Iceworld: Amazon Basin - Battle Maiden Strategy

1) Battle Maiden Playing Style

2) Basic Statistics
    2.1 Initial Statistics
    2.2 Statistics Point Distribution
    2.3 Other Statistics

3) Amazon Skills
    3.1 Javelin and Spear Skills
    3.2 Passive and Magic Skills
    3.3 Bow and Crossbow Skills

4) Weapon Choice Discussions
    4.1 Weapon Genre
    4.2 Weapon Speed
    4.3 Other Considerations

5) Amazon's Boutique
    5.1 The Shield
    5.2 Armors and Helms
    5.3 Belts, Gloves and Boots
    5.4 Decorations

6) Some Personal Ramblings
6.1 Blocking Issues
6.2 To Leech or Not to Leech

7) Character Development
    7.1 The Early Years
    7.2 Growing Up
    7.3 The Grand Finale

The Battle Maiden

Note: If you are not fond of long analytical write-ups, examine the summary here.

Most amazons prefer to pick up bows, spears or javelins; as these are the traditional weapons and have some huge 20 out of 30 skills devoted to the use of such weapons. However, the Battle Maiden (or Battle Amazon / Tankazon), as i call her, chose to be different. To show more guts in picking up the unorthodox swords and maces, and wield a mighty shield in the other hand, utilizing their passive skills to the fullest in toe-to-toe combat against the minions of hell. Venture forth with me on this perilous journey...

Strength. Strength means power for a battle maiden, since each point means a 1% bonus to damage and a step closer to wearing the heaviest of armor. As strength is also required to wear heavy armor and weapons, 170 strength is not uncommon among the hardened battle maiden.

Dexterity. Compared to a bowazon, dexterity is not that big a concern. While each point in dex adds 4 attack rating, a good weapon can easily add 200+ attack rating, equivalent to 50+ points of dex, hence IMO the points are better spent in strength (bigger damage) or vitality (longer life). This is especially true if your intention is to use a scepter of piercing which negates the need for dex altogether.

Vitality. Being a melee character in close combat with the enemies all the time, it is important for the battle maiden to possess enough life to survive the tough battles. Each point of vitality adds 3 life, which can make a difference between life and death, especially since her armor is scant defence against the 4x AR bonus possessed by the enemies.

Energy. Mana is of absolutely no concern at all except to cast out valkyrie and some other cheap skills. A little mana steal or vulpine equipment serves much better at recovering mana than wasting precious stats points in energy.

Stamina. Much of the amazon's time is spent standing her ground and fighting the enemies. In between battles, she may need to run around to speed up the process but otherwise needs no more stamina than what she gets with her base 84 points and subsequent level-up bonuses.

Life. High life is always needed by characters fighting on the edge. The battle maiden is one such characters and thus have use for more life. Afterall, a little more luxury hurts no one.

Mana. Not much mana is needed and an amazon's base mana with leveling bonuses is more than enough to cast out a valkyrie when naked. All other skills are not mana hungry and can easily be recovered with minimal mana steal.

Resistances. IMO, lightning and fire should be the priority in terms of resistance for the battle maiden. Lightning, for the famed lightning breath of Diablo and the lightning discharges of LEBs, are the most painful when encountered; whereas fire is the most damaging of the elements. Cold chills you but simply means that you kill slower (with your thick armor, shield, passive defences, you shouldn't worry that much) and can be negated with "halve freeze duration" or "cannot be frozen" properties, while poison simply doesn't hurt that much especially with -75% poison duration on.

Jab (varies). Only relevant if you intend to use javelin-class weapons. Javelins (harpoons in particular) are fast weapons in the hands of a battle maiden and requires no repair costs at all. However, the lack of magical properties on them makes them a weaker weapon at higher levels.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Critical	16	25	32	38	42	46	49	51	54	56	58	59	61	62	63	65	65	66	67	68	68	69	70	71
Pierce	23	34	42	49	55	59	63	65	69	71	73	75	77	79	80	82	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89

Critical Strike (8+). With weapons that do a lot less damage than their bow/spear counterparts, the battle maiden needs the extra chance to do double damage. With no combat skills to pump, where else is there to better spend the points except here?

Penetrate (varies). Depending if you have problems hitting the enemies, it is completely useless if you are going the scepter route.

