Javazon Feedback & Suggestions

Defensive Passives:

Javazon is dependent on its life regen/ele absorb passives (Second Wind/Elemental Aegis) for survivability. Unfortunately these are tied to blocking physical attacks, so these defensive layers don't exist while fighting casters.

It seems like an oversight to have all these defensive layers active vs. physical mobs (where Javazon is strongest due to block), only to have nothing at all vs. casters (where block is worthless) if there are no physical mobs around.

It's also a bit unfair considering that comparable builds (Throwsin, Wereowl) have their defensive layers constantly active, and don't suddenly become vulnerable if a certain mob type isn't attacking them. Apples/oranges somewhat, but I think it's a fair comparison that Throwsin retains Prismatic Cloak/Perfect Being even when block is useless, and Wereowl its persistent avoid/regen from Faerie Fire/Symbiosis/Progeny's Blessing.

Before the rework, Javazon's regen was consistent in this way through the Moonbeam buff (admittedly clunky, but it did the job).

Suggestions:

Build Variety:

Taking Throwsin as a benchmark: Throwsin has three viable active skills (plus Broadside and Wychwind) and multiple different scaling vectors (phys, phys/magic conversion, phys/supplemental ele through Ways, IED/Ways, poison).

Vehicles for Javazon variety already exist in the form of

Askari Device

Askari Device
Amazon Javelins
'TahaYst'
Runeword Level: 110
Innate Tri-Elemental Damage: (40.0% of Dexterity)
8% Chance to cast level 27 Javelin Nova on Kill
+4 to Amazon Skill Levels
40% Attack Speed
+75 Damage
Adds 300-500 Fire Damage
Adds 300-500 Lightning Damage
Adds 300-500 Cold Damage
(15 to 20)% Innate Elemental Damage
-(30 to 35)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+200 to Life
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
(40 to 50)% Magic Find

(tri-ele IED) and the

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm
(Amazon Oskill Set)

Eye of Wisdom
Charged Cloud

Set Bonus with complete set:
Scorpion Sting: +1% Pierce Chance to Lightning Fury per Base Level
-33% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+1 to Lightning Fury

oskill set. They suck donkey balls, however.

Both the runeword and set require adjustments to be viable, but some simple changes/additions could integrate them nicely with the Amazon trees:

Additionally,

Hellrain

Hellrain
Maiden Javelin (Sacred)
Throw Damage: (241 - 263) to (337 - 364)
One-Hand Damage: (174 - 188) to (245 - 262)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 310
Required Dexterity: 600
Item Level: 105
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.13 per Dexterity)%
Adds 1% Crushing Blow per 4% Fire Spell damage
5% Chance to cast level 60 Cataclysm on Kill
2% Chance to cast level 60 Rain of Fire on Striking
+2 to Amazon Skill Levels
Adds 50-100 Damage
-(20 to 60)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+(170 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
Slow Target 25%
+100 to Dexterity
Socketed (3)

and

Danmaku

Danmaku
Athulua's Hand (Sacred)
Defense: (2657 - 3003) to (2861 - 3234)
Chance to Block: 5%
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 349
Item Level: 120
5% Chance to cast level 15 Javelin Nova on Kill
15% Chance to cast level 5 Javelin on Striking
1% Chance to cast level 45 Fire Bolt Nova on Striking
+(2 to 3) to Amazon Skill Levels
1% Base Block Chance
35% Attack Speed
25% Block Speed
Adds 15-25 Damage
+(21 to 25)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
Socketed (4)

support a supplemental fire-based build for farming. A thematically appropriate way to integrate this would be for Hellrain to unlock Fire Elementals in the Blood tree, though it would require some kind of strong supporting bonus to the elementals to make them useful.

Another cool option would be the ability to cube a

Kukri

Kukri
Kukri (Mastercrafted)
One-Hand Damage: 45 to 50
Required Level: 30
Required Dexterity: 550
Quality Level: 200
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Dexterity)%
Cannot be Renewed
+1 Lightning Damage per 1% Bonus to Defense
+1 Lightning Damage per 1% Total Physical Weapon Damage Bonus
Socketed (3)

or Flying Kinzhal with a Long Staff to turn them into equivalent javelins.

Active Skills:

Eviscerate feels clunky and boring. Seems like most Javazon players (including myself) play with Maelstrom instead.

Personally I level with

Icebird

Icebird
Flying Knife (4)
Throw Damage: (5 - 7) to (7 - 8)
One-Hand Damage: (5 - 7) to (7 - 8)
Required Level: 10
Required Dexterity: 53
Item Level: 10
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
1% Chance to cast level 2 Shackles of Ice on Striking
Adds (3 to 4)-(5 to 9) Cold Damage
+(18 to 40)% Enhanced Damage
-(4 to 6)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+(1 to 2) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
Cold Absorb 2%
8% Magic Find
Socketed (1)
Throw Damage: (24 - 27) to (27 - 31)
One-Hand Damage: (18 - 20) to (19 - 22)
Required Level: 23
Required Dexterity: 84
Item Level: 36
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
1% Chance to cast level 6 Shackles of Ice on Striking
Adds (11 to 13)-(26 to 33) Cold Damage
+(64 to 86)% Enhanced Damage
-(7 to 9)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+(3 to 6) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
Cold Absorb 3%
13% Magic Find
Socketed (2)
Throw Damage: (56 - 62) to (64 - 71)
One-Hand Damage: (33 - 37) to (37 - 41)
Required Level: 41
Required Dexterity: 169
Item Level: 51
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
1% Chance to cast level 10 Shackles of Ice on Striking
Adds (41 to 50)-(121 to 130) Cold Damage
+(109 to 132)% Enhanced Damage
-(10 to 12)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+(7 to 11) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
Cold Absorb 4%
18% Magic Find
Socketed (2)
Throw Damage: (76 - 83) to (85 - 93)
One-Hand Damage: (44 - 48) to (48 - 53)
Required Level: 50
Required Dexterity: 337
Item Level: 77
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
1% Chance to cast level 12 Shackles of Ice on Striking
Adds (91 to 100)-(211 to 260) Cold Damage
+(132 to 154)% Enhanced Damage
-(13 to 15)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+(12 to 16) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
Cold Absorb 5%
20% Magic Find
Socketed (2)

