Jab Fend Amazon Guide

Jab* is your Primary Single Target Damage Skill. Use when you are targeting an Elite Monster or engaging an isolated target such as a Boss or Uber Boss. It makes you lunge 3 "jabs" in quick succession, dealing Physical Damage to an enemy or enemies directly in front of you. Your Character is stuck in the attack animation until the 3 "jabs" have been completed. This Skill can only be used with a Javelin or Spear Weapon.

Fend* is your Multiple Target Damage Skill. Use when engaging multiple mobs. It makes you lunge multiple "jabs" in quick succession, dealing Physical Damage to all nearby enemies. Your Character is stuck in the attack animation until all adjacent mobs have been targeted or the attack is interrupted. This Skill can only be used with a Javelin or Spear Weapon.

Impale* is a slow, uninterruptible Single Target strike that is best used against Elites, Act Bosses, and Uber Bosses. Use this Skill once at the very beginning of a Boss fight to temporarily Slow the Boss' movement, Attack Speed, and Cast Speed; reuse this Skill as soon as the effect wears off. Similar to Smite, this Skill always hits. This Skill can only be used with a Javelin or Spear Weapon.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)

Critical Strike* adds a % chance to deal double Physical Damage with your attacks. This chance increases with Skill Level.

Penetrate* grants Attack Rating based on Skill Level.

Dodge* provides a chance that you "Dodge" melee attacks while attacking or standing still. This negates any potential Damage from a melee attack completely.

Avoid* provides a chance that you "Dodge" ranged attacks and/or spells while attacking or standing still. This negates any potential damage from a ranged attack completely.

Evade* provides a chance that you "Dodge" an attack (any) while walking or running. This negates any potential damage from an attack completely.

Valkyrie* creates a Valkyrie Warrior which fights by your side, mainly serving to tank damage. Re-summon her if she dies.

Decoy* creates a replica of your Amazon with increased health at the location of your cursor. It remains in one spot, drawing monster attacks/abilities until it is destroyed or expires.

Slow Missiles* slows and reduces the damage from ranged enemies' attacks/projectiles when cast. This Skill also illuminates nearby enemies.

Inner Sight* illuminates nearby enemies and lowers their Defense. This de-buff can be applied to ordinary mobs as well as Bosses.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

Gear Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) Phoenix Monarch and Stormshield are used on the Off-Hand when using a Javelin on certain Build Variants (see the "Sustain" and "Safe Ubers" Build Variants).
2) Only use Wizardspike and Stormshield on Weapon-Swap for fast and safe Teleporting in a Party with Barbarian-granted Battle Orders.
3) Only use Naj's Puzzler or a Staff of Teleportation for Teleport Charges if you are not wearing Enigma.
4) Use a Life Tap Charge Wand for Life Sustain, a Demon Limb for Attack Rating from Enchant, and a Treachery to proc Fade (for Resistances and Damage Reduction) when facing Uber Bosses.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities or bad layouts.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Build Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Ubers

This build is capable of farming Uber Tristram and the Mini Ubers before (See the "DPS Ubers" and "Safe Ubers" Build Variants):

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Act 2 Desert Mercenary

Reaper’s Toll, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to significantly boost your Physical Damage. Equip him with The Reaper's Toll for a 33% Chance to cast Decrepify on striking, Slowing down and increasing Physical Damage dealt to enemies. Decrepify can even break most Physical Immunities.

Alternatively, you can use an Act 1 Cold Mercenary equipped with Faith for more Attack Speed at the expense of raw Damage (see the "Attack Speed" Build Variant).

Mercenary Gear Options

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Mercenary Types and Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

General

• Before starting a Magic Find/Experience run, cast Valkyrie on your weapon loadout with the most + to Skills. Recast as necessary for it to remain by your side or to draw monster aggro away from you or your Mercenary.
• If you have Teleport granted to you by an item, use it to travel short distances and to reposition you and your Mercenary into Elite Packs. You can also use a Harmony on Weapon-Swap for faster travel.
• Recast Valkyrie and/or cast Decoy near dangerous Elite Packs prior to engaging them.
• Cast Slow Missiles when faced with dangerous ranged enemies.

For Multiple Enemies:

• Use Fend when engaging multiple nearby targets. It is optimal to hop directly into the center of Elite Packs (using Teleport) and use Fend until the Elite Monsters and their surrounding minions are dead.

For Single Targets/Bosses:

• Use Jab when engaging a single, isolated target (such as a Boss) directly in front of you. Jab can also be used to snipe Elite Monsters and is decently effective at clearing small groups of tightly clumped monsters (no more than 3).
• Use Impale once at the beginning of an Act Boss or Uber fight for its Slow effect. Use this Skill again when the effect wears off. If you are lacking Attack Rating, kill Uber Bosses exclusively using Impale. Impale can also be used to snipe low Life Elites. However, in most cases, using Impale multiple times in quick succession lacks effectiveness due to its slow Attack Speed (low DPS).
• Use Inner Sight to lower the Defense of an Act Boss or Uber Boss to make them easier to hit, especially if your Attack Rating is <10K.

Immunities

• Bone Break sets all Immune to Physical monsters to 95% Physical Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance (including Decrepify) to take full effect.
• Reposition your Mercenary (if possible) on top of Physical Immune monsters to break their Immunity with Decrepify from his The Reaper's Toll.
• Skip Physical Immune monsters that are still Physical Immune, or extremely hard to kill (highly Physical Resistant), even after applying Decrepify.

Late-Game

• In the beginning of a Magic Find/Experience run, cast Battle Command 2 times and Battle Orders once using your Call to Arms. Refresh these Call to Arms buffs whenever they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• While on your Faster Cast Rate-granting Weapon-Swap, use Teleport from Enigma to travel to your Farming Spot or between Elite Packs. Teleport outpaces running despite the fact that Amazons have the worst Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints in the game. Swap to your main weapon loadout to kill monsters using Jab or Fend.
• Use Teleport while on your main weapon loadout to reposition your Mercenary to apply Decrepify from his The Reaper's Toll to the mobs that you are striking with Jab or Fend.

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• Ubers - The Jab Fend Amazon destroys the Uber Bosses and is an overall great build for farming Hellfire Torches (see the "DPS Ubers" or "Safe Ubers" Build Variants).
• Travincal with 3 Players in the Game - A combination of Jab and Fend takes down Council Members with ease. Council Members have great loot odds for Runes, Charms, Jewels, Jewelry, Gems, and basic gear, especially with 3 or more Players in the game or /Players3 on Single Player.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate is not required for this build, but certain Breakpoints can be utilized for faster Enigma Teleport on Weapon-Swap. You don't need FCR if you are not using Enigma.
Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Increased Attack Speed (IAS)

Increased Attack Speed speeds up your attack animations. Weapon Bases have different IAS Breakpoints. Values for the bases of most recommended weapon options are provided below (see "Gear Options" for these options). Consult the d2planner for other bases.

Matriarchal Spear/Ghost Spear Base Weapons

Matriarchal Pike/War Pike Base Weapons

Matriarchal Javelin Base Weapons

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for at least the 52% FHR Breakpoint.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Jab Fend Amazon can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear, Stat Point allocation, and Skills. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: Equip either Crown of Ages or Vampire Gaze for a Helmet, along with either Chains of Honor or Enigma for a Body Armor, and either a String of Ears or Verdungo's Hearty Cord for a Belt to achieve high % Damage Reduction on a Hardcore Jab Fend Amazon.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond their default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Chains of Honor and Crown of Ages are great Body Armor and Helmet options for stacking Resistances on this build; Jewelry and Charms are also ideal sources.
• Lightning Absorb: Equip Thundergod's Vigor when farming or Teleporting through an area where Burning Souls are able to spawn such as Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction.

Stat Point Changes

• Only allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to wear your gear.
• Allocate all remaining Stat Points into Vitality for maximum safety.

Skill Point Changes

• Allocate additional Skill Points into Dodge, Avoid, and Evade instead of Valkyrie to negate as much damage as possible.