Guide written by Spearthrower on the DiabloII.Net Single Player Forums.
Throwers... probably one of the most underrated classes in the game. This was my 1st successful character build back in D2C and was effectively shelved in his mid 80's due to other interests. A few weeks ago I re-located him on a floppy disk where he was stashed while I went to live in Milan and immediately I found some excellent weapons for him which allowed him to reach level 90 (my highest character)
As with my WB guide, this is a SP Friendly Guide... no *must have* weapon/armour items, just a couple of interesting items if you have them.
A thrower obviously focuses on the throwing mastery as his primary attack. An important point to mention right off the bat is that "throwing weapons" are your mastery.... if you use a throwing axe it is classed as "throwing" not as an axe so placing points into axe mastery will not provide any benefits.
Strength 130ish. this allows you to wear good armour and use Balrog Spears if this is your preferred weapon
Dexterity 300. Yes, I said 300! Dex provides the maximum damage in throwing and also gives ridiculous AR, as throwing weapons diminish you want every one of them to hit saving those back to town trips. "Make every bullet count lads. Don't shoot 'till you see the whites of their eyes"
Energy Base. throwing costs very little and even a tiny amount of mana steal will easily replenish your needs - eventually you wont even need mana steal!
Vitality Everything else.
Throwing Mastery 20
Double Throw between 8 and 20. This skill only provides AR and with 300 DEX AR is not an issue if you only PvM, for PvP the more AR the better. Only go higher than 8 if you see that you need to hit more (unlikely)
Battle Orders 20 More life and mana. very important.
There are a lot of skills that are very helpful to a thrower but yet dont need many points in them. As you can see from the few primary skills needed, you will have a lot of spare points leftover - here are some suggestions.
Leap Attack 1 point only - this isnt for damage but for tactical redeployment. An important strategy for a Thrower is to have the monsters coming to you in a line rather than as a mob... this skill gives you the option to rapidly change positions to more effectively mow down your enemies.
Berserk (1-5) + Weapon Mastery (1-3) - as many points as you feel necessary... obviously this is only to deal with PI's rather than flinging 40 arching spears at them.... I personally use elemental throwing weapons but this is a valid option.
Increased speed at least 4, preferably more but dependent on your equipment. Mobility is the key to your Throwers success, move fast, throw spears, jump to a new position, throw spears, run back, throw some more...... never.... NEVER get into melee range, not because you cant take a hit (with B.O. you can) but because there is no need for you to be in melee range.
Increased Stamina 1 point, lets you run more
Natural Resists 5 max - probably the only damage you will be taking from normal monsters (i.e. not bosses) will be ranged damage and this will be most damaging when it is elemental. Beyond 5 the returns diminish steeply and your build will not require you to wear specific equipment so you can easily max resists with this skill and some from your items.
Taunt 1 point - Use this to make ranged attackers walk towards you.... perfectly in line for your spears to hit them. This also works on magic users so apply this when facing any non-melee monsters.
Grim Ward 1 point + - At last, a character that can benefit from this skill. Set up a ward and lead the monsters back to it... they turn and run away in a nice straight line letting you throw spears at their retreating backs A fun use of this is what I call Grim Ward Ping Pong... set up a few wards in a vague line and sometimes you will get a monster flee your first ward, see the 2nd and immediately turn around back onto its original path... get this right with a group of monsters and you have a free killing party! Grim Ward is also good because its not character level based like howl is... so monsters will always run.... increasing this skill just makes them run further for longer.
Frenzy 6 MAX! - I have never actually used this but I just wanted to include it to make the guide more complete... Frenzy's speed bonus does actually add to your throwing speed so it is possible to get a few frenzies in then switch to 9mmUzi mode..... you will send out spears at a stupidly fast rate. This is not particularly necessary because you will be aiming to get as much IAS from equipment as possible.
Ok, you will have noticed by now that I keep referring to spears... this is not just a PR campaign with my name It is because javelin class weapons actually have over double the range of other throwing weapons. Yes, there are axe and knife class weapons which also generally have double the quantity of javelin class, but range makes an interesting difference. Knives and Axes range is just about the size of a screen in high resolution..... javelins is MORE THAN 2 screens!!!! This can quite often mean that during a chaotic battle where 1 or 2 of your spears may have gone astray, you will frequently walk on to find dead enemies from your missed spears!!!! As an interesting side-note this is also VERY viable in PvP, you could, with practice use the radar to see where your off-screen enemy is and start hurling spears that way... you might not get 100% accuracy but if even 1 hits it's sure to throw them into confusion!!
Ok, so we have Javelin class weapons - as soon as you start out in the game start looking for magic ones, doesnt matter what type. This is because normal (white) weapons will automatically disappear when you run out of them whereas magic ones will just become unavailable until you repair them.
Most importantly, get used to the need for portalling back to town frequently - FAR more than with other character classes, throwing weapons run out, simple as that... thus a little patience is required. This makes Act 3 a pain as its further to run to get them repaired but every class has its downside and this is it... seriously, those who have never seen a Thrower will not believe the damage it does while receiving no damage in return!
The particular range I use are the Harpoons, the elite version of this is Winged Harpoons and I have been fortunate enough to find both a cruel winged harpoon of butchery and a cruel winged harpoon of evisceration. The latter gives me a base weapon damage of 60 - 394 which I'm sure you can appreciate is particularly devastating! Anya in Act 5 is your girl for these... and for earlier good throwing weapons. Dont kill Nilathak or get the Halls Of Anguish/Pain (cant remember the name) Portal and you can easily nip in and out of the portal checking her inventory.
