Diablo II: Plague Javelin / Lightning Fury Javazon Skill Layout

Guides for Amazons using Plague Javelin and Lightning Fury are not very abundant. There is one guide for PvP play, but none I could find that covered PvM specifically, although this guide would do fine in that regard.

The skill setup is as follows:

Jab - 1
Pierce - 1
Poison Javelin - 20
Plague Javelin - 20
Lightning Fury - 20
Valkyrie - 20

Valkyrie doesn't have to be maxed, but since I prefer a more durable tank and there isn't anywhere else to place the extra skillpoints they go into valkyrie. I like to provide a breakdown of when the points were allocated:

Jab - 1
Critical Strike - 1
Dodge - 1
Lightning Bolt - 1
Avoid - 1
Poison Javelin - 7

This brings us to character level 12 and Poison Javelin is doing decent damage, just very slowly. This is where the character is throwing javelins and then running around the screen for several seconds while the poisoned monsters chase her until they expire. The going is slow but steady.

Poison Javelin - 10
Inner Sight - 1
Slow Missile - 1
Plague Javelin - 1

At level 18 Plague Javelin finally becomes available and the damage output increases more sharply from here onwards. Plague Javelin also has a shorter poison length, causing the monsters to fall quicker and requiring less running around evading monster packs. At level 18 Andariel will be encountered; the catacombs will be a cakewalk compared to facing her.

Plague Javelin - 7
Evade - 1

Now at level 24 each point into Plague Javelin causes the monsters to fall faster and faster and most of Act II will be fairly simple, especially now with an Act II Desert mercenary to tank for the character. No longer does the character need to run away from monsters, simply let them swarm the mercenary and throw a javelin from time to time.

Decoy - 1
Plague Javelin - 13
Valkyrie - 1

At level 30 the ultimate tank becomes available, Valkyrie, taking some of the heat off of the mercenary and making the Act bosses much easier to deal with. At this point a desert mercenary is no longer required and and Act I or III mercenary may be hired for additional elemental damage.

Plague Javelin - 20

At level 37 Plague Javelin is maxed. It is doing a respectable amount of damage and monsters are starting to fall in one javelin throw, a theme that will continue through the first few Acts of Hell.

Valkyrie - 10
Penetrate - 1
Pierce - 1
Poison Javelin - 20

At level 56 Plague Javelin and its synergy are maxed, making a formidable weapon for the character. Poison resistant and immune monsters are starting to be encountered, so a backup is now needed.

Lightning Fury - 20

At level 74 all offensive skills are maxed and monster packs fall very quickly. An initial Plague Javelin is followed up by a few Lightning Fury strikes to eliminate the majority of the monsters, the few remaining ones succumb to poison soon afterwards. Bosses are still going to be difficult as neither offensive skills is designed for single opponents so the fights will be long. This is why it is better not to have a melee mercenary, the ranged ones last much longer and this saves resurrection fees.

Valkyrie - 20

By level 81 all of the skills are maxed. With plus skill bonuses the valkyrie should have around 3000 life, more than enough to tank almost anything in the game. The general gameplay for normal monsters is to allow them to surround the valkyrie and then use either Plague Javelin or Lightning Fury, depending on which type of immunity the monsters posses. Single monsters can be dealt with either a combination of the valkyrie, rogue mercenary and Jab or a single Plague Javelin. The only monsters that are immune to both offensive skills are the Black Souls of the WSK and monster bosses. This is where the rogue mercenary with elemental damage is extremely useful, equip her with a fast bow and she'll make short work of the souls, especially with the valkyrie drawing all of their fire.

For this type of build there aren't any equipment pieces that are vital, only a few that make progress much simpler. Titan's Revenge for a weapon and Trang's Gloves are the only two pieces that make a large impact to the effectiveness of this character. Questing is still possible without them, but the progress will be much slower and require far more patience and trips back to town. All other equipment is subjective to the player's playing style.