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Some template builds

In this section, we will take a look at several time-proven bowazon builds. While some equipment will be listed, you should note that what defines a specific build is not really specific gear, but rather generic orientations in the build's gear and the skills. When my memory will allow it, I will give credit where it's due. As a matter or fact, most of those builds (except number 2 ;) ) originated from or were refined at the Amazon Basin forums.

Except for the speedazon section, which will have lots of technical data for speed calculations, all template descriptions will consist of: an introduction, stats and skills allocation, gear selection, and a few quick tips on playing (plus the credits). Playing a character is a very personal thing. I will only be able to give a few generic tips for each style, because the knowledge can only come from the practice.

The Speedazon

"It's not the size of the bow that matters, it's the frequency with which you use it."
- DoubleTrouble, The Amazon Basin

Or "IAS Addicts". The philosophy behind the speedazon was simple in CD2: instead of using a big and cumbersome bow, they used very fast bows and as many Increased Attack Speed (IAS) items as possible (back then, the choice was simple: IAS gloves, Goldwrap belt, Twitchthroe armor, and a 20% IAS bow).

In LoD, the speedazon design changed a lot for the following reasons:

• IAS comes in many forms, thanks to the inclusion of sockets (jewels of Fervor), and to a wealth of options for IAS slots (we now even have IAS amulets).

• There is a new formula for calculating effective speed, as IAS now has diminishing returns except for the base bow speed.

• There is a hard cap at 75% effective speed increase.

So while in theory you can reach very fast speeds with about any bow (crossbows are completely out with the new effective speed formula), it is much easier to reach equivalent speed with a faster base bow. And this is how it should be in my humble opinion.

While this section is dedicated to the "pure" speedazons, everybody should read this to understand how IAS affects the rate of fire.

The speed mechanism

Much better persons than I have already written much about the speed formula, so I will just give a few definitions about speed.

• What is a 9/2 rig? Diablo2 runs at 25 frames per second (FPS). This has nothing to do with display framerate, it is just the speed of internal calculations. When talking about bow speed, most people use the x/y notation (introduced by DoubleTrouble), where x and y refer to numbers of frames. The first number (x) is the number of frames elapsing between two normal attacks. The second one (y) is the number of frames between two successive Strafe arrows. In our 9/2 rig example, normal attacks (this means all attacks except Strafe) are separated by 9 frames, while in a volley of Strafe, the first arrow will require 9 frames, while the following arrows will require 2 frames each.

• What is a -10 Base bow? I explained earlier how base bow speed had a large influence over your final effective speed. This is because the speed modifier inherent to the bow is not affected by the diminishing returns formula. To reach the higher speeds, a fast base bow is highly recommended. For the base speed notation, keep in mind that the faster bows have a lower base speed. -10 is faster than 0, for example. Additional IAS items (different from the bow speed) are noted with a different notation: higher is better. Keep in mind that bow base speed is different from IAS on the bow slot: while the GoldStrike Arch unique Gothic Bow has a modifier of 50% IAS, it is not a -40 base bow, but just a 10 Base bow with 50% IAS. There are 4 different base speeds for bows: -10, 0, 5, 10, and 5 different base speeds for crossbows: -60, -40, -10, 0, 10.

• I added IAS and I don't fire faster, why? Since the game runs at 25 FPS, there are some truncations built into the IAS calculations. Adding IAS may not always give you any in-game speed increase. This is the fundamental notion of speed breakpoints: amounts of IAS for which you gain a real speed increase. Knowing the speed breakpoints for your weapon of choice will allow you to balance your gear much better.

• So how does this speed formula work anyway? Each character in Diablo2 has a base attack speed for each kind of weapon. In our case (amazon) the base speed is 13 frames for bows, and 19 frames for crossbows (this number of frames is the number of frames between two successive attacks). This number of frames is then modified using this formula:

  
  

  Frames = {256*(Base + 1)/[(100 + Speed Increase)/100*256]} -1

  Speed increase depends from both base speed and additional IAS, using the following formula:

  Speed Increase = Base Weapon Speed Modifier+ Fanat + [IAS/(1 + IAS/120)]

  Fanat is the IAS bonus given by a friendly paladin using the Fanaticism aura, which is exempted from diminishing returns. Please also note that speed increase is capped at 75% anyway.

• Those formulas come from Dagni's revolutionary discovery about IAS.

• What is the maximum speed I can reach? This is a tricky question. ;) In theory (and it works well in Single Player), you can reach a maximum speed of 7/2. On the Realms, 7/2 is not reliable, because lag will prevent certain arrows from firing. While your client will display the arrows being shot at 7/2, depending on lag you may only be at 8/2 or even sometimes 9/2! To test your firing speed, take a full quiver (350 arrows), go into the Blood Moor, set your normal attack on your right mouse button, and fire in the air while using a stopwatch. When your quiver is empty, count the time spent from full quiver to empty quiver. This will give you your true firing rate.

