Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

[fredsta54]

Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Hi.

i havent written a guide it seems as though in years.

this is a short mini guide to the pvm psn zon, while though not as powerful as the lightning zon, can run areas where the light javazon cannot, and is safer imo. It is very similar to playing a psn necro in terms of gameplay, although i prefer the amazon. Id say that in classic only the necro and zon can do enough poison damage to kill in hell.

I would say this is a very good build to start untwinked on hardcore.

Why would i build a psn javazon?

You can easily run hell flayer jungle and hell travincal (council) without dieng, to get experience, and to level up. There are no poison immunes in these areas, except i think for some frogs in flayer which your valkyrie will easily dispatch of in seconds. I only play on hardcore, and with this girl i never die. To me a character is only complete if i can solo a good xp area in hell while having fun and gaining some items at the same time. A light javazon wouldnt dream of doing hell travincal and there are lightning immunes in flayer.

Also by level 40ish your Plauge javelin and synergy will be maxed out, meaning you will have lots of skill points left over to have a valkyrie that can kill monsters in hell with just a few pokes, your answer to poison immunes, and high dodge evade avoid, more chance to live on hc.

Skills:

20 poison javelin : only a synergy to plauge javelin
20 plauge javelin: your killing skill
20 valkyrie: an invincable tank that does plenty of damage even in hell. Even while amped at hell trav she never dies
20 decoy: an underrated skill. Adds resistances and life to your valkyrie, another tank to make it even safer on hc. You will max this last.
Dodge Evade and Avoid: I would say about 5 points into each, Counting on +2 skills.

Unlike to Light zon pierce is not really of any use especially with no attack rating. id say dont bother with penetrate pierce.

a point to crit strike to increase your valks damage is definately worth it. once all your skills are maxed and you are comfortable with your dodge skills mabye get this to level 9 for 54% (iirc) chance to do double damage.

Gear:

Javelin or throwing javelin your choice. 118 dex for harpoon is a waste of skill points.
Twitch or fhr resists life armour
fire lightning resist boots fhr and run/walk are other mods to look out for. Forgot Hotspurs
fire lightning resist gloves/bloodfist
fire lightnning resist rings
Even a plain +1 zon ammy will do, +2 is better. Resists are great
30/20 pris shield/ward/3pdiamond large shield. twitch and high ward or 3pdiamond shield, or nice rare armour and rare shield.
Tarnhelm is your best bet for its 1 skill
fhr fire lightning resists belt

Of course if you can get tri resist gear with cold on then go for it, i just dont think that its life threatening in pvm. Not to say that col resist isnt good to have... just my experience and wealth of what i/u can obtain on hc ladder

you see i have ignored cold and poison resists. If you level in a party in chaos runs id say the stacked resistances are more helpful than having maxed cold and poison resists with no stacked fire and light. On hc you never know when your gonna run into conviction, especially at hell travincal

If i have Forgotten anything let me know. The strategy to playing this zon is to let valk and if nessecary, decoy tank, which throwing plauge javs. simple. This girl can run flayer jungle and travincal quickly in hell without dieng, 2 of the most popular areas to level up and get items. Valkyrie makes short work of poison immunes.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Its the other side of skills to the javazon which are never really used, and are underestimated




Fred

 

[Lorg1]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Sounds nice to me. How easy travi is for it? I mean that as a variation for trav barb could i wear angelics armor amu and rings tarn and some mf boots and still be reasonably fast in terms of killing speed? Maybe even kill with ama and clean bodies with horker.

I might even make this build. Bit bored atmo

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

very easy, ur valk tanks while u throw plauge javalins, the council die.


i left out that if u can get sojs use them!


fRED

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Sounds nice to me. How easy travi is for it? I mean that as a variation for trav barb could i wear angelics armor amu and rings tarn and some mf boots and still be reasonably fast in terms of killing speed? Maybe even kill with ama and clean bodies with horker.

