Opening Remarks

Greetings and welcome to the Javazon Guide 4.0. The javazon guide has received wide attention over the last month as players have migrated away from classical character templates in search of something new. I am happy to provide an updated version of the guide to these newest members of the amazon family. I will be providing an update for javazon veterans, who are happily always around to add comment and criticism alike. I encourage all readers of the guide to be in contact with the javazon community at the Amazon Basin and/or with myself. I am always happy to hear of your personal successes and discoveries.

You will find that this guide divides its advice into lower division (LD) and upper division (UD) sections for many of the topics it covers. Portions of the text prefaced by LD refer to strategic notes meant to be used by players through normal level and the early portions (act 1, some of 2) of nightmare difficulty. They also apply to multiplayer games in those regions of the game with less than 4 people in coop situations. UD sections refer to soloing in the latter half of the game (the rest of nightmare and all of hell difficulty level), as well as multiplayer games with a higher than 4 people, or non-coop multiplayer. I really don't care for PVP, so you will not find information pertaining to this subject in this guide (and I have no advice for this anyway, so pretty please don't email asking for it). Do remember that your javazon is your amazon. Using this guide is excellent starting point from which to develop your own character concepts. Good luck, and jav's away!

As a token linker to the meat of the guide, let me offer my classical intro about our friend the javazon. The javazon is a subclass of the amazon class from Diablo2. This subclass uses the one-handed spear class weaponry (javelin, pilum, glaive, and the like) as well as a shield. Unlike many of the classical Diablo2 character development schemes, the javazon is primarily a defensive character, which makes her a new (if not alien) experience in the world of Sanctuary. Keep this in mind as you progress through the game. This class has discarded most conventional thought in character development. As such, your approach to strategy must be equally non-conventional!

The Role of the Javazon

The beginning of the guide is the most suitable place to introduce you to the concept of the javazon. This is particularly useful to javazons playing in multi-player coop situations.

LD: The javazon in her earliest years is dependent on the raw damage dealt by her weapons and skills. She has not accumulated any fancy items, nor has she built up the most important of her javelin skills. Indeed, most her time is spent jabbing away with the occasional lightning bolt or poison javelin to clean up the masses. Early on, she should have found a good shield and put it to use protecting herself and her fellow party members. In party situations, she tends to draw attention away from the other classes that can be more vulnerable early in the game. Later on, she begins to acquire her first major javelin attack (plague javelin), which is developed into a very powerful technique for mopping up large groups of small monsters. As her skills and wealth develop, she begins to transform into what will be the ultimate defensive machine. She will race into crowded rooms and elemental storms without blinking an eye. She provides some initial crowd control and generally functions as a monster magnet so that other party members may work without distraction.

UD: Later in the game, the javazon as acquired the necessary equipment to function well in all levels/areas of the game. High resistance to elements and developed defensive skills coupled with a rare/unique shield mean that the javazon is rarely hit by any monster (regardless of its attack rating). She is still not capable of dealing the kind of damage that other character classes can be capable of, but she has staying power that outmatches any other subclass in the game. The javazon becomes a tank of poison, lightning, and other elemental modifiers (ice is popular) that slowly burrows a path through whatever stands in her way. In multiplayer situations, she functions much as she did in her early years, but with increased effectiveness. She eliminates large crowds of small monsters and draws attention away from her less protected peers.

Skills

All skills mentioned here are from either the javelin and spear skill tree, or the passive and magic skill tree. The bow skills are left to our more adept bowazon sisters.

Jab

Jab is an absolutely essential skill to have. Jab should become your regular melee attack mode once you have the appropriate equipment to upkeep jab's mana drain. I subscribe to the one-point-is-enough school of thought here. The differences in damage and attack rating are not worth spending the points here - particularly considering the wealth of options elsewhere. Additionally, you will find that as you add points to this skill, it becomes increasingly more difficult to compensate for the mana being drained. In every respect it behooves you to increase penetrate over this skill; more on that below.

LD: You have the luxury of waiting to assign a point into this skill. It is good advice that one should generally wait to assign a point to jab until a mana-stealing piece of jewelry (bat suffix) is found. It is not feasible to use jab while chugging blue potions to keep up with the mana drain. Your goal is to be using jab as your primary left button mode of attack by level 12-14 at the latest (earlier if possible). Jab will provide you with an attack rate and rating that greatly enhances the damage done per unit time. In this stage, you are still relying on the raw damage output of your javelin, and so you will want to choose weaponry that maximizes your damage with jab.

UD: Jab continues to be a supremely useful skill. It may be supplemented with fend, but jab is still a superior combat skill. As your progress higher in difficulty, jab becomes more useful for its ability to deliver crushing blows (see equipment below) which will generate the lion's share of the damage your javazon will be dishing out with her javelins.

Critical Strike

The role of critical strike (CS) in the javazon's arsenal is tricky and controversial subject in forum. It will most likely be the first skill point that you assign to your javazon! Further investment is debatable.

LD: This skill will help to compensate for the lower one-handed damage of most javelin class weapons. The immediate utility of this compensation is not that you are killing monsters more quickly, but the damage that you deal with jab is higher, which increases the effectiveness of mana-steal items. Since a primary goal is developing a mana-steal-supported jab ASAP, increasing CS to 2-3 will facilitate this goal. However, this choice does involve drawbacks in the UD limit.

UD: Critical strike loses its importance at higher levels when your javazon relies on crushing blow for melee damage over standard melee strikes. Nonetheless, uniques, bosses, and champions are all immune to crushing blow, so it is nice to have critical strike to enhance the damage you are capable of doing. Investing more than one point in CS means neglecting high-level javelin spells. You will see that the javelin spells occupy a central role in this template and that their effectiveness is strongly a function of your dedication to training those skills to the exclusion of others. Furthermore, at this late stage of your career, you will have gathered several items that add +1 to skill levels. A CS of base 1 raised to 2-3 through +1 skills items should serve you well enough.

Inner Sight

Inner sight (IS) is a finesse skill that serves well in the role of a prerequisite skill. IS is frequently used as a scouting tool by the javazon. Activating IS near a closed door will nonetheless illuminate the ground beneath the feet of unalarmed adversaries. A cautious amazon can use this to her benefit to gauge whether her adversaries are grouped or spread apart (very important in selecting the appropriate javelin spell).

LD: This skill deserves one point. It is useful in normal difficulty for reduction of defense (50 is a significant fraction of the DEF for most normal monsters). Don't forget IS when you go up against strong unique and bosses where every hit counts.

UD: IS loses its potency in the later difficulty levels. Even so, I still find myself using it for the bosses/uniques (more out of habit). 50-60 points off the target defense can still be a 10-20% reduction in DEF, which isn't all that bad. In general, however, I find that I have better things to do with my time (and mana) than keeping IS up.

Dodge

This is the first of the defensive passive skills, dodge, avoid, and evade (D/A/E). I used to advise people that diminishing returns skills (like the defensive passive skills) were not worth further investment when returns are less than 3%. This logic fails with dodge.

LD: You will want to get dodge to 4-6 ASAP. Optimally, you will continue to develop dodge in normal mode up to level 10-12. This is overkill for the normal difficulty level, but is good preparation for your future battles.

UD: Dodge becomes your best friend later in the game. 1% point increases in dodge can mean a world of difference in how often you are struck. In the later difficulty levels, your adversaries hit very hard, and dodging a single blow can (in some situations) mean the difference between life and lost experience and swearing at your computer. Dodge is phenomenal because it is a chance to escape being hit regardless of your opponent's AR. This is a far different concept than the DEF rating. As you progress to higher difficulty levels, you are regularly facing creatures with ARs far above your DEF. In fact, it becomes almost futile (as an amazon) to attempt to match DEFs in the higher difficulties. I cannot express enough the importance of this skill.

Poison Javelin

LD: Poison jav gets one point. It is a prerequisite for your later skills. But don't treat it like a prerequisite! Poison javelin, like IS, is an amazingly effective tool for the normal difficulty (with just one skill point). You will be able to use this skill for crowd control until reaching level 18 and plague javelin.

UD: Poison javelin has too many problems to be used as a replacement for plague javelin. Mana consumption is less, but the point of our poison skills is to poison simultaneously as many enemies as possible, as well as to deliver that poison repeatedly. Poison javelin is cumbersome in this role, and so I staunchly recommend waiting for plague javelin.

Slow Missiles

Slow missiles (SM) is another 1-point skill. Aside from being a prerequisite for further skills, slow missiles is a great tool that exhibits the same functionality as IS in terms of a scouting tool. Unlike IS, though, SM retains its utility (some may argue that it gains utility) as you progress in difficulty.

LD: You will learn to make this skill your friend very early in your life as a javazon. Acts 3 and 4 are places that really showcase the effectiveness of slow missiles. Your fellow party members will get down and kiss your feet when you effectively neutralize the abyss knights of act 4 chaos sanctuary fame.

UD: Nothing new here. By this time, you should be a pro at figuring out when to pull out slow missiles. I have found that I use it less than I did in the earlier levels. You will have found a very nice shield, picked up nice coverage on your resists, and will be continuing to develop your dodge/avoid/evade skills. Missile attacks really become an afterthought and slow missiles is the cherry on the cake.

Impale

*sigh*

LD: Totally unnecessary. Impale might be marginally useful to you here, but I discourage people from touching this skill. There are many more efficient ways to spend your javelins. Should you choose to try the fend route (see below), you will be required to deposit a point in this cesspool of skill points. Otherwise, it gets the goose egg.

UD: I occasionally curse at impale when I open up my skill trees. I honestly have NO idea what Blizzard was thinking when they came up with this skill. The javazon has no need of this skill, and from my spearazon adventures, I can tell you that it was only marginally useful there. Fend should be where impale is, and impale should have been tossed in the bad idea box.

Lightning Bolt

This skill is a prerequisite and requires one point. It is unfortunate that the javazon was not given another tool in place of lightning bolt (a similar argument might be made for poison javelin).

LD: Like poison jav, LB is a great skill to tide you over until you learn higher level javelin spells. LB is great for taking down point adversaries (flayer shaman, and other regenerators). By the end of normal mode, LB will have been replaced...

UD: Lightning bolt? What's that? After picking up lightning fury, you will switch lightning bolt's hotkey faster than Coffeegrrl can take down a Strada mocha. :) Seriously, lightning bolt suffers from a poor damage progression and lack of area effect.

Avoid

Avoid (D/A/E) does have limited use through about the game, but it is a truly diminishing returns skill, and large investment should be... avoided? ;)

LD: Missile attacks are rarely threatening in Diablo2 at this stage. With the exception of isolated areas in late act1, late act 2, and throughout the flayer infestation that is act3, you will find that this skill lays largely unused. One point should serve you well in conjunction with SM, which is a far more universal (and benevolent) method for neutralized missile threats. In addition, SM neutralizes some missile attacks (e.g. Oblivion Knights) that avoid ignores.

UD: Less useful to you in the later portions of the game. Most of the hard hitting comes from melee, which is why I have recommended that the reader train dodge at the expense of other skills.

Penetrate

LD: Unlike bowazon, penetrate is not that useful a skill to the javazon. It does warrant a single point as the first level increases your AR (both melee and ranged, for the record) by 35%. By the time you get this skill, that should be anywhere from 100-200 points. Not bad for a 1 point investment.

UD: Every 5 or so skill points, it is a good idea to invest a point in penetrate as it not only serves to increase your melee attack rating, but adds a 2X(current penetrate percent addition) to your ranged AR, which is good for your thrown weapons. Penetrate should be used to keep your AR at an acceptable level. I find that by the end of my javazon's career, she has dropped 6-8 points in this skill. It is always a second priority, though, so if you feel that your offensive damage or your defense is lacking, your points should be heading for dodge or one of the javelin spells.

