Guide:Mageazon v1.09, by Icewraith: Difference between revisions

Guide:Mageazon v1.09, by Icewraith (view source)

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 For purely melee enemies, I would throw Valkyrie into the heat of the battle and cast decoy a bit further back in case a few of the creatures break away from valkyrie and make its way towards me. Also, should Valkyrie die, the enemies will swarm towards decoy first, buying me some time to recast valkyrie.
+[[Image:mageazon01.jpg]]
+Ranged enemies tend to spread out more, so valkyrie can only entertain a small portion of them, the rest would be shooting at either my minions or me. By pulling back a little and casting decoy 2-3 squares in front of me, most of the shots would be directed at val while decoy will take any stray shot that comes this way.
+[[Image:mageazon02.jpg]]
+'''Mix of Melee and Ranged Monsters'''
+For a mix of monsters, the strategy is much the same as the previous one, just that i don't fall fall back as much. Valkyrie will again bear the brunt of the attacks with the decoy there to take any stray shots.
+[[Image:mageazon03.jpg]]
+'''Swarming from Both Flanks'''
+When somehow engaged on two flanks, valkyrie is left on one flank while i cast a decoy and proceed to clear the decoy side of enemies first since decoy never last as long as valkyrie. Of course, valkyrie's life is always kept in check and when it runs low, i would recast valkyrie and come to her help after decoy's side is clear.
+[[Image:mageazon04.jpg]]
+'''Boss Fight'''
+When fighting a boss, the surrounding critters are first cleared off. Then Valkyrie is positioned between the bowazon and the boss. Decoy would be placed next to the boss so that the boss will attack the decoy first. This helps to extend the lifespan of Valkyrie and prevent you the trouble of recasting her again.
+[[Image:mageazon05.jpg]]
+'''Lightning Enchanted Boss (LEBs)'''
+This is my preferred method of dealing with lightning enchanted boss. Somehow, i find that standing at the top or bottom of the boss allowed me to avoid most of the lightning discharges as compared to when i am standing at the left or right of the boss.
+[[Image:mageazon06.jpg]]
+==Biggest Threats==
+The mageazon has two major offensive skills - Frozen Arrow and Immolation Arrow - and guided arrow as a backup support skill. In normal cases, fire immunes can be frozen solid and pinged upon by either FA or just GA with a high elemental weapon. Cold immunes on the other hand cannot be frozen but can be kept busy with a Valkyrie and toasted by immolation fire. Both are easy to handle. Eventually, there are only two kinds of enemies you have to worry about: a fire/cold dual immune boss and those fire immune frenzytaurs.
+The boss can be handled by first getting rid of it's minions, leaving a 3v1 fight with it against you, valkyrie and merc. Valkyrie can hold the boss in place while your merc hits with either a high physical or high lightning weapon (better still, both). You can also chip in with some GAs using your alternate weapon switch (hopefully a high lightning weapon such as skystrike or arcing bow).
+Fire immune frenzytaurs are fearsome for a mageazon. Cannot be frozen means that it can deal massive damage, even killing your high level valkyrie in just a few hits and immolation arrow just doesn't work. Two solutions: (1) Get a high elemental weapon with knockback (ie. Nef'ed lightning bow) and GA to pin and push the minotaur packs away from your valkyrie to protect her, (2) Do 1 and get yourself a Holy Freeze merc to slow them down. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do remember that HF does work on frenzytaurs...
+'''Act Boss Fights'''
+For a mageazon, boss fights are perhaps the hardest. Your main skills are made to handle mobs, no powerful single entities that can take out your minions with relative ease. If you have a HF merc, he will move in for the kill (usually to be killed rather), so hopefully the boss will target your valkyrie or decoy instead. For yourself, throw out an Immolation and let it burn. In the mean time, FA or GA with elemental weapon to pass the 1 second mark before releasing another immolation arrows. Just keep the immolation burning while the boss is stuck fighting your minions, recasting decoy, valkyrie when needed. Sometimes, the boss will break free and advance towards you. Simple solution is to throw a decoy where you are standing (possibly valkyrie as well) and back off. This way, the boss will reengage itself with your minions and you can repeat the immolation progress.
+'''Lightning Enchanted Boss (LEBs)'''
+Immolation might not be that good an idea since it sparks off bolts like firewall (correct me if this is wrong). If your merc can take the beating, slow missile the LEB and either FA (mana intensive) or GA with an elemental bow (cheaper) from far while keeping the LEB under SM all the way. Else, use a knockack bow to pin the boss against a wall or something, stand FAR away and use immolation arrow while the boss is under the effect of SM.
+Can't really think of anymore at the moment, more will be added as the ideas come. Basically, playing the mageazon is easy. Freeze those guys, immolate them, spam FA, immolate them, spam FA, immolate them... rinse and repeat.