Pierce (0). Pierce are for archers and throwers, no melee-ers like the battle maiden.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Dodge	18	24	29	34	37	40	42	44	46	47	49	50	51	52	52	54	54	55	55	56	56	57	57	58
Avoid	24	31	36	41	45	48	50	52	54	55	57	58	60	61	61	63	63	64	64	65	66	66	67	67
Evade	18	24	29	34	37	40	42	44	46	47	49	50	51	52	52	54	54	55	55	56	56	57	57	58

Dodge (12). Looking at the tables, you would notice that the skill starts to slow down around level 11-12. The approx 50% protection from melee attackers should suffice in protecting you, allowing you points to spend in other areas.

Avoid (12). Like dodge, the skill slows down greatly from level 13 onwards (incrementing by 1% or less per point), giving around 60% chance of avoiding enemy fire.

Evade (varies). Depending on playing style, if you find yourself running around very often, this might be useful, and since it is a prerequisite to valkyrie, you almost have to have it. However, it causes a severe animation-lock when hit by Diablo's lightning breath and thus should not be over-invested.

Slow Missiles (1). Against the heavy damaging shots from the Act IV finger-mages, slow missiles buy you enough time to side-step their attacks and escape to safety.

Decoy (1). A useful decoy to draw enemy fire from you or the valkyrie. While it does not deal damage and usually don't last very long, decoy is much cheaper to cast than valkyrie. Higher level merely reduces the casting costs and increase the duration, but even at level 1, decoy tends to die before the duration expires, so level one is more than sufficient.

Valkyrie (varies). The valkyrie is a fighter, a tank that can draw enemy fire from you in combat. Depending on taste, some like to max out valkyrie so that her high hitpoints will greatly reduce her chance of dying and negates the need to recast her again and again. However, at such phenomenal levels, she needs a lot of mana to cast out and that may be a problem if you are trying to get her out immdiately after a death. Valkyrie at level 10-12 works fine for me, providing sufficient coverage yet is cheap enough to cast out naked.

The essential purpose of the weapon of choice for the battle maiden is to dish out big damage to the enemies to interrupt their attacks and kill them quickly and efficiently. To do this, it is critical to know the strengths of the various weapon genres as well as the effects of speed affixes on weapons.

One of the most important thing to take note is the type of weapon you want to use. Full details of speeds, range and damages of each one-handed weapon can be found in Appendix A and Appendix B. Below is a damage analysis chart showing various "good" weapon types and their damage per unit time.

			Weapon Damage
Weapon	Class	Frames	Actual	Average	per Unit Time
Naga	Axe	13	18-34	26.0	50.0
Cinquedeas	Dagger	11	8-26	17.0	38.6
Rune Sword	Sword	12	10-42	26.0	54.2
Ancient Sword	Sword	13	18-43	30.5	58.7
Knout	Mace	12	6-35	20.5	42.7
Battle Hammer	Mace	15	22-43	32.5	54.2
Divine Scepter	Mace	12	16-34	25.0	52.1
Harpoon	Javelin	12	13-37	25.0	52.1

*Assumptions Made:
    (1) No strength bonus included,
    (2) Normal weapons are considered... ie. no damage enhancers,
    (3) Remember maces deal 1.5x damage to undead.

Genre	The Good	The Bad
Axe	looks?	not the fastest, nor the most damaging
Dagger	fastest weapon	needs dex, pathetic damage
Sword	good speed, great damage efficiency	needs dex
Mace	x1.5 dmg vs undead, best damage	very slow
Scepter	x1.5 dmg vs undead, can pierce def	damage not fantastic
Javelin	good speed, can be used to jab	needs dex, no magical affixes

Above is the summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon genre. Based on both the tables above, it would appear that ancient swords are the best weapons for the battle maiden but it has one very big disadvantage... it needs dexterity, in fact 88 dexterity, which is 63 more points than the mace or axe class, and this extra 63 dexterity could have been pumped into strength for an additional 63% damage.

Let me now look at the three most promising weapons -- the Battle Hammer, the Divine Scepter and the Ancient Sword. Assume equal conditions and the extra 63 points needed to use ancient sword is dumped into strength for the hammer and the scepter... the +% damage includes strength and weapon bonuses.

		Damage per Successful Hit
Weapon	Base	+100%	+150%	+200%	+250%	+300%	+350%	+400%
Divine Scepter	16-34	65.8	78.3	90.8	103.3	115.8	128.3	140.8
Ancient Sword	18-43	61.0	76.3	91.5	106.8	122.0	137.3	152.5
Battle Hammer	22-43	85.5	112.6	139.6	166.7	193.8	220.9	248.0
.

