Lightning Fury Amazon Guide

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) Ethereal Titan's Revenge is preferred if it can be backed-up by an additional Titan's Revenge or a Thunderstroke when low on Quantity. Don't worry, it cannot permanently break or disappear by reaching 0 Quantity. Upgrading this item from a Ceremonial Javelin to a Matriarchal Javelin (Titan's Revenge), while not required, boosts its Physical Damage output along with effective Leech from % Mana stolen per hit and % Life stolen per hit stats on your gear.
2) Use a Lower Resist Charge Wand on Weapon-Swap to reduce monster Lightning Resistance or break monster Lightning Immunity if you do not have Infinity or Plagues equipped on your Mercenary.
3) Equip Wizardspike and Spirit on Weapon-Swap for fast and safe Teleporting if Barbarian-granted Battle Orders is available.
4) Only use Naj's Puzzler or a Staff of Teleportation for Teleport Charges if you are not using Enigma.

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 "Ubers" Build Variant):

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

Infinity, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to increase the Physical Damage of Lightning Fury and Jab, and to deal with enemies that are Lightning Immune. A Holy Freeze Aura Mercenary can also be used for the Crowd Control it provides. Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances and Defense with its Conviction Aura, drastically boosting damage. This Aura is also capable of breaking Immunities, including most Lightning Immunes.

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. 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

• Keep additional Javelin in your inventory or Horadric Cube to minimize repair trip frequency.
• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, cast Valkyrie. Recast Valkyrie as necessary to reposition it to your side and draw monster aggro.
• If you have Harmony equipped on Weapon-Swap, use it for faster travel. You can also proc Burst of Speed with Hustle on Weapon-Swap (using Strafe).
• Gather/group nearby monsters as much as possible to maximize the effectiveness of Lightning Fury.
• Cast Decoy and/or Slow Missiles when faced with dangerous ranged enemies.

For High Mob Density Farming:

• When encountering high mob density or Elite Packs, use Lightning Fury to thin out your surroundings. Finish off any stragglers with Charged Strike before moving on.

For Bosses:

• Make short work of Act Bosses, Uber Bosses, Diablo Clone, and isolated Elites by poking them down with Charged Strike. Position yourself in the 3, 6, 9 or 12 o’clock position to hit them with as many Lightning Bolts as possible.
• Use a Lower Resist Charge Wand to cast Lower Resist on Bosses to reduce their Lightning Resistance before you have Infinity or Plagues equipped on your Mercenary.

Immunities

• Crack of the Heavens sets all Immune to Lightning monsters to 95% Lightning Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Lightning Resistance to take effect (including Conviction Aura from Infinity at 1/5th effectiveness).
• Before you have access to Crack of the Heavens, Infinity, or Plagues, purchase a Lower Resist Charge Wand from Nightmare Drognan and equip it on your Weapon-Swap. Use Lower Resist to reduce enemy Resistances or break Immunities. Recharge this Wand using Gold at a repair vendor or the Chipped Gem + Ort Rune Horadric Cube Recipe.
• Monsters still Lightning Immune while affected by Lower Resist or Conviction can be killed using Jab or by your Mercenary. You can also slowly kill groups of these monsters using Lightning Fury's Physical Damage. However, in many cases, skipping these mobs is best.
• Always skip Unique monsters that are both highly Lightning and Physical Resistant or Immune.

Late-Game

• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, first cast Battle Command 2 times and then Battle Orders once using Call to Arms. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• Use Teleport from Enigma to travel to your Farming Spot or between Elite Packs and pockets of high mob density. Teleport outpaces running despite the fact that Amazons have the worst Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints in the game.
• Also use Teleport to reposition your Mercenary close to enemies to apply Conviction Aura from his Infinity, reducing their Resistances and breaking Lightning Immunities. This also helps with procing Lower Resist using Plagues.
• To help sustain Life and Mana, equip a Phoenix Monarch (on either your off-hand or Weapon-Swap) for its Redemption Aura. This is optional, as you can rely on high x% Life/Mana stolen per hit stats on your gear and/or Potions.
• Keep a back-up Titan's Revenge or Thunderstroke in your inventory (inside the Horadric Cube to save space) to swap to when Quantity is depleted on your active weapon. This is especially important when using Ethereal Titan's Revenge, but also saves repair trips while using Thunderstroke or Non-Ethereal Titan's Revenge.
  Note: Ethereal Titan's Revenge persists and regenerates even after reaching 0 Quantity. This wasn’t always the case!

