08-26-2005, 05:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2005, 06:20 PM by Occhidiangela.)
Hi all
Since 1.11 went live, I deleted many characters. I had two different Charged Strike Amazons, Lectric Lips and Meloni Belli, who used Cold Bow skills as secondary to Charged Strike and Lightning Fury.
For 1.11, I am running Electron_Cloud. Simple Build. Javelin skills only, with one point each in the Passive/Magic skills. Please comment on the build if you find it of any interest or you think I have missed something obvious. Build assumes 1-4 player games, though the occasional 8 person pubbie Baal run or whatever does allow me to contribute to the team effort. Normally, I hang with the Variant Scum™. This build is very viable in Single Player for those who don't do bnet. At players 8, you will probably hit tedium. Recommend no more than players 4 unless you are a masochist.
Assumption: play with what you find, buy, cube, craft, or gamble. Please don't waste time commenting on what rune word or Unique this build should use. I will comment on that after third dot, possibly.
My luck with gambling got Chance Guards, which I wear at the expense of + skills or resist gloves. This helped find Spirit Shroud, I guess, which my Merc wore until Hell diff. Cannot Be Frozen is sweet, as is the regeneration at +10. A +30 speed circlet and a pair of +20 speed boots with 25% magic find help me move, which is a must. She is not a good tank, drops for armor have been horrific, nor is she built as one. No Shael Rune has dropped yet, and darned few runes above Tal to date. I have a Lum, a Hel, a Sol and an Amn for "above Thul" runes. Still pondering what I will do with them.
Wandering about Act I Hell at present, with negative resists to every element. Have yet to find a three socketed shield I want to use. Weird luck.
Stats:
S- Heading for 157 for an eventual Monarch (I doubt one will drop, knowing my luck)
D- 125 so far, may go to 150 or more, to keep blocking over 50%.
V- All the Rest
E- Base
Note: my pre 1.11 both had 50 or 60 stat points unused. They retired at 83, and had been MFing and gambling circlets for two levels at that point.
Skills:
Zero Bow Skills, one in every Passive and Magic Skill
Javelin Skills:
Jab-1
Power Strike-1
Charged Strike-1
Poison Jav-11 so far (aiming for max)
Lighting Bolt-1
Plague Javelin-20
Lightning Fury-20
If I rebuilt this, I'd max Poison Jav first, to reduce poison duration on Plague Jav.
Merc: So many Choices. I went with Might, but was tempted by Blessed Aim. Has a cheesy rare lance at present. Since rune drops to date stink, I doubt I'll end up with a rune word. No biggee. Tal's Mask Dropped in Act 5 NM, so he has some resist and Life Leach to help him out. Act 3 Fire was a temptation, since I have a decoy and a zon to keep his suicidal tendencies down to a dull roar. (The 1.09 and 1.10 Charged Strike Zons had Defiance mercs, and the 1.10 had an Insight Polearm. Yes, mucho cheese.) I can't get the hang of running a Barb Merc and was spoiled by my old Sorceress and her Teleport skill in how to control one. My desynch makes positioning them frustrating.
Normal through Nightmare: Other than Lightning Immune Gloams in Act V, who found poison and my one point in Jab very annoying, this was a simple romp to get to Hell, where the game for this build starts. I won't have any slowing down skills, nor Undead corpse eating skills. Using Valk/Decoy against Minotaurs just makes their Frenzy go ape right before catching up with me. :P A four pack of champs ate my lunch in NM on the Ancients Way when I got a little cocky. Hubris hurts. :blink:
Tactics:
Decoy: I use Decoy, other than for occasional scouting, to block narrow choke points for a few seconds, which lets Plague Javelin slowly corrode monsters. Or, stand there and get either LF'd or CS'd to death. Decoy is by far one of the best, and possibly underused, skills in the game since its inception. I always like a good recon scheme, and Decoy suits me to a T. Hot keyed to the "X" key.
Charged Strike on non-boss monsters lined up in a row does some nice damage downstream a la Sorceress Charged Bolt tactics. Where I can, I try to move, use a doorway, marsh blockage, corner, pulling tactics what have you, to line monsters up.
Valk: The interlock for Valk and Plague Javelin, the casting delay, is frustrating. I have to move to keep out of harm's way while the timer goes off, which in Kurast Temples and tight underground areas can get hairy strange when bnet starts teleporting monsters for me. :P She dies easily, fine by me, but now and again survives quite a while. I prefer to toss Plague First, then Decoy, then when Valk is ready, re cast her.