I might even make this build. Bit bored atmo

u could run council with mf gear, i wouldnt dare do it as i play on hc. as long as you have ok light and fire resists, a +skill or 2, i suppose you could kill council with the zon then brg barb to hork bodies

EDIT:in flayer jungle there are rarely seen slime princes, poison immune frogs that come out of the water. valk eats them for lunch

Fred

 

[Zelator]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

This will be my new starter char for HC classic Something...non-sorc and pala :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

i am also bored of sorc and pallys

ALthough getting a tri element sorc to work in classic would be fun



Fred

 

[WarlockCC]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

EDIT:in flayer jungle there are rarely seen slime princes, poison immune frogs that come out of the water. valk eats them for lunch

Fred

She's French ?

I'll be adding this guide to the sticky if that's ok with you Fred.

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

yes fine by me




Fred

 

[Craven]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Thanks for the guide Fred

I play single-player, and was hoping to work through all the difficulty levels at the hardcore level ... just wondering if you have any additional thoughts or recommendations for me.

I succeeded with the other four character classes ... but the amazon has been eluding me (doesn't seem to pack the same punch in single-player ... but it could be me not understanding her power)

Another quick note ... the last amazon I tried was your glass-cannon bowazon (modified to focus more on vitality to keep her alive, of course) ... but I never could find a great gothic bow, and she was pretty weak, and succumbed in Act III hell ... ah well

 

[HegemonKhan]

HK's Melee Lit (or "fc") Zon Guide

I succeeded with the other four character classes ... but the amazon has been eluding me (doesn't seem to pack the same punch in single-player ... but it could be me not understanding her power). -craven
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the only "non-weak" (and is an actually very powerful) zon build (besides fresta's poison zon) is the melee lit (lightning) zon (or "fc" zon). this is very similiar to a fury zon, except instead of focusing on fury with gear and skills (like maxing pierce), you use the melee lit skills of charged strike and lightning strike and *ONLY USE* fury for cows or cs or like areas of compact huge packs of monsters that aren't lit immune, (canyon is such a place and would be good, but the monsters are lit immune there), (but with NO maxing pierce. NO pts or just ONE pt into pierce). this melee lit zon build pwns pvm (and not bad in pvp too) as long as monsters aren't lit immune. This zon also almost never dies. it's really the "only" good-powerful zon build (besides fresta's poison zon).

the lit (or "fc" zon):

stats: 100 str (for silks), rest into vit.

(unless u really wanna waste dex for using a stronger jav, harpoon, for more physical damage for leech or for avoiding the hassle of not running out of the weak jav since u have to quit game and go back to a norm diff game to re-get the weak javs if u waste them all when/if use fury for huge crowds or for pvp and using lightning bolt u need the dex for the harpoon for most damage with lightning bolt skill...i guess...imo...it's a waste, except maybe for pvp)

skills: 20 lightning strike, 20 charged strike, 20 fury, 20 lightning bolt. rest of sk pts where ever u want. powerstrike and/or valk, decoy, the dodge skills. optional 1 pt into pierce for fury for if want for doing cows or cs (but you're not maxing pierce. this is NOT a fury zon).

i feel it's better to put 20 into lightning bolt instead of power strike because:

1. power strike requires AR. u don't wanna waste gear/gear slots or stat pts for AR.
2. lightning bolt can do some damage and is ranged. could be good for pvp. though u'd need the harpoon jav, which would take dex to use/wear/equip it, for its highest damage.

gear: +skill gear and IAS. make sure u got good resists too. u could do rockfleece and other such gear for protection from melee hits. but, the lightning damage u do usually kills off melee monsters before they get any where near threatening you with death. so, i feel +skill gear (+ IAS gear) is best for pvm.

