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Dear D2Trophy Customers!
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Well, it’s not that new.
In the old guide I had promised to write a new version for ages, but somehow something always came up and I was missing the desire to do it ^^
A large part of the guide is therefore still based on the old framework and only the item section has been made a bit clearer and a few small new sections such as mercenary tips have been added. I’m not really satisfied yet, but maybe you can help me to make it an interesting guide without weak points.
Every beginning is hard. Or also: What are they talking about?
Everybody has surely experienced that they were suddenly overwhelmed by a lot of abbreviations and foreign words. So that you are better prepared, here is a little crash course.
The Amazonskills. Here are the names of the Ama Skills.
CS = Critical Strike
Inner Sight
Dodge
Avoid
Evade = escape
These skills are often summarized as (D/A/E). The letters are the first letters of the English name. Tips are always given in this order (e.g. bring the dodge skills to 11/6/11)
SM = Slow missiles
Penetrate = Breakthrough
Pierce = piercing Here is of course always danger of confusion
Decoy = decoy
Walkyrie = Valkyrie Lovingly called Wally. But also often called Muppets Wally or something like that, because she is usually not where she should be
Jab = thrust amazons who will mainly use this attack as jabazones
Power Strike
Impale = skewering
Fend = An ama with Fend as main skill is called a Fendazone
Charged Strike
LS = Lightning Strike
LF/BU = Lightning Fury
Abbreviations for attributes on items
CB = Crushing Blow = Destructive blow
FHR = Faster Hit Recovery = faster recovery after hits
IAS = Increased Attack Speed
CS = Deadly Strike
A Speerama, unlike some other chars, is not so much fixed on individual attributes. Apart from energy all other attributes have an important meaning. So you can’t replace Vit completely by corresponding items like with a Bowama.
Here are the basic values and the bonuses you get by leveling up and increasing your attributes
Initial values
Strength 20
Dexterity 25
Vitality 20
Energy 15
Per level ascent
+Endurance/vitality 1
+Endurance/Level 1
+Life / Vitality 3
+Life/Level 2
+Mana/Energy 1.5
+Mana/Level 1.5
Strength: Strength is a very important attribute, and you should aim for a value of at least 150 to be able to carry most of your equipment. Strength also increases damage and should be pushed even further if you have both a good hit rate and enough Health. Since a large part of the damage comes from the Fend Bonus, a better weapon works much better than a big increase in Strength and therefore the later points here are rather luxury.
Dexterity: In the long run, dexterity should be pushed so far that you can use Warpikes or their Amazonian counterparts. It’s very tempting to increase the hit rate just by punching through, but in the combination of dex and punching through I see the most effective way. This way you can increase Dex to the point where you can carry the right weapons and if you have problems to reach the 85% hit rate you can add even more points. If you use amzone spears you can add a few more points, because the damage is also increased by Dex.
((Str0,8+Dex0,5)+100)/100*weapon damage=end damage
Vitality: In my opinion, vitality is the most important attribute, because a Speerama can only be played “comfortably” with a large cushion of life. I never like to give values for vitality, because every player has very different items and therefore with the same vit value there are big differences in life. I would aim for a value of 800 life and increase it to 1000-1200 if you die often. If you die often after that you do a lot of wrong
Of course, the whole thing only brings something if you also suck enough life to make the sphere full again and again!
Energy: The only thing that really costs mana with a Speerama is the Valkyrie and you can also afford this with the normal mana supply (apart from Lvl 25 Wallys perhaps times)
The rest can be done comfortably through Manaleech and therefore the basic value is sufficient here.
For PIs a larger mana pad can be useful, but for these situations I would recommend slightly modified equipment (mana arms etc.)
But now to the skills here, a lot has changed!
In the past, speed was only important for Fend and most spear-amazons used to rely on a lance and jab. But now Speeramazones are more item-intensive than before, as almost all skills can only be used with fast weapons. Unfortunately things have also become rather one-sided and special character variations are only possible with great effort.
Jab/Shock
Until version 1.06 Jab was certainly the most popular Speerama skill, but a lot has changed. Now the speed of jabbing is related to weapon speed and the combination of a slow lance with high damage and jab becomes unplayable. Even with a GIAS lance jab is still a bit slower than before and normal attacks have a similar speed with only a bit less damage. Also, the speed is now also reduced by cold damage and so Jab as a boss killer is no longer necessary.
So in Jab from now on only one point to get the other skills.
Impale/Spike
Impale was improved in almost all points, but unfortunately not in the most important one. The damage has been increased and the weapon is no longer damaged as easily as before, but unfortunately the speed is still too low. When you start an attack you are almost always interrupted and what good is a huge damage if you don’t get it to the monster.
Therefore also here only one point to get to Fend/Resist.
Fend/Resist
Fend has always been a good skill, but unfortunately it was very item intensive (GIAS lance etc.). But if you had these items Fend was the best skill
But now that all skills need fast weapons and Fend has been improved even further, Fend is clearly the new main skill. The very high damage bonus and the ability to attack multiple enemies make it by far the best skill in almost all situations. However, the prerequisite is still a fast weapon that either has high damage. The tactic still looks similar to the one before. You collect a group of enemies with Valkyrie, mercenaries and mirror image and attack them from a relatively safe distance and always move up a bit as soon as a few enemies have fallen. Another nice point is that the zero rounds that were at 1.06 are almost gone and you can’t be interrupted.
But one more little note.
Now we come to the lightning attacks. They were never really necessary before LoD, because their damage is/was very low and there were no enemies with physical immunity yet. Now they seem to be very useful, but I still don’t think they are too good.
Energy Blow
This skill has never been useful and it is not with Lod
In Lod you also need a way to kill enemies with physical immunity, but they will certainly only laugh about the elemental damage of the charged strike. Even if you use it in combination with a weapon that also has elemental damage, this skill is not very recommendable, because you only attack one enemy at a time and it would take ages for a group of physically immune enemies.
Charged Strike
The loaded punch is still not a skill that can accompany you through the whole game, but it is definitely worth considering if you fight PIs frequently to develop it. The damage against single enemies is much higher than the damage of an elemental damage lance. In addition, you can expand the skill with the combination of a throwing spear and Tiamat’s reprimand described later. If you choose a different way to fight PIs, you can add one point to the skill, the rest will be mapped.
Chain lightning
Aha, a mass destruction kill that deals out elemental damage! But unfortunately too little
If you attack a group of enemies, there will be so many flashes that the framerate will be reduced, but unfortunately not the enemies’ life points. At least in my case the enemies were mostly killed with the normal(physical damage) and the remaining enemies, which only got the lightning damage, were almost completely intact. So neither useful for normal nor physically immune enemies.
Apparently the low damage is a bug. My guess would be that each enemy can only take damage once, even if they are struck by lightning several times. But nobody knows for sure.
But if you like to experiment, here’s a suggestion. With some +Skill Items you can bring the damage to a playable level. You should first invest 20 points and then at least 10 levels on items. The whole thing is very tedious, but at least this way you have another variant.
Not much has changed in the passive skills and only small changes are necessary.
Inner view
Inner vision is a skill that you could only use normally in the first act, because after that the reduction of defense is very small. Some people thought here that the defense is reduced by a percentage, but it is actually only reduced by the score.
Therefore only one point to get to the other skills.
Slow projectiles
This skill is very useful and is unfortunately often undervalued. It can be used to defuse both magical and physical remote attacks and even multi speed cameras lose much of their effectiveness. You have to dodge manually, but you can rely on the success.
The best thing about this skill is that one point is enough, because more points only increase the length.
This way you can simply recast it and save skill points
Decoy
The decoy is also a very useful skill, because unlike the Valkyrie or a mercenary he is always where he should be and even then he doesn’t run away. With a Speerama the decoy can also be used to a certain extent, because normally you can stand quite a lot. More than one or two points are not worthwhile, because the decoy would probably not survive any longer anyway.
Next to Valkyrie he belongs to the most important skills to make Fend more effective!
