INTRODUCTION

As I neared the end of Skeletorr's run, I gave some thought to the next Hardcore challenge I wished to undertake. I wanted to play a warrior of some kind, preferably something in the vein of the D1 Warrior class (my favorite). I thought of trying a hardcore Melee sorceress, or a melee-oriented paladin of some kind. I thought about a dual-wield barb, which I still haven't tried. Then I hit upon an idea.

What are the two skills nobody seems to have yet tried? Power Strike and Charged Strike. Like Firebolt, Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Fire Arrow, amazon's Lightning Bolt, and Teeth, these skills are essentially prerequisite skills. People put one point into them on their way up the tree, and not even that often, as there haven't been all that many Lightning Strike amazons, either. So a lot of people have tried these skills at slvl 1, and maybe someone has put a few extra points into Charged Strike here or there, but has anybody built a character around these skills? I sure haven't heard of it. Even at the Amazon Basin, these are disposable skills.

Is that because the skills are genuinely worthless? Or is it rather that nobody has given serious thought to playing them? What follows are excerpts from the two Javazon guides hosted at the Amazon Basin:

So there is the conventional wisdom regarding the middle of the javelin tree from the experts who have played javelin amazons to high level: "worthless" or "redundant".

Why is that? What's wrong with the middle of the javelin tree anyway? I decided to look into it.

After examining the skills on paper, these points jumped out at me:

* These skills are all intensely mana hungry.
* Lightning-based attacks are inherently erratic: more critters resist lightning than anything else, as do the much-hated Lightning Enchanted bosses, which are among the worst for melee characters.
* Spearazons lack a shield, thus are highly vulnerable. More importantly, pikes and lances are slower than Gheed with a refund, thus only truly viable with the fixed-fps attack rate of Jab. Trying to use the middle of the javelin tree with a pike would be like walking in quicksand, while a higher speed spear gets rid of the high damage, which would be needed for leeching back the huge mana cost of Lightning Strike, or the still hefty mana costs of the lower two skills -- plus you still don't get a shield.
* Javazons have the defense to hold up -- and most importantly, they have the weapon speed to make these melee lightning skills playable -- but javelins lack the damage to leech enough mana to make these skills pay off, particularly Lightning Strike, which is incredibly hungry.
* BrianDNA is right: Lightning Fury beats Lightning Strike hands down: you get more damage for the same mana, from range, plus Lightning Strike's chaining effect is a bit buggy, making things even worse. Even more to the point, Lightning Fury gets the leech effect of thrown javelins, which do more damage than the same javelins when used in melee, thus further improving the mana recouping curve for Fury vs Strike.
* Lightning Strike is a level 30 skill. If you wanted to play with that, you'd have to complete Normal and a third of Nightmare (on a one-pass full clear) before you even got the skill, and you'd be done with Nightmare before you had enough points in it to rely on it as main attack. This is a serious drawback for players like me, who run right through the game with few if any pauses to smell the level-up roses. I'd be slogging through a slow leveling/playing process for the chance to use a weakish-looking skill in the final difficulty.

So these were the problems I could see just glancing at the skills. I delved a little deeper and found:

* Power Strike requires you to hit the target in order to do you any good.
* Power Strike's total added damage never ramps up very far. You get up to 60ish extra damage for almost seven mana points? And the lightning can be resisted? That's not even as efficient as Firebolt. :) Heck, you can get a weapon with 1-32 lightning damage BUILT IN. Power Strike thus looks to me like ubervariant land, and perhaps weaker than any other skills in the entire game except for Telekinesis (as attack) and Holy Fire.
* Charged Strike will release its bolts whether you hit the target or not, but you cannot "cast" it while using shift-click unless a target is right there. Thus this is a melee skill, but as with Shiver Armor vs Frozen Armor, there is a hidden benefit. (With Shiver Armor, you get the damage and chill vs any monster that swings at you, even if your shield blocks the blow or you tempt fate and move out of range before the blow can land. For Frozen Armor, you only get the affect after they have hit you). With Charged Strike, you WILL do some damage with the bolts regardless of whether your javelin's physical blow lands.
* Charged Strike's damage ramps up five points per bolt, per level. That's not much, but it sure beats Ember's damage, so the question is not whether or not I can finish Nightmare, rather the level of ease: will it be fun, or merely tedious? Only one way to find out.

So the die was cast. I would build my javazon around Charged Strike, with a minor in Dodge. I would add support from the Passives tree, but I would not use any slvl 30 skills, including Valkyrie. I would aim for a 3D Tower shield and Twitchthroe. I would seek out +mana items above all else (Frostburn, Nightsmoke, rings/ammy of Wyrm/Dragon/Wizardry) and look for Amber of Stability helm to get my fastest recovery and extra Lightning resistance. Instead of adding mana through Energy, only to turn around and look for +Life items, I would try to go with the base 15 Energy for as long as possible, and get mana off items, then get Life (and free Stamina) off of Vitality. I would pump Dex to at least 88 (eventually), after that play it by ear. If the char lived long enough, I would look for an Eye of Etlich.

As usual for characters written about on my site, this would be a single player character: no trades/gifts, no cheats, unassisted all the way. I would full-clear through Normal, after that no idea. Depends on how it goes up to that point. My goal is Duchess, but I will play on as long as viable.

ACT ONE

Lytra began with awesome starting equipment: 57 javelins and a buckler with 5 Defense. First skill points went to Critical Strike, then Inner Sight, then Jab. Javelins are plenty strong enough through the first couple of areas, even at 1-5 melee damage, and I could throw at bosses, downing them in a jiffy.

At clvl 6, I invested my saved points into Poison Javelin and Power Strike (both prereqs), and began to invest into Dodge. I hotkeyed Poison Jav on my usual supplemental ranged attack key: F7. I hotkeyed Normal Attack to F1 and Power Strike to F2 and Jab to F3, all bound to left mouse, then remapped these keys to A, Z, and S, for one-touch access without lifting my hand off the Ctrl key. Thus I could change melee attack on the run, while running, without moving my hand. (I am a walk/run fanatic, Temping Fate now as a matter of course, highly microefficient with character footwork in all situations except those over which I have lost control -- which doesn't happen often. I rely on maneuvers more than anything else to keep me safe and alive, thus I do not use Always-Run. I use Ctrl to run, and I walk often).

Rather than rely on Jab, I opted for Power Strike, to get into the proper habits for later. Thus, I used normal melee vs fallen or skeletons or rogues, and switched to Power Strike for shamen, zombies, garg beasts and any bosses I did not throw at. Throw was hotkeyed to F5 and bound to right button, as was Poison Jav. I had meleed Coldcrow but thrown the last shot to finish her, for example.

Blood Raven I slew with Power Strike. It more than doubles javelin damage, but I definitely noticed the mana drain already, as I missed quite a few times (her mlvl 10, my clvl 6, thus To Hit below 50% in the final equation) and the meager mana supply went down down down in a hurry. I drank two minor blue, plus some minor red, to complete the battle.

The next several levels I added to Dodge. Lytra got an amulet of +3 minimum damage and that helped a lot. I could have rushed to Dexterity, to use pilum, but I did not. So she didn't visit Gheed until about clvl 10, before doing the Tower quest. The weapon upgrade made an immediate and striking difference, and just in time to tackle spitters in the Hole and Pit, goats in the tower, and so on. I used Power Strike against Ghosts, making short work of them, bypassing their damage resistance. I ran into a LEB or two and handled them by throwing javelins. I meleed spitters with normal attack: no sense struggling against their Lit Resist.

Down in the pit, on the lower level, I ran into about the worst hairball you can accidentally stumble on in Normal Act One: two extra fast bosses and a pit loaded with population. I didn't know that at the time I committed to the center of the chamber, then it was too late, and Lytra was on the run, the situation out of control. I threw and threw, using some Poison Javelin, but my ammo warning came up and it got even messier. I would not want to have fought this battle in lag. Online, I may have bailed from this one.

I herded them around until I could use one of the stairs bottlenecks without getting trapped. I probably could have just tanked the whole fight -- plenty of potions on belt, and this is only Act One Normal -- but again, I wanted to get into the right habits for later, so I played it as if it would be trouble to let them surround me.

I saved my points from clvls 10 and 11, then at level 12, I grabbed Slow Missiles, Avoid, and Lightning Bolt.

In the Jail, I discovered that Lytra's javelins are not bound by the laws of physics. Check it out:

At clvl 13, I invested my second point into Slow Missiles.

"Say what?"

Yep. Twelve seconds is not enough. This is a pure char, and will have to find any +skill adders on her own. There are no +skills on javelins (maybe in the Xpack there will be), I'm not interested in Tarnhelm, I likely won't get Sigon's Guard, I wouldn't use Silks if you paid me, and Stones are a luxury you can only dream of in single player. Even with extreme luck, you couldn't get one before about clvl 40. Thus, figure the only +1 skill I might find and use would be Sigon's Guard, Etlich, or a Fletcher amulet. The eye is desired, but won't come up for a long long time, the others would take luck.

You don't plan on incredible luck with a pure character. That's a recipe for disaster. Besides, the more duration on Slow Missiles the better. Even with +2 (assuming Sigon and Etlich), that would still only be slvl 4 total, for a thirty second duration. That is NOT too much to have when you aren't talking uberbowazon. And as much as I plan to use Slow Missiles, the mana efficiency of 50% extra duration would make a difference, along with the added safety. So this choice is a no-brainer for Lytra. Slow Missiles @ 2.

Arriving at the Cathedral, I put my long duration Slow Missiles to work and kicked some shaman bootay.

Catacombs were no problem on the first two levels. Midgets, Dark Ones and spitters ate steel, Spiders and Shamen tasted Power Strike (yep, still usin it). I put my clvl 14 and 15 points into Dodge, taking it to my goal slvl of 6, for 40% dodge. Avoid is never going to get more than one point. Perhaps I should not even have put that one, considering Avoid-lock and no Valkyrie down the road, but it's done.

To start Cats 3, the game gave me a dose of double trouble: twins, two nasty Afflicted bosses mixed in with a ton of undead and three gargoyle traps in the first two rooms! Wow.

I performed a ton of footwork in this fight, running constantly to maintain distance and using poison javelin to aid my throws. Both bosses were lightning resist (one LEB, and max resistant) and so were all the minions, and rather than jab I went ranged. Worked out OK, but I used a whole stack of pilums.

There was another double-boss encounter of Afflicted later in the level. What? Did Lytra walk in on a major spitter convention or something? Good grief. And check out the double-edged sword of Slow Missiles:

Slow Missiles is a godsend, defensively, but there are a few instances where it has some negatives. A room full of slow floating attacks is one potential drawback, as are ghoul firewalls that last longer. However, if you have the -MD to negate those, they they don't matter and you still want to slow the Ghouls to slow their fireballs and meteors.

I gambled twice for Hand of Broc (20 bonus mana, badly needed, plus 3% life and mana leech: any mana leech AT ALL would be incredibly useful, and leather gloves are a cheap gamble). I landed a Death's Hand: not what I wanted, but I would put it to good use vs Andi and into Act Two. Death's Hand effectively negates poison as a serious threat, and that's useful to melee chars, for reducing potion use and increasing safety to some degree.

Below you see an old D1 Warrior tactic: bottleneck at the doorway.

Yes, that's my fifth Afflicted boss in two levels. I worked him down with normal attack, then jabbed to finish.

I used Power Strike (and a whole column of minor blues) to slay Andariel.

Up to this point, Lytra leveled fairly slowly, as any pure javazon must do. I was tempted a few times to pick up a Trident and lay into them, but I restrained myself.

ACT TWO

Not much to say about the first part of act two. I bought short spears, and a large shield of Deflecting with +13 Cold resistance. I continued to gamble, for Nightsmoke mainly, though some attempts at Broc. No big hits, but I did land a belt with +life.

Fights went rather slowly, even with short spears. Lack of mana leech kept me from being able to use much Power Strike. My natural mana pool was rather low, and a few attacks or a few castings of slow missiles would drain me. I resisted the temptation to invest into energy, though. My plan was to suffer now so I'd be stronger later. Radament I jabbed, saving that skill point and the ones from clvls 16 and 17.

Ungodly numbers of potions drop in act two, and for once, instead of hoarding them in town only to sell them later, I used quite a few blue and purple for mana, to make the fights go faster. I saved only enough blue to cube my numerous chips into full rejuvs, saving only the one diamond chip I had.