+Last note, in case you still didn't catch it, other than your main weapon (ideally Kuko Shakaku), get yourself a high lightning weapon (skystrike or magical 1-4xx lightning bow) and Nef it for control purposes.
+=Conclusion=
+==Character Development==
+Most of the best starter gear involves socketed items. Jewels of envy does 20 poison damage over 2 seconds and can be used in armor and helm as well. With 2-socketed armor and helm of envy and a 3 or 4 socketed hunter's bow with assorted chipped gems, damage done is very significant and you shouldn't have much problems leveling until you get exploding arrow at level 12. From then on, normal arrow against normal monsters and exploding arrows against mobs or strong bosses should be plain sailing.
+If at all possible, get an Eye with at least 7-8 seconds of chill time. By the time you get ice arrow, you will have a real solid >10 seconds of freeze time. Throw on the freeze and shatter their corpses so that reanimators can no longer work properly. This should solve most of the problems you will face in act 2 especially in Tal Rasha's Tomb with so many reanimators around.
+Fast forward to level 24, getting immolation arrow. This is the first of your offence skill, but at the current level, it is still weak, becoming stronger at level 8 and starting to overtake frozen arrow's damage at level 16. Max this as soon as possible (at level 43) and it will serve you for life.
+Level 30 will be yet another benchmark, where you will get frozen arrow, Valkyrie and PIERCE.... the skill that made mageazons almighty. If you have a piercing bow like Kuko waiting, one point in pierce with +skills will suffice for now. You will want to max out Immolation as soon as possible and FA as well if you can manage your mana. Assuming 1 point in each passive and no strafe, such a setup will require 57 skill points - achievable at level 50 if you had completed all the skills quests in normal and nightmare.
+After that will be a matter of personal preference for people. Some like low Valkyrie and high evasive skills, while others go for max Valkyrie and lower evasive skills. All of them work to their strengths and have their own pros and cons. It's just up to the player to choose the style that suits him best.
+==Softcore vs Hardcore==
+Most of the suggestions and strategies have been for softcore play, thus there have been recommendations that does not quite suit that of a hardcore player.
+For one thing, a hardcore mageazon would likely to want more life and resistances to prevent any accidental mishaps. This could lead to some gear or skill sacrifices as a hardcore mageazon goes a bit more defensive. For example, while a softcore mageazon could quite easily get away with going all energy (after meeting str/dex requirements), it's unlikely that a hardcore mageazon would follow suit. She's more likely to add more to vitality or spend a larger proportion of her charms and gear adding life and resists to make up the shortfalls.
+This means that mana management will become even more important and it's not uncommon to see hardcore mageazons giving up some +skills gear for resistances or life; or even leave FA way less than max in order to maintain the ability to keep up continuous firing of FA and IA without running out of mana.
+==Vamps and Mageazons==
+A subclass similar to mageazons is the 'vamp', which also uses high levels of FA and IA for damage but relies on leech to recover the mana instead of mana regeneration and mana per kill. These 'vamps' typically has less need for energy and could thus afford more points into str and dex, making some of the bigger bows available. Correspondingly, their reliance on leech means that they would have a weakness against physical immunes much like their cookie cutter physical damage counterparts.
+One possible way to resolve it is to find a balance between mana regeneration and mana leech. This would usually entail some investments into energy or heavy +mana gear to provide the base mana needed to recover mana against physical immunes. At the same time, damage and leech should also be kept high to provide a smooth and flawless execution when faced with monsters you can leech from.
+Some possible outstanding gear deviations would be the Lycander's Aim and Razortail. The former has good damage, +skills and leech for a very decent str and dex requirement. The latter would provide the pierce that would be needed for the amazon to still hit max pierce while using non-piercing bows. Of course, there are a whole range of other possible gear to choose from but that would be up to the individual player to experiment and try out for themselves which works best for them.
+==Tri-Elemental Hybrids==
+If you're not fully into the evasive skills, a mageazon might find herself with quite a ton of skill points to spare. What better way to increase her offensive capabilities by adding another element to her attacks - Lightning Fury. There's no need for any fanciful javelins such as Titan's Revenge since all you're looking for is +skills... With that in mind, a good choice for gear could be <font color="#0099ff">'''Lancer's maiden javelins'''</font>, with a max of +6 to javelin skills and <font color="#999900">'''Lidless Wall'''</font> (58 strength). <font color="#999900">'''Razortail'''</font> belt would also allow you to hit max pierce with level 9 pierce while throwing out lightning fury.
+For those deviating into the 'vampish' route, titan's revenge would of course be a good choice with its fantastic mods and such. Various gear such as Lycander's Aim (mentioned above) and Thundergod's Vigor would also make their way into the list of ''uber'' gear to look out for.
+With that, I thank you for listening with an open mind. All the best collecting uber-mageazon gear and happy playing!
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