps in here. It's certainly possible to have some success with other styles of play, using a spear or jabbing with your javelin or slowly killing with Plague Javelin, but this isn't a guide that explains every possible variant, regardless of how effective (or not) they are.
My current Javazon is Clvl 97, Hardcore. She has around 450% MF, 500% GF, very low resistances, (15 F/-45 C/40 L/-45 P with Rhyme) no +skills other than Titans and Harlequin, 7% mana leech, 8% life leech (all from Titans), 1250 hps, 310 mana, 75% blocking, and 50% Dodge/Evade with about 15 Valk and 26/24 LF/Pierce. If I went to all the best +skills, resistance, +stats, leech etc equipment, I could probably add 800 hps (including charms) have max resistance to all, 20% dual leech, +10 to all skills, 500 mana, etc etc. But why, when I'm killing quickly now, and surviving?
My goal on all characters is to wear as much magic find and gold find as possible (as you'll see in the equipment recommendations) to make the character very profitable, while still surviving and killing quickly. This Javazon build is perfect for that goal.
The equipment recommendations in this guide cover a wide variety of play styles though, so whether you go all riches, or all power, or somewhere in between, you'll find what you want. [Top]
End Game
The "end game" refers to the eventual goal of a character, where they are going to wind up, if successful. For example if you were making a MF Barbarian or Sorceress, you might plan to level them to 80 or 82, and then do Hell Meph runs exclusively. So your strategy along the way would be skewed to getting them to the stats and skills you wanted at that point, when you'd switch their equipment around and specialize them for one purpose.
A Javazon has no real end game. Her end game is her middle game, and her level game; that is the Hell Cows. You can certainly level her up to specialize for Meph runs, or A5SU runs (both detailed later in this guide), but her specialty is doing the Cows, and doing them very quickly. Therefore you might as well profit while you do them, eh? Other characters have to delay their gratification, they have to toil away to get to a higher level, when they can perhaps be strong enough to put on more MF/GF gear and try to start finding good stuff.
A Javazon does that all along. Her end game begins around Clvl 60 (usually), and continues indefinitely. Once you play for some time with a lot of MF, compared to your normal equipment, you'll wonder how you ever played without the magic find.
The Cows aren't real profitable normally. You get a lot of gold, but they are mostly normal monsters, who have very low odds of dropping anything better than magical items. Lots of MF helps greatly on improving your loot there, and after all, it's your end game. You are going to be doing Hell cows from now on to infinity, so you might as well profit as much as possible while doing them, right?
Character Development
The hardest part for a Javazon is getting started. Your main skill is Lightning Fury (LF), which is not available until Clvl 30. You also need a lot of points in Pierce, another Clvl 30 skill, and Valkyrie is very useful also at Clvl 30. So until then you'll be putting just a prerequisite point into most things, while adding a bit more to a few useful lower level skills, but mostly saving points for the Clvl 30 launch.
This section assumes you are progressing more or less at a normal pace, actually playing the game. If you have friends with higher level characters to "turbo" you through to Act Five, or will let you party to leech experience, then obviously less planning and strategy is needed to level up.
Long Term Goals
The Javazon is pretty flexible; you can vary your points somewhat, depending on how you like to play and what equipment you have. My Javazon playing experience is entirely Hardcore, so for standard characters you'll want to follow the skills and equipment goals, but you can get away with lower hit points, resistances, and blocking.
You can play a Javazon anywhere, she's very effective on everything but LI (Lightning Immune) monsters in hell games, and Act Bosses in multiplayer games. However her main area of expertise, and where she is the true master, is the Secret Cow Level. So you should build yours for what you want to do, but you'll likely spend most of your time among the Hell Bovines, so consider the following guidelines. The main difference between Cows and other parts of the game is that in the cows, you can get away with much lower resistance.
For successful Hell Cows runs, able to do them solo in an 8 player game, you'll want to have approximately the following. More in all of them is recommended, and you can go lower, but these are the minimum goals to shoot for.
800+ hps (enough to take several cow hits and live)
150+ mana (depends on leech, more makes things much easier)
8% mana leech (can get by with less, more makes things easier)
5% life leech (just from Titans is enough)
50% blocking (75% is ideal for cow survival)
20+ in Lightning Fury
15+ in Pierce (Max it out if possible)
Valkyrie (I like Slvl 12+)
Decoy
40% in Dodge and Evade (or more)
25% Lightning Resistance (more is better, and you can get away with negative to all, just be more careful. I'm currently playing with no cold or poison res, other than on my shield.) [Top]
Hotkeys and Controls
Javazons aren't real heavy on the hotkeys. You need Valk, Decoy, Slow Missiles, LF, and Town Portal hotkeyed, and also Guided Arrow and possibly Fire Arrow, depending on your bow/xbow. Jab and Attack are options early on, as well as plain Throw at low levels, but you'll likely just map Jab to your left click with Titan's and never change it after Clvl 30. Teleport is a needed hotkey when you have an amulet with that, and are using it for Meph runs, and you usually need to reset it each new game, if you took off the amulet in the previous game.
You need to know your weapon switch hotkey very well also, since you'll be doing it hundreds of times a game with a Javazon and a Bow on your switch. When you switch weapons, the game returns you to whatever skills you had active on the left and right click, so if you have Jab/LF with Javelins/Shield, and Fire Arrow/Guided Arrow on your bow, when you switch from one to the other both left and right skills will change to whatever you had on that weapon switch when you last had it active.
You should (and will) get in the habit of clicking Guided immediately when you go to bow, and LF immediately when you go to Javs. You'll be using the right click for a variety of skills, Decoy, Valkyrie, Town Portal, and you don't want to switch from javs to bow and right click, thinking it will be Guided, and it's Town Portal. Obviously this isn't the end of the world, but just get in the habit of hitting the weapon switch key and an instant later hitting the attack skill for that weapon type, and you won't waste time casting the wrong skills.
I've recently stopped carrying Town Portal books, and now use that extra 2 spaces for more charms. I now put portal scrolls in my 4th belt slot, and with usually all full rejuvenations in the the first three, in my 12 slot Goldwrap, there's never a need for more than 1 or 2 purples at a time, so I don't miss the never-drunk 4th slot of potions at all, and adding another 11% MF (or whatever you do) on 2 small charms is a nice bonus. If you are still carrying a Town Portal book and have an inventory over run with charms, you should think about trying this technique. You can just change your TP hotkey to point to the scrolls, or else just click 4 to open a TP instantly. You need to remember to refill them pretty often from the NPC, but you can put one in your cube for emergencies.
Charming. TP scrolls in belt.
I do always carry an ID book, since doing cows you find so many dozens of jewels and runes and jewelry that it's impractical to carry them all back to town and ID them, especially since I generally have about 12 non-charm-filled spaces my Inventory. You'll want to always have 12 keys in the Cow Level also, since there are so many locked chests there. I don't think I've ever done a Cow Level where I didn't get at least 2 or 3 Charms/Jewels from the chests, and Unique/Set items are quite common also. I found a Buriza from one in a game recently. [Top]
Mercenary Selection
Javazons are not real merc-dependent, so having one is optional. Most Javazons find that they die much too quickly in the Hell Cows, unless you play very cautiously there, and it's probably not worth slowing down to keep the merc alive when you don't really need him anyway.
The most useful Merc for Cows and other areas is probably the Defiance aura Act Two merc, hireable in Normal or Hell. I don't like Holy Freeze mercs for Javazons, since the slowed monsters are hard to herd properly, especially cows. This rules out Act 3 Cold Mercs also. The defiance mercs can do okay, and it's nice to have your defense tripled as you run around the cows; you'll probably go from 85% chance to be hit by a cow down to 65% or so, which certainly helps over the long run.
The problem is how quickly any merc dies if they tank Cows, and the Act Two (and Act Five) guys will always try to tank. I've had a Clvl 91 Defiance merc with ethereal Corpsemourn (1900+ def), ethereal godly Bone Visage (400 def), and a Spire of Honor (+25% defense), which gave him upwards of 13,000 defense. And he'd still die any time he got into a big pack. If you have the gear, putting one into Shaftstop and Vampire Gaze would probably be useful, for the up to 50% damage reduction, or 64% if you socketed them both with Ber Runes. This wouldn't be a good idea Hardcore, since it sucks to die, but it really sucks if you loose great stuff on your merc when you die, and there's no way to loot him.
You have to alter your playing style to keep the merc alive, herding less aggressively, so your merc isn't trailing after you through huge mobs of Beef, and this will make your killing speed slower (though you'll be safer doing it). While it's well worth modifying your play style somewhat to keep your merc alive for some char types, (Bowazons with Might mercs, for example) your Javazon isn't getting that big a bonus from her merc. If you don't really need him, and it's slowing you down to have him, you'll probably just leave him dead for cows, and perhaps raise him if you do other stuff, helping friends do Baal or with a Hell Turbo, rescue Anya, etc. [Top]
Merc Magic Find Aid
The other reason to have a Merc is for MF'ing. Any MF gear on your Merc adds to your MF gear, if the merc makes the kill. So if you have 300%, and your merc has a 3-topaz helm and 4-topaz armor for 168%, that's 468% MF on kills the Merc makes. It's not generally worth slowing down so the merc can kill things, but it is worth it letting them have the last hits/shots on bosses, especially SuperUniques and Act Bosses (Mephisto, mainly).
I've experimented, and found that the best merc for this with a Javazon is an Act 1 Rogue merc. They are smart enough to stay back from the targets, and with your Valk to tank, they can live through anything (though are helpless in the Cows) if you control the situation well. They also have a nice firing rate and do pretty good damage at higher levels, so you don't have to wait 5 minutes for them to finally land a killing hit. The Act Three mercs can be used for this as well, since they have the same AI as the rogues, and won't tank and die immediately. They can also get a lot more MF than a rogue, since you can put a Rhyme and Ali Baba on an Act Three guy and he'll kill just as fast, since he's all about his spells. Unfortunately their spells don't do that much damage, even at higher levels, and most of the monsters you'll want them to attack will have very high hit points, and resistances. Also the Act Three guys have just one element, with Fire being their biggest damage one, and the Four main targets, Meph, Eldritch, Shenk, and Pindleskin all have at least 50% fire resistance, and can often be immune to it, depending on their random mods.
So my recommendation is a rogue merc, with a normal bow, and MF stuff on. I've used 3T and 4T equipment, you can go with a skullders or wealth or shako or whatever you like, if you have the gear. Softcore can be a lot braver about equipping top stuff on a merc, for the whole death/looting reason Hardcore has to watch out for.
If you are doing Meph runs, you want the biggest damage bow you can find. Lycander's Aim would be great, but rogue mercs can't equip Amazon Class bows. So you need to find something like a Cruel Ward Bow, or more commonly use one of the Exceptional Uniques, such as Goldstrike, Magewrath, Cliffkiller, etc.
For Act 5 SuperUnique runs, I like a Kuko Shakaru best, shrot of a Buriza. It's much lower damage than the bigger bows, but it's got very big fire damage, and enough physical damage to get the job done in a solo game. Pindleskin, Eldritch, and Shenk are often PI (Physical Immune), so you must have elemental damage on your merc's weapon if you want her to get the kill. Socket her Kuko with a good damage lightning jewel if you want her to be really well-rounded to deal with PIs.
Rogue Mercs can't use crossbows, or a Buriza would be the best option in all cases, for the huge physical and cold damage. You can also socket a bigger damage (than Kuko) bow, such as Goldstrike, with an elemental damage jewel, and that would work well for Meph as well as the Act Five SuperUniques. Even a perfect lighting damage jewel (1-100) would be 59 less average damage than the 40-180 fire on a Kuko, but that would probably mean waiting the last 6 or 8 shots from the merc, rather than 3 or 4, which isn't a big deal.
Rogue merc with +3 to all skills.
You've probably seen the "Lighting Hose" technique, which rogue mercs get when they have +3 to all skills (or +all Amazon skills, but not +bow tree skills though) in gear. This is pretty easily obtained with a Cliffkiller and +1 helm, such as Tarnhelm (for the MF). This causes the Merc to shoot out a slow-moving lightning bolt, which does quite a bit of damage, but has less range than an arrow attack. This is fun to watch, but the damage it does is all Lightning, so you run into the same resistance problems that Act 3 mercs have, and it's useless if you get an LI monster. Meph has 50% lightning resistance, and I found that waiting for the merc to kill him with this attack was painfully slow in a solo hell game. You can try it, but I've had better success with just a Kuko or other bow. [Top]
Merc Techniques
The technique for getting the merc kill is pretty simple, you just whittle the monster down to a sliver, and then stop attacking, letting the merc get the last few hits. You should have a Valkyrie tanking, and try to not have other monsters nearby, since the merc will fire at whatever she's closest to.
You want to be sure you are in your maximum MF gear when the kill is made, since that's when it checks. So if you have titans/Rhyme in one switch, and a bow in the other, use the bow to whittle the monster down to a sliver, then switch so you'll have the 25% MF on Rhyme active. You can usually do a little more whittling with a few LF throws also, just to speed things along. But don't get greedy, the Merc has to get the final hit in for the bonus to work.
Pindleskin is a pain since the merc will generally stay in the doorway, and just as she's about to kill Pindleskin she'll turn around and start shooting at the advancing zombies in the garden. You have to run in past Pindleskin so she'll be closest to him, and if he's LE (Lightning Enchanted) she'll probably die there. Shenk has the same problem with the Death Maulers that keep wandering up, but they die quickly to her Kuko shots, or you can kill them with your elemental damage bow/xbow.