Valkyrie
My relationship with the Valkyrie is somewhat ambivalent. She is an excellent blocker and endures more than anything else and without her a Speerama can hardly survive. On the other hand she is so stupid that sometimes you are close to suicide (but I am still alive ^^) That’s why you should cast Wally more often when she is not where she should be. But this will only be possible if you keep her on a relatively small level. Theoretically one point should be enough, but since the Valkyrie of a Speerama usually gets a bit more on the lid than a Bowama, 5 points are certainly quite practical.
Critical Strike
Critical strike is one of the most important skills for a Speerama. The chance to double the damage is something every character wants and if it’s even passive you should hit (äh skills g)
I would first aim for a level of about 50% and if there are still points left afterwards, I would upgrade to Lvl 16, because you get a good 65% there. But above that the increases are too small.
Breakthrough
Punching through is also a pretty important skill, because you don’t have as high a Dex value as a Bowama and therefore you are more likely to have problems with the meeting. I would use this skill to keep the chance to hit always at 85+X%, because you can get along quite well from this value on and a higher chance can only be achieved with more effort.
Avoidance
Again, this is a very useful skill, as you have a pretty good chance of dodging melee attacks. A Speerama avoids many hits because it sends the Wally in front of you, but if you get too many enemies you have a certain security. A Speerama is not as well equipped as a barbarian, but by dodging and the other skills it will hardly get more hits than a barbarian with the double defense. I would give 5 points at first, but you can add the same amount of points afterwards. The ideal level of 16 can only be reached with items that don’t compromise too much.
Avoid
Avoiding is also a good skill, but not quite as good as dodging, since most bullets are easier to dodge through SM. But if you don’t make it, Meiden is very useful. You have to consider that a Speerama has no shield and this skill is the replacement. So despite a two-handed weapon you have a shield.
Actually, one point would be enough here, since there are relatively few dangerous physical long-range fighters. But if you want to have it a bit safer, you can also award 5 points here.
Escape
Escape was long avoided due to a small bug that appeared when you got into Diablos beam and was not skipped. But the whole thing was quite nonsense, because this situation happens very rarely and the skill is otherwise very useful. It happens quite often that you have to retreat because too many enemies could break through and nothing is worse than getting a fatal blow while running away. Running away is the only skill that also evades magical ranged attacks and thus becomes even more useful in areas like the Chaos Sanctuary.
So now to the most difficult and biggest part. In LoD the items are often even more important than the skill, because the items have become much stronger and more frequent. In the past, you had to pay a lot of SOJ for years to chase a top lance and today you get a super lance like Lycander’s flank for free.
Now let’s talk about spears.
Of the Exeptional Spears only the tip of the honor is to be mentioned. You get a pretty high damage, which increases significantly against demons, and so they mutate into a really good boss killer. The other bonuses like the increased attack value and the improved defense are also welcome, but they can’t hide the fact that the speed is really bad. But now for my favourite spear. Lycander’s flank brings almost anything you want and the damage is only taken by a Cruel Warpike. Lycanders brings Lifeleech, a Vit Bonus(60 life), 30% increased attack speed, 20 Strength, 20% improved Defence, 2 Ama Skills and 2 Spearskills and covers all points.
The only real alternative is Cruel Lances and their Amazonian counterparts or Cruel versions of the Elite Spetum and Trident. They have a damage that puts even Lycanders in the shade and the 2 possible sockets in magical items can compensate the slow speed. Here I can
We recommend Taktaal’s large spear comparison, which nicely shows which weapon is best when. However, it should be mentioned that in reality the range of the weapon is also taken into account and weapons with a range of 5 should do slightly better.
For PIs you could also look for a fast spear (Yari/Spetum or even better Forken) with a lot of lightning damage or just get 5-6 socketed versions of corresponding spears and upgrade them with lightning jewels.
The armor
There are quite a few alternatives and fortunately most of them are really cheap. If you want to reach the fastest possible attack speed and also want to have a small Str and Dex bonus, Zuckzappel is a good entry armor. But since the defense is very low, no resistances are available and you don’t get a life bonus you should look for something else later. Like the Ghostforge, for example. It brings a good 1.25 life/level and with a nice life cushion it is much more comfortable. You also get 15 Strength Points and some Fire Damage, which slightly increases your offensive potential. But the real highlight are the 2 sockets with which you can adapt Geisterschmiede to your own requirements (Speed, Resis or Life)
I find Duriel’s bowl even a bit better, because it is a very cheap all-in-one solution. You get very good resistance bonuses, life/level, some strength and finally the often underestimated freezing is impossible to do. What more do you want?
