the Secondary Attack

As with all other kinds of damage there are mobs which are highly resistant or immune to the main damage (here poison). So we need at least one, better even more different kinds of damage. At the first look it doesn't make any difference whether the party, the own minions or a second attack provides for further damage kinds. Physical damage, if very slowly, is supplied by the Valk. The hireling (with the exception of the act 3 Iron Wolf) delivers physical damage, too, normally more so than the Valk.
To rely solely on the party or the minions to kill PoisI mobs is annoying. A second attack is needed. This second attack's requirements shouldn't be too contrary from our Poison Skills' needings. Additionally it shouldn't need to many skill points to be effective. We have about 14 to 29 skill points left for a second attack.
At first other skills from the Spear and Javelin Skill Tree spring to mind. All those + Javelin Skills we have to strengthen our poison damage would also support any other skill from that tree.
Another possibility is to go for a Hybrid. Here the Zon would use a bow in the second slot.
A third possibility is a further investment into the Passive Skills to enhance the Minions' damage. This isn't opposed to the statement before, since now a conceptual damage enlargement is meant.
At last the Zon could do damage without use of any of her skills. E. g. the use of standard attack or standard throw. If the weapon has no ITD an improvement of the CtH is indispensable. The same is true if the physical Spear Skills or the Bow Skills (mind the AR Bug) are used.

How effective are the different possibilities?

the Lightning Skills

Our Zon has two other ranged skills that throw Javelins (LiB and LF). Those do lightning damage. Both have autohit and thusly need no toHit calculation to do damage. They always hit. Compared to the Poison Skills they profit largely by Pierce.
The remaining Lightning Skills (PS, ChS, LS) are melee attacks. All three may be used with Javelins or Spears. Their attack speed is the same as the Standard Attack's. Innately Javelins are faster than the two handed Spears. What's more the Poison Skills already need Javelins, so the choice falls on them. With the exception of PS the elemental part of the lightning attacks always hits, no matter if the physical attack's toHit check fails or not.
The minimum damage of the unsynergised lightning damage is always 1. The maximum damage increases rapidly with growing castLvl. The relevant breakpoints are at castLvl 9, 17, 23 and 29.
All Lightning Skills synergise each other.

Power Strike (PS)

Effect: Adds lightning damage to the physical attack and gives AR a percentage Bonus
Mana Cost: 1.75 + castLvl * 0.25
Lightning Damage: castLvl 1 = 1 to 16, castLvl 29 = 1 to 1276
AR% Bonus: 8% + castLvl * 12%
Synergy: Damage increased by 10% along with each synergy point

PS does a CtH check. If the check fails no lightning damage is done.

Lightning Bolt (LiB)

Effect: The whole physical throwing damage is reduced by 25%, then transmuted into lightning damage. On top of the transmuted damage a small, insubstantial amount of level dependant lightning damage is added
Mana Cost: 5.75 + castLvl * 0.25
Lightning Damage: cLvl 1 = 1 to 40, castLvl 29 = 1 to 812
Synergy: Damage increased by 3% along with each synergy point

LiB has autohit. Elemental damage from equipment is totally ignored. The Mana cost of advanced levels is extremely high.

Charged Strike (ChS)

Effect: Releases several Combo Bolts at the moment of attack, depending on castLvl
Mana Cost: 3.75 + castLvl * 0.25
Lightning Damage per Combo Bolt: castLvl 1 = 1 to 30, castLvl 29 = 1 to 534
Number of Combo Bolts: 3 + int(sLvl / 5)
Synergy: Damage increased by 10% along with each synergy point

The skill's lightning damage always hits. All other damage transferred along with the physical hit has to pass the toHit check.

Lightning Strike (LS)

Effect: Releases at the moment of attack a Chain Lightning at the moment of attack that may hit castLvl + 1 mob.
Mana Cost: 9
Lightning Damage per Chain Lightning: castLvl 1 = 1 to 25, castLvl 29 = 1 to 515
Number of possible targets of Chain Lightning: castLvl + 1
Synergy: Damage increased by 8% along with each synergy point

The skill's lightning damage always hits. All other damage transferred along with the physical hit has to pass the toHit check. LS has a NHD of four frames.

Lightning Fury (LF)

Effect: Triggers Lightning Bolts at the moment of impact.
Mana Cost: 9.5 + castLvl * 0.5
Lightning Damage per Bolt: castLvl 1 = 1 to 40, castLvl 29 = 1 to 1010
Number of possible Lightning Bolts: one for each enemy up to castLvl + 1; restricted by enemy count
Synergy: Damage increased by 1% along with each synergy point

The Javelin has autohit. The Ligthning Bolts have autoaim, each aiming upon release into the direction of an enemy.
In contrast to the other Lighting Skills LF reaches its last breakpoint for increasing lightning damage already at castLvl 23.

the Lightning Skills' Capability

An investment into Power Strike is easily eliminated due to its CtH problems.
Lightning Bolt requires a Javelin with high physical damage. It needs no further points since the interesting big part of damage originates from transformation of physical into lightning. Due to LiB's autohitting capability we have no AR problems. Points in CS push LiB's damage.
Charged Strike is especially effective against large single targets, because those get hit by several bolts. The Zon should reach at least castLvl 15 here to get six bolts.
Lightning Strike works fine against groups with many opponents, especially if used in combination with ChS. The more targets, the better. Also LS and ChS give each other quite high synergies.
Lightning Fury works great against groups with many targets. Thereby it's imperative: The bigger and tighter the monster pack is, the more damage you deal. LF does quite good damage even without synergies. A great deal of literature already exists on the 'How to use LF' theme.

The skills ChS and LiB are especially suited for single opponents. With ChS a fast weapon would be nice, with LiB a Javelin without any +skills but with high physical damage is best. Against enemy groupings LS and LF are suitable. Generally the outcome of this is: Whoever uses ChS also attacks with LS, since both are melee skills, and whoever uses LiB prefers LF.

the Physical Spearie Skills

The Amazon owns three melee skills which affect the physical damage and give an AR-Bonus. These melee skills neither get nor grant synergies. The attacks use their very own attack speed. Whoever favours physical damage uses a two hand Spear. Whoever favours attack speed stays with Javelin and Shield.
You'll find attack speed tables for Javelins und twohanded Spears at the Basin's archives.

Jab

Effect: Attacks with fast multiple strikes a single target, and gives an AR-Bonus.
Mana Cost: 1.75 + castLvl * 0.25
average Damage: -18 % + castLvl * 3%
AR% Bonus: 1% + castLvl * 9%

The multiple attack consists of three single strikes, each needing a separate CtH check.
Act 2 Mercenaries use Jab with only two strikes.
At low skill levels the three single strikes suffer a damage malus. At castLvl 6 each single hit deals out the same damage a standard attack does.

Impale

Gives huge boni to damage and AR at the expense of weapon's durability.
Mana Cost: 3
Damage: 275% + castLvl * 25%
AR% Bonus: 75% + castLvl * 25%
Malus on weapon's durability: castLvl 1 = 46%, castLvl 20 = 25%

The downside is the slow attack speed. Therefore Impale is very easily interrupted.

Fend

Effect: Starts a sequence attack which attacks any mob within reach. Gives damage and AR-Boni.
Mana Cost: 5
Damage: 60 % + castLvl * 10%
AR% Bonus: 30% + castLvl * 10%

Unfortunately Fend is very susceptible for so called 'whiffing cycles', where not a single attack connects. These happen due to several things, among them are failed CtH checks of the first hit, interrupts by Evasive Skills or getHit animation, mobs getting to close for the weapon to reach, lag and many more things.

the Physical Spearie Skills' Capability

All three physical attacks are quite usable. They all need careful positioning, so the Zon doesn't get surrounded or swarmed and interrupted. Jab is already good as one-point wonder. With its high attack speed it delivers swiftly physical and/or elemental damage as well as effects at the opponents. With some + skills from equipment the damage malus is easily absorbed. Points for improving CtH may preferably go into Jab and not into Pene or IS. This way physical damage recieves a boost, too.
Impale, the AR-wonder! Maxed Impale's AR bonus is high enough to stop worrying about the CtH. A Pala with max BlA hides his shame in the next corner. The PD-Nec goes green with envy. Impale, the damage-wonder! The Amok-Barb cries for his mother, the Charge-Pala pleads for Vigor or Might. Whoever doesn't care about the slow attack speed (is speed actually the correct label for this?), has a great second attack in that skill. This is true for physical damage as well as elemental damage.
Fend the all-around blow! Woe betide the mobs that pester our Fairy. With one attack all mobs are assailed. Thanks to its AR-Bonus the Zon should at least have a 50% CtH. The additional damage bonus helps with doing substantial physical damage. Redundant points should be spent in Pene.