Plague Jav: At the 6000 per 11.8 seconds range here. Total of +3 to skills, no + skills on any circlets yet, nor on any amulet. Imbued Ceremonial Javs for +1 Jav and +1 Amazon skills with NM imbue. Wheeeee. Uber. +134% ED is not so bad.
CS: The Well Known and well loved Boss Killer.
LF: I probably would have been better off to put 5 more points into Pierce rather than those last 5 into Plague Jav, to up the frequency of Pierce for my Javelins. Sloppy me. It is still good enough, and if I get a few more + Amazon skills bits via gambling, then Pierce will go up and make me happy. One has to be careful near Nilithak's Temple Entrance, in Hell, I learned with the Previous build. The charge from those Skeleton's can be lethal.
Tactical note: You have to Spam LF like there is no tomorrow or get to that tight little area to the right of the steps up to use CS against them. I usually run inside, Spam LF, then come back out to handle the horde of walking dead, dipping to the right to minimize my frontage.
Jab: Used frequently, standing next to my manly Might Merc, to finish off Lightning Immunes with a "poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
Lightning Immunes:
I enter all new areas with Slow Missile on the right click, and CS on the left. I either scout with SM, or Decoy, to see what is up ahead. The one thing I don't want is to be is strafed by arrows that slow me down from certain Rogues who do HST, cold enchanted packs, or cold archers. Also, when the Orange Hat of Pain arrives, Amp Damage, I like to dodge the spam of missiles that seems to accompany it lately. Not keen on fast arrows, slow ones are easier to dodge while I wait for Plague Javelin, usually two applications, to sicken the foe.
I note that often the cloud does not hit/turn the monsters green as the monster walks into the blooming green cloud of poison. Interesting. I also note that Slow Missile does not always cast/take. I am not sure if I am seeing a desynch problem and my client is failing to tell the server who fails to tell the client, that SM was supposed to make them all sparkly and slow the spells.
Note: Slow Missiles does NOT slow the fire balls spit by the Hydra spell brom Vampire class monsters. Boooo. I personally think that sucks, a feeling that goes back to having been PK'd in Hardcore two years ago by a Hydra sorcie near a WP. Why doesn't SM work on that spell? Booooo. It is a missile!
Inner Sight: Cast on any non-archer boss for easier to hit by me, my valk, my merc. You can't hurt what you can't hit. Even though it is at a low level, every little bit of -Defense Rating helps to hit. Hot Keyed to f5, my standard for 5 years of this game.
Versus Lightning Immune archer packs things tend to go like this: Slow Missile, Plague Jav, Decoy, Plague Jav, Slow Missile, and decoy if she dies. Typically a few pots go down the merc's throat before a boss and pack are all dead. For mixed Packs, it is slow missile, Lightning Fury until the LI are all that is standing, then back to Plague Jav, unless I lit off a Plague Jav in quick reaction, which probably should be my standard pattern. Spam LF after I Plague and the timer is ticking.
Gloams, the irritating ones. I am still uncertain just what Slow Missile does to these guys. It seemed in NM that SM on them made my merc all but immune to their lightning. ??????? Not sure why that was. Poison turns them a lovely green, and does indeed kill tham . . . while I dodge about.
Equipment aims and hopes:
Gamble +2 Amazon skills Circlet, a +1 Amazon skills amulet, find some +3 Skills Javs, and gamble gloves until +2 or +3 Jav skills pop up. Have two Passive and Magic skill +1 gloves, but am keeping the Chance guards for my gambling habit. I love gambling for circlets and gloves, so my gold find affix is a serious investment, over 350% at present with affixes on rings, boots, gloves, belt. Rares are us.
If the runes drop and a proper socketed armor, I may make the new Amazon Rune Word +2 Skills armor. I have a 4 socketed Wire Fleece waiting for some runes to drop (Fortitude or Chains if dumb luck strikes soon . . . )
If I get lucky, of course a Spirit Monarch Shield will be made, but I don't see those drops coming. Have saved two socket quests incase a white Monarch drops. None so far.
Both safety Crafts on the Dragon shield and Monarch sucked. Good Blood Crafted Gloves, 8% CB and 24% fire res, but those gloves don't get used much. The crafted hit power boots were garbage.
Kept the Safety Dragon until NM was over, huzah for 6% Magic resist. :P Now waltzing with a +19 res all tower shield that has +30% blocking +20% blockiing speed. The Nokozan Relic I found early on is worn when I fight Diablo or sereious fire monsters.
Murphy likes to toy with me. Hell Countess dropped two El runes. :lol:
When this build is over, at about 77-79 I am guessing, I will report on how I dealt with the unfreezable monsters in act 5. If a Kepie Snare drops, I am in like flint for my merc. :)
Occhi
EDITED due to poor writing.
