FENDAZON Build, Diablo 2 Resurrected, Spearazon - Part I - Normal mode

Fendazon D2

Popping super-uniques and bosses like party balloons

In this post I follow up my Multiple Shot Bowazon twink with a Jab/Fend Spearazon one. Time-permitting, I may cap off my Amazon write-ups with a Javazon. To be clear, Bowazons are Amazons that fire bows, Javazons are Amazons that hurl javelins, and Spearazons are Amazons that wield spears. These builds constitute the three pillars of the Amazon class.

Looking at the build opportunities and items, it does not look like Spearazons are on par with their Bowazon or Javazon sisters. But I would like to prove myself wrong in this write-up. So let's get to it, shall we?

You will remember that my Bowazon was basically a plaguezon for the first 20 or so levels. This was by virtue of her weapon, armor and helm being socketed with Jewels of Envy (recap pics of bow, armor and helm).

Now, as effective as such twinks are (Godly at First Level), and as tempting as it was to encrust a six-socket pike with six such jewels, I have decided to forgeo the poison route and instead rely, for the most part, on an array of rare, unique and runeworded spears. Same goes for the other items: rather than borrowing my Bowazon's plague-spreading armor and helm, I will instead rely on rare, unique, set and runeworded items. This is obviously not a power-gaming choice. Foregoing 260 poison damage over 2 secs in favor of "whatever mods happen to be on other items stuffed into my stash" is a BIG drop in killspeed during the early stages of Normal mode. But the upside is that I get to experiment with and commentate on a variety of different arms, armor and items as they progressively become available to the build.

So here is our first level scrub of an Amazon.

As you can see I've only twinked her out with a starter-spear. On /players8 we reach sixth level in 10 minutes flat, so we don't need anything else.

By 8th level (post-Den of Evil) the Spearzon is decked out in the following manner. 

The stock-standard spear is upgraded to the first unique spear that becomes available: Dragon Chang.

Through another character, and thanks to PlugY's shared stash, this unique spear is then Larzuk-socketed and encrusted with a +minimum damage jewel for no other reason than to show how min pushes up the max as well if the min would overtake the max. So, it doesn't just cap to 15 flat damage. Instead:

A cute but ultimately unimportant fact (unless you're an vLLD'er, in which case this sort of thing is what separates you from lesser vLLDers).

With the exception of the shield, all Sigon's Complete Steel set pieces were added at sixth level for their collective bonuses. You can see just how useful such bonuses are in the screencaps. (Each charm in my inventory grants Strength +4 in order to fast-track the Sig set.)

That's a sexy set for level 6, don't you think? Still, we will soon outgrow most of it.

Nagelrings were also added at 7th. Along with the Sig armor set bonus, this gives us retributive attack of 26 total damage. This was explained in the Bowazon write-up, so I won't repeat myself on that point. I will just add that the Coif of Glory unique helm will add 7 more damage to that, but retribution is for amusement and trolling fellow LLDers, not for single-player (well, a necro build could make it work but that's very specific and requires godly jewels).

The Razortine unique trident opens at 12th but despite its +IAS it doesn't give any IAS benefit over Dragon Chang because spears are innately faster weapons than tridents.

Here we clearly see the benefits of adding the Angelic Wings set amulet and accompanying ring. The set bonus has not only given us a hefty life boost but has also more than doubled our attack rating, which allows us to ignore Dexterity for the purposes of hitting the monsters. Such a setup can actually help Hell-based characters due to the level-scaling nature of the bonus on the ring.

Now at 15th level - having summarily impaled Blood Raven, Treehead Woodfist and Griswold - we start to get nasty thanks to a Malice-runeworded Maiden Spear (with +2 skills), the Eye of Etlich amulet, and 2x Manald Heal rings.

Thus, we double our raw damage. We also have 14% life leech, 12% mana leech and +3 spearskills on a 15th level build. But then, just like the Bowazon this Spearazon is non-synergistic in its skillset, so +skills are just a trivial bonus at this point.

In regards to skills, we have pumped only Jab and Critical Strike. Jab's multiple attacks are nowhere near on par with Bowazon Multiple Shot. Plus, it only repeatedly attacks one monster whereas Multiple Shot fires out a fan that hits many monsters. Thus, Spearazons are much harder and much slower builds to play in these early-goings. Due to the comparatively slow killspeed coupled with Jab's propensity to rapidly degrade the weapon, I don't even bother with mooks and lowly mobs. Instead, I only target the big guns such as Champions, Fanatics, Possesseds, Berserkers, Ghostlies and Super Uniques.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Multiple Shot allowed me to effortlessly wipe out mook-packs, resulting in heightened XP gain without becoming tedious/time-consuming. Even a Barb has early "AoE" potential through Double Swing. This Spearazon doesn't have Jack at this point. Each and every enemy, down to the lowliest mook that isn't even worth the time of day, must be individually squared up on if we want it to die. However, that will change at 24th level with Fend. For a twink, it only takes an hour or so to get there.

Anyway, I quit bitching, push on into and through the monastery to the Inner Cloister, whereupon I hit 16th level for Twitchthroe and the welcome IAS breakpoint it grants me.

You can see I've added a couple of cold charms in order to slow Andy down.

Under a relentless, Jab-based assault, Andy dropped liked a sack of shit to our 16th level Spearazon.

Chillin' in the tavern at the beginning of Act Two.

Ok, so I've just noticed a problem with melee 'zons. When you get mobbed (something that rarely happens with Bowazons and Javazons), Dodge and Avoid auto-animations lock you down to the point that you can't attack and will therefore be killed! Are you kidding me? I immediately respecced and did not reselect those two annoying skills. Problem solved?

No. Because then the problem is that Dodge and Avoid  are pre-requisites to the Valkyrie., a very useful summon-tank with staying power. If I can find no way around this problem, I doubt I will even choose the Valkyrie. Especially when they get access to Fend, Spearazons are worthless to me if they can't stand in the middle of a mob without dying.

So yeah, at 24th Fend opens up. Awesome skill that is basically the 'zon's version of Double Swing. She hits whatever is around her very quickly. It's basically a melee AoE that lessens workload.

Fend tactics are: move in, let the mob swarm you, and then go apeshit on their asses. Life and mana leech keep us alive and killin'.

25th: Strength-runeworded Maiden Pike. Gives crushing blow against Duriel. Good timing. Jabbed him into submission.

So now Fend is on right-click for mobs and Jab is on left-click for singular toughies.

Fending a hapless mob in Tal Rasha's chamber:

27th: Honor-runeworded Lance. Nice damage but it's a bit slow.

At 29th we deck out for crushing blow. Rattlecage:

It's socketed with this Plague Scarab rare jewel:

Venom Grips replace Sig gloves:

Goblin Toe replace Sig boots:

That's 55% crushing blow from those three items. With our on-switch Strength-runeworded Maiden Pike, that's 80%. Bosses beware.

String of Ears replace the Sig belt:

That's 30% life steal and 10% mana steal. We are doing monster raw damage and flaunt monstrous crushing blow.

We popped Duriel and Meph like party balloons.

As noted by the Bowazon, the 29th level Peace-runeworded Mage Plate is comparatively useless (recap pic). +skills are for synergistic 'zon builds.

Even with minimal fire/lightning resists and only default Vitality, rapid life/mana leeching lets us Jab-tank through Diablo's red lightning hose and firestorm.

And that is awesome.

At 34th Guillaume's Face set winged helm opens up. This gives us +30% FHR and +35% crushing blow, for a total of 100% crushing blow - if we want it. However, I swapped Rattlecage back to Twitchthroe, and swapped Venom Grip and Goblin Toe back to Sigon's Gage and Sigon's Sabot, simply because I value the +IAS and +run/walk more than the crushing blow. This gives me a nice balance between crushing blow, mobility and attack rate.

One level later, Steel Casque comes into play just as it did with my Bowazon (recap pic). It's socketed with a +15 IAS jewel for +25% total. So what's better? Hitting the next IAS breakpoint or +crushing blow and deadly strike, with FHR? It's really six and one half dozen. Either way, the monsters are dropping like flies, so let's just push on. Such considerations are important in Hell, not here.

37th: Introducing the unique yari, Hone Sundan!

And not just any old Hone Sundan, but an ethereal Hone Sundan.

And not just any old ethereal Hone Sundan, but an ethereal Hone Sundan socketed with three IAS jewels. Thus, our killspeed goes through the roof.

(And yes, we've got an uptiered ethereal Hone Sundan ready for Nightmare mode)

Why is an ethereal Hone Sundan ultra-cool? Because its etherealness is offset by auto-repair. Thus, we get the extra damage and lower stat requirements granted by an ethereal weapon, without the downside of it permanently breaking and becoming utterly worthless.

I don't bother with much else. I bee-line to Baal and take him out. Here is our 39th level Spearazon at the end of Normal mode. No need for optimization. 66% chance to hit Baal.

For comparison, here is our obscenely over-leveled Bowazon at the end of Normal mode:

The general gist is that the Spearazon's rapid-hitting Jab is superior to the Bowazon's Magic Arrow/Guided Arrow or Strafe when facing off against super-uniques, ghostlies and bosses, whereas her Fend is far outstripped by Multiple Shot when tackling mobs, unless they are ultra-tough mobs. Bowazons are also able to kill mobs off-screen, and she gets more bang for her buck per click, thanks to the penetration of Pierce. Spearazons do it the hard way. Still, spears and pikes are fun wields that flaunt surprising reach, and there are some excellent uniques and godly runewords to wield in Nightmare and Hell modes, coming up.

The extended reach of a spear:

Next, Nightmare mode.

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