Diablo 2 Walkthrough -> Amazon
The Amazon, as envisioned by the creators, is a master of spears, bows, and crossbows. Swords, staves, hammers, and axes are not her forte. Below, we'll look at the skills worth investing a few points into.
First, let's look at spears. What can we say about spears, other than they're not our choice? Well, nothing, really. So, we can safely skip the Javelin and Spears Skills section —we won't find anything good there for our heroine. Alas.
Let's move on, and there's something more interesting there:
Passive and Magic Skills
What's so special about these skills? It's that only the first subsection of the skill requires mana. This means that the second and third subsections of the skills become the default for our character (similar to the barbarian's passive skills).
1. Slow Missiles — reduces the speed of ranged attacks by n percent, effective at a set distance, and the duration depends on the number of skill points spent on this skill. Ranged attacks include bolts, arrows, spears, throwing axes, and magic spells.
Skill points are worth investing here at will. In practice, the Amazon's rate of fire remained unchanged after this spell was cast, but the arrow speed was noticeably affected.
2. Decoy – Creates an indistinguishable copy of our Amazon, the only difference being the copy's complete passivity. It's excellent as a decoy and lightning rod against enemies. It lasts for a few seconds, depending on the number of skill points invested in this skill. It's best to avoid investing more than one skill point; it's best to equip an item with +n All Skill Levels.
3. Valkyrie – Creates a magical ally that helps us distract enemies. Unfortunately, the Valkyrie isn't much good for much more than that – she has low health (unless you spend 20 skill points on this skill, which is absolutely not worth it), attacks slowly, and misses very often. We only spend one skill point here.
4. Dodge – As this skill increases, the chance to dodge melee attacks increases when the Amazon is either standing still or attacking an enemy. Upgrade to the maximum.
5. Avoid — the chance to dodge enemy ranged attacks increases with skill level. This is a tricky skill: on the one hand, it's good that our Amazon will dodge enemy arrows, but on the other hand, while she's dodging, you won't be able to shoot, meaning the enemy will pepper you with arrows without you even being able to respond. We'll assign one skill point here.
6. Evade – a chance to dodge enemy ranged or melee attacks while walking or running. This skill is essential to max out.
7. Critical Strike – a chance to deal double damage to an enemy. Max it out.
8. Penetrate – Increases your chance to hit an enemy. Why we're not adding any skill points here yet is explained below.
9. Pierce – a chance that an arrow, after piercing an enemy, will not be lost but will fly back at them. There is only one crossbow that provides a 100% Piercing Attack: the Buriza-Do Kyanon. Other items/weapons don't offer such a high chance.
Bows and Crossbows Skills
As the name suggests, this includes skills related to bows and crossbows. Here, I'll only cover those skills necessary for achieving the Amazon's primary skill, Guided Arrow:
1. Cold Arrow
2. Magic Arrow
3. Multiple Shot – fires a fan of n+1 arrows or bolts, where n is the skill level. The mana required per shot increases with skill level. For now, we'll spend one skill point here. In online battles, this is a good reconnaissance skill. Fire a fan of arrows, and if a graphic effect appears above the character, indicating the life or mana drain, we're on the right track.
This skill is most effective when maxed out, but it consumes a lot of mana per shot. For maximum effectiveness, it's a good idea to have a higher AR.
4. Guided Arrow —this is the highlight of the show! It's this magic that makes the Amazon such a formidable opponent. She launches a magically directed arrow that ALWAYS ignores the target's defense, meaning it always hits, and within certain limits, it self-guidances. Furthermore, the damage inflicted increases as the skill level increases. The only way to deflect this arrow is to always carry a shield in your left or right hand. Level up this skill to the maximum.
Upgrading Amazon's stats
Strength is needed to be able to wear good armor and use good weapons.
Dexterity affects the chance to hit an enemy and the damage inflicted. Since the Amazon's primary weapon is the Guided Arrow, the chance to hit an enemy is irrelevant. However, if you plan to actively use Multiple Shot, it's worth investing a few skill points into Penetrate, if desired.
Vitality —this stat affects your health bar; one Vitality point gives you 3 health points. It also affects Staminium.
Energy affects your mana. Two energy units give you three mana. I didn't add a single stat point here. Mana is essential, but it's best to increase it with items.
There are two ways to distribute stat points in Dexterity and Vitality:
1. We put a few stat points into Vitality and all the remaining ones, minus those put into Strength, we put into Dexterity.
2. We put a lot of stat points into Vitality and all the remaining ones, minus those put into Strength, we put into Dexterity.
What do these approaches yield? The first development path yields fewer hit points and greater damage, while the second, on the contrary, yields more hit points and less damage.
The approaches described above can be adjusted to increase health or damage output. Before allocating stat points and finding the optimal health/damage ratio, it's best to make a copy of your character and, after playing with a hero at various levels, decide for yourself which is best.
I recommend this: less health, but more damage.
Among the non-core parameters I would like to note:
Defense — the higher your defense, the harder it is for an enemy to hit you, and the higher your enemy's defense, the harder it is for you to hit them. However, since Amazons use Guided Arrow, while Sorceresses' magic always ignores defense (if aimed accurately), it's best to choose armor, boots, gloves, helmet, and belt based on the useful bonuses these items provide.
Pierce is a very useful skill. It works like this: after hitting an enemy, the arrow (bolt) doesn't disappear but flies back at them, piercing them up to three times. The crossbow I described above has Piercing Attack as a bonus.
The Windforce bow doesn't have this bonus, so if you use this bow, you'll need to max out your Pierce skill. After the above leveling, you should have about 22 free skill points left over that can be invested in Pierce skills, one skill point in the easy Penetrate skill, and the rest in any of your existing skills.
Slow Target is a very useful bonus in items—if you hit an enemy, they automatically slow down, allowing you to shoot them without any pain. However, many championships prohibit the use of such items by Amazons.
Tips for playing against other characters:
1. It's important to have a weapon with the fastest attack speed, otherwise you'll be riddled with arrows or shredded before you can get a shot off. When choosing a weapon, keep in mind: bows ALWAYS fire faster than crossbows. However, the crossbow's bonuses can outweigh the bow's rate of fire.
2. Always carry at least a couple of quivers of arrows/bolts and items to change into before a fight.
3. If your bow/crossbow doesn't have the Knockback bonus (knocks the enemy back when hit), it wouldn't hurt to insert the Nef rune into your weapon, which provides this bonus.
4. When playing against Amazon and Barbarian, it's best to use as many life-stealing items as possible (n% life stolen per hit, see below for description), but not at the expense of damage absorption!
Source: nestor.minsk.by.
See also: