I tried out Plague Javelin / Bowazon hybrid build

Hello,

I wanted to try out something new and I figured that Plague Javelin takes about 40 points to max out and multishot also takes about 40 points to max out, so why not try to make a hybrid. I also tried out 40 Poison / Cold and I think I like the Poison / Cold variant much better.

I tested out the idea with some budget gear and it's not awesome, but it's not terrible either. I think there might be something to it though, because poison takes time to process and multishot has knockback, so you can throw a few Plague javelins and then knock monsters back (optionally also freeze them) and wait for them to die. Also as a plus, you have two sources of damage (poison and physical). I want to put rest of the points into passive and magic tree, so it can also have a Valkyrie tank (because why not) and more attack rating, Pierce etc.

Freezing Arrow makes the entire build a lot faster and more dynamic.

I want to end up with something like this and see if it's much better:
Freezing Arrow: https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/b80106wb
multishot: https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/0e0106ad

This is not something I think is going to land somewhere between B and C tier, but I really like it anyway. I don't quite like Fury javazons and I don't quite like pure bowazons - this is the first Amazon build I really enjoy.

If you have some ideas for me to try and improve this you can let me know.

This is how it plays with a really basic gear with Poison / Frozen Arrow (I really think it's a good clear speed for cows and you don't run into issues with Lightning Immunes - freeze also helps merc survivability a lot):



This is how it plays with a really basic gear with Poison / Multishot:



It's an online character. If you want to do a few runs of something together with this, you can let me know. I would love to check how it fares on p2, p3 etc.

Chains of Honor is not "some budget gear"
(Bramble might actually be better for the build, too - and slightly cheaper)

I do like the idea of "something new". Been playing around with a few new things myself but so far they've all kind of just been depressingly mediocre as compared to what I already have/do.

Plague could be fun. But honestly, looking at your video, I would be inclined to say that multishot, especially with knockback, isn't a good companion. The reason being two-fold:
1) Once you gear that build up, multi will shred stuff so fast that your Javelin becomes entirely pointless and not worth still casting.
2) Looking specifically at a few scenes in your video, it actually looks like the knockback not only kept the cows away from you but kept the ones in the back even further back, stopping them from ever even hitting the Plague cloud. So it actually kind of prevents you doing damage to them as it keeps them in the safe zone.

If you do keep the multi-knockback, this might be one of the very few builds where you actually want to drop yourself to 0 Pierce so you only knock back the front row and the ones behind them still walk into the cloud.
Just my initial thinking.

On second thought, this build raises an interesting question that I for once don't quite know the answer to:
When is -res applied for Plague Javelin? On throw, on infection of the target or on damage ticks?

If it is anything other than 'on throw', you could drop the bow off-hand entirely and get a Plague (or Grief) and 4-facet psn shield on switch instead. That'd be a quick ~45 -enemy res which would make a massive difference for that build, seeing how as a Zon you don't typically get any beyond a facet or two.
Though you could of course also go for a more classic LR Wand + facet shield but then you're dealing with Wand charges and whatnot..that's just annoying.
Or in a less budget friendly world, go with dweb instead (actually kinda budget because you'll be fine with +1 skill in that case) and you're up to -75 res on switch.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Chains of Honor is not "some budget gear"

Yeah, I just threw something together from the stuff I had on other chars just to test it out, I didn't make new runewords just for this build. I'ts there just for some more res and plus skills, because I don't have that many all res small charms

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

If you do keep the multi-knockback, this might be one of the very few builds where you actually want to drop yourself to 0 Pierce so you only knock back the front row and the ones behind them still walk into the cloud.
Just my initial thinking.

That is actually a good idea, I will try it out later, thanks.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

On second thought, this build raises an interesting question that I for once don't quite know the answer to:
When is -res applied for Plague Javelin? On throw, on infection of the target or on damage ticks?

If it is anything other than 'on throw', you could drop the bow off-hand entirely and get a Plague (or Grief) and 4-facet psn shield on switch instead. That'd be a quick ~45 -enemy res which would make a massive difference for that build, seeing how as a Zon you don't typically get any beyond a facet or two.
Though you could of course also go for a more classic LR Wand + facet shield but then you're dealing with Wand charges and whatnot..that's just annoying.

I don't know that either, but I Just wanted to balance out bowazon and javazon to see if it's possible. I can test out the Grief variant for the sake of curiosity, but I am also looking for a way to combine this with a bow. Maybe something with a Freezing Arrow instead.

I actually think I like Freezing Arrow / Plague Javelin even better than multishot. It's easier to pick out enemies that are poison immune and everything freezes in place instead.

Poison / Cold is not a common build. I think it might be interesting. I will dig deeper and try to come up with something.

Looks a lot more aggressive (and fun) than the multi shot approach, seeing how it takes you from "build a poison wall and wait for them to crawl through" to "poison straight ahead and freeze stuff in your face".

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Looks a lot more aggressive (and fun) than the multi shot approach, seeing how it takes you from "build a poison wall and wait for them to crawl through" to "poison straight ahead and freeze stuff in your face".

Yeah, you can actually poison everything and then pick out poison immunes with Cold Arrow in the meantime. It works much better. Thanks for the Pierce tip.

I did Baal. It was slow compared to some other builds, but it wouldn't be possible with pure Poison Amazon or pure Cold Arrow Amazon, so I am happy in the end.

Looks like fun, at least

That was interesting to watch.
Did you try Travincal? I wonder how well poison + cold damage would work against the Council.

Zelym wrote: 4 years ago

That was interesting to watch.
Did you try Travincal? I wonder how well poison + cold damage would work against the Council.

Yes, it's doable. It is similar to running Trav with poison necro. Although she is too squishy for that I think.

Overall Conviction from Infinity helps a lot. First you poison everything, then with Conviction you can kill the stronger targets with Freezing Arrow, then in the meantime weaker monsters die from poison.

Hi all,

I started experimenting with poison too, some questions..

1) poison doesn't stack right? so if I thrown Plague Javelin again it just prolongs the 3k dps effect, doesn't add another 3k?
2) effects from charms do increase the Plague Javelin dmg right?
3) Venom does increase the poison dmg on primary target but not aoe?
4) lower resistance from the charged Wand does work with poison dmg, correct?

Hmm can it be that poison does stack?
Hell Duriel died in like 5 seconds
he has 63k hp, res was about 30 after the curse, and tooltip on Plague jav says 4k dps.. so should have been like 20s don't think Valkyrie, merc and me did that much physical dmg

I wasn't sure the build would even handle hell, but (arguably with best gear) it's in same league as physical bowazon or icemaiden. Highly recommended

I decided not to risk a bad Bramble roll, as dps scales insanely with extra skills

Now pretty close to max, at about 68k poison dmg / ~11 sec. Instead of OPs combo, a lazy trio

Valkyrie facetanks everything almost like warlock's demon and adds minor dps
Rogue with Ice, Peace and Nightwing's Veil (maybe to be replaced with Andariel's Visage later) freezes everything and adds moderate dps
Zon lazily throws a Plague bomb every second, occasionally cursing with offhand or throwing some extra javs at bosses, and everything dies

Gear: anni, torch, a couple harpoonist skillers, Shako with a 5/4 poison facet, Chains of Honor, Titan's Revenge, Spirit, mara's caleidoscope, 2x SoJ, arachnid's mesh, yellow gloves with +2 jav skills and some attack speed, some Boots with extra poison res

Now at level 80 have Valkyrie, both poison skills maxed out, crit and Pierce at about 10 points.. 9 unspent points, and no idea what to waste the remaining points on?

PS. Venom adds some marginal dps, it feels like
PPS It is strangely gratifying to watch Andariel melt from poison

I am trying out something similar, which is a hybrid Poison / Spear build.

Because like in the OP, Poison takes only 40 points, and whatever Spear skill you choose takes only 20. That means you have plenty of points leftover for Valkyrie or whatever else. Also every Spear build I see ends up wasting points on passives with diminishing returns which seems silly.

I just started hell and cruised through Act 1 with Titan's Revenge, Passion in a Matriarchal Spear, Smoke, Spirit, Raven Frost, and other miscellaneous things. I have maxed Plague Javelin, Fend, and have many points in Valkyrie and Poison Javelin. The Fend + Plague Javelin don't really work together that well, but it does give you a lot of options if you play through the entire game rather than being rushed. Plague Javelin is very nice against clumps of Fallen or Fetish, and Fend is great for Goatmen, corrupted Rogues, and the like that Charge up to you in groups. And one point in Impale is awesome for uniques and act bosses. I'm going to try to finish hell without using Hellfire Torch or Annihilus.

Kinda stuck between going Fortitude or Bramble for the armor. I could also go Fortitude in my Spear, but Breath of the Dying is so good I should probably not use the high rune and just wait to find a different base.

My char reached the limits it seems.. now only improvement would be Bramble instead of Chains of Honor (like +25% dps with less survivability), a couple more harpoonist grand charms, and maybe a Diadem with 2 skills and 3 sockets.. do such things even exist?
I wished they buffed the Valkyrie, especially the damage, so it would make more sense to add points into passives to buff her

Also my merc keeps dying.. is it not to kitsch to make another Chains of Honor for her?
and since she mostly shoots Ice Arrows by now, would she ebenfit at all from exra dmg and life leech?

I run pure psn javazon, with dweb and headhunter(with psn jewels) on swap, with act5 with dual Plague swrd for LW proc, works well. He doesnt ‘die’ unless i get careless.

This setup is fun for kitting around large groups after a few initial thrown javs and swap to dweb/headhunter for the actual psn damage duration

ganseng wrote: 4 months ago

My char reached the limits it seems.. now only improvement would be Bramble instead of Chains of Honor (like +25% dps with less survivability), a couple more harpoonist grand charms, and maybe a Diadem with 2 skills and 3 sockets.. do such things even exist?
I wished they buffed the Valkyrie, especially the damage, so it would make more sense to add points into passives to buff her

->4 PSN facet Monarch.

I also think that trag gloves work but I'm not 100% sure.

vued wrote: 4 months ago

ganseng wrote: 4 months ago

My char reached the limits it seems.. now only improvement would be Bramble instead of Chains of Honor (like +25% dps with less survivability), a couple more harpoonist grand charms, and maybe a Diadem with 2 skills and 3 sockets.. do such things even exist?
I wished they buffed the Valkyrie, especially the damage, so it would make more sense to add points into passives to buff her

->4 PSN facet Monarch.

I also think that trag gloves work but I'm not 100% sure.

Plague Javelin scales insanely with skills, almost 10% per skill level. so +2 or +3 gloves are better than trang imo

shield would be nice with -poison res but crazy expensive..

and a high rolled Bramble would make sense probably

but do you know if blue helms with +2 zon skills and 3 sockets exist? that would be top priority