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Poison Skills' Consequences

General Considerations

Just focusing on the properties of the Poison Skills and ignoring everything else, certain consequences for stating, skilling, equipping and tactic arise. The more important the two Poison Skills are for a Build, the closer one sticks to the optimal values for poison and the less compromises for second attacks one is willing to make.
Naturally patience is the most important prerequisite.

Watching a river long enough, one may see one's whole life flowing by.

Stats

PoisJ and PlJ are ranged attacks. As ranged fighter one can do without close combat attributes like high strength for wearing heavy armour. As well max block will be less useful, since a distance fighter is hit more likely by other distance fighters mostly having auto hit and doing elemental damage. One will rather need a huge life pool than strength.
The Poison Skills are Area of Effect skills. They create a poison cloud spreading over a large area and damaging the mobs within. Whether a mob is hit by a Javelin or not is irrelevant. The mob gets damaged by the cloud. Therefore the CtH and AR become stale. The same goes for Dex as device for enhancing physical damage. Physical damage is inflicted only rarely and if, than this is rather accidental. The Poison Skills aren't used all too often due to their long duration and the cast delay. They leave enough time for Mana to fully regenerate.
This entire means for stat placement:

Skills

PoisJ and PlJ are Synergies onto each other. So they both have to be maximised. This means an investment of 41 points with prerequisites.
The CtH, Pierce and physical damage are unimportant for the usage of the Poison Skills. So Inner Sight, Penetrate, Critical Strike and Pierce aren't strengthened as support.
Both Poison Skills are effective over a longer period of time. Thus one is forced to bind the mobs onto the blocker over this whole period. The blockers have to be able to take a considerable amount of damage in order to hold the mobs long enough for the poison to do its work. The skills have a cast delay. Thus constant repositioning or recasting of Valk is impossible. So the Valk needs to be quite highly developed. The Decoy is used for steering Valk. The Decoy is the most important minion for the first binding of the mob herd. She needs to hold until the other blockers arrive. Therefore the cast level of Decoy should be above 10, the higher the better. Both close combat hirelings (act 2 and act 5) are by no way as stable as a high Valk. This is already reason enough to build up Valk as high as possible. With cast level 17 Valk gets her best weapon. Over cast level 27 her equipment doesn't improve any further. So Valk should be at least cast level 17, better is cast level 27 or more. Her defense, her life and her resistances rise with each level making her a better blocker. So one spends roughly 30 - 40 points onto the blockers. Typically doing Throne of Destruction (mob level 88) and Baal (level 99) starts around cLvl 85 to 90. At this point there are approximately 14 to 29 points left for other skills.

Equipment

To ranged fighters armour and block are quite unimportant. With the Poison Skills we do only physical damage by accident. Dealing out physical damage is our minions' job, those lazies should do something for their money. Since direct hits are not necessary the 'to hit check' and along that the CtH improving properties are irrelevant. Without physical hits all properties relying on or enhancing physical damage are useless. They are reduced to nice adds since actually landing a successful hit now and than is no crime. IAS is useless too, since both poison skills have a cast delay.
Important properties are those reducing the impact of enemy attacks (resist, Poison Length Reduction, absorb, DR, MDR), improving our fairy's capacity to act (FHR and FR), and working after Kill (LaeK, MaeK). Of course the damage enhancing properties - + skills, + skill damage and reduction of enemy resistance also belong to the important attributes.
Useful effects for further crowd control are e. g. attract and confuse.

Magic and Passive Skills

The Amazon's Passive/Magic Skills may all be used simultaneously in addition to her attack skills. Each skill in this tree has a unique effect or statistical enhancement that works with anything the Amazon is trying to do.
The Magic Skills are the actively casted skills on the left side of the skill tree. Their use needs a cast animation. Their casting speed is subject to FCR. The Amazon class has far longer cast rates than most other character classes. Without FCR she needs 19 frames for her cast animation. A spell is easily disrupted during casting if other animations activate (D/A/E, block, get hit).
There is one anomaly for a casting Amazon. The precise moment of actually launching a spell happens relatively late within her cast animation cycle and depends on the kind of weapon she has equipped. She is the only char with that weird cast behaviour.
The other skills of the skill tree are always active. One doesn't have to do anything to use them. Therefore they are called Passive Skills. The skills in the middle of the skill tree strengthen the defensive, the ones on the right side the offensive.
The defensive skills enhance ones chance to escape an attack. They are also called Evasive Skills and work independently from equipment, level and abilities of the defender and attacker. If one of those skills is used, an animation is started that aborts all other actions.
The Offensive Skills supplement the damage-dealing capabilities. They enhance the chance to do damage or enhance that damage.