Much more on technique in the specific areas section of this guide. [Top]
Skills
There is only one mandatory max skill for a Javazon, and that's Lightning Fury. You don't have to max it, but it's 99% of your damage, so it would be foolish not to do so. Add to it with bonus equipment if you want to kill faster. Pierce is almost as important, you want to get it to 15 points or higher as quickly as possible.
How LF Works
Lightning Fury (LF) is an awesome skill, and you need to know just how it works to use it best. When you throw a javelin with Lightning Fury, the javelin does physical damage to everything it hits (this is how you leech enough to keep throwing them) and sends out a lightning bolt at every target in range (about 5-8 yards, or 1/3 of the visible screen). The range is the radius away from what the javelin just hit, not from where you are standing. The bolts don't come from your Amazon, they come out from where the Lighting Fury javelin struck, so if there is a monster on top of you, and a pack across the screen, hitting the one by you with LF won't send out bolts at the others.
The key to massive killing with LF is to hit targets that are near many other targets. Every thing near where the LF hits will have a lightning bolt fired at it, which is why this skill is so awesome for the Cow level, since there are such massive crowds. These lightning bolts pierce anything other than walls or solid objects, so if there are four monsters in line, and you hit the first one, three lightning bolts will be sent out, one for each monster that was close enough to the impact point of the LF. If the monsters are in a row, all three will pass through the first monster, then the second, then the third. The lightning bolts travel about a full screen in distance.
Pierce makes this work even better, since everything the thrown LF javelin hits will trigger another burst of bolts at all valid targets in the radius. So if you throw into a pack of 20, the first monster hit will count for physical damage of your javelin, lightning damage of the LF, and send 19 bolts towards the other monsters. If the throw pierces and hits a second monster, you'll get more physical damage, and 19 more bolts, one at every other monster in the radius. The same goes if Pierce lets you hit a 3rd, and a 4th, etc. So every time you Pierce a target and hit a second one, it doubles your initial damage. If you pierce 5 things, getting six hits, you'll do much more than 6x the damage of a single hit, since every hit sends out the full amount of bolts, and most of the bolts will hit multiple targets.
Piercing LF in action. Holy Freeze boss is far left.
You can see this demonstrated in this picture. Note how there are three distinct rings of lightning to the right, going to the right (past the chilled Valk). The thrown javelin (from the chilled Javazon to the lower left) hit one monster to the left of the pack, and sent out the bolts that are now furthest to the right. The same LF hit another cow, and sent out another burst of bolts, that are now 2nd farthest ring to the right. The third target it hit send out the last ring of bursts.
Really big packs and throws that Pierce 5 or 6 times create a lovely series of these sorts of lightning burst rings, that generally move too fast to see, or see well with the computer lag most systems get from them.
You want to always try to throw so you'll hit at least two monsters in a row, and more if possible. This should keep your mana up from leeching, in addition to dealing out massive lightning damage.
Hitting a wall will also send out a burst of lightning bolts at every target in range, so if you have a bunch of monsters with a wall beside them, move around so that you are throwing through several monsters, and into the wall. You'll get a full burst of bolts from where the javelin hits the wall, if the monsters are near enough the wall.
LF Piercing and bouncing on Eldritch
This is the best technique to kill bosses with LF also. Try to get them near a wall, rock, tree, anything you can't throw through, and throw at them so the Pierce will take the LF into the solid object, which will then shoot a bolt back at the boss. In the shot here the Javazon is top left, throwing through Eldritch. LF pierces, hits the rock lower right, and sends a bolt back, which hits Eldritch and keeps going off the top left. With the bolts sent out doing 239-278 at Slvl 20, it's a substantial time saver, though it's still faster to switch to bow for dealing with single targets.
The targets don't need to be on the screen to die, or send out bolts. Thrown javelins (including LF throws) will travel a bit off the visible screen. No matter where they are when they hit a target, they send out their full array of bolts at any nearby targets, whether you can see them or not. You can easily kill things that are completely off the screen with LF, by hitting a target just at the edge of the screen, and that impact sending bolts from it into others that are further out of your sight. The bolts that are sent out travel quite a distance too, more than a visible screen, so it's not uncommon to throw a Jav, then run up after it and find dozens of dead monsters as much as two screens from where you were standing. Sometimes they are so far away you almost wonder if there's some other player in the area, even if you are the only one in the game. [Top]
Skill Planning
Consider your long term skill needs, and factor in your equipment, so you don't waste skill points by over loading them. For example, if you want 10 points in Dodge, and know your long term equipment will include Titans (+2), SoJ (+1), and Harlequin's (+2), then plan on putting 5 points into Dodge, and the +5 from your equipment will get you to your 10 point goal. You can always add more to a skill later, but there's no way to get a skill point back, so allow for more +equipment if you think it's likely you'll add it.
Long term a Javazon will have at least +2 spears, and +2 to all (from Titans), giving +4 spears. Most Javazons will have +2 or 3 to all from other gear, (Amulet, Armor, Helm) and you can easily add much more +spears with charms, gloves, Thundergod's Vigor belt, etc. Maxed LF with Titans only would be Slvl 24 LF, and that's plenty to kill hell cows very quickly. You'll be a bit faster with say Slvl 35 LF, if you load up on skill stuff, but I much prefer to load up on Magic Find/Gold Find gear, and profit while I play, rather than just gain exp slightly faster.
Here are the skills I recommend, grouped by tree. More on when to add to what in the character development section. [Top]
Spear and Javelin Skills Tab
Mandatory Skills
Poison Javelin: 1 point, pre-req.
Lightning Bolt: 1 point, pre-req.
Plague Javelin: 1 point, pre-req. This one can be effective to kill with once you have 10+ points in it, but not in a big game, and not past normal difficulty, so it's not recommended.
Lightning Fury: 20 points. This is your killer, max it as soon as possible. More points from bonus gear will increase your killing rate.
Optional Skills
Jab: 1 point. You can go fine without any points here, but it can be useful early on, and it can help with leech later, though switching to your bow is almost always better and faster.
Impale: Pre-req for Fend.
Fend: Your best melee spear skill, but not at all recommended for a Javazon. Some Javazons go with a big spear for their boss killing weapon, but this is slower than a good bow, and much more dangerous, going toe to toe.
Power Strike: Not for a Javazon.
Charged Strike: Not for a Javazon.
Lightning Strike: Not for a Javazon. [Top]
Bow and Crossbow Skills Tab
Nothing is really mandatory here, but Guided Arrow is by far your best option for a weapon switch skill to kill bosses. LF is viable for killing bosses, but it's very mana and javelin expensive, and slow. And it becomes almost impossible if the boss is LE, with the big lightning resistance that comes with that, or PI, so you can't leech and only hurt it with lightning. LEPI bosses aren't uncommon in hell, and those would be almost impossible to kill with LF, while LIPI bosses are totally invulnerable to your LF attack.