Plague Javelin

Plague Javelin (PJ) is your first major javelin spell. It is an orthogonal spell to your lightning skills, and deserves heavy investment to support those skills. Plague Javelin is particularly effective in acts 1 and 4 where poison resistances are minimal. Undead typically have 50% poison resistance in normal difficulty alone, and so it is best advised to pick another mode of attack to deal with these creatures.

LD: Plague javelin has received much negative attention from people who have simply looked at the slvl 20 of the skill without actually understanding the behavior of the skill in combat. Your goal is to train this skill steadily to 15-20 points. Damage increase per skill level is actually very misleading (more so than for poison jav). The reason being that the duration and radius of the poison explosion increase per level of the skill. At skill level 8, you cover nearly the entire screen with the poison cloud, and it lasts for just over 3 seconds (good chance for poisoning monsters remaining in the cloud more than once). By level 10, you are consistently poisoning creatures twice.

UD: As you progress, you will find that plague continues to be useful in the solo scenario, but lacks on the multi-player side. Plague javelin should be used to finish off groups of creatures that have already seen melee from you. Crushing blow will take care of much of any target's health, plague javelin will take care of the rest. I have found that even through hell difficulty that plague jav retains its usefulness in the solo limit. Conservative use of this skill will keep your mana orb full. :) When you launch a plague javelin, make full use of the poison cloud. Creatures will only continue to be poisoned if they are moving around in the cloud (oversight by blizz, IMHO). Plague, jab, retreat a few paces (re-poison), jab, etc. An amazingly effective strategy at all levels. This is one of the reasons I love plague jav, incidentally - it actually requires some thought!

Decoy

LD/UD: The decoy is an effective skill when employed properly. It has been my experience that she is useful for drawing firepower, but more effective as a meat shield for big bosses. Finally a well placed decoy and SM will totally negate ranged threats for a short while. Ranged creatures will expend a lot of shots on the decoy and, thanks to SM, the decoy will last for a long time because the shots take forever actually to reach her. This strategy is amazingly effective in acts 3-4. Note that this is not exclusive to the javazon subclass, but I thought I would highlight it.

Evade

LD: As useful to the javazon as its earlier cousins. You will spend a lot of time running and tossing javelins in crowded fights. Being able to dodge/avoid while moving is truly a godsend. Invest 4-6 points in this skill at your leisure past clvl 24. Its usefulness is highlighted in later levels.

UD: Evade is primarily useful to the pro javazon as a supplement to your resists. It is capable of evading area effect spells like fireballs, lightning spew from the big D, etc. The catch, though, is that you have to be moving (grrr). So, when you see lots of vampires, get your butt in gear! If you find that your resists are not defending you capably in the hell difficulty, evade is a nice place to drop points between pumping lightning fury, PJ, and dodge.

Fend

LD: I have done quite a bit of testing with this skill and have come to the conclusion that there are many more problems with it than benefits. You must be careful, though, in being thorough in your investigation. In what I have classified as the LD limit, fend is quite the skill to behold. Creatures drop in impressive numbers, particularly when you are surrounded. The damage increase adds to the impressiveness of this skill, but...

UD: ... fend rapidly loses effectiveness as you progress through nm and hell. Firstly, fend is really only useful with an item equipped with cold damage/freeze effects because it can be interrupted (unlike jab). In this way, you can slow your opponents relative to you (thus increasing the frequency with which fend can strike back). Secondly, fend only checks to hit ONCE. If the first check is failed, your poor javazon is stuck whiffing at however many targets by which she is surrounded. This dictates that in order to use fend with any efficacy, one must have a high AR to ensure that most rounds of fend will strike. Should you decide to go with fend, I strongly encourage the use of a cold/slow modified belt/amulet/glove/armor and a VERY fast javelin ( i.e. javelin or throwing spear only!). I have tried this tactic with my fletcher's amulet of frost as well as cleglaw's pincers and there is a world of difference between this combination and fend alone. Even so, I find it lackluster in the later difficulty levels, particularly in hell difficulty where the cold durations are cut by a factor of 4. I continue to wait for word from my readership on a way that fend may be successfully implemented on a game-universal scale.

