Diablo 2: Twinked Jab/Fend Spearazon - Part III - Hell mode

As you can see, the poison nova of Breath of the Dying procs with frequency, but only against mook-packs, and it's more showy than damaging. On /players8, the nova won't even kill off a lowly mook. Frenzy Barbs can dual-wield BotDs (recap), and the poison nova impact is still barely discernible from a damage PoV. Hell monsters are just too tanky, and flaunt resistance to the elements.

Still, BotD is our best option. From my tests, it clearly outstrips an upped ethereal Hone Sundan socketed with three IAS jewels (pic). BotD plugs the main holes, which are +IAS, +ED, +stats along with life/mana leech and even a welcome ED vs. undead. Couple that with Indestructibility and +3 spearskills from the ethereal Matriarchal Spear, and we've got every reason to wield it.

Ideally, we would have runeworded an ethereal Matriarchal Pike or War Pike instead - for superior damage - but I couldn't find one in my stash, so the spear will have to do. Remember, this is single-player. The fact I found an ethereal Matriarchal Spear is lucky in itself. Go and farm Hell Pits on /players8 a few hundred times, and see if you find one. For that matter, have fun trying to find an ethereal Hone Sundan. :P

Now, one of the worst things about Spearazons is when you encounter physical immunes. These are the most obnoxious enemies after insta-killers like dolls and souls. My Bowazon just switched to Magic Arrow to shred through PIs, and my Frenzy Barb just went Berserk. There is no such luxury for the Spearazon. Are you really going to switch your ammy to Atma's Scarab for its Amplify proc just to take out one physical immune, or even a mob of them? Are you really going to wait for a merc to kill them? There is only one semi-convenient option that I can think of, off-hand: Act Two merc wielding an Reaper's Toll (preferably ethereal) for its on-hit Decrepify. As you will see in this post, in an effort to increase survivability, eventually I am forced to change to an Act Two merc for his Holy Freeze aura and ability to wield Reaper's Toll  for decrepification.

This Spearazon is also weak against skeletal undead because you can't life leech the non-cadaverous. And unlike the Bowazon, we're in the thick of it and taking damage. I pretty much just run past undead, as well. A Multiple Shot Bowazon can aim her fan towards corporeal beings, or rely on Pierce to penetrate the skeletal mob and hit the corporeal mob behind them (thus, she keeps her hitpoint pool peaking and her multi-shots firing). A Frenzy Barb has the staying power to endure skeletal mobs. But this Spearazon has to disengage or quaff a full rejuv. It's just slower, all-round. In fact, compared to my Bowazon - and, to a lesser extent my Frenzy Barb - this Spearazon sucks. Just so slow and so weak.

Due to butthurt, I dug into my 10-year-old PlugY stash archives in search of my Annihilus and Hellfire Torch, which I finally found.

A decent boost but it doesn't solve the Spearazon's main issues. I haven't selected Valkyrie because the auto-animations for pre-requisite Dodge and Avoid lock me down and get me killed when engaged with mobs. The compromise is to pump Decoy. Meh..

So yeah, partway through Act One I replaced the Act One cold arrow Rogue Sister with an Act Two Nightmare Defensive Desert Mercenary, wielding non-ethereal Reaper's Toll. The reasoning here? The Holy Freeze aura and on-hit Decrepify slows the mobs down. And decrepified mobs take more damage.

Here is a comparison of the mercs (mercs are on the left panel):

Note: The resists are not a fair comparison since the screencap of the sister was taken in Nightmare and the screencap for the merc was taken in Hell. The merc has better resists.

And yeah, my Spearazon has taken an IAS hit in order to increase survivability; namely Dracul's Grasp and Rockstopper (upped to hydra skull and Ber'd). That gives us Life Tap and 34% DR if we wear Verdungo's Heary Coil in addition to Rockstopper.

All this amounts to less damage but also much less risky Fends.

82: Andariel's Visage.

(WiP - taking a break from this at 77th level). Next post: back to my Bowazon for a bit.

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