Introduction:
The amazon is probably one of the most underrated characters in the entire D2 relm and despite what many people beleive, is one of the best 1v1 duelers, and one of the best ally in a TVT. The reason for the collapse of the golden age of amazons is that zons are hopeless against bm'ers. Despite this critical downfall, I've played zons throughout my D2 days, and I've psoted several guides already, this probably being the 3rd or 4th.
Not everything I post will be my own work. I will be siting many sources, including elusive, chase, engel, Legolas-III, pbballer, tmr. Chase, engel, pbballer, I won't site directly because we've discussed many builds together, as well as general zon features.
Zons are extremely compatible with many builds. There is no one good way to build a zon, but there are many ways not to make a zon..
Please note, that the zva build and the zvz build are interchangeable on the same zon. But you'll need to be careful on what items you want to keep in your stash since there is limited space. (I have 3 sheilds, 2 bows, 3 helms, 4 belts, 2 boots, 2 gloves, 3 rings,6 changeable small charms on my zon and in stash. I have 2 more bows on a mule char for when i get bored.
The mld zon should not be attempted on a budget. Be prepared to spend a good 15-20k on her if you want to make her work. The upside to this is that you actually are able to dominate hld pub duels. I guess dominate is somewhat of an overstatement, but you will be accused of: hacking, buying gear off of sites, hacking, cheating, hacking, and hacking. Its quite amusing actually and its worth every penny.
In this thread, I will include 3 guides and an FAQ section, separated onto three different posts. Please make sure to view the 2 posts after this one as well.
Note that none of my builds are cheap. The minimum budget to reflect anything that I calculated as optimum will have to be well over 5k. Currently, I've invested around 40-50k into my 2 zons. (true some were bad trades =p)
Vitazons vs Glass Cannons::
I moved this section from the FAQ due to all the clueless people saying vitazons are the be all and end all of bowazons. Vitazons gained sudden popularity again these days because it was different from the norm. No other reason for it. 09~1.12, glass cannons have dominated the field of bowazons and something different caught wind and boom! Everyone jumps on the bandwagon with broken wheels. Everyone seems to think vita>glass cannon. I have made vitazons before and I will tell you that 90% of the people who read this guide CANNOT afford to make a vitazon that will fare better than a glass cannon. Vitazons need to be able to tank, but also be able to deal enough damage in order to utilize their added viability. I have the unique experience of telling you that I’ve made TONS of amazons. People who know me know that I don’t even keep an enigma on my mules (absolutely useless item after I failed on the telezon setup). This doesn’t mean the glass cannon is the holy grail of amazons. With the advent of runewords, glass cannons can still tank to not die in 1 shot and still deal enough damage to kill opponents. Build your zon with a nice distribution of stats that YOU’re comfortable with and can afford.
ZvA Build:
The two possible gear choices are available below.
Gear:
Helm: 120-45 30 frw, 120-45 100 life, 40-15 shako, kiras, coa
Here are the stats conversions:
5 frw = 20 life (since you're going to need frw from charms, every 5 frw you get from your gear is another open slot in your inventory for a 32020)
1 dex = 3 life
1 str = 3 life
1 vit = 3 life
knowing these:
120-45 30 frw > 120 life. This is the most practical helm to chose if you want to use a fortitude, though I prefer the 16060 build.
120-45 100 life > 100 life. I only recommend using this for the sexiness of this helm. Zons are meant to be sexy and a 20 life loss is no big deal if you feel 100 life 120-45 looks amazing.
120-45 stats > you can get up to 30 dex and 30 str from tiaras and diadems. but even perf equates to only 90 life. I don't recommend this unless you want to go glass cannon.
shako - by far the greatest helm ever invented by bnet. With 2 skills, 10 damage reduction, 130+ life, 130+ mana, 2 to all stats, its the perfect item. you can chose to put a 15 resist - 15 ias jewel in it, or a 40-15 jewel in it
kiras - a quick fix when you need lots of resist. While its not a good permanent helm, definately a keeper in your stash. 15-15 jewel is a goodie here, or a 9/15 depending on gloves/ammy.
coa- what the fuck do you think you're making? this is a bowazon, keep the coa on your smiter to come back and bm hackers. Only use this if you are extremely rich and can afford jewels that don't currently exist on bnet.
Ammy: Cats eye, 08 highlords
Cats eye: No questions asked. 30 frw = 120 life. 25 dex= damage. 20 ias = 95 ias bp. Only beat by 08 highlords. Don't even think about using 09 lords.
08 lords: its basically 1 skill + 35 lite resist + Deadly strike vs 25 dex on cats eye.
arrows
The most important part of z v a. It is easily shopped at charsi.
Boots: war travs, 08 gores
Using 5 frw = 20 life,
war travs adds str, damage and life. Gores adds less damage damage, DS, OW, 20 life.
You can choose depending on your helm/armor choice. Both are good, travs are better but gores are sexier. Do what you please.
Why you shouldn't use rare boots are in the FAQ section, a lovely calculation done by legolas-III
ring: p ravens + dual stat rings
ravens for ar, 20 dex, but primarily for Cannot Be Frozen. Dual stat ring must have at least 19 str and 14 dex. resist/damage/ar/life/mana/replenish life are bonuses.
Ideal dual stat ring: 25 str, 15 dex, 60 life, 90 mana <- this doesn't exist on bnet as far as I know =p
Belt: Verdungoes, sexy crafted, nosferatus coil
40 vit = 120 life, 15 damage reduction, 13 life replen. Amazing belt for zons, and any non casters in general.
Crafted, you're looking for fhr, 20+ str, 70+ life, 7+ ow, resists (cold/lite preferred).
I currently use: 17 fhr, 24 str = 72 life, 73 life, 8 open wounds, 24 cold resist belt.
Nosferatus is only to reach bp for one type of build that I don't recommend.
Gloves: sexy crafted
Ideal gloves would be: 2 passive/bow+ 20 ias + 15 str + 15 dex + resist + knock back. 20 ias is necessary, kb is necessary. Find the best ones you can get a hold of.
Weapon: Faith GM
14+ fanat for faith gm, 2 skills and 3 bowa is necessary! Also, 15% ed gives more damage than 15 fanat. So if your'e ever stuck between 15/2/3/330 and a 14/2/3/344-345, then the latter will be the better choice.
Armor: 16060, fort
16060 > lots of damage, allows for versatility. Get one with the highest life you can. Note that there are certain armors that reduce your frw. Get ones that don't. These armors are listed in the FAQ section
Fort: Lots of damage. resist, life. Great armor but the downside is the reduced versatility. Note that there are certain armors that reduce your frw. Get ones that don't.
Switch Shield: 4 soc monarch with -30 req's (jah jah jah jah'd), 3 soc jeweler's xxx of colossus (ber, ber, ber'd) 3 soc jeweler's xxx of colossus (jah jah jah'd),
I'm assuming you can afford one of these shields. Storm Sheild requires too much strength and doesn't offer as much as any of these shields. If you don't believe me, post and i'll explain more indepth.
For the skeptics, use a dol'd storm shield for zvz.
Its a good idea to keep both the ber ber ber sheild and the jah jah jah (jah) shield in your stash to allow for more versatility against certain characters.
Note that there are certain shields that reduce your frw. Get ones that don't. These are listed in the FAQ section
Swith Eth upt titans
You actually use these in duels. LOL OMG WTF. yes. Their damage is extremely important and the frw and skill are all bonuses. get the best ones you can.
Charms: 32020/320-5's. 10/xx/45's, 5 to all resist- 5 faster run walk, 5 resist, 20 life
Chose a set you want that balances life/damage/resist in the best way possible. 3/xx/20's and 3/xx/5's are the way to go. The lost life > damage gained by using gc's.
Builds:
These are how the above gear fits into place.
Dr build:
helm: 40-15 shako or 15-15 shako / 40 ed - 20 life jewel shako or ber'd shako
ammy: 08 lords / cats eye
bow: faith GM
boots: 08 gores, war travs
armor: 16060 100 life wyrm/husk/dusk/wire/archon
belt: verdungo
Ring: ravens / dual stats ring
gloves: 20 ias, kb, other godly stats you can find
weapon swith: eth upt titans
sheild switch: jeweler's shield of colossus jahjahjah or berberber
With the most elite gear, you get at level 95 without prebuff or BO:
1.7-1.9k life
5.7-6k damage at 7 fpa.
25-33 dr with bow out
25-49 dr with sheild out
The not so Fragile Glass Cannon Build (Plastic Cannon Build?):
helm: 120-45 30 frw
ammy: cats eye
bow: faith gm
boots: 08 gores, war travs
armor: fort wyrm/husk/dusk/wire/archon
belt: nosferatus
ring: ravens/dual stats ring
gloves: 20 ias, kb, other godly stats you can find
weapon swith: eth upt titans
sheild switch: jeweler's shield of colossus jahjahjah or berberber or jeweler's monarch of simplicity berberber
with the most elite gear, you get at level 95:
1.3-1.5k life
6.7-7k damage
0 dr with bow out
up to 32 dr with sheild out
NOTE: These builds are very versatile. Say that you can't find a 20 ias but glvoes with 2 passive, kb, 15 dex, 15 str, resist. Then you can just use cats eye and a 15 ias jewel in your shako to make up for the loss in kb in the first build.
Skills:
Get crit strike to 72%
Get dodge to 50%
Get avoid to 70%
Get evade to 60%
max guided
1 point into jab
1 point into lb
1 point into valk
1 point into prereq
1 into fury
1 into strafe
rest into multi heart.gif
*I put one point into penetrate/pierce -> works great against druids and necroes. I felt it was well worth the 2 points but you can choose otherwise.
The uses of Lite bolt and fury are explained later!
The reason for not maxing the passives are listed in the FAQ section.
Stats:
with this build, you won't need to invest ANY points into str, or energy. If you have to, you didn't purchase the optimum gear, and thus your stats will suffer a little.
You will get the projected life, and damage listed above, or something similar
Resists, will depend on your ring, belt, gloves. But when you're fighting casters, you have a kiras anyways. keep all your resists positive when entering a duel game, if you're having trouble with elemental damage, put your 15-15 kiras on with some sorb and you're good to go.
Frw: your run walk is like your teleport. Now if you only have 80 frw, thats like teleporting at 12 fps. Because we all know that decent sorcs are teleporting at 7 or 8 frames, we will run at LEAST 150 frw where desync actually works! great =)
fhr: none! dodge and evade are not affected by fhr. More will be explained in the FAQ section
Game Strategies:
General:
You should always leave town with sheild out for block + frw given from titans. When you are at a safe distance, start shooting. Never stand still on a zon. You are either: moving with your sheild out or you are shooting with your bow out with an exception to a few cases which I mention later. When you are standing still throwing LB, make sure you are in walk mode which increases your block and chance of survival substantially. Your block is 1/3 when you are running even if you are standing still! Make a habbit of WALKING and not RUNNING.
wsg- weapon switch glitch. If you switch your weapon while in a stun lock, you'll get out of it.Try this with your friend. Get a trapper to mb you like crazy while you're switching your weapon and walking casually through the mb.
namelock guided is amazingly important.
desync - keep moving and you're going to move faster than the server can handle and appear to be somewhere you're not - like a mirage. =)
Pallies:
Hammer: if they are tele, shoot one, start running, shoot one, start running...Do not linger even if the pally is far away. Fit in 1 arow and run. Generally easy. I beat even tmc, aa, and ra hammerdins if they tele. (or at least make them town because of their chicken)
Hammer: if they are charge, same strategy except you have to go in zigzags and lead them to puddles and hope they get charge locked.Do not linger even if the pally is far away - Pallies can desync with charge, meanig they'll appear where they are actually not! Taste of your medicine eh? Fit in 1 arow and run. lb if the pally has you charge locked so that he'll be knocked back and you can fit in some arrows or continue to spam lb. He wont be able to get at you once you have him lb locked and he'll have to retreat and try to desync again, at which time you spam arrows into the direction you feel he'll come again. Feel free to use the wsg here but the block is almost crucial. Also, quickly switch to walk modes to increase your block when you see him on your screen. You won't be able to outrun him.
Smiter: guided arrow like 3 times once he is on your map. Even if he is far away, he could desync so don't wait for him to come. After that, run in the opposite direction and light bolt him to knock him back and get him charge locked. Lead him to puddles, its going to be a pretty tough fight especially in pubs. Hope he has low lite resist. Use the same method used for charge hammers. But realize grief is a strong weapon and make sue you are WALKING. If you block, then you are not in charge lock and can thrown lb's more easily!
Zealot: not much problem. Similar to smiter/charge hammer except they tend to have lower resist= easy.
Foh: could be hard, could be easy. Hope that your avoid kicks in. What I usually do, is run up to him, get him namelocked and spam. If he's smart, he'll run away. If he's not, you win. It really depends on your passives. Get kiras + wisps if you want the extra help. They're not too hard.
Amazons:
CS: run shoot, run shoot, if they get too close, lb to knock them back. Should be ok as long as you have more frw than them.
FC zons: you need to town hug, and hope you hit them a lot. If not, put on kira's, tgods and wisps and sorb him. his cs shouldn't hurt you anymore but his lite fury will once he realizes what you're doing and gets his eth upt titans. Since you have 0 dr, you're screwed. SO you can put on your sorb + berberber sheild and get some dr and either, jab him or throw fury / lb at him. You should do more damage with fury due to all the ed gear you have on.
Bowazons: refer to zvz strategies.
Assassins:
WWsins: These guys can be really easy or really tough. Try to stay far away and shoot at them. When you see them close to you, take out ur titans and LB them. Most ww sins have a trouble with resist so 4k lite damage might hurt them a lot (unless they fade in which case you're pretty screwed). And try to fit in arrows while he is ww'ing. The poison / ow hurts you a lot due to lack of resist and low life so expect these guys to be harder than bvc. 2 hits at different times means you have 1 life. One of the unrecognized nemisis of the zon.
trappers: keep your distance if you can and snipe them. Your range >> theirs so they're forced to be cunning or offensive. If they are offensive, just mind that one trap they cast and avoid it manually and if you have trouble, hope avoid will save you. Namelock them, they shouldn't be able to tank too much of your arrows. if he has you stuck in mb, use the wsg. It really gives you the edge that pushes you over trappers
Druids:
ele druid: multi from far to get rid of his puppies, desync him and make him tele to weird spots and shoot him. Multi at him like crazy and if he is smart, he will retreat. If he doesn't, you win. They have pretty low lives so they can be easy if their the mediocre pubs. If they have max block, it can be hard. Use similar strategy as hammerdins. Avoid their hurricane and keep them stuck in ur arrows. Even if they retreat to get more puppies, you'll be able to fit in a few hits if they're not max block. If they have low fhr, relatively easy duel. Max block = hard duel.
Fury: if they have lots of frw, just lb them to knock them back and shoot arrows. Shouldn't be too hard. Theres only a few good furies on east and you wont find them in pub games.
Barbs:
War cry: looool. If you loose to one of these, go sell your zon to charsi.
WW: these guys are pretty tough. You see one coming at you, shoot as many as you can and switch to sheild and hit r so that you are walking. Now start shooting fury at them as if there was no tomorrow. If they are smart, they will do short ww's. Then it gets difficult. If they do long ww. Christmas! take out bow and start shooting again. Its pretty essential that you are good with avoiding his tele ww's. If he gets out his storm sheild, same procedure but use lite bolt instead of fury.
Sorcs:
Blizz: Really hard if its built properly. es + blizz = zon's worst nightmare. dont move and stand and shoot while he's off your screen. When you see his foot on your screen, time to run! Run with bow out and shoot while running. Try to name lock them. Once you have them namelocked. your chances of winning increase drastically. Good ones are damn impossible. Most pubs are ez. Just make sure you SM them at one point so ice blast isn't a factor
Fire: these guys are kinda tough. arrows have a higher range than fbs so shoot in their direction. Kinda harder if they are more aggressive but most should be ez enough for you if they don't have es. As a general rule, host all the sorcs when you enter a game. If you're really having trouble, use slow missiles and you shouldn't lose.
orb: with your high resist for cold and cold absorb and cannot be frozen, your key here is to once again stand and shoot at the sorc. For this kind of sorc, where you can't dodge the projectiles, its a good idea to get our kiras out. Name lock = their death. Now the tough part is if they use b manas. You're gonna dodge a lot more than you get hit so don't worry, just avoid the big orb thing when it comes at you.
Lite: these guys can be ez or really hard. Pretty much same strategy as the fire but never let them come close to you. Nova and charged bolt will kill you! nova will mean your death since it cannot be slow'd.
Necros:
Summon: You need the knockback. Multi shot them until the minions get scattered and 1-2 will hit the necro. Name lock him if possible. If you name lock him, you win. Your guided goes through his minions right to the necro if you ahve him namelocked. Don't worry too much about these guys cause even if you die, you get ur bod and repeat until he dies. He has to waste another 10 minutes getting his summons.
Poison Nova: These guys are funny. I've never met a REALLY tough one so I will generalize. If you play smart, you will win most of the time. Be quick on ur feet and don't let him get too close to you. You can dodge those nova and those nova cost a lot of mana so run/multi combo. Try to snipe them down with GA before they get close to you. If you get hit by a nova, their fire golem will finish you off. Kidna fun duels.
Bone Necro: The easy ones are really fun but the hard ones can be a bitch. Their spirits/spears don't hurt as much so expect to tank at least 4 good hits. Don't let him prison you! If he does, multi and run. The ones who spam IBS from far away are easy because arrows are faster and harder. Try to snipe him and name lock him. 2 shots, his bone armor is gone and another 2 shots hes dead. If he comes close to you and bone spirit, dont run and name lock him. Chances are you'll dodge them and kill him with GA if you name lock him. If your aim is bad, multi is a good tool to use as necros generally have low life and low block so it should be pretty easy. The ones who are good at using IBS, teeth and of course aiming spear, these guys can be REALLY tough for you. bone spear shoots so fast that you won't be able to shoot arrows. take out ur sheild and run away if he has you named locked with spear. run/ga against these guys. Generally, ones with max block are tough and ones without max block is decent. Don't even try against vives, max block, prison. SM is a good idea here too. The main problem is that the golem hits you, slowing you down to 8 fpa. try to at least get rid of the golem from afar. If they get aggressive, then your 1 point invested into strafe shines here. strafe to get rid of his bone armor and guided kill him!
please continue to the next post. my guide is too long for 1 jsp post to handle =)
This post was edited by manduki on Jun 29 2009 08:41am