Valkyrie

UD: Unlike the bowazon, your valkyrie should not get max points. She will be useful as a moving meat shield, but will lose utility as such if you must spend an exorbitant amount of mana to cast her. She is perhaps most useful in multi-ppl games where her strength is enhanced. I have found, though, that I am much more effective at dealing with my adversaries and that the valk, when not getting kill, is generally getting in my way. Still, there are times when a moving monster magnet is a nice thing to have. Most players observe her highest mode of effectiveness is as a herder. By grouping monsters into tight clusters, you may take advantage of the combination of Lightning Fury and Pierce.

Lightning Fury

Lightning Fury (LF) is all the rage these days. The 1.03 patch to pierce has drawn incredibly attention to the combination of these two skills, which can cause immense devastation if the javazon's pierce and LF are of sufficient level and there are enough targets on screen. Nonetheless, I caution the reader that lightning resistance becomes ubiquitous in many areas of the higher difficulty levels. Using LF as a vehicle for damage delivery becomes nearly impossible, which is why it is imperative to train PJ. Acts 2 and 3 are the regions where LF is most effective.

UD: This is the other staple of the javazon arsenal. Lightning fury is an incredibly powerful skill. You will want to train this skill to at least level 8-9. LF should be used primarily to take down point enemies (like LB), or to follow up a PJ. The disadvantage with poison is the 3-sec damage spread. LF can be used to soften up a patch of poisoned baddies (although plague javelin, depending on slvl, is usually enough). Coupled with pierce, LF is astounding... particularly in closed areas. LFs that pierce a target will explode on a wall sending rebound shots back at the original target. With multiple targets, the number of lightning bolts on the screen gets out of hand VERY quickly; particularly at higher levels of LF and pierce. In fact, the power of LF rapidly becomes more dependent on your pierce skill and the number of monsters on the screen than your actual LF skill level! This is another nuance that makes the javazon a delight to play. Once to level 8-9, to train LF at the expense of PJ is to cripple your damage dealing capability with PJ. In he higher difficulty levels this becomes a particular poignant issue with the enhanced lightning resistances of monsters there.

Pierce

UD: With version 1.03, pierce became central to all types of javazon and bowazon subclasses. Pierce will now cause PJ and LF to activate on every pierced target. The theory here is that you want to be capable of piercing at least 2 targets consistently. The probability of doing this is simply your pierce percentage squared. A base skill level of 6-8 in pierce is desirable. At this point in the game, your character is bound to be sporting some equipment that adds points to all amazon skills, which will cover the rest of the slack on pierce. Once at 70%, your double pierce percentage is 50% and triple pierce is 35%, which I find to be acceptable odds. Remember that your power with LF is almost as strongly dependent on your pierce skill as it is on LF itself. Neglecting pierce results in hobbling your LF ability. Pierce also increases your odds for multiple poisonings using PJ.

Power Strike/Charged Strike/Lightning Strike

LD/UD: I've not experimented much with these skills, but I have developed the first two in previous javazons. I have found that these skills are generally redundant and generally provide nothing that could not be done by using a javelin spell. In the interest of maintaining focus on only a couple of ranged attack modes (while relying on Goblin Toe for melee), I advise players to summarily ignore the middle branch of the spear and javelin skill tree.

Equipment for the Javazon

The Javelin

Javazons have popularized the terminology "stix" to refer to javelins. Because the javazon uses any javelin class weapon she can get her hands on, stix is universally applied to any type of javelin you encounter. "Outta-stix" is what happens when you see your javazon starts to punch at monsters.