What are the different attainable speeds?

"7/2: 0-10 arrows in one second flat. Accept no substitutes."
- Chevalis, The Amazon Basin

The following data has been drawn from Zendragon's most excellent Bow Bible. I will only list some of the most important breakpoints for speedazon apprentices. If you just want to know about the breakpoints for a generalist bowazon, visiting the Bow Bible is highly recommended. The IAS number listed for each speed is the amount of additional IAS needed to reach this speed, discounting the base speed.

Speedazon's stats and skills

Most speedazons use physical attacks, mostly Multishot and Strafe (and of course Guided Arrow against single targets). Both high-end elemental skills (Freezing Arrow and Immolation) are not really effective: at high levels, FA has such a huge mana cost that a speedazon using it at full rate would empty her mana pool very quickly, and Immolation has a timer that prevent her from spamming it anyway. Multishot should be kept to a moderate level (10-15 modified) to prevent it from draining the mana pool too fast.

As very fast bows are generally less damaging for a single shot, a high level of Critical Strike is highly recommended. Pierce is of course very important too. Thanks to the huge speed at which crowd control modifiers will be applied to the enemies, defensive passives generally don't need any investment beyond the first point (HC players will probably not want to neglect them, though).

Generally speaking, a speedazon will want to apply moderate to high physical damage at an impressive rate of fire. Thus, she is likely to invest a lot in Dexterity. Since most fast bows don't require a lot of Strength, Str will likely be kept very low (87 for a Matriarchal bow, for example). The points saved in Str can be invested into further Dex, or some Vitality (due to generally horrible resistances, speedazons need some life).

Speedazon's equipment

Before putting together your equipment, you should ask yourself what speed you want to reach. For slow bows (10 base), you will also want to know beforehand if you will use Strafe a lot or not: going from a 3 Frames Strafe to a 2 Frames Strafe means a 50% damage boost over time.

If you already have the equipment handy, I would suggest you check your average Realm connection to see if you can reliably hit 7/2 before trying to put together a 7/2 rig: if you can't go faster than 8/2 due to connection problems, just having the pretty 7/2 rain of arrow graphics won't do you much good...

While you will want tons of IAS, you also don't want to forget crowd control. I would highly recommend Knockback here: it's simply impossible for monsters to come near a speedazon equipped with Knockback, which is of course invulnerability at its best. Crafted Hitpower gloves with IAS are definitely the way to go for speedazons.

As far as the end-game bow is concerned, there are sadly no very good ready-made options for high-level speedazons. While Windforce (20% IAS), M'avina's Caster (40% IAS) and GoldStrike Arch (50% IAS) seem good options, they are all 10 Base speed bows. The best option for having a high-end fast bow is using an Horadric Cube Recipe: 3 perfect gems and a magical item reroll the modifiers of this item. Use a fast bow (Matriarchal and Blade are the most popular choices) found near the end of the game and cube it until you get a high damage prefix (like Ferocious, Grandmaster's or Cruel) on it. A good suffix is then just the icing on the cake. ;) After cubing a good bow, socket it using one of your quest rewards, and put either Shael runes or Jewels of Fervor with a good prefix in it.

Once your bow is taken care of, you will want to add the minimum amount of IAS to reach your target speed breakpoint, with a combination of ready-made items (Goldwrap, Twitchthroe, Stealskull, Cat's Eye...), partial set bonuses (Death's or Sigon's set), and jewels of Fervor socketed in your equipment. If possible, keep your armor slot available for a Lionheart runic armor. If you can't reach your target speed without using your armor slot, then you will need a socketable armor with Jewels of Fervor.

Additional mods: you will absolutely want the "Cannot be Frozen" property (a chilled speedazon is a speedazon no more), and a decent amount of leech. Elemental damage gives much more to a speedazon than to another bowazon, as she can apply it very quickly.

Equipping a speedazon is just like equipping any other bowazon, with the additional constraint of reaching a certain IAS level. Maintaining good resists and life with a 7/2 rig is a complete nightmare unless you have godly equipment available, which is the reason why most experimented speedazons stop at 8/2 (which just requires 75% IAS with a -10 Bow).

Speedazon quick tips

• Watch your mana and your quiver: many young speedazons empty their mana pool or quiver at an incredible speed, and thus either die horrible deaths or are forced to go to town very often. After a while, you will start to develop a feeling for the number of arrows you need for a given monster.

• Don't rush: time is on your side. Being a speedazon doesn't mean rushing as fast as possible to the monsters and transforming them into pincushions. With perhaps the exception of the Frostmaiden, no bowazon can control the flow of battle as well as the speedazon: her reactivity is simply unmatched.

