Matriarch/Patriarch/Guardian Archive Thread

Originally posted by NagisaFurukawa on Jan 7, 2010:

Champion Alice, Gunslinger (+Questions)

A what?

There's been a few of these fluttering about over the years, but in case the term is confusing, I present to you one of the most beautiful guides I've ever read, namely the one to Kijya's Gunslinger.

Build Goals
1) Create a character who can run 1.12a Chaos Sanctuary.

Why in heaven's name would I do a thing like this? Not too many people out there are willing to run the area, and with good reason, which by itself was enough reason for me to target it. The fact that it's more challenging than many other areas made it a refreshing possibility to a person who has spent much of time doing mindless (no offense) AT and LK runs.

That, and I felt the need to get back at little buggers like this, who've killed off many of my beloved characters. :p.

2) Ensure the character depletes less gold than I can make up for PvP'ing. :badteeth:
Enter the 'Faith' mercenary (even if she died quite when I first began running).

3) May not include "Blessed" or "Hammer" in the build description.
Enough said.

Random Information
12 Frame Jab (3 hits)
9 Frame Lightning Fury
7 Frame Charged Strike
7 FPA Multiple Shot
7 FPA Guided Arrow
2 Frame Strafe (bugged)

53% CS/DS (Bow Switch)
69% FRW
89% MF
75% Block
20% FHR

'Faith'ful Mercenary, Floria

Javelin Tree (+15|-): 20 Lightning Fury / Charged Strike, 1 Jab, 20 Lightning Strike, 4 Power Strike
Passive Tree (+4|+2): 1 Each, except 4 Valkyrie
Bow Tree (-|+2): 9 Multiple Shot, 1 Strafe, 1 Guided Arrow, 1 Magic Arrow

Equipment
Javelin: Titan's Revenge (Ethereal, Upgraded)
Shield: Gemmed Monarch
Bow: 'Shael' Windforce
Helm: Kira's Guardian
Armor: 'Fortitude' Dusk Shroud
Gloves: Demon Claw
Belt: Razortail
Boots: War Traveler (49%)
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Ring: The Stone of Jordan
Ring: Dread Hold

Charms: 7x Harpoonist's GCs, 1x Gheed's, 8x Assorted SCs
Cube: Titan's Revenge (Ethereal, Upgraded)
Stash: 'Hel' Demon Limb

Mercenary
Bow: 'Faith' Superior Diamond Bow
Helm: Vampire Gaze (Ethereal)
Armor: 'Treachery' Mage Plate

GoMule Dump

Code:
Titan's Revenge
Matriarchal Javelin
Throw Damage: 174 - 334
One Hand Damage: 154 - 282
Quantity: 140
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 141
Fingerprint: 0x4d2e9e90
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
+30% Faster Run/Walk
187% Enhanced Damage
Adds 25 - 50 Damage
8% Life stolen per hit
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
Increased Stack Size
Replenishes quantity
Required Level +7
Ethereal

Titan's Revenge
Matriarchal Javelin
Throw Damage: 162 - 311
One Hand Damage: 143 - 263
Quantity: 71
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 97
Required Dexterity: 141
Fingerprint: 0x73797a95
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
+30% Faster Run/Walk
164% Enhanced Damage
Adds 25 - 50 Damage
6% Life stolen per hit
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
Increased Stack Size
Replenishes quantity
Required Level +7
Ethereal

Windforce
Hydra Bow
Two Hand Damage: 35 - 506
Durability: 50 of 55
Required Level: 73
Required Strength: 134
Required Dexterity: 167
Fingerprint: 0x7b58b3f
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Increased Attack Speed
250% Enhanced Damage
+268 to Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
6% Mana stolen per hit
Knockback
+10 to Strength
+5 to Dexterity
Heal Stamina Plus 30%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Gemmed Monarch
Monarch
Defense: 137
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0x7fc4f3c5
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
200% Chance to cast level 82 Sacrifice when you Level-Up
200% Chance to cast level 94 Zeal when you Die
Adds 4 - 296 Lightning Damage
-16% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+13% to Lightning Skill Damage
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Socketed: Rainbow Facet
Socketed: Rainbow Facet

Kira's Guardian
Tiara
Defense: 161
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Level: 77
Fingerprint: 0x1010794
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+117 Defense
All Resistances +80
Cannot Be Frozen
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shimmering Jewel of Fervor

Fortitude
Dusk Shroud
ElSolDolLo
Defense: 1416
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 59
Required Strength: 77
Fingerprint: 0x4cce8dce
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+25% Faster Cast Rate
300% Enhanced Damage
+200% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+86 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Replenish Life +7
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
All Resistances +27
Damage Reduced by 7
12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1 to Light Radius
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: El Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Dol Rune
Socketed: Lo Rune

Demon Claw
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 6
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0xe0abe817
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+20% Increased Attack Speed
3% Life stolen per hit
8% Chance of Crushing Blow
+4 to Dexterity
+11 to Life
Cold Resist +25%

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 103
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x87d0149
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Piercing Attack
+10 to Maximum Damage
+140% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+15 to Dexterity
Attacker Takes Damage of (Based on Character Level) 86

War Traveler
Battle Boots
Defense: 125
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0xaf240049
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+25% Faster Run/Walk
Adds 15 - 25 Damage
+161% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
40% Slower Stamina Drain
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
49% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+30 Maximum Durability

Highlord's Wrath
Amulet
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x64ee487a
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 1 - 30 Lightning Damage
32% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
Lightning Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 15

The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x5787976a
Item Level: 99
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
Adds 1 - 12 Lightning Damage
+20 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 25%

Dread Hold
Ring
Required Level: 74
Fingerprint: 0xf55345d7
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+26 to Attack Rating
6% Mana stolen per hit
+19 to Strength
+28 to Life
+47 to Mana
Fire Resist +25%

Demon Limb
Tyrant Club
One Hand Damage: 96 - 175
Durability: 65 of 65
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 107
Fingerprint: 0x896f4b3a
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
202% Enhanced Damage
+123% Damage to Demons
+150% Damage to Undead
Adds 222 - 333 Fire Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
Fire Resist +20%
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
Level 23 Enchant (4/20 Charges)
Requirements -20%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Hel Rune

Jade Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xdb544c2
Item Level: 73
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Poison Resist +9%

Fine Small Charm of Life
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x1bab47d2
Item Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+11 to Attack Rating
+10 to Life

Coral Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x319da01
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+16 to Life
Lightning Resist +8%

Sapphire Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x40f5399a
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Cold Resist +11%

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x439de3ae
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+17 to Attack Rating
+18 to Life

Fine Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0x4e291f2b
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+3 to Maximum Damage
+17 to Attack Rating
+13 to Life

Russet Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x85a115e0
Item Level: 68
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+18 to Life
Fire Resist +7%

Fine Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x958cdf5f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Maximum Damage
+10 to Attack Rating
+19 to Life

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x75846c8c
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+20 to Life

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Greed
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xb57e2065
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
21% Extra Gold from Monsters

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x39843d55
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+7% Faster Run/Walk

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Inertia
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x6dbea34f
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+7% Faster Run/Walk

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x81b55a05
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+14 to Life

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Dexterity
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x2106a776
Item Level: 69
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+3 to Dexterity

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Dexterity
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x5e97ab2f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
+4 to Dexterity

Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x57691fb0
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
103% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 10%
40% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Faith
Superior Diamond Bow
OhmJahLemEld
Two Hand Damage: 146 - 178
Durability: 33 of 40
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 89
Required Dexterity: 132
Fingerprint: 0xb162df43
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Level 15 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped
+1 to All Skills
345% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
300% Bonus to Attack Rating
+1 to Attack Rating
+75% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
Adds 120 - 120 Fire Damage
All Resistances +15
10% Reanimate as: Returned
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Ohm Rune
Socketed: Jah Rune
Socketed: Lem Rune
Socketed: Eld Rune

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 378
Durability: 21 of 21
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 48
Fingerprint: 0x2f32993e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 6 - 22 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
8% Mana stolen per hit
6% Life stolen per hit
+100% Enhanced Defense
+16 Maximum Stamina
15% Slower Stamina Drain
Damage Reduced by 20%
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
Ethereal
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Maroon Jewel of Fervor

Treachery
Mage Plate
ShaelThulLem
Defense: 258
Durability: 60 of 60
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0x6a838e30
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
5% Chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck
25% Chance to cast level 15 Venom on striking
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
+45% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Lem Rune

Help Needed
Bowside Damage:
Her lightning damage cuts it reasonably on any players setting, but her bowside damage begins taking a hit on higher settings. This seems to be a problem with everyone who has made one of these, but does anyone have any suggestions? I've tried the following:

1) Swap 5x Harpoonist's GCs for 1.12 Sharp/1.07 Serrated GCs. This dropped her lightinng damage quite a bit, while not improving her bow damage by an extremely large margin.

2) Add spare points (3 currently) into Critical Strike / Penetrate. I'm not sure how much this would help, but it's not like her lightning skills need much more buffing, which leads me to the next problem...

Spare Points: I plan on leveling her up to about 94+ eventually, which means she'll have plenty of spare skill points. As I stated above, I don't feel the need to improve her lightning much, so does anyone have suggestions? Her Valkyrie dies quite a bit, but not so much that it renders her useless. Critical Strike adds a few extra percentage points of double damage, while Penetrate improves AR. Pierce increases LF/Strafe damage (since it isn't at 100%), but neither really needs much help. Multiple Shot for more arrows? Strafe for additional arrows?

LI/PIs: LI/PIs take a while to kill. It's not annoying by any stretch, but I typically resort to spamming her very weak Magic Arrow to pin something against a wall, while the rogue picks away with her Fire Arrow. Are there any better solutions? There aren't very many of these, as only one monster type (?) can have these mods, so it doesn't detract much, but a solution (points in Fire Arrow / Cold Arrow / Magic Arrow?) would be nice of course.

Quick Comments
Questing:
Lightning Fury and Charged Strike. Does this really need much explaining? :D. I also tested on some very nice items I got from Tanksaabas along the way (which I'll attempt to feature with a future build; fear not) every so often, but being without Vitality / resists / FRW / essentially everything else caught up pretty quickly at that point. :crazyeyes:

Run Times: As with my previous hybrid (retired at 92), she takes a pretty casual approach, and doesn't really have any MF to speak of, so she's mostly just for fun. Run times were about 10 minutes when I first started, but got down to about 7 minutes now that I have a better feel for Iron Maiden. Still slothlike, I know. omgwt*bbqpwned requested these some ages ago, so I finally got around to them after 1.5 character's worth of practice. I still make plenty of silly mistakes / poor decisions along the way, but I never liked things like taping only perfect runs / editing out lost duels / etc. anyway. Run #1. Run #2. Sound off is suggested.

For those without 'Faith', etc.: I tested the build with a rare bow instead of Windforce, 'Treachery' instead of 'Fortitude', and 'Harmony' instead of 'Faith'. It worked just fine to be perfectly honest. The bowside was noticeably weaker, but it could still kill the finger mages (assuming that's what they're called?), and you can get away with using the javelin side for most everything anyway, plus the Vigor (and CTCs on 'Treachery') proved nice to have as well.

Closing Remarks: As I've probably hinted at, she's a very enjoyable character to play, one I'd recommend you at least try at some point or another. Sure, she's a cookie cutter of the highest degree, but low vitality, high damage builds are always quite fun, and her versatility keeps her quite interesting, or at least I believe so.

Future Plans
Assuming I've got the time, she'll be in and out CS quite a bit, possibly participating in MF tournaments, though she obviously wouldn't perform very well. She might hit up the Pits as well, as she can clear the area quite nicely.

As far as her gear, it's essentially finalized, although improvements could obviously be made, such as with a Jeweler's Monarch of [Life Mod] with 4x 5/-5 Lightning Facets. :badteeth:

Once she can muster more life from her gear, she might give /p5 or /p8 another go; but having only 600 at the moment makes one hit kills a distinct possibility on higher settings. She might also get around to killing the Ancients eventually, as it's not like she's going for 99, but that opens the door for MP Baal runs for levels. :whistling:

Thanks
Thanks to Kijya for the guide, of course, as well as for many of his posts in this thread, which secretly helped me with picking out options for gear.

I'd also like to thank the many people who contributed items to my pseudo-trophy character, including but not limited to omg, maareek, scottee, smokeeblade, Rummski, Paradigmshift, EightDigitSin, and others.

Last, thanks to all those who helped me level my previous test-hybrid in Baal runs (even if she did all the killing; 😉), as well as to the SPF (and possibly others) for support and reading.

Questions? Criticism? Petitions to be a judge in the SPF Awards? :)p)

And in case you think I made a 'normal' named character, she is named for Alice Carroll from Aria. :p.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Obdob on Oct 23, 2010:

Septumverate Complete!

Figured I needed to complete at least one sept eventually, so, thar she blows!

ObdonSept.jpg
My memory is a bit fuzzy on some of these, but I'll see what I can remember.
I guess I'll go in order of completion...

First up, Emeralda!
EmeraldaStat.jpg
She was my starter for the 1.13 ladder put on by mattinm. She started out using Orb/Fireball
till I got fed up with how weak Frozen Orb was being. Then she respec'd to pure Blizzard for
some MFing untill I grew tired of skipping cold immunes, and now she's a Blova sorc. Blova is
alright, but I really prefer Blizzball. I may change her, but for now she wrecks the countess
with ease.

Skills:
Ice Bolt: 13
Ice Blast: 20
Glacial Spike: 1
Blizzard: 20
CM: 1

Static: 1
Nova: 20
Tk: 1
Tp: 1
LM: 20

Current Equipment:
Harlequin Crest(PTopaz)
Hoto Flail switch: Ali Baba
Spirit Monarch switch: Rhyme
Skin of the Vipermagi
Frostburn
Thundergod's Vigor
Rare Boots w/ resists (keep forgetting to replace these)
2 SoJ
Mara's Kaleidoscope

1x Cold Skiller

Merc:
A2 Prayer
Tal Helm
Treachery Wyrmhide
Insight Cryptic Axe (I heart Insight)

Her hellforge drops were... I have no idea, but they most likely pale in comparison to the Lo
rune she found in the Frozen River from one of those white, fluffy dudes (abomination?).
That Lo got me my first and only Grief
Grief.jpg
and leads me to the next one on the list.

Biggins
FlyingBiggins.jpg
By far my favorite character I've ever played.
Let's see... Twinked him with only a Biggin's Bonnet to start, all the rest of his stuff was
self-found until he could equip Arreat's Face (thank you Emeralda) and Grief (thank you white,
fluffy dude). At some point I had the runes for Treachery so I made him one, and then I had
the runes for Lawbringer. I really wanted to try out the sanctuary aura and I figured Decrepify
could help with those PI's, so I gave it a try... Holy crap...Grief/Lawbringer is stupid. It's
ridiculous how easy the game was from that point on. I mean, frenziers aren't hard without that
combo, but with it! Biggins was a friggin' monster!
His setup is a bit different now (eventually found another Lo for Fortitude), but I haven't had
the need or want to respec him.
BigginsStat.jpg

Skills:
Bash: 1
Leap: 1
LAk: 1
Double Swing: 20
Double Throw: 1
Frenzy: 20

Howl: 1
Taunt: 20
Shout: 1
Battle Cry: 1
BO: 20
Battle Command: 1
War Cry: 1
Find Potion: 1
Find Item: 1

Sword Mastery: 9
Iron Skin: 1
Natural Resistance: 1

Current Equipment:
Arreat's Face
Grief PB switch: 2x echoing
Lawbringer PB
Fortitude Archon Plate
Viper Claw (blood craft w/ 10%CB)
SoE
Gore Rider
Manald Heal
Raven Frost
Highlord's Wrath

Merc:
A2 Might
Blackhorn's Face
Duriel's Shell
Hone Sundan (AmnAmnShael)

Again, hellforge? who knows? NEXT!

Plethora
PlethoraPossy.jpg
Emeralda and Biggins found Titan's Revenge, Thunderstroke, Valkyrie Wing, and Razortail in one
afternoon. I figured the game was trying to tell me something, and Plethora was born. I had some
bows that I really wanted to try also, so I started her off with a few points in multi shot. I
probably should have gone fury first, but whatever, she eventually took down Baal. I used Harmony
to deal with LI's, I thought it would work better than it did (is elemental damage only added to
the 2 inside arrows?), all the LI's took forever to kill. Maybe I was just used to LF pwning the
rest of the enemies. I tried area running with her but she was so frustrating that I looked at some
guides and turned her into gunslinger, after finding an Eaglehorn.
PlethoraStat01.jpg
PlethoraStat02.jpg

Current Skills:
MA: 1
MS: 1
Ice Arrow: 1
GA: 1
Strafe: 20

Jab: 1
PS: 1
PJ: 1
LB: 1
CS: 20
Plague Jav: 1
LS: 4
LF: 20

CS: 14
Penetrate: 1
Pierce: 6
IS: 1
SM: 1
Decoy: 1

Current Equipment:
Valkyrie Wing (J00l of Fervor)
Titan't Revenge switch: Eaglehorn (Nef)
Spirit Monarch
Twitchthroe (J00l of Fervor)
LoH
Razortail
Silkweave
Manaled Heal
Rare Ring w/ Resists and AR
Atma's Scarab

3x Jav Skillers

Merc: (which she never uses anymore)
A2 HF
Stealskull
Iron Pelt
The Reaper's Toll

Hell Hellforge was an Um, I don't know how or why I remember that.

After Twinking 2 characters in a row, and noticing the wealth of rune drops in 1.13, I wanted to
see how an untwinked melee build would do.

Jobo
I had always gone the bear route, so this time I decided to try a Fury wolf and see why everyone
in the druid forum loves them so much.
Jobo
JoboEnd.jpg
was really fun, and I really felt like I accomplished something when I pat'd him, more so than
with most of my other characters (even other untwinked chars). Starting out with such a slow attack
speed felt like a chore (I will never mat an Impaler). I messed around with "very fast" weapons and
savage polearms from the cube. I must say, even though I'm a speed freak, I prefered the slower,
heavier-hitting polearms. The increased speed of the smaller weapons did not make up for their lack
of damage. Plus, blocking in wolf form without decent fhr sucks butt.
Somewhere in act V Steeldriver dropped and I immediately put a shael in it. Wow, what a huge
difference. Now Jobo was a force to be reckoned with. I also found Bonesnap in nightmare
somewhere, but opted to stay with the Steeldriver's faster attack speed. I Upped it somewhere
in nightmare. Nightmare flew by and I don't remember much of anything from it. Once I got to Hell
I made my way to the countess and killed her maybe a hundred times, maybe more (I think I stopped
Killing her around lvl 80). I got the runes to up the Steeldriver one more time, and to make myself
Duress. I was hoping to make another Lawbringer before act 2 but got tired of killing her. Also,
inbetween the waypoint and the tower I managed to roll a map that spawned the "nest boss" quite
often (I posted 5 photos in another thread).
Andy gave me Raven Frost, and then the maggot queen gave me Bonehew. I crossed my fingers for
Jalal's but I guess you can only ask for so much. Then some monster in act 3 took his shoes off,
they were Gore Riders. :D
Oh, after getting Bonehew all shaeled up I went back to the countess to farm runes for Lawbringer,
and eventually cubed up the Lem to make it.
After finishing the game I replaced Jobo's helm with Jalal's Mane, and found I didn't need to
replace anything else.
Stats:
JoboStat.jpg

Skills:
Raven: 1
Oak: 20
Spirit: 1
Dire: 1
Bear: 20

WW: 7
Lyc: 10
WB: 1
Maul:1
Feral Rage: 10
FC: 1
Hunger: 1
Rabies: 1
Fury: 20

Equipment:
Lore Hawk Helm (+2Oak)
Bonehew (315%ed 2x shael) switch: Lawbringer PB/Rhyme
Duress Wire Fleece
Gale Clutches (blood gloves cold/lit res 10%cb)
Death Lash (rare plated belt fire/lit/poison res)
Gore Rider
Angelic Wings
Angelic Halo
Raven Frost

1x ss skiller

Merc:
A2 Might
Duskdeep
Smoke Mage Plate
Hone Sundan (AmnAmnTal <---miss click :doh:)

Hell Hellforge: Mal
Onward and moar-than-halfway-done-ward!

Heuberg
In some thread dealing with low level twinking to gain really fast levels, someone posted something
about Bonesnap working really well on his zeal pally to get through the low levels. I'll try and find
the thread.
I gotta be honest here, the paladin is probably my least favorite class. I find their crowd control
lacking, they always seem to be fragile for a melee class, left clicking blows, they run funny, and
hammerdins are kind of lame.
Regardless, I wanted to complete a sept, so I made Heuberg: An Experiment in Twinking
FlayerFriend1.jpg
Bonesnap is awesome!!! This guy was a wrecking ball all the way to nightmare Baal. I upped the Bonesnap
at lvl 30 and continued wrecking face until I could equip my eOath Small Crescent (I also found an Ohm
rune with Emeralda to make a much needed Call to Arms for is fragile ***).
Once he equiped the Small Crescent he went from Heuberg: An Experiment in Twinking to Heuberg: The Death Knight.
I still had Twitchthroe, Death's Hand/Guard, Rhyme bone shield, and a mask with +39 to max damage. And for the
first time ever I thought the mask looked good on a character. He looked f**king wicked.
I originally tried max Conviction w/ 1pt Vengeance for PI's, but hated how slow he got when he switched
off of Fanaticism. So, I switched to max Vengeance and no Conviction (I like). I ran the pits looking
for a 3 socket Troll Nest to make Sanctuary (aesthetics were everything) until lvl 85, when I could
finally put on Gladiator's Bane. I parked him till Plethora found him a Troll Nest (aesthetics were
everything).
With Sanctuary, Oath, Gladiador's Bane, one of the best rare circlets I've ever found (
GrimHood.jpg
),
and some other decent equipment, Heuberg continued on his merry way.
Old Stats:
HuebergStat.jpg
New Stats:
HeubergStat.jpg

Skills:
Sac: 20
Zeal: 20
Vengeance: 20
Smite: 1
Charge: 1
Holy Shield: 0 (aesthetics is everything!)

Might: 1
BA: 13
Conc: 1
Fanaticism: 20

Defensive Auras: 0 (he kills, he does not protect)

Current Equipment: I've changed some things in light of new items
Grim Hood
eDeath Ettin Axe (switch: CTA Ettin Axe)
Sanctuary Troll Nest (switch: Spirit Heraldic Shield)
Treachery
Bloodfist
SoE
Goblin Toe
Raven Frost
Manald Heal
The Cat's Eye

1x combat skill

Merc:
Heuberg was awesome, but he was nothing without his decked out mercenary, Chalan:
A2 HF
Upped eth Pierre Tombale Couant (151-661 30%fhr and 55%ds!)
eth Prudence Wire Fleece (2205def)
Delirium Demonhead (Delirium is latin for crowd control)
Chalan provided all the crowd control Heuberg could ever need.

Hell Hellforge: Ko
I still say paladins are my least favorite class, but this is one of my favorite characters.

Grim
GrimSummit.jpg
Grim was...meh.
I started him as a Fishymancer, then tried poison, but realized I don't have the equipment for poison, so
I went back to Fishing.
I basically loaded up on MF equipment and just did a basic Fishymancer, nothing fancy. If I can ever get
the runes for Enigma I'll play him till D3 comes out. But, as it is right now, I like using my other guys
more. I had a high level one on Bnet in the 1.10 ladder, and, "Amp, wait... CE!CE!CE!CE!CE!" was fun for a
little while. But I'd rather wait till I have the equipment for something else.
Anyways, here he is.
GrimStat.jpg

Skills:
Amp: 5
Weaken: 1
Terror: 1
Decrep: 1

Teeth: 1
CE!CE!CE!CE!: 20

SW: 20
SM: 20
Clay: 1
Blood: 1
Iron: 1
GM: 1
SMage: 1
Res: 1

15 unspent skill points

Equipment:
Beast Shell (rare circlet 21%mf 20%fcr +2summons)
Blade of Ali Baba
Homunculus
Skullder's Ire
Chance Guards
Goldwrap
Sanders Riprap
Doom Circle (rare ring resists)
Coral Ring of the Apprentice
Blood Wing (rare amulet +1necro +16@res +41life +90mana)

4x summoning skillers

Merc:
A2 Might
Tal Helm
Duriel's Shell
Insight Battle Scythe

Hell Hellforge: Hel
St00pid hel4g!

Eve
...and finally...
EveEnd.jpg
Eve started out, well, before Jobo I think. I got to 75 and parked her after not
liking any of the melee builds I was trying to make her into. I really like the idea of dropping a meteor
every other swing, or building up tiger strike and releasing all that damage in a huge dragon tail (which
I may try again). Assassins suffer from the same thing I find paladins suffering from, they're fragile.
But, unlike dumb paladins, they have great crowd control. Conceptually, the assassin is probably my second
favorite class, but I could never seem to dominate with one the way I wanted. This being the last of the
sept, I've built up some wealth (not much, but some). I figured I had enough +skill gear to make a pretty
mean trapper, but I didn't want to have to use Fire Blast as my backup, and I had Shadow Dancers :). So,
I went with Dragon Talon. Apperantly this is a pretty common path. Whatever, its a really fun, and really
powerful build. My equipment could probably use some improvements, but this is what I finished with:
Stat:
EveStat.jpg

Skills:
DTalon: 20
DClaw: 1
DTail: 1
DFlight: 1

CM: 1
BoS: 1
PH: 1
CoS: 1

FB: 6
Shock Web: 18
CBs: 20
LS: 20
DS: 1

Equipment:
Bone Horn (rare tiara +2assa +34%fr +47life +20ene
Bartuc's Cut-Throat (shael) (switch: Gimmershred/Wizardspike)
Spirit Monarch (switch: SS)
The Spirit Shroud
Bloodfist
M'avina's Tenet
double upped Goblin Toe (I know, I said SD. I chose GT for the crushing blow. Worked so much better)
Dwarf Star
Corruption Touch (rare ring +12str +14dex +lit/cold res)
Stone Clasp (rare amulet +1assa +16str +@res)

1x trap skiller
1x MA skiller

Merc:
A2 BA
Tal Helm
Lionheart Ancient Armor
Insight Giant Thresher

Hell Hellforge: Gul! and then an Ist dropped in the Glacial Trail!
Great way to end a septumverate I suppose.

Special thanks to...
Anyone who actually read this,
Anyone who looked at the pictures,
Blizzard for making something as addicting as heroin but legal,
and the Single Player Forum! Best gaming community ever.

Questions and comments welcome! Bring 'em on!
 
Originally posted by Oblivious on Jun 15, 2008:

Matriarch LukwatIfound [Fishyzon]

I need to stop making Zons. Really. This is my 4th out of 7 Pats/Mats
Needless to say I enjoyed her the most out of all my characters. Skill distribution is standard:

20 LF
20 CS
20 FA
20 CA
with 1 point in all of D/A/E Dec/Valk/Penetrate/Pierce/CritS.

Gear she is using + some alternates
Code:
Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 76 to 205
One-Hand Damage: 76 to 150
Quantity: 34
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xb232bf88
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+188% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size

Thunderstroke
Matriarchal Javelin
Throw Damage: 96 to 182
One-Hand Damage: 82 to 149
Quantity: 74
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 151
Required Strength: 107
Required Level: 69
Javelin Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x1e776939
+176% Enhanced Damage
Adds 1-511 lightning damage
15% Increased Attack Speed
+3 to Lightning Bolt (Amazon Only)
+4 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
20% Chance to cast Level 14 Lightning on striking
-15% to Enemy Lightning Resistance

Melody
Grand Matron Bow
'ShaelKoNef'
Two-Hand Damage: 21 to 108
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 152
Required Strength: 108
Required Level: 58
Bow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x9681d093
+10 to Dexterity
+50% Enhanced Damage
Knockback
20% Increased Attack Speed
+3 to Slow Missiles (Amazon Only)
+3 to Dodge (Amazon Only)
+3 to Critical Strike (Amazon Only)
300% Damage to Undead
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
'AmnRalMalIstOhm'
One-Hand Damage: 19 to 57
Durability: 17 of 20
Required Strength: 43
Required Level: 57
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xfbab6c93
+283% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
40% Increased Attack Speed
+6 to Battle Orders
+4 to Battle Cry
+4 to Battle Command
Prevent Monster Heal
+1 to All Skill Levels
Socketed (5: 5 used)

Stormshield
Monarch
Defense: 459
Chance to Block:  72%
Required Strength: 156
Required Level: 73
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x99155ba0
+30 to Strength
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
Damage Reduced by 35%
Fire Resist +19%
Lightning Resist +44%
Cold Resist +79%
Poison Resist +19%
35% Faster Block Rate
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 10
Indestructible
+318 to Defense (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Treachery
Light Plate
'ShaelThulLem'
Defense: 93
Durability: 59 of 60
Required Strength: 41
Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0xcc9ac574
Cold Resist +30%
50% Extra Gold from Monsters
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
45% Increased Attack Speed
20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Chance to cast Level 15 Venom on striking
5% Chance to cast Level 15 Fade when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Mara's Kaleidoscope
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xa734380d
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
All Resistances +24
+2 to All Skill Levels

Storm Mask
Coronet
Defense: 38
Durability: 26 of 30
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0x5e91e3e1
+20 to Strength
+62 to Mana
All Resistances +18
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
Socketed (1: 0 used) (yes the socket is open, dunno what to put in it)

The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x7daa3452
+20 to Mana
Adds 1-12 lightning damage
Increase Maximum Mana 25%
+1 to All Skill Levels

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0xcb306b52
+17 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+205 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Eagle Fist (looking for upgrade here)
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 9
Durability: 13 of 14
Required Level: 52
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 92
Fingerprint: 0x40ea4598
+2 to Dexterity
+18 to Life
+37% Enhanced Defense
2% Life stolen per hit
3% Mana stolen per hit
10% Chance of Crushing Blow
+2 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 98
Durability: 12 of 14
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x2413c60f
+15 to Dexterity
+126% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
Piercing Attack [33]
Attacker Takes Damage of 85 (Based on Character Level)

Natalya's Soul
Mesh Boots
Defense: 150
Durability: 66 of 66
Required Strength: 65
Required Level: 25
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x8ebef658
+107 Defense
Lightning Resist +21%
Cold Resist +22%
+50 Maximum Durability
40% Faster Run/Walk
Heal Stamina Plus 21% (Based on Character Level)

also used a spirit shield while leveling

Charms:


Code:
Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 62
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x458ec241
136% Extra Gold from Monsters
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Reduces All Vendor Prices 12%

Acrobatic Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x5308b239
+23 to Life
+1 to Passive and Magic Skills (Amazon Only)

Harpoonist's Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xc1d24df7
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Strength
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 64
Fingerprint: 0xb3cb8c2
+4 to Strength
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Shimmering Grand Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x23d6c772
All Resistances +14

Shimmering Large Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 26
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0xc898f8a2
All Resistances +8

plus 3 shimmering sc's , 2 sc's of vita , and 3 ruby sc's for extra fire res.

No Single space left in Inventory. Cube Full too.

Merc Gear pretty standard for a Holy Freeze Desert Mercenary: Duriel's + Vamp's and he is Carrying this beauty:

Code:
Obedience
Cryptic Axe
'HelKoThulEthFal'
Two-Hand Damage: 230 to 1057
Durability: 33 of 33
Required Dexterity: 72
Required Strength: 122
Required Level: 59
Polearm Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xdd4a7c10
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+370% Enhanced Damage
+278 Defense
All Resistances +29
Adds 3-14 cold damage over 3 seconds
Requirements -20%
40% Faster Hit Recovery
-25% Target Defense
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
30% Chance to cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill an Enemy
-25% to Enemy Fire Resistance
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (5: 5 used)

although I might switch it for an Insight eth CA when I'm Baaling

Final thoughts: I matted her at clvl 81. She is now 85 after some brief MP Baal runs last night and a couple of single Baal Runs. I hope she turns out to be a reliable Baal runner,cause my Hammerdin and CL/FO sorc didn't prove to be.

Thanks for reading everyone

-Oblivious
 
Originally posted by @Peytron on Feb 26, 2019:

Matriarch Astrape - A Freezing Arrow/Lightning Fury Javazon

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
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):
1584843254453.png
1584843236411.png
1584843215419.png
1584843197057.png
1584843176408.png

Her Rune Finds:
1584843123935.png
1584843110001.png
1584843092510.png
1584843073139.png
 
Originally posted by @Pijus on Mar 29, 2009:

Matriarch Kablooie the Fishyzon!!!

Matriarch Kablooie the fishyzon!!!

Skills stats and other stuff:
Dump at endgame:
Code:
Name:       Kablooie
Class:      Amazon
Experience: 1668732770
Level:      90

            Naked/Gear
Strength:   115/115
Dexterity:  120/152
Vitality:   280/280
Energy:     15/30
HP:         1048/1115
Mana:       148/385
Stamina:    433/433
Defense:    30/1140
AR:         570/570

Fire:       131/91/31
Cold:       141/101/41
Lightning:  175/135/75
Poison:     83/43/-17

MF:         170       Block:      0
GF:         0
FR/W:       40
FHR:        35
IAS:        50
FCR:        0

Magic Arrow: 0/0
Fire Arrow: 0/0
Cold Arrow: 20/24
Multiple Shot: 0/0
Exploding Arrow: 0/0
Ice Arrow: 1/5
Guided Arrow: 0/0
Strafe: 0/0
Immolation Arrow: 0/0
Freezing Arrow: 20/24

Inner Sight : 1/5
Critical Strike : 1/5
Dodge : 0/0
Slow Missiles : 1/5
Avoid : 0/0
Penetrate : 1/5
Decoy : 1/5
Evade : 0/0
Valkyrie : 0/0
Pierce : 1/5

Jab : 1/7
Power Strike : 1/7
Poison Javelin : 1/7
Impale : 0/0
Lightning Bolt : 1/7
Charged Strike : 20/26
Plague Javelin : 1/7
Fend : 0/0
Lightning Strike : 9/15
Lightning Fury : 20/26

In order of maxing: 20 CS, 20 LF, 20 FA, 20 Cold arrow. 1 point wonders were decoy and pierce, they and their prereqs got apoint whenever they became available. Skills points after level 81 were put into Lightning strike.

She was wearing crappy-ish rares and magic items while questing. She actually started almost no-twink, however, she found some great stuff while questing(some of it may have been found by Mhysteria, not really sure, as it’s been a long while since I started them).

While questing:
Rich (BB code):
 Bahamut's Ring of Fortune
Ring
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x788d49f6
Item Level: 45
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+117 to Mana
18% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x163529d3
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+206 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Demon Trample
Demonhide Boots
Defense: 33
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x5212accc
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Fire Resist +34%
Cold Resist +31%
Poison Resist +24%
17% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Faster Run/Walk
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Epic mittens:D
Plague Hand
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 9
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0xafe88a34
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+2 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +27%
16% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 75 - 200
One Hand Damage: 75 - 147
Quantity: 136
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 109
Fingerprint: 0xb6c7d78e
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
179% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes quantity
Increased Stack Size

Sigon's Guard
Tower Shield
Defense: 24
Chance to Block: 44
Durability: 59 of 60
Required Level: 6
Required Strength: 75
Fingerprint: 0x89d0fe69
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
+1 to All Skills

Gemmed Gothic Plate
Gothic Plate
Defense: 134
Durability: 55 of 55
Required Level: 18
Required Strength: 70
Fingerprint: 0xd25ead
Item Level: 40
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
96% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Perfect Topaz
Socketed: Perfect Topaz
Socketed: Perfect Topaz
Socketed: Perfect Topaz

Chromatic Amulet of Warding
Amulet
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x911f529
Item Level: 58
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +29%
Lightning Resist +29%
Cold Resist +29%
Poison Resist +29%

Chromatic Coronet of Regrowth
Coronet
Defense: 36
Durability: 30 of 30
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0x1c982c6d
Item Level: 65
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Replenish Life 7
All Resistances +25

Don’t remember exactly what charms she was using, but I know they had like 55% LR, and some mana.

When I got her to the WSK, I tweaked her equipment to what it is now. I wasn’t actually done with that until level 89. I really wanted a Harley for her, and I didn’t have one. At 88 I got an idea to give her a Valkyries wing, and I was missing 5 str to equip it. Hence she has 115 STR and was “in progress” till 89.

End game equip:
Rich (BB code):
Bahamut's Ring of Fortune
Ring
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x788d49f6
Item Level: 45
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+117 to Mana
18% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x163529d3
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+206 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 98
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0xa10ab0d2
Item Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Dexterity
127% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
33% Piercing Attack
+8 Attacker Takes Damage of

Demon Trample
Demonhide Boots
Defense: 33
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 24
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x5212accc
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Fire Resist +34%
Cold Resist +31%
Poison Resist +24%
17% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Faster Run/Walk
10% Faster Hit Recovery

Chaos Heart
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x8000078a
Item Level: 43
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Fire Resist +13%
Lightning Resist +37%
8% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Amazon Skill Levels

Plague Hand
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 9
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 45
Fingerprint: 0xafe88a34
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+2 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +27%
16% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Skullder's Ire
Russet Armor
Defense: 668
Durability: 90 of 90
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 97
Fingerprint: 0xc5d7c0bc
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
174% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
+60 Maximum Durability
+1 to All Skills
111% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Repairs 1 Durability in 5 Seconds
All Resistances +15
+20 poison damage over 2 seconds
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Scintillating Jewel of Envy

Valkyrie Wing
Winged Helm
Defense: 294
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 44
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x179ab7be
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
197% Enhanced Defense
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
20% Faster Run/Walk
20% Faster Hit Recovery
+4 to Mana after each Kill
All Resistances +10
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shimmering Jewel

Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 75 - 200
One Hand Damage: 75 - 147
Quantity: 136
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 109
Fingerprint: 0xb6c7d78e
Item Level: 50
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
179% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes quantity
Increased Stack Size

Whitstan's Guard
Round Shield
Defense: 154
Chance to Block: 67
Durability: 64 of 64
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 53
Fingerprint: 0xfb1ad07e
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
175% Enhanced Defense
55% Increased Chance of Blocking
+5 to Light Radius
40% Faster Block Rate
Half Freeze Duration

Wizendraw
Long Battle Bow
Two Hand Damage: 5 - 31
Durability: 28 of 44
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 40
Required Dexterity: 50
Fingerprint: 0x7ca22c24
Item Level: 47
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Energy
+30 to Mana
76% Enhanced Damage
+67 to Attack Rating
Cold Resist +26%
Fires Magic Arrows
-29% to Enemy Cold Resistance
40% Increased Attack Speed
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Charms:
Amber Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 22
Fingerprint: 0xaab5671f
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Lightning Resist +28%

Serpent's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x87e73395
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+14 to Life
+16 to Mana

Snake's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0xc7c4e4c3
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+13 to Life
+12 to Mana

Ocher Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x22baaa67
Item Level: 64
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+19 to Life
Lightning Resist +6%

Azure Small Charm of Life
Small Charm
Required Level: 14
Fingerprint: 0xf4ca3d2e
Item Level: 9
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+8 to Life
Cold Resist +5%

Amber Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xbf4640f9
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+13 to Life
Lightning Resist +11%

Shimmering Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x217f54c5
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Fire Resist +4%
Lightning Resist +4%
Cold Resist +4%
Poison Resist +4%
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Sapphire Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x199039e5
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Cold Resist +10%

Sapphire Small Charm of Blight
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xbb8f4d87
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Cold Resist +10%
+6 poison damage over 3 seconds

Ocher Small Charm of Flame
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0x4654960f
Item Level: 13
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Lightning Resist +7%
+1 - 2 Fire Damage

In the Cube:
Kelpie Snare
Fuscina
Two Hand Damage: 77 - 141
Durability: 17 of 35
Required Level: 33
Required Strength: 77
Required Dexterity: 25
Fingerprint: 0xb43fba04
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+10 to Strength
148% Enhanced Damage
+30 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +50%
Slows Target by 75%
112 to Life (Based on Char Lvl)

Thunderstroke
Matriarchal Javelin
Throw Damage: 99 - 187
One Hand Damage: 85 - 153
Quantity: 80
Required Level: 69
Required Strength: 107
Required Dexterity: 151
Fingerprint: 0xf0d33992
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
184% Enhanced Damage
+1 - 511 Lightning Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed
+3 to Lightning Bolt (Amazon Only)
+3 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
20% Chance to cast level 14 Lightning on striking
-15% to Enemy Lightning Resistance

The rest:
As I said, she was almost untwinked. Still, as expected, she destroyed normal and nightmare. She found her Titans in the claw viper temple in nm. I was really hoping I’d find a razortail, and was using crappy belts as placeholders. I quested through hell with a demonhide sash of wealth. It’s been a really really long while since I’ve played her through the first difficulties, so my memory isn’t very fresh.

When I got her to hell I quested up to the Pit(guess why:D) and later the Ancient tunnels. She didn’t really excel at running those places then. I left her parked there while I went on a break from D2.

Then I came back to D2. I said to my cousin one day, when she was looking kind of busy: “hey, wanna play D2 over LAN?” She says:”Sure, I’ll bring the laptop”

Fast Forward>>>

I wanted an effective MF’er, who was fun, and could do areas(was getting bored of Mephy). Since I love fishyzons, I just picked Kablooie up and got her to the CS in hell. I then stopped playing her while I did 50 more Meph runs with my blizzy. The razortail still didn’t drop. My thoughts: “Fine, be that way”. I’ll just go to the SPTF…

I traded for a razortail and a Skullders. Pushed on using my old equip. Was trying to make a point. Everything went allright though. Some annnoyng quill rats in the ancients way. The ancients themselves sucked big time. I spent 1.4kk gold on dying and resurrecting my merc. I died twice to them. When I ran out of money, I made an MP game, and thanks to modified dll, was able to join with my sorc. 2 of the ancients got stuck, and I was able to kill them without breaking a sweat.

At this point I thought that my fishyzon = failure. I got her all the way to the 5th wave. I wasn’t able to fry Lister fast enough,. He killed my merc, and got me aswell. Then I equiped the razortail(actually, I think I equiped skullders sometime earlier, maybe even in act4, but whatever).\

From that point on things were getting better and better. WSK felt like it was made for her to pwn everything there :D. Not too long after I started doing WSK runs, I found a LO!(the screenie is somewhere in the IFT). That boosted the mercs survivability alot against gloams, by giving him +5% max light resist.

Then I used my brain abit to figure out how to change her equipment, to improve her performance. This process lasted till 89, when I dressed her as best I could, given the items I have.

I had 6 deaths in total:
1.NM council FE explosion.
2.was in hell plains of despair, when I tried to run past a billion gloams. The backround looked red and while instead of the usual brown-ish – some many gloams were there.
3.Ancients
4.Anciets
5.Lister, with no razortail
6.A bunch of gloams on the bridge near the WSK 2 WP, when I was being lazy with rejuvs. I saw my life going down, and I drank a red pot, but there were some many gloams that they managed to outdamage the potions regeneration rate:D
7.Same as nr.6 but this one was in the throne, and the gloams were spread out around me. Extra strong FE, and I had low fire res.


The most problematic monsters were Thrashers in the Bloody foothills, quill rats in act5(they interrupt attacks), PI whitches in the WSK(my merc can’t kill them and they like to spread out), Death lords(the don’t die in 2 clicks like the other types of monsters), Zealot types and Hierophant types in acts 3 and 5(just plain annoying), and Act3 council members.


There are still things to improve, like more+skills on the ammy slot, rings with skills, Eth Insight for the merc. I'm thinking of switching to a Sigons shield again, to make killing Baal quicker. 10 more Ias on the gloves would be nice, however, she is still awesome!

The End

Writing this took about an hour, and it is 13 pages long in Word:whistling:
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Rhone on Nov 20, 2009:

Matriarch Helena, WSK LF/FA Amazon

Intro

One of my overall goals is to have several level 85 area MFing characters (for variety, ya know), with a couple of them able to competently handle running WSK+Baal without groaning every time Oblivion Knights pop up. Hence the birth of Helena, my LF/FA "Fishyzon" WSK/Baal runner.

I wasn't going to post a mat thread for her since it's a pretty straightforward build following Nightfish's guide, but there are a couple issues I'm seeking advice/input on, so I figured I'd post this. :)

Skills (Level 86 now, but was probably 83 or 84 when I matted her)
20/34 Lightning Fury
20/31 Charged Strike
20/26 Frozen Arrow
20/26 Cold Arrow
4/10 Decoy
1/7 Pierce
2/16 Lightning Strike (further points here for synergy

1 in prereqs (duh?).

Equipment
Harlequin Crest (would like to use my Griffon's, see below)
Tal's Guardianship
Titan's Revenge
Stormshield (socketed with +4/-5 lightning facet)
Mara's Kaleidoscope (I can spell big words!!) (oh, and 25% res)
Thundergod's Vigor
War Traveler (38% MF)
Raven Frost
Rare ring with 6% all res, 19% light res, +11 life
Rare gloves with 20% IAS, +2 jav skills, 10% lightning res
On-switch: -35% cold res Wizendraw, shael'd. And arrows. :p
Charms: 40% Gheed's, 1 jav/spear skiller, and the rest cover my resists.

Defiance Merc: 'Insight' Cryptic Axe, 'Duress' eth Archon Plate, Vamp Gaze.

Thunderstroke and Kelpie Snare in the cube for Baal.

Stats with above equipment
Strength: 106/200
Dexterity: 148/195
Vitality: 251/288
Energy: 15/22
HP: 973/1263
Mana: 142/322
MF: 216%
Block: 75%
Resists: 47/75/85/7 -- On-switch: 47/62/85/7

Progress and Thoughts
Well, not much to say here. Once she had CS, Normal and NM on p8 were easy. LF is great for crowds, and easily became the go-to skill once she could equip Titan's. LIs were a little annoying in Hell at first, but once FA and its synergy were close to max, they were little more than minor speed-bumps. Really, CS and LF are amazing considering they're only a 40-point (plus pre-reqs) investment, and FA is a great backup skill.

Helena came very, very close to being my first character to finish with no deaths. She didn't even have any really serious NDEs, but what finally did her in was Hell Ancients--specifically, one of them spawned LE/FE (or LE/CE, can't remember), and the bolts took my hp down quick. But I had separated that one from the other two and was chipping away at his hp with FA while my merc kept him occupied (and slowed with Kelpie), so I figured I'd just stick with it chug potions as necessary... well, you know the rest of the story. The Ancients weren't so bad when I came back and they had non-buggy mods, but still noticeably more difficult than they were with my melee characters.

WSK and Baal
This is what she was made for, of course, and she works as advertised. She kills everything fine, and doesn't get herself killed. She has a couple minor difficulties (which I'll mention below), but overall running WSK and Baal with her is fun and I will probably be doing this as one of my primary MFing activities for a while.

For fun, I'm putting all set/unique items from WSK and throne room in one stash, and all my S/U's from Baal himself in another stash. After I've done a significant number of runs it will be interesting to compare the two stashes.

Request for Input
Okay, so I do have some issues I'd like input on to help me get the most of out of my Fishyzon.

1. As I mentioned earlier, I'd really like to replace shako with my Griffon's Eye (+19/-22 with a facet). The problem is it would drop my MF to well below 200%, and I'm trying to keep it above 200. Even if I go ahead and ptopaz the Tal's armor (which I'll probably do anyway), the MF still falls a bit short; and if I switch to ptopaz'd Skullder's, my resists will be pretty badly screwed. Any suggestions?

2. While I haven't had any trouble keeping Helena alive during her runs, the merc gets himself killed about 2-5 times per run (depending on what spawns). Gloam packs, frenzytaur uniques, IM, and wave 3 of Baal's minions are the main things that get him. Decoy takes a little heat off of him, but there are still a few deaths per run. Is this pretty much typical for WSK running, or is there something I could/should do to keep him alive?

3. Right now the runs are taking me about 23-30 minutes (depending greatly on which monsters spawn). That's for full clears of WSK 2&3, the throne room area, and of course Baal and his minions. Admittedly, I play fairly casually and am not pushing myself for speed, but I'm wondering if that's about average or if most people (with fishyzons) are doing the runs significantly faster?

Thanks!
Thanks to Nightfish for his great guide, to Arkros for trading the Titan's Revenge that I got thoroughly sick of running Meph for, and to you for reading this and perhaps responding. :)
 
Originally posted by RobbyD on Aug 19, 2011:

Matriarchs ShocknAwe and Blitzkrieg, 1.13 and 1.09 Hybrid Zons

This is the introduction thread of the Matriarchs from my first “War of the Patches” project. I decided I needed to go ahead and get these intros done before starting on my 1.09 v 1.13 WW Barb project.

Two Amazons known for their ability to dish out a screen full of lightning and to murder copious numbers of cows were created… Lightning Fury Javelin Amazons with a Bow switch to provide for the ability to kill most any monster

Blitzkrieg was created in 1.09 since the Lightning Fury Amazon is legendary for her ability to do clear the Moo-Moo Farm in that patch. Blitzkrieg references the World War II codeword for an overwhelming attack that keeps the target on its heels.