LD: In normal mode, you should get accustomed to a 2-javelin system. There are javelins that you save for solitary creatures with lots of hit points, and then there are every day javelins. For every day use, I find that picking up whatever happens to drop works great! Cracked javelin? Damaged pilum? It really doesn't matter. You will be jabbing solitary creatures and mopping up crowds with your javelins skills. In either case, the damage being done will not be largely dictated by your javelin's base damage. See goblin toe (next). For bosses and uniques that are impervious to your crushing blows, I save a stack of javs that will be used to jab ad nauseum. In the LD, superior glaives are perfect.

UD: Switch out the superior glaive for a superior spiculum (some advocate the superior harpoon for its speed) when you find it. Otherwise, I continue to use whatever happens to drop as a melee weapon. I find myself being a little overzealous with the jav skills when I'm equipped with particularly crappy javelins.

Goblin Toe

LD: Once you are past acts 1 and 2, it is time to start gambling for light plate boots. Goblin toe boots add 25% crushing blow (a crushing blow reduces the target's current hit points by a factor of 2 outright), which is critical for succeeding in the higher difficulties and multi-player games. Crushing blow does not work on champion monsters, unique monsters, and level bosses. You will need to revert to either your fine javelin, or many PJ/LFs in conjunction with jabbing to get mana back.

UD: Finish building your shrine for your goblin toes, and continue to kick butt.

Rings/Amulets

LD: Your javazon will be needing jewelry that is capable of converting damage done to mana. It is not feasible to rely on natural mana recovery or blue potions. The rare rings that are dispensed at the ends of quests very frequently feature "of the bat" functionality along with other attribute boosters. Your first job is to find items that will fill this purpose. Additionally, you will want to pick up items that greatly expand your mana and life pools.

UD: Start looking around for +1 amazon amulets. Stone of Jordan is nice (nicer for the javazon than some other classes that seem to be coveting them more out of fad than utility, IMHO). Skill point additions are critical for the javazon because she uses so many of her skills simultaneously (D/A/E, pierce, penetrate, CS, IS, SM, valk, and jab are all regularly in play). Nice jewelry in the UD will have significant additions to fire and lightning resists, with mana and/or life stealing. Expanding your life and mana pool is also important.

Shield

LD/UD: The shield is the unique characteristic of the javazon class. Most javazons have great pride in their shield wardrobe. There is a shield for various occasions, but the universal key parameter to look for in a good shield is its blocking. Blocking, like dodge, disregards your adversary's AR. This is huge in later difficulty levels where critters have ARs that make bowazons turn green with envy.

I have found much success with all my javazon class characters in using socketed tower shields stuffed with three perfect diamonds. One of your primary missions is to start collecting chipped diamonds that can be upgraded through gem shrines and the HC to perfect level. By act 3 normal (when tower shields become available in the stores) you should have collected/upgraded at least two perfect diamonds. The fully socketed shield provides +50% (approximately) to all resistances and 49% blocking. In the lingo of the javazon, this shield is called the 3DT. Your 3DT will last you for your entire career and makes appearances when your javazon is required to slug it out with enemies equipped with nasty elemental attacks (flayer shaman types, oblivion knights, ghoul lords, act bosses, etc.).

Other nice shields include Sigon's Guard (a set item, tower shield). As stated earlier, +1 to all skills is perhaps most valuable to the javazon class due to the sheer number of skills activated simultaneously. The high blocking is an added bonus. In the limit of the template described by this guide, the reader will have great success switching between SG and 3DT. There are other great shields out there to compliment the wide variety of strategic variants on the javazon (wall of the eyeless, swordback hold, etc.). Sadly, I do not have the time to explore each of these cases in this guide.

Blocking, blocking, blocking. I can't say the word enough. Together with dodge, this parameter will dictate whether you live or die in the higher difficulty levels.

Belt

LD: No recommendations. Start gambling for a regular belt...