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• The Secret Cow Level - The Standard Razortail 100% Chance to Pierce Javazon featured in this guide is designed for this farm. Lightning Fury's mechanics take full advantage of the densely packed Hell Bovines. Felled with ease, these legions of "Cows" are great sources of Runes, Charms, Jewels, Jewelry, Gems, and Runeword Bases. High Player Count games (/Players5-7 on Single Player) are optimal for this farm.
• Arcane Sanctuary with 5-8 Players in the Game or /Players7 on Single Player - With no Lightning Immune mobs, "ghost hunting" in this Farming Spot is a highly effective strategy on this build. Even a Starter Lightning Fury Amazon can effectively farm this area (see Build Variants). The Specters and Super Chests found here are incredible sources of Runes, Charms, Jewels, Jewelry, and Gems.
• The Pit with 3-8 Players in the Game or /Players7 on Single Player - The densely packed low Life monsters in this Max Level Area are primed for slaughter by a Lightning Fury Amazon. Lightning Fury quickly turns this place into a bombed-out cave. The Dark Archers found here can be troublesome; use Slow Missiles to gain the upper hand! See the "Mobility/Magic Find" Build Variant for the most optimal Pit farming setup.
• Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction/Baal with 3-8 Players in the Game or /Players3-8 on Single Player - The Javazon is an unrivaled Baal killer, making a joke out of Baal and his Waves alike. Nothing gets her to Level 99 faster. She takes full advantage of WSK/Throne's high monster density for loot and Experience as well.

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 speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for the 68% FCR Breakpoint for Enigma Teleport cast speed on the Standard Build. 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. Reach the 52% IAS Breakpoint for Lightning Fury on the Standard Build. Consult the d2planner for other bases.

Titan's Revenge/Thunderstroke/Other Javelin Bases

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for at least the 32% FHR Breakpoint. The 52% FHR Breakpoint is achieved with Spirit alone on the Standard Build.

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 Lightning Fury 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 Stormshield instead of Spirit. The % Damage Reduction and Increased Chance of Blocking granted by Stormshield both drastically improve your survivability. A setup using Stormshield socketed with a Ber Rune and either Enigma or Chains of Honor exceeds the 50% Damage Reduction cap. Given the high Dexterity requirements of a Lightning Fury Amazon's weapons, achieving maximum Chance to Block (75%) with Stormshield requires little additional investment.
• Faster Cast Rate: Equip Arachnid Mesh instead of Razortail to achieve at least the 48% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint on your main weapon loadout. This change helps maintain decent Teleport mobility while prioritizing Damage Reduction.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the 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 is a great Body Armor option for stacking Resistances on this build if you are willing to forgo Enigma Teleport. Boots, Jewelry, and Charms are also ideal sources of Resistances.
• Faster Hit Recovery: Aim for at least the 32% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint with Charms and/or Boots. Faster Hit Recovery is not as important when going for maximum Chance to Block (75%). You mainly rely on the 32% Faster Block Rate Breakpoint attained by Stormshield.
• 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. Thundergod's Vigor additionally grants +3 to Lightning Fury, increasing your raw damage.

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear Stormshield.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having Stormshield equipped.
• Put all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.

Skill Point Changes

• Allocate additional Skill Points into Pierce to achieve at least 82% Chance to Pierce without Razortail.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.

