Intro
Ever since I was a young XVc player I dreamed of creating my own Storm Amazon Sorceress Druid Amazon. The idea of a caster Amazon always appealed to me, however I cannot stand the Blood tree because I get triggered by having to invest in a passive without great active uptime in the endgame. So once Marco announced that the Storm tree is due buffs in the next version I finally decided to give it a shot to see what the non-hype was about.
I levelled with the spec and it has been the only char I have played since the ladder reset. Truth be told it exceeded my expectations and turned out to be a pretty potent and fun character. Why fun? Because KABOOM.
So here is a showcase of what I think is the best way to make a viable Storm Amazon in the current Median XL version. It is a great time to pick up this spec, because if you enjoy the play style the upcoming buffs will make MXL 2016 that much sweeter for you.
Gameplay
Details
[spoil=Stats and skills]Stats:
- Attributes: 50-100str for gear, rest in energy
- Defensive: 11k life, 330k defence, 30% damage reduction, 89 max all res
- Offensive: Stormcall damage is 34k - 34k physical & 0 - 63k lightning @ 6 casts per second. Spellbind debuffs enemy physical resistance by -50%
Skills:
- Max: Stormcall, Asterism, Balance, Spirit of Vengeance
- Some: 10 in Spellbind, 1 in War Spirit, leftovers in Defensive Harmony
- Others: 1pt in all prerequisites, 0 in Magnetic Field
Stats sheet:
[/spoil]
[spoil=Gear]This is my midgame setup:
- Staff - The Creep Runeword
- Helm - Bona DeaSacred SpangenhelmBona Dea
Amazon Helms
'TalPul'
Runeword Level: 55
40% Cast Speed
0.5% to Lightning Spell Damage (Based on Character Level)
-(16 to 20)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
0.5% to Cold Spell Damage (Based on Character Level)
-(16 to 20)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+(9 to 11) to Hailstorm
+(9 to 11) to Electrobolt
5% to Energy
Lightning Resist +25%
Cold Resist +25% - Body Armour - Double Ornate Craft
- Gloves - Greg's Silent Scream
- Belt - Ashaera's ArmorAshaera's Armor
Belt (Sacred)
Defense: 1687 to 1760
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 575
Item Level: 105
+(21 to 25) Spell Focus
+(11 to 15)% to Spell Damage
+500 Defense
(11 to 15)% to Energy
Elemental Resists +(10 to 15)%
Physical Resist 10%
Socketed (2) - Boots - ZOMG Double Ornate Craft
- Amulet - Rare with All skills, Hailstorm, cold pierce Mine
- Rings - Rares with All skills, cold pierce, lightning spell damage, successful lucky roll
- Sockets - On crafted jewels
[spoil=Ubers]Hailstorm is a great small aoe spell against stationary targets. It makes early - mid game ubers (which can typically be tricky for some zons) like Bremmtown, Jitan, Bartuc, Azmodan doable as soon as you get to them in early game gear.
All bosses were cleared solo with this character. Apart from purify ubers, respeccing was only needed for Yshari Mephisto & Baal and for Vizjun.
This build is an amazing Uldyssian farmer. Bowazons are already great at the boss himself, because spellbind makes you take only 2k damage per hoof stomp and you get 50% slow on him for free. On the other hand Hailstorm completely demolishes the stages leading up to Uldy. With only 140% cold pierce it destroys every Prime Edyrem in a single resistance drop. In addition Baal is mad because SoV can tank him indefinitely.
Furthermore, Amazons are great Startled Witch farmers. She is easily killable in TUs, without any sacred unique magic resist items. Toraja is also extremely safe and easy to clear - elementals slow down all attackers to perma Chronofield levels and enable edyrems to do their thing, max cast rate ensures you can keep your minions up at all times. It goes without saying that this build is also an excellent Duncraig farmer once you get your staff runeword.[/spoil]
I am planning on writing down a mini guide for this build, TBR soon™ in the coming weeks.