IS and SLM

IS and SLM both have a 13.3 radius with the char as center, and fixed Mana costs of 5 Mana. They both illuminate the enemies. IS and SLM are AoE and cover almost all of the screen. They have no synergy. The illumination is specially nice in dark areas (flash light effect).
The theory of the IS and SLM catchment area not being a circle, respectively an ellipsoid, stubbornly persists because the effect doesn't always catch all opponents in the perimeter. You'll have to take into account the line of sight's significance for casting IS or SLM onto someone.
SLM and IS are additive with curses, auras as well as with each other. They both may be effective at the same time.

Skill-Icon Inner SightInner Sight (IS)

This spell illuminates all enemies in its catchment area and reduces their defense by an absolute value. The flash light effect alone is worth a one point investment.
Decreasing enemy's defense rating is only useful to our Poisonzon if the CtH for a second attack is of any importance or if the CtH of the Minions and / or the party has to be improved. Regrettably there aren't enough skill points left to max IS. Regularly IS is only prerequisite to get other skills. Besides IS there are other possibilities to improve the CtH. You'll find further info on CtH and IS in Chance to Hit or IS vs. Pene.

Skill-Icon Slow MissilesSlow Missiles (SLM)

SLM is a skill sufficiently used with one point's investment. It slows enemy missiles about 33%. This doesn't apply to missiles which are on their way already when SLM is casted. Strictly speaking SLM effects the opponent, not his missiles. Note that Slow Missiles changes the speed of the missiles, but not the attacker's rate of fire. More points just increase the duration, which is already quite sufficient at sLvl 1.

SLM has no effect against enemies who notice a char from off-screen distance (e. g. souls).

SLM only works against missile-dependending attacks. It doesn't work against AoE attacks like Curses, Auras, Blizzard, Bone Spear, Diablos Red Lightning Hose or the Lightning from Willowisps. It works against arrows, all kinds of throwing weapons and some spells like Bone Spirit. The Bone Spirit and missiles from the Abyss Knights are slowed by SLM. To read more about this see adeykes listing here. All those missiles may of course be also intercepted with Decoy.

Chance to Hit

Along with the poison skills the question whether one hits or not is irrelevant. It is best to throw in such a way that the Javelin doesn't hit an enemy at all and that as many enemies as possible get into the spreading cloud. For a second attack skill the CtH might still be necessary. CtH's importance depends entirely on the other skills and their usage. If one decides on the lightning skills (LF, LS, ChS) or the bow skill GA the CtH doesn't matter. At the most we'll then pay some notice to the CtH of the Merc or the Valk.
If one decides on a physical attack like Jab, the normal attack (as passive zone or tankzons do) or a bow attack like Strafe, Multi or one of the Elemental Arrows the Chance to Hit and the ways to improve it become very important. For further info please see Chance to Hit or IS vs. Pene.

the Minions: Decoy and Valk

Thanks to the skills Decoy and Valkyrie the Amazon has two castable minions which are exceptionally good blockers at high levels. As all other castable minions they have the same level as the casting char along with toHit checks. In the difficulties NM and Hell they have no resistance penalties. Decoy and Valk have no magic or physical resistance. They both benefit from given points into the Evasive Skills. They get the same chance to evade an attack as the Amazon without + skill equipment. The Decoy's and Valk's base defense values in the difficulties Norm/Nightmare/Hell are 141/152/164. Open Wounds damage Decoy and Valk, although there is no blood animation on the floor. But then mobs are not able to deal that kind of damage.

Skill-Icon DecoyDecoy

The skill Decoy offers a wonderful possibility to distract enemies or to tie them down. Except for some unique bosses and act end bosses all mobs are fooled by Decoy. This includes the Ancients and Andy. The Decoy is also very well suited as scout, for herding or to provide cover. You'll find detailed info about the Decoy and it's applications in Mirror, Mirror.
Especially with an Amazon build dedicated to the poison path a high Decoy is advisable: Poison needs time to take effect and the Decoy therefore has to bear up against all kinds of evil. Judging by my personal experience Decoy should have at least as much life as the Zon herself. If the cast level of Decoy is even higher, so much the better.

