The Amazon plays like a slightly more battle-capable
Rogue from Diablo I. She can hold her own in one-on-one combat but truly excels
at ranged weaponry. Her two options are the Bow and the Javelin. You need to
make a decision which one you will specialise in. The javelin is best if you
prefer to keep you melee skills particularly sharp. Don’t try to keep both
weapons at maximum, as this will mean that you won’t reach full potential in
either. The Amazon is the thinking fighter. You can’t just take her hip-deep
into demons and start slashing. She’s best as a guerrilla terrorist. Hit and
run, attack and fade. Ambushes are a speciality of the Amazon. (Much like the
Vietcong guerrilla tactics of the Vietnam War)
Obviously, Dexterity is you prime statistic, but Strength
can’t be ignored either. At every level advance, think about placing two points
into Strength, two into Dexterity, and one into Vitality if you want a well
rounded character. Otherwise keep Dexterity as your dominant stat with for
points added at each level and one to the other stats every consecutive round.
You may want to think about keeping Vitality up as well as you’ll be running a
lot. Once you have a decent set of combat stats, think about diverting some
skill into energy. While you won’t be using high-cost powers constantly, there
will be a constant drain on your Mana. You’ll need to have enough magic power
to ensure you won’t be just getting off a few shots then having to run away
continually.
The bow-using Amazon has a few important skills that
she needs to be particularly efficient with. Magic Arrow is the most important
and is an essential early level skill. It creates a surprise magic arrow.
Interestingly, the higher skill point you have in it the more damage it does
and the cheaper it is until by level 12, it’s free. It is a handy default
attack for this character. Cold Arrow is also a vital skill. Freezing attacks
are one of the most useful attack types in the game, and piking off a rampaging
horde can certainly dictate the tempo of battle to your advantage.
One nice little combo is Critical Strike, which
means you’ll basically never miss with Multiple Shot. There is nothing quite
like a 120 degree arc of death on your screen.
If you want to get into more melee fighting with the
Amazon, try for the javelin skills. Jab is the basic skill that allows more
attacks for a compromised accuracy. It doesn’t pay off too well until, say, the
fifth level. But keep putting points into it for a good all-round attacking
skill. Lighting and Poison are the two sub-trees for the javelin Player.
Lighting is probably the more damaging but Poison can sometimes work more
insidiously. Javelin combines extremely well with a high-level critical strike.
Even the hardest bosses can’t survive too many of those.
Generally. The Amazon is a bot more flexible than
the Barbarian but misses out on the sheer skill with weapons. However. If you
like playing it fast and loose and don’t mind being on the run, she impresses
with a wide range of baffling powers.