ShocknAwe was created in 1.13 since the Lightning Fury Amazon is well known for her viability to run end-game areas in this patch. ShocknAwe is the more recent codeword from Desert Storm that also relates to an overwhelming attack that keeps the target on its heels.

Both Amazons have become Matriarchs and have cleared the Moo-Moo Farm on Hell. I am proud to present these warriors to you:


Matriarch Blitzkrieg – 1.09 Hybrid Javelin/Bow Amazon

Character name : Blitzkrieg
Character type : Amazon
Character level : 82
Character exp : 821743062

LCS – Jav
LCS – Bow


Strength : 119
Energy : 15
Dexterity : 155
Vitality : 211
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 993 / 845
Mana : 184 / 136
Stamina : 381 / 356

Resists:
Javelin Switch: 75/75/85/69
Bow Switch: 64/39/80/50

Skills:
Javelin/Spear:
Prereqs: 1
Jab: 20/33
Lightning Fury: 20/36
Charged Strike: 1/14
Impale: 1/14
Fend: 2/15

Passive/Magic:
1 Point each in all skills (1/11)
Penetrate: 6/16

Bow/Crossbow:
Prereqs: 1/5
Multiple Shot: 5/9
Guided Arrow: 20/24
Fire Arrow: 1/5
Freezing Arrow: 1/5


End-Game Weapon/Shield:

Javelin Switch:

Code:
Blitzkrieg's Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 81 to 212
One-Hand Damage: 81 to 156
Quantity: 140
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0xa4fcd761
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+196% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2  to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size

Stormshield
Monarch
Defense: 452
Chance to Block:  72%
Required Strength: 156
Required Level: 73
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xd2b63f2c
+30 to Strength
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
Damage Reduced by 35%
Fire Resist +19%
Lightning Resist +44%
Cold Resist +79%
Poison Resist +19%
35% Faster Block Rate
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 10
+307 to Defense (3.75 per Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Perfect Diamond
Inserted into a Monarch

All Resistances +19

Required Level: 18
Item Version: Expansion

Bow Switch:
Code:
 Buriza-Do Kyanon
Ballista
'Nef'
Two-Hand Damage: 100 to 370
Required Dexterity: 80
Required Strength: 110
Required Level: 41
Crossbow Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 73
Fingerprint: 0x8cf18df
+35 to Dexterity
+196% Enhanced Damage
+101 Defense
Adds 32-196 cold damage over 8 seconds
Knockback
80% Increased Attack Speed
Freezes Target
Piercing Attack [100]
+205 to Maximum Damage (2.5 per Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Nef Rune
Inserted into a Ballista

Knockback

Required Level: 13
Item Version: Expansion

Armor/Jewelry:

Helm: “Corpse Visage” Circlet (see below)
Armor: Skullder's Ire (Um)
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope (28@)
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Scintillating Ring of the Leech (Stylish Blue Ring – 15/4)
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: “Dread Claw” Gauntlets (see below)
Boots: “Stone Greaves” Heavy Boots (see below)

Code:
 Corpse Visage
Circlet
Defense: 20
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 49
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x85ec69bf
Damage Reduced by 2
All Resistances +25
Adds 21-35 fire damage
6% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit
+1 to Amazon Skill Levels
+5 to Mana After Each Kill
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Scintillating Jewel of Burning
Required Level: 49
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x8cb050e9
All Resistances +13
Adds 21-35 fire damage

Dread Claw
Gauntlets
Defense: 19
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 35
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x91478a3c
+16% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Attack Rating
22% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
20% Increased Attack Speed
Half Freeze Duration
+2  to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Stone Greaves
Heavy Boots
Defense: 13
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 29
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x71f4207d
+71% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +6%
Lightning Resist +40%
15% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
30% Faster Run/Walk
14% Chance to cast Level 5 Nova when struck


Charms:
Acrobatic Grand Charm of Inertia
Acrobatic Grand Charm of Life
Acrobatic Grand Charm of Pestilence
Acrobatic Grand Charm of Sustenance
Shimmering Grand Charm
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Venom
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Storms
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Sustenance

(Acrobatics to allow 1 point + skills for all the D/E/A, Pierce, etc. to get to the plateau for these skills)

Merc:

Weapon: Hone Sundan (AmnAmnSheal)
Helm: Blackhorn’s Face
Armor: Duriel’s Shell

Twinking:
Blitzkrieg relied on the bugged stacking of poison damage in bows for twinking – 5 JoE Envy Long Bow to start, then a switch to a 6 pEmerald Long Battle Bow at level 18. These worked especially well for her since she pumped Multiple Shot to deliver that ridiculously powerful poison dose to multiple targets. A combination of Angelic, Arctic (first), Death’s (later), and Cow King’s sets (just the boots from Cow King) were used with the twinking bow until Kuko Shakaku became available. One thing I really like was that fact that she was basically in endgame gear at level 42 (Buriza, Titan’s, skillers) which occurred in Normal Act 5.

I relied on Acrobatic Grand Charms to allow me to put just 1 point in all Passive/Magic skills (since many P/M skills plateau around 8-10) and, of course, Harpoonist’s GCs.

Play Style:
Blitzkrieg relied on a variety of attacks to deal with the range of targets. Lightning Fury of course used for crowds of monsters (even if some LI monsters were mixed in, LF took out all the rest, and mana leech even from the LIs kept the blue bulb full), Guided Arrow with the pierce from the Buriza was used to take down big targets, Fire Arrow was the primary PI solution, and the built-in cold damage from the Buriza was used with the piercing GA.

I played around with the tanking javelin skills, with overall disappointing results. Lightning damage from the javelin skills scale differently in 1.09 (narrow bands such as 250-350 damage versus the 1-700 damage you see in 1.13) and there are no synergies. I ended up going with Jab – it really worked pretty nice, actually. Pretty strong with a good Titan’s, very fast and mana-cheap – a good way to leech mana when needed. The most heartbreaking was Lightning Strike (which comes with a TGod’s) because you see the graphic that shows how AWESOME that skill SHOULD be, but then you see monster life bars not moving while all those fireworks are going on. QUITE the travesty.

As such, I played Blitzkrieg in a fairly balanced share of Bow and Javelin time. The bow skills are so strong in 1.09 that it’s hard to get away from that. However, I noticed a very irritating bug having to do with switching from Jav to Bow or vice versa – sometimes, it makes her get stuck in one place and unable move other than turning in place. She can shoot, but her attacks don’t land. She can pick up items that she can reach, and cast and enter a TP, but even in town, she still can’t move. I have to S&E when this happens.

Overall, however, she was a killing machine – the bow for large targets, LF for large groups (WOW it clears them out!). P8 for Normal and Nightmare, P3 for Hell. I worried about the Ancients, though, because I know what a challenge they were for my pure Bowazon. However, they turned out to go down plenty fast - the Merc and Valkyrie didn’t even really suffer.

Where she really shined in comparison to ShocknAwe was against bosses – the piercing GA from Buriza is just sick.

Blitzkrieg managed to stay close to ShocknAwe in levels…. until Hell, that is. Wow, what a difference between 1.09 and 1.13 on Hell leveling. Blitzkrieg just basically stopped gaining XP for a good spell while ShocknAwe kept marching on.

While 1.09 is an easier overall patch, there are some things about 1.09 that are more challenging than 1.13, such as the fact that Shaman bosses spawn with packs of Shaman (see screenie) and all those fire breaths can converge on your character to make a very dangerous situation.

Cows:
Well, no presentation of a LF JavaZon would be complete without a report on Cows. Yes, she can do them A-OK, but it’s not like they just melt on P8 the second a spark hits them. I actually found the Freezing Arrow I decided to dump a point in to be very handy. I like to run with the Merc and Valk, and since mercs in 1.09 are so much more fragile than 1.13 mercs, keeping the cows still (and, yes, even with a point + skillers, the freezing with the Buriza cold duration keeps the cows still for a very respectable amount of time) so the merc can work. The low FA level actually helps with keeping mana drainage manageable.

Finds:

Hellforge: Hell: Ko

I’ve amassed so much stuff in 1.09, I’m no longer impressed by another Raven Claw, Buriza or Butcher’s Pupil dropping, but she did find some notably neat stuff:

Ambergris Jewel of Prosperity – a very worthy replacement for an Ort rune

This Pul Rune actually put Blitzkrieg over ShocknAwe in the rune race until a very late Cham dropped for ShocknAwe




Matriarch ShocknAwe – 1.13 Hybrid Javelin/Bow Amazon

Character name : ShocknAwe
Character type : Amazon
Character level : 87
Character exp : 1288429275

LCS – Jav
LCS – Bow


Strength : 106
Energy : 15
Dexterity : 142
Vitality : 262
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life : 1085 / 1008
Mana : 209 / 144
Stamina : 432 / 412

Resists:
Javelin Switch: 75/75/85/62
Bow Switch: 75/75/66/43


Skills:

Javelin/Spear:
Prereqs: 1/13
Power Strike: 15/27
Charged Strike: 20/32
Lightning Fury: 20/35


Passive/Magic:
1 Point each in all skills (1/10)
Penetrate: 5/14
Pierce: 2/11

Bow/Crossbow:
Prereqs: 1/5
Strafe: 20/24


End-Game Gear:

Javelin Switch:

Code:
 ShocknAwe's Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 96 to 263
One-Hand Damage: 96 to 186
Quantity: 140
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 99
Required Strength: 15
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 72
Fingerprint: 0xf4d2d4a1
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+163% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

Stormshield
Monarch
Defense: 462
Chance to Block:  72%
Required Strength: 156
Required Level: 73
Indestructible
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xf7574ca2
+30 to Strength
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
Damage Reduced by 35%
Fire Resist +19%
Lightning Resist +44%
Cold Resist +79%
Poison Resist +19%
35% Faster Block Rate
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 10
+326 to Defense (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Perfect Diamond
Inserted into a Monarch

All Resistances +19

Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Bow Switch:
Code:
Windforce
Hydra Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 35 to 509
Required Dexterity: 167
Required Strength: 134
Required Level: 73
Bow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x2a248bd8
+10 to Strength
+5 to Dexterity
+250% Enhanced Damage
Heal Stamina Plus 30%
6% Mana stolen per hit
Knockback
20% Increased Attack Speed
+271 to Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)

Armor/Jewelry:

Helm: Stealskull (39)
Armor: “Chains of Honor” Archon Plate
Amulet: “Blood Collar” (see below)
Ring 1: Raven Frost
Ring 2: Bone Grip (see below)
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: “Rune Fist” Bramble Mitts (see below)
Boots: “Eagle Blazer” Greaves (see below)

Code:
 Corpse Visage
Blood Collar
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 98
Fingerprint: 0xda14958a
+4 to Maximum Damage
All Resistances +14
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
10% Faster Cast Rate

Bone Grip
Ring
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0x64ab8bbd
+15 to Dexterity
+25 to Mana
Fire Resist +5%
Lightning Resist +12%
Cold Resist +5%
Poison Resist +5%
3% Life stolen per hit
4% Mana stolen per hit

Eagle Blazer
Greaves
Defense: 15
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x5b5dce6c
Fire Resist +32%
Cold Resist +40%
Poison Resist +6%
62% Extra Gold from Monsters
14% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
30% Faster Run/Walk

Rune Fist
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 58
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 42
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x8cfcb5ca
+11 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +29%
Cold Resist +9%
Adds 1-5 fire damage
3% Life stolen per hit
3% Mana stolen per hit


Charms:
Acrobatic Grand Charm
Acrobatic Grand Charm
Acrobatic Grand Charm of Balance
Shimmering Grand Charm
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Craftmanship
Harpoonist's Grand Charm
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Greed
Harpoonist's Grand Charm of Life

(Acrobatics to allow 1 point + skills for all the D/E/A, Pierce, etc. to get to the plateau for these skills)

Merc:

Weapon: eth Reaper’s Toll (Sheal) (from BobTheWarrior)
Helm: Vampire’s Gaze
Armor: Duriel’s Shell

Twinking:
What else? 1.09 Raven Claw! (Envy bow until then). Same mix of set for armor – Angelic, Arctic -> Deaths, Cow King’s boots, etc. For Nightmare, I made a Harmony for her. Very nice bow, that. I was going to make it in a Matriarchal Bow (surprisingly low lvl req, but WOW that Dex req), but I ended up making it in an Ashwood bow for the MUCH more reasonable Dex req.

Like for Blitzkrieg, I relied on Acrobatic Grand Charms to allow me to put just 1 point in all Passive/Magic skills (since many P/M skills plateau around 8-10) and, of course, Harpoonist’s GCs.

Play Style:
Lightning Javelin skills are just so much better in 1.13 than 1.09, it’s not even funny. ShocknAwe was truly a JavaZon who had the Bow on switch just for the LIs. CS is crazy good, and you can even play with Power Strike since it synergizes with CS. One problem though… it’s hard to leech enough mana to keep a fully pumped CS going on its own. She had an eth Titan’s and a Might merc to power some leech, but it was still often not enough. LF leeched mana better in 1.13 than in 1.09 though, but that probably WAS that eth Titan’s versus the non-eth in 1.09.

On the bow side, it made my head hurt to see how much weaker strafing with a WF in 1.13 was to MS/GA with a Buriza in 1.09. The merc’s Reaper’s helped a LOT, but that Decrep doesn’t last a real long time.

Overall, however, she was an easier character to play than Blitzkrieg because the Javelin skills (yes, including LF) are better in 1.13 and I didn’t have to switch as much. Plus I never noticed that “My boot’s on a magnet!” bug when weapon switching with this character.

ShocknAwe doesn’t like LI/PIs. And those happen pretty often in Hell, actually. The merc’s Reaper’s made them killable, but very slowly. I sure missed that bugged Fire Arrow.

Cows:
Well, no presentation of a LF JavaZon would be complete without a report on Cows. ShocknAwe does them mighty well – just as good as Blitzkrieg, actually, since the merc is so much tougher, he doesn’t need babysat. The Valk is way weaker because her HPs don’t scale with player settings as in 1.09, but she only costs mana, and LF leeches mana from cows very effectively.

Finds:

Hellforge: Hell: Mal (nice!)

ShocknAwe was getting pwned by Blitzkrieg’s Pul drop until a late Cham Rune dropped in an Act 5 Red Portal area (along with a nice Jade Talon).

Some really nice boots.


Thank you for reading.

PLANS?

Oh, ok.

1.09 versus 1.13 WW Sword Barbs, of course! Throwing every bit of wealth I have into this. Grief PBs versus crazy crafted 1.07 3os swords.
 
Originally posted by ShaytanSlayer on Apr 1, 2007:

Matriarch Fadyla - The furious WS K cleaning lady

"Tsk, tsk, tsk...the demons and the garbage they leave around this place. Look, one of them even left a limb! I think I'll take this one home...those purple bottles too, I like those. Drinking problem?! Me?! Naaah...I just really like the taste of those blue pots, that's all.

Alright, it's all clean up here. Let's go down to the basement and see what that lazy slob Baal left behind this time..."



She's furious, moody and here to clean house, ladies and gents: my new Matriarch Fadyla, LF/FA zon.

Character level: 82
Life: ~1000
Mana: ~400 (ish)
Dex: Max block on Jav switch
Str: ~80 (ish) for gear

Remaining points: enough for a Stormshield, should I ever find one.

Skills: the obvious ones from the NF guide, will experiment some with the future points

20 Lightning Fury (oh boy)
20 Charged Strike (Baal...what Baal?!)
20 Freezing Arrow (gloam this, you mother...)
20 Ice Arrow (synergy)
1 pierce (a.k.a. the blessing)
1 decoy (List0r r dumb)
prerequisites

Gear:

Weapon 1: rare javelin with +1 skills, increased stack size and replenish quantity(Titan's little brother)
Weapon 2: upp'ed (once) Wizendraw, -34% enemy CR
Head: Peasant Crown, hoping for a 'Crest
Body: Vipermagi
Gloves: rares with +2 skills, resists and a bit of dex
Boots: Waterwalk or rares w/resists
Belt: Razortail
Shield: Whitstan's with a L-facet (5%/4%)
Amulet: rare w/resists and some MF - hopefully Mara's, one sunny day when I find it
Rings: rotate between Ravenfrost, Dwarf Star, Nature's Peace and a rare with resists/dex

Charms: one Fletcher's of Sustenance (yay!), resists, poison damage and a couple of fine sc's with crappy (or none) other mods.