• Don't overdo it with the IAS: sometimes 8/2 is just as effective as 7/2. What use is being able to fire fast if you are dead? And of course, plan your IAS carefully: you don't want to be sitting between 2 breakpoints, with removing an item meaning going down one notch, and adding more items meaning a complete loss of your defensive potential (leech, life and resists)

• Don't scorn players without IAS: this one is more a personal rant. ;) I've seen too many people scorning "slowazons" to feel comfortable. Keep an open mind, those players may be just as effective as you are.

• Cover your partners: as said earlier, a speedazon is unchallenged in the Crowd Control department. Put this power at your fellow players' service, they will be glad for it.

Fast credits

While the first version of the speedazon (the gatlingazon) was my idea (I had just gambled a Goldwrap, and some nice rare SIAS gloves if you want to know the quick and dirty truth about it), the "speedazon" nickname was founded by GoldenBow. Both GoldenBow and I worked on the generic ideas behind trading damage for speed, and applying crowd control modifiers (back then, crowd control for bowazons meant cold damage and not much else)

But the true pioneer of the sub-class is of course DoubleTrouble, for doing an extraordinary amount of math work, for further going down the path of fast bows, and for coming up with the speed notation concept. DoubleTrouble is the inventor of the speedazon.

In current times, credits should be given to Dagni of the Lurker Lounge, who discovered the new weapon speed formula (allowing for much more effective equipment planning), and of course to two of my friends at the Amazon Basin: ZenDragon, for his huge work on the Bow Bible, and Chevalis for his huge contribution to speedazon tactics (mostly in the crowd control department).

The Barbazon and the Beatdown Kit

Blech. The Barbazon in its various incarnations (the original Carrion Song Barbazon, the Burizazon, the DupeForceazon, the DupeEagleazon...) is sadly by far the most encountered bowazon type on the Realms, and, much like for lawyers, "95% of the bowazons give a bad reputation to the remaining 5%". The barbazon only thrives in a specific level, which changes from time to time: currently, we are talking about the Not So Secret Anymore Cow Level. If this random bowazon you meet seems to be equipped with nothing but the godliest items, first asks "Wut bow", then goes on with "LOL! Yor bow suxOrZ!" before proceeding to the Cow Level and getting killed at least twice during the run, then you have found yourself a barbazon (character names referring to various female anatomy parts are certainly a worthy indication of extreme barbazonism too).

This section will not be dedicated to those low specimens of humanity, but rather to building an efficient amazon around a very damaging and slow bow (Cruel Hydra Bow, Windforce, Tuna Cannon...). Getting the highest possible damage is referred to as a "Beatdown Kit". The Beatdown Kit is the noble incarnation of the barbazon.

Barbazon's stats and skills

"What makes a barbazon is not the skills she uses, but the skills she doesn't."
- Oprah, The Amazon Basin

Barbazons don't have skills. ;) Seriously, most conformist amazons use Multishot and Guided Arrow as their only skills, because those work very well with slow and damaging weapons. Throw in some Freezing Arrow as a Panic Button, use Decoy and Valk as you should, and suddenly you don't have a barbazon anymore (besides, FA is the way to go to trigger effects, mostly Amp Damage which is an essential part of the Beatdown kit). Considering the huge damage of the weapons we are talking about, even a maxed Multishot is easy to sustain with about any amount of mana leech. Strafe is of course a possibility, but bringing those slow weapons to a 2 frames Strafe is hard (downright impossible with the BFG). And of course, tons of Critical Strike will make your damage even more impressive. Pierce will make your damage skyrocket, but if you plan on using the Tuna Cannon, don't invest into it: it has a 100% Pierce built-in anyway.

As far as stats are concerned, most high-end weaponry requires lots of Strength (97 for Eaglehorn, 110 for the Buriza-do Kyanon and up to 134 for Windforce). Thus, your Dexterity is likely to be a bit on the low side, especially if you are considering a decent life total. My advise would be to go nuts on Dexterity (after all, those uber-weapons are just begging for more Dex to really show their potential), and find life through items.

Barbazon's equipment

The weapon first: you will want a huge damage weapon, and speed is only the icing of the cake for this kind of build. Popular choices are the two elite unique bows (Eaglehorn and WindForce), as well as the Buriza-do Kyanon ballista. The GoldStrike Arch is also an excellent choice, with its incredible speed, accuracy, good damage and excellent damage against the undead and demons.

With those huge damage weapons, you typically don't need much as far as leech is concerned. 10% in both life and mana leech is probably already more than you need.

As far as IAS is concerned, you should check the speed tables and see how well you can do. One of the interesting properties of the BFG is that it only requires 15% additional IAS to reach the next speed breakpoint.

