Introduction
Hello, My name is Tempest and I've been playing amazons since about 1.04, they have undergone many changes since Diablo 2's release in June 2000. In this guide I will explore amazon strategies/tactics/equip/stats for PVP. Remember this is only if you agree under the rules set forth by the pvp community on diabloii.net, well lets get started with the guide.

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History
In the beginning of Diablo 2's release the amazon was not an overpowered class, actually the majority of people preferred the power of barbarians and sorceress', although all this changed in patch 1.04. During this patch, bows were upgraded to their rightful damage (a bug occurred them to do less than what was intended). Now the amazon is probably the most feared class, and controversial. It has the potential to be the best, and while many people scream "cheap," the pvp community has enacted rules to limit the power and keep it generally fair.

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Equipment
The amazon's equipment is probably one of the most expensive (barbarians equip is tied) out of all the 7 classes. If you include charms and jewels, it can really add up to extreme prices. First off the items listed under their respected categories you should have at your disposal.
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Armor-

  • Shaftstop- This 30% dr armor will save you time and time again against other amazons/asns and even barbs. It is a must if you are to be competitive in zon v zon (although there are always exceptions). Socket this with a 15% ias jewel (40/15 if you have one) to reach your desired frame rate.
  • Ed/Ias/Max dmg Armor- This is also a very versatile armor- The two most favored combinations for the wealthy are the following:
  • 60ias/120ed/15max
  • 160ed/45ias/15max
The first is to be used to reach 7 frames against a sorceress if you have enough ias on your bow and it is in the [-10] category (mat/great.) The 2nd is for sheer damage and to comfortably reach 8 fps. It can be used in z v z and other matchups but puts more pressure on the player, you cant trade blows with this armor, you are expected to hit more. These two armors are basic ones, obviously there are variations of each, but In my opinion they will provide the player with the most successful chance of winning.
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Helms-

  • 1.09/1.08 Vampire gaze- Vampire Gaze is the helm of all helms for an amazon. Especially if you can get a 1.08 one w/ a 40/15 jewel that won't disappear. The dual leech and damage reduction provides you with a way to get back life and values the life that you do have. It is by far the best helm and can be effectively used vs all classes.
  • Tal Rasha's Mask- This is an excellent sorceress helm, and exceeds vampire gaze in that respect, but that's where it stops. It lacks DR which is essential vs most classes, it is much cheaper than gaze and should be considered for both the beginner and expert.
  • Valkyrie's Wing- Good for its speed increase and r/w- this helm is good for reaching a certain frame rate (usually 7) and can be very good, but it is to risky, lacking leech AND Dr.
  • 1.09 Shako- This mana/life +2skill boost may look superior on the surface, but once you start dueling with it you will see the apparent inferiority. No leech/10% dr/no innate ias/ nothing except life/mana and +2skills (which could put you over the pierce cap and severely limit your flexibility). I would not suggest this helm, although I have used it on many occasions. There are much better choices.
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Amulets-

  • 1.09 cats eye- The 30 r/w 20ias dex boost is a sure winner for the amazon. Probably the best amulet that is easily attainable, most amazons use this for its flexibility and amazing 25 dex.
  • 1.09 Highlords- +1 skills combined with deadly strike / 20ias / 35lr, this is used vs sorceress' mainly, it can be used vs other classes but its really just a matter of preference.
  • 1.08 highlords- IMO, this is the best amazon amulet (I use mat bow and you only need 75ias for 8 frames), the mods on this are as follows: +1skills // 37% deadly strike (lv99) // 35lr // 30%rw-deadly strike really helps out to do that extra dmg and sometimes it only takes 2 or 3 arrows to dispose of your opponent J.
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Bows-

