questions about my new pike amazon

[Sharaz]

questions about my new pike amazon

i am about to begin my new pike amazon. my first question is... what attack should i focus on? i have a +3 jav and spear matriarchal pike ebotd that im going to use as my weapon.

can anybody give me ideas? im thinking i want to make a tanker, so i think i want to have high life to go along with the dmg potential ill have. ill likely do a blessed aim act2 merc to go along with her.

i posted a while back that i had many many passive skillers that i might put to use, but the past couple months of charm re-rolling, ive built up 5-6 jav and spear skillers too, so i might be leaning that way as a more likely path.

 

[Chimaira]

Since both Impale/Fend sucks you should stick to Jab. It doesn't do much damage but it's fast, and with a high damage BOTD weapon you should leech enough to be a good tank. Fend is bugged so you miss a lot and Impale is just too slow to be of any use.

 

[Leohappy]

Unless you want to go all physical, 1 pt Jab + Charged Strike + Lightning Strike, synergized should work. Passive skillers will take care of the Passive tree (remember, you'll need a strong Valk aswell). You'll need a lot of skillpoints for a build like this so you'll have to decide your priorities.

In any case, don't use Fend or Impale, as already mentioned above.

Maybe I'll comment some more later when you decide what kind of build you'll go for (all physical or lightning spearzon?).

 

[Sharaz]

well, i just tried the matriarchal pike on my old retired bowazon. she has 1 point in jab (and 1 in impale, from a test i did long ago). even with that 1 point, she does like 7800 dmg. im thinking im going to go with tons of points on the passive tree, and put a bunch of those passive skillers i have to good use. besides 20 in critical strike, im thinking a few in dodge and evade will be good. i also recall that lvl 17 valkrie is optimal, which probably means about 5-7 points in valk for me. at any rate, i think ill end up maxing what i need maxed at a rather low lvl.

since i plan to be a front liner, im wondering what armor i should go with. chains of honor is the first to come to mind, with duress as my second choice, but ill likely need the resists that coh provides. likewise, ill likely be going with maras over hilord, judging on how short on resists my amazon is. maybe ill get lucky, and ill end up with a nice crafted amulet that my new zon will find useful. can IAS spawn on an crafted amulet?

since i like to craft, what type of gloves should i try to craft? can +jav and spear skills spawn on crafted gloves? and what base gloves should i use, or does that matter?

 

[HCTwinJava]

- there are 3 major types of ama: javazon, bowazon, and spearazon. If surrounded by 60 monsters slightly above the ama's char lvl, a javazon has a good chance to survive, a spearazon may very well just die, and a bowazon... she should never get surrounded or die in no time.

- However, against a single boss, including all 5 act bosses, a spearazon can stand out very easily, unless her equipment really sucks.

- To a spearazon with a wpn like ebotd mat/war pike (1.5x base dmg, with up to 400% ed on top of that), damage is never a big issue. Imagine what if you hire a Might merc (say, 230% ed), wears Fortitude (300% ed), and then party with a Hammerdin (say, 450% ed). What dmg can you do even with lvl 1 Jab?

- You may want to spend at most 1 point each in Impale/Fend. Impale is too slow. Fend is good only if you don't get interrupted in the middle of Fend. As for Jab, more than 1 pt is a waste in PvM, because even lvl 20 won't give you anything close to what you have already got.

- if you don't have to spend skill pts to get your lightening skills, if physical is all you want.

- But if you do spend 40 skill pts in Charged/Light Strike, you are close to being a javazon who chooses to use a spear. IMO, your zon can be built as a standard lightening javazon - except that you use a spear in melee, and don't use a shield.


- +spear skills, Critical Strike, etc, are not really what you need most. Actually, as long as you survive, you'll be able to kill every non-PI fast. As you already noticed, +passive will be really important. If you want to kill faster, try to get as much crushing blow as you can.

- I'd suggest you have a shield + javelin on switch and build her as a melee javazon. If no javelin, then CtA could be best.

 

[Leohappy]

1. AFAIK Amazon specific spear-class weapons derive their damage from str and dex (70str:30dex), so the damage won't be optimal if you go for str to get the damage up.

2. Impale isn't a good skill to use. It hardly exceeds 1 attack / second and eats up a huge amount of ias for just a tiny speed improvement.

3. I must assume you'll make physical damage build so you'll have trouble with
PIs. Lightning skills should be considered. Afterall LS is area effective also.

4. Level 17 Valkyrie is optimal as far as her critical gear goes. Levels higher than 17 will still provide a tougher Valkyrie however (to the point of being almost invulnerable at levels 30+) - you WILL need a strong tank. A cornered spearzon is a dead spearzon. Been there done that .

5. If you can afford a CoH why not? Resists will be needed since you'll be standing still a lot and passives can't take care of everything. AFAIK ias is only available on Cat's Eye and Highlord's ammy.

6. Try blood gloves. +jav skills can appear on crafter gloves ofc. You'll need Heavy Gloves/Sharkskin Gloves/Vampirebone Gloves for blood recipe.

 

[Sharaz]

guy, thank you so much! this is by far the best responses to character advice questions ive ever had. im going to get started this weekend, and ill let you know how it turns out!!

ive been saving gloves for a long time, and i have 2 pair im thinking of. both mediocre rares, decent mods, but not show stoppers. however, one is +2 passive and magic, 10% ias, and is +2 jav and spear, without ias. for this build, which do you think would be better?