Since 1.11 went live, I deleted many characters. I had two different Charged Strike Amazons, Lectric Lips and Meloni Belli, who used Cold Bow skills as secondary to Charged Strike and Lightning Fury.
For 1.11, I am running Electron_Cloud. Simple Build. Javelin skills only, with one point each in the Passive/Magic skills. Please comment on the build if you find it of any interest or you think I have missed something obvious. Build assumes 1-4 player games, though the occasional 8 person pubbie Baal run or whatever does allow me to contribute to the team effort. Normally, I hang with the Variant Scum™. This build is very viable in Single Player for those who don't do bnet. At players 8, you will probably hit tedium. Recommend no more than players 4 unless you are a masochist.
Assumption: play with what you find, buy, cube, craft, or gamble. Please don't waste time commenting on what rune word or Unique this build should use. I will comment on that after third dot, possibly.
My luck with gambling got Chance Guards, which I wear at the expense of + skills or resist gloves. This helped find Spirit Shroud, I guess, which my Merc wore until Hell diff. Cannot Be Frozen is sweet, as is the regeneration at +10. A +30 speed circlet and a pair of +20 speed boots with 25% magic find help me move, which is a must. She is not a good tank, drops for armor have been horrific, nor is she built as one. No Shael Rune has dropped yet, and darned few runes above Tal to date. I have a Lum, a Hel, a Sol and an Amn for "above Thul" runes. Still pondering what I will do with them.
Wandering about Act I Hell at present, with negative resists to every element. Have yet to find a three socketed shield I want to use. Weird luck.
Stats:
S- Heading for 157 for an eventual Monarch (I doubt one will drop, knowing my luck)
D- 125 so far, may go to 150 or more, to keep blocking over 50%.
V- All the Rest
E- Base
Note: my pre 1.11 both had 50 or 60 stat points unused. They retired at 83, and had been MFing and gambling circlets for two levels at that point.
Skills:
Zero Bow Skills, one in every Passive and Magic Skill
Javelin Skills:
Jab-1
Power Strike-1
Charged Strike-1
Poison Jav-11 so far (aiming for max)
Lighting Bolt-1
Plague Javelin-20
Lightning Fury-20
If I rebuilt this, I'd max Poison Jav first, to reduce poison duration on Plague Jav.
Merc: So many Choices. I went with Might, but was tempted by Blessed Aim. Has a cheesy rare lance at present. Since rune drops to date stink, I doubt I'll end up with a rune word. No biggee. Tal's Mask Dropped in Act 5 NM, so he has some resist and Life Leach to help him out. Act 3 Fire was a temptation, since I have a decoy and a zon to keep his suicidal tendencies down to a dull roar. (The 1.09 and 1.10 Charged Strike Zons had Defiance mercs, and the 1.10 had an Insight Polearm. Yes, mucho cheese.) I can't get the hang of running a Barb Merc and was spoiled by my old Sorceress and her Teleport skill in how to control one. My desynch makes positioning them frustrating.
Normal through Nightmare: Other than Lightning Immune Gloams in Act V, who found poison and my one point in Jab very annoying, this was a simple romp to get to Hell, where the game for this build starts. I won't have any slowing down skills, nor Undead corpse eating skills. Using Valk/Decoy against Minotaurs just makes their Frenzy go ape right before catching up with me. :P A four pack of champs ate my lunch in NM on the Ancients Way when I got a little cocky. Hubris hurts. :blink:
Tactics:
Decoy: I use Decoy, other than for occasional scouting, to block narrow choke points for a few seconds, which lets Plague Javelin slowly corrode monsters. Or, stand there and get either LF'd or CS'd to death. Decoy is by far one of the best, and possibly underused, skills in the game since its inception. I always like a good recon scheme, and Decoy suits me to a T. Hot keyed to the "X" key.
Charged Strike on non-boss monsters lined up in a row does some nice damage downstream a la Sorceress Charged Bolt tactics. Where I can, I try to move, use a doorway, marsh blockage, corner, pulling tactics what have you, to line monsters up.
Valk: The interlock for Valk and Plague Javelin, the casting delay, is frustrating. I have to move to keep out of harm's way while the timer goes off, which in Kurast Temples and tight underground areas can get hairy strange when bnet starts teleporting monsters for me. :P She dies easily, fine by me, but now and again survives quite a while. I prefer to toss Plague First, then Decoy, then when Valk is ready, re cast her.
Plague Jav: At the 6000 per 11.8 seconds range here. Total of +3 to skills, no + skills on any circlets yet, nor on any amulet. Imbued Ceremonial Javs for +1 Jav and +1 Amazon skills with NM imbue. Wheeeee. Uber. +134% ED is not so bad.