		Damage per Unit Time
Weapon	Base	+100%	+150%	+200%	+250%	+300%	+350%	+400%
Divine Scepter	16-34	137.0	163.0	189.1	215.1	241.1	267.2	293.2
Ancient Sword	18-43	117.3	146.6	176.0	205.3	234.6	263.9	293.3
Battle Hammer	22-43	142.5	169.5	196.6	223.7	250.8	277.9	305.0

Looking at the damage done per unit time, the values are fairly constant for these three weapons, with battle hammer coming up tops by quite a bit. However, it is very slow and gives the amazon less chance to retaliate against the enemies and it's high damage per blow would often end up with wasted damage from overkills. Three factors also favours the divine scepter over the ancient sword:
(1) Against undead, divine scepter being a mace will do x1.5 damage and undead are abundant,
(2) It's faster rate of attack means that the amazon has greater chance of retaliating and breaking a lock,
(3) The possibility of a piercing scepter gives you 95% to-hit and hence needs NO dex at all.

Now, let's consider the effects of increased weapon speed, either from the weapon itself or from other equipment such as Goldwrap or gloves. The weapon speed suffixes can increase weapon speeds by 10, 20, 30 or 40% while the "of readiness" suffix on gloves and goldwrap increases speed by 10% each.

	+10%		+20%		+30%		+40%		+50%		+60%
Weapon	Fr	Dmg	Fr	Dmg	Fr	Dmg	Fr	Dmg	Fr	Dmg	Fr	Dmg
Naga	12	54.2	11	59.1	10	65.0	10	65.0	9	72.2	8	81.3
Cinquedeas	10	42.5	10	42.5	9	47.2	8	53.1	8	53.1	7	60.7
Rune Sword	11	59.1	10	65.0	10	65.0	9	72.2	8	81.3	8	81.3
Ancient Sword	12	63.5	11	69.3	10	76.3	10	76.3	9	84.7	8	95.3
Battle Hammer	14	58.0	13	62.5	12	67.7	11	73.9	10	81.3	10	81.3
Divine Scepter	11	56.8	10	62.5	10	62.5	9	69.4	8	78.1	8	78.1

Assuming that the additional dex requirement for ancient sword is not an issue, ancient swords have a much better damage per unit time than any other weapons available. But as the analysis in 4.1 shows, the additional 63 dex needed is a big hindrance for the ancient swords and paves the way for the more unorthodox weapon, the divine scepter.

Range
A minor issue here since all 1-handed weapons have range 1, with the exception of the javelin class (range 3), making them a useful melee weapon at the start when the damage enhancing magical weapons are not that available yet.

Repair Cost
Again a minor issue with gold so easily found, since in act VI, most staves, wands, armor, helms will fetch a hefty price, especially the exceptional versions. For most other weapons, the base selling price of a non-magical exceptional weapon is about 6000+ gold. However, for divine scepters, the base is already 7000+ without considering the spells that can come on the scepter that can make it SUPER expensive to repair.

Availability
Of course, there's no good talking about how good a weapon is if you can't find one.

Once again, without any supporting equipment backing up a good weapon, a battle maiden will definitely have problems surviving.

The point of having 1-handed weapons is to use a shield. Though primarily for blocking, the shield is also a useful source of resistances and life. The set tower shield, Sigon's Guard makes a good blocking shield with 69% blocking but offers little else. Other towers or pavises (such as 3D gemmed shields) can provide 49% blocking or 69% with of deflection but slows you down by 10%.

For rare shields, try to obtain "of deflection" for +20% blocking coupled with some good lightning/fire/cold resistances and possibly +life as well. Also, if you are going for high DR setups, a pavise with enhanced defence will give good enough DR.

There are basically two schools of thinking -- the low DR style and the high DR style. The former focuses more on other protective abilities since very effective DR cannot be achieved. Such abilities could come in the form of resistances, increased blocking, -damage, or icing the enemies hit (ie. Iceblink). The latter on the other hand, keeps DR at a reasonably high standard (about 50% to be hit) so as to lower the chances of being hit. Both are feasible ways to play and it just depends on style.

Low AC Style
Two main armors come in this category... Twitchroe and Iceblink. Twitchroe increases blocking by a whooping 25%, allowing you more choices with shields (ie. don't need of deflection shields to achieve 70+% block) while Iceblink combines with a "sonic fast" (ie. faster than very fast) weapon to keep adjacent enemies at bay. Other armors might be rares which gives very heavy resistances and -damage but not that much defence. Actually Rattlecage with +25% crushing blow is not that bad either.

