Old Amazon Skills: Difference between revisions

'''Javelins:''' There are many types of javelins to be found or purchased in Diablo II, but none are ever magical, unique, rare, or Set items. Just low quality, normal, and superior. In the expansion throwing weapons are much improved, and there are magical and rare javelins, as well as two (as of v1.11b) unique Amazon javelins, Titan's Revenge and Thunderstrokes.  Javelins can be used for melee, but they are intended to be thrown, and will always do higher damage as a projectile (with the exception of the Hyperion Javelin and Balrog Spear in the expansion, which have a higher max damage when used in melee - they have a higher average damage when thrown, however).  In addition there are various skills that only work with thrown javelins.  The melee spear skills work with javelins or spears.

Javelins aren't a bad melee weapon; they have a quick attack rate when used with Jab, and all have a range of 3, better than a lot of one-handed melee weapons.  You should use a shield with your javelin, check the various Amazon strategy guides for equipment appraisals.

'''Spears:''' All spears are two-handed, meaning you can never use a shield with one. Though spears have a slow attack speed for most characters, Amazons aren't too bad with them, especially with Jab and Fend adding to your attack rate.  Spearazons are much less popular (and powerful, as of v1.11b) than Bowazons or Javazons, but can be very strong through Nightmare, and are still viable and fun to play in Hell.  One annoying aspect of spears, including the Amazon class-specific types, is their generally low durability, so get used to needing repairs pretty regularly.  Also, beware the Fend bug - when using the skill Fend, if something triggers your amazon's dodge/avoid/evade skills, all Fend attacks after that will miss, but you will continue the Fend until the attack completes.

As of v1.11b, the fastest way to kill a single target for a Javazon or Spearazon is to use Jab, combined with a large amount of crushing blow, to bring the enemy's hit points down by a percentage with each strike, or use the Charged Strike skill to hit with multiple charged bolts, for a large amount of damage per bolt.   This is a dangerous thing to attempt, however, since it means you will be in melee range while you bring them down.

 

Damage bonuses are something to consider with javelins, or the Amazon class-specific spears.  Regular javelins add .75% damage per point of each stat, while Amazon class-specific javelins and spears add 80% from strength, and 50% from dex.  Most other melee weapons are 1% damage per point of strength, with no damage bonus from dex at all.  This means that you can add bonus damage by adding both to your Spearazons strength or dexterity, but each individual stat point will add less damage than you'll get with a normal spear, such as a Pike or Lance.  Dexterity is more useful to add than strength, generally speaking, since it increases your Attack Rating, Defense, and blocking, while strength just boosts damage (and helps you meet item requirements).