If you have a bow/xbow with good elemental and physical damage, you can kill such bosses much faster than you can with LF, won't use up all of your javelins and mana doing it, and are safer than you would be compared to using a spear. Especially since you are so often using this on LE bosses, which hurt to melee. Higher levels in Guided Arrow (15+) lower the mana cost to the point that you can use Guided to kill PIs in big games and hardly need to drink any potions at all to keep up the mana cost.
It's highly recommended that you have a bow with elemental as well as physical damage, so you can use it on PI bosses, which are quite common in hell. Kuko or Buriza are good for this, or you can socket another Unique bow, if you aren't lucky enough to find a rare one with decent damage and elemental as well.
Recommended Bow Skills
Magic Arrow: 1 point, pre-req.
Cold Arrow: 1 point, pre-req.
Multishot Arrow: 1 point, pre-req. A hybrid 'zon might want multiple points here, but that's only faster against LI monsters anyway.
Fire Arrow: 1 point, optional. Use this if you need the elemental damage to kill PIs, but only if you have a big damage bow, such as a Buriza. Fire Arrow is much improved in D2X, and your best way to kill PIs with most bows. In an undocumented change this skill now converts your full bow damage to fire. So if you have a 350 damage Buriza, you'll be doing around 350 per shot fire damage + the cold damage on the bow and any charms you have. This beats the double cold damage you get with piercing Buriza (almost always hits two times in v1.09), and gives you a way to kill CIPIs with Buriza.
Guided Arrow: 15+ points. Your best weapon switch/boss-killing skill, max it if you like, but 10-15 is enough for the damage. More points are nice for the lower mana cost, so you can use this to kill PI monsters with an elemental damage bow and not drink up all of your purple potions in the process.
Guided Arrow does require some technique to use effectively. In short, you want to take advantage of the Piercing (100% with many Unique bows/xbows) by making sure anything you shoot as has room behind it for your Arrow to pierce and hit again. So never shoot right at something that's against a wall. Instead shoot to the side of it, so the arrow will go to there, make a right turn and hit the monster from the side, so it's got room to pierce and hit again. By the same token, when shooting at several monsters in a group you generally want to aim to the side so your arrow will turn and hit one of them directly, Piercing it and returning, rather than hitting one of the others and vanishing.
Not Recommended Bow Skills
Ice Arrow: Not for a Javazon.
Freezing Arrow: Not for a Javazon. (Can be useful to keep a merc alive, or in emergencies, but it's more of a Hybridazon skill.) At high levels (when you tend to have more points than you know what to do with) you might want to put a point here (costs several for the pre-reqs also) to have it for special situations.
Explosive Arrow: Not for a Javazon.
Immolation Arrow: Not for a Javazon.
Strafe: Not for a Javazon. [Top]
Passive and Magic Skill Tab
These are your support skills, and where the majority of your points will go long term. Bonus skill points (gloves, amulet, charms) to this tree are very useful. It's a good idea to plan how many points you want in a given skill, and look at how much of a bonus you get from your equipment. More points in these never hurts, but the benefits for almost all drop way off with diminishing returns at higher levels.
Critical Strike: 1+ points. I like to put 10 or more here, and it's much faster Clvl 1-30 with 4 or 5 here, and once you get your other more important skills filled you can add to this at higher levels. More damage on your thrown LF helps with leech, and more damage on Guided helps to kill bosses. If you have plenty of leech and/or big damage weapons you can do less and save points for other skills.
Inner Sight: 1 point, pre-req.
Slow Missile: 1 point, pre-req. I use Slow a lot, on every LE cow and especially when MSLE is a possibility, such as when clearing Baal's Minions (Slow them as they first spawn then run back to attack). You want multiple points here for the duration increase, 3-5 or more is great, but you should get enough from your +skill equipment to just spend one skill point.
Dodge: 5+ points, pre-req. I like to get to 50%, which is Slvl 12. Often you'll have a huge mob of cows around your Valk, and one or two coming from the side, towards you. If you can just keep throwing and ignore the ones from the side when they reach you, it speeds things up a lot. Dodging their attacks doesn't slow your throwing at all, while blocking slows it a bit. Having low % in both would mean you'd have to run, slowing down your killing.
Avoid: 1+, pre-req. The least important of these three skills, you don't take a lot of missile fire with a Javazon, and that's what Valk and Decoy are for anyway. I like to get to 6 or more just in case, which is easy with +skill equipment.
Evade: 5+ points, pre-req. Very helpful to run through and around cows as you herd. 50% here is great, which is Slvl 12, a long term goal.
Penetrate: 1 point, pre-req. LF and Guided both always hit, so AR isn't important. A Hybridazon who wanted to use MS at times would need many more, since they need AR.
Pierce: 15+. Maxing Pierce isn't a bad idea, but you want to at least get 75%, which is Slvl 12. See the table below, which suggests you should max Pierce out. I've played Hell Cows with 15 Pierce and with 25 Pierce, and didn't notice much difference, honestly, so perhaps the numbers lie, a bit.
Decoy: 1 point, pre-req. Decoy you should use a lot on the cows. It's very useful in herding them, to get them to move somewhere to be more in the line of your LF fire. You can also use Decoy as your tank on smaller mobs, or in hit and run tactics. Some player use this almost exclusively, rather than Valk, but I find that slower, since a Decoy can't last long with a big mob around.
Valkyrie: 15+. I use Valk for my main tank for Cows, as well as boss runs, so I like her to be very strong. Going with just one point is viable in big games, but gives little margin for error, and will require a lot of recasting if you are going to do Act Five SuperUnique, or Meph, runs.
A note on Pierce. Since each one calculates several times, the diminishing returns aren't as steep as they would appear. You might only be adding 1 or 2% to your odds to Pierce the first monster, but you have the same chance on each additional target, and Piercing 3 or 4x per LF is how you really cut down the big mobs.
Target Slvl 10 Slvl 12 Slvl 14 Slvl 16 Slvl 18 Slvl 20 Slvl 25
1 71% 75% 79% 82% 83% 85% 90%
2 50% 56% 62% 67% 69% 75% 81%
3 36% 42% 49% 55% 57% 61% 73%
4 25% 32% 39% 45% 47% 52% 65%
For example, at Slvl 10 you have a 71% chance to pierce the first target, and then a 71% to pierce the second one, if the first is successful. This works out to 71% of 71%, which is 50%, then 36% for the next one, etc. This cumulative effect is what makes Slvl 20 so much better than Slvl 10. The first target is only 14% more likely to be Pierced, but the 4th target is more than double the odds.
Pierce is also the key to doing big damage with Guided Arrow, so you want as much as possible in it if you don't have a bow that has 100% Piercing as a property. (Kuko and Buriza both have that.) [Top]
Variant Comparison
This section added after the guide was initially posted, in response to some reader comments.
Hybridazons
There were a number of emails and forum posts asking what's a Hybridazon, and what's the difference between my recommended Javazon build and one, since I recommend using both Javelin and bow.
A true Hybrid uses bow and javelin almost equally, and just using Guided Arrow since it's the best way to kill most bosses doesn't make you a hybrid. Hybrids generally have 8 or 10 points in Multishot, to go with their maxed LF and Pierce. The benefit of this is being able to use MS to kill LI mobs quickly, or more quickly than you could with just Guided Arrow. This enables you to play/level in more areas than a Javazon with LF, and it's a more effective PvP character.
The drawbacks are much higher skill requirements. You'll need to find about 7 more points to put into MS (depending on your +skill equipment), which will probably make your Guided lower and you slower to kill bosses. You also need much higher AR. A LF/Guided Javazon doesn't actually need any AR, so just put one point in Penetrate. If you are going to use MS, especially for PvP, you'll want a lot in Penetrate, probably maxing it out. That's 19 more skill points, which you'll have to siphon off of other skills, likely your other passives. Take a lot out of Valkyrie, and a few off of Dodge/Avoid/Evade to put there.
Is this worth doing? Not really, in terms of level up speed and finding items, but if you want some variety, or to PvP better, go for it. The only real PvM benefit is using MS on mobs, and the only time that's faster than LF is if the mob is LI, and the only area worth leveling in that has that is the Halls of Pain. Meanwhile you'll be slower on bosses, have much lower defensive skills and a weaker Valk, and probably play a lot more in low-exp areas, compared to the Hell Cows.
Other Javazons
Other readers have asked for more info about playing other types of Javazons. Ones that don't use a bow at all, who use spears or javs for damage. These are of course possible, I mention them in this guide, but as they are far slower and more dangerous than using a Bow, and I play HC, they aren't really viable options.
If you are suicidal and want to try them HC, or are SC and want variety, then they are possible. Jabbing with javelins, Titans for example, does decent damage, and it's a relatively fast attack. However as I discuss in the skills section, the main things you want to use something other than LF on are Bosses, or LI monsters. LF isn't a bad way to kill bosses, it's not that slow on a single target if you get them near enough a wall for bouncing lightning damage, it's just not recommended since it's got a high mana cost, and really goes through the javelins in a hurry. Jabbing with your Javelin does much lower damage than throwing them, and LF does the full throw physical damage + the big lightning damage, so there's really no comparison in terms of damage dealt or speed of dealing it. LF is far faster and better than jabbing melee, other than if the target is LI.
So you can jab, but it's slow and you'll probably get banged around some doing it, though not too badly, with big blocking % and Dodge. I don't have the patience to intentionally do techniques that are much slower than other techniques I know of. I can't sit there and hit something slowly, when I could kill it 10x faster with Guided Arrow, but some players are more patient than I. If you are interested in jabbing stuff, you'll want IAS gear, good damage javelins, and ideally come Crushing Blow equipment. This was the only way to do bosses at all quickly in D2C, and Goblin Toes boots were mandatory. In D2X you can still wear those, and there are various other items which give some % of Crushing Blow you might want to try. Unfortunately it'll still be a long haul, since Blizzard really nerfed the effectiveness of Crushing Blow, so it's far far from the quick boss killer it could be in D2C.
Spearazons are another option, but this is really suicidal HC. You have no shield, and not enough hps to melee stuff, and any bit of lag you'll be killed very easily. Most of the time you are doing Bosses on hell that have horrible mods for melee. Fanaticism, Might, Extra Strong, Extra Fast, Cold Enchanted, Holy Shock, Holy Freeze, etc. They hit you and they really hurt, or slow you so your attack is at a crawl.
If you are going to go Spearazon, you want to use Jab or Fend, and have as much IAS as possible, and a lot of hps and life leech. I did numerous Jabazons back in D2C, before Jab's speed was nerfed, and they were fun, but so prone to death. I did get one to 57 before a close encounter with an MSLE AK, but after that discovered the fun of Bowazons, which were much more likely to survive, and haven't had any desire to try them again in D2X, with Jab nerfed and so many other Amazon variants much more powerful.
My Variant Conclusion
What it boils down to on any Javazon variant is that LF is by far the fastest killing skill an Amazon posses. A Javazon in the Cows is the fastest killing/exp-gaining character anywhere in the game, faster than a Sorc even. So if you are looking to kill quickly (which is sort of the point of the game) you want to use LF as much as possible, and as well as possible. That's what this guide is about.
The other skills are basically just there to supplement your LF, and should cover the deficiencies of LF, which are lacking damage and expensive mana on single targets, and inability to deal with LI monsters. A bow/xbow with Guided Arrow and elemental damage does that better than any other option in the game. You can get by with Spears or jabbing javelins, or throwing explosion potions probably, and if you have fun doing that go for it. Good luck, I'll just be over here, running cows with 450% MF. ;)p
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Equipment
A Javazon is not very equipment-dependent. It really helps to have Titan's Revenge, the unique Amazon javelins, but you could theoretically clear the Hell Cows with plain javelins and a naked character, since your damage is almost entirely from the Lightning Fury bolts. You'd just need to go back to town a lot for mana refills and to buy more javelins, and with no blocking and low hit points you'd be very vulnerable to any cow hits. The point is you can play a successful Javazon with even the worst of equipment, since you kill mostly with a skill, though obviously equipment makes things easier and more profitable.
I recommend as much magic find and gold find as you can assemble. Besides blocking % and a good weapon with some mana leech, the rest of your equipment can add to whatever you want. You can look for huge hit points, tons of +skills to kill faster, lots of MF/GF to profit, or anywhere in between.
Increased Attack Speed makes you throw faster, as well as adding to your stabbing with Jab, and your arrow firing rate. However adding to your IAS to use with LF isn't really recommended, since it makes a very small difference. The throwing motion is relatively slow, and you need to add a lot of IAS to increase it noticeably. You are much better off adding to your skill points if you want to kill faster.
One complication comes with the frequent weapon switching you'll be doing. Titans has +20 Str/Dex, and often you'll have enough Str with Titans to put on heavier armor, belt, boots, etc, but not enough once you switch to Bow mode. When this happens you won't drop the item, but you don't get any of the benefits of it until you switch back to Titans.
Reasonable repair cost.
This isn't the end of the world, you could have 90 Str with a bow and 110 with Titans, just enough to equip a Thundergod's Vigor, and you'd get the full belt benefits with Titans, but nothing with a Bow.
