Jab

Attacks with a series of rapid thrusts using a javelin or spear class weapon.

Jab is a level 1 Amazon attack (Javelin and Spear tree, no prerequisite; it unlocks Power Strike and Impale). One click delivers three quick thrusts with a javelin or spear at a single target. The numbers that decide it are the damage, which starts below the plain attack and only passes it at level 6, and the attack rating, +181% at level 20.

The numbers

• Damage is calc1, ln34: Param3 is the baseline of −15 and Param4 adds 3 a level, so −15% at level 1, 0% at level 6, +12% at 10, +27% at 15, +42% at 20, +72% at 30. The Basin's page writes it as 3 × slvl − 18 and its table matches. Each thrust carries 100% of weapon damage before that bonus (SrcDam 128).
• Attack Rating is ToHit 10 plus LevToHit 9 a level: +46% at level 5, +91% at 10, +181% at 20, +271% at 30.
• Mana is 2 at level 1 (mana 8 with manashift 6) and rises 0.25 a level (lvlmana 1): 3 at level 5, 4.25 at 10, 6.75 at 20. The Basin's page writes it as 1.75 + 0.25 × slvl.
• The row restricts it to the spear item type (itypea1 spea), which covers javelins and spears alike.

All three lines read lvl, so +skills from items raise them in full.

How it works

Jab is a melee attack sequence: by the Basin's page, three rapid javelin or spear thrusts at one target, each with its own Chance to Hit roll and each dealing weapon damage with the bonus above, so the ordinary rules of Dealing Physical Damage apply to every thrust, and so does Leech. The speed of the sequence follows the Amazon's attack rate, see Attack Speed. There is no missile, no radius and no conversion: the row's calc4 is 0, no damage is dealt as an element.

The Basin's page says that once the first thrust has been made, the sequence is not interrupted by blocking, casting, hit recovery, knockback or stun. It also records that in the 1.10–1.13 game Dodge and Avoid did interrupt it, stopping the sequence where the dodge happened and, when attacking continuously, making the next sequence miss; the same page says this was fixed in Diablo II: Resurrected, in patch 2.4.

The Basin's page lists the skill on the Desert Mercenary and on several monsters, Duriel among them.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: the row has no SymPerCalc column, the skilldesc row has no dsc3 line, and no skill reads Jab's points. All three of its lines read lvl, so a +skill from an item is worth exactly a hard point.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; each thrust is a separate hit and is cut on its own. The Basin's page says nothing more about this skill against players.

Build notes

• Level 20: +42% weapon damage on each of three thrusts, +181% attack rating, 6.75 mana a sequence.
• The first five hard points are worth less than a plain attack in damage: the bonus is negative until level 6. What a point buys early is the attack rating and the three hits.
• Three hits a click means three leech rolls and three chances for a weapon's on-hit modifiers; the damage line is the weaker half of the skill.
• Nothing feeds Jab and it feeds nothing, so its level is bought by +skills as cheaply as by hard points.