For helms, this style paves the way for life steal helms such as Wormskull or Undead Crown, as well as Coif of Glory for blinding effect. Other helms might be those that gives heavy resistances, life and -damage.

High AC Style
Ornate Plates and Chaos Armor and about the only choices here. You will want at least 1000 DR, meaning the armor has to provide at least 700+ DR to your cause at all costs... hopefully with some useful properties as well. This style is totally straight forward with regards to armor. For helms, if your armor is powerful enough, you can do with some of the lower DR helms but if you are going high DR all the way, rare grand crowns would be ideal.

Belts
Goldwrap is a unique that adds a nice 10% to speed, while good rares would be those with +life, resistances or even cold damage. +strength belts will also increase damage too!

Gloves
While speed is less of an issue in earlier levels, it is very critical in late hell. Gloves with slightly increased weapon speed is almost a certainty in most people's arsenal, and rares with that property and high lightning or fire resistances would be highly prized, more so if there is cold damage involved.

Frostburn, with its cold damage, is a reasonable glove at mid levels, while the Hand of Broc's 3% dual leech serves to make life a bit easier if you can find slightly increased weapon speed gloves.

Boots
The standard fastest run/walk boots with resistances are good, although Goblin Toe's +25% crushing blow lightens the load against the high hitpoint freaks in hell!

Rings and amulets are the sources of great magicks. What you would want to look for would be:
(i) resistance (lightning, cold, fire and poison in that order)
(ii) half freeze duration
(iii) -magic damage
(iv) vulpine effect (damage goes to mana) if you use Valkyrie
(v) life steal
(vi) mana steal (almost redundant if you have vulpine)

With the 4x enemy AR bug, the amazon can hardly attain a decent defence rating (perhaps 50% at best), hence the shield becomes an important source of defence for the battle maiden. Blocking is maxed at 75% but can only be reached using a good shield and the light Twitchroe (+25% block) armor.

Three kinds of shields provide a base of 40+% blocking... towers (or pavises), bone shields (but NOT grim shields) and gothics (or ancients), giving 49%, 45% and 41% respectively. These numbers are still not good, considering that you can still get hit more than 50% of the time. Hence the need for "of blocking" (+10%), "of deflection" (+20%) or Twitchroe (+25%). How much difference does it make, you might ask?

Tower vs Tower of blocking/deflection
At 49%, the tower shield has the best blocking. Of blocking turns this to 59%, resulting in a 20% reductions in the number of hits (41% to be hit compared to 51%). Of deflection goes further, giving a huge 40% reduction in hits. Of course, Twitchroe increases the block rate of a normal tower to 74% for a 50% deduction in hits (26% compared to the original 51%). This is a BIG difference.

Deflection: Tower vs Gothic/Bone
Tower of deflection gives 69% blocking, compared to gothic/bone shield's 61/65% respectively. The difference? A Gothic user gets hit 25% more than a tower-user while a bone shield user gets pummeled 13% more. That is why tower work so much better at blocking hits.

Leeching is part and parcel of most melee-ers. Mana steal for a battle maiden is quite redundant though, unless using Valkyrie heavily. IMO, life steal is also much of a luxury for her. However, I am surviving very well with very high life leech 20+%.

Right from the start, the amazon is gifted with a shield and a set of javelins. Throughout normal difficulty, a shield wielding amazon should have no problems getting by with whatever junk she picks up. However, the choice must be made whether you want to be an all-out scepter user (banking on the piercing suffix). If so, then the points should go largely into strength, with a few points here and there into vitality. If, however, you are uncertain or want to go the sword route, place strength and dexterity at equal priority with a few scattered points into vitality. This would allow greater choice of weapons and armor which is needed at the start.

By the time you reach nightmare, you should have a decent set of armor and a reasonably high blocking shield (ideally 60+%). Weapons should not be a problem, though if you went the scepter route, you might experience problems hitting enemies if you failed to find a piercing weapon. But other than that, the weapons that you find thus far, either via monster drops or vendor sales should carry you through the more tedious nightmare stage, preparing you for the finale in hell. In act III and act IV, don't forget to look out for the weapons of choice so that you have a fast and hard-hitting weapon to wield in hell.

Hell is where you find that slow weapons are a big problems because when you miss, it lets the enemies pummel you real hard, while you struggle to find enough time to land a blow due to the slowness of the weapons. Hence, sonic fast weapons are highly preferred. By this time, you would prolly have gotten enough experience to go through Diablo. I'm currently halfway through hell with both my battle maidens (one sword, one scepter), so more will be posted in time to come...