  • Cruel Mat bow of "___"- Bows can be very expensive, the most recent fad is the cruel mat, the prices have dropped to cater to the not so rich. But bows such as cruel mat of alacrity or cruel mat of evisceration are still extremely expensive and should only be considered if you are serious about building an amazon. Try to look for 280% + w/ 2 sockets, anything over that is just icing, the suffix is also a sweet bonus if your means support it. +bow skills are also nice.
  • Cruel Ward of "___"- This 8 frames bow can be nearly as effective as the mat bow, although it lacks the +bowskills and the comfortable 75ias for 8 frames. 105ias is needed for [0] speed- Wards can reach up to 300 dmg and still maintain a 100min. Wards may not be as flexible as mats, but they can be pretty sweet, provided with the right mods.
  • Cruel Grand Matron of "__"- 9fps usually accompanies this beast of bows, with the potential of doing over 400 max dmg and over 70 min, this amazon specialized bow can tear eaglehorn apart. Obviously the desired mods are extremely rare and expensive, I would choose this as a bow to switch to when playing different classes, such as a melee class or assassin. Although it can also be used in z v z, it takes practice to get used to 9 fps.
  • Eaglehorn- This bow is probably the easiest bow to find, while being the most effective for its buck, people who are either impatient or just unable to find the previous 3 bows, should consider this as an option. Another 9 fps bow.
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Gloves- Gloves can be found with all different mods-
-Must on gloves: 20ias
-Bonus: life leech // bowskills // dex // resistances // psn reduction

Note: Bloodfist (the unique set item) are very versatile and a nice option
The mods are as follows:
10%ias
30%fhr
+5min dmg
40life
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Rings- When choosing rings the standard setup is raven + rare ring-

  • Raven is good as a starting point and will be used in most duels, you may want to switch it in and out for dwarf (trap sin) or another leech or dual leech (when playing nec).
  • The rare ring can vary but here are the most common:
  • Viper whorl- This dual leech is a great d2c addition, most amazons use this for its mana/life increase along with its nicely balanced leeching attributes.
  • Corruption grip- Inferior to viper imo, can be used for resists and AR
  • High % LL- The rarity and price of a nice one of these will exceed the former two, but guaranteed the extra % ll will save you more than once.
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Belts-

  • String of Ears- Use this vs melee classes and necros- the life leech and DR make it the number one choice of amazons.
  • Thunder Gods- Very helpful vs sorc/pally's/trap sins- can increase your LR to 85% and give you absorb.
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Boots-
  • War Travelers- Known for there great damage increase, they also give you dual stats and 25% r/w- great for z v z
  • Resist boots- The most popular of these are soul spurs. Dual stat / dual resistances/30 rw- others such as soul shank can be considered as well.
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Weapon Switch-

-Titans- Ethereal titans is for the richer folk, but the cost of these can be very discouraging for the frugal consumer, a regular titans can be sufficient provided you don't intend to tank. Look for 180%+ 7ll+.
-Stormshield/Whistans- I have noticed that a lot of people do not like to invest into strength, maybe people don't like commitment or just think It a waste, but higher strength gives you two things. More flexibility and less chance of popping. (the latter shouldn't be a problem if you play with good mannered folk)

