2.4 Plague Javelin Feedback

PTR Feedback
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Hi¡
Testing in the PTR; In damage per second it is very similar to LIVE (a little higher in PTR compared to LIVE).

The nice thing about the PTR is that it only has a 1 second CD now, a 4 second CD skill that requires +40 points to spend is unfeasible in these types of games. (In this game, most skills can be used more than once in less than a second.)

The drawback is that since you have CD, you can’t use that skill as a primary source of damage; and the duration of the poison is only 3 sec. I would have preferred a duration of 6-15 seconds. (You open the fight with PlagueJavalin and then hit with LightFuring/Jab/Fend or Bow.) It is a source of damage to “supplement”.

What could be done?

A) Bring back longer duration of the poison. For example yo do a openning with Plague Javelin and then you use Fend/LightingFury/Multishot/Strafe…etc. A ColdDown Skill cannot be the main source of damage.

or

B) Remove the CD from the skill and make it like LightingFury or Throw. (Might also add a % physical damage). Doing that main damage skill.

Edit: 04/3/2022

Now it seems to be going great. It is a useful ability to combine it with a bow(Ex: Multishot&GA) OR LightingFury. Evidently not as powerful as a pure lightning amazon.
But I can move relatively well in games with P8. In the previous version on p8 it was unfeasible.

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Plague Javelin is so far from LF it will never be used besides maybe leveling. Unfortunately these small buffs do nothing that would change anyone’s playstyles.

They need to make the AOE larger, poison damage quicker to even come close to competing with LF.

Not sure what testing the dev team did, but I think like 90% of the buffs so far have done nothing to make anyone change up the builds we all have done forever.

Hopefully we get some changes in 2.4.1, or you will see LF, Blizz/light sorc, hammerdin rule the entire game again.

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I don’t think it’s such a bad ability (at 1 sec CD, at 4 it’s horrible). Simply LF is one of the most powerful skill in the game.
On Amazons well equipped with Griffon, infinity…etc PlagueJavaline will be useless. But on amazons with “cheap” gear that can’t break lighting immunities, it can be an interesting option to be able to move around all areas of the game. With mixed lighting and poison specs.

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Like duh, this was the whole point of the patch.

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I tried this on PTR. Max poison + plague for the synergy. Got around 4k+ poison damage with crappy PTR gear.

Unusable at p1 chaos hell. Not even as a secondary backup skill. Jab kills faster even with 1 point in it. Buriza with multi-shot as backup kills faster.

This is probably only useful from normal into nightmare. What a missed opportunity.

If there’s a jav equivalent of dweb or the new plague runeword it may make it viable.

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That is my point, im saying that the buff they gave to Plague javelin is still way to weak.

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I was banned for an “innocent” comment(i have edited):

True, although I am more positive. For Javazone in the process of equipping with good items. Sometimes the RNG is very [Word for which I was banned (I meant something complicated/difficult/laborious…etc)], and you can get a lot of lighting immunities. A mixed build, while worse for cows, can give you more versatility to move around on all maps, regardless of RNG.

Returning to the previous topic:

I have tested 2 diferent build:

A) PlageJavaline&Strafe Buriza.

I’m testing Strafe with a simple UPG-Buriza (160%), Lionheart armor(hel+lum+fal RW), talRasha helm, highlord amu, Disciple glovers, razortair belt, Sandstorm Trek boots, ravenfrost+bulkathos.(ptr default character).
With the exception of the Bk ring and the HL amu, Its are super affordable items. Perhaps in 2.4 Bowazon will have his ‘‘low-cost’’ option with Strafe&Buriza. In java: Titans 156% and Spirits Monarch .
Strafe doesnt need synergies; u can spend 20 point un this skill,40 in PJ and rest in passives, this is a offtopic: Strafe+Buriza can do 5 hit in a second and is very cheap. GuideArrow and MultiShot doesnt work fine with slow crossbow.
Well, Plague javaline complements very well with the strafe skill: Open the combat with PlageJava and then do 1-2 strafe atack, doing this rotation u can clean ChaosRun and Cow in p1. My dmg is 2.7k with buriza(around 300dext) and 5k poison with level 29

B) LightingFury + PJ (hybrid java spec)

Spend 20 point in LF and 1 point in synergies+40 PJ&PJ, rest in passives. The combat tactic is similar, you open fire with poison and then spam the LF. LF do around 1k lighting dmg+700/800 physical dmg. It doesn’t seem like much, but LF is a very powerful skill and you hardly need to invest in its respective synergies to clear maps.

In conclusion:

When the developers put CD into this Skill, I’m pretty sure they did it so it would be a secondary source of damage instead of a primary one.

I think the skill needs a bit of improvement, but understanding that the function of this skill is to “supplement” a other skill that can be spammed.