Anything!! Your aim is to not get hit, so high defense is not required. Anything that isnt heavy so it doesnt drain your stamina. If you can get life/resists on it then its great, if you can get IAS then thats what we're after. Stock up heavily on IAS gear - anything, anywhere. Helmet, Armour, Gloves, Amulet... all of these are best if they have an IAS mod on them. Remember that your weapons cant be socketed so at the least you have 1 less thing to worry about
I used Twitchthrow even in my 80's just for the IAS until I collected enough IAS jewels to make a 4 socket superior Archon Plate which is perfect. There are probably many uniques and sets that are useful for this class but as we're SPers I wont go into them as not everyone has the potential to get them... heh, even Archon Plate is rare enough
Razortail + Cleglaws Pincers There's only 2 specific pieces of equipment I will mention. The belt is the ONLY way a Thrower can get a piercing attack. While it doesnt matter if you dont have it, it certainly can improve your kills per spear ratio. With this the number of monsters I found dead 2 screens away from my last battle massively increased as the spears penetrated the nearby mobs and continued to sail off into the distance.
The gloves do 2 interesting things.... 1 is 25% speed reduction of your target which I'm sure many Zons out there are well aware of... they're walking slower towards you thus you have more time to kill them. 2nd is Knockback... probably the second most hated mod on equipment for normal melee classes but GREAT for a Thrower.... watching the Smith run at you and keep getting pounded into a corner makes these gloves worth more than their weight in gold. Btw - the MOST hated mod is probably %monster flee when hit.... guess what? Another great mod for a thrower if you can get it on any piece of your equipment.
Also look for anything with the "Cannot be frozen" mod on it. Your key is mobility and being frozen does not fit well with that
Collect any and all elemental charms, I have only got 1 decent elemental charm but that's because charms didnt exist when most of my playing of this character took place. With enough of these and a decent weapon switch to 2 arcing/hibernal/combustion/other elemental damage spears you will have no need of using the berserk/weapon mastery against PI's
Fast Run... we've covered the need for this already.... with other equipment, your INC SPEED skill and a few of these you will easily hit the Fast run cap and will literally be zooming around the screen.
Again, when I was playing these guys just didn't provide a decent use. Now they are there I have experimented with different ones with this build and as a rule I would have to say - Dont use a merc with a Thrower..... why? Well, we're looking for mobility and we're looking to encourage the monsters to run straight at us in as much of a line as possible - a merc will distract a good few and will lower your kills per spear ratio...... if you REALLY cant imagine life without a merc (so lonely!) then a Holy Freeze merc will serve you well slowing down the enemy and generally making them a not so mobile target.
Another potential is an Act 1 merc with massive elemental damage on the bow... I just cant seem to come to grips with these, they seem to like wandering into crowds and just generally doing exactly the opposite of what I want. Your choice but bear in mind that a merc is not required to succeed.
Andariel: You can kill her before you can even see her - you know where she stands so go within about a screen and a half and fire away. She will probably start coming towards you but by the time she's in melee range, she's dead.
Duriel: LOL... here we have THE problem for a thrower, there's no space for manoeuvre, nowhere to run, and he uses a freeze aura. You have only 1 option... stand in his face and throw. In normal he drops quickly, in NM you have high level Battle Orders and can take him with minimal trouble.... in Hell, well, get ready for hassle... my advice is to immediately open a TP the moment you get in the chamber and ensure you have full rejuvs in all your slots. He will die and probably quickly but it might take a good few well-timed heals before you're past him. Don't be disconcerted, he is your only competitor.
Mephisto: Jump over to him, lead him back and jump back over again. Dodge his big ice balls (ooer) and kill him from the safety of the other side. With Battle Orders up, even if one of them hits you its not going to hurt all that much, but a few in a row could cause some damage. Generally 0 problems.
Diablo: With such tremendous AR you wont have anywhere near the problems other classes have in hitting him. The idea is to stay mobile and watch out for his attacks, quite often he leaves himself open for a good 2 or 3 seconds of spear throwing. He is not a problem.
Baal: Pah! You can stand by his first group of tentacles where you come out and take him down... he normally doesnt even respond. Just move up and down the ravine but not on the bridge itself and you will kill him in seconds.
Ranged Attackers/Magic Users - remember to use taunt
Lord De Seis His and his buddies Iron Maiden curses wont help him - you're a ranged attacker so not in danger from them... fill him with spears
The Thrower is an exceptional class, easily viable in Hell, great in the Cow level and with only Duriel as a difficulty. Keep mobility in mind at all times and be lining the monsters up for faster kills. A good tip is to hit shift and fire at the floor between you and the target, when he dies any behind will be hit and if there's a mob of them you can spread your fire with just a small movement of the mouse. For me this is probably the most *skillfull* class because you dont just run at a monster and let your weapons and stats do the maths with the targets defense and life, you actually use targetting and quick thinking to maximise your killing efficiency. Neither over or underpowered, the Thrower can easily face any monster in the game without taking damage and yet get a great deal of satisfaction from every kill. If you like PvP give this class a try - I've heard of very good results from it. If you only PvM then I guarantee this class will provide a new Diablo gaming experience for you.
Cheers for reading, hope this encourages some of you to try out my favourite class. I've probably missed loads so I'll end up editing.. but hey! No-one minds do they? Heheh