  • Stormshield- This 133 strength shield (socketed w/ hel or -15% jewel) Is the king of amazon shields. Its crazy 35% dr and resists make you a tank and can provide you (accompanied by titans) with the potential to tank MA sins. Obviously the drawback is its serious strength investment, trust me its worth it.
  • Whistans- People who like to "save stat points" only end up hurting themselves in the end. That extra 100-150 life isn't going to help much when someone with 75% DR and ed/ias armor is charging you, lose the whistans, equip the Stormshield, simple as that. Of course for the lower income population, don't get to close to someone w/ SS.
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Charms- Charms will vary for each class you are dueling, they also depend on your build and your style of play, below are a list of charms that can/should be used vs each individual class. Amazon against:
  • Barbarian- Use r/w charms (get r/w charms w/ 2nd mods if possible) and remember that desynch will always be a factor
  • Assassin- The breakpoints for an amazon for fhr (faster hit recovery) are 20% and 63% respectively, try to get 5% fhr charms that give nice 2nd mods such as resist all or +max dmg. You will also need loads of r/w, (180%+) is a nice target. Also remember to run south as often as you can !_!.
  • Paladin- Depending on which type of paladin it is, foh or smiter. You usually want a good amount of r/w (120%+) and decent life (probably 1.5k) so as not to die in 2 foh's. Paladins can be tricky sometimes and your charm decisions can sometimes make the difference.
  • Druid- Standard r/w charms will do fine vs this class, just keep your distance.
  • Necromancer- You can go with two different charm setups here, you may want to play aggressive and stack on those r/w charms w/ 2nd mods. Of course you can always play passive w/ lower r/w and pump up that life, again it's your play style.
  • Sorceress- Usually 20 life sc's w/ 2nd mods are a good bet vs this nimble class, get your resistances maxed and have enough life not to get stunned by orb (if this is possible with your build).
  • Amazon- This matchup depends on your play style, imo offense is much harder than defense, so r/w charms may not be so favorable. You may want 90% r/w and the rest vita charms. With the occasional (or sometimes frequent if you like your mana) life/mana sc.
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Skill points
For pvp amazons the skill points do not vary tremendously, although their can always be some fine tuning. I found the most effective skill point placement at clv 99 is the following: Base skill levels:
  • 20 Guided arrow
  • 20 Critical Strike
  • 20 evade
  • 20 avoid
  • 11 multi shot (although it may seem random, it works great w/ +skill bows)
  • 5 penetrate (great for teams)
  • 3 pierce (provides flexibility in case you need to equip highlords)
  • Put one point into all your prerequisites and as a Note: one point into valk/decoy/dodge/jab-
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    Note from rei: Imo if you go with the dextazon build, you might not need as much into penetrate as tempest here points out. This is because w/ the dextazon build you will get a tremendeous amount of AR with your 300+ dex so you wont be lacking as much in the AR department as balanced / vitazons, and youll be able to hit them more in ms vs ms shootouts. What to do with those 4 or so other skill pts? I would probably suggest putting them into MS for a greater radius and more of a chance to hit. Be careful when using it however, as lvl 20+ ms can drain your mana quite quickly.

    Also I think that lvl 3 pierce is not needed because there are certain times when you wont be able to wear certain nice items that you might acquire like a shako, or a +1 passives charm with tons of hp or max dmg etc.. so I would recommend going with 1 base pierce instead of 3.

 

Stat Points
There are 3 builds that people lean towards in making an amazon, they are a "vitazon," "balanced zon," and "dexazon," by the names you can probably figure out where the majority of stat points are allocated, but here are some more specific models to follow:

Vitazon- As the term implies, your vitality will be boosted more than any other stat in this build, amazons can achieve over 1.8k life this way and sometimes even 2k. This is probably the least favored build among PvP amazons today, personally its probably my favorite w/ the right charms. You are trading life for damage here, sadly this is probably the least effective build in team duels. Well, here are my stat points for a vitazon-

  • Strength- The most strength you will need is 103 base- As I said earlier, people hate investing into strength, but to equip SS you are going to need 90+. Look at it this way, you get +20str off titans on weapon switch, and you save strength when socketing your SS with either a hel rune or -15% jewel (w/ 2nd mod). War travs gives you 10 so theres your 103, now if you have a rare life leech ring that gives strength, you can put even less into it.
  • Dexterity- This enhances your damage and AR, it will only be used to fulfill the requirements of a matriarchal bow (187dex) for this build, I recommend getting between 177-187 base dex, (now your probably saying, my raven frost gives me 20 dexterity I only need 167 dex or less). Well are you always going to use raven? Think about it vs a trap sin or a necromancer, wouldn't you maybe want to use dwarf star? Another high life leech ring? You want to be flexible in your setup, not constricted to certain items because you want to save some stat points. I would go with 187 unless I was always wearing boots that gave dex, say for example I had spurs and war travs, I would know that I always had at least +10 dex from my boots and invest 177 dexterity.
  • Vitality- Now the remaining points would go into here, for this build say you invested 103 into str and 177 into dexterity, you would have 290 vitality at clvl 99. People sometimes boast about there ridiculous amount of life, the problem with that is their confined to certain play styles and items, you will find the people that have "2k life" are not the best, possibly because they are restricting themselves to achieve silly amounts of life.
  • Energy- You do not need energy, you need qi (pronounced "chee") Energy should not ever be given a single stat point
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Balanced zon- Next is the balanced zon, this is probably in between the dexazon and vitazon for popularity. It gives you a nice steady damage with comfortable life (depending on which charms you use) and until recently was my favored build.
  • Strength- Refer to the "vitazon" build for strength requirements, strength will more or less be a constant (energy will be as well) throughout all three builds.
  • Dexerity- As the name suggests, "balanceed zon," your dexterity should be similar if not equal to your vitality, for base stats and clvl 99, something like 230-235 base dexterity is right on target, (obviously if you have 250 base dex or something, I would still consider it a balanced build, everyone has their tendencies.)
  • Vitality- Again, you want this similar to your dexterity, for example. My balanced amazon had 103 base str/ 233 dex/234 vit/no energy. You can aim from anywhere to 1.3klife-1.7k.
  • Energy- You need not energy, only qi.
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Dexazon- The most popular of all three builds, people love high damage and it also gives mass AR for those team duels. It is a very risky build and probably should be made only if you have some experience in dueling with an amazon.
  • Strength- 90-103 (Remains somewhat of a constant in all three builds, remember I do not support whistans over SS, for saved stat points, people suggest to put a ber in whistans, imo that's nonsense).
  • Dexterity- The majority of your stat points should be placed into this, now since no items have vitality requirements you might be tempted to achieve 500+ dexterity, please don't be overly anxious to invest that much, because you will add up having low life and no r/w. I would recommend base dexterity anywhere from 300-410ish. Anything over that is borderline suicide.
  • Vitality- Since no items have vitality requirement, you have to think to yourself, what's a good amount, Imo anywhere from 120-180 vitality will give you over 1.1k life. Charms also play a great deal in this build, (as they do in every) most dexazons have low r/w, keep that in mind.
  • Energy- We need no energy.
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Matchups
This is the matchup section of the guide, I will go in depth vs all 7 classes, screenshots will be given in z v z and s v z because it is the amazons hardest matchups.