Jab and Impale are most suited for single opponents, Fend for small groups. Against fast mobs Impale is difficult to handle. With all three skills the player should prevent mobs creeping into weapon range. This is especially important along with Impale and Fend, since these attacks are so easy to interrupt. An intensive and purposeful usage of Decoy is essential along with all three skills. Measures to slow down the opponents are advantageous.

the Bow Skills

For usage of the Bow Skills a Bow or Crossbow is essential, of course. With exception of GA all Bow Skills depend on CtH and profit by Pierce. All Bow Skills use a larger reach than the Poison Skills, as discussed in Questions about Missile Range at the Basin. All Bow Skills with the exception of the sequence attack Strafe use the attack speed of a Standard Attack. Compare Bow Attack Speed Tables over at the Basin. Only skills with cold damage or fire damage synergise among themselves.

Multiple Shot

Effect: Shoots several arrows at the same moment. The reach of the arrows is very large and the volley of arrows is adjustable.
Mana Cost: castLvl + 3
Damage per arrow: 75% weapon damage, regardless of physical or elemental parts
Number of arrows: castLvl + 1, maximum 25

The Skill inherits a damage malus on all arrows. This happens to all physical and elemental damage. Effects are only transported at the two middle arrows (mother arrows). Each arrow gets its own CtH check and a separate damage calculation.

Strafe

Effect: sequential attack with autoaim capability
NextHitDelay: 4 Frames
Mana Cost: 11
Damage per arrow: 75% weapon damage, regardless of physical or elemental parts
physical damage bonus: + 0.05 * castLvl (off-weapon)
Number of arrows: depends on number of targets, 2 + int(castLvl / 4), up to 10 arrows

The Zon can not move until all arrows have been shoot! Strafe inherits, similar to Multi, a damage malus for all physical and elemental damage. Contrary to Multi the Strafe Skill carries effects on all arrows. Each arrow gets its own CtH check and a separate damage calculation.
The arrows are autoaim but no autotarget, meaning they don't follow enemy movement.

Guided Arrow (GA)

Effect: GA has autotarget and autohit. It seeks its nearest target, chosen from the Mouse Cursor pointing while shooting.
Mana Cost: 8.25 - castLvl * 0.25, above castLvl 29 the Mana Cost is capped at 1.
Damage: -5 % + castLvl * 5 %

GA is an auto targeting missile, following enemy's movements, and does a guaranteed hit. The arrow travels to wherever you click and searches for a target up there. Its targeting ability is worse than in 1.09, so it doesn't work well while playing off-screen anymore. If you catch your opponent in 'namelock' GA will still travel quite far, and it is still able to turn round by nearly 180 degrees then. Also GA can not pierce anymore since 1.10beta release.

Magical Arrow (MA)

Effect: Transmutes a part of total physical damage into magical damage and adds additional physical damage. It doesn't consume arrows from the quiver.
Mana Cost: 1.625 - castLvl * 0.125; at castLvl 13+ no Mana is used
Transmuted Damage: 1 % * castLvl
Damage Bonus: +1 * castLvl

The skill gives a physical damage bonus. This is added to the damage after Dex and other percentage off-weapon damage boni are applied, but before the Chance for CS or DS takes grip. Finally, when all physical damage is calculated, the percentage of physical damage is transmuted into magical.