Slightly better (if you can’t freeze anywhere else), but a bit more expensive is the rune-word Lionheart. Again, there is prismatic resistance, even more lives than in Ghostforge or Duriel’s Bowl(110 lives!), and all the main attributes are raised as well. If the resistances of these armors are not enough, you should go for the Runeword Smoke, as it offers 50% Prismatic Resistances. The other attributes are unfortunately not so outstanding.
The version that is priceless for most people is a 1.08 Arcaine’s Heroism. It has a sick life and vitality bonus, and once you wear it you’re swimming in health. But since you have to pay a whole bag of SoJ for this and only become almost invulnerable, but not strengthen your offense, you can actually do without it
The gloves
Again, there is a wide choice and most of the options are very inexpensive.
As a first time 2 often underestimated sets. Both the Sigon and the Death & Devil set brings if you wear the gloves and another item 30% IAS and also the other attributes such as Lifeleech, strength (Sigon) or Cannot be frozen (death and devil) are not from bad parents.
The Sanders Set also has good set gloves. Here you only get 20% IAS, but you only need the gloves and they have 40 lives left which fits well to a Speerama. In the same notch the Unique gloves hit blood fist. Also here you get 40 lives, unfortunately only 10% IAS, but a minimum damage increased by 5, which can tear out the total damage of a worse weapon. Rather expensive, but also quite effective are hands on. They offer the obligatory 20% IAS, but the most important is the 350% increased damage against demons, which is an incredible bonus when leveling in the right area. In the rare sector there are also some good alternatives. These should have IAS, resis, dex, spearskills or strength.
The helmet
Here the optically best solution is probably also the best in terms of play. On rare tires you can have almost any attribute you could wish for as a spear-amazone. These should ideally be Mana/Lifeleech, Dex, Resis, Strength, Life and Amazonskills. But also on the Unique sector there are many alternatives. A good choice for the defensive freaks might be for example the rockstopper, which besides almost prismatic (poison missing) resistances also reduces the physical damage by 10%, brings faster recovery after hits and a lot of vitality. The physical damage reduction is quite controversial, but since a Speerama almost counts as a Fun Char it shouldn’t really bother you. Our next helmet is actually something for MF characters, but also for prospective Speeramazones. The robbery skull has Dualleech and a small speed bonus. Both are not outstanding, but certainly not bad. I like the next helmet (not only optically^^) a little bit better. The crown of the thieves offers a lot of life, Lifeleech, good fire resistances and quite a lot of Dex, which is especially useful in combination with Lycander’s flank. Our last Unique is Vampire View and it also comes up with a good overall package. Besides the almost obligatory duallech, the physical damage is reduced considerably, which will make your ama very tough. The cold damage and the degraded magic damage are not really intoxicating, but not bad either.
In the set area there is another incredibly cheap, but also incredibly bad looking alternative (keyword: optical rape)
Thanks to Duallech, Life and Resis, Tal Rasha’s mask covers just about everything and is almost a gift.
The Belt
Here the choice is quite limited, but because rares are the optimal belts, at least some individuality is added. Rare belts from D2 Classic can form beautiful packages with resis, strength, dex and life that no unique belt can match. But a Java belt still holds the flag of the Unique up. Donnergott’s prosperity brings 20 strength and vitality and numerous means against lightning damage. So also good if you don’t use a BU.
If you use the Sigons set or the Death and Devil set, these possibilities are of course not available.
The shoes
Also here rares are optimal and also here resis, dex, strength and because there are shoes also faster race/go on it. But there are also Uniques that can keep up with this. For the small purse you have to mention tears, because you get strength, dex, faster race/go and resis, but unfortunately not very much of all of them. Water hiking is a little better. 15 Dex and a gigantic sum of up to 65 lives make these shoes very useful. If the other equipment is right you can also increase your maximum fire resistance a little bit. Even better are War Traveller. 10 Strength and vitality are nice, but the 15-25 increased damage gets a lot out of almost every weapon. In the set area you can also use the Sigons or Sanders set if you already wear the appropriate gloves.
The Rings
Here I like the Rare Rings the best, but you have to get D2C rings to really have an advantage and that is relatively difficult. These rings could still have Manaleech, so now you can only get them with a Unique Ring (and some other items). The rings should offer life, resis, dex, strength and mana/lifeech like all other rare items. The only Unique Manaleecher called Manald Healing is not really bad with his small life bonus and not really good either. So a solid start which should be replaced later. Raven Frost is a must have item if you don’t already have Duriel’s bowl, because he can not be frozen is a positive attribute. Also the AR bonus, the cold damage as well as the dex bonus and the cold absorption are very practical.
Bul Katho’s wedding ring is quite comparable to Manald’s. The Skill, Life and Lifeleech are nice bonuses, but there are better ones.
The amulets
There is a large unique selection and many of them are really good. Amusements with AD are quite overdone if you reach a reasonable speed to spread the curse, as the curse triples the damage in Hell.
That’s why a Saracen Luck is a very good item for a Speerama as well, since it offers resistance and attribute bonuses in addition to AD. Masa’s scarab is not so good for Bowamas, but for Speeramas it is certainly worth a look, because a high AD chance is more important than a high AD level. But since apart from AD only the increased AR is really useful, I’d rather advise against it. The cat’s eye and the anger of the high prince are both top amulets for speed freaks. Beside the IAS they offer either massive Dex (cat’s eye) or a package of skills, lightning resis and lightning damage.
If you don’t need speed, rare amusements are best, because a single prism amulet can tear out the resistances of a spearama. Besides the resis, skills, dex, strength and life are also recommended here.
Here I introduce the basic tactics and try to clarify some basic questions. Write what you think could be added here and if you have other tactics. This part is too short for me at the moment.
Defeat groups one by one.
A Speerama has to be much more careful than a barbarian or a magic bitch when an enemy group appears, because you can’t fight many enemies at once. Therefore you have to use Valkyrie, mercenaries and decoys to bind the enemies. Then you move to the edge of the group, so that you only attack a few enemies and are only attacked by a few enemies (here the lance range is also useful). Only when this small group has been decimated do you go a bit further and take care of the next enemies. The whole thing is then continued until the group is worn down. The whole thing is not very fast, but safe and effective.
Physically imune opponent
Here I would suggest a total of 3 ways. The first one would be to play with others so that you only act as a blocker for these opponents and the others have enough time to take the group apart. I like this way quite well, but who always has a working party at hand? So here are the alternatives for everyone
2. you take a weapon with high elemental damage and use Fend to put it on as many enemies as possible. The first possibility would be magical weapons with the corresponding attributes and the alternative for people who don’t want to go on shopping runs for weeks and have enough money would be a fast weapon with 5-6 sockets which you can upgrade with elemental damage jewels
3. one grabs a javelin and takes Tiamat’s rebuke as a shield and happily pedals along.
I don’t think much of 6 Emerald Socket actions, because the damage per second is simply too low and the poisonous damage does not overlap.
There is another possibility and it is certainly very effective. You take a bow with the highest possible damage to electricity, which you can buy relatively easily from the dealer, and let it socket twice more and use place runes or jewels with lightning damage. You should also place a point on GA or on the Cold Arrow, because they always hit and you can bring the damage safely to the monster.
However, I don’t think this solution is acceptable, since you want to play a speerama and a bow is the opposite. If you don’t mind this point this is a cheap and working alternative.
A Bowama has many possibilities. With a mercenary, the Valkyrie and the Decoy you have 3 blockers, which are all usable for different purposes.
In order to relieve the blockers you should also consider a few more aspects of your equipment. Cold damage and knockback are for example 2 attributes that are also very useful to slow down the enemies. If a melee fighter does get past your blockers, you should also retreat. Better to run away than to die. If all this doesn’t help you still have the dodging skills and hopefully a cushion of life. This way you can also take one or two blows, which will give your blockers time to bind the melee fighter again.