The barbarian class can take dozens of arrows before its death, they are usually equipped w/ massive r/w // max dr//max block// 4k+life. They cause desynch and usually kill in 1-2 WW's. Do not let your guard down vs these powerful melee characters, switch to titans when running then switch back to your bow and shoot. Only shoot 1-2 arrows when doing this, be patient and cautious, most deaths from barbs are from carelessness. Also setup decoy and valkryie, before the start of the duel, try to get in back of some ditches to slow down their arrival. You want to try to pelt them with as many arrows as possible before they make you start running. There is not a great deal to go in depth about vs this class, just make sure you have enough run/walk on, and don't be caught off guard.
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  • Assassin:

    There are really three types of assassins, MA/ Trap/ and Hybrid, each has its strengths and weaknesses, the hardest imo are probably the trap sins. Here are some strategies you will need to be successful versus this powerful character.

     

    • Trap sin- You need to have massive r/w, fhr (63%) and max resistances (use dwarf/shaft/tgods). You want to nullify their lightning sentry to a minimum. When they mb you keep running, always run, (ever seen minority report? Gotta keep running), try to judge where they are going to be and setup valk/decoy. Valks help because their shadow attacks that, giving you sometime to escape. Imo, you really need the right equip against a trap sin. Having no fhr or even 20 could cause you to be stunned permanently till your death. Good duels can take upwards of 15 minutes, causing the trap sin to run out of mana. Don't be surprised if they ask for a mana break.

     

    • MA- Martial Arts assassins can also be very dangerous, even though my current zon can "tank" most of them, they hit extremely hard and usually are very fast. Just remember to have massive r/w and use the same tactic you do vs barb. Keep your shield up when you see them mbing and shoot when they are running towards you.

     

    • Hybrid- This type may have the potential to be the most lethal, combing MA and Traps to give the opponent no sure guarantee as to what they should combat against. Strap on your 63% fhr/200%+rw/max resists and run SOUTH, making sure you don't make the mistake of tanking them and realize they're hybrid mid way thru the duel.
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  • Paladin:

    There are basically two types of paladins, Foh and Smite/charge. The most dangerous are foh because right when they get on your screen they can lock you and kill you in 2-3 hits w/ conviction. Here are some strats you will need to be successful vs these two kinds of paladins.