Finally, after slogging through on low damage, relying on defense, Lytra hit clvl 18, and the game began.

I put one point into Penetrate (that first one is worth the most anyway, but I might end up increasing this down the line), and one point into Plague Javelin.

"Huh? Say What?"

Yep. 9-14 poison damage is NOT much, but a cloud of poison can stop monster regen if that becomes an issue later on, and poison javelin doesn't always cut the mustard. I can save time and money for this one skill point, and increase my ranged options. Is that worth losing one or two percent off of dodge? Hard to say, but I made the decision to have plague javelin on hand, even at minimum level, and I intend to use it, starting with Coldworm's chamber.

I still had one point saved (for Decoy), and I began Lytra's dedicated investment into Charged Strike. I intended to devote every single level-up from here on out to Charged Strike, with quest points going to pump up Critical Strike, Dodge, or Decoy. I also took my first shots at Twitchthroe, which sent 66k or so down the tubes. I hope I land Twitch before I get out of Normal. Sure would be nice to have the SIAS, as well as the Dex, Str, and blocking.

So now that I have Charged Strike, what do I think of it?

Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. Not yet. Damage is 1-15 per bolt, three bolts, four mana points per use. This equates out to a slightly upgraded, but more costly, Power strike. I still can't afford to use it much, but it does help when I do use it. Pretty sad start, though. I was hoping for better at slvl 1.

Maybe the conventional wisdom is right after all?

They're not, as it turns out. So hang in there. :)

In the Lost City, I made THE momentous discovery. However, I did not yet realize the implications of it, and apparently nobody else ever has either.

Can that really be true? A new discovery about D2, almost ten months after its release? I didn't think so, but later, once I realized the importance of it, I looked around the net and COULD NOT FIND any mention of this phenomenon, not even among dedicated Amazon sites like the Basin. Interesting.

I don't remember exactly where Lytra hit clvl 19. Ancient Tunnels? Or early in the Viper Temple? Hardly matters. Once I leveled again, Charged Strike was bumped to slvl 2, and it's damage was quite nearly doubled for an extra 0.25 mana per use. Yes, that's right: quite nearly doubled.

1-15 averages out to 8 damage per bolt. 6-21 averaged out to 13 per bolt. (This is not the discovery, by the way, so hang in there). Mana efficiency gained better than a fifty percent boost, just going from slvl 1 to slvl 2. From two damage per mana, to slightly over three. The difference was instantly noticeable, as a temple filled with vipers became fodder for one shot kills.

Yep. In single player, mind you, with no health boost, and physically weak snakes: hit them, they died.

I started to see the implications of my discovery, but still didn't put the pieces together.

Down in the Altar room, Lytra drew an unusual situation: Fangy on the Altar.

As such, I threw plague javs at them (once the rest of room was clear) and Durga survived that. In fact, he survived all the way to the Palace Level 1 waypoint, where I got careless with taking him to town and some archers mugged him. Oh well.

Late in the Palace, Lytra reached clvl 20. Damage per bolt from slvl 3 now reached 18 on average, for an average total damage of 54, assuming no lightning resistance, and all three bolts hitting the target. Then add in my physical damage, and the (slight) chance for that to be doubled by slvl 1 critical hit.

So this brings me to my discovery, which was confirmed in the fight pictured below. Can you see what it is?

Look closely. Do you see any extra sparks? Do you see any of my charged bolts streaking past old Fire Eye, or hitting other targets? No, you don't. Why is that?

When you HIT with your physical attack, all three bolts are applied instantly to that target.

The skill description does not speak about the physical attack. There isn't even an Attack Rating listed when you select Charged Strike. The AR boxes go blank. Judging by how much I missed with Charged Strike vs Normal Attack, I would presume that there is no AR boost for Charged Strike (hereafter to be called CS).

Now when you MISS with CS, it does behave like the sorceress charged bolt skill, in that three bolts are emitted on a twisty, meandering path, and some are likely to miss the target even right in front of you (though one or two may hit, sometimes). However, when you HIT, the bolts are applied, almost without fail.

That's the discovery, and its implications... but wait! The excitement isn't over yet. :)

Lytra is just getting started!