For ranged fighters you have to proceed a bit different. The blockers usually do a good job here and the decoy is even more useful, but you can’t stop other ranged fighters from attacking by knockback or similar. But here again there is a strongly underestimated skill. Slow projectiles defused almost every ranged attack, because you can dodge them manually without problems.
A mercenary is very important for a speerama, as he either increases their defensive potential or their attack power noticeably. Of course it always depends on the style of play which mercenary fits best, but I will give you a rough recommendation.
The Huntresses
I don’t really think slayers are cut out for this. They always stay out of the rough with their ranged attacks, but their usefulness is also limited. A hunter can sometimes slow down individual enemies with her ice attacks, but this effect is better achieved by the corresponding mercenaries from the 2 and 3 act IMHO. But there are two more uses. The first is to put a Bow with Amplify Damage in the Slayer’s hand and hope that she curses as many enemies as possible. Since she only shoots single arrows it will not have a very strong effect. The method I like best is to use her as a PI killer. You put a bow with as much elemental damage as possible into her hand and use it as support against Pis. That’s not very fast either, but you are much faster than when you fight alone against Pis. By the way, if you attract items with skill bonuses to the hunter she will only fire elemental arrows(2 skills) and even lightning strikes(3 skills).
The desert types
With the appropriate auras they are certainly most useful for a speerama. Depending on the level of difficulty they handle different auras. Most useful are mercenaries with power, holy frost or defiance. The mercenary with Power Aura increases the damage very much and makes life a lot easier. The monsters fall a lot faster with him and because of the higher damage you need less Manaleech and Lifeleech strikes better. The mercenary with Frost Aura is of course more defensive, but no less useful. He makes you get less attacks and you can easily retreat from a group that’s too strong. If you don’t need higher damage (e.g. a lance with extremely high damage) or if you prefer a safer mode (HC mode) this mercenary is also a good choice. Then there is the mercenary in a Thorn Aura version. This makes things a bit easier, because the monsters kill themselves slowly when they attack you, but you won’t get hit often enough (and shouldn’t get hit more often) to really get a benefit.
Last but not least I recommend the Defiance Mercenary. If you set up your other equipment for high defense and bring it to an appropriate level, you can reach such high defense values that you will be hit very rarely together with the dodge skills.
If you still have a good spear or pole weapon, the mercenary can even do some damage. However, it is not as stable as for example a barbarian mercenary. All mercenaries that don’t use these auras are not as strong.
The Iron Wolves
The first thing to do is to forget about the iron wolves with fire or lightning attacks as soon as possible. These do relatively little damage and they die very quickly. Much better is an Iron Wolf with Cold spells. It slows the monsters down very well and it doesn’t matter that the damage is negligible. However, despite their shields, the iron wolves usually die very often, as they almost never strike and therefore don’t leech. The constant resuscitation becomes very expensive in the long run. This leaves a pretty average mercenary, who has nice but not exactly exhilarating bonuses. If you have problems with Crowd Control but certainly worth a look.
The Barbarians
They are certainly the most stable of all mercenaries, and with the right weapon they can strike fairly hard. Because the barbarian often fights in close combat he will pull monsters from you and so you will live longer. There is actually not much more to say about the mission. He is just a barbarian
So if you want to have someone in the crowd besides Wally, you should take a barbarian with you. But IMHO is a mercenary from the 2 act almost as strong and he also delivers many bonuses.
Mercenary equipment
The most important for almost every mercenary are Lifeleech, good resis and lots of life. Lifeleech is relatively easy to get over a helmet. Tal Rasha’s mask looks like shit**, but you can’t see it on the mercenary and it’s very cheap. Alternatives would be the crown of thieves, vampire look and robbery skull. If you can get Lifeleech from the weapon you can also use rockstoppers. Armor with reasonable bonuses are Duriel’s bowl, Ghostforge, the rune-words smoke and lionheart.
Bottom line:
Only the mercenaries from act 2 should have a really strong effect, as they increase either the offensive or the defensive abilities with their auras. The other mercenaries also have their areas of operation, but whether a barbarian or not will not be noticed very much, because he is only an additional blocker but nothing else improved.
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