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II. Stats and Skills

Stats

Balancing the stats for a Javazon can be a thorny problem. At a first glance, it would seem that all four primary stats are important for a Javazon. A Javazon needs Strength to equip her equipment as well as boost her damage. Dexterity boosts her damage as well, but also increases her Attack Rating and blocking rate. Vitality is the lifeblood for any tanking Javazon. And Energy will be useful when invoking some of her higher skills. But as we will see, the choice would not be as difficult as it seems at first. The choice of equipments often dictates the stat distribution for the Javazon.

Strength

This is an interesting stat. Depending on your choice of equipment, a Javazon might need as much as 150+ Strength . . . or she can get away with base Strength. As noted earlier, she uses Strength to increase her damage. How much damage is increased via Str depends on your javelin; for an Amazon-specific javelin, each point in Str will increase your damage by 0.8%; in all other javelins, it will be 0.75%. Therefore, 100 Str may translate to 80% ED or 75% ED, depending on your javelin choice. Strength is a good primary skill to have, but there is a point where you simply want to stop pumping it.

A well-designed and planned Javazon (in terms of equipment) can make use of the principle of strength tiering to allow the Javazon to wear heavier equipment. More on this subject is contained in the Equipment section.

Dexterity

Dexterity does four things: increases damage, increases Attack Rating, increases the chance to block, and increases defense. However, since the increase in defense is so low, 1 Defense per every 4 points in Dexterity, pumping dexterity to get Defense is not a good idea. I will talk more about Defense, among other things, in the Build Sample section. Let’s talk about the other things, though. Each point of Dexterity will increase damage by 0.5% when using Amazon-specific javelin, or 0.75% for non-Amazon specific javelins. The effect on AR is almost opposite of the effect on DR; for every point of Dexterity, an Amazon gets 4 points of AR before Penetrate is taken into account. As a result, an Amazon with a decent amount of Dexterity generally has no trouble hitting enemies with similar level.

Blocking deserves a dedicated section because it is an important and semi-technical subject. Since Javazons will normally be lugging around a shield, blocking will be important to make sure she gets hit less. The formula for blocking is:

As you can see from the formula, your chance to block with the same Dexterity rating actually decreases as you increase in level, so more and more Dexterity will be required to maintain your blocking. Regardless of the shield, the chance to block will never be greater than 75%. The "Blocking" figure on shield is rather misleading, as it is possible to get 75% chance of blocking on any shield with sufficient Dexterity. See the Equipments Section. In addition, blocking is calculated before Dodge/Evade/Avoid, which means that good blocking can result in significantly reduced chance to get hit by physical attacks. Blocking is cut to a third when you’re running. Note that no amount of blocking will save you from elemental attacks, but hell, that’s what resists are for.

It can be argued that since Dexterity does so much more than Strength, it deserves to get more allotment of stat points, but keep in mind that depending on your Javazon’s Skills, she might not need that much Dexterity after all. Ranger Javazons may get away with less Dexterity since she'll be mostly away from the enemy, while melee Javazons need more Dexterity to make sure they can block and hit well. At the very minimum, of course, you should have enough Dexterity to equip your javelin. The conventional recommended minimum for Dexterity is just enough to maintain 75% blocking. I cannot give you a hard figure here; it depends on your level and your shield (as shown in the formula above). I will, however, give some approximate minimum recommended figures for some commonly used shields in the Equipments Section.

If you are a bow/javelin hybrid, however, it might be worth it to increase Dexterity as each point in Dex also increases your bow damage by 1%.

Vitality

When not putting points into Strength and Dexterity, every Javazon should think about Vitality. Before we start, however, note that how much Vitality is not important: it is how much HP you end up with that is important. You can get away with much less Vitality if you have a lot of life increasing gear on your Javazon.

Each point of Vitality increases your HP by 3 and your Stamina by 1. In addition, each level up grants your Amazon 2 HP and 1 Stamina. Comparing to other classes, this is a pretty good return of investment. The Amazon is not a Barbarian or Druid; she cannot bring her HP way beyond 2000 (without help from Barbarians and Druids, at least) but she compensates her relatively low HP with her incredible passive bonuses.

How much life do you need? Well, it depends on the role of your Javazon. To summarize: the more you lean towards tanking, the more life you will need. Tanking means risking yourself to attacks, and you want a good life buffer no matter how good your passives are. Even when you decide that your Javazon would hold back and throw Lightning Furies or Plague Javelins instead, a good buffer of life is nevertheless always recommended. There’s this thing called the Lag Monster, see; unlike other monsters in LoD, you simply wouldn’t know when this nasty monstrosity will strike. You want some life to keep you from dying even when you have no control over your Javazon.