Fazel's (A2 defiance) gear: Crown of Thieves, Insight partizan (Reaper's from Ancients onward) and Duress dusk shroud (~1400 def)

HF drops: Hel on Hell (booo!)...can't remember NM, may have been a Hel also. She did find a Fal and another Hel while questing - not bad overall.

Notable finds: this gal was L-U-C-K-Y, when it comes to itAmZ (forget the HF letdown for a second). Reaper's in Ancient's Way, Demon Limb in Ws K level 1...Nature's Peace in LK and just a ton of grailers early on.

Biggest hurdle: wife (LOL)...made me S/E before I found Ancient's Way WP (another stroll through Frozen Thundra, anyone?).

All jokes aside, though, this lady had no serious issues with anything - ancients killed Fazel once or twice the first time around, but after that Reaper's dropped they were tame as lambs...and ended up quite the same. I guess you could say that my wife did me a favor of sorts. I never would've made that second walk through Ancient's Way and would still be Reaper-less. Moving on, a mini-boss pack of Frenzytaurs in WS K were a tad overwhelming, but 50K later they were done too. Minions were quite a joke, actually, give or take the hydras from Bartuc's gang. I've never built/played a character who could fry Lister so fast...dang! Feels exhilarating, I must say. With decrep/DS from Reaper's, CB/OW from Duress and Fadyla's Charged Strike, taking Baal down was a breeze.

Fadyla keeps the WS K spotless and will keep cleaning the place for months to come. I do have to figure out how to get some MF on her, while keeping up her resistances and killing speed. All in all, a very fun and dynamic character with a lot of versatility - the guide was a great read, logical and straightforward, true to the NF style.

Thanks for reading the whole thing - you've made it to the end 😃
 
Originally posted by sicfire on Aug 13, 2008:

First Matriarch

Character Name: StarsOfChaos
Character Level: 85
Strength: 65(90)
Dexterity: 130(166)
Vitality: 235(255)
Energy: 15(36)

Life: 1129
Mana: 228

-Skills-
Bow and Crossbow Skills:
20(24) Cold Arrow
1(5) Ice Arrow
20(24) Freezing Arrow

Passive and Magic Skills:
1(5) Inner Sight
1(5) Slow Missiles
1(5) Decoy
1(5) Critical Strike
1(5) Penetrate
1(5) Pierce

Javelin and Spear Skills:
1(10) Jab
1(10) Power Strike
20(29) Charged Strike
1(5) Poison Javelin
1(10) Lightning Bolt
1(10) Plague Javelin
20(29) Lightning Fury


Equipment:
Code:
Peasant Crown
War Hat
Defense: 108
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 28
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x62778f03
+20 to Energy
+20 to Vitality
+100% Enhanced Defense
Replenish Life +9
15% Faster Run/Walk
+1 to All Skill Levels

The Spirit Shroud
Ghost Armor
Defense: 295
Durability: 19 of 20
Required Strength: 38
Required Level: 28
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 54
Fingerprint: 0x9324a225
+150% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 9
Replenish Life +10
+1 to All Skill Levels
Cannot Be Frozen

Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 72 to 193
One-Hand Damage: 72 to 142
Quantity: 99
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0xaec8897c
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+165% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size

Moser's Blessed Circle
Round Shield
Defense: 177
Chance to Block:  62%
Durability: 64 of 64
Required Strength: 53
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0xc8d862f7
+217% Enhanced Defense
+25% Increased Chance of Blocking
All Resistances +63
30% Faster Block Rate
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Raven Mark
Amulet
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x31e9b9c
+1 to Energy
+1 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +10%
Lightning Resist +10%
Cold Resist +22%
Poison Resist +10%
19% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+1 to Paladin Skill Levels

Lancer's Gauntlets of Fortune
Defense: 12
Durability: 23 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xcc0c5532
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+3 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Amber Greaves of Acceleration
Defense: 13
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 43
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x7abc5ee9
Lightning Resist +40%
40% Faster Run/Walk

Bladebuckle
Plated Belt
Defense: 52
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x6c0ec1a5
+5 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+84% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
30% Faster Hit Recovery

Dwarf Star
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x73b09da7
+40 to Life
+40 to Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 12
100% Extra Gold from Monsters
15% Fire Absorb

Jade Ring of Fortune
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 76
Fingerprint: 0x885edd4b
Poison Resist +30%
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Kuko Shakaku
Cedar Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 25 to 73
Required Dexterity: 49
Required Strength: 53
Required Level: 33
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0xba26a642
+152% Enhanced Damage
Adds 40-180 fire damage
+3 to Immolation Arrow (Amazon Only)
Piercing Attack [50]
Fires Explosive Arrows
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
Charms: Various reists and life charms


Mercenary Equipment(Act 2 Holy Freeze):
Static Circlet of Enlightenment
Defense: 20
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 33
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 51
Fingerprint: 0x9cac01a3
+27 to Energy
Adds 1-111 lightning damage

Shaftstop
Mesh Armor
Defense: 988
Durability: 23 of 23
Required Strength: 82
Required Level: 38
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0xaf9401f1
+60 to Life
+208% Enhanced Defense
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Damage Reduced by 30%
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

Insight
Cryptic Axe
'RalTirTalSol'
Two-Hand Damage: 115 to 483
Durability: 61 of 65
Required Dexterity: 103
Required Strength: 165
Required Level: 59
Polearm Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 79
Fingerprint: 0xa4d3b927
+5 to Strength
+5 to Energy
+5 to Dexterity
+5 to Vitality
+222% Enhanced Damage
+9 to Minimum Damage


Basic Gameplay:
Basically a standard FA/LF Amazon. Even though she was my first character matt'ed many of her items were found from my meteorb sorceress, who will soon be matt'ed aswell (Level 78 currently in Act 3). I thought the hardest part with her would be Baal's minions, but they actually went down very easy, as did Baal. The biggest problem that I had with her was the ancients, seemed to take forever and had to line the ground with health pots and mana pots because my merc died in 2 seconds.


Future:
About the only thing I will be using her for is running cows. From time to time I may do some baal runs with her, but right now I am focusing more on my sorceress.

This is the first write up of a Mat/Pat that I have down, so please let me know if I'm forgetting anything.
 
Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Mar 30, 2008:

Matriarch BaalBusterII - future WSK runner (with a few questions)

Just like the original BaalBuster, this is a cookie-cutter build. Hopefully the similarity ends there, as the first attempt was an IK Barb with Berzerk instead of Shout. In the WSK he is about as fast as a three-toed sloth that's been hit by a Holy Freeze aura and Decrepify curse - not exactly what I was looking for.

So, this time, I followed NightFish's LF/FA guide, almost to the letter. The only variation is likely that future points will be going into CS synergies instead of Decoy. Otherwise, I tried to maintain good balance between FA and LF, and basically took the best of what NF lists as equipment and went with that (Shako for MF and the extra +skill for FA, instead of Griffon's, otherwise it follows the "ideal gear" almost exactly).

Before getting to my questions though, I'll post the usual Matriarch thread stuff:

Javelin LCS
Bow LCS


Pertinent Skills with Equipment:
Lightning Fury: 32
Charged Strike: 32
Frozen Arrow: 34 (yes, it's synergized by 20 points in Cold Arrow)
Decoy: 9
Pierce: 9
... future points will go into synergizing the Lightning skills (mostly to boost CS for Baal)

Gear:
Weapon1: Titans Revenge (195/9, not upgraded, not ethereal)
Shield: Whistan's Guard (Eld - will probably resocket an IAS Jewel)
Weapon2: 'Melody' Matriarchal Bow (+6)
Armour: Skullder's Ire (Shael)
Helm: Harlequin Crest (13 res all / +8 Dex jewel)
Ammy: Mara's (25)
Belt: Razortail
Ring1: Ravenfrost (20/199)
Ring2: Stone of Jordan
Gloves: Rares (+2 Bows, 20 IAS, 10 LightRes, stuff)
Boots: Rares (30 FRW, 24 MF, 34 LightRes, 31 ColdRes, 17 PoisonRes)

Charms:
Gheeds (40/138/10)
2x Harpoonists of <Life> (23, 11)
2x Shimmering GC's (30 resist, 18 life)
1x Ruby GC of Balance (30/12) [highlight]<---- thanks Lompo[/highlight]
1x Shimmering LC of Vita (7/34)
3x Shimmering SC (15 resists, junk mods)
1x Russet SC of Good Luck (6/7)
1x Emerald SC of Good Luck (11/6)
2x Ruby SC (22 resists, 14 life, +Cold Damage)
1x Sapphire SC of Vita (10/19)
1x Amber SC of Life (11/10)

Merc:
Defiance
eth 'Insight' Cryptic Axe
Guardian Angel (rare jewel with 30% Light Res, 17% ED, +6str, 5-12 fire damage)
Tal's Mask (IAS jewel)


Notes:
She was heavily twinked and played like a standard LF 'zon throughout, with points into FA and CA only after LF and CS had been maxed. It's been a while since I played a javazons, and wow, is LF an overpowered skill!!! Especially when you're a rich bass turd like me. Progress was very fast and quite uneventful through normal and nightmare.

She did have one death (in Nightmare) in the Plains of Despair. A Convicted Burning Soul boss and an Abyss Knight boss with a Holy Freeze aura - I tried to run away after running out of potions, and accidentally clicked on a nearby Burning Soul instead (that's the danger of keeping CS on left-click). Her attack was way too slow to escape at that point.

In Hell I decided to just twink on her planned final setup for WSK runs, so for the first time in a very long time I had significant MF (~200) while questing through Hell. It definitely had a noticeable effect.

Drops:
Hellforge: El/Shael/Ko :sad2:
assorted Cathan's and Isenhart's-quality items, only in much higher quantity than I'm used to. 👅
2x Io runes (both in Nightmare, actually)
Shapeshifting skiller (don't remember where - Arcane Sanctuary in Hell, me thinks)
Cranebeak (A3 Hell, Kurast Bazaar, iirc)
Alma Negra (A4 Hell, River of Flame)

.. and...

... that's the first time I've seen one of these drop.

Ever. :shocked:




















... too bad it was the wrong one. :laugh:



The Questions:
1. It's been a while since I hung out in the WSK (and I seldom stayed for very long), but I don't think locked chests spawn there. Can someone confirm this so I can drop my keys and squeeze another small charm in there?

2. Is it worth it to upgrade my Titan's Revenge? I only have the 9% Life Leech on that, and otherwise my physical damage (and AR) is pretty low. It doesn't seem like it's really worth it to me, but it seems like everyone and their grandmother likes an upgraded Titan's... thoughts?

3. There's more, I just can't remember them at the moment. Bed time now.
 
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Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Dec 28, 2008:

Matriarch Overkill: LF/CS/Strafe

Sadly the name turned out to be something of a misnomer; I thought she'd be a lot stronger than she was.


Stats:
LCS (Lightning Fury & Charged Strike)
LCS (Strafe)

... additional stat points would've gone into Dexterity instead of Vit.


Skills:
28 Lightning Fury
28 Charged Strike
23 Strafe
20+ Penetrate (3 more points can go here)
9/7 Pierce
1 (4) Decoy, prereq's.
... points beyond level88 would've gone into Critical Strike or Decoy


Equipment:
W1: Titans Revenge (195/9)
S1: Head Hunter's Glory
W2: Windforce (Eth rune)
Fortitude
Crown of Ages
Cresent Moon amulet
Razortail
Ravenfrost (19/244)
Nature's Peace (11/26)
Wartraveller's (49%)
crafted 'Blood' gloves
Charms:
- Gheed's
- 3x Harpoonists (+5 str, +11 & +23 life)
- Resistance charms of <Life>/FRW/FHR/MF

Merc:
Maeko, Level85, FireRogue
'Faith' Crusader Bow
eth Treachery AP
eth Andy's Visage (29/15 <Fire Resist> Jewel of Fervor)


Finds:
- Hel/Lum Hellforge
- 3% Bul-Katho's Wedding Band (Countess runs)
- Pul rune (Countess runs)
... not much else ...


Notes:
1. I was hoping she'd be a good runner for making a stab at level99. I didn't expect to get there before getting tired of the journey, but figured she'd be a fun and viable choice... in the end, she wasn't quite that. Mostly because:

2. With that equipment I though she'd be a lot more of a powerhouse than she was. She was certainly capable, but I was hoping for a monster-mowing-machine; which she wasn't.

3. Speaking of the equipment, it's really a stretch to pair these skills together and have lots of power. I spent a lot of time figuring out what best to use for balancing my needs, and although I think my choices were justifiable, the end result was pretty underwhelming. In the end she was moderately fragile and only had "tolerable" power.

4. Speaking of fragile, Maeko dies about 4 times on average on every Baal run. Irritating.

5. Nightfish is right that a LF/FA 'zon is much easier to pull off. Balancing equipment is a lot more friendly for the +skill-based zon.

6. She ran Countess on /players1 from level 77 to 82 so she could equip CoA.

7. This guy was not fun (yes that's a conviction aura). :p

8. 7 items from Baal's drop???... I thought he was capped at 6. (yes, that's his quest-drop, on /players3 - if that makes any difference).

9. Oh well, I might rethink and retest a similar idea, but Overkill is going to the retirement bin. At least you don't see many of these, and I find all of the skills relatively fun, so the idea wasn't a complete failure - just not as satisfying as I'd hoped.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Skinhead On The MBTA on Jul 3, 2007:

Matriarch Baba_ORiley - 4/7

Yeah, this is the fourth time that I've done a Mat/Pat thread, and this time it's the turn of my Amazon, a Fishyzon by the name of Baba_ORiley.

Name: Baba_ORiley (Song by The Who, if anyone hadn't guessed)
Amazon

Stats/with Gear:
STR: 105/146 (Javelin)/126 (Bow)
DEX: 130/173 (Javelin)/173 (Bow)
VIT: 260/275
ENE: 15/21 (Javelin)/36 (Bow)

Damage: Lightning Fury - 252-673 Throw, 1-1140 Lightning (26 bolts)
Charged Strike - 252-519, 1-1562 per bolt (8 bolts)
Frozen Arrow - 75-266, 1131-1176 Splash

Life: 1232
Mana: 174 (Javelin)/227 (Bow)

Attack Rating, Defense: too low to make any difference whatsoever :rolleyes:

Skills/with Gear:
Javelin & Spear (with Javelin Switch)
Lightning Fury - 20/25
Charged Strike - 20/25
Lightning Strike - 4/9

Bow & Crossbows (with Bow switch)
Freezing Arrow - 20/21
Cold Arrow - 20/21
Ice Arrow - 2/3

Passive & Magic
Pierce - 2/3

Resists in Hell
-1/63/62/-31 (Bow Switch)
-1/37/62/-31 (Javelin Switch)

Items
Code:
Helm: Rockstopper (Ort)
Armour: Duriel's Shell
Belt: Razortail
Gloves: Bloodfist
Boots: Natalya's Soul
Amulet: The Eye of Etlich
Ring 1: Manald Heal
Ring 2:Stone Coil
Ring
Required Level: 15
Fingerprint: 0xe4a76fb0
Item Level: 30
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties: 
+2 to Strength
+6 to Energy
+26 to Mana
+76 to Attack Rating
Magic Damage Reduced by 1

Javelin Switch: Titan's Revenge (or Thunderstroke for bosses)/Whitstan's Guard
Bow Switch: Upgraded Wizendraw

Mercenary
Azrael - Act 2 Prayer

Life: 1910
Damage: 739-2434

Code:
Helm: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Armour: Shaftstop
Weapon: Ethereal Insight Cryptic Axe

She's been great fun to play, with one of the best looking skills on the game (Lightning Fury), and the best boss killing skill on the game (Charged Strike). She's going to hang around in the worldstone keep now, and get some MF on her.
 
Originally posted by Skinhead On The MBTA on May 12, 2008:

A Brand New Matriarch

Well, another one's down in my sept - only three to go now, although I don't think that I've done Mat/Pat threads for all of them - the first one was a Hammerdin, and the second a Blizzard Sorc, so - both of whom were so cookie cutter that they didn't need one.

This one isn't much less of a cookie cutter, but she's an Orphan and she's going to be my WSK runner, so, may I humbly present to the good people of the SPF:

Name: BrandNewHero
Class: Amazon
Experience: 881138689
Level: 82

Stats (Naked/Gear)
Strength: 125/195
Dexterity: 170/230
Vitality: 190/190
Energy: 15/15
HP: 782/844
Mana: 136/315
Stamina: 335/353
Defense: 42/2000
AR: 820/820

Damage (With appropriate switch)
Charged Strike: 330-639, 1-1708
Lightning Fury: 330-819, 1-1232
Freezing Arrow: 111-217, 770-832
Magic Arrow: 121-227 (used instead of normal attack in Bow Switch)

Resists (Normal/Nightmare/Hell)
Fire: 202/162/102
Lightning: 174/134/74
Cold: 206/166/106
Poison: 179/139/79

Misc: (Not including set bonuses)
MF: 0
GF: 0
FR/W: 60
FHR: 5
IAS: 20
FCR: 0

Skills:
Code:
Javelin Switch (Primary Switch)
Inner Sight : 1/6
Critical Strike : 1/9
Dodge : 1/9
Slow Missiles : 1/9
Avoid : 1/6
Penetrate : 1/6
Dopplezon : 1/6 (Evidently, GoMule doesn't like the skill Decoy and would rather call it "Dopplezon")
Evade : 1/6
Valkyrie : 12/17
Pierce : 1/6

Charged Strike : 20/29
Lightning Fury : 20/29

Bow Switch (Secondary Switch)
Cold Arrow: 4/13
Freezing Arrow: 20/29
Prereqs: 1/10

The Set
Code:
Telling of Beads
Amulet
Required Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0x23a3b130
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Cold Resist +18%
Poison Resist +39%
Attacker Takes Damage of 8
+1 to All Skills

Credendum
Mithril Coil
Defense: 113
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 106
Fingerprint: 0x1ec8a39d
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
+50 Defense
All Resistances +15

Rite of Passage
Demonhide Boots
Defense: 59
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x8ea45d9e
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+18 Maximum Stamina
+25 Defense
30% Faster Run/Walk
Half Freeze Duration

Laying of Hands
Bramble Mitts
Defense: 86
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 63
Required Strength: 50
Fingerprint: 0x3e82dee8
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+25 Defense
Fire Resist +50%
20% Increased Attack Speed
350% Damage to Demons
10% Chance to cast level 3 Holy Bolt on striking

Dark Adherent
Dusk Shroud
Defense: 828
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 77
Fingerprint: 0xc70ce138
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+413 Defense
Fire Resist +24%
+24-34 poison damage over 2 seconds
25% Chance to cast level 3 Nova when struck

Partial Set Bonus
+35 Life (2 Items)
Attacker Takes Damage of 5 (3 Items)

Complete Set Bonus
+85 To Life
Attacker Takes Damage of 5
All Resistances +15
+100 Defense
+10 To Dexterity
+20 To Strength
80% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
The Weapons
Code:
Melody
Reflex Bow
Two Hand Damage: 13 - 28
Durability: 39 of 55
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 35
Required Dexterity: 60
Fingerprint: 0xabcc4e9c
Item Level: 79
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
50% Enhanced Damage
+3 to Critical Strike (Amazon Only)
+3 to Dodge (Amazon Only)
+3 to Slow Missiles (Amazon Only)
300% Damage to Undead
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
20% Increased Attack Speed
+10 to Dexterity
Knockback
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Ko Rune
Socketed: Nef Rune

Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 71 - 188
One Hand Damage: 71 - 139
Quantity: 65
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 109
Fingerprint: 0x186d51d
Item Level: 59
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
156% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes quantity
Increased Stack Size

Stormshield
Monarch
Defense: 455
Durability: 85 of 86
Required Level: 73
Required Strength: 156
Fingerprint: 0xdbd1b905
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+30 to Strength
25% Increased Chance of Blocking
Damage Reduced by 35%
Lightning Resist +25%
Cold Resist +60%
35% Faster Block Rate
+10 Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of
Indestructible
307 Defense (Based on Char Lvl)
All Resistances +19
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond
The Rest
Code:
Manald Heal
Ring
Required Level: 15
Fingerprint: 0x6413c1e0
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Life
20% Regenerate Mana
6% Mana stolen per hit
Replenish Life 6

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x34bfe29b
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+165 to Attack Rating
+15 - 45 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Vampire Gaze
Grim Helm
Defense: 252
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0xba59b1f7
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
100% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 13
Damage Reduced by 18%
+6 - 22 cold damage with 4 sec Duration
8% Life stolen per hit
8% Mana stolen per hit
15% Slower Stamina Drain
All Resistances +14
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Scintillating Jewel

Scintillating Jewel
Jewel
Required Level: 26
Fingerprint: 0xfeafbdb2
Item Level: 36
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Fire Resist 14%
Lightning Resist 14%
Cold Resist 14%
Poison Resist 14%
The Charms
Code:
Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0x5adf12eb
Item Level: 49
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+30 to Life

Ocher Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 7
Fingerprint: 0xaa585dc1
Item Level: 17
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+12 to Life
Lightning Resist +16%

Harpoonist's Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0xa4b23aba
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Small Charm of Balance
Small Charm
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0xa6cfbaa5
Item Level: 62
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
5% Faster Hit Recovery

Jade Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 20
Fingerprint: 0x5186659a
Item Level: 81
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Poison Resist +9%

Harpoonist's Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 42
Fingerprint: 0x26866486
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+1 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

Snake's Grand Charm of Flame
Grand Charm
Required Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0x622915ae
Item Level: 77
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+39 to Mana
+1 - 2 Fire Damage

Tangerine Small Charm of Frost
Small Charm
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0xd9c89d95
Item Level: 22
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
Lightning Resist +5%
+1 - 2 cold damage with 1 sec Duration
The Merc
Code:
Name: Leharas
Race: Desert Mercenary
Type: Off-Nightmare
Experience: 66987302
Level: 82
Dead?: false

Naked/Gear
Strength: 181/206
Dexterity: 145/145
HP: 1647/1647
Defense: 1181/2177
AR: 1184/1184

Fire: 161/121/61
Lightning: 146/106/46
Cold: 146/106/46
Poison: 146/106/46

Toothrow
Sharktooth Armor
Defense: 779
Durability: 36 of 63
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 103
Fingerprint: 0x5868de62
Item Level: 68
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+10 to Strength
179% Enhanced Defense
+57 Defense
Fire Resist +15%
+15 Maximum Durability
Attacker Takes Damage of 29
40% Chance of Open Wounds

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0x1753937e
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+15 to Strength
120% Enhanced Defense
30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike

The Reaper's Toll
Thresher
Two Hand Damage: 39 - 466
Durability: 57 of 65
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 114
Required Dexterity: 88
Fingerprint: 0xeb6f613
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
231% Enhanced Damage
+4 - 44 cold damage with 2 sec Duration
14% Life stolen per hit
Requirements -25%
Ignore Target's Defense
33% Deadly Strike
33% Chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking
Well, she was fun. Like I said before, she's going to be my new WSK Runner, which is what she will be doing for the foreseeable future. However, I really don't like Gloams, and Leharas really doesn't like OKs, so she may need toughening up. I may switch out the set for more specialised gear when I start running.

My Current Sept status:

Rich (BB code):
Class        |Build        |Name            |Done?
Sorceress    |Blizzwaller  |LadyLuck        |Yes
Paladin      |Hammerdin    |HammertoFall    |Yes
Druid        |Fury/Rabies  |LongRoadtoRuin  |No
Barbarian    |Frenzy       |SaltyDog        |Yes
Assassin     |TS/DTail     |Valerie         |No
Amazon       |Fishyzon     |BrandNewHero    |Yes
Necromancer  |Dentist      |BadtotheBone    |No

I also have Morrigan the ZealSorc, and Orpheus the Witchyzon in progress
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Tanksaabas on Oct 15, 2008:

Matriarch Blargh - Fishyzon

Decided to finally finish this char so I can run cows and WSK.

Stats:

Level: 82

LCS

Strength: 115 (192)
Dexterity: 140 (190)
Vitality: 230 (257)
Energy: 15 (22) base

Life: 1347
Mana: 310

Resistances: 57/76/85/41 and 38/21/47/22 on switch with bow (need to work on these)

Skills:

prereques 1

Charged Strike: 20 (29)
Lightning Fury: 20 (32)

Freezing Arrow: 20 (29)
Cold Arrow: 17 (26)

Passive and Magic skills all have 1 (8)

Gear: Titan's Revenge , 23 Mara's , 28 Vipermagi's , Stormshiled with pdiamond , Aldurs boots , Harley Shako with ptopaz , Thundergod's belt , Raven frost , Bloodfist gloves , and some crappy rare ring with res to all.

Merc with prayer aura , insight thresher , shaftstop and tal rashas mask.

I'm not sure I made the right decision to take a prayer merc , still I don't rely on LL to fill my health bulb and neither on ML. So I guess it helps.

Gameplay: Erm , don't rememver most of the early game as I started her some months ago. Though I remember this fight. Right after entering cold plains this guy with his friends shows up. My hardest battle in all of Normal and Nightmare , and only the later parts of Hell had similar tough battles. On /p8 that extra fast bosspack is really dangerous and I hadn't muled any twinkage gear on her also. But using these trees to my advantage I managed to defeat them.

As I said normal and nm were easy , early hell also. And up to Travincal my merc stayed alive. After that he started to die every 10 minutes or so. Really annoying. So I guess at that point it went a bit harder. I relied on my merc to give me mana and health (besides pots). Most annoying was a triple snake pack in ancients way and also a triple dark lancer bosspack with misshappen bosspack also. The last one ate like 500K gold on merc ressurrects. As they were all lit immune also I had to spam FA on them , and kill speed wasn't very fast.

Ancients were also pain. Only on the 6th roll did I defeat them. First had curse and conviction so a insta reroll on those. 3rd or 4th also had Holy Freeze. a couple of rolls had double lit immunity. Only on the 6th it hit me to sperate the ancients :whistling: Managed to get Korlic (he had an aura but it was holy fire luckily) to follow me and with the aid of my merc and valk cornered him and pummeled on him until he dropped dead. Talic showed up himself and in the same location where Korlic had fallen did we also finish him. Last was Madawc and he was lit immune. Some 5 minutes later of constant FA spammage and the last of the ancients was defeated.

WSK was rather easy , only some merc ressurects. LF just poons. Minion waves weren't hard as neither was Baal. He dropped the usual stuff.

Notable finds: Bane Ash and Torch of Iro in normal act 1 (both were grailers) , also Io from hell Hellforge. That was all.

She will be by main WSK and Cow runner. I have to get some better resists on switch to be even better gloam proof. Maybe some other gear changes also.

Thanks for reading!
 
Originally posted by TopHatCat64 on Jan 18, 2017:

Matriarch Chimaera - Pus n' Plague Hybridzon

Stats - Strafe half / Plague Javelin half

Code:
Lvl 82

Strafe damage: 712-2112 (with Might and Enchant)
Plague Javelin damage: 37K-38K
4 fpa Strafe

Life: 1126
Resists: -41, -11, 55, -41
Str: 35 | Dex: 245 | Vit: 205


Skills

20 Strafe
20 Plague Javelin
20 Poison Javelin
19 Valkyrie
1 in the rest of the P&M tree

Gear

Code:
Harlequin Crest
Mara's
Up'ed Pus Spitter 'shael'*
'Enigma' Breast Plate
Trang Oul's Claws
Nosferatu's Coil
War Traveler
Corruption Whorl rare ring*
Beta BKWB

Switch: Titan's Revenge / Lidless Wall

Pus Spitter
Gorgon Crossbow
Two Hand Damage: 79 - 276
Durability: 38 of 40
Required Level: 57
Required Strength: 47
Required Dexterity: 42
Fingerprint: 0xc4f5dcfc
Item Level: 75
Version: Expansion 1.10+
9% Chance to cast level 6 Poison Nova when struck
4% Chance to cast level 1 Lower Resist on striking
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+30% Increased Attack Speed
218% Enhanced Damage
+410 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
Adds 150 Poison Damage Over 8 Secs (200 Frames)
Required Level +7
Requirements -60%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune

Corruption Whorl
Ring
Required Level: 65
Fingerprint: 0x147b1f7
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+5 to Minimum Damage
+115 to Attack Rating
5% Mana stolen per hit
8% Life stolen per hit
+43 to Mana
Lightning Resist +20%

The Planning Stage

Every so often, I get tired of bashing monsters in melee...and that’s means it’s time to step back from the fray and build a weird archer. I always like building around CTC skills and I happened upon Pus Spitter, the oddly necromantic crossbow and the only item in the game that let’s you CTC Lower Resist on striking.

How was I going to get Lower Resist to go off? I needed to hit monsters quickly to maximize my chances of the curse going off. Multishot’s speed and massive spread of missiles would have been ideal...but only the middle 2 arrows have a chance of triggering the curse. That left Strafe as the best candidate for curse delivery.

So what benefits from Lower Resist? Elemental damage. How do I do elemental damage as a zon? The lightning javelins, the fire/cold arrows, and the poison javelins. I ruled out LF since it inevitably ends up overshadowing any skill it’s paired with. I already built a number of characters utilizing the fire/cold arrows - so those were out. That left Plague Javelin, a skill I had never used before and one that thematically fit nicely with Pus Spitter.

Having never used Plague Javelin before, I did a little digging and found a great guide (with an eye-searing :eek: green background!) about poison damage and the mechanics of the poison javelins. A couple important points:
  1. PJ’s poison clouds do not stack. In the case of overlapping poison clouds, only the highest damage cloud will take effect. Kind of a bummer and it leads to the second point...

  2. Pierce is not that useful and not worth pumping or equipping items to boost it. Sure, you end up covering more of the screen with successful pierces, but in my experience, you’ll almost always get a nice tight group around your tanks that one PJ easily covers.

  3. Finally, Lower Resist only improves poison damage if the monsters are cursed BEFORE they get hit with your PJ. This places a premium on cursing monsters as fast as possible so you can maximize your poison damage.
So I was going to be a lower-resist casting strafer flinging around plague javelins.

I ended up naming my new zon Chimaera after a venomous species of fish and the fact that their namesake, the mythical Chimera, is often used to describe “an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.“
Leveling and Observations

In order to boost my PJ damage, I packed a ton of +skills on this character - much more then I usually equip on a non-caster - and I enjoyed the benefit of all my one point wonders getting pumped up to lvl 12. Critical Strike went from a 16% chance to a 59% chance. Penetrate went from +35% AR to +145% AR. Pierce went from a 23% chance to a 75% chance. You get the picture. It was an unusual luxury.

My hybrid nature helped me and hurt me during the leveling process:
  1. Strafe and Plague Javelin worked nicely together. Strafe excelled at picking off scattered groups and lone, high hp bosses while Plague Javelin crushed tightly-packed groups and preventing non-poison immunes from regenerating any health.

  2. Lower resist definitely did boost my PJ damage, but...not quite as much as I had hoped. Even without the benefit of the curse, PJ demolished non-poison immunes pretty quickly.

  3. Pus Spitter is obviously not an ideal strafing weapon, but I found my damage was decent all the way up to till Hell A5 - when I found my damage starting to run out of steam.

  4. My Valkyrie was not as unkillable as I was used too, in fact, she was pretty damn killable for most of my journey. You see, I almost always max Decoy when I max Valkyrie, and without that 20 point synergy, I was losing out on +400% life and 40% resist all.

  5. Due to all the specialized gear I was wearing, I have HORRIBLE resists. However, I actually didn’t die as much as I thought I would. The combination of Valkyrie, Decoy, my Merc, slow missiles, and just plain ol’ distance meant I could comfortably walk around with negative resistances without really suffering the consequences….until I started encountering gloams in Hell A5. Then I finally swapped in some light res charms to avoid seeing my charred body face down on the floor.

  6. Plague Javelin’s 4 second casting delay and Strafe’s locking you in place meant that each usage of each skill felt very important. If I missed with my javelin or mistimed my strafe, I hurt my chances of maximizing my damage or killing a particularly dangerous group of monsters.
Overall, this was a fairly interesting zon to play with an odd marriage of skills. Finding a Jah rune with her made everything worthwhile.
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by TopHatCat64 on Nov 21, 2018:

Matriarch Tilafaiga - Brand-wielding Strafe/MS/GA/Jab Swiss Army Zon

Stats

Code:
Lvl 83

Strafe Damage: 1267-1282 (w/ Might)
Multiple Shot Damage: 1119-1134 (w/ Might)
Guided Arrow Damage: 1681-1701 (w/ Might)
Jab Damage: 1654-1974 (w/ Might)

Life: 1275 (Bow mode) 1305 (Javelin mode)
Resists: 75 F, 42 C, 80 L, 56 P (Bow) 75 F, 67 C, 80 L, 75 P (Javelin)
Str: 118 | Dex: 186 | Vit: 186

Skills

20 Strafe
20 Guided Arrow
20 Jab
10 Multiple Shot
6 Critical Strike
12 Penetrate
4 Pierce

Gear

Code:
Kira's Guardian 'Shael'
Highlord's Wrath
'Brand' Demon Crossbow*
'Fortitude' Archon Plate
Laying of Hands
Verdungo's
Aldur's Advance
Corruption Eye rare ring*
Bitter Loop rare ring*
Switch: Titan's Revenge / Moser's Blessed Circle 'Shael Io'

Merc: eth 'Infinity' CA / 'Fortitude' Archon Plate / Crown of Thieves 'ias jewel'

Charms (combined stats): 169 life, 75 min damage, 13 max damage, 14% frw, 8 str, 5% fhr

Brand
Demon Crossbow
JahLoMalGul
Two Hand Damage: 114 - 175
Durability: 21 of 40
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 141
Required Dexterity: 98
Fingerprint: 0x37b9cacb
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
35% Chance to cast level 14 Amplify Damage when struck
100% Chance to cast level 18 Bone Spear on striking
Fires Explosive Arrows or Bolts
339% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+301% Damage to Demons
20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
Knockback

Corruption Eye
Ring
Required Level: 70
Fingerprint: 0x8e80bde2
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
3% Life stolen per hit
+15 to Strength
+14 to Life
All Resistances +10
Lightning Resist +27%
Damage Reduced by 2

Bitter Loop
Ring
Required Level: 60
Fingerprint: 0x1e6a7b2d
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+85 to Attack Rating
3% Mana stolen per hit
+13 to Dexterity
+38 to Life
Cold Resist +11%
Poison Resist +25%

The Planning Stage

I've always gravitated towards physical damage characters and I've pondered a great deal on the best ways to harness a physical damage character's best friend: Amplify Damage. It's such a devastating curse that I think Blizzard intentionally handicapped each existing source of it.
  1. Atma's Scarab, The Gavel of Pain, The Vile Husk, The Cranium Basher, Witchwild String - Only a tiny 2-6% chance to cast
  2. The Gavel of Pain - Only 3 charges of the curse
  3. Lacerator - A whopping 33% chance to cast! :D...and a 50% chance to immediately to overwrite it with Terror :mad:
  4. The runeword Brand - Wow, a 35% chance to cast :D on being struck o_O and it can only be made in missile weapons :eek:
Brand, due to it's high cost of a Jah + a Lo, is easily the least accessible source of Amp. It's far down on the list of most universally useful runewords, especially for folks who don't have an Enigma yet or who want to wield the awesome might of double Dreams. But for those wackos (like me) who want to explore down the deepest, darkest paths that D2 has to offer, Brand is very intriguing. So began the planning...

I wanted to actually utilize Brand as weapon, which meant that an Amazon made the most sense as a base character with her bow skills. Gear-wise, I needed:
  • To run fast to quickly proc Amp on melee monsters and to quickly escape once Amp triggered
  • Hitting the 6 frame FHR breakpoint so that I could take a hit and then get out of melee range before being overwhelmed
  • A decent amount of life, resists, and damage reduction to survive all the extra damage I would be taking running into crowds of monsters
  • Boosts to physical damage to take advantage of Amp.
When I first started this character, all I had planned was to invest in Strafe and Multi and throw my extra points into CS/Penetrate/Pierce. The rough outline was a bowazon running into traffic, getting hit and triggering amp, pulling back, spraying cursed monsters with bolts.

When I was searching for a name, I wanted to use something to relate to Brand, since it's the lynchpin of the build. I looked on Wikipedia about actual brands, ritual scarring, and eventually tattoos. In Samoan mythology, Tilafaiga and her twin sister Taema were the first to bring the art of tattoos to the Samoan people.

Leveling and Observations

The hardest thing to wrap my head around was running into melee as a bowazon. It went against every instinct I had, after building many bow wielders. But if I wanted to Amp melee monsters, I had to stick my nose in there and take some hits.

The best monster mix was lots of weak ranged attackers like bow dart flayers or elemental archers, then I didn't even need to get into melee range to proc Amp. The worst monster mix was smaller groups of hard-hitting melee monsters like abominables, thorn hulks, or knights - I really had to be careful with how many were hitting me at once.

The ideal situation was when I quickly ran by a crowd, a passing swipe triggered Amp, and I was able to run a short distance away before vaporizing the amped monsters. Sometimes, I still hadn't triggered Amp after doing two run-bys, at which point I just pulled back and started shooting. It felt like the time I had spent trying to trigger amp's enhanced damage was now negated by having not fired off any arrows.

When faced with physical immunes, I usually tried to lead non physical immunes to them, so that I could take a hit from them instead. Most of the PI's I faced were ghosts and the fact that they stack on top of each other AND steal your mana, meant I tried to avoid getting hit by them if at possible.

Sounds like a lot of work to amp a monster, right? Well, the other lesson I learned was that not every monster has to be Amped. With a new toy like Brand, I felt the need to try and use it on every monster when I first equipped it. But that's not always efficient (1 or 2 monsters by themselves) or safe (frenzytaur champions, any unique pack with cursed). I suffered 2 deaths during my journey and both times I pushed the envelope just a little too far (taking Fangskin's charge right in the face and getting crushed by a pack of Doom Knights in the CS). It was after my first death that I swapped in Verdungo's (for the damage reduction, vit, and fhr) for Mav's Tenet (I was fast enough without the extra fast run/walk).

-

This was definitely a strange build to play and it wasn't until the last couple acts of Hell that I finally got the hang of mixing and matching all the tools in my toolbox.

I initially started with just Strafe and Multiple Shot as my two damage skills, but I ended up adding Jab and Guided Arrow to my skill set to fill tactical niches. Here's how I broke down when and where use each skill:
  • Multiple Shot: MS' huge range made it an ideal scouting tool when faced with areas filled with fast, dangerous monsters like dolls. Fires fast, so great for when I needed to fire and move around lots of incoming projectiles.
  • Strafe: Best against one or two targets when I felt safe enough to remain in one spot. Strafe's stream of arrows was the best bow skill for disrupting and pushing monsters far away from me with Brand's knockback. Narrow corridors and Pierce meant I could consistently hit every monster in a line with each Strafe cycle.
  • Guided Arrow: Excellent for when I needed to fire and really run against one or two really dangerous monsters like extra fast Heph or the Ancients. Also good for quickly picking off particularly troubling monsters in a crowd of other monsters (gloams, OK's, mummies) since GA did the most damage arrow for arrow out of my three bow skills.
  • Jab: Sometimes, when I ran into a crowd trying for an amp proc, I got surrounded, and that's when I switched to Titan's and Moser's. I always had max block with my big investment in dex, and so I had time to safely jab my way out of trouble. Also good against bosses where it was prudent to just stick close and avoid dancing around trying to avoid projectiles. (Why no Fend? I don't have any points in D/A/E, so I wouldn't trigger the Fend bug. However, Fend is best with two-handed spears with big weapon range. I needed a shield for my melee weapon switch to deal with really dangerous monsters wailing on me. Then if I'm using a shield, successful blocks would trigger the Fend bug, so I scrapped that idea)
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started this character but I ended up with a build that was able to tackle nearly any situation the game threw at me and was a blast to play.
 
Originally posted by VoX Dei on Jan 13, 2009:

Matriarch Bellatrix - Gunslinger with Faithful Rogue

Since ancient times, Bellatrix (aka the Amazon Star) has been the name of a star in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter). More recently, Bellatrix also became the name of my latest Matriarch. She is my first gunslinger mf’er with an A1 Faith rogue sidekick. Her favourite skills are lightning fury, charged strike, and strafe, but she also uses jab and magic arrow sometimes.

Bellatrix’s main assets are:
- 250% mf
- Maxed ias bp’s
- Good damage
- Maxed resists
- 75% block
and main drawbacks are:
- bowside needs a stronger tank (ie., valk)
- strafe without ctc (amp/decrep) is sub-optimal
- the more –eLRes% the better (CS doesn’t seem to kill Baal fast enough)

If she was a Lady Godiva running around naked her stats and skills would look like this:

Stats

Strength: 82
Dexterity: 278
Vitality: 160
Energy: 15

Life: 706
Stamina: 312
Mana: 147

Skills

Javelin Tab = 64:
1 jab, lightning bolt, poison jav, plague jav
20 lightning fury, charged strike, power strike

Bow Tab = 8:
1 magic arrow, cold arrow, guided arrow, multi shot
4 strafe

Passive & Magic Tab = 28:
1 inner sight, slow missiles, decoy, d/a/e, penetrate
2 valkyrie
7 crit. strike
12 pierce

But because she is dressed to kill:

Equipment

Main:
- Javelin: Eth Upped Titans’s Revenge 198/8
- Shield: Monarch with 2*+3mpk/15% ias jewels and 2*4/5 facets
- Bow: Windforce with a 35% ed, +15 max jewel
- Helm: Kira’s Guardian 70% with a 5/5 facet
- Armor: Fortitude AP (27% @ res, 111 life at clvl 89)
- Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
- Gloves: Lancer’s Gauntlets of the Bat
- Boots: War Traveler 50%
- Amulet: Doom Collar (crafted; 2 skills, 9% fcr, 24 str, 13% @ res, 23% mf, 15 mana)
- Rings: 2*Bul-Kathos 5%

Stash:
- Enchant prebuff: Demonlimb
- Baal Poker: Thunderstroke

Inventory Summary:
- 2*4 free squares
- Cube
- Charms that include a 40% Gheeds and add AR, resists, mf, max damage, life/mana, among other minor mods

And her friend too:

A1 Cold Rogue

- Faith Great Bow (slvl 14 Fanat)
- Tal’s Mask
- Crow Caw with a 15% lres, 15% ias jewel

Her stats and skills actually look like this:

Javelinside and respective passives;

Bowside and respective passives.

Finds Summary

Runes: Pul and Fal from Hellforges and this pleasant surprise from Pindle :cloud9:;
S/U’s: perfect ed% eth kelpie snare (from nm flayer jungle :cloud9:), tc87, +4 ondal’s staff;
Charms/Jewels (IIRC): 10% ed/-15% req, 20% ed, etc (too lazy to actually check).


Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
- Vox dei
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by VoX Dei on Feb 15, 2009:

Matriarch Bellatrice, Hybridzon

Matriarch Bellatrice
, Hybridzon


Introduction



Hi all! Presenting Matriarch Bellatrice, the über geared remake of the already rather well geared hybridzon Bellatrix, the Amazon Star (hence the name rip-off).

Bellatrix (the first) was built so that she would ultimately become a trustworthy WSK runner. She had great killing capability (excellent damage with maxed ias BP’s for LF, CS, and Strafe), coupled with great safety (~1k life, 75% all resists, 90% lightning, 75% block), and a little mf (250%) on the side. However, she also had three drawbacks as I came to realise.

First, when using bow, her only tank (slvl8 Valk) was insufficient. The Valk needed constant recast on WSK (especially on higher player settings) leaving the Faithful rogue sidekick vulnerable to attacks that could prove fatal. This alone can become very annoying really fast as it effectively kills the purpose of the build (ie, having Faith for ias).

Second, her bowside lacks a chance to cast on striking. This chance to cast would ideally be something like Decrepify (from Reaper’s Toll, which is impossible use with this particular build!) or Amplify Damage to increase physical damage bowside, or more realistically, something that would help the rogue staying alive in the rougher spots by providing better crowd control (eg, ctc Confuse from Delirium).

Third, Charged Strike, incredible it may seem, gave me the impression that it wasn’t killing Baal as fast as it should (especially on higher player settings). I tried to solve this problem right away by adding –eLR% (15% via Thunderstroke), but when I tried to use it noticed the +20 to Strength on Titan’s, which meant using Thunderstroke = no shield (Doh!).

After reading this, make no mistake! Bellatrix wasn’t weak. Quite the contrary! She simply had a few flaws that the perfectionist in me thought could use some measure of correction. Thus, Bellatrice, her remake was born.

To address the aforementioned flaws, Bellatrice has a stronger tank (slvl17 Valk, cast on Jav switch), crowd control via chance to cast Confuse on striking (from Delirium on Rogue), and an additional -25% eLR (from perfect Griffon’s Eye with 5/5 facet). Last but not least, Multi Shot was added to the build. MS is just too good to be skipped on places like Chaos Sanctuary or the Pit (amazing vs. the LI Dark Ranger bosses with MS that occasionally spawn there). These four improvements came at a cost: I had to lower her mf% from 250 to 130ish, which is something I don’t regret a bit.


Stats

Code:
Strength: 101
Dexterity: 249
Vitality: 165
Energy: 15

Life: 719 / 1070
Stamina: 316 / 351
Mana: 145 / 193

Breakpoints and Not So Obvious Stats

Code:
@ Resistances = 75%, except Lightning = 90%
MF% = 130ish
FRW% = 55 javside / 25 bowside
Blocking = 75%
Frames per Block = 5
Frames per Hit = 8
Frames per Cast = 14
Lightning Fury = 9 fpa
Charged Strike = 7 fpa
Strafe = 9/3 fpa
Multi Shot = 9 fpa
Merc Frames per Hit = 11
Merc fpa = 9

Skills

Rich (BB code):
Javelin Tab (with Javside LCS) = 47:
1 Jab, Power Strike, Lightning Bolt, Poison Javelin, Plague Javelin
2(+) Lightning Strike
20 Charged Strike, Lightning Fury

Bow Tab (with Bowside LCS) = 16:
1 Magic Arrow, Cold arrow, Guided arrow
5 Strafe
8 Multi Shot

Passive & Magic Tab* = 36:
1 / 6 / 4 Inner Sight, Slow Missiles, Decoy, D/A/E, Penetrate
6 / 11 / 9 Critical Strike
11 / 16 / 14 Pierce
12 / 17 / 15 Valkyrie
*Note: hard points / javside / bowside

Equipment

Main:

Code:
Javelin: Eth Upped Titans’s Revenge 198/8
Shield: Monarch with 2*+3mpk/15% ias jewels and 2*4/5 facets
Bow: Windforce with a 38% ed/15% ias jewel
Helm: Griffon’s Eye 20/15 with a 5/5 facet
Armor: Fortitude AP (27% @ res, 110 life at clvl **)
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: Lancer’s Gauntlets of the Bat
Boots: War Traveler 50
Amulet: Mara’s 30
Ring1: Ravenfrost 20/240
Ring2: Bone Turn (rare with 88 ar, 7 min, 8% ll, 5% ml, 8% @ res except 16% lres)

Stash:
Code:
Enchant prebuff: Demonlimb

Inventory:
Code:
Horadric Cube
Gheed’s 40
Harpoonist’s of Balance
Shimmering GC of Vita (15, 36)
3*Shimmering GC of Sustenance (15, 35 / 14, 30 / 13, 35)
2*Shimmering SC of Good Luck (5, 7 / 5, 6)
2*Fine SC of Good Luck (3, 20, 7 / 3, 20, 6)
Shimmering SC of Dexterity (5, 2)
Shimmering SC of Fortune (5, 4)
Shimmering SC of Balance (3)
Coral SC of Good Luck (9, 7)
Fine SC of Balance (3, 10)
Toxic SC of Good Luck (6)
2*4 empty squares

Mercenary (Sharyn, A1 Ice Rogue):
Code:
Faith Great Bow (slvl 14 Fanaticism)
Delirium Tiara
2*Upped Greyform with a 21% lres, 15% ias jewel [I](395 def = waste of runes)[/I]


Gameplay
Bellatrice was played at p8 all the way, except Ancients (p1) and Hell WSK (p3). Overall, her journey through the game went very smoothly. She entered Hell fully geared at Clvl 76. Lightning Fury backed with Charged Strike were the main skills used. From Act2 Hell onward, with LI’s becoming more common, she switched more often to Strafe and Multi Shot, which increased the fun factor. The only PI LI that she found through her journey were two annoying but non-dangerous Storm Casters (Puke Bite and Snot Maim), both in Act4 Hell.

