Matriarch Astrape - A Freezing Arrow/Lightning Fury Javazon

[Peytron]

Hello All,

It is time to introduce Astrape. Named after the one of the twin Greek goddesses who carried Zeus' thunderbolts, she is of course primarily a Lightning Fury/Charged Strike Amazon. She was the second Matriarch in set of seven questing characters. Her twin Bronte will be the Spear Amazon in my next set of seven characters. I don't have a detailed write up of the first few of the seven since posting here was an afterthought but I figure I will give them each their own thread for completeness sake.

Spoiler: What I always say

Spoiler: What I always say
Each character must go solo through the game using gear found either themselves, or from one of my other single player characters. They must quest at at least players 3 without significant respecs. By significant respec I mean not changing main skill trees, e.g. playing a Meteorb through normal and nightmare and then switching into a pure Blizzard or Lightning Sorceress, or playing Whirlwind Barbarian and then respecing into Berserk.
In general these characters have to kill every monster pack they encounter on their quest. That is, not skip the tough ones. The odd Flayer or Fallen that runs away we don't chase down. They don't have to clear every level, or explore every inch of the map, just kill every pack that is in their way.

Skill Distribution:
Javelin and Spear - 20 points in Charged Strike, 20 points in Lightning Fury, plus 1 point in the 7 prerequisites. Later I put 6 extra points into Lightning Strike as a synergy.
Passive and Magic - Originally I had one points in every skill in this tree and casted Valkyrie. She never seemed to do much and became more of a burden due to the points in Dodge/Evade causing issues so she was dropped. At the end of her quest she had one point in Pierce and the two prerequisites.
Bow and Crossbow - 20 points in Cold Arrow, 20 points in Freezing Arrow, plus one prerequisite.

Stat Points:
Strength - Enough to equip a Monarch Shield (156)
Dexterity - Enough for the unique javelins (151)
Vitality - All the rest
Energy - Nil

Gear:
Helm - Tarnhelm (later "upped") -> Harlequin Quest Shako socketed with a Perfect Topaz
Armour - Arctic Furs -> Stealth Rune Word -> Skullder's Ire socked with a Perfect Topaz
Boots - Rare +Resist/Run Walk/+MF Boots -> War Traveler's
Gloves - Chance Guards -> Rare +2 Javelin Skills/+Lightning Resist/+22 Magic Find Bramble Mitts
Belt - Goldwrap -> Razortail
Weapon/Shield - Rare Javelins -> Titan's Revenge with Moser's Circle socketed with two Perfect Diamonds. On switch is a Witchwild String
Rings - Raven Frost/Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
Amulet - Eye of Etlitch -> Rare +2 Javelin/6 Life Leech/+7 Magic Find
Charms - Gheed's Fortune, 2 Javelin/Spear Skillers, assorted +5-10% single resist and +3-4% Magic Find small charms
Mercenary:
Aura: Defiance
Helm - Wormskull -> Tal Rasha's
Armour - Stealth -> Duriel's -> Treachery
Weapon - Malice -> Insight Rune Word in a Thresher

Her Quest:
I must say this one was difficult to get started. Between having to constantly repair and purchase javelin and arrows, and not investing skill points in the early levels it was quite a grind.
Once Lightning Fury and Titan's Revenge came into play the situation changed. She began to fry pretty much everything in her path. With the Bow on switch utilising the cold skills she did not encounter a single pack or unique she could not handle.
We found so many Matriarchal and Grand Matron Bows with +3 Skills, but alas none rolled 3 open sockets to roll a Melody for some increased damage.

Our original goal was to use to clear the Moo Moo Farm to hopefully find the Cow King's Horns, along with Chaos Sanctuary and the Worldstone Keep.

I have not played her much at all after she finished her quest but she is being brought out to play in the Rune Finding League! She has decided to leave her bow in her stash for this and instead equip newly found Thunderstroke Javelins on switch. We're just not efficient enough with her runs and keep running out of Javelins, mostly due to hitting straggler Hell Bovines instead of moving onto the next packs. We obviously could increase her damage by doing a reset at Akara, but she is staying a Freezing Arrow/Lightning Fury hybrid.

Her "Grail" finds (Something tells me she wants to be M'avina, we also found the Diadem but I can't seem to find the proof):
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Her Rune Finds:
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[DariusTriplet]

Nicely done! Agreed on the sudden transformation at level 30 - my last Javazon was a hopeless slog for 1-29, then suddenly became unstoppable the moment I put a point into LF and Pierce.

Depending on how many Amn and Ral runes you found, it may be worthwhile to try socketing a +3 skills Mat Bow/GMB via the cube, although I don't recall offhand if it keeps automods while getting sockets.

 

[Peytron]

Nicely done! Agreed on the sudden transformation at level 30 - my last Javazon was a hopeless slog for 1-29, then suddenly became unstoppable the moment I put a point into LF and Pierce.

Depending on how many Amn and Ral runes you found, it may be worthwhile to try socketing a +3 skills Mat Bow/GMB via the cube, although I don't recall offhand if it keeps automods while getting sockets.

Thanks!

You triggered my interest on the mods, so I decided to roll a couple +2 skill GMBs to see what would happen. Both kept +2 and of course they got 4 sockets and 5 sockets each.

I'm not up enough on bow statistics to know if it would be worth rolling my white +3 Ceremonial bows. I'm guessing maybe since it isn't the physical damage I'm looking for after all...

 

[teddeeboy]

Congrats on hybrid Zon Mat and nice write up. Personally I really like this build. I had one of these in 1.11 on enjoyed running the AT. She was build a little different to yours with base vita and enough for str and rest into dex for the pierce on bow switch.

Also if twinked, to speed up the normal consider a few 5 socket long bows with some topazes , flawed at 5 , topazes at 12 and Ptopazes at 18 with sigon's gloves and another piece for 30 IAS with MS and strafe until LF is available and if you do not want to use cheese tactics using a 1.09 ravenclaw or khalim's will

I also used on upped Wizendraw with a shael on switch for the -%ECR which is great for increasing damage using FA. The WWS gives you the third and fourth source of damage for dual immunes and 40 res@ which is great for questing.

Also you can use the decoy to help tank and scout and get it without the DAE issue.

It is great you played her without the high end RWs

 

[T72on1]

Congrats on the mat. Hybrids are often very fun and nice characters.

I must admit I'm surprised you had a hard time at the early levels. With some twinking gear, it's not hard to reach level 18, even without points invested in skills. At that point Charged Strike becomes available. Since it's a prereq and synergy for LF, there is no reason not to invest points in it. As far as my experience with the skill goes, it's a big killer throughout the game, so also early on.

 

[Peytron]

Congrats on the mat. Hybrids are often very fun and nice characters.

I must admit I'm surprised you had a hard time at the early levels. With some twinking gear, it's not hard to reach level 18, even without points invested in skills. At that point Charged Strike becomes available. Since it's a prereq and synergy for LF, there is no reason not to invest points in it. As far as my experience with the skill goes, it's a big killer throughout the game, so also early on.

Thanks!

I think my lack of experience with Amazon likely contributed to the slow start. I do believe this is my first ever Amazon to quest through the game so I did have to get used to the play style. It may have just been frustrating due to having to swap javelins and replenish arrows all the time. It likely would have been smoother at a lower players setting until level 18 or 30.

When I get around to the Spear wielding Amazon in the next set we will focus more points into Charged Strike when it becomes available and see how that goes.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback.