Favorite zon builds

Let's vote and discuss.. up to 3 choices possible

I like self wield Infinity because a) poking things with a big stick is fun, and b) the damage is nuts. It's satisfying to one shot a boss.

My other little pleasure is fire bowa. I know it isn't the best but it can still be pretty effective when geared properly, and it's just cool.

I've yet to try a frostmaiden but will do so in due course. Not sure if poison and physical melee are worth trying?

Lightning Fury was my first, and it was good to get into the game but I got bored.

I somehow never really messed with Javazon back in the day, and since D2R launched, I now have, and I love it. Also, physical bowazon is something special.

Janet the Java wrote: 4 days ago

I like self wield Infinity because a) poking things with a big stick is fun, and b) the damage is nuts. It's satisfying to one shot a boss.

My other little pleasure is fire bowa. I know it isn't the best but it can still be pretty effective when geared properly, and it's just cool.

I've yet to try a frostmaiden but will do so in due course. Not sure if poison and physical melee are worth trying?

Lightning Fury was my first, and it was good to get into the game but I got bored.

poison is fun. though not very strong,
ranking in terms of power from my experience:
1) 2x lightning builds
2) physical bow and icemaiden
3) poison

fire and physical melee, I have to try out yet

Janet the Java wrote: 4 days ago

I like self wield Infinity because a) poking things with a big stick is fun, and b) the damage is nuts. It's satisfying to one shot a boss.

My other little pleasure is fire bowa. I know it isn't the best but it can still be pretty effective when geared properly, and it's just cool.

I've yet to try a frostmaiden but will do so in due course. Not sure if poison and physical melee are worth trying?

Lightning Fury was my first, and it was good to get into the game but I got bored.

hmm do you mind telling a little more about the fire build?

because I tried it and find it disappointing tbh despite good gear.. even had to come back to nightmare cows to level a little, and now grinding stony tomb to get the bloody 187 dex and equip Faith

the rest is pretty optimized already (Flickering Flame, +2 gloves, Chains of Honor,

The Rising Sun, 2x soj..

Kuko Shakaku, and still feels very weak..

even with Faith it won't be that different I'm afraid

Ice

Matriarchal Bow amazon is fun to me. Also only viable cold build outside of cold sorc, whom I scrapped.

Added value with bow skillers being readily available and bow/life are cheap because most archers are physical going for max/ar/life.

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

Janet the Java wrote: 4 days ago

I like self wield Infinity because a) poking things with a big stick is fun, and b) the damage is nuts. It's satisfying to one shot a boss.

My other little pleasure is fire bowa. I know it isn't the best but it can still be pretty effective when geared properly, and it's just cool.

I've yet to try a frostmaiden but will do so in due course. Not sure if poison and physical melee are worth trying?

Lightning Fury was my first, and it was good to get into the game but I got bored.

hmm do you mind telling a little more about the fire build?

because I tried it and find it disappointing tbh despite good gear.. even had to come back to nightmare cows to level a little, and now grinding stony tomb to get the bloody 187 dex and equip Faith

the rest is pretty optimized already (Flickering Flame, +2 gloves, Chains of Honor,

The Rising Sun, 2x soj..

Kuko Shakaku, and still feels very weak..

even with Faith it won't be that different I'm afraid

I built her a whole ago so I can't recall all the research / testing I did and the sources I used, but the conclusion was: more facets, more good. 3 in the

Helm (but Flickering Flame is fine here), 4 in the armour, 5 in the +3

Matriarchal Bow. No Faith (I guess Phoenix would be next best option?), no CoH or Enigma. I haven't optimised to add in one of the new jewels yet. Start with an

Immolation Arrow, then pump in exploding

Arrows.

Janet the Java wrote:

Phoenix would be next best option?

Think it's either Phoenix or Brand. Didn't check.

Agree about javazon. I played one a lot for a while, but got burnt out quickly. Probably the fastest I ever got a character to the mid-90s and the only high level character that's pretty much just a mule at this point.

My ranking is:
1. Physical bowazon
2. Frost maiden
3. Physical spearazon

Queegon wrote: 2 days ago

Janet the Java wrote:

Phoenix would be next best option?

Think it's either Phoenix or Brand. Didn't check.

Phoenix probably.. if it works in missile weapons?

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

Queegon wrote: 2 days ago

Janet the Java wrote:

Phoenix would be next best option?

Think it's either Phoenix or Brand. Didn't check.