     

    • Foh- The most deadly type imo, first of heavens combined w/ conviction provides a one-two punch that can bring its victim down in a couple of hits. Before the start of the duel you may want to find some ditches or impedances to slow down their charge. Most paladins use vigor to get to their destinations, followed by either a charge to get you running, then switch to foh to get a shot in. The trick here is not to run to far away from the paladin when they charge, when you see them stop to shoot foh, stand your ground and start firing ga's. Then when they switch back to either vigor or fanaticism, run, but stay within close enough distance of them so you can fire onscreen if they switch to back to conviction. Another strat you can use is to never get on their screen (or minimally) at all (w/ enough rw this can be achieved), setup decoy and valk and get near a wall. Start spamming on either side and look for them to come, when you see them on your minimap, shoot one arrow and run as far away as possible (remember when they are off your mini map you have a huge advantage) try to hit them with a few igas before they charge again, this usually allows you a greater margin for error if you get a couple hits in before he's on your screen. Don't underestimate paladins and never try to jab one to death, the best ones will literally rape you.

     

    • Smiter/Charge- There are not to many of these around anymore, as they are the lesser powerful of the two kinds, but still worth noting. When you begin a duel you will notice how fast these paladins approach you and cause you to run, it's basically the same tactic you would use vs a barb that has "beserk." Run. Shoot one arrow (angle it). Run again. Do not attempt to tank this kind because you are lazy, I don't think any hybrid could effectively against the better ones, even w/ over 2k jab. Keep your distance and always remember that desync will be a factor when dueling any chargadin.
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  • Druid:

This will most likely will be your easiest duel, having loads of r/w (150+) will make it even easier for you. Treat this class as a beserk barb and shoot/run/shoot, you may need to practice it a bit in order to make it so you don't get hit at all vs a druid. Desynch will again be a factor as it always is when both parties (or just one) have massive run/walk. Practice will heed better results, but even w/o it you should be able to defeat this class quite easily.
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On the surface this class may look a bit vulnerable, and easy to dispatch, but don't underestimate it because it will prove a more formidable foe than most other classes. Here are a couple of strats you can use vs them. First off, you are both ranged attackers, you know that the necro can ibs while you in turn can iga, arrows travel faster but are not infinite. You also know that you have leech, which will give you a huge advantage when and if you lock the necromancer on your screen. So lets start, in the beginning of the duel you can choose three choices of play style, offensive/passive/defensive- with the latter two you will be forced to use a bit of iga mixed w/ a small amount of multishot, it really depends how well you have mastered this "bug," and how good you are at exploiting it. Blood moor is on overlapping planes, ga will not hit at certain angles and therefore you may want to scout out the map and find a few sweet spots where you can spam and know that it will hit. Patience is a "must" if you are to be defensive versus a necromancer, because in turn, most necros are naturally defensive vs amazons. Now, when youre defensive be sure to keep up a decoy and valk in front of you, in case any stray ibs come your way, another thing is to always look at your valks life, if it is low it will give you an indication of where the necro is (without him knowing you know) and if you are good enough, you can pick him off without him seeing you (this is in terms of an elite zon vs avg necro not elite vs elite). I favor offense vs necs, in a way it is sort of a z v z duel. You both have ranged attacks, they have mass dr/block and can absorb ten fold arrows to the amount of bone spirits you can take (especially with lower resist). But you have the advantage of faster missles and leech, multishot should be used a lot when playing offensive, you want to make them run away with you and control the duel. The offense player can take control of any duel and put the defense in any spot he wants (a corner perhaps), and finish him that way. You have to understand that most people sometimes just like to straight out charge necro's, this will not work against better ones because 6-8 bs will already be in the air waiting to target you, then you will run and be bone prisoned in (causing desync) and die. But you can't blame it on desynch because your strat inevitably led to it. Use 2 high life leech rings or one dual leech and one high ll vs a necro, ravenfrost is not needed. You may want to keep your vamp gaze for the cold dmg (or fake them out and act like you have cold dmg so they use 1 soj and 1 raven instead of 2 sojs ^^). Improvising is also a strat, probably better than any guide can teach you, but these are just little tips so that you can have premeditated decisions and know what to do when you do come across mr. Necro.
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One of your hardest matchups, against this agile class, you have to predict where they are going to teleport and try to lock them, easier said than done. When a sorceress is teleporting around you, and your guided just can't seem to catch up, throw in a couple multishot to throw your opponent off, the sudden block will fluster them and perhaps even get you a kill if they aren't ready for it. Some sorceress' are ridiculously quick and fast, shoot ahead of them and try to keep them away from you, a good tactic versus a sorceress is to spam Ga in a certain spot that you think they will teleport to, this can result in a very long iga if done well. In the pic to the left, look at where the cave is to give you some reference point as to how far GA has the potential to travel. (For my pictures I am using real duels and applying the strats versus good players, you will notice that many of them are some of the best in their respective classes, this is to show that the strats themselves do work.) This is probably about 4 screens, a decent iga, the scary thing about going against a zon for the opponent is that they can almost be hit anywhere in b moor (since you can't go over the bridge). This has some psychological advantages to it as well as physical. You want 8 fps (9 can do it but I recommend 8) vs a sorc 1 v 1. Seven fps is just to buggy and too much of a hassle to reach, 8 will be fine and you can get much higher damage (3k+) with the right bow. 75 ias for 8 fps w/ a mat bow is cake. Remember to throw in multishots, I can't tell you how many times that has helped me win duels, some sorceress' can just teleport to fast for your Ga to catch up, multishot will add another variable the opponent has to deal with. Non block sorceress' should not be a problem, because it only takes 3-5 gas to hit to kill. You can apply these strats vs any sorceress and be effective, like for example if a sorc is near a wall and you are approaching her, always have 1 to 2 ga in the air, shoot, run up a little, continue, then maybe spam 5 ga towards her but 10 to where you think she will teleport, it works well vs most sorceress'. Of course always have your resistances maxed and equip tgods and raven, highlords ammy is a good choice over cats as well.
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The potential to be your hardest duel, class v class, zon v zon duel is probably the least mastered out of every class v class duel. The large range adds so many more variables to it, when to shoot, when to run, when to switch to shield. For each map there are about 3-6 spots that good zons like to spam from (defensive ones), make sure you are aware of those spots, and if your valk gets killed, look to the closest one and stand back and fire. There are so many strats you can implement in this duel, offensively here are some:


Offensive dueling: -Never let your opponent off your minimap screen (if you do try to minimize it to 5 secs max) always be spraying multi and weaving in between his ga's, the hard part about this is that while doing all this you have to damage the person, your multi will make him retreat a bit, during this time you can fire 2-3 ga's, then proceed to keep putting on the pressure. A note for offensive zons: You do not need more than 300 mana because the nature of your playstyle is to hit the person, defensive zons will usually run out of mana and be helpless as you pelt them with multi or ga. If they complain about mana just know that your strat worked.
-Always be mindful of where your opponent is, and remember when you are running towards them to keep your shield up, if you get carried away or disoriented by running, charge them to be sure they don't get a free win. A goal for an offensive zon is to equip ed/ias armor and use 40 dr, being effective with this can be challenging, but practicing these strats will help you have a better win record.
-Mass r/w- This is a must for offensive zons, you don't want to be a turtle (ahaha skan) and plod around with 60-90 rw. You want to be fast and nimble, personally I believe offensive is harder to master than defensive, because you are moving and "attacking" while on the run, it can be very tense and discouraging at times when your opponent beats you. Just keep at it and eventually you will prevail. Multishot will probably be used just as much as ga so you want to make sure your multi is at a sufficient level (16+) so that they can't easily dodge it.


Passive dueling: This is a medium between aggressive and defensive, these people will lurk on the outside edges of your minimap and practice their aim on you. Shooting at where you think people will be is also a nice strat to use, if someone is running away from you and just got off your minimap, follow them with your mouse and usually you will hit once or twice before they escape. Now the best zons will zig zag, therefore making it difficult to do this. Note:  In team duels it is usually to your benefit to play either passive or defensive (unless your team plans to charge and that is the nature of your 3 char combo) because playing conservative allows you more flexibility.
-Arrow damage and life will play a big part in these, because two passive players will most likely have the same basic strat, thus hitting each other similar times, this is where items will give you the edge.