Fire Arrow (FiA)

Effect: Transmutes a part of total physical damage into fire damage and adds additional fire damage.
Mana Cost: 2.875 + castLvl * 0.125
Transmuted Damage: 1% + castLvl * 2
Fire Damage Bonus: increases rapidly with growing castLvl, castLvl 1 = 1 to 4, castLvl 29 = 171 to 195
Synergy: each point in ExA increases fire damage bonus by 12 %

Cold Arrow (CA)

Effect: Transmutes a part of total physical damage into cold damage and adds additional cold damage.
Mana Cost: 3.375 + castLvl * 0.125
Transmuted Damage: 1% + castLvl * 2
Cold Damage Bonus: increases rapidly with growing castLvl, castLvl 1 = 3 to 4, castLvl 29 = 130 to 138
Cold Duration: 2.8 s + castLvl * 1.2 s
Synergy: each point in IcA increases cold damage bonus by 12 %

Exploding Arrow (ExA)

Effect: Upon impact the arrow explodes and casts a splash of fire damage.
Mana Cost: 4.5 + castLvl * 0.5
Fire Splash Damage: increases rapidly with growing castLvl, castLvl 1 = 2 to 6, castLvl 29 = 239 to 278
Synergy: each point in FiA increases splash fire damage by 12 %

The splash has a blast radius of 2 yards. It carries all fire damage from skill and equipment. It happens before the arrow's CtH is checked and therefore doesn't need a successful toHit roll.

Immolation Arrow (ImA)

Effect: Similar to ExA the arrow explodes upon impact and casts a splash of fire damage. Additionally a small fire wall is cast which lasts for 3s.
Mana Cost: castLvl * 0.5 + 5.5
Fire Splash Damage: 10 to 20 at castLvl1, 120 to 130 at castLvl10, 360 to 370 at castLvl20
Fire Wall Damage: 8 to 9 per s
Casting Delay: 1s
Synergies: +10% Fire Splash Damage per each point in ExA, +5% Fire Wall Damage per each point in FiA

The splash has a blast radius of 2 yards. It carries all fire damage from skill and equipment. It happens before the arrow's CtH is checked and therefore doesn't need a successful toHit roll.

Ice Arrow (IcA)

Effect: Freezes a mob completely and adds cold damage
Mana Cost: 3.75 + castLvl * 0.25
Cold Damage: increases rapidly with growing castLvl, castLvl 1 = 6 to 10, castLvl 29 = 444 to 470
Freeze Duration: (1.8 s + castLvl * 0.2 s) * (1 + skLvl FA * 0.05)
Synergy: each point in CA increases cold damage by 8 %, each point in FA increases Freeze Duration by 5 %

Freeze Duration suffers a difficulty penalty, in NM it is halved and in Hell it is quartered. Therefore Ice Arrow is used next to never. The cold duration from items adds with IcA's freeze length.

Freezing Arrow (FA)

Effect: Upon impact the arrow explodes and casts a splash of cold damage.
Mana Cost: 8.5 + castLvl * 0.5
Cold Damage: increases rapidly with growing castLvl, castLvl 1 = 40 to 50, castLvl 29 = 506 to 516
Freeze Duration: 2 s + sLvl Ice Arrow * 0.1 s
Synergy: each point in CA increases cold damage by 12 %, each point in IcA increases Freeze duration by 0.1 s

The splash has a blast radius of 3,3 yards. It carries all cold damage from skill and equipment. It happens before the arrow's CtH is checked and therefore doesn't need a successful toHit roll. Freeze Duration suffers a difficulty penalty, in NM it is halved and in Hell it is quartered. The cold duration from items adds with FA's Freeze Duration.

the Bow Skills' Capability

The Skills Magic Arrow, Fire Arrow und Cold Arrow require an extreme specialisation on physical Damage. Additionally there is the CtH problem to deal with. Therefore those three skills don't come into consideration. Ice Arrow isn't shortlisted too, since its damage isn't convincing and it still is subject of the toHit check.
Investing in Freezing Arrow, Exploding Arrow or Immolation Arrow takes another 41, respectively 42 points. The elemental arrows' usage is only possible with massive cut backs on the blockers, and even then there aren't enough skill points to go around. On the other hand Freezing Arrow is always worth considering as one-point wonder for stopping the mobs. Splash always hits. Cold charms in the inventory enhance the Freeze Duration far more effective than the IcA synergy.
The skill Multi itself doesn't need that much points. But it needs quite substantial investments in stats and in CS, Pene and Pierce. Therefore Multi won't do.
Like the other Bow Skills Strafe is subject to the ToHit roll. At least high shooting frequency and autoaim compensate some of this. Yet for delivering direct damage Strafe is no better than Multi. Then again Strafe is very well suited for carrying effects.
Guided Arrow is designated as boss killer. Because of autotarget and autoaim it always hits. Pierce just doesn't happen anymore, compared to 1.09. Since GA is only used in special situations there is no need for special efforts regarding weapon or stats.