I've played with enough strength for my armor when I had Titans active, but not enough when the bow was active, and it didn't make any real difference, other than giving me extra incentive to switch to Titans/Rhyme so Skullder's would be active when I got the kill on any bosses. If you had something like Smoke or Lionheart on, the loss in resistance might be a problem, and especially if you had low requirements for everything, and had to suit up piece by piece, using the bonuses on one item to enable the others. Losing 20 from Titans might render you nearly naked, so be careful. And add some more Strength next level up.
Long term, for the Hell cows you don't need all that much resistance, but you want as many hit points and as much blocking % as possible. Ideally you'll get to 1100+ hit points with 75% blocking. You also need 8% or so mana leech, though you can survive with 6 or 7%, if you drink some potions, or switch to your bow to leech with Guided from time to time. Max resistances are admirable, but Cows have no elemental attacks, other than properties on the boss cows. You'll need some lightning to survive any LE cows (the King is always LE) though you can avoid those almost entirely, and use Slow Missile. Fire and Cold resistance are mostly needed to take LEFE or LECE boss sparks, and you don't need poison resistance at all for the Cows.
So if all you are doing is the Cow level, you can go with virtually no resistance, perhaps 25% lightning -25% fire, and -70% cold and poison, and be fine. If you took 4 or 5 sparks from an LE while you have Conviction on you, you'd drop dead, but you just have to be careful of LE cows. If you were wearing Thundergod's Vigor for a belt, you could have even lower Lightning Resistance, with the absorb on it.
I've played a high-level Javazon with around with 40% lightning, 10% fire, nothing to cold or poison other than the 25% on Rhyme, and had no real problems surviving, even doing Meph and A5 SU runs. I do have 1300 hps, so lots of margin for error, but I wouldn't set foot in the River of Flame or Chaos Sanctuary with that gear on.
More resistance makes things easier, but it's not essential, especially in the Cows. [Top]
Socketing and Charms
Generally speaking, you want to fit your sockets to the item type. Try to look at your equipment on the whole, add the biggest bonus you can in an item, and then switch other things around to cover any deficiencies. For example, if you are low on Fire Resistance, but have enough Cold and Lightning, don't socket a Ruby into your shield's one remaining socket. It's much better to add a perfect diamond, which gives you more total resistance, and more equipment flexibility. When you later find an amulet with great stats but 25% less lightning Res than the one you are wearing, you'll be glad you added more Res to all on your shield so you can switch amulets easily.
You can't socket throwing weapons, so you have much less complexity than most characters do in their socketing strategies. Runewords can't be socketed either, so if you are wearing Wealth, Rhyme, and Titans, you've only got a helmet to socket.
Use Charms to fill gaps in your stats that other items leave. It's easiest to get mana, hps, and single resistances on charms, along with small amounts of magic find. The most possible MF is 7% per inv space, and that's only with small charms. You can't get more than 4% per space with large or grands. So if you are weighing a perfect ruby vs. a perfect topaz in your armor, consider that you can make up the 38 hps with 2 small charms, but 24% MF would require four 6% small charms, which are much harder to come by.
Same comparison, Um in armor or P Topaz in armor. Um is 15% res all, Topaz is 24% MF. Four 6% MF charms are hard to find, and quite valuable, but that's what you'd need to replace the perfect Topaz. To replace the Um is much easier, that just takes 3 10% res small charms, and cover fire/lightning/cold there, and one left over for whatever your weakest resistance is. Or add 20% to fire and lightning with the 4 small charms, since cold and poison are generally unimportant, and you are actually better off with that than with the Um, in fewer Inv spaces than it would take to replace with near-perfect (and very valuable) MF charms.
Basically, you want to consider your equipment as a whole, knowing what is easiest to make up with stats or charms, and what is hardest to add on equipment, and add what's hard to come by with other types of items. Also look at the long view on sockets; you can add hps, Dex, or Str every level up, but you can't add MF or resistance from level ups, only from equipment.
Javazons generally need more mana than Bowazons; around 200 or 250 at least, if you don't want to be nearly out every time you cast a couple of Valkyries or throw at a single target. Charms are a very easy way to add more, since you can often find grand charms with up to 60 mana, or small or large ones with around 15 per inv space. Charms with hps and mana are common also, and can be very helpful items. Especially when you first begin throwing LF, from Clvl 30-40 you'll not have that much mana or damage, and will need to throw several times to kill things. Running out of mana is very common at that point.
It's nice to have at least one type of cold damage to slow monsters you are shooting. If you don't get this from equipment then one cold charm is enough, though more help for the duration of chill. You also want some sort of poison damage to stop monsters from healing (especially bosses you are slowly killing with your Guided Arrow). Go for the longer duration with your poison charm; monsters have so many hit points in big hell games that the poison damage is nothing, you just want to keep them from healing, and throwing LF into huge mobs you might not hit the same target that often. The Poison and Cold damage don't transfer to your Lightning Bolts from LF, just the actual javelin, or arrows/bolts you fire. [Top]
Javelins
You can not socket throwing weapons, so you miss out on the added damage, leech, MF, etc that a socket can provide. Sorrow.
One cool fact about every self-replenishing throwing weapon is that they always have a repair cost of 1, no matter how many you've thrown. This includes Titan's Revenge, and saves you money in the long run.
Titan's Revenge: Find one, borrow one, trade for one. The most important stats on your javelins are damage, increased stack size, +spear skills, replenishes quantity, and mana/life leech. Titan's has all of these but mana leech, and adds big bonuses to stats and even 30% faster run (which gives you more options on boots) so it's almost impossible to beat.
You can get bigger physical damage, since Titan's is only a Ceremonial Javelin, the Exceptional kind. An Elite Matriarchal Javelin, or one of the non-Amazon Elites like a Winged Harpoon could do far more physical damage than Titans, but the main damage is from Lightning Fury. Titan's has the +2 to all skills and another +2 to spear skills, so with the other mods on it it's nearly a perfect item.
Rare Javelins: If you can't find a Titans, you can still do well with a Rare Javelin. Javazons are one of the few characters where a rare weapon beats a magical one, since top damage isn't the priority. You'll be using these from Clvl 30-41, before you can use Titan's, so you should save some up if you find any decent ones. Ceremonial javelins are good imbues also, for the 30-41 time. You want decent damage, big stack size, and +spear skills on these. Other stats are a bonus. I have a rare Ceremonial Javelin stack with about 90 max throwing damage, 190 stack size, and +4 to all spear skills, and they are great to use until Titans.
Rare Amazon class-specific javelins are better than normal javelins since the Amazon ones will have +1-2 spear skills inherently. Magical ones can get up to +3, and if you get +spear skills as a mod on the item, they'll stack. LF is much more powerful at Slvl 10 than Slvl 5, for example, so really work on getting it up quickly with equipment. [Top]
Shield
On your shield, you want as much blocking % as possible, along with resistances. A huge resistance shield helps a lot on freeing up your other equipment for other mods. Huge blocking % helps since you'll need fewer points in Dexterity, and can add more to Vitality. Add Magic Find or +skills or +mana if possible. These shields are listed in order of preference, but you should balance them with your other equipment and your overall needs.