Defensive Dueling: The most controversial type of dueling, by letting your opponent come to you, of course by the nature of it you will have some kind of advantage, rather large or small depends on how you approach it (or rather how your opponent does) and how good you are. IGA (invisible guided arrow) will play the biggest role in these kinds of duels. Iga wars can end up with a death, where the person never saw his opponent on the minimap. A few notes on defensive dueling:
-Walls are your friends (even though I hate them)- Putting up a decoy and valk on one side and spamming ga in a straight line on another will provide instant death to anyone journeying down that path. But how do you know where they are going to be? This is where studying your opponent helps, you want to find any patterns that are discernable and attack those, does the person favor the open? The house? The box? So many variables can be associated with these ranged duels.
Note: A neat trick is to stand behind a bush when you see the person at the end of their mini map, they will begin firing ga's (and if they are a good aim) the ga's will go right into the bush. This usually messes with their head a bit, as they can't figure out why they aren't hitting, and perhaps disrupt their tempo. It also makes them question a bit, doubting themselves and their aim. -Patterns, sweet spots and predictability. You need to be able to study the patterns, be able to recognize your sweet spots, and theirs (like I said there are 3-6 on every map) and predict where they are going to be or are.
-Mastering IGA- The hardest concept of z v z is iga, how do you aim at something you can't see? Is it just spamming Ga in every direction? Well, it's a little more fine tuned then that, people who aren't that good at it will usually say yes to the previous question. When someone goes off your minimap, do you stop firing? You shouldn't, just visualize them still on the minimap and remember the pattern they were running, don't stand still when doing this though, or else you will be sure bait for someone else's iga. Here are some practice techniques to help you and your IGA:


Have a friend stand at the town entrance, go hostile with him and run out into the blood moor until you are off his screen (don't go to far or else you probably won't hit him) now shoot at the entrance, and ask him if you're hitting him (if you leech that will also be an indicator). Try different spots just outside the minimap range, you will notice on certain angles you just won't hit because of the overlapping planes b moor is designed with, try to figure out where you can and where you cannot hit. Then tell him to stand near a cave or something, and perform the same thing. This will give you the basics of iga, hitting a stationary target.


Next, have your friend walk in a straight line from point A to point B- say point A is a house and point b a cave. Now try hitting him when he's walking, the more hits the better, the purpose of this is to follow him with your mouse even though you can't see him.

Next, have him run a longer distance, and see how many times you hit, you probably won't hit much in the beginning which is expected, keep trying and you will get better. The hardest thing to do is to hit a person running randomly and zig zagging while he's off your mini map. Of course the most hits you will probably get is 1 or 2 if lucky. But that's after you have done the other techniques.

Doing this in a real duel is totally different, and it is MUCH harder to iga in a duel then just practice, but it is feasible. How far can IGA travel? Well no one knows the exact screen length, but if you look at the pics below you can see that is has the potential to travel very far, possibly even up to 8 screens, although I don't know of anyone who can do that (probably impossible to do it consistently). My maximum ga length was probably at least 5 full screens, which is like 1/3-1/2 the blood moor we duel in. If you develop IGA it is your first step to mastering "defensive dueling" and "team dueling" strats, and IGA is much easier in team duels because of the huge area of bodies you have to leech off of, a much greater radius.
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Closing and Credits

I hope these tips will help you in amazon dueling, I've played this class for over a 1yr and ½ now and basically pioneered iga and the constant use of it now. Practice these techniques and I guarantee you will improve tremendously over a week. The reason I made this guide is because there actually is no PvP zon guide out that is helpful, I found that funny because isn't it the most played class? It also is the most hated class and ranged attacks are hard to master. Below are some random pics of igas // funny convos and things to do w/ zon dueling. Hope you liked the guide.

Look at where Flavie is to give you a perspective as to how far GA can travel. --->

 

This is one of my longest "iga's," but I'm pretty sure GA has the capability of going up to 8 full screens. (this one is about 5 or 6). As you can see, that IGA was about 1/3 of bmoor, my opponent died a little above the horizon of the cave. By accurately predicting where my opponent was running, rather than spamming ms / ga and wasting mana, I was able to finish him off with a few iga shots.
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I'd like to thank one person in particular who made this guide look nice and pretty, using his gosu html skills and setup. Rei deserves recognition in the successful presentation of this guide, and the use of screen shots to help you see iga in action. I'd also like to thank Swift/Skan/Slowdose because the screenshots they were in helped give evidence that the strats I wrote about do work. Again, let me thank Rei, who spent just about a week organizing and refining this guide.
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