Guardian Connie - Untwinked Lightning Fury Tankzon

lizard

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Apr 13, 2021
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Introduction


I purchased D2:R on the switch to play while I travel or on the couch. Due to restricted storage (compared to GoMule), I decided to concentrate my efforts on untwinked characters, one at a time. The ultimate goal would be to achieve level 99 and beat Ubers, all on HC.
I always liked Amazon, because I generally enjoy ranged characters in ARPGs and Connie is the third generation of Amazons on the switch. The first was Appolonia, who took part in @Babyhell March of the Damned Tournament, the second character was Kay, a MP LF Amazon, who died to the Ancients on NM. To revenge her fallen sisters, Connie would step up to tackle the depths of Hell and reached her first milestone

Guardian Connie

Connie_cropped.jpg

Connie started as standard LF Amazon focusing on CS first until LF unlocks at level 30. Since 2.4 and the fixing of the D/A/E bugs I decided to invest more points there and lean more into Tankzon, which benefits my playstyle (slow and methodical) and the fact that Connie only has one life. Due to how S&E works on the switch every mistake is potentially deadly, because there is no pause in the menu. I generally don't abuse S&E to save me from death, but I do like to hit pause to mentally regroup and get the adrenaline down, where I assess the situation and think of a plan to get out of the situation. On the switch however, there is no such failsafe, which makes it more exciting and more dangerous than on PC.

My skill build up until NM A2 was:
CS 20
LF 20
D/A/E: enough to hit ~48%
1 in Valk
3 in Pierce

In nightmare I decided to max Poison and Plague Javelin to have a way to deal with lightning immunes, come Hell. Relying on the merc was not really an option, because i needed the Insight aura and a higher damage base was always out of reach for me. For all of Nightmare, Gulzar used a Rare Poleaxe until I finally found a 4 socket eth Halberd, which would be his weapon for the rest of the run. Damage from LF was enough at this point to get me through the game. The changes in synergy to CS really hurt me here, because even though the LF damage was fine, CS damage was severely lacking, the removal of the LF synergy from CS is a big loss if you can't invest 20 more points into lightning strike or power strike. I did not want to rely on Wand charges to break resists and be stuck on unbreakable LIs. In addition, switching weapons on Console is a bit iffy and casting curses relies on getting relatively close to monsters. SC folks would probably just run away from LIs and avoid any LI areas while questing, but this is not really an option for me as a HC character, who likes to kill all boss packs I encounter. I needed to find a way to deal with LIs without trying to rely on LR or my Merc.
This is why I decided fairly early to invest 35-40 points into poison jav skills, assuming I would hit lvl 84 once I defeat Hell Baal. 40 points into LF/CS, 35-40 into poison, rest into passive tree.

My Gear in NM was as follows:

Head: Gemmed Great Helm (3x Perfect Topaz)
Torso: Peace in Light Plate
Gloves: Chance Guards
Belt: Lapis Sharkskin Belt of the Squid 19 CRes 75 Life
Boots: Crimson Chain Boots of Luck 8 FRes 35 MF
Amu: Maiden Amulet of the Leech
Ring1: 28 LRes 23 FRes 14 Energy 11 MF
Ring2: 27 FRes 6 CRes 42 Mana 13 MF
Weap: Throwing Spear of Quickness
Shield: Rhyme in Large Shield

Charms:
4@ LC
12@ GC
23 PRes GC
18 LRes 12 FHR GC
22 CRes 3 Str GC
10 CRes SC
Several 5-7 PRes SCs

By the end of NM I thought I had to ditch Peace and make Smoke to max resists in Hell, but due to my collection of charms I could continue to use Peace and enjoy the additional Skill points.
I wanted to lean more into defense and decided to go for max block, by utilizing Rhyme in a Tower shield, which I could finally make in A4 of NM after I found another Shael rune. Tower shield has the highest block chance in the game on a normal shield with low str reqs. Rhyme also gives huge boosts to blocking, MF, CBF, All res. A dream for HC and the best option to go for, because i can't farm for something like Moser's Blessed Circle or Whitstan's Guard. Even if I had those, I would probably still use Rhyme in a Tower shield.

(Sidenote: I honestly think some of the early/midgame RWs are way too strong for what they cost to make. Namely, Leaf, Stealth, Spirit!!!, Rhyme. But that is a topic for another thread.)

For a suitable weapon, i was checking vendors for Throwing spears of Quickness with any useful prefixes throughout nightmare, but came up short. I did not want to spent a lot of time shopping for a +3/40 IAS TS or 3/20 gloves, i wanted to play the games. On my way to Baal I found this in the WSK.


Tyrael smiled on me that day and gifted me Titan's Revenge (174% ED non eth).
This fixed a bunch of my issues. the +4 skills helped with damage, 30 FRW offset some of the penalty from the armor and shield and 20 dex would help me achieve max block easier.

To Hell and beyond


I entered Hell at level 75-ish and used my NM respec to change my set up to max block.