example of gear:

fastest weak jav from norm act 1, silks/goldskin/darkglow/hawkmail/rockfleece/godly rare resists 24% FHR +life +mana armor, tarn/iratha/duskdeep/godly rare resists 10% FHR hat, sig shield/ward/3 p diamond shield/rare shield, godly +2 zon rare amulet/iratha, sojs/godly resist +str +dex rare rings, death/sig/godly rare resists 10% ias gloves/bloodfist/iratha, nightsmoke/godly rare resist 24% FHR belt/bladebuckle/goldwrap/death/iratha, hotspurs/sig/godly 30% FWR 10% FHR resists rare boots

tactics:

simply use: charged strike for compact and small packs of monsters. use fury (even though it's not fully powered like with a pure fury focused build, it is still good) for compact huge packs of monsters (cows and cs). use lightning strike for staggered (spread out) monsters. do NOT use lightning strike when monsters are close to one another. it is suppose (at least i read and it does seem to be true, though can't confirm it) to NOT hit monsters if they are close to each other. lightning strike is for NON-packs or lots of spread out individual monsters.

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

talking about lightning java skills in a poison java build.

with pierce, 20 light fury kills all, without any synergys



Fred

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Thanks for the guide Fred

I play single-player, and was hoping to work through all the difficulty levels at the hardcore level ... just wondering if you have any additional thoughts or recommendations for me.

I succeeded with the other four character classes ... but the amazon has been eluding me (doesn't seem to pack the same punch in single-player ... but it could be me not understanding her power)

Another quick note ... the last amazon I tried was your glass-cannon bowazon (modified to focus more on vitality to keep her alive, of course) ... but I never could find a great gothic bow, and she was pretty weak, and succumbed in Act III hell ... ah well

to play a glass cannon bowazon you need to have a godly bow nad lots of life steal

 

[WarlockCC]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

to play a glass cannon bowazon you need to have a godly bow nad lots of life steal

Note that Fred accurately wrote bow and not Gothic bow.
I have made a zon based on Fred's Glass Cannon build, also with slightly more life(100) then the bare minimum of a real Glass Cannon and she uses a 93-169 Balista. And indeed even with a Balista it works. You'll need some Crushing blow in higher number of player games to compensate for the monsters extra life. Solid valk to hurd the monsters doesn't hurt either.

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

talking about lightning java skills in a poison java build.

with pierce, 20 light fury kills all, without any synergys

-fredsta
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err, i know the lit zon post is outa place, but i was adressing craven? saying he had trouble finding a good zon build. was responding to him in your thread, sorry.

pure/focused fury build works good too, not saying it doesn't. though, i see lots of people using it "improperly", spaming fury's on like small 3-5 monsters size packs. don't get me wrong, this works fine, but it takes lots of mana pots and javs. for most efficiency though, fury is really for cows or cs (with lots of activated monsters in a huge compact mob or a "ruined/messed up" cs). it's not the most efficient skill for spamming constantly for everything.

a lit or fc zon build that focuses on the melee lit skills instead is much better for spaming-using throughout d2 areas.

both are strong builds, but the melee lit zon is more for all of d2 and fury zon is more for cows and cs (or like areas and situation).

i just wanted to point out that the only "strong" zon builds are your (fredtsa's) poison zon and the lit zon (melee lit or fury).

all other zon builds, to be somwhat viablo needs really elite gear. phys (or magical=magic arrow skill) bow zons need godly bow/xbow and gear. melee zons (spear=jab, impale, fend) are only tried by me (probably) due to bugs (fend bug and dodge skills bug) and require elite gear too. elem bow zons (ice or fire) can do alright though they are more like a casting sorc in terms of effectiveness. frozen arrow can do pretty good damage when no cold immunes but does have huge mana cost. fire arrow skills can do good damage against non-fire immunes though most of d2 has high resistance or immunity to fire.

