Matriarch Antiope FA/Strafer
I had spent a major portion of my D2 1.09 time playing an over-powered GA/LF Zon that could that could wipe out anything with little difficulty, but when I saw how comparatively weak she was in 1.10 with the nerfing (correcting) of the GA piercing bug, I had shied away from making a Zon in 1.10. So, it was with reluctance that I started Antiope, a Frozen Arrow/Strafer who would hopefully be the Amazon portion of my 1.10 7/7 Mat/Pat at players 8 all the way goal.
I started her as a break from playing my Frenzy Barb when he reached Hell and she was so much fun that I stuck with her exclusively until she reached Mat last night. As usual, she played the entire way at players 8 and for my second character in a row was blemished by only one death, a kind of embarrassing death at that. She was killed by Hell Diablo (I think this was the first kill he has ever got on one of my characters) when he caught her in a bone prison and fried her to death as her potions ran out before she could break her way free. I had gotten too overconfident with her and didn’t care that her fire resistance was only at 60%, a mistake I won’t make again.
She was totally dominant in Nightmare. The auto-target on Strafe was great for handling large groups of monsters quickly, especially when firing away at a blazing quick 9/2 speed. Hell proved quite a bit more difficult and time consuming to complete. In fact, it took her a full 3 hours from the time she arrived at the Ancients until Ball fell. I don’t think she would make much of a Baal runner.
Freezing Arrow, which I really didn’t use much until Hell, was great against any group of non-CI monsters. Just freeze the group, strafe away until the freeze wears off and repeat.
Random thoughts:
-The Demon Limb on switch helped out my attack rating quite a bit so with the enchant I was hitting around 90% on most monsters.
-Switching to Atma’s Scarab worked quite nicely for handling PI’s.
-The high level Valk was a better tank than my merc was. She out-lived him in many battles.
-Slow Missiles was a nice skill to use against those red-ball spewing PI birds which I think are the toughest monsters in the game for physical damage based characters to handle.
I didn’t have much MF gear on her, so I guess not surprisingly, she didn’t find much in the way of items. However, she did find these 2 nice looking charms:
Fine Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x4e26a356
+13 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shimmering Grand Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xcdd96756
+6 to Strength
All Resistances +15
FA Strafer: Antiope
Level 89
End Game Gear:
Diadem (3 jewels with total stats of 45% IAS, 24% ED, 27% Light Resist)
CoH
Windforce (34% ED/ 15% IAS jewel)
Laying of Hands
Razortail (T-God’s for Gloams)
War Travelers
Raven Frost
Carrion Wind
Highlord’s (Atma’s Scarab for PI’s)
Passive & Magic GC's x 3
Switch:
Demon Limb
Lidless Wall
Merc:
Might
Elite Duriel's Shell
Andariel’s Visage (ethereal)
The Reaper's Toll (ethereal)
Stats - base (with gear):
Str 95 (145)
Dex 230 (279)
Vit 195 (205)
Ene 15 (15)
Life 926
Mana 187
Resists 70% Fire, 29% Cold, 75% Light, 75% Poison
Damage: (with Might aura & enchant from Demon Limb)
Strafe 408-3621
Freezing Arrow 485-4139 plus 1291-1365 cold damage
Attack Rating:
Strafe 9657
Freezing Arrow 13970
Skills - base (with gear):
Bow & Crossbow:
20 (23) Strafe
20 (23) Cold Arrow
20 (23) Freezing Arrow
1 (4) Magic Arrow
1 (4) Multi Shot
1 (4) Guided Arrow
1 (4) Ice Arrow
Passive & Magic:
15 (21) Valkyrie
13 (19) Penetrate
1 (7) All Others
I had spent a major portion of my D2 1.09 time playing an over-powered GA/LF Zon that could that could wipe out anything with little difficulty, but when I saw how comparatively weak she was in 1.10 with the nerfing (correcting) of the GA piercing bug, I had shied away from making a Zon in 1.10. So, it was with reluctance that I started Antiope, a Frozen Arrow/Strafer who would hopefully be the Amazon portion of my 1.10 7/7 Mat/Pat at players 8 all the way goal.
I started her as a break from playing my Frenzy Barb when he reached Hell and she was so much fun that I stuck with her exclusively until she reached Mat last night. As usual, she played the entire way at players 8 and for my second character in a row was blemished by only one death, a kind of embarrassing death at that. She was killed by Hell Diablo (I think this was the first kill he has ever got on one of my characters) when he caught her in a bone prison and fried her to death as her potions ran out before she could break her way free. I had gotten too overconfident with her and didn’t care that her fire resistance was only at 60%, a mistake I won’t make again.
She was totally dominant in Nightmare. The auto-target on Strafe was great for handling large groups of monsters quickly, especially when firing away at a blazing quick 9/2 speed. Hell proved quite a bit more difficult and time consuming to complete. In fact, it took her a full 3 hours from the time she arrived at the Ancients until Ball fell. I don’t think she would make much of a Baal runner.
Freezing Arrow, which I really didn’t use much until Hell, was great against any group of non-CI monsters. Just freeze the group, strafe away until the freeze wears off and repeat.
Random thoughts:
-The Demon Limb on switch helped out my attack rating quite a bit so with the enchant I was hitting around 90% on most monsters.
-Switching to Atma’s Scarab worked quite nicely for handling PI’s.
-The high level Valk was a better tank than my merc was. She out-lived him in many battles.
-Slow Missiles was a nice skill to use against those red-ball spewing PI birds which I think are the toughest monsters in the game for physical damage based characters to handle.
I didn’t have much MF gear on her, so I guess not surprisingly, she didn’t find much in the way of items. However, she did find these 2 nice looking charms:
Fine Small Charm of Good Luck
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x4e26a356
+13 to Attack Rating
+3 to Maximum Damage
7% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Shimmering Grand Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xcdd96756
+6 to Strength
All Resistances +15
FA Strafer: Antiope
Level 89
End Game Gear:
Diadem (3 jewels with total stats of 45% IAS, 24% ED, 27% Light Resist)
CoH
Windforce (34% ED/ 15% IAS jewel)
Laying of Hands
Razortail (T-God’s for Gloams)
War Travelers
Raven Frost
Carrion Wind
Highlord’s (Atma’s Scarab for PI’s)
Passive & Magic GC's x 3
Switch:
Demon Limb
Lidless Wall
Merc:
Might
Elite Duriel's Shell
Andariel’s Visage (ethereal)
The Reaper's Toll (ethereal)
Stats - base (with gear):
Str 95 (145)
Dex 230 (279)
Vit 195 (205)
Ene 15 (15)
Life 926
Mana 187
Resists 70% Fire, 29% Cold, 75% Light, 75% Poison
Damage: (with Might aura & enchant from Demon Limb)
Strafe 408-3621
Freezing Arrow 485-4139 plus 1291-1365 cold damage
Attack Rating:
Strafe 9657
Freezing Arrow 13970
Skills - base (with gear):
Bow & Crossbow:
20 (23) Strafe
20 (23) Cold Arrow
20 (23) Freezing Arrow
1 (4) Magic Arrow
1 (4) Multi Shot
1 (4) Guided Arrow
1 (4) Ice Arrow
Passive & Magic:
15 (21) Valkyrie
13 (19) Penetrate
1 (7) All Others