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did you try it with trang gloves? with Bramble? Did you try it with the Plague sword on a merc to proc LR?

The duration was lowered so that the skill dealt more damage per second, which is a good thing.

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i havent seen this gloves in PTR. In singleplayer using the editor…the gloves were an old version (¿1.8 or 1.9?) and didn’t add 25% Poison dmg O_o.
Only test with Grief(-23% resis), but But I focused more on clearing maps and dealing area damage than monotarget.(The mercenary attacks one by one).

One the other hand I want to test the specs with cheap and affordable items, items that can be obtained in the first or second week of the ladder. Get a 120/45+fortitude+faith or Enigma+infinity(for example); for a standard player it is many weeks/months of farming.

It is true, now it does a little more damage, but you also have to renew your poison debuff more frequently.
I prefer to poison all my opponents first, then spam LightingFury,jab,fend,multishot,Strafe…etc, swapping weapons every 3 seconds is awkward. That’s why I would prefer 6-15 seconds.

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If I want to use strafe, I’d use it with freezing arrow. That’s alread a viable build today and kills much quicker.

As stated above, already tried LF + Plague. Plague brings nothing to the table. LF can kill effectively already except for light immunes. Plague does nothing to light immunes. Jab kills quicker.

Not sure what’s the point of Plague here. Maybe it’ll work if we stack bramble, trang 3 piece and a bunch of psn jewels, but I can’t test this as online PTR only comes with limited gear and I don’t play offline. If someone can try it would be good.

PS. this 2.4 PTR account is loaded with crap gear. The previous server test 2.4 at least had some more decent gear to test with. And no not everyone is interested in single player and hero editors.

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I did some of my own testing by modding the game, and even with 10x more dmg on poison / plague javelin, it had slower clearing speed than Lighting Fury.

LF is honestly way too good.

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It clears content so it’s viable. How fast is another question. It does not need to be as good, not better than LF, because that was not the point of the buff. All you can think of is fast endgame clear on P8, your brains are meta-washed. They made the skill much more playable, it’s going to be a fun build, and fun builds don’t have to be top dog SSS tier.

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With a PTR gear i’m not sure if Freezing Arrow does more damage than PJ&PJ combined with Strafe, it gives you more control. I mean going with Buriza; with rapid base weapon is another topic.
To maximize FA you need spend 60 point+20 in Strafe;With that you can only put 1-2 points in each passive skill.
With +9 skill(titan+spirit+HL amulet+BK ring+skiller), I do +5k poison. In p1 it is not so bad either.
In monotarget it is true that jab / fend puts much more, but if you find a pull of 10 immunes you alternate jab with PJ.

PTR items are fine for testing how a class/spec works with items obtained in Nightmare.
Using annihilus+Torch+9 skiller+enigma+cta+hoto…etc is used to test ENDGAME with P8 and PvP.
IMHO to see class/build viability you need to make it viable on p1 with basic gear and make it viable on p8 with BISSES.

For example the Bow-Amazon in the LIVE, it goes fine with BISSES items,but with basic equipment it is a chestnut xDD

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Ouch. That is pretty weak.

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In Live i used hybrid spec. With 20 Lithing Fury+ 20 Charge strike.

LF even with BOWAZON items (tiara 100ed/45ias, Fortitude, Eth upg titan, zero skillers…etc). You can clean cows better than any other class except pure javazon with infinity+griffon xDD

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I have a frost maiden in live. Freezing arrow and strafe already kills quite fast - can solo chaos easily. Introducing a weaker secondary like plague serves no purpose - max plague + synergy poison in PTR hardly tickles the mob in chaos.

There really isn’t any build I can see that will be better to what’s already available to zons in 2.3.

Unless they add more synergies to plague, the changes in 2.4 isn’t really adding anything meaningful wrt plague.

Again, haven’t tried plague with bramble and multiple loads of psn facets (say 2 in a COA and 3 in a headhunter) to stack +% psn skills or 3 piece trang to min/max to see if it gives enough boost to be viable in p1. Hard to test this setup in PTR online.

I was actually quite excited when they announced the plague change until I actually tried it in PTR and it was weak sauce…

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I think the changes are on the right way.

It was necessary to remove/reduce the CD. 4 seconds of CD was an aberration. Although I think it lacks a tad more to make it attractive. (understanding that LF is probably one of the most powerful choise in the game and that it can never match the effectiveness of this skill)

edit:
@Gieve
Ah ok. I tested
FreezeArrow with the PTR character.
And I have seem PJ&Strafe more comfortable than FA&Strafe. (In Chaos Sanctuary there is no immunity to poison, but some are immune to cold).
On the other hand, in the live I always played amazon hybrid and I’m more used to using those builds than pure Bowazon. And that I wear 100% bowazon garments but I play hybrid hehe.

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