Rhyme: This Runeword is relatively easily made (Shael Eth) and has great stats. Lots of blocking, 15% mana regeneration, 25% resist all, 25% Magic Find, 50% Gold Find, and even Can Not Be Frozen. This helps a lot since a chilled Javazon throws and runs very slowly. Try to find a Grim Shield for it, they have very good blocking % (Rhyme Grim Shield beats Moser's on blocking %) better than any other Exceptional shield but a Pavise, are light so don't slow your running, and don't have a very high Strength requirement (58). Plus they look cool. ;)
Moser's Blessed Circle: The Unique Round Shield, Moser's isn't that hard to find, and has good defense, 25% to all with two sockets (giving it 63% all with 2 perfect diamonds), and lots of blocking %. Moser's with 2 Ists socketed would be 50% MF and good blocking and resistance, but as rare as Ists are for just 25% more MF than a Rhyme this isn't a real good strategy.
Lidless Wall: The Unique Grim Shield is a nice option, giving +1 to all, 3-5 mana per kill, and bonuses to mana and energy. It's 10% less blocking than a Moser's though, and has no inherent resistances, though you could always socket it with a diamond for 19%.
Wall of the Eyeless: A good shield to use when you first start throwing at Clvl 30, with this you get +5 mana per kill and 3% mana leech, though no resistance or MF or blocking bonuses which limits the long term use of it.
Stormshield: This is the best shield you could use to stay alive in the cows, with its good blocking and huge 35% physical damage reduction, as well as some resistances. It requires a ton of Strength though (156), far more than you should have on a Javazon, and is very hard to find.
Three Diamond: Any old 3DS will work decently, with the 57% resistance to all, though the blocking percentage wouldn't be very good, and you'd have zero other bonuses.
Four Socket Shield: If you had the strength (which you shouldn't) you could use an Elite shield, and the Monarch, Aegis, or Ward can have four sockets. The Monarch is the lightest, at 156 Str, and you could get 76% resist all, or 100% MF with 4 Ists, if you had such rare Runes.
Rare Shield: Look for one with resistances, and blocking bonuses, along with other useful stats. [Top]
Weapon Switch Weapons
What to have on your weapon switch is an interesting issue. The options are a bow/xbow, a spear, or a second stack of javelins.
I recommend a bow. Put some points into Guided Arrow, and this is the best boss killing option a Bowazon has. If you have something big like a Buriza, you can mow down any boss quite easily, and if the bow has elemental damage, and you have a lot of points in Guided, the mana cost will be low enough you can kill PI bosses without drinking any mana or rejuv potions.
Some players use a Spear for their weapon switch, and with some points in Jab or Fend this can be useful on bosses or LI monsters. However it's dangerous going to melee range, and the damage is less than a bow, when you factor in attack rate and piercing on Guided Arrows. Also you are mostly using the switch on monsters with Lightning resistance, and the most common types of those are LE bosses, which hurt a lot to melee. Bow you can Slow them and stay out of the range of their sparks.
The other option is a second stack of javelins. Two piles of Titans for example, will let you easily clear the entire Cow level solo in an eight player game with no trips back to town to repair. You'll have to skip some bosses without a bow to kill them, since it takes forever to kill a boss with just LF and no other targets around. You can try to lead the boss into huge packs of monsters and let the LF crossfire kill them, but that would slow you down, and the whole point in using two jav stacks is to go faster. In any event, you can just as easily carry your second stack of Javs in your Inv or Cube, and still have the bow in your weapon switch. Also, it takes like 10 seconds to portal and run to Charsi for a repair, so you aren't really saving that much time.
Carrying two or three stacks of javelins is a good idea when you first start throwing, at Clvl 30. You'll run out of javelins quickly, since you probably will be in Act Five and not cows, and your LF is weak, so it takes more throws to kill monsters. It's quicker to switch to another stack than it is to run back to town and get a repair every minute.
Spears: I don't recommend using these. The Unique Amazon spear Lycander's Flank has big bonuses to stats, life leech, +skills, a fast attack, and decent damage. If you can afford the big 115 Strength, it's probably your best all around choice. There are much higher damage Elite spears, but they all require a lot of strength.
Bows and Crossbows
Fire or Cold damage time.
Bows are great to pick off solitary targets, where LF is lacking, and to kill bosses much faster than you can with LF. Guided Arrow gets cheaper with every point you put into it, and by Slvl 15 or so you can fire hundreds of shots per mana bulb, if you have 300 or so mana (more mana = more regen per second), killing off many PI bosses without drinking even one potion for mana. Of course you need a bow with good elemental damage for that, which is why Buriza and Kuko are the first two listed here.
Buriza-Do Kyanon: This Unique Ballista is the biggest damage bow/xbow other than Windforce, and more useful for a Javazon, with 24 less Str required, much lower Clvl requirement, and big cold damage, so you can use it to kill PIs as well. Also you actually have a chance to find this one short of 6 weeks of Pindleskin runs, or trade for it, short of throwing in your hot little sister. The only problem is the 110 Str req, which is more than you have if you've done a normal MF Javazon. I tend to max out my Str around 70, far lower than the 88 Str that even a Hel'ed Buriza requires.
You need to add 15% IAS on top of the 80% on the bow, to get a frame faster, and that can be a pain. Steal skull + Goldwrap work, or 20 IAS gloves, but if you don't have those you might want to Shael it, or use a 15% IAS jewel, if you have one with other nice mods. Being one frame slower isn't that big a deal anyway, since you are only using the bow occasionally.
Other socket options are enhanced damage, leech, or lower requirements. I have a Hel'ed one on my Javazon. Hel takes it from 110 to 88 Str Req, and 22 stat points are worth 66 hps or 9% blocking. I wouldn't recommend +elemental damage, since you can pretty easily on charms, and Buriza has so much already.
Kuko Shakuro: 40-180 fire damage, 100% piercing, +3 to all bow skills, with just 53 Str and Clvl 33 required makes this a very nice option. You must have a point in Guided to use this, but as soon as you have one point there you're at Slvl 4 Guided (or more from other equipment), with the +3 to Bow Skills. I like this one for Hell, to be able to kill the PILI bosses that you can't scratch with LF. The damage is sort of lacking for killing bosses, and if you get a PIFE cow in a big game, you can pretty much forget about it. I've done Hell Meph runs in 2 minutes with this bow, it's enough damage for that, at least in a solo game.
Shael it, or possibly add a big elemental damage jewel. 1-100 lightning would let you work on PIFI or PIFE monsters, making nothing unkillable, since there is never a PILIFI. Or you could add a fire damage jewel to make it more effective on PILIs, and use LF for PIFIs. It's very good on a merc also, so they can kill PIs with their big MF gear on.
