(Physical) Spearzon

I got bored of my (physical) Bowazon quite quickly so I'm thinking of trying out a Spearzon. I always liked the idea and now this char is kind of working (so I heard).

I read some guides and have questions you might be able to answer.

1. There seems to be 2 possible skill allocations: Jab/ Fend or Impale/ Fend. Did anyone try out both and can share any Insight on how the Playstyle differs? I have a theoretical understanding but would like to hear the opinion of people who have already played those.

2. My main weapon will likely be a BotD. Which base is best? I have an Eth 3 skill Matriarchal Pike but War Pike has just much more damage. It looks to me that the Matriarchal Pike would be the "defensive" option (lower req and more passive skills). Am I wrong? Which would you consider better in general?

3. I love Shaftstop. AMA just looks great in Black. Damage reduction should work well with Bone Break but it provides little else. Is there a valid build with shaft? I also have a nice upped Eth Hone Sundan (my Merc made good use of it). Maybe I will use it for killing bosses or even try Ubers. Any suggestions for this?

My guess would be Matriarchal Spear (because of the speed)
Do some tests on https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/

vued wrote: 1 year ago

2. My main weapon will likely be a BotD. Which base is best? I have an Eth 3 skill Matriarchal Pike but War Pike has just much more damage. It looks to me that the Matriarchal Pike would be the "defensive" option (lower req and more passive skills). Am I wrong? Which would you consider better in general?

I have Spearzon she's really fun to play, very survivable thanks to passive Dodge skills.

I use BOTD in a Matriarchal Pike +3 simply because I already had it. War Pike has about 10% higher damage (105.5 vs 95) but the +3 skills from the Matriarchal Pike +3 roughly balance this out.

I maxed the Critical Strike passive and wear Guillame's Face Helm, Gore Rider Boots, and a Highlord's amulet. Together with the Critical Strike passive, this gives about a 91% chance for double damage.

I prefer Jab over Impale because of its high speed and 50% crushing blow.

Hired Act 2 might merc with Reaper's Toll. I use Enigma armor for faster running, merc repositioning, and MF. BTW always use Enigma with Reaper's Merc to fix his AI (besides Fury druid)
Belt is Arachnid Mesh, one ring for FCR, and Raven Frost for the other.

All grand charms are for passive skills + life (they're cheap) + Bone Break. With +skills bonuses, she has about 60% on all Dodge skills and can comfortably stand in a crowd of dolls.

Guillaume's Face
Highlord's Wrath
The Reaper's Toll

fredkid wrote: 1 year ago

My guess would be Matriarchal Spear (because of the speed)
Do some tests on https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/

Yeah, I did. Not much difference from a numbers game that's why I'm looking for "real world" experience.
I'm planning on keeping my A1 Faith Merc with lvl 14 fanatism aura, so the slower/higher damage weapons have the higher dps (on paper).
Higher hit damage = higher chance to trigger hit recovery = more survivability. But less CB.
Those things make it very hard to completely solve it in advance on paper.

Elvir wrote: 1 year ago

I have Spearzon she's really fun to play, very survivable thanks to passive Dodge skills.

I use BOTD in a Matriarchal Pike +3 simply because I already had it. War Pike has about 10% higher damage (105.5 vs 95) but the +3 skills from the Matriarchal Pike +3 roughly balance this out.

I maxed the Critical Strike passive and wear Guillame's Face Helm, Gore Rider Boots, and a Highlord's amulet. Together with the Critical Strike passive, this gives about a 91% chance for double damage.

I prefer Jab over Impale because of its high speed and 50% crushing blow.

Hired Act 2 might merc with Reaper's Toll. I use Enigma armor for faster running, merc repositioning, and MF. BTW always use Enigma with Reaper's Merc to fix his AI (besides Fury druid)
Belt is Arachnid Mesh, one ring for FCR, and Raven Frost for the other.

All grand charms are for passive skills + life (they're cheap) + Bone Break. With +skills bonuses, she has about 60% on all Dodge skills and can comfortably stand in a crowd of dolls.

I considered Enigma, too. Alternatives are Hustle (frw and IAS!), Chains of Honor (resist), and Shaftstop (awesome looks and damage reduction). How important are resis on Spearzon? I'm afraid that Ubers (Meph!) will only be possible with pre-buffed Treachery, Maras, Kiras, Chains and light res charms.

I'm surprised to see arach on your build. I was planning on thundergods for 40 stats and light absorb. But then again, I was not planning on teleporting.

I could also make a self wield Infinity (found a 3 skills base last week for that as well). But that would be a completely different path.

Mara's Kaleidoscope
Kira's Guardian
Thundergod's Vigor

I played a Jab zon for melee PvP years ago.
That's really fun and changing from others buids.

Problem is you need a supa expensive ethereal rare javeline as you can't use rw with your weapon.

vued wrote: 1 year ago

I considered Enigma, too. Alternatives are Hustle (frw and IAS!), Chains of Honor (resist), and Shaftstop (awesome looks and damage reduction). How important are resis on Spearzon? I'm afraid that Ubers (Meph!) will only be possible with pre-buffed Treachery, Maras, Kiras, Chains and light res charms.

I'm surprised to see arach on your build. I was planning on thundergods for 40 stats and light absorb. But then again, I was not planning on teleporting.

Arach is just for my playstyle here. I hate amazon's cast rate and arach helps to get at least 48% FCR breakpoint on swap. I'll add Cham to gface later and replace Raven with the second fcr ring to get 68% fcr on swap.
I usually play on P1 solo and resists are not a big issue on spearzon. For Ubers you are totally right: CoH, thundergods are must have.

Keep in mind you have Dodge and Evade to avoid hits and missiles like Mephisto Charged Bolt.
That's a must have on melee zon.

Tornado_OLO wrote: 1 year ago

I played a Jab zon for melee PvP years ago.
That's really fun and changing from others buids.

Problem is you need a supa expensive ethereal rare javeline as you can't use rw with your weapon.

Is using Javelin+shield mandatory? I was going for a 2 handed (amazon) Spear.

Amazon is one, if not is the one, of the chars that can get max block the easiest way.
You will need dexterity for your javeline.
That's really improving survavibility.

Imho, Stormshield or Phoenix are nice.
First one will grant you high survavibility while other a nice boost in damage.
You can also go for a 160/60 Monarch, but not the same story lol.

Can't remember IAS breakpoints for Jab, so keep in monde you may need IAS.

Level 98.4 physical spearazon knocking on 99.

397% eBotD +3 Matriarchal Spear
Fortitude
Highlord's Wrath
39/13/15% Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Laying of Hands
Gore Rider
Jeweler's Diadem of Speed socketed with 30% IAS
Act 2 Might merc with Pride
-11% Bone Break in the cube to swap out for physical immunes
Main switch ( Battle Orders): Call To Arms/Spirit
Alternate switch ( Teleport): Wizardspike/Spirit with Enigma/ Arachnid Mesh
Alternate switch (proc Amplify Damage, breaking PIs before sunder charms came along): Lacerator/Spirit
Alternate switch (just fkn around): Grief Phase Blade/Phoenix

75K Jab DPS, 13K AR
52K Fend DPS, 15K AR
Impale is useless

Jab is for single targets and bosses, but I primarily use Fend.

Impale only looks good on the character sheet. The DPS with it is awful. If I spec'd for it, a maxed Impale would yield only 31K DPS.

When I first made this build years ago up to level 96 in LoD, I used a Matriarchal Pike, but the play experience is so much faster and more enjoyable with the Matriarchal Spear. The current meta of the entire game emphasizes speed. I also maxed resists because that's what I do for every build.

This build is a tank. Aside from undead stygian dolls, I pretty much charge into any p8 mobs without a second thought. Even then, they're probably fine if you Jab them instead of using Fend and landing the most unlucky set of rolls ever with max damage crits from five exploding dolls and failed dodges in a row. Also, don't overlook Slow Missiles for the damage reduction against ranged attacks and Decoy to distract the mobs.

It's a really fun build and while physical damage builds are rarely ever the fastest or most efficient, this one is able to comfortably handle practically anything p8. You can solo ubers as well with some planning. I haven't done it in D2R, but I did do it in LoD, which was even harder considering I didn't know what the hell I was doing back then other than casting Life Tap on Uber Mephisto.

vued wrote: 1 year ago

Is using Javelin+shield mandatory? I was going for a 2 handed (amazon) Spear.

No, it's not mandatory nor relevant. That's entirely antithetical to the point of a spearazon.

How many points do you have in Vita with those 2 builds (1-handed and 2-handed)?

269 in vitality.

What are you referring to with the 1-handed build though?

If playing 1 or 2-handed, you can stuff close to a zealot but with another weapon/shield.

Snakecharmed wrote: 1 year ago

269 in vitality.

What are you referring to with the 1-handed build though?

jav + Stormshield

The problem for playing jav and shield is your weapon.
There is no jablike unique Javelin and only one has IAS : Demon's Arch
The other javelins aren't for that build.

The only other option is a rare godly ethereal rare one.

That's why Spear may be an easier way to play that build.

Edit : forgot to mention the infamous magic affixes Cruel (201-300% ed) of Quickness (40% IAS) on an ethereal elite javeline...

In my experience only max Jab and Fend. Unless you are planning on doing Ubers then I would also max Impale because it 100 percent accurate. When I do Ubers I use Fend once I’m somewhat surrounded then go straight for the boss with Impale. It may be somewhat slow but with Life Tap it gets the job done. I am also a fan of Dwarf Star and String of Ears instead of Tgods. Chains of Honor and a Teleport Charge ammy for repositioning the Ubers or if things get hairy or your mercenary dies. Azurewrath on Act 5 merc will knock back all the undead. Goreriders and if soloing you don’t need Gface you can use survival Helm of your choice.