 

[fredsta54]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

i have an slapped together with even some magic single resist gear on my bowazon, she is lvl 75. although her valk ends up killing physical immunes faster than her strafe, strafe leaches her mana back and frozen arrow pierces 70% 1.2k damage, with an -35% wizendraw on switch that i solo nm cs with, 1 well aimed arrow can literally destroy the whole screen. Still looking for a high ed gothic bow to kill in hell, and her resists are ~60 fire and lightning with killl gear on.

ofc in pub hell cs runs i wear cheesy gear like 3 pdiamond shield nokazin resist wand etc...

just to say that frozen arrow is more than viable. Bowzons imo dont really need godly gear to kill and survive in hell, you just need 2x types of damage in the case of immunes, and a way to survive



Fred

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

sorry for the confusion,

i ment for pure-only phys (strafe, MS, GA, or magical with magic arrow skill) damage bow zons u need godly gear (at least in the weapon department=bow/xbow).

the elem (ice and/or fire bow skills) damage bow zons are a separate issue (and not very gear dependant. don't need godly gear), and frozen arrow is quite strong, though not too many use them. the frozen arrow is mana expensive but most people get around this with strafe for leeching as you mentioned already.

two types of bow zons:

1. physical (or magical) damage bow zons (require godly weapon and very gear dependant for survival + damage)

2. elem damage bow zons (does NOT require "good" gear. cheap gear builds. good damage from +elem damage from skill)

these two types of bow zons are completely different. specifying between the two is important. these two types of bow zons should NOT be lumped together under the general category of bow zons cuz of their major differences.
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sorry for the laziness, here's what i ment in more thoroughness and clarity:

there's only 3 and a "half" "good-powerful-cookie cutter" zon builds:

the 3:

1. lit-fc (*MELEE* not thrown, unless can do fc, though it's still is a melee skill-attack) jav (or spear, but than no fury) main skills are charged strike and lightning strike, and the occasionally-sparingly used skill is (thrown) fury (if u using a jav) zon
2. poison (ranged-thrown) jav zon
3. frozen arrow (ranged-shot) bow (or xbow) zon

the "half":

1. fury (ranged-thrown) jav zon (this build also uses the melee lit skills charged strike and lightning strike but the emphasis-focus is on fury and maxing its-fury's damage, instead of the melee lit skills like with the lit-fc melee zon build)

 

[Scooch]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Stats needed for build?

Edit: Also is there any way to speed up the delay between casts of plague javelins, like would faster cast, IAS help?

 

[HegemonKhan]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

FCR only speeds up the *casting* of a spell. it does NOT speed up the spell itself. for example: ice bolt. FCR does NOT make the ice bolts move faster. it DOES quicken the time to create the ice bolt and release it. FCR does NOT reduce the time delays of some skills (these are hardcoded and not effected by FCR) like blizzard. the time before u can re-cast blizzard can't be changed by FCR, however the cast can be sped up by FCR. the blizzard spell's actual attack is NOT faster, though (just its creation ONCE the time delay is up).

the plague javelin skills are a bit weird. the javelin throw is obviously a weapon attack (IAS effected) and NOT a casted spell (FCR effected). but the poison is a casted spell (i think, or maybe it's not). i don't think FCR effects poison duration. if FCR does anything for poison javelin it might make the poison clouds apear quicker, but that would be it i think..

 

[GiorgoZ]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

1.hi Fred i liked your guide and i tried one of these zons in sc! but it seems to me she is slow (if not very slow) in killing monsters at the time my zon is lvl 28 so i havent max pj yet... i just wanted to ask if this gonna be better or it will remain so slow...even with max pj+synergy

2. I also play a magezon in hc at the time lvl 26 i'd like to find a guide for classic but it is pain in the *** to find one since everyone is playing FA/Strafe... is this gonna work for me or should i try FA/strafe? I saw somewhere you wrote you have one FA/strafe in hc... can you tell me what you did? and do you have an idea if magezons work? for hc.

ty GiorgoZ

 

[beyondtime]

Re: Guide to the Pvm psn javazon

Hi Im gonna try the psn javazon guide, now im wondering what stats I need.

Str: ?
Dex:?
Vit:?
nrg:?