UD: hoping to get Nightsmoke. This is another amazing toy for the javazon. 50% mana conversion will keep you in the blue in later difficulty levels. One could throw away much of the mana-stealing items collected earlier in the game and be just fine. The idea is that red potions are commercially available, monsters don't hit often, and when they do hit, they hit hard in higher difficulty levels. The 50% mana conversion coupled with the high damage attacks of upper difficulty monsters means a lot of mana for you. The fact that these blows are landed infrequently allows that javazon to use red potions to refuel the life orb without worry of sudden character death. Additionally, it features modest addition to mana and prismatic resist coverage. As a famous javazon once said, "you'd have to pry it off my cold, dead body."

Armor

LD/UD: Had I known then what I know now... Twitchthroe. What a great piece of armor. Twitchthroe is the unique studded leather armor and works even better in higher difficulty levels than in normal. Why do I like it? Enhanced blocking! Twitchthroe adds 25% blocking to your equipped shield (to a maximum of 75% blocking). I was finally able to toss my Sigon's guard aside and switch to my triple diamond tower shield for elementally nasty situations without having to compromise blocking. Additionally, because it is lighter armor, you will move much more quickly (which is nice because goblin toe is eating up any chance of having faster run/walk). If Sigon's is your thing, remember that blocking maxes at 75%. The 6% extra blocking should not be underestimated and the +1 skills mod on Sigon's is without match. The Sigon's raw blocking power is enough to allow you to pick another armor that suits your tastes (heavenly garb for jav skill-crazy javazons, goldskin, silks, rare stuff with lots of resists) if you find your defenses are adequate with 69% blocking. Remember that DEF will become less and less important in the higher levels, so pick a toy that accentuates the weak points in your character!

Gloves

I have no concrete suggestions for gloves. People have had success with a variety of gloves. The ubiquitous Frostburn is used by mana-intensive javazons. I have found a great deal of utility in Cleglaw's Pincers, the set item. The slow mod on Pincers is nice, but knockback is a wonderful feature to couple with jab. Knockback automatically stunlocks your target. You can corner creatures using knockback, and continually stunlock your target with jab eliminating many chances for retaliation. The slow mod makes it more difficult for your target to retaliate should you miss enough stunlocks. The javazon's impressive defensive capabilities, however, make it nearly impossible for a Pincer-locked victim to cause you any harm. This strategy works extraordinarily well on many uniques, including targets like Hephasto, the Smith, not to mention regular creatures. In addition to the stunlock strategy, these gloves compliment PJ very well. Targets of PJ will not be re-poisoned unless they are moving about in the cloud. Knockback forces your enemies to move about in your poison cloud, thus allowing you higher damage with your poison skills.

Iratha's Finery

UD: This item set is a nice addition to 3DT for elementally tough situations beyond normal level. Your maximum resists ever attainable are 75%. This is fine for normal level, where a 75% reduction of damage (time-averaged!) results in essential negation of the elemental threat. In higher difficulty levels, however, the damage done by elemental attacks can be quite devastating. So devastating, in fact, that a 75% reduction (time-averaged) is still not enough. Iratha's Finery helps you in this front by adding to your maximum resist. Additionally, the full set provides +50 to all resists. You should have max resists in nightmare difficulty with Iratha's and 3DT. In hell difficulty, you will be required to supplement Iratha's/3DT in order to maintain maximum resists. One might balk at having to use Iratha's and indeed it is not to be used all the time. Nightsmoke is on average a better belt than Iratha's cord, and Iratha's cuff is equally undesirable for general melee. You will also usually sport a better amulet than Iratha's collar. Most of the time, the entire set will stay in your stash or cube. But the few times you do need it (Act IV, flayer jungle, arcane, etc.), it is a lifesaver. Thanks to Bolshoi for initially championing the use of this set.

Attributes

LD: DEX is all-important to your character. 2-4 points per level should be assigned to this attribute. Additionally, you will need enhanced STR to handle higher level armor, shields, and javelins, so 1-3 points per level should be spent here. Finally, VIT and ENG are equally unimportant. Boosting VIT and ENG by one point to either per level will hold you for the normal levels.

