Ideas for poison/fend zon

[:1]Starting up with a new and different kind of build always seems more exciting then the typical standards so I created a new amazon to play around with, originally I was going to go with a all spear kind of team/play for pvm. I saw something like this on here before and thought it would be good fun having myself, a valkery, and the merc all using big pokey sticks running around stabbing people to our hearts content. The skill set up was going to look something like this:

20 fend

20 valkery

20 decoy

Rest filled in the passives to fill out gaps and some in a lightning skill possibly for the tough physical immunes.

Yes, I am very aware of the glitch with fend and that the passives will cause all remaining attacks in the chain to miss, but jab just doesn't cut it, and impale is way to slow, so without using elemental skills fend is it, and I am very partial to this build using a tough valkery as it wouldn't be a cool build without one.

Moving on though, after progressing through and reaching hell mode I determined that just stabbing everything probably wasn't going to cut it so it would be good to weaken the masses with something powerful but allow me to still stab all I wanted. Lightning skills take up too many skills to be extremely powerful, and I would probably end up just throwing tons of lightning instead of actually stabing like I orginally intended. So with that in mind I decided on poison as the way to go. It only requires 2 skills to max out the damage, does great damage over time, and has a timer there by actually physically limiting the number I can throw so I can get back to the real action of tanking with a big stick. So in that interest I am currently arranging my skills to end up with this:

20 poison Javelin

20 plague Javelin

20 fend

20 valkery

Rest in prereq's, some spread around the rest of the passives

Once again as mentioned before I know about the glitch and I'm currently working with it, its not that bad as long as you do seperate clicks instead of holding down the button continuously (annoying but more effective).

Stats are pretty standard:

str: enough for gear (lycanders)

dex: enough for gear (lycanders)

vit: rest

energy: none

Right now my gear setup looks like the following:

Weapon 1: Eth Titans Revenge

Shield: Up for debate, possibly SS, or spirit (both more str), currently a unique spiked shield found in normal.

Weapon 2: Lycanders Ceremonial Pike (would really like to get either an up'd one or an eth one, or both, although they are hard to come by on Non-ladder without paying a lot), could possibly switch this with an ebotd pokey stick (recommendations welcome)

Helm: Shako with 4/5 die psn facet

Armor: Bramble Wyrmhide 44% psn (thanks Queen Mebd)

Amulet: Cats Eye (for dex and frw)

Ring 1: BulKathos (4% ll)

Ring 2: Ravenfrost

Belt: Tal Rasha's (for dex currently, recommendations?)

Gloves: Rare gloves (2 passive skills, 3 life leach, 20 ias iirc, switch to trangs for psn damage?)

Boots: Waterwalks (for dex, maybe gore riders?)

Currently around level 68 or so, no where near finished obviously. I believe I have a low torch for her, but no anni so this may fill in some stats.

Mercenary, Act 2 offensive merc for the might aura, haven't even really considered his gear too much as of yet, but I would say a pride polearm would do wonders for the physical damage but once again is difficult to get on non ladder, other options include ebotd for damage, or reapers for decrep. Also not opposed to changing him to a defiance or holy freezer merc if others think that would be more beneficial then a might aura. Also looking for helm/armor suggestions.

Right now I think his setup is:

Helm: Tal's helm

Armor: Shaftstop

Weap: Big rare pokey stick

Strategy is pretty simple, get a nice big group together, throw in a plague Javelin or two and then run in and fend all remaining.

Any input is greatly appreciated, I know crawlingdeadman said he would put in some input from a different thread a while back so it will be interesting to see what he has to say.

Thanks for reading!|||You're right to ask cdm for advice, he's got way more experience with amazons than most of us. I can offer some ideas based on a couple types of pvm 'zons I've had (strafer, pure cs/fury, and toying around with a plauge/fury at present).

While it doesn't take a ton of points in light skills to work well (my gal has plague/poison topped off, all the passives, and only fury and cs maxed while dumping the meager remainder in bolt), it may be spreading things a bit thin trying to go with poisons, solid fend, and fury without really insane gear.