• Teleport instantly moves you to a selected square on the visible screen in which you can stand. The game tries to place you within a small radius around your cursor even if it would be impeded normally.
• Teleport is not obstructed by walls or other impediments but can fail if your cursor is not completely passed those impediments when cast. Your Mercenary and Valkyrie travel with you.
• You can “extend” the visible screen by opening UI-windows like the Inventory or the Character screen. Continuously cast Teleport and drag your mouse to the edge of your screen.
• The Mana cost of Teleport decreases with additional Skill Levels down to 1 Mana per cast.
• You can use “ESC” to open the menu in single player to pause the game after a Teleport to determine if you are safe.
• Teleport cast speed is affected by the Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint that you achieve with your gear.

• The speed of this Skill is based on Attack Speed.
• Can only be used with the weapon types Javelin and Spear.
• Lightning Damage is added to the Javelin.
• Lightning Bolts are released upon impact or expiry, aimed at targets within 10 yards. While the maximum of Lightning Bolts released scales with the Skill Level (slvl), the number of actually released Lightning Bolts depends on the target number within the radius.
• A target can be hit by multiple Lightning Bolts of a single use.
• Pierce can increase the potential Damage output to the extreme. A Skill Level 39 Lightning Fury theoretically can lead to up to 200 Lightning Bolts: to reach this, the initially thrown target needs to pierce 4 times and hit the maximum of 5 targets, while 40 targets are in the 10 yards radius.
• The minimum Lightning Damage is not affected by Synergies.

Scaling

Mana Cost

Formula

Mana Cost = 9.5 * slvl + 0.5

Lightning Damage

Synergies

+% Lightning Damage = 1 * (Power Strike.blvl + Lightning Bolt.blvl + Charged Strike.blvl + Lightning Strike.blvl)

• The speed of this Skill is based on Attack Speed.
• Adds Lightning Damage to a regular Attack which release a number of Charged Bolts with the same Lightning Damage in the direction of the attack.
• While the "hit part" of this Skill relies on a successful hit check to apply its Damage, the emitted bolts always get released and cannot be blocked.
• Can only be used with the weapon types Javelin and Spear.
• The number of bolts emitted increases every 5 Skill Levels (slvl), starting with 3 at Skill Level 1:
  # of Bolts = 3 + (slvl / 5)
• The bolts of lightning can "shotgun", meaning multiple bolts can hit the same target. The amount of bolts that hit a target depends on the target size:
  • Bolts do not hit size 1 targets.
  • A size 3 target usually gets hit by every bolt.
  • The number of bolts hitting a size 2 target depend on the attack angle.
• These factors in mind, it generally is best to attack a target that is at the 12, 3, 6 or 9 o'clock position from your Amazon.
• The calculation for the added base Lightning Damage (before Synergies) depends on the Skill Level (slvl). While the minimum Lightning Damage will always stay 1, the maximum damage scales with these formulas:

• Synergy bonuses don't increase the minimum Lightning Damage.
• Synergies apply the maximum Lightning Damage as a single multiplier. To calculate the +% Lightning Damage you have to sum up the base Levels (blvl) of Power Strike, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Strike, and Lightning Fury:
  +% Lightning Damage = 10 x (Power Strike.blvl + Lightning Bolt.blvl + Lightning Strike.blvl + Lightning Fury.blvl)

• The speed of this Skill is based on Attack Speed.
• Enemies targeted by this Skill are struck by 3 consecutive hits.
• Requires a successful hit check to apply Damage.
• Can only be used with the weapon types Javelin and Spear.
• It cannot be interrupted by Blocking, Casting, Hit Recovery, being Knocked Back or Stunned after the first hit has been executed.
• The Mana costs increase by 0.25 with each Skill Level (slvl), starting at 2 Mana on Skill Level 1.
  Mana Cost = 1.75 + (0.25 x slvl)
• The bonus % Attack Rating increases by 9% with each Skill Level, starting at 10% on Skill Level 1.
  +% Attack Rating = 1 + (9 x slvl)
• The bonus % Damage increases by 3% with each Skill Level, starting at -15% on Skill Level 1.
  +% Damage = (3 x slvl) - 18