Hybrid Build?

[JusticeForAll]

Hybrid Build?

Hey folks, I just started up again on my d2 addiction. It's been awhile and a lot has changed. I've got some basic strategy questions about pvm amazons. The guides stickied were outdated and rather poor (unless I overlooked some).

I was planning on making a LF zon, but is it worth it to max out all of the synergies? Or is it more valuable to just max LF and CS, then pick a bow skill to max and some more passive skills.

It seems like a hybrid would be better. LF for Crowds, GA for Bosses. Now, I've heard rumors that GA is completely worthless now...?

Any suggestions on a skill/item setup?

If I go pure LF + synergies, how will I tackle LI?


Thanks

 

[illestkhmai]

I'd go for maxing LF/CS and then investing in FA/CA.

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=464188

Excellent guide by NightFish, although it says for MFing WSK, it works very well for other areas too, pretty fun build imo.

 

[Kijya]

Hi welcome to the forums.

On a low budget a FA/LF zon will be your best bet since it doesn't require a hard hitting bow to pull it off. Really safe build because of the freeze, great choice for hardcore even.

Also somewhere around here there should be a guide for a wws using hybrid iirc, it should do pretty well I'd expect, don't have much personal experience with it however.


On the higher budget scale there are some physical/lightning hybrid build guides in the sticky, and also quite a few quick insights that can be gained from the zon show off thread (Link in my sign, links to my post but the hole thread will be a good read).

Charged strike is the best bosskiller, LF best for crowds, strafe and/or multi to take out the LI packs and some highly lightning resistant enemies.

 

[JusticeForAll]

I like your zon. I like designing my characters for end game performance, and not for the items I currently have. So what you did was put 1 point in all pasives, 1+ point in bow skills, and max LF synergies. Seems simple to me, do you really get enough killing power from 1 point in FA?

 

[Kijya]

I like your zon. I like designing my characters for end game performance, and not for the items I currently have. So what you did was put 1 point in all pasives, 1+ point in bow skills, and max LF synergies. Seems simple to me, do you really get enough killing power from 1 point in FA?

The 1 point FA is just for freeze, the killing power comes from the physical damage. Multi and strafe do the trick just fine as long as you wield a high dmg bow like wf or faith. :azn:

 

[JusticeForAll]

you only put two points in strafe? have you found that either multi or strafe is better than the other (for this build)?

 

[Kijya]

you only put two points in strafe? have you found that either multi or strafe is better than the other (for this build)?

Best is to use both depending on the situation. Strafe is used to trigger amp from atmas amu when needed, or in narrow hallways where multi would be a waste.

2 points in my case means level 8 strafe, strafe gains arrows according to:

[B]Strafe Number of Arrows[/B]
[B]Level:[/B]  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8  12  16  20
[B]Min:[/B]    2   2   2   3   3   3   3   4   5   6   7
[B]Max:[/B]    5   6   7   8   9  10  10  10  10  10  10

So you want a level higher then 6 so you get the maximum number of possible arrows for many targets, and an even number of 4 preferably since those will give and extra minimum arrow.

Since I got lvl 7 strafe from one point it made sense to put one more since I'd get one more min arrow, however after that I'd have to increase it to lvl 12 to gain another min arrow, which I didn't think it would be worth sacrificing those points for, better spend them on the java skills.

I also minimized the level of valkyrie, with low equip you'll need a sturdy tank, with higher equip you kill so fast that it's less needed, try to balance it according to your playstyle, equip and likening.

 

[JusticeForAll]

Alright as of now I'm lvl 83 with the following setup:

20 LF
20 CS
20 LS
10 LB
1 in all passives

Gear:
Dream Tiara
Fort
Spirit Mon
Upped 195/9 Titans
T Gods
Raven
Rare Res All / 11 Dex Ring
Laying of Hands / Lava Gout (cant decide which to use)
Treks / Marrows (Cant decide which to use)
16/19 Torch

Any advice?
I'm not killing as quickly as I'd like to. Would it be more effective to get COH + Spirit or a Fort + Phoenix setup? My merc is an A1 Cold Rogue with Harmony on so I can zip around.

Would a griffons helm be better than dream? by how much?

My acct name in game is JusticeForAll if you wanna play =D

 

[NASE]

From your skill, I assume that you going pure lightning and not hybride. A hyrbide would have at least some point in strafe, multi, or fa. Therefore, you need gear for a pure lightning amazon and not a hyrbide.
note that the gear isn't that great for a hybride aswell, hybride gear needs more fune tunning if you ask me.

From quickly reading the guides, I conclude that they are a bit misleading. Let me give a popular setup. Once you get this together, you can play around with other equipment advised in the guides.

belt; razortails, and get pierce up to 9 points. T-gods is only needed when you fear souls a lot.
helm; griffons with 5/-5 or something with +2 skill. Griffon is probably best damage wise.
shield, spirit will do fine. +2 skill rock.
weapon: stay with titan, they are the best for pvm.
armour: something with +2 skill, coh and enigma are the top end choises.
gloves: 2 skill/20 ias rare things or just 3/20.
amulet, again something with +2 skills (rare). If you can't get one, mara's or highlords will work too.
rings: raven and something else you need.

merc, try getting a what-ever-you-need/conviction merc. With high survival gear, you only need conviction from him to break immunities.

 

[JusticeForAll]

I got suckered into buying an SS with a 5/5 lit facet in it. I got a good deal on it. They told me it was the best shield possible for javzon, and the phoenix is crap. They recommended that I focus on lightning dmg, and that it was stupid to try and beef up my physical (woops! I just spent all my goodies on making Fortitude).

So, for now I'm going to keep Fort on because I already have some trouble killing LI's. But as soon as I get infinity, which wont be for awhile, I'll switch to COH.

Oh, and they also recommended Tstrokes, as a superior alternative to titans. I just happened to FIND a pair soon after.

Is there any reason I should go hybrid other than personal play choice? Is there something a bow would better be suited for?

Oh, and what should my stats be.

With Gear:
Str 190
Dex 263
Vit 256
En 31

 

[NASE]

if you take pheonix, it has notting to with getting you physical damage up. It has every thing to do with the redemption area. If you take pheonix, your mana problems are over. Without pheonix, you need good mana leech or lots of +mana per kill.
ss with facet is not bad, though JMOD with 20/-20 would give you more damage. Ss with facet is a good defensive choise. The question is, do you need that much of defence if you kill everything very fast?

Tstrokes has more damage, though many things make it less suited for pvm. The biggest setback is the lack of a 'auto-repaire' mod. Repairing them cost a lot, you only need 1 gold to repaire a set of titan. Count in the fact that the -res stacks with that from infinity and from your facets and griffon. In the end, the damage difference isn't that big anymore, safe for broken LI. Titans kill fast enough, no need to go with tstrokes if you ask me.

As I seen things, you have three options. You go hybride as a way to counter immunities, you let the other party members take care of them or you can use conviction (or amp for bowazon). I find hybriding the most beautifull way.

P.S. they may have assumed that you were pvp. You aren't pvp right?

 

[illestkhmai]

IMO, Tstrokes are only useful for using CS on bosses, you really notice the -light res and don't have to worry about repairs.

 

[maiku]

IMO, Tstrokes are only useful for using CS on bosses, you really notice the -light res and don't have to worry about repairs.

Same. I think Tstrokes are much better for poking bosses with Charged Strike than general use. On my Javazon, I keep them in my stash/inventory for that purpose. For everything else, Titan's.