For crowd control, things get a little more complicated: using slow weapons, you won't have lots of crowd control power. I would advise using both Knockback and another modifier (cold damage comes to mind), and adapt your tactics to stay very far away from the monsters.

Additional Dexterity is important too on your items, of course.

If you are putting together a full Beatdown kit, you will want even more damage on your items, as well as special forms of damage, like additional damage to demons and/or the undead (Laying of Hands or Ghoulhide gloves are a must for this). Getting some form of Amp Damage is also important for the beatdown kit (1.08 Saracen's Chance or Atma's Scarab amulets, or a WitchWild String on second weapon slot).

As you see, unless you go for the full beatdown kit, you are very free equipment-wise, which is perhaps another reason those builds are so popular.

Barbazon tips

• Damage is NOT everything: so many people died while looking at the pretty numbers on the (lying anyway) Character Screen.

• Be careful of Amp Damage: like all triggered effects, Amp Damage makes a small pause in your attack when it triggers. Try to stay as far as possible from the monsters (especially since you will probably have low Vitality).

• Always think of the worst case scenario: Windforce may have the highest maximum damage for a ranged weapon, it also has a very poor minimum damage and no AR boost. So it's very possible that just a few unlucky shots (either missing or doing very low damage) will put you in a dangerous situation.

• Use some skills: MS and GA may be very effective, but using only those you won't get very far. A small investment in Strafe and a generous use of Decoy, Valk and good passive skills investment will make you superior to all the other barbazons.

Barbazon credits

The Beatdown Kit was conceptualised by AK404. Kudos to him. For the Barbazon, I will have to credit cheatlist and the other lame Web sites where you can find dupe exploits, bots and the like: they made it possible for every low-life lamer on Battle.net to run around with godly equipment they don't deserve. Oh, and kudos to Mousepad for his "excellent" Maphack, which single-handy managed to ruin D2 for thousands of players.

The Vamp

Welcome to the glory of 1.09 Bowazon design. The Vamp was born on the Amazon Basin forums, as a build developed to take advantage of the fact that both Immolation and Freezing Arrow can leech mana and life in 1.09.

The Vamp is an evolution of the dinozon: while the dinozon makes liberal use of FA and Immo, she needs to refuel her mana pool with "recovery" attacks (MS and Strafe mostly). Through huge amounts of mana leech, the Vamp makes it possible to get rid of recovery skills altogether.

The Vamp is a curiosity: while most of her damage is elemental, she needs high Dexterity and a very damaging bow in order to power up her leech. But spamming level 30+ FA on a single critter without a drop in the mana pool is too good to pass. ;)

Vamp stats and skills

Skill-wise, you will want both max Freezing Arrow and max Immolation. Add to this the need for a huge Pierce (depending on items perhaps), and you see that you will probably not see the beginning of a free skill point for a long time. Where you can save points is on Critical Strike (elemental arrows don't trigger CS) and Penetrate (elemental arrows always hit). A good level Valkyrie is nice to have, since she can hold enemies in Immolation patches. This is certainly not mandatory, considering Immo only lasts for 3 seconds anyway.

Stats-wise, enough Str for your equipment (eh), and a fine balance of Dexterity and Vitality. You want enough Dex to power-up your leech, but since your damage is mostly elemental, once you can leech back easily you don't need much more Dex. While investing into Energy may sound tempting at first (after all, you will want lots of mana for those expensive skills), the rewards are so bad that getting some mana gear is much better. It is possible to have 500 or 600 mana with base Energy anyway. ;)

Vamp gear

Equipping your Vamp is a tricky business. You have 3 main points to achieve:

• Get enough mana leech to use your high-level skills all the time
• Get enough damage to power up this leech
• Get tons of skill bonuses to improve your damage (both FA and Immo being on increasing returns)

Secondary gear objectives are survival (life leech, resists, life bonus), mana pool (because of the high cost of those skills you will use, the safety zone for mana is much higher), and other bonuses (cannot be frozen, crowd control (by the way, avoid Knockback with this build, as it pushes the monsters away from your Immolation patches), mana per kill...). As you see, building a Vamp requires high end gear, but it is really worth it.

For the weapon, there are several options fitting the build pretty well. In exceptional unique bows, you will want to look at Magewrath (huge mana leech, small skill bonus), and of course Lycander's Aim, perhaps the best bow for this build (nice mana leech, huge skill bonus). While Kuko Shakaku may looks nice at first (Piercing, incredible skill bonus especially for Immolation), its physical damage is simply too low to fire high level Immo and FA without mana recovery skills. The last (and by far the most expensive) option is a Silence bow (go with a Crusader for the much lower Str requirement): skill bonuses, high damage, 11% mana leech, and other godly bonuses (Blinds target, 75% to all resistances...).