That said you might be able to free up a few points from valk; most people recommend hitting slvl 17 with gear, as that's when she gets all the fancy goodies (technical term I know). I'd think you might want penetrate close to maxed (depending on what your ar is looking like) to be hitting with fend consistently, and critical to a nice level to get the most out of those hits. I wonder how if it could actually work going dodgeless as to not bug out fend. Between Waheed, a decoy, valk, yourself, and a nice amount of leech from Titan's and that BK it might be viable, and if not there are always respecs.

As far as gear goes, I can't make a ton of recommendations for what to use fend-wise. Though I would think you'd want to keep the merc rocking might for the damage boost (it was nice to have a little boost to jab on the cs-er for immunes). If you can snag an eth Reaper's for him that'd be pretty swell for the leech and ctc decrep, you could even just pile on ias gear like Treachery to keep him swinging and hopefully cursing faster.

The one thing I can say with certainty is don't drop the ias off gloves unless you want to be throwing like a grandma (to borrow that one from cdm). If you can find a pair of 2 jav 20 ias goodies rare or even 3 jav 20 ias magical gloves could work nicely too for the poison boost. It's been ages since I've looked at ias tables, but an ias jewel in the hat or shield could be nice if it bumps you up a frame, just don't quote me there.

That's my two cents and then some. Best of luck with the 'zon, she's definitely a unique one. Be sure to update us with what works and how she does!|||Hey Queen, thanks for responding! You are probably right about the valkery since once she hits level 17 she gets her final weapon upgrade which adds probably the most amount of damage for the skill point investment and still survive pretty easily (then again how hard is it to recast, really).

Right now 2 passive with 20 ias is the best I got and the life leach is just a bonus on top of it, I wasn't sure if the additional 25% psn damage from trangs would be worth giving up the ias and skills. Right now I think I'm sitting at 40 ias with my gear with titans equiped with the cats eye and gloves putting me at the 11 frame (30 ias, with -10 weap) breakpoint for throwing. Depending on what shield I use it would probably be more than worth it to put an ias jewel in either the shield or helm as it will get me to the 10 frame (52 ias, with -10 weap) breakpoint. The last one for thworing according to the calc 9 frame with 89 ias which I can't get without major gear change ups. In terms of fend I think 5 frames is the last one but I don't know how much IAS is needed for that, so I might stick a shael in the lysander's If I don't pick up something else.

If I lose the Dodge, then I lose the valk which I guess can be done as it avoids the bug all together but standing in a giant crowd stabbing seems pretty dangerous without it unless I have some major life leach and I'm only standing at 7% so I would need a change in the weapon.

I could switch the cat's Eye to a Highlords for the deadly strike that way I don't have to invest as much in critical to make it effective. Either that or if I pick up a Arioc's that has 50% deadly strike off the bat, and has skills and psn damage which will just make it that much better. Might have to stick an Amn in to survive though.|||Serious brain fart on my part; keep the dodges and don't skimp out on the valk.

Also thought of something else regarding speeds, since poison and especially plague javelin aren't skills that get rapid-fired, just build around whatever fend speed is comfortable (and if it bumps you up another throw bp that's a bonus). I get the feeling picking the right fend weapon may be a matter of testing and finding which one fits your preference.|||Poison and physical... not the best of friends later on. Undead have a reputation of being resistant to both. Might want a strategy around that.|||Well, looking at the resistances of most monsters, a lot of the monsters are physical/poison resistant but not completely immune, except for of course wraith's and the such. Of course boss packs/champions/uniques will most likely present a problem. I guess the mose efficient and easiest way to address the issue would be to get a hold of a reapers for the mercenary for the ctc decrepify. The 5% ctc from atma's for amp just doesn't seem like a high enough percent for the problems I'll most likely face. Besides the decrep will not only help me but the merc and valk too in terms of survival.|||okay, i went to type a response here with my thoughts several weeks ago and it turned into a wall of text. my zon turned out vastly different than what i'd planned for her and very different than what you did. still, here's what i did, apologies for the wall of text.