HP doesn't replenish naturally. However, there are some ways for you to gain back lost life. You may equip items that give you life leech: a percentage of the physical part of your attack will be converted as life gain. You may equip items that give life regeneration: see the Equipment section for life regeneration formula. You may equip special items that directly absorbs elemental damage so that you can be healed - assuming, of course, that you're absorbing more damage than you actually take. Again, see the Equipment section for mechanism of resist/absorb. And of course, the easiest way to regain lost HP is to quaff a potion. Gulp. Healing potions will quickly replenish your life, while rejuvenation potions will instantly refill part or all of your life bulb. No javazon should venture the world of Diablo II without both on her belt.

How about stamina? Life is hard for a young Amazon, who constantly has to rest to replenish her stamina. But even without increasing Vitality, her Stamina will keep increasing with levels. Add equipment to that, and usually by level 40, an Amazon will cease to have stamina problems. As such, stamina is usually not considered in designing your Javazon.

Increasing Vitality also increases the chance that a healing potion will heal for twice the listed HP. The chance is calculated:

The formula to calculate your life is as follows:

50 is the starting HP for all Amazons. 20 x 3 applies if you have done all three Golden Bird quests in Act 3. The rest are self-explanatory. A base vitality level 80 Javazon will have 268 HP, which is awfully low if you want to do any degree of tanking. Let me rephrase that: it is simply a disaster waiting to happen. If you really want a base Vitality Javazon, you better have many life adders in your gear. A bow/javelin hybrid, however, might get away with base Vitality since she might not have to tank at all.

The formula to calculate your stamina is as follows:

A level 40 base vitality Javazon will have 123 Stamina. This is low and will cause you stamina problems; however, see above for a very good reason why you don’t want a base vitality Javazon.

Energy

So, with the Javazon’s dependence on Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality, why would we even bother to pump Energy? Well, there are a couple reasons for this, but all are centered on the problem of getting more mana. Level 20 Lightning Fury requires 19 mana to cast. Level 1 Valkyrie requires 25 mana to cast. This might seem low, but keep in mind that not everything will drop in one Lightning Fury. And if you have no mana leech or mana/kill items, well, good luck to you when you see a mob coming at you. Not having mana is bad for health. That seems like a compelling case for pumping Energy.

However.

An Amazon might start with 15 mana, but she does not get much from increased Energy. Each Energy point increases her mana by 1.5 point. Granted that even spell casters like Sorceresses and Necromancers only get 2 point per Energy, which makes the return of investment quite good compared to those classes, but keep in mind that those classes need a lot less Dexterity and Strength as well (with certain exceptions, of course). Compared to the benefits that Amazons get from the other primary stats, points of Energy are simply not worth it. Also consider that in LoD, it’s very easy to get items like Rings of the Bahamut or mana charms. A Snake’s Charm (26 max mana) is available as early as clvl 19 . . . that’s 17.3 points of energy saved. A Bahamut's Ring can have up to 120 mana, is available at clvl 37, and will save you a ridiculous 80 points of Energy. In addition, an Amazon gets 1.5 mana for every level. The short conclusion (too late): even when you're a ranger, you can get away with base Energy.

The formula to calculate your mana is as follows:

A base Energy clvl 80 Javazon will have 133 mana. This is enough for exactly 7 slvl-20 Lightning Furies, assuming no leech or mana/kill or mana boost from equipment. I’m not even counting mana regeneration. So you can see that the Amazon is not really hurting for mana even without much +mana items.

Double healing also works the same way with Energy:

Unlike life, mana regenerates naturally. The rate is determined by the amount of mana regeneration you have and your current mana pool. See the Equipment section for the regeneration formula.

To regain lost mana, aside from waiting for your mana to replenish naturally, you can also equip items that accelerates mana regeneration (and normally these items can replenish your mana store much faster than similar items to replenish your life). You may equip items than give you mana leech: this is the mana-related counterpart of life leech described above. You may equip items that converts a percentage of damage taken into mana: these are commonly called the Vulpine items. You may equip items that directly add a certain amount of mana for every enemy you kill. And finally, you can quaff potions. Gulp again. Mana potions will quickly replenish your mana, while rejuvenation potions will instantly refill part or all of your mana bulb as well as doing the same to your life bulb. Learn to love the taste of rejuvenation potions.

Example stat point distribution of a typical slvl-82 semi-tank/ranger Javazon. The amount of dexterity is just slightly above the amount required to maintain maximum blocking with Gerke's Sanctuary (unique Pavise) at the current level.

Skills

I will bring up the discussion over all Javelin/Spear skills as well as the Passive/Magic skills. A hybrid Bowazon/Javazon is beyond the scope of this guide, even though I will dwell on it a bit on Build Sample Section. Sadly, most of the Javelin/Spear skills in LoD are . . . to put it mildly . . . unbalanced. You have one really terrific skill, several good skills . . . and the rest are pretty much crap. Yes, you will listen to my rant throughout this section.

Javelin/Spear Skills

This tree is fairly well designed. Obviously Blizzard intended for the left side of the tree to be the ‘physical branch’, the center side to be the ‘primarily spear skills branch’ and the right side to be the ‘primarily javelin skills branch’. Or as I would refer in the following descriptions: ‘Physical’, ‘Spear’ and ‘Javelin’, even though you can also execute the spear skills using your javelin. Too bad most of them are crap.

The javelin/spear skill tree.

Physical

We have good skills in this branch. In fact, this is about the only viable branch for pure Spearazons . . . but I digress. These skills, as the name implies, modifies your attack in some way, making them more effective. How effective, though?

Jab (prereq: none)

The first in the physical branch, this is what most pre-LoD javazons used for their main attack skill. This skill attempts to hit a single enemy twice. It is fast, it does not put you into ‘jab lock’, it has decent AR bonus and damage bonus (even though you start with negative damage bonus) and it requires no prerequisite (this last fact is important in designing a PvP Hybrid Amazon . . . see the PvP section). Pre-LoD, this skill was not affected by weapon speed; that is, you could jab with the same speed using the biggest, slowest javelin you can find as you can with a really fast javelin. LoD fixed that ‘bug’, thus Jab lost its luster in LoD. Despite that, and despite the boost to Fend in LoD, this skill is still worth it to hotkey. There are some areas on which you absolutely don’t want to use Fend, especially if you can do a boatload of physical damage . . . the Chaos Sanctuary is the prime example. In addition, it’s much cheaper than Fend, and will always attempt to hit twice (Fend, except in presence of minions, will hit once against single enemies). This makes it useful against single enemies . . . especially physical immune enemies, assuming you have the right gears to deal with them, of course.

Slvl-20 Jab gives you 105% AR bonus and 42% Damage bonus for 6.7 mana.

Impale (prereq: Jab)

Higher up in the hierarchy, we have Impale. The basic premise of this skill is dealing huge amount of instantaneous physical damage at the sacrifice of speed. The physical damage bonus is so great, in fact, that the weapon actually may lose durability in the process. Increasing the slvl of this skill reduces that chance . . . in addition of increasing AR and damage, of course.

How great is Impale? It completely depends on your build. A delicate balance of speed and damage must be achieved, since increasing Impale will not add to your weapon speed. Impale speed breakpoints are described in the Speed Table section, however, an Impale attack is approximately twice as slow as a normal attack. An Impale attack can be as slow as 52 frames and as fast as 15 frames. For your reference, 25 frames are approximately equal to 1 second. Yes, 52-frames attack is glacially slow; by the time it’s finished, you might wish that you had never started that Impale. Remember that the base damage for slower spears/javelins is higher than faster spears/javelins, however.

Unless you’re using a very fast and high damage javelin, Impale may not be suitable for your build. First of all, when you’re not attacking, you’re not keeping the enemy busy. While you’re going through the Impaling motion, the faster enemies can sneak a hit or two against you. Secondly, the base damage on javelins is inferior to spears. Finally, the damage bonus of high level Fend can actually approach Impale’s, and it can do so with much faster speed. However, the Javazon's advantages over Spearazons on Impale are the presence of shield, and the fact that spears are less durable (There are at least 40 javelins in a stack, and they may self-replenish as well). The converse of the Fend/Impale comparison is also true: you need only one point in Impale to equal the damage bonus (but not AR) of high level Fend. So, Impale might be useful in some situations, even though you might not be able to deliver the high damage only a spear can dish out.

Slvl-20 Impale gives you 390% Damage Bonus, 158% AR Bonus and 25% chance to lose durability. Thanks to silly girl for pointing out some merits of Impale.

Fend (prereq: Impale, Jab)

Fend, as the ultimate physical damage skill, is undoubtedly the new queen of this branch. This skill has received excellent boosts in LoD, receiving increased damage return, and it is now uninterruptible. The damage boost is now such that it is greater than what Jab can achieve (a slvl 28 Jab’s damage bonus is comparable to slvl 1 Fend . . .) you can still Fend when you’re being attacked, and hopefully leech enough life in the meantime. Fend attacks all adjacent enemies, and grants additional attacks equal to the number of allies and minions (and ally’s minions) within several yards of you. This is the Amazon’s answer to Paladin’s zeal, if used properly. For some people, Fend is even better because it has a large damage bonus that Zeal lacks.

Of course, as an excellent skill, Fend does have its share of quirks. When people refer to the ‘Fend bug’, this means that sometimes you’re not hitting enemies with Fend, if you hold down the button instead of mashing it ala Diablo-I. The easiest solution to make sure your Fend connects most of the time is to mash it once every Fend cycle. Doesn’t work every time, but better than not hitting at all. Another solution is to carefully watch your Fend cycle, and click when you are positive that the cycle has ended. Other strategies for avoiding the Fend bug include recasting your decoy between Fend cycles and walking to get better positioning before using Fend again.

A tanking Javazon in LoD era will use a lot of this skill. You’re often surrounded, and you want to hit them all. The best use of this skill is, of course, to position yourself so that you are next to as many enemies as possible without getting surrounded and swarmed. In addition, you have two minions that can be used to affect number of Fend attacks, Decoy and Valkyrie. Use them wisely if you’re thinking of using Fend on a single enemy. This takes practice, of course, but once you master it, the effect can be very satisfying. Who doesn’t want to create three puncture wounds in one target with a pointy stick . . . all for a lousy cost of 5 mana?

Slvl-20 Fend will give you a ridiculous bonus of 230% AR and 260% Damage for a flat cost of 5 mana. Ouch.

Spear

Put it simply, the skills in this branch are abominable. Not even spearies can make good use of this tree . . . even Lightning Strike (due to an unfortunate bug). But, as promised, I’m going to do a quick overview on them anyway . . .

All spear skills are based on lightning, and they do add the physical part of your attack as well. While the lightning parts may be auto-hit, you will still need to pass your AR check in order to inflict the physical part of your attack. The AR is based on your normal attack.

Power Strike (prereq: none)

Simple premise: you add lightning damage to your weapon. This skill is not auto hit; an AR check is required. The damage progression is quite good. However, the presence of a relatively common LoD affix can easily replace this skill. Consider this:

Slvl-20 Power Strike will give you 147-162 lightning damage, with AR check increased by 105%, with 6.7 mana.

That seems good? Now take a look at a typical Shocking Throwing Spear that you can buy from Anya: Shocking Throwing Spear with 1-400 Lightning Damage.

Now you jab that PI with this baby. Slvl-1 Jab, 2 mana cost, and you get potentially two hits (to be fair, you don’t have as much AR, but . . .) congratulations, you have effectively replaced 20 skill points with one lousy point on Jab and a lightning damage javelin. Shocking, no?

Charged Strike (prereq: Power Strike, Poison Javelin, Lightning Bolt)

Keeping with the theme of this branch of the skill tree, this is another Lightning-based attack. This time, instead of adding lightning damage directly to your attack, you release three charged bolts with each bolt having the listed damage. You cannot release more per slvl, and the charged bolts are autohit. Here's how it works: upon striking, whether your physical part connects, the first charged bolt would be released to hit your target. The two other bolts are released in quick succession, and if you're lucky, the bolts might either hit the target (assuming it's not dead yet) or wander off to hit another target. Therefore, you have potential to hit your target with three charged bolts with the listed damage. Think of this skill as the Holy Shock for Amazons, without the minimum damage.

For 8.7 mana, slvl-20 Charged Strike releases three charged bolts having 223-252 lightning damage each in quick succession. Special thanks to Telemont for the explanation of the mechanism of Charged Strike, making this skill a lot more attractive than previously thought.

In this picture, the poor Shaman was hit by two lightning bolts while the other bolt wandered off happily in search for a Fallen.

Lightning Strike (prereq: Power Strike, Poison Javelin, Lightning Bolt, Charged Strike)

I really want to like this skill. There’s something very satisfying about releasing Chain Lightning with each attack so that you can destroy enemies around you. Make no mistake, I have actually tried this skill, and I am sorely disappointed. The lightning damage from your prod exists, and you don’t need AR check to hit, but the chain lightning doesn’t seem to do any damage. Oh, sure, you can kill Quill Rats (in normal) with the chain lightning, but I don’t want to max this skill to kill Quill Rats, damn it. This seems to be an unfortunate bug that has been around since pre-LoD and never quite got fixed. Argh.

At slvl-20, this attack deals 195-215 lightning damage as it zaps a maximum of 21 enemies around you (there’s a fixed seeking distance for the lightning to jump from enemy to enemy) for perhaps 50 damage tops. As I said earlier, I want desperately to love this skill, but until Blizzard fixes the bug, there is to be no relief.

Javelin

This branch has some pretty useful skills, and one somewhat overpowered skill. Two of these skills are poison-based, and two others are lightning-based. All require you to throw a javelin at your enemies, and all will carry the physical damage portion of your javelin, allowing you to leech. These skills, naturally, can only be used when you are equipping javelin-class weapons. All these skills are auto hit and affected by Pierce, and that raises some pretty interesting applications.

Poison Javelin (prereq : none)

This is your basic placeholder skill. With a trail of poison following, you release a poisonous javelin. Your enemies are poisoned for three seconds . . . and if your enemies happen to be Fallens, they will drop dead from the poison. It quickly becomes obsolete once you get out of A1 normal, though, due to the low poison damage and the existence of Plague Javelin down the line.

At slvl-20, Poison Javelin poisons your enemies for 3 seconds for 98-103 damage at a cost of 8.7 mana.

Lightning Bolt (prereq : Poison Javelin)

Blizzard reveals their mastery of subtle naming tactics. With this, you create a quick bolt of lightning that zaps your enemies outright. Again, this is a simple premise. This skill is much faster than Poison Javelin, auto hits, requires only Poison Javelin as prereq, carries your physical damage, and cheap in terms of mana cost. As such, the slvl-1 version of this skill is often used by PvP hybrid Amazons to carry forth the physical damage of their javelin. See the PvP section. This skill is made obsolete by Lightning Fury for PvM, however, since the damage progression is not really that great, and the mana cost is quite significant. This is a great skill to use while leveling, but not much else, at least for PvM.

At slvl-20, you release a bolt of lightning carrying 1-192 lightning damage at a cost of 10.7 mana.

Plague Javelin (prereq: Poison Javelin, Lightning Bolt)

This skill gets a big plus in my book as a really cool looking skill. You release a poisoned javelin like you did for Poison Javelin, but as the javelin hits, it releases a poison cloud. And I’m not talking about those lame poison clouds that were released by those lame chest traps. Nope. At high level PJ, as it is fondly called, the poison cloud released may very well cover the entire damn screen. None other skills can do that.

And this will be a very nice skill to use too . . . if not because of the fact that the damage progression of PJ is AWFUL. Consider:

Radius Increases - not very sure how exactly though. You can cover entire screen around slvl-12. My guess is that the radius works like Static Field.

Slvl-20 Plague Javelin poisons enemies for 241-255 poison damage over three seconds, with cost of 25 mana.

I don’t really consider the 4 seconds casting delay a hindrance, since another PJ on poisoned enemies would just reset the timer. But you have to admit that 241-255 poison damage over 3 seconds is really low, even though you do spread it over a lot of enemies. The best use for this skill, if you coincidentally have a reasonably high level of Plague Javelin, is to stop enemy life regeneration on the horde before you dive in.

Due to the range limitation and the fact that the poison cloud can get really big, Pierce does not really help PJ too much. However, it does help to poison more enemies faster, since the poison cloud propagates quite slowly. Note that enemies will keep poisoned when they are under the cloud, no matter how long they have been in the cloud previously.

Lightning Fury (prereq: Poison Javelin, Lightning Bolt, Plague Javelin)

Now, we’re talking. This is the skill that allows the Javazon to earn their reputation as highly efficient moo zapper, and the only damn reason a lot of people make a Javazon for. In conjunction with excellent pierce and a seasoned player, this skill can be used to an absolutely devastating effect. This is the skill to use for mass killing in LoD 1.09.

Once a skill known to a select few, Lightning Fury was a lag inducing, graphics card eating skill back in pre-LoD. It was quite weak at that time, however. LoD changed all that: the graphics for LF were reduced to minimize graphical lag, and the damage increased to the point where it changed from merely damaging to devastating.

Now, Lightning Fury starts initially as a Lightning Bolt. But, upon hitting an enemy, it splits into multiple lightning bolts (with listed damage, without carrying the physical part) that hit all enemies nearby, one for each enemy. This might not seem like much until one considers that if the javelin pierces and hits another enemy, it will similarly split itself. In addition, each bolt released for each enemy pierces and damages all enemies behind. Make no mistake: the damage adds up really quickly. Considering that a Hell Bovine in a single game ‘only’ has an average of 2000 HP, the damn moo can be well done before the next Lightning Fury is released.

In addition to enemies, LF javelins will also split when they hit a wall. Pinning a group of enemies between you and the wall is an excellent strategy to use with LF. For more information about how to throw Lightning Furies, refer to the Game play section.

An slvl-20 LF potentially splits into 21 bolts of lightning with 239-278 damage each, requiring 19.5 mana to cast.

And for the love of the old (pre-LoD) Lightning Fury, picture courtesy of Losc . . .

Whoa.

Passive/Magic Skills

The strength of a Javazon lies not in her Javelin/Spear skills. Sure, Fend is an excellent attack skill, and few skills match Lightning Fury in terms of sheer damage but your passives, especially defensive passives, differentiates the two subclasses of Javazon. On one hand, you have an invincible tank; capable of taking on all sorts of nastiness the game can provide, on the other, a pure ranger javazon that throws around the Wrath of God and needs little else. These skills, therefore, define both your offensive and defensive capabilities of your girl. A poorly-built Javazon (which, incidentally, is the prevalent Javazon build out there) can never experience the exhilaration of tanking a Fanatic, Extra Strong and Spectral Hit Lister the Tormentor. Not for long, at least. But again, I digress . . .