After choosing your weapon, you will want some mana leech. The good news is that mana leech can be found on about just every equipment slot nowadays. Tal Rasha's (Ugly) Horadric Crest is terrific (10% Dual leech, +15 to all resistances), but Vampire Gaze or a nice mana leech circlet are other good options. There are lots of amulets with mana leech, and the unique Crescent Moon amulet is dual leech with up to 15% mana leech on this single slot! There are magical/rare mana leech gloves, and several unique/set belts with mana leech. The unique Manald Heal ring has a decent amount of mana leech, and other nice properties. As you see, the choice is yours. You will want at least 25% Mana leech for this build, and perhaps more depending on your skill levels.

Skill bonuses can be found on the weapon, on charms, and of course on about every other equipment slot. You will want to reach at least level 25 in both FA and Immo, with 30 or more being even better. The Stone of Jordan unique ring is nice for the vamps, since it features both a skill bonus and a large boost to mana.

As you see, there are very different available options for equipping a successful Vamp. Generally speaking, if you get high damage, leech, and skills, you will do fine. Everything else is not mandatory, although it is very helpful.

Vamp tactics

• Don't overshoot: this is the fastest way to empty your mana ball (by spamming too much), and thus to die.

• Learn how to Pierce: especially with FA, overlapping areas of effect will make your damage skyrocket. Learn both how to herd critters and how to calculate firing angles to get the most out of Pierce.

• Your mana is more important than your skill level: if you see that you have trouble leeching after adding one or several skill bonus items(s), then remove it (them) until you get more leech or more damage. You don't want to use mana recovery skills, remember?

• Don't count on Pierce for mana leech: while you will more often than not hit several targets with a single shot (or there is something seriously wrong with your playing style), and thus leech proportionally, ideally you want to leech enough mana from a single critter (a boss, for example) to kill him without switching skills.

• Be wary of Physical Immune critters: this one seems counter-intuitive. After all, you deal tons of elemental damage, right? Wrong. Without the ability to leech, your mana ball will drop flat very quickly, and you won't deal any damage. Always have some backup plan for physical immunes (elemental damage bow combined with GA, or cheesy Fire Arrow bug). Of course, a huge mana pool may help you killing PI monsters without alternative tactics, but if this is true in the case of a single PI boss, it certainly won't help against mosquitoes, skeletons, ghosts, and all the variety of PI or unleechable monsters you will encounter.

Vamp credits

This one is easy. ;) The Vamp is the creation of FrigidWoman of the Amazon Basin. Kudos to him for an excellent, powerful, and definitely fun bowazon build.

The Mageazon

"Mageazons do it with more energy."
- Shadguy, The Amazon Basin

The Mageazon's origins go back to CD2. The idea behind the build is the following: make an amazon that will only kill using elemental damage, and that won't rely on leech for mana recovery. At first a variant character, the mageazon quickly proved very effective, up to the point of achieving success in solo-8 situations (playing alone in a game with 7 other players, unpartied).

When LoD arrived, the timer on Immolation seemed to be the doom of the mageazon (that, and the fact that Pierce worked fishy with elemental skills). But excellent build designers took advantage of the new LoD toys, and thus remade the mageazon, perhaps even stronger than before. The mageazon is a great all-around build, because she isn't afraid of the worst enemies of the bowazons: Physical Immune and unleechable monsters. On the other hand, she is not likely to achieve the same killing rate as the more mainstream bowazons in leveling areas of choice (read: Cow Level).

Mageazon's Stats and Skills

For the skills, refer to the Vamp section: maxed FA, maxed Immolation. Pierce will likely also come from items, so you can skip on it depending on your items (you will really want 100% Pierce with this build). The points saved on Critical Strike, Penetrate and Pierce will allow you to invest a lot in Valkyrie and perhaps even invest many points in Ice Arrow for single critters (for a single target, Ice Arrow is more mana-efficient than FA, and its freeze time is longer).

For stats, the mageazon is indeed the most specific bowazon build. You will actually (gasp!) invest into Energy. And a lot. Once Str and Dex allow you to carry your equipment, all Stats points will be invested either into Energy (to increase the mana pool) or into Vitality (because you won't be able to leech life).

Mageazon's Equipment

The Mageazon's choice of weapon will depend on very different considerations than usual. You will mostly want skill bonuses and Pierce on your weapon. Thus, the Kuko Shakaku seems the perfect bow for the task. An interesting alternative early on is the Doomslinger unique crossbow, and the Demon Machine (unique Chu-Ko-Nu) can present some advantages. With its huge skill bonus and a nice Energy bonus, Lycander's Aim may also be used, although the mana leech on it may be disliked by mageazon purists. ;) As an alternative weapon, the Pus Spitter and its chance to trigger Lower Resist is certainly worth mentioning.

After choosing a weapon, we have two thing left to do: build a huge mana pool, and increase skill levels. As said many times in this guide, Energy alone won't help you much for mana. You will want both a huge mana pool and faster mana regeneration. Items with percent-based bonus to mana like the Stone of Jordan or the Frostburn unique gauntlets are some of the best choices you may do: they will really make your Energy investment worthwhile. Other than that, items with high mana bonuses (Bahamut's rings and amulets) are popular choices, and of course the unique Shako, the Harlequin's Crest is the best helm you could want with its huge level-based mana and life bonuses, as well as a nice +2 to all skills. Socketing your gear with perfect Sapphires or Skulls will either boost your mana or your mana regeneration rate.

Additional Elemental damage should strongly be considered, too. A good selection of Lightning Damage charms will help you live through those times where your mana ball will be empty.

For the skill bonuses, report to the Vamp section: charms are probably your best bet here, coupled with specific unique items. Charms are also a good way to give you tons of mana.

For crowd control, you won't want Knockback. Cold damage will work very well, especially considering you will often shoot FA.

Another thing you will want is lots of life and good resistances, since you won't have life leech to help you. The mageazon is one of the rare bowazon builds where considering stacking good amounts of Life Regen (and perhaps even getting a Prayer Mercenary) should be strongly considered.

Mageazon's Tactical Department

• Time is on your side: or don't overshoot. Especially since you can't leech, a single misfired arrow can put a dent into your mana pool from which you could very well not recover.

• Don't rush: since you can't leech life, rushing into enemies will mean you will have to drink potions to survive. And potions have this nasty habit of running out when you really would need them.

• Pay attention to your Valkyrie: since you can't leech, your Valkyrie, mercenary and Decoy are the only things between death and you. Take good care of them all. A high-level Valkyrie is a formidable tank, but her less than optimal AI will mean frequent combat drops, which can again be hard for your mana pool.

• Don't be afraid of drinking, though: don't play a mageazon like you would play a "normal" bowazon, but play her like you would play a sorceress, and one without Teleport at that. I've seen many players fail with mageazons because they were unconsciously relying on leech.

Mageazon's Legacy

I think Jondefool and Lok are the inventors of this surprisingly effective build. Their mageazon guides are at here and here.

The Frostmaiden

"Frostmaidens are so cool, they are cryogenic."
- AK404, in his Bowazon Guide (read it! read it!)

Developed a long time ago, the Frostmaiden takes advantage of the stacking of cold durations between items. Back in CD2, the best item for this was the Eye of Etlitch, with perhaps a cold damage belt and Frostburn gloves.

LoD gave tons of new cold damage items (especially charms), and an improved, leeching FA, but at the same time gave us Cold Immune monsters. No fun. At the same time, the role of FA changed completely: because of a bug, FA used to be a one-point wonder (physical damage was added to FA's splash damage, imagine that). Now, this bug has been removed, but the cold damage of a high level FA makes it worth maxing this skill.

By the way, remember that cold duration is halved in Nightmare and halved again in Hell. Huge freeze times in Hell are possible to come by, but damn hard (although a 4 seconds freeze time in Hell is already enough).

Frostmaidens are probably the most lag-friendly bowazon style (especially if you go the low FA road).

Frostmaiden's Stats and Skills

Without surprise, the Frostmaiden mostly invests in the Cold branch of the bow tree. Some Frostmaidens max both Freezing and Ice Arrow, but FA is indeed the prerequisite for this build (against strong single enemies that can't be frozen anyway, GA/Pierce is often more efficient than Ice Arrow considering the huge amount of item-based cold damage a Frostmaiden sports). But what makes the true strength of the Frostmaiden is not FA, but Pierce. Getting up to 100% Pierce (with the help of items) is what makes the build shine.

You could run two kinds of Frostmaidens: the first one would use FA as a damage dealer, with maxed FA, skill bonuses and high mana leech, the second one would use level 1 FA (easily spammable) just to freeze the monsters, and use any skill she wants on the disabled critters. Remember, Pierce and cold duration are what make the build, not only FA damage.

For stats, use the standard allocation. No surprise here.

Want some ice cream?

As a Frostmaiden, you will want mana leech and physical damage (to power-up your high level FA), but what you need most is cold damage and duration. I would highly advise getting a long duration Eye of Etlitch amulet (the life leech and skill bonus will also help), and other good items include the Vampire Gaze unique Grim Helm (4 seconds duration), the Ravenfrost ring (4 seconds duration), and perhaps the Frostburn unique gauntlets (2 seconds duration only, but a huge mana boost). Another nice item is the M'avina's Icy Clutch Battle Gauntlets, with their 6 seconds Cold Duration

For your weapon, use either a good mana leech bow (Magewrath and Lycander's Aim come to mind, with Magewrath having the extra advantage of a secondary crowd control method with Blind Target, useful against Cold Immune monsters) or the Buriza-do Kyanon ballista (incredible cold damage, and another 4 seconds duration, plus the Freeze target modifier).