Skill for Hell:
Charged Strike: 20
Lightning Fury: 20
Plague Jav: 20
Poison Jav: Rest
D/A/E: enough to hit ~48-50% (6/2/6)
Valkyrie: 1
Pierce: 1

Str: enough for gear (75)
Dex: enough for max block (150-170 by the end of Hell)
Vit: Rest

Head: Lore Great Helm
Torso: Peace in Light Plate
Gloves: Chance Guards -> Later Frostburns to help with Mana
Belt: Lapis Sharkskin Belt of the Squid 19 CRes 75 Life
Boots: Crimson Chain Boots of Luck 8 FRes 35 MF
Amu: Prismatic Amulet of Regrowth 26@ 10 Replenish Life
Ring1: 28 LRes 23 FRes 14 Energy 11 MF
Ring2: 27 FRes 6 CRes 42 Mana 13 MF
Weap: Titan's Revenge
Shield: Rhyme in Tower Shield

I remained P8 SP throughout NM except bosses and Ancients. For Hell I turned difficulty to P1 and decided against killing all monsters in every area, as I had done for the previous difficulties, instead I would take the fasted route to the Act bosses, completing all the quests. Still no dedicated farming was done in Hell.
My strategy worked quite well in Hell and was a ton of fun to play. Plague Javelin dealt with LIs and LF dealt with the rest. I occasionally went into the fray to CS some uniques, but never felt in too much danger thanks to D/A/E and max block. Act Bosses were a bit of a larger challenge due to my limited single target damage but I was able to outlast them and chip them down with LF and CS. The only thing that was a bit of a waste was the one point in Valkyrie, she died almost instantly to boss packs and only offered limited distraction, and was replaced by the CtC Valkyrie from Peace.

The real challenge I faced were the Ancients, I attempted them several times with this set up, but taking them 1v3 was not really an option I wanted to do. My merc and the Valkyrie were no match and folded almost immediately. After a dozen or so failed attempts, I decided to respec into max Valkyrie for her to be able to tank most of the damage from the Ancients for me. After 1 or 2 rerolls, due to double LI, i managed to defeat them one after the other.


Shortly after, Baal would fall as well.


Guardian Connie.jpg

Reflections and Future Plans

In hindsight, I think focusing on CS instead of LF would have been a better choice, with the defensive set-up I wound up running in the end. I imagine CS with one or two synergies maxed + plague jav could have worked equally well and would give me better single target damage, while taking full advantage of the tankzon package. Nevertheless LF +1, together with PJ +1 is a potent and fun way to quest a Javazon, who is not afraid of no gloams.

Moving forward, my ultimate end goal has not changed. The eye remains on level 99 and Ubers. For this, I will have to do a considerable amount of farming: basic S/U, key farming and Rune farming.
My current rotation is Countess -> Summoner -> Shenk/Eldritch/Pindle -> Cows. I am thinking of entering the MFO with this Character to run Pindle/Shenk/Eldritch. With some adjustments I can reach ~200 MF and we will see how much I can find with that. Some essence farming is also necessary to respec to a Uber capable Jabazon and back to pure LF Javazon for Rune farming.

Nuggets


I found this Magic Colossus Blade and almost did not pick it up, but thought to myself, maybe it's a Cruel weapon. and sure enough.
Cruel Colossus Sword of Alacrity.jpg
Don't know what to do with it yet, but open to ideas.

2x Ist One from Hellforge, one in NM Cows
3x Lem
1x Fal
2x Lum
8x Dol
8x Sol
3x Io
3x Hel
4x Shael
 

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Superb character writeup and very nice to see plague javelin combined with other skills! Congratulations!

Unless something has changed drastically the single point in valkyrie is necessary to keep the valkyrie summoned from peace from disappearing in a few seconds, so not a wasted skillpoint. I don't know if that was fixed in Ressurrected though.
 
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Congrats on the Guardian! I knew they had improved Plague Javelin in D2R, and it's cool to see it worked well for you. Love the thoroughness of the write up... what a great read!
 
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Thanks. Happy you enjoyed the read. I always look forward to reading your post @Maltatai and love what you do with screenshots.

I did not know you needed a point in Valk for it to work in D2L, will check on D2R, when I respec.

Yeah Plague Jav is really good now (even though I never played it in D2L, to be honest), even without maxed poison jav the damage is decent and the delay is still a tiny bit annoying, but it works out fine.
 
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Nice character and awesome it was on the Switch, just hard for me to get into playing D2:R on it, but I know my buddy loves it as well. GL on the rest of the characters and your progress towards 99
 
Nice character and awesome it was on the Switch, just hard for me to get into playing D2:R on it, but I know my buddy loves it as well. GL on the rest of the characters and your progress towards 99

Spell targeting is not ideal without mouse, but I could maybe get used to it if I started a sorc. The use of the curse wand on weapon switch was something I could never get used to and felt vulnerable switching mid fight, but ranged and melee works really well on controller.
 
Really great write-up! Thanks for taking the time to share. I too am thinking of LF/CS zon to play towards end game. I've never been drawn to the fishyzon, but think maybe using poison skills will be the way to go as a second skill. Perhaps with Infinity the CS/LF zon will not need the poison back-up. Maybe I missed it, but did you have a HF or might merc?
 
Really great write-up! Thanks for taking the time to share. I too am thinking of LF/CS zon to play towards end game. I've never been drawn to the fishyzon, but think maybe using poison skills will be the way to go as a second skill. Perhaps with Infinity the CS/LF zon will not need the poison back-up. Maybe I missed it, but did you have a HF or might merc?
Thanks.

Its an HF merc i dont think i mention him in the post. Gear is really scuffed. Insight in eth Halberd, Duriels and Wormskull i think. Fishyzonn is worse now because of the CS synergy changes. Plague jav is quite good now, got a bunch of damage and only 1 synergy.
 
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