CS: The Well Known and well loved Boss Killer.
LF: I probably would have been better off to put 5 more points into Pierce rather than those last 5 into Plague Jav, to up the frequency of Pierce for my Javelins. Sloppy me. It is still good enough, and if I get a few more + Amazon skills bits via gambling, then Pierce will go up and make me happy. One has to be careful near Nilithak's Temple Entrance, in Hell, I learned with the Previous build. The charge from those Skeleton's can be lethal.
Tactical note: You have to Spam LF like there is no tomorrow or get to that tight little area to the right of the steps up to use CS against them. I usually run inside, Spam LF, then come back out to handle the horde of walking dead, dipping to the right to minimize my frontage.
Jab: Used frequently, standing next to my manly Might Merc, to finish off Lightning Immunes with a "poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
Lightning Immunes:
I enter all new areas with Slow Missile on the right click, and CS on the left. I either scout with SM, or Decoy, to see what is up ahead. The one thing I don't want is to be is strafed by arrows that slow me down from certain Rogues who do HST, cold enchanted packs, or cold archers. Also, when the Orange Hat of Pain arrives, Amp Damage, I like to dodge the spam of missiles that seems to accompany it lately. Not keen on fast arrows, slow ones are easier to dodge while I wait for Plague Javelin, usually two applications, to sicken the foe.
I note that often the cloud does not hit/turn the monsters green as the monster walks into the blooming green cloud of poison. Interesting. I also note that Slow Missile does not always cast/take. I am not sure if I am seeing a desynch problem and my client is failing to tell the server who fails to tell the client, that SM was supposed to make them all sparkly and slow the spells.
Note: Slow Missiles does NOT slow the fire balls spit by the Hydra spell brom Vampire class monsters. Boooo. I personally think that sucks, a feeling that goes back to having been PK'd in Hardcore two years ago by a Hydra sorcie near a WP. Why doesn't SM work on that spell? Booooo. It is a missile!
Inner Sight: Cast on any non-archer boss for easier to hit by me, my valk, my merc. You can't hurt what you can't hit. Even though it is at a low level, every little bit of -Defense Rating helps to hit. Hot Keyed to f5, my standard for 5 years of this game.
Versus Lightning Immune archer packs things tend to go like this: Slow Missile, Plague Jav, Decoy, Plague Jav, Slow Missile, and decoy if she dies. Typically a few pots go down the merc's throat before a boss and pack are all dead. For mixed Packs, it is slow missile, Lightning Fury until the LI are all that is standing, then back to Plague Jav, unless I lit off a Plague Jav in quick reaction, which probably should be my standard pattern. Spam LF after I Plague and the timer is ticking.
Gloams, the irritating ones. I am still uncertain just what Slow Missile does to these guys. It seemed in NM that SM on them made my merc all but immune to their lightning. ??????? Not sure why that was. Poison turns them a lovely green, and does indeed kill tham . . . while I dodge about.
Equipment aims and hopes:
Gamble +2 Amazon skills Circlet, a +1 Amazon skills amulet, find some +3 Skills Javs, and gamble gloves until +2 or +3 Jav skills pop up. Have two Passive and Magic skill +1 gloves, but am keeping the Chance guards for my gambling habit. I love gambling for circlets and gloves, so my gold find affix is a serious investment, over 350% at present with affixes on rings, boots, gloves, belt. Rares are us.
If the runes drop and a proper socketed armor, I may make the new Amazon Rune Word +2 Skills armor. I have a 4 socketed Wire Fleece waiting for some runes to drop (Fortitude or Chains if dumb luck strikes soon . . . )
If I get lucky, of course a Spirit Monarch Shield will be made, but I don't see those drops coming. Have saved two socket quests incase a white Monarch drops. None so far.
Both safety Crafts on the Dragon shield and Monarch sucked. Good Blood Crafted Gloves, 8% CB and 24% fire res, but those gloves don't get used much. The crafted hit power boots were garbage.
Kept the Safety Dragon until NM was over, huzah for 6% Magic resist. :P Now waltzing with a +19 res all tower shield that has +30% blocking +20% blockiing speed. The Nokozan Relic I found early on is worn when I fight Diablo or sereious fire monsters.
Murphy likes to toy with me. Hell Countess dropped two El runes. :lol:
When this build is over, at about 77-79 I am guessing, I will report on how I dealt with the unfreezable monsters in act 5. If a Kepie Snare drops, I am in like flint for my merc. :)
Occhi
EDITED due to poor writing.
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