Most fun I had with her was in Chaos Sanctuary for a number of reasons: The constant switching between jav-bow skills makes for incredible dynamic and fun play; both her and merc being ranged make me LOL incessantly @ OK’s; plus she completely tears the whole place apart! Other fun (and fast) runs were the Pit and Pindle. Bellatrice hasn’t seen the Cows yet, but I think it’s fair to assume that Hell Bovines will regret the day they make the acquaintance.

p1 Baal runs are a walk in the park for this girl. However, on higher player settings Baal runs acquire a predominantly sadomasochistic tone. It’s not that Bellatrice would die. In fact, it’s really hard to get her killed (eg, when WSK is crawling with gloams focusing their lightning attack on her, she ends up getting healed instead of hurt/killed). The problem is that the poor Rogue is unable to handle higher player settings and just keeps dying on me. Thus, killing the build (I need that aura on Faith for ias optimization). The ctc Confuse and stronger Valk do help, a LOT, but aren’t enough to keep the Rogue alive in the roughest spots. The other issue is the lack of Slow Target by x% when killing Baal. I was wrong before, when I thought –eLRes% alone would allow killing Baal faster. A source of Slow Target is also needed to prevent the cowardly Baal from wasting my time pursuing when he teleports around. I was hoping to get this girl’s level as high as possible (realistically to 98) in p3 Baal runs, but lesson learnt. Act1 mercs can’t keep up with higher player settings. Meaning, my next try at this will not use a Rogue merc (and as a consequence no easy ias from Faith).

In sum, this girl rocks hard, but she can rock harder…


Finds

- Hellforges: 2*Ko
- Highest Rune: Um
- S/U: Many, highlights are Infernal’s Cap (tc3) and 42% War Traveler
- Not much else worthy of note or otherwise I think I would remember.


Future

I won’t give up on making an Hybridzon p3> Baal runner. My next try will use: Act2 Might town guard wielding an ethereal Reaper’s; LF and CS on javelin side; maxed Magic Arrow with a high damage bow (ie, WF); and, TGods. I will work on the rest of the build from here when the time/urge to play this char comes.

I still want an Hybridzon to be the home for my Faith Great Bow (although I may steal it from her from time to time to use in other builds). It’s just that girl with the Faithful Rogue won’t be a Baal runner afterall, which means TGods is no longer a key item. Thus, she will be using Razortail like suggested by Zarfen previously.

For now, these two girls will have wait their turn on my ‘to do’ list, as my last 5 chars were all Amazons. Next char will likely be a Tornado Wolf, which is a build I’ve always wanted to play, but didn’t because I was 1 Stormlash short. And after that an Earthshifter wolf is the likely candidate.


Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
- VoX Dei
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by VoX Dei on Mar 16, 2009:

Matriarch Bellatria, Hybridzon

Matriarch Bellatria
, Hybridzon


Introduction


Hi all! Introducing my Baalathon runner, Matriarch Bellatria. She is a level 89 Hybridzon (my 3rd with a Faith wielding Rogue Scout) who has a personality of her own: she firmly believes that extra crispy monsters should always be on the menu. Bellatria enjoys very much making her point. Non-LI are fried with Lightning Fury/Charged Strike, and LI are barbecued with Fire Arrow. The usual outcome of these tactics is extra crispy monster. Just the way she likes it! However, she is not shy of using other types of damage (ie, Multi Shot/Jab) when appropriate/needed.

Stats and Skills:

Stats are simple: enough strength for gear (62), enough dexterity for max block, and rest vitality. General breakpoints are: 5 fpb, 8 fph, 15 fpc.

Passive and Magic tree: 10 Valkyrie (cast at slvl 17 on jav side); 7 Pierce; 6 Critical Strike; 1 in all other P & M tree.

Jav LCS + Tab: 9 fpa Lightning Fury, 7 fpa Charged Strike / 61% Crit. and 79% Pierce.

Javelin tree: 20 Lightning Fury/Charged Strike and 1 in all their pre-requisites.

Bow LCS + Tab: 9 fpa Fire Arrow, Multi Shot (10 arrows) / 58% Crit. and 75% Pierce.

Bow tree: 20 Fire Arrow; 4 Multi Shot; 1 MA (pre-req). I’ve opted for Fire Arrow as LI primary solution, because:

  1. At first I was going to use Magic Arrow vs. LI, because the damage is for the most part irresistible and ‘0’ mana cost is really handy vs. willowisps, which happen to drain mana pretty fast;
  2. Freezing Arrow was already excluded by default due to costing 41 skill points and being a ridiculous manahog, especially when most needed (ie, vs. willowisps);
  3. Cold Arrow, on the other hand, could work. It deals much higher damage than MA, mana cost unlike Freezing Arrow it’s not too high, the freeze length is huge, and it only costs 20 skill points;
  4. Finally, I’ve opted to go with Fire Arrow instead of Cold Arrow, because willowisps (my personal nemesis in Baal runs) take 33% more damage from fire and can’t be frozen. Besides, merc uses Cold Arrow anyway.

Let’s just hope I don’t regret picking Fire Arrow over Cold Arrow. Lister/Death Lord bosses with the wrong mods (eg, LE) may prove difficult to deal with. Multi Shot allows disposing of multiple LI’s (eg, Steel Scarabs) faster.

Next levels, 2 skill points will go to Pierce and after that the rest goes to Lightning Strike (CS synergy).

Equipment:

Javelin: Upped Eth Titan’s 198/8
Shield: Gemmed Monarch
Bow: WF (38% ed/15% ias)
Helm: Griffon 15/20 (5/5 facet)
Armor: CoH Wyrmhide
Gloves: Lancer’s Gauntlets of the Bat
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Boots: War Traveler 50
Amulet: Doom Collar
Ring1: Ravenfrost 20/240
Ring2: Bahamut’s Ring of Fortune 118/24
Stash: AR Prebuff - Demonlimb
Stash: Slow for Baal - Cleglaw’s gloves or Blackhorn’s for merc (haven’t decided yet)
Inventory: 2*4 free spaces, Gheed’s + dual mod charms (resists, mf, 20 fhr…)

Merc:

Sharyn, lvl 89 Cold Rogue equipped with Faith Great Bow (slvl14 Fanaticism) + eth Kira’s Guardian (lres/ias jewel) + eth Guardian Angel (lres/ias jewel). Sharyn shoots at 8 fpa and recovers at 11 fph. However, she doesn’t have any LL%. I’m hoping the lack of LL% won’t be an issue (hasn’t been so far), since melee monsters usually don’t reach her, and she has 90% @ res to help counter the worst elemental attacks monsters can throw at her (ie, willowisps lightning attack and Bartuc’s wave hydras).

Journey:

Not much to say here. She played smoothly as a lightning java p8 all the way until Act2 Hell, p3 from Act3 on. Exception was the Ancients (p1).

Deaths: her first death was to Korlic’s FE death explosion in NM; her second and last so far was due to negligence on my part (Charged Strike’d a lonely OK in NM WSK when IM’d – that felt so stupid).

Levelling sessions: first to 77 with a few NM Baal runs before entering Hell, because I wanted the merc to equip her Kira’s; second to 89 with a bunch of Pindle runs, because I wanted to equip her amulet (req clvl 89) before doing the Ancients and Baal.

Future: Bellatria will be joining the Baalathon soon.

Finds:

Bellatria packed ~200% mf most of her journey (currently 263%), so she had nice S/U finds. However, she wasn’t lucky with runes. I’ve kept a somewhat decent chronological track of most significant finds.

S/U: Tarnhelm 41%, Arctic Furs (N Meph), Telling of beads (N Diablo), Tancred’s Hobnails, Razorswitch, Trang-ouls shield, AoKL, Butcher’s Pupil 195%, Kelpie Snare, Oculus (NM Baal), Crow Caw, Homunculus 200%, Shaftstop (H Duriel), Demonlimb, LoH, Ondal's Almighty, Griswold's corona (H Pindle), Lidless Wall, IK Boots, Kira’s, Treks, Razor's Edge, Vidala's Ambush and Nord's Tenderizer (both H Baal).

Runes: highest was Lum IIRC. Hellforges were Dol + Hel.

Other: Fine LC of Greed, Sharp GC of Sustenance, Natural GC (H Pindle), Jewel of Carnage (+15) and a 5os eth GPA.

Next:

Tornado Wolf / Earthshifter Wolf / MA Assassin.


Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
- VoX Dei
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by xxnothing on Jan 21, 2009:

Matriarch Lydia - LF/CA Amazon

In the past I had a Lightning Fury javazon on Battlenet who specialized in slaughtering cows. I have very fond memories of playing her, she was awesome.
When my MF sorc recently found a Titan's Revenge, I decided now was a good time to build a LF based Zon in SP. I also had a Thunderstroke in my ATMA stash for poking bosses with Charged Strike. The only question was what to do with lightning immunes... my previous zon relied on 1 point Jab with a big damage spear on switch. After some thought and a quick read of Nightfish's Fishyzon guide, I decided to go Freezing Arrow. A side benefit of the recent MFO was a stash full of socketed/socketable items... I checked my stashes and sure enough, there was a 3os Matriarchal Bow with +3 Bow Skills on it. Melody: done.

Character Stats:
Code:
Character name  : Lidiya
Character type  : Amazon
Character level : 82
Character exp   : 827123306

Strength        : 99
Energy          : 45
Dexterity       : 136
Vitality        : 220
Stat Points Rem : 0
Skill Points Rem: 0

Life            : 1149 / 871
Mana            : 396 / 181
Stamina         : 391 / 361

Gold (Inventory): 24963
Gold (Stash)    : 439131

Skills:

19 Cold Arrow
20 Freezing Arrow

18 Charged Strike
20 Lightning Fury

Just one-pointers in the P&M tree.

Merc: Azrael, NM Act 2 Holy Freeze merc.

Gear overview: Lionheart, Kira's Guardian, Gore Riders, Razortail, rare gloves, dual Raven Frosts, Crescent Moon, Titan's Revenge, Sanctuary Troll's Nest, Melody Matriarchal Bow. Charms are all about resists, mana and AR.

Gear details:
Code:
Lionheart
Scarab Husk
'HelLumFal'
Defense: 461
Durability: 27 of 28
Required Strength: 81
Required Level: 51
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x648ec00a
+25 to Strength
+10 to Energy
+15 to Dexterity
+20 to Vitality
+50 to Life
+20% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +30
Requirements -15%
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Kira's Guardian
Tiara
Defense: 159
Durability: 25 of 25
Required Level: 77
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x3c9d82ff
+68 to Attack Rating
+117 Defense
All Resistances +66
Adds 21-31 fire damage
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Cannot Be Frozen
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Razortail
Sharkskin Belt
Defense: 106
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x7a1518f7
+15 to Dexterity
+148% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Maximum Damage
+15 Defense
Piercing Attack [33]
Attacker Takes Damage of 82 (Based on Character Level)

Plague Knuckle
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 73
Durability: 15 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 48
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xc1d3409
+11 to Dexterity
+63% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +6%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)

 Gore Rider
War Boots
Defense: 153
Durability: 33 of 34
Required Strength: 94
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x67afc8f1
+20 to Maximum Stamina
+185% Enhanced Defense
+10 Maximum Durability
Requirements -25%
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance of Open Wounds
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike

Crescent Moon
Amulet
Required Level: 50
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x485ede9
+45 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
5% Life stolen per hit
14% Mana stolen per hit
-2 to Light Radius
10% Damage Taken Goes to Mana

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x48edea18
+18 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+218 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x54be248f
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+166 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Lidiya's Titan's Revenge
Ceremonial Javelin
Throw Damage: 70 to 187
One-Hand Damage: 70 to 138
Quantity: 116
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 42
Javelin Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0xfc909cfb
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+154% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
9% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
30% Faster Run/Walk
+2 to Javelin and Spear Skills (Amazon Only)
Replenishes Quantity
Increased Stack Size

Sanctuary
Troll Nest
'KoKoMal'
Defense: 431
Chance to Block:  65%
Durability: 74 of 74
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 57
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x3d1fbef6
+20 to Dexterity
+160% Enhanced Defense
+20% Increased Chance of Blocking
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Magic Damage Reduced by 7
All Resistances +52
20% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Faster Block Rate
Level 12 Slow Missiles (60/60 Charges)
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Melody
Matriarchal Bow
'ShaelKoNef'
Two-Hand Damage: 30 to 70
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 187
Required Strength: 87
Required Level: 39
Bow Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x4a2c778e
+10 to Dexterity
+50% Enhanced Damage
Knockback
20% Increased Attack Speed
+3 to Slow Missiles (Amazon Only)
+3 to Dodge (Amazon Only)
+3 to Critical Strike (Amazon Only)
300% Damage to Undead
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)
Socketed (3: 3 used)

Merc Gear: Upped Shaftstop, Rockstopper, and I borrowed my Hammerdin's merc's Reaper's Toll. :)

Notable Finds: Dol, Io, Fal, Ko. Naj's Light Plate, Glimmershred, Arm of King Leoric. Hellforge drops: Normal - don't remember, NM - Shael, Hell - Ist.



Game play - Normal: The usual stuff. Wear whatever until I could put on Sigon's full set. Poke/whack monsters with whatever weapon was at hand. Put on a nice rare Glaive with "replenishes quantity" as soon as I could. Not much to tell, normal is not that exciting with most characters, especially if you can twink them along the way. Run the throne room and minions until level ~50. Kill Baal, lament the unexciting drop. Move on to NM.

Game play - Nightmare: Lightning Fury decimates most everything. Freezing Arrow eats mana like my kid eats ice cream... blink once and it's all GONE. By now I'm wanting to wear end game gear, but keep swapping stuff around trying to solve AR and mana puzzles. Nightmare went by so fast I barely remember it. Forge drop was a Shael *sigh*. Ran throne room until level ~70. Baal drop sucked once again.

Game play - Hell: Things go relatively smoothly until act 4. Lightning immune gloams were everywhere. Even with 75% LR, they were giving me plenty of NDE's. Freezing Arrow ate mana fast enough without having the gloams burn it off as well, I was sucking down blue pots faster than old Uncle Larry sucks down the Schlitz beer. I couldn't keep my holy freeze merc alive for more than 60 seconds at a stretch it seemed. Slow and steady advancement combined with lots of "Run away!!!" eventually got me to the City of the Damned WP. Down in the River of Flame things were humming along until... my first death. A boss-pack of those Abyss Knights (Multi-shot and Conviction no less) nailed me when I was running too far ahead of myself without paying attention. A whole slew of their elemental spells hit me all at once, instant death. I gathered myself and made a run for my body, went back to town and took a breather. Again, slow and careful got me through. Hephasto was cake, he had no scary mods this day. The hellforge coughed up a pretty nice rune for me. In the Chaos Sanctuary, I gave up resurrecting the merc every time he self-destructed and cleared the place alone. Diablo went down with absolutely no drama. I swapped in Thunderstrokes, Gore Riders, +2 J&S gloves and a Blackhorn's Face (for lightning absorb + slow target) and poked away with Charged Strike. No problem. The big guy even droppped me a grailer.
Ancients gave me fits. I had to reroll them a couple of times to avoid really nasty mod combinations. Eventually though they went down.
WSK was uneventful. Baal was a cakewalk once I handed the merc a shiny new Kelpie Snare to try out... Too bad his drop sucked!




Thoughts: Mana. For the first time ever I actually spent some points in energy in a vain attempt to keep my blue bulb happy. I wore a Manald Heal ring, Crescent Moon amulet, Silkweave Boots and Frostburn gauntlets and STILL couldn't keep my bow fed. I tried leech, I tried +mana after kill, I tried +mana regen. Freezing Arrow simply eats mana like I've never seen. I really, really didn't want to use Insight on my merc, it's one thing I hate about my sorc build, her reliance on the merc and his Insight stick. I'm sure there's a gear combo that would satisfy all aspects of this character, I just haven't stumbled onto it yet. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go with some other method of dealing with LI monsters and leave Freezing Arrow to a dedicated bowazon build.
Otherwise this character has been very fun. LF is always fun when you can mow down scores of monsters at a time. The Freezing Arrow skill was great fun to use as well, maybe I just have the wrong expectations about the mana issues? I think on a dedicated bowazon build the extra AR and physical damage would allow mana leech to keep it going. Don't get me wrong, Freezing Arrow is doable (and very fun), I just think it would work better on another build. I also miss the highly synergized lightning skills from my BNET zon. I also miss the Valk, which I skipped on this build.
Due to my fooling around alternately trying to keep AR up and mana flowing, her gear and stats are kind of whacky, but she was playable and fun. Her destiny from this point will either be WSK or cows. Or both.
👍

EDIT: Just realized I titled this post "LF/CA" when it should have been "LF/FA" Oops! :p
 
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