, then farm out cows for a Maiden Javelin base and craft a decent Maelstrom javelin before proceeding, later picking it up through

Thrillseeker

Thrillseeker
Throwing Spear (Sacred)
Throw Damage: (192 - 222) to (244 - 282)
One-Hand Damage: (124 - 144) to (145 - 168)
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 530
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
+2 to Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
10% Life stolen per Hit
+(160 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
+(5 to 10) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
(15 to 25)% to Dexterity
+(250 to 500) to Life
5% Chance to Avoid Damage
Socketed (4)

/

Relic (APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI)

Relic
Required Level: 75
Maelstrom MkI: +10% Bonus Magic Damage
+(13 to 21) to APF-20 'Maelstrom' MkI
+20 to Dexterity

/Mastercrafted Gloves. It seems infinitely better both for farming and ubers right out of the gate.

Maelstrom also just feels so much better to play: autotargeting, hits many times for on-striking procs, and has better aesthetics - looks and sounds cool and has a nice smooth "rubberiness" to it.

It's sad that the innate Javazon skill is lacking enough that we just use an Assassin oskill instead.

Impale also seems quite silly - nice proc, but running into melee range and hitting with what feels like a basic autoattack skill (like you do when you kill the first few zombies in the Blood Moor...) is terrible and not fun at all.

I don't have any specific suggestions as to how to improve/rework these, but feel like it needs to be raised.

Thoughtful, well written and composed. I agree with your comments, Zoobedy.

But she can farm labs though so your opinion is invalid! Or at least that's the defence line on discord when the subject of javazon being dogshit to play and build around is brought up.

i like your ideas. i want to be conservative and say, i played java since the rework, well before angelics and scrolls, and i liked it going to deep labs. it was a nice phoboss hunter as a melee java eventually. that being said, i liked the sense of transcendence while playing through the game, being a mid-ranged class and transforming to strong melee capabilities later. still, i never did sescherons destroyer, samael or deimoss successfully with her. other people managed to do that, sure. but facetanking high lab phoboss with impale and then getting instagibbed by any spell at sescheron or samael felt bad for sure.

note that i also play trapsin with her spellblock and i know how ridiculous and powerful that ability is and it feels hard to adjust it so that java could use it and not be very op.

i do disagree to the notion that eviscerate is boring and weak, i really like the skill (also impale). its not more or less simple of a ranged spam skill, it has its finesse with the angles you use... its strong. note that i did not play maelstrom really so i have no comparison.

ok that was your discord rant about java can do labs.

i really like your ideas about the skill enabling but it feels very difficult and also, as is, very abusable (u enable a skill with an item or give it additional hard levels, people use it to put points in the skill and swap to something different).
still.

i'd like a competing IED java variant and also the oskill set to suck less (can be applied to all oskill sets).

How about a simple switch skill between physical and elemental block?

metasequoia wrote:i really like your ideas about the skill enabling but it feels very difficult and also, as is, very abusable (u enable a skill with an item or give it additional hard levels, people use it to put points in the skill and swap to something different).
still.

The sensible way to implement it would be so that the bonuses of Dragonlore, Thundermaiden, etc. would only apply while the corresponding javelin is equipped. I assume this is technically possible as, e.g. the Thundermaiden flat damage bonus already does not apply unless a scepter is equipped.

paolo12 wrote:How about a simple switch skill between physical and elemental block?

Dynamic switching is a bit of a pain. Think of Lethal Incision - having to activate a buff with cast speed frames/interruptable cast to switch between clearing and single target, often in tight combat situations. Wish it was just a separate skill instead.

I'd say the main issue isn't really giving Javazon more elemental/spell mitigation, which might be OP, but being able to proc the existing Elemental Aegis/Second Wind bonuses consistently. Again, this seems like a bit of a design oversight considering those defensive bonuses are present in fights vs. casters if there are physical attacks incoming (however small), but are completely disabled vs. pure spell damage.

where it matters the mobs do phys damage alongside spells to activate it for java and for trapsin too.

Giu wrote:where it matters the mobs do phys damage alongside spells to activate it for java and for trapsin too.

well. trap gets protection in endgame bosses as well, while java melts at sescheron, samael, deimoss and the likes. thats the difference that annoys me. the farming areas i dont care about, they are balanced phys mob /caster mob.

metasequoia wrote:
Giu wrote:where it matters the mobs do phys damage alongside spells to activate it for java and for trapsin too.

well. trap gets protection in endgame bosses as well, while java melts at sescheron, samael, deimoss and the likes. thats the difference that annoys me. the farming areas i dont care about, they are balanced phys mob /caster mob.

those ARE the places i was talking about

Not Javazon, but Spearzon, I fucking hate having to cast Takedown every 20-second or whatever. Stupid AF IMO! And to make it worse, it timer based and loses its buff no matter if you just struck with it the second before; READ: YOU CANNOT RESET THE TIMER BY ATTACKING AGAIN! You can't believe how much this detracts from this build when every 20-fucking second, you lose your buff entirely, need to rebuff which takes a couple of seconds! Complete waste of time, I'm pretty much done with spearzon because of this bullshit.