Other than that, dedicate the rest of your slots to skill bonuses and mana leech if you go the high FA road, or to enhance your physical damage if you go the low FA path. Charms will of course be dedicated to cold damage. Generally, you should only want small charms, because even with higher damage, large and grand charms only add 1 second to your freeze time.

A working alternative to high mana leech is the use of refiller skills. Refiller skills are low cost physical damage skills that help you refill your mana bulb very quickly while the monsters are still frozen from your last FA. GA and Strafe are very popular choices for this task, and with even a small amount of mana leech, they can refill your mana ball in a single shot. I still prefer the high mana leech road myself, because it is safer when there is lag, but you may want to try the alternative by yourself. Using refiller skills and low mana leech works best with a larger mana pool, because you will want to make sure you don't run out of mana if you have to fire several FAs in a row.

The Icy Manipulator

Sorry, old MtG reference here. Sue me. ;)

• Your worst enemies are the cold immunes: this one is a given. Since your gear and skills are so much centered around cold damage, being unable to deal it is a hard blow to your strategy. Practice alternate tactics (standard bowazon tips) to get yourself out of trouble.

• Help your partners: the Frostmaiden is perhaps the most party-friendly of the bowazons, except of course for the poor partied necromancers, deprived of corpses. First-line fighters and spellcasters (fragile sorcs especially) will love you. Always keep an eye on your party, and fire FAs in the direction of all of your team mates.

• Don't spam: there is no need to. ;)

• Use triggered spells: this one isn't very helpful, but damn it's fun to watch. Equipping the GoldStrike Arch, Hellmouth gauntlets, and Atma's Scarab will lighten your day when firing FA in crowds. ;) This sub-kind of Frostmaiden is called the SFXazon for obvious reasons, and sometimes the Lagazon by people with slow computers.

Frozen credits

The first incarnation of the Frostmaiden was indeed GoldenBow (one of the people who developed the Speedazon), back when we were toying around with the "relative speed" concept. Golden Bow went a very long way into the game using a bow (an hunter bow IIRC) socketed with perfect sapphires. He once declared "I wouldn't trade my bow for a faster one without cold damage." The Frostmaiden was born there.

Later, Ice Mage refined the concept with good theories on cumulative freezing times and interesting tactics on FA, Pierce, and Ice Arrow, and if I'm not mistaken, AK404 was the one to come up with the "Frostmaiden" name.

The Dinozon

The dinozon is a curiosity in that she appeared at the same time as the barbazons (a dark age indeed). Back when the little kids were playing around with characters named "NakedZonTits", equipped with godly duped Gothic Bows (Carrion Song, where are you?) and "oWnZor1ng" with their maxed Multishot (occasionally switching to GA for cheap PKing), a group of old-time amazon players decided they had enough of seeing their own favorite class being discredited by those idiots, and came up with a balanced and perfectly effective build. In reaction to the barbazon invasion, and since this build was the refining of about 6 months of amazon tactics, it was called "the dinozon".

At first, the dinozon was a matter of style: the idea was just to play using all the skills a bowazon could use, thus making an amazon able to solo any part of the game effectively (while the barbazons were only clearing the River of Fire and Chaos Sanctuary, leveling places of choice back then). The general principle behind the dinozon was (and still is) "balance". But in fact, "dinozon" was more of a codename between old timers.

Things changed at the release of the first dinozon guide, by Trepidati0n. Here, for the first time, we had a perfectly well-written document, with blueprints of stats and skills allocation, as well as equipment and tactics consideration. At this time, the dinozon ceased to be a style, and became a fully grown character sub-class.

LoD shot the dinozons badly: the prevalence of high-powered weaponry, the bad nerfing of Immolation, and the 800x600 resolution (allowing even the more clueless barbazons to see what was coming without the need for any kind of scouting tactics) sent the dinozons' build down the drain. Still, they were able to play much more efficiently than the converted barbazons (that power-leveling and rushing allowed those barbazons to remake characters in a heartbeat is another story, of course). And of course, the LoD 1.09 version of the Buriza-do Kyanon was the last nail in the coffin: for the first time, barbazons had at their disposal a single item that would allow them to outperform dinozons in every situation.

Nowadays, dinozons are a rare sight on Battle.net. On the other hand, before dying, they gave birth to the Vamp.