Damage while using Standard Attack

Some players may consider to damage enemies while using Standard Attack or Standard Throw. Here non-amazon-specific weaponry comes to mind, as e. g. all the Passive Zons or Tankzons use. A good CtH is very important for this manner. This may be realised with items, the skills IS or Pene and/or the hireling. If a Rogue is hired the Zon should use Pene to improve her CtH, along with a BlA Mercenary she should invest in IS. If mainly physical damage is dealt the chance of doing double damage via CS or DS should be as high as possible. If no items with DS are used the skill CS is pushed to castLvl 8 to 16. With all onehanded weapons except with Javelins, daggers and throwing daggers the Zon has a miserable block speed. Thus thrusting weapons and spears are preferred for melee. Among the daggers the unique Fleshripper sticks out. The '-50% target defense' attribute increases CtH tremendously. On top of this one we get high damage, OW, CB and slow.
As ranged weapon the unique throwing axes Lacerator and Gimmershred jut out. The Gimmershred brings extremely good elemental damage and the Lacerator has a 33% chance to cast AD upon hitting. With AD the Lacerator offers a further damage enhancement: thorns. How this is done I have described in Mirror, Mirror.
Whoever wants or has to do without unique weapons is served quite well with the Fool's prefix. This prefix gives AR and max Dam per Level. A 'Visionary' headgear (AR% per level) is also very useful for this build. Daggers with curse charges are another option as secondary weapon. LR may pierce Immunities and make PoisI susceptible to the Poison Skills. The enemies stay poisoned even after LR has expired. With Attract cursed mobs target some of their own, and cursed with Confuse they target just anybody near.

the Capability of Standard Attack and Standard Throw

The nuts and bolts for the standard attacks as second damage source is the CtH. The combination of the BlA Mercenary or the Rogue with the appropriate other Zon skill is good advice. The equipment should grant some attributes helping with AR issues, although personally I wouldn't dedicate more than two or three items to this purpose. OW, maybe even via hireling, and Prevent Monster Heal give us a nice finish. If the second attacks emphasis is physical CB and DS/CS are a must-have.

Melee attacks with one handed weapons suffer one major drawback. Because of low weapon range the Zon often stands closer to the mobs than generally advised in melee. She is mostly next to her Valk and the blocker Merc, not behind them. The difficulties resulting from short weapon range are severe enough to make melee quite challenging. Along with twohanded weapons a weapon range of 4 or 5 has to be preferred, so the minions stand in closer to the mobs. So the very same things are important as along with the physical Spear Skills' usage.

Ranged weapons eminently match Poison Skills' equipment demands. Therefore I prefer this variant of Standard Attack as second damage source.

the Capability of the Minions

Only with reservations the minions are suited as good damage source. The high level Valk deals well and truly plenty of damage. She just attacks quite slowly, not much faster than an Impalezon. The Decoy needs Thorns to do damage at all. Looking at the defensive part, there is nothing better than those two. A Decoy casted with level 30 or more is very hard to scratch. If there is a BO-Barb around the Decoy, placed at Lister and his crowd, she would roll on the floor laughing, if she could, because those thugs could do no more than tickle her. The high level Valk, additionally synergised with a high Decoy, possesses such an amount of Life and Def, so the just mentioned Barb will burst into tears. At high levels the two minions are really stable, so there are only very few situations where they can't stand their ground in. If they get in trouble the Zon should retreat as fast as possible. In such a situation the blocker hireling has long died. The only danger for Valk, assuming a careful game play, is the curse IM. She just deals out too much damage here :-)
An investment into the two Minions is always advisable, especially since the long duration of poison damage results in waiting for quite some time. Stable blocker have no problems to keep enemies out of our Fairy's hair.

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

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