Skill-Icon ValkyrieValkyrie (Valk)

Regarding the Valk there is already a good thread by Chevalis Valk, Mana Management & Synergies, Some numbers... with all the glorious details.
As already mentioned above, a poison char needs strong minions. Valk has to be able to suffer quite some damage. She also helps with killing poison immunes.

At castLvl 17 Valk receives her best weapon, a rare war pike. Beyond castLvl 27 her equipment doesn't improve any further. So her castLvl should be at least 17. Better would be a minimum castLvl of 27, because she than has a chance at the best possible equipment. In order to reach the resist cap the 'castLvl Valk + sLvl Decoy' should be above 42, if at all possible. Of course higher levels are better, giving Valk even more life. With 3750 life or more Hit Recovery will be totally unknown to her, she'll never suffer under this special hit animation. Points in the Evasive Skills are a bit contra productive, forcing her into an 8 frame interrupt.

If there are points to spare, one can always spend two or three points in CS to enhance the Valks damage. Putting points into Pene is no great improvement here. Pene improves the Valk's AR just by a straight value, which is a very low figure in the overall CtH formula.

the Evasive Skills Dodge/Avoid/Evade (D/A/E)

The enemy's CtH and the Zon's shield block are checked before the game takes the Evasive Skills into account. The animation of the Evasive Skills take precisely 8 frames. They may only be accelerated by attack speed enhancing skills like BoS or Fanaticism. When the Zon suffers from Holy Freeze or other slowing her evasive animations are also slowed down.
The Evasive Skills act on almost all kinds of attack and missiles. The only exeption are effects which assign damage without help of missiles, but take effect directly within a radius. This are for example the Paladin's damage auras or Sorc's Static Field.
All Evasive Skills are effective without being constrained by equipment or abilities of attacker and defender. If an Amazon with castLvl 12 Doge isn't moving from the spot, she'll take at most half damage from all melee attacks directed her way. This is also true for autohit attacks. In my humble opinion the Evasive Skills rank among the best defensive skills in the game. All Evasive Skills also operate hidden, graphic won't obligatory display the associated animation. Evasive Skills thusly interrupt various skills without giving you a chance to see it.

Different people rank the Evasive Skills from 'unnecessary' over 'good to take along' to 'very important'. For PvM the recommended value is a chance of 40 to 50%. This may be reached by one given point and some + skill boni from items. The chance to escape an attack has diminishing returns with higher cast levels.

Skill-Icon DodgeDodge

Melee fighters strive for a chance of 50% or more. If possible this should be reached mostly via boni from equipment. Pure ranged fighters content oneself with a low 34 to 40% chance, since they shouldn't get mixed up in close combat anyway.

Skill-Icon AvoidAvoid

Since 1.1x mobs with ranged attacks have an increased sensing range. Additionally there are more ranged fighters in Act 5. Nevertheless a more than one point investment isn't worth it since it is quite easy to reach a chance of 40 to 50% with only moderate items.

Skill-Icon EvadeEvade

While running all enemy attacks have a 100% chance to hit. For ranged fighters happy feet is a must have. Therefore Evade is Toxic Fairy's most interesting Evasive Skill.

the Offensive Skills

The herein listed Skills deal with enhancing ones damage. For the Poisonzon these Skills are optional. If needed for a chosen second attack, one may spend some points in them.

Skill-Icon Critical StrikeCritical Strike

CS receives points depending on whether and how much one specialises on physical damage. CS doesn't work for elemental attacks. One or two points as synergy for Valk are by no means wasted.

Skill-Icon PenetratePenetrate

Putting points here only because of Valk's CtH isn't worth it. Only if there are problems along with the CtH of the chosen secondary attack one may invest in Pene to push AR. As decision-making aid if points into Pene are well spend please take a look at Chance to Hit or IS vs. Pene.

Skill-Icon PiercePierce

For getting Pierce to work the CtH check has to be positive. To our main attack Pierce is of no importance whatsoever. Firstly the Javelins are generally thrown so they won't hit an enemy. Secondly pushing the Chance to Pierce isn't worth it. An one point investment is more than sufficient. With + skills one always gets more than a 50% to pierce. To put more than one point into a skill without use to our main attack is a mere waste.

For questions, suggestions or criticism about this topic you may reach me anytime via E-Mail.

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