Old skills, crumpy stats

The dinozon wants to invest the exact amount of skill points in every skill to make it useful. Investing past diminishing returns or after getting all the good elements of a skill for a minor damage increase is not good: contrary to most amazon builds, dinozons never have tons of saved skill points: there is so much you want to do...

Here is a small list of skills you may want to use with a dinozon: Multishot (around 10 to 15 points), Guided Arrow (a single point is generally enough to get all the scouting and targeting benefits), Ice Arrow (one point to max, depending if you prefer FA for cold damage), Strafe (6 points are enough to get the most of this skill), Immolation (maxed), Freezing Arrow (one point to max, depending on your style), plus a good variety of passives.

For stats, the standard allocation works well. You may want to have a good life amount, of course.

Wheelchair and walking stick

As with the stats, assembling dinozon gear is a matter of fine balance. Since you want to be able to clear the full game by yourself, survival (in the form of leech, extra resists, life and mana) is as important as raw damage ability (coming from Dex, IAS and high damage weaponry).

There are several bows that work pretty well with the Dinozon style: Skystrike is good for excellent speed, high elemental damage, and a skill boost, but the damage is a bit on the low side later in the game. It is a nice weapon switch, though, just like the Kuko Shakaku. The WitchWild String is incredibly effective for a dinozon (Amp damage, deadly strike and huge resists), but its drawback is that its physical damage is not enough to leech back a high level FA if you go this way (spamming level 20+ FA with a WWS to trigger AD is a good way to find yourself without any mana left). Magewrath is an excellent dinozon weapon, with decent damage and huge mana leech (freeing equipment slots), the GoldStrike Arch is another dinozon favorite (with its excellent damage and incredible speed), and Eaglehorn is also quite useful. But my personal recommendation goes to the Lycander's Aim, perhaps the best dinozon bow available for the incredible features package it brings (nice damage, some speed, a Dexterity boost, mana leech, and of course the huge skills bonus...).

For the rest of your gear, while your number one priority should be to have enough leech to quickly recover from the use of your high-cost elemental skills (FA and Immolation), balance finely between speed, skill bonuses and resists. I can't give much more precision, as it is a very personal thing. I generally stop at 10/3 or 9/3 as far as speed is concerned, and try to have at least maxed Fire and Lightning resists in Hell.

Oldest tricks in the book

There is basically only one trick in the dinozon's book: be flexible. Keep your mind open to all the great skills that are available, and you will soon (through the time-proven "trial and death" process) develop a feeling of which skill is right for which situation.

Against tight packs of monsters, you will want either Multishot or Freezing Arrow, depending on the monsters' density and resistances. Against lined-up targets, Immolation and Strafe can both be good, especially when completed with a good Pierce. For scattered targets, use either Strafe or several GA shots. Other situations will call for other uses of those skills, and of course, the sky is the limit as far as a dinozon's tactics are concerned.

The use of passive skills is a lot easier. You will want to always have your Valk and Decoy up, use Slow Missiles a lot, and you will rely more on your fight planning skills than on your defensive passives to get out of trouble.

I don't remember this guy... Memory was better in the good ol'days...

While I was the one to come up with the Dinozon nickname, the build is really a team effort at the Amazon Basin. Among the grumpy ol'timers, I would like to thank again Siegzon, Oprah, AK404, and especially Trepidati0n (HTML comments are not allowed), who made the first comprehensive dinozon guide.

The Hybrid

The Hybrid is a LoD curiosity. It is basically a new build relying on the excellent Weapon Switch feature, which allows an amazon to switch from a Bow/Arrows configuration to a Javelins/Shield configuration.

I won't detail the Hybrid build much, because I never built one. What you want is to build an efficient bowazon/javazon character. This means that, in order to take advantage of your bowazon side, you will probably have high Dex, which means lowish life (except if you have godly gear, of course). As such, you will probably build the javazon part in a ranger style, using mostly Lightning Fury. Lightning Fury is an excellent crowd killing skill, and the build allows you to fall back in bow mode for single hard to kill critters.

Most Hybrids are built around GA as a main bow skill (often in combo with the Buriza), and Lightning Fury as a main javelin skill (with the staple Javazon gear, Titan's Revenge). The rest of the gear is the generic leech/IAS/extra Dex/resists... thingie. Generic bonuses to skills or bonuses to all amazon skills are preferred to specific bow or javelin skills boosts, as those would only benefit half of the build.

More information on hybrid builds can be found at the Amazon Basin forums, as usual.

A funny build to try at least once is the SFXazon, who stacks items with "Chance to cast XXX". Wearing Hellmouth gloves, a Goldstrike Arch, and shooting FAs at crowds is the best thing to fry a videocard since the CD2 Lightning Fury (which could actually halt your computer for a few seconds).