The Passive/Magic tree of the Amazon is extremely well designed. All the skills work together with any other skills an Amazon may have, making her one of the most durable characters in Diablo II. This tree is divided into three branches: the left side contains your ‘magic’ skills, the center side contains your ‘defensive’ skills, and the right side contains your ‘offensive’ skills. All of them are great, though often overlooked, skills. One point investment to all is recommended.

The passive/magic skill tree.

Diminishing Returns Formula

A lot of passive skills use diminishing returns formula instead of linear formula. The formula to calculate the % chance is:

The value of Min and Max parameters depend on skill, and will be given in each skill description. Physically, Max represents the value of the result in the limit of slvl to infinity.

Magic

There are four skills that utilize the Amazon’s more arcane side: Inner Sight, Slow Missiles, Decoy, and Valkyrie. All except Valkyrie stand-alone from the other branches, which is nice for those seeking to save skill points. These are the skills that you use for crowd control purposes, with the exception of Inner Sight of course. All Magic Skills are interruptible, so always make doubly sure that you have cast them properly.

Inner Sight (prereq: none)

This is purely a placeholder skill. Invest one point here and move on, regardless of your build. This skill is useful early on, but as monsters get tougher later on, their defense increases. Now this won’t be a problem with IS if only it is percentage based . . . the problem lies in the fact that it is absolute based. And to add insult to the injury, heavy diminishing returns set in around slvl-5. Blargh.

Slvl-20 IS reduces enemy defense by 73, illuminates them to make them easier to see in the dark, for 84 seconds, with casting cost of 5 mana. In Hell, using this skill is like trying to empty the Atlantic Ocean with a spoon.

Slow Missiles (prereg: Inner Sight)

Neo: "Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"
Morpheus: "If you’re ready, you won’t need to."
- The Matrix

This skill is awesome, although strange at first. This underused skill slows all incoming missiles to a third. While this skill has some very interesting applications in AvA dueling (see PvP section) this skill will allow you to manually dodge incoming missiles more easily, assuming absence of lag. But this skill is commonly used against Lightning-Enchanted Bosses (LEBs) as well as inferno-using critters, where the deadly ‘missiles’ won’t travel as far. The missiles will also be more distinct, and so it is easier for you to find the best tanking spot to minimize damage to yourself. Keep in mind that the density remains the same, so you still want to keep your distance. Slow Missiles will affect multishot LEBs as well, but their deadly bolts will travel the same distance as before, only slower . . . and they also become invisible. Be very careful.

The only reason to increase slvl of SM is to increase its duration. Depending on the application, even slvl-1 SM will be an excellent investment.

Slvl-20 SM allows you to act like Neo for 126 seconds. This is overkill, obviously, even if you’re a die-hard Matrix fan.

Decoy (prereq: Inner Sight, Slow Missiles)

Underused, underused, underused. This is one of the most powerful methods of crowd control the Amazon has at her disposal, and yet I don’t see this used too often. What can a decoy do?

First, it tanks. Unlike your dumb blonde, the decoy stays put where you place it . . . and it’s cheaper too. The decoy is an almost exact copy of yourself (except that it doesn’t inherit your passive skills) and so, the tougher you are, the tougher your decoy will be and the better it will tank.

Secondly, it is used to break up crowds. Both Valkyrie and Decoy can divide the incoming mobs, allowing you some breathing room, assuming you place them apart just right.

Thirdly, it takes ranged hits for you. Place it between you and that LEB. Place this between you and your bowazon opponent in duels. Decoy fools monsters, opponents, and occasionally friends!

Fourthly, it scouts for you. Cast it ahead and see what comes charging at your Decoy . . . might be your average enemy but also could be a Fanatic Doll boss. Use it in Worldstone Keep 2 and watch those exploders blow themselves to smithereens on your Decoy! And last but not least, it adds to your Fend attack when it is placed next to you. A Decoy next to a fending Amazon has the additional advantage of tanking, and taking the heat off the Amazon too. So . . . use it, for goodness’ sake.

An slvl-20 Decoy will stoically take punishment for 105 seconds, at a cost of 4.75 mana. Investment of one point to Decoy is always wise, however a tanking Javazon might want to put more than one point to Decoy. Why? Decoy that stays up longer tanks longer, and besides, since Decoy is an exact copy of you, and since you are helluva tough, then your Decoy is also helluva tough. It’s a waste to have your helluva tough Decoy go ‘poof’ in 10 seconds.