Phoenix probably.. if it works in missile weapons?

It definitely does.

Let's be honest, no matter what you do, it's never going to be an OP build, but I like a slightly off meta build, and it can comfortably clear any area on P1 (I don't really get much opportunity to test beyond P1 tbh). I just recorded a little video of Chaos for reference; terrible play on my part, and I have far from best gear (all my facets are cheap rubbish), but it works even in areas with lots of fire resist, although obviously not breaking any speed records.

Janet the Java wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

Queegon wrote: 2 days ago

Think it's either Phoenix or Brand. Didn't check.

Phoenix probably.. if it works in missile weapons?

It definitely does.

Let's be honest, no matter what you do, it's never going to be an OP build, but I like a slightly off meta build, and it can comfortably clear any area on P1 (I don't really get much opportunity to test beyond P1 tbh). I just recorded a little video of Chaos for reference; terrible play on my part, and I have far from best gear (all my facets are cheap rubbish), but it works even in areas with lots of fire resist, although obviously not breaking any speed records.

thanks, impressive! Phoenix on firezon somehow makes much more sense than on sorc shield to me..

do you think

Redemption from Phoenix will be enough to forget about potions, so that merc can use Faith with

Fanaticism and not Insight?

Infinity doesn't add that much value if you have -43 res just from

Helm and bow does it?

and.. why don't you use Phoenix? facets outweigh with fire dmg increase or other reason?

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

Janet the Java wrote: 2 days ago

ganseng wrote: 2 days ago

Phoenix probably.. if it works in missile weapons?

It definitely does.

Let's be honest, no matter what you do, it's never going to be an OP build, but I like a slightly off meta build, and it can comfortably clear any area on P1 (I don't really get much opportunity to test beyond P1 tbh). I just recorded a little video of Chaos for reference; terrible play on my part, and I have far from best gear (all my facets are cheap rubbish), but it works even in areas with lots of fire resist, although obviously not breaking any speed records.

thanks, impressive! Phoenix on firezon somehow makes much more sense than on sorc shield to me..

do you think

Redemption from Phoenix will be enough to forget about potions, so that merc can use Faith with

Fanaticism and not Insight?

Infinity doesn't add that much value if you have -43 res just from

Helm and bow does it?

and.. why don't you use Phoenix? facets outweigh with fire dmg increase or other reason?

Yeh Phoenix is -28 fire res, but with perfect facets you would have -25 res and +25 damage, so should in theory be much stronger. Although honestly, at the time I was playing around with this, I'm not sure I could even afford Phoenix heh.

As for the merc, frankly I never even considered anything but Infinity; so haven't tested that. It is annoying drinking mana pots though, so chalk that up as another reason to consider Phoenix. I may have to test further. I can happily afford to get proper facets and a

Defender's Fire at this point. Pretty sure BiS

Helm would not be Flickering Flame but a 3os

Tiara with frw stuffed with more facets.

physical melee, early game
put all into critical , equip sword/

Axe + shield

Fight like a real amazon! amazon rush style.

Did some testing in the worldstone with good geared bowazon, icemaiden and plaguediva (stupid name?) at lvl 86, and in terms of power and gratification IMO Ice > physical > Plague
Fire is not yet properly geared, melee

Spear not tested yet, and both lightning variants are a league higher

Got some questions in the process..

1) Ice
1.1

Arrows do heavy dmg when they explode on target. But often they just fly through target without exploding and do minor damage. Do they just miss and do I need more attack rating? If they miss, why do they do damage at all?
1.2 It's crazy mana hungry, so I go with Insight A1 merc.. Is a better option available on A1 merc? Will I be able to compensate Insight with potions without regular trips back to town?

2) Physical
2.1 Tooltip says ~1k-2.8k dmg. Is it before

Concentration and

Fanaticism effects?
2.2 Do I understand correctly that strife fires all 10

Arrows at the boss if there no other targets around, but it still approximately as efficient as

Guided Arrow because so many misses from

Strafe?
2.3 It's best to use a

Grand Matron Bow for

Strafe, because you can reach same attack speed as

Matriarchal Bow with higher dmg per hit with

Fanaticism + some attack speed modifiers, correct?

3) Plague
3.1 shall I risk a bad roll with Bramble?
3.2 How useful is Bramble's

Thorns on

Valkyrie (and maybe the returned from Faith)? Is

Valkyrie so survivable because she can take so much dmg (and thus return dmg), or because she dodges everything (and thus no return dmg)??