1.10 Javazon question/thoughts

[sokken]

Hi all

Ive been playing a javazon in act5 normal (-act5 :P ) and early nightmare lately, but a few things are bugging me.

As expected, lighting fury wastes any mob of monsters i encounter in normal. The more, the merrier. Common knowlede. Lightning strike surprised me, and is now my favorite boss killer and the attack of choice when there arent enough monsters for LF. Stamina was the limiting factor in normal.

At nightmare difficulty this changed slightly as monsters might actually take a swing at me, or use magic. But yey for me, because i had 75% block and quite good resists. And passives.. I mean dodge, evade and the other one. She seems to be doing all these silly gymnastics execises when she is supposed to be running, or attacking evil.

So im wondering, is this just the passives, or also blocking? It seems to me its mostly the passives, so why not drop them? I still block 75% and well kept resists will take the edge of magic attacks.

Not getting dodge, evade and the other one, leaves the valkyrie out in the cold, but i dont think i'll miss her terribly (except that its a hot woman in full plate and a pretty shiny aura).

- "What!? no valk!?"

Yes.. she is terrible at herding monsters. Usually she actually splits them up, one smaller group after her, and the other after me. I find it much better to just run ahead, meet nasties, and run around flailing for a bit before casting a decoy in their face. Then I back off and give them the business end of my LF stick.

So, a decoy question: :huh: :P
Ive noticed the decoy gets more hitpoints per slvl (+200% at slvl 20 i think), and also ends up costing very little mana. Does it also inherit my 75% block and resists? That would substantually increase the time she survives. I could also chain cast her in case I simply cant tank a particularily dangerous boss (yes, im a softie).

Also, this solves my second problem with imunities. I have to deal with them somehow, and posion is out of the question. I dont have the patience :)
So i thought i could sink all those evade, doge, etc skillpoints into freezing arrow, and use a bow on switch. Another reason for using all those skillpoints on pierce(or was it penetrate.. the clvl 30 one anyway).

Thoughts? Comments? Do i stand a chance in hell?

[AtomicKitKat]

Just sink those points you want to spend in Freezing Arrow into Poison/Plague Javelin, and voila, instant 3rd element(after the physical and lightning) Most poisons in 1.09 and above are very short duration(barring a certain bug), so you can hurl a plague javelin about once every 4 seconds(you still need to wait 2 seconds minimum, since there's a timer), and do decent damage to lightning immunes. Best part? You'll only hit LEBs(which are the most likely to be LI anyway) ONCE, if at all(the cloud can connect without actually HITTING them)

[sokken]

Poison time for plague javelin actually goes up with the slvl, and its not my thing to hang out with the monsters and wait for them to fall over :)

[Guest]

Remember that there isn't Poison Enchanted attribute on uniques, and Magic Resistant doesn't increase poison resist.

If you like you to spam a skill then I can understand, but you'll most likely have to spend a longer time with Freezing Arrow because of high resistants and have more problems with immunes.

[Red_Riot]

I've found that the best thing to do is go LF, lit strike and charged strike for the synergies.

Plauge and the other poison elements just take to long to kill later on and I swear to god: Every monster in the game is AT LEAST 50% poison immune. (that or it doesn't calc right, which is probably the case)

So I'll be sinking points into charged strike and lit strike for my melee attacks, and LF as my ranged attack. Most if not all of my other points will go into the passives so I can melee it up when I encounter lit immunes.

[AtomicKitKat]

Duration: I think in 1.10, most poisons remain at a fixed time, but with large increases in damage as your slvl goes up. I could be wrong about that.

Resistances: There ARE some poison resistant types. Spectral Hit might have 25% PnR, and Magic Resistant might have the same or 75% duration/damage reduction. Any of the mpq readers care to verify for me? This is not including obvious types like Andariel(I think she's pretty close to 75% or more at all difficulties), and the Maggots/Fetishes(50% resist in Normal, always poison immune from Nightmare onwards?) But in those cases, use your lightning. Heck, I'd say IMPALE Andy. :P

[sokken]

Guess we'll see soon enough if plague javelins posion time increases :) Did in 1.10s tho

If there are horribly many dual lightning/cold imune/resistant monsters, I have a problem.. hopefully, resistances are evenly distributed, so i wont have more problems than other people. Also, i'll mostly be playing in a party with friends

I'll see how i fare without passives and valk too.. i'll hold to on the skill points as long as possible.

[ryan4nayr]

My friends & I have been bouncing around this idea of a Ltng+Psn Javazon for 1.10, considering the jacked up Plague Jav dmg... & THEN the synergies. My part of the debate is comparing PJ vs. the zon's other persistent dmg dealer, Immo. The numbers seem to stack quite favorably towards PJ. Same tactics, too: fire Immo/PJ at cluster of monsters, then perhaps rush into the fray or keep minion alive to pin the monsters at fire patch/poison cloud. Can keep the shield the entire time to tank myself, no need for weap switch.

PJ duration increases, starts @ 3 sec for slvl 1, then +0.4 secs. per slvl afterwards.
synergy: +10% psn dmg for each slvl of Poison Jav, which means 2x the dmg for maxed Psn Jav
slvl1: avg total poison dmg of 30, for 3 secs, 7 mana; 10 psn dmg/sec
slvl20: avg total poison dmg of 1913, for 10.6 secs, 16.5 mana; 180 psn dmg/sec

Plus can use the same +J&S skill charms for Ltng Fury, PJ, AND your choice of the newly beefed up melee attacks.