Valkyrie (prereq: Inner Sight, Slow Missiles, Decoy, Dodge, Avoid, Evade)

"Go go Gadget DumbBlonde!"
- DoubleTrouble

Valkyries are affectionately (or hatefully) referred to as dumb blondes. A Valkyrie is helluva tough, as her life scales up with the number of players in the game. She is an excellent tank in general, but for some reason, she’s hard-pressed to do anything that resembles damage. She also tends to wander around, slowly, and generally not be on where you need her most. As a result, for maximum effectiveness for Valkyrie usage, you might need to recast her often. However, since she tends to stick near you, you can expect her to tank alongside you. Her presence will allow you an extra attack on your Fend cycle. In conclusion, since you’re tanking often, it’s always nice to have your Valkyrie near you, or on the place where you expect to tank. The Valkyrie can do everything that your Decoy can do, but she does have a mind on her own . . . barely. Use both to maximum effectiveness.

An slvl-20 Valkyrie has 1510 HP in normal, has spear and armor of ilvl 82, attains 380% damage and 190% AR/DR, and is available to you for the low, low cost of 101 mana. Quite obviously this Valk will be more than just helluva tough, but cost helluva mana to cast too. You don’t want to spend all your mana to recast your Valkyrie! A balance between toughness and mana cost should be struck - slvl 5 to 10 Valkyrie seemed to be ideal.

Your minions and you: Decoy, Valkyrie and Amazon.

Defensive

These skills are what allow the Amazon to be a tank on par of, if not outright better than, the Barbarian. What the Amazon lacks in life and defense, she makes it up with skills to reduce her chance of being hit. And that is a good thing. These skills are what differentiate tanking Javazon from any ranger Amazon build. A successful tanker would’ve invested heavily on this branch.

Dodge (prereq: none)

This skill is the first in the series. This skill allows you to dodge melee attacks while you are standing still. Naturally, this will be a great benefit for your Javazon if she tanks extensively, since she’ll be next to the enemy most of the time. And even if you’re a ranger Javazon, it’s still worth it to get at least a couple points on this skill for lag protection. Hey, since you have those extra skill points anyway, why not spend it here?

Dodge follows a diminishing return progression. The parameters are Min = 15, Max = 65, with Dim[15,65] expressed in percentage.

Slvl-1 Dodge gives you 18%. A common stopping point for Dodge is slvl-12, 50%, although rangers would need much less. Diminishing returns kick in very heavily from that point onward; slvl-20 Dodge gives you 56%.

Avoid (prereq: Dodge)

The next skill higher up is Avoid. This passive skill allows your Amazon to dodge incoming missile attacks while you are standing still. This includes all those skeleton arrows, Mephisto’s cold ball, as well as a hostile Amazon’s Guided Arrow. All missiles that include a physical component can be avoided. This skill is more important to a ranger Javazon than a tanker Javazon, as a tanker rarely stands still and attacks from a distance. Still, a couple points on Avoid would be nice to round out your tanking Javazon, for lag protection.

Avoid follows a diminishing return progression. The parameters are Min = 15, Max = 75, with Dim[15,75] expressed in percentage.

Slvl-1 Avoid gives you 24%. Fortunately for the tanking Javazon, 50% is more easily achievable for Avoid than for Dodge, requiring as little as slvl-7 Avoid, and this is a great stopping point for any Amazon. Diminishing returns kick in around slvl-10, 55%, or slvl-13, 60%. Slvl-20 Avoid gives you 65%. The only time you might want to pump Avoid to this ridiculous level is when you are building a PvP Bowazon, when avoiding a missile can mean a difference between life and death.

Evade (prereq: Dodge, Avoid)

Now, we’re talking (again). A tanking Javazon rarely stands still, unless she’s tanking a tough enemy. Between tanking enemies, she will be on the move to engage more enemies. Dodge and Avoid provides protection while she’s standing still. Evade provides protection while she’s on the move. It allows her to avoid all sorts of attacks: melee attacks of opportunity, missile attacks, yes, even area-of-effect magic attacks like Blizzard or Diablo’s firestorm. Actually, for this last one, you don’t even have to move. This skill is important to all Amazons, not just tanking Javazons, since all Amazons will come under fire when they are on the move.

The progression for Evade is similar to Dodge (using Dim[15,65]%). Again, slvl-12 Evade (for 50%) is a great stopping point, no matter whether you’re a tank or a ranger.

Offensive

There are only three offensive passive skills available to an Amazon. They aren’t flashy, but their effects are profound. One of them even determines whether a LF-throwing Amazon is just a flashy fireworks operator, or a downright deadly character. All Offensive passives work for all weapons, to demonstrate the versatility of the Amazon. So, without further ado . . .