Magewrath: Unique Rune Bow, this one has +1 to all skills, +3 to Guided Arrow, 15% mana steal, +10 Dex, and more. Possibly the best bow to use early on, and much easier to obtain than a Buriza, with lower Str requirements. You can equip this one and fire Slvl 4 (or higher, with other + equipment) Guided Arrow before you even put a point into the Bow tree. You could use this bow forever and never put any points into bow skills, if need be, though your Slvl of Guided would be lacking. It's also great for the mana leech; you can fill your mana bulb with 2 or 3 Guided Arrows from this bow, so if your Javelin damage or leech is lacking, switching off for a second on this one is nearly as fast as drinking a rejuvenation potion. The Clvl 43 req is the only real drawback, but you should go from 30 to 43 very quickly using LF. Shael it.
Langer Briser: Another Exceptional Unique Crossbow, the Langer isn't very good for damage, though it does have 1-212 lightning damage, making it viable on PIs. The main benefit is the 30-60% MF, so a good seed on this would be a nice killer for you. It doesn't have the 100% piercing though, or that much physical damage, and fires slowly, so it's not much of a boss killer. Rhyme is the best option for a Javazon shield, and that's 25% MF, so it's better to whittle them with a bow and kill with LF, unless you get a high % MF on this xbow and have the patience to use it. An Ist in this is what you want, if you are using it. Get one that's a very high MF% to socket, 58% or more. Shael it otherwise.
SkyStrike: This Unique Edge Bow is the lowest of the Exceptional bows, but not bad for a switch. It's got decent damage low requirements, and a fast firing rate, along with 1-250 lightning damage and +1 to all skills. The problem is that the elemental damage is lightning, and you generally want damage in Cold or Fire, to contrast your lighting javelin damage.
Other Bows: You can use a lot of other exceptional bows, Goldstrike, Cliffkiller +2 to all skills, Witchwild String (safety with resistance), Lycander's Aim (best damage and bonuses, hardest of the exceptionals to find), or any magical or Rare one you might meet the requirements of. If all you need is physical damage, as a boss killer, all are fine. I like Kuko or Buriza so I can kill PIs with them as well. [Top]
Body Armor
There is a huge variety of possible body armor. I like Wealth, for the MF/GF, as well as bonus Dex and mana per kill, but this isn't an aid in survival. You can use just about any unique armor, you want resistance, +skills, hit points, defense, mana, leech, etc. Lionheart and Smoke are great Runewords also, and you can even go for a plain 4T (four topaz) armor for the 96% MF, if you can't afford the LemKoTir for Wealth or find a Skullders. I'll list the top few armors here, but virtually any armor you find can be useful, depending on your needs.
Magic Find Armors
Skullder's Ire: This is probably the best bet, for the big +1.25 magic find per Clvl, the biggest on any armor (100 + 24 at Clvl 80 with a topaz), and the +1 skills. It requires 97 Str and Clvl 42 to equip it. It also has good defense, lots of durability, and it's self-repairing, which will save you some money in the long run. The +1 is nice for your LF/Pierce, and by Clvl 80 this one is giving you a lot more MF than a Wealth. Becomes an even better option the higher your level goes, with 147% MF at Clvl 99.
Wealth: This Runeword (LemKoTir) gives 100% MF, 300% GF, +10 Dex, and +2 mana per kill. All these are very nice bonuses for a Javazon; 10 Dex is worth 4% blocking (and 30 hps with the saved points going to Vit), and even the +2 mana per kill is helpful, when you're killing hundreds of cows in a few minutes. If you can get to 600% or more gold find (which isn't hard with 300% Wealth, 200% Chance Guards, and 50% Rhyme), you'll be averaging 2500 per gold stack, and with about every third cow dropping gold, you can easily pick up 400k per Cow run, in a big game.
Use a good, light armor to make the Wealth in. Archon Plate is very nice, at around 480 average defense and 103 Str, but you have to be Clvl 63 to equip it. Mageplate is probably the best bet with the Clvl 25 req and 55 Strength/220ish defense. You want light armors for the running speed, the light Elites are less than 100 Str, and can be over 450 defense, so keep an eye out for Dusk Shroud, Wyrmhide, or Scarab Husk.
Wealth vs. Skullder's: Skullder's is worth more than Wealth's 100% MF at Clvl 81, or Clvl 62 with a socketed Topaz. At Clvl 90 with a socket it's worth 136% MF, substantially more than Wealth. The +1 to all skills is nice, but it's unlikely you'd be able to tell the difference when playing with 26 LF/23 Pierce or 27 LF/24 Pierce. The bigger defense is nice, but not much of a factor if you have elite Wealth. Skullders also required 97 Strength, which is more than you'd normally have.
Wealth is much easier to come by, for one thing. If you only have one Skullder's put it on your MF Barb or Sorcy and use the Wealth on your Javazon. Wealth will make you richer, 300% gold find can be worth 100k or more a game in gold pick up. It saves you 10 Dex for your blocking, which is worth 30 hit points if you put it all into Vit, which is worth two small hps charms, which you can replace with MF charms, getting potentially 14% of the MF back, or 20% lightning res, freeing you to wear MF boots instead of res boots, etc. Also, you find tons of gold every game, guaranteed. Adding to that is a perpetual benefit (whether you get lucky on gambling is another story;).
Playing style determines the winner. If you have no other Gold Find stuff, you probably won't care about the stacks going from 300 to 1200, not enough to pick them up, anyway. If you have 300% GF on other equipment, adding Wealth makes the stacks go from 1200 to 2500, and they are suddenly worth taking a few seconds to pick up.
If you are Clvl 95 then you'll get 42% more MF from Topazed Skullder's, and it's probably worth it then. Also, if you are playing very fast cow runs, (such as in public games), picking up no gold, then Wealth is just a glorified 4T armor.
Doesn't the 30 or 40% more MF make a big difference? Maybe. You very, very, very seldom find a good item from Cows, and probably 95% of the time you'd get the same quality of it if you have 300% MF, or 330% MF, for example. Long term you'll probably find 1 or 2 more items Unique, instead of Set or Rare, by having 30% more MF, but whether those items are sashes or Hydra bows is unknown. If the "what if" thought assails you ever time you see a Rare Shako or Crusader Bow drop, then you'll want the most MF possible, for your peace of mind if nothing else.
Tal Rasha's Guardianship: Set lacquered plate, with 40% to Cold/Fire/Lightning, 88% (112% with Topaz) MF, -15 magic damage, 84 Str and Clvl 71 required. This is probably the best possible Magic Find armor, especially for a HC character, but it's colossally difficult to find, which is why it's listed below Wealth or Skullders. Tal's Armor is worth less than a Skullders at higher levels, but the big resistance frees up your other equipment slots to optimiz |
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