UD: Once into early nightmare, it will become necessary to divert attribute points to VIT and ENG. And ENG of 60-65 as a final target works well (with nightsmoke and proper strategy, no more should be required). VIT should be steadily increased (2/ lvl) from early-mid nighmare and on, increasing to 4-5 points per level once all STR and DEX requirements are satisfied for using the exceptional javelin of your choosing. STR should be capped at 100 for javazons with a penchant to wear ancient armor and/or use the spiculum (75 if you are only interested in using harpoons). DEX receives a cap at 118 if you wish to use harpoons, otherwise staying at 90 is fine (as this allows you to use most of classes of exceptional javs). The occasional point in penetrate will help keep you on top of the AR ball if you feel that your to hit percentage is too low.

Resistance is Futile!

By far my best advice that I can give is on what playing a javazon late in the game is like. Know that you will never be the point damage powerhouse of the spearazon. You will also never have the ranged efficiency of the bowazon. Your role is to be the ultimately defensive player. Between the shield and pumped defensive passives, literally NOTHING gets through, save for elemental damage that is not evaded. Otherwise, choose items (rings, shields, armor, gloves, helms, boots) that offer substantial resistance to elements. Of particular concern are the fire and lightning, which are both very common and damaging elemental attacks. Once your resistances are high enough, your javazon will really begin to shine in combat. My current javazons have maxed lightning resistance and LEBs are NOT a problem even while jabbing away with my superior glaive!!! The occasional red must be consumed, but these guys really don't bother me any more.

For multiplayer action, your role as the defensive character is to get in there and jab jab jab at bosses while taking down minion packs with your jav skills. In a particularly memorable 8-player encounter with nightmare diablo, my javazon parked up next to the big D and started jabbing away. While my companions fired bows from afar running around willy-nilly and ran back and forth between town and sanctuary to refill on reds, I merrily kept D concentrating most of his (useless) firepower on me. I consumed the occasional red (no pinkies mind you - because you get hit a lot less, reds have plenty of time to refill you between hits) to deal with the errant charges and bits of lightning spew that managed to sneak past my resistance, evade, and shield. There are 7 people out there that now really REALLY appreciate the value of having a tank javazon along for the ride. Granted, you won't be doing very much damage, but you will take most of the attention off of the barbarian or necro who usually just lack the staying power of the properly equipped javazon.

The tankazon is the name I had originally given to the javazon subclass (wow, a subclass of a subclass!) that is described by this guide. It appears that the term has been appropriated to describe even buffer amazon variants, so I shall leave our terminology at "javazon" (I don't have an ego big enough to call this the "Briazon"). The idea is that no javelin weapon is below you. With pumped defensive passives, a massive shield, and goblin toe to dish out the major damage, you should be able to tank through any room. Throw javelins at will (paying attention to your mana orb) - preferably to mop up crowds. I tank under a continuous cloud of poison in the later difficulty levels (i.e. plague, jab jab jab, rinse, lather, repeat). I've found that this is an effective strategy for finishing off the current target as well as softening up the other creatures that have taken numbers. :) Just remember to pick up more ammo when your reserves are running low. Keep your fine javelin in your backpack on the right-most side so that it will not be auto-equipped. It's always fun when someone watches the butt-kicking you're dealing out and asks you one of these questions:

1) What level is your jab? (answer: 1)

2) What the #### is your DEF? 800? (answer: 210)

3) What the #### javelin is THAT?! (answer: crude pilum)

The last one is fun when you toss said crude pilum on the floor and say "you want it?" ;)

Closing

This guide is designed to show you what the javazon is capable of if developed well. I would like it very much if the reader would peruse these comments and then develop his/her own successful strategies.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss the contents of this guide, please feel free to send email to . Many thanks to Bolshoi, who is my javazon partner in crime. Mudfoot (emeritus), CouncilofElders (emeritus), Lorilea (emeritus), Sheena (emeritus), Mordien, the Gothmog, and Coffeegrrl have been instrumental in providing dialog on the javazon. Thanks to , head of the Amazon Basin and the entire Amazon Basin javazon community for their continued support, enthusiasm, and activism in the Diablo2 community. You guys are terrific!

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