Critical Strike (prereq: none)

Who doesn’t like double damage? Barbarians get double damage from their masteries (bugged). Assassins get double damage from their Claw Mastery (also bugged). No other classes are that fortunate, except the Amazon, naturally. Blizzard guys seem to have this attraction to Amazons . . . I wonder why? Anyway, this skill gives you a chance to inflict critical hits (and thus double damage hits) with any weapon. That’s right, any weapon. This is a skill that S/S tanking Amazons go crazy over.

At this point, I should mention Deadly Strike. This essentially has the same effect as Critical Strike, except that it comes from items. You might think "whoa . . . Critical Strike + Deadly Strike = chance to inflict quad damage?" Well, no. Blizzard fixed this some time in the past so that you can never inflict more than double damage (boo!) The effect of Deadly Strike is cumulative with Critical Strike: Critical Strike chance is calculated, and if double damage is not invoked, then Deadly Strike chance is calculated. It’d be cool to be able to do quad damage, but oh well.

Critical Strike follows a diminishing return progression. The parameters are Min = 5, Max = 80, with Dim[5,80] expressed in percentage.

Critical Strike starts at 16% at slvl-1. The progression is better than Dodge, achieving 50% at slvl-8, but it just goes on. A good stopping point would be slvl-12, 59%, since the diminishing returns kick in heavily from that point. Slvl-20 Critical Strike gives you a 68% chance to inflict double damage. Ouch, baby.

Penetrate (prereq: Critical Strike)

This skill adds to your Attack Rating. This is less a concern for rangers and Bowazons, but this skill might be of special interest to a tanking Javazon, especially Hardcore tanking Javazons.

To leech, you must hit. To hit, you must have great Attack Rating. If you have been investing heavily on Vitality and not enough on Dex, your AR might not be able to keep up with the enemy’s, and you’ll find it harder and harder to hit enemies. This skill is your ticket. Note that no amount of AR will help you to hit an enemy with much higher level than you do, so avoid pumping Penetrate when you’re a clvl-70 tanker in an area with mlvl-90 enemies (Act 5 Hell comes to mind, as well as the Moo Moo Farm).

Also remember that Fend, if you choose to use it, gives similar AR progression to Penetrate in addition of damage bonus, so pumping Fend is always preferable to Penetrate. Penetrate does help you if you have to jab that PI, though.

Regardless, even one point of Penetrate will give you a 35% AR bonus and unlock the access to Pierce. Each additional point increases your overall AR by 10%.

Slvl-20 Penetrate gives you a whopping 225% bonus to your AR. This works for all weapons, so this is of particular interest to S/S tankazons.

Pierce (prereq: Critical Strike, Penetrate)

Lightning Fury will not be a great mass-killing spell without this particular passive skill. As the name implies, this skill will allow any missiles thrown or shot by the Amazon to pierce through the enemy and hit another enemy behind it, if possible. The number of pierce is limited to four times, that is, you can hit at most five enemies with a single thrown javelin, if you position yourself just so. But, due to the multiplicative effect of LF, since bolts are released from every enemy hit, with luck and skill you can effectively multiply your LF damage by a huge factor. And you wonder why LF works really well in Secret Cow Level, where Moo Moos come slowly at you in huge groups, prime targets for LF/Pierce.

Ranger Javazons would definitely want to get as much Pierce as possible. Tanking Javazons, with greater emphasis on survivability and less on killing power, may want to put off on this skill until their defensive abilities are fully mature. Even tanking Javazons might want several points in this skill to take advantage of their only mean of mass killing. It’s not like it takes a lot of points to develop one’s defensive ability.

Pierce also follows a diminishing return progression. The parameters are Min = 10, Max = 100, with Dim[10,100] expressed in percentage.

Slvl-1 Pierce gives 23% chance to pierce enemy. The progression is great, achieving 55% in as low as slvl-5 Pierce. Good breakpoints include slvl-9 (69%, where diminishing returns start to severely come in . . . but the case is not really as clear cut as that), slvl-15 (80%, the recommended amount for reliable multiple piercing). Slvl-20 Pierce gives 85% chance. Before investing too much into Pierce, remember that you can get Pierce from items too. Razortail, the unique Sharkskin Belt, gives 33% chance to pierce, and this effect is additive to your skills.

By law of probability, the diminishing return might not be as bad as one might think. Consider slvl-15 and slvl-16 Pierce (80% and 82%, respectively). The chance to get 4 successive Pierces:

That’s 4% more than slvl-15. Obviously, this is quite a significant number for the investment.

For hybrid builds, currently this skill is bugged to work with Guided Arrows; that is, you can hit one enemy multiple times if Pierce kicks in. This bug, however, will be corrected in LoD patch 1.10, which is coming Real Soon™.

Tables for some Passive Skills

Here is a table that summarizes the probability of CS, Pierce, and D/A/E.

And to illustrate the not-so-obvious returns on Pierce, consider this table on Pierce chances.