Frost Maiden

[Bornaloserbaby]

I've just about had it with my WWS strafeazon. Shes Level 91 and can do the job just fine.

But recently I've been wanting to really take packs down quick n nasty:evil:

So since I've found a 4 sock ETH cv and a 4 sock +2 Matri bow it occured to me to make a frosty Maid to run cows and the Chaos Sanc. 2 places My WWs ama struggle.

I dont know the weapon bps for FA yet so this char could be wearing some of the following items


Helm. I was thinking NightWings but then I realised Andys Face would also do a great job. If I need the IAS then Andys is helm of choice. Opinions?

Armour. COH I would imagine. Dont have one yet but thats my endgame aim.

Bow . Ice in a Matri Bow (only +2). Is it worth trading for a +3 ? Seems like a lot of hassel for one more Skill point.

Gloves. I'll have to use Lava Gouts or even Laying Of hands until I can get my hands on some +2 B&C gloves with 20%IAS .

Belt. Proabably Razor Tail so I can save some Skill points on Peirce. Any better suggestions?

Rings. Raven + a dual leech ring (mana held in the mean time) (If i use Crescent moon ammy then either 2 Ravens or 1 Raven 1 Bul Kathos)

Amu. Highlords if I need the IAS but if not then possibly a + 3 B&C ammy or maybe even maras. Or Cresent moon if I need the life leach

Boots. No idea................WT's maybe?

+As many skillers as I can get my hands on

My Merc will use Infinity Andys and Levi or ETH shaft. Not sure what aura I should hire tho.



I've never made a frost maiden b4 but I gave the guide a read and I was thinking of using the following skills.

20 Cold Arrow
20 Ice Arrow
20 FA
20 Valk
8 Pierce
11Pre-Reqs
Rest in Strafe

Any comments?

As for Stats.

STR: Enough for gear
DEX: Alot
LIFE: Not that much
MANA: F all.

Please all you frost maidens out there I want your expert advice!!!

Cheers

[mr hamster]

I don't think you would need too much for dexterity, since:
A) Pumping dex for AR isn't such a good idea, + Ice has ITD
B) Pumping dex for damage wouldn't really help since you're going mostly elemental

Other than that maybe you could get an Insight Merc to offset the mana costs of FA and get more life?

I'll let someone more knowledgable get back to you on this...

[windwingwind]

Dont max ice arrow. The increased duration is trival and does not worth 20 skill points. Put the skill points in penetrate instead or LF should you try not to starfe. If you further diverse the points in Valky to CS, then it's a classic fishyzon :).

Since you are gonna use starfe for cold immunues. Add as much dex as possible if you are softcore. Lots of cold immunes are not breakable with Infinity.

If I were you I would trade for a 4soc +3 skills MB since they are not as expensive as GMB.

[Silent Shaddow]

erm
Night Wings =-) ias/res jool =-)
gores for ds/wt for mf,

<hijaks thread> is it still worth considering collecting cold dmg scs for the dura?

doesnt ice arrow increase dmg as well? or have i wasted some skills? -edit: oh :censored::banghead:
<hijaking ends>

ive got for FA+strafe and is working out very nicely. Loving the ice bow (thnx krem) but i would say have some more strafe oriedated switch.. eaglehorn maybe... or faith if u have 1 lying around on ur switch, like i do :rolleyes:

[Quietus]

erm
Night Wings =-) ias/res jool =-)
gores for ds/wt for mf,

<hijaks thread> is it still worth considering collecting cold dmg scs for the dura?

doesnt ice arrow increase dmg as well? or have i wasted some skills? -edit: oh :censored::banghead:
<hijaking ends>

ive got for FA+strafe and is working out very nicely. Loving the ice bow (thnx krem) but i would say have some more strafe oriedated switch.. eaglehorn maybe... or faith if u have 1 lying around on ur switch, like i do :rolleyes:

FA + Strafe is wonderful, though I would prefer a grand matron bow to get the extra damage. I use a matriarchal and it takes a while to kill cold immunes in full games. Collecting cold damage sc's is a great idea though - even if it's only 8 of them, that's 2 seconds extra freeze length in hell, which is notable.

[YogiRat]

From Freyas' FA guide.
The freezing length of FA is set at 2 seconds, and can be increased by either synergy(ice arrow) or cold damage from items. The synergy from ice arrow is pretty worthless in terms of helping FA, due to the fact that 20 points will only increase your freeze duration by 2 seconds in normal difficulty. Items with cold damage usually increase freeze duration once per cold damage modifier. The most typical way that people increase their freeze duration is by using small charms. Each cold damage small charm will increase your freeze duration by one second, though some, such as a "snowy small charm of the glacier" increasing freeze duration by two seconds since it has two cold damage modifiers. Many uniques have longer bonuses to freeze duration that are hidden. Here are some of the freeze durations for commonly used items:

Eye of Etlich: 2-10 seconds(randomly chosen when it drops)
Ravenfrost: 4 seconds
Vampiregaze: 4 seconds
Buriza: 8 seconds

Freeze length is reduced to 1/2 in Nightmare difficulty, and 1/4 in Hell difficulty, so with a freeze length of 8 seconds, you'll freeze normal monsters for 8 seconds, nightmare monsters for 4 seconds, and hell monsters for 2 seconds. Monsters with a high cold resist also have reduced freeze duration, so you will not freeze everything for the same amount of time, and things don't always stay frozen as long as your freeze duration would indicate. In addition, some things cannot be frozen, such as cold immunes, some frenzytaurs in hell difficulty, and the defilers in the worldstone keep come to mind, though there may be others that I can't think of.

So your basic level10 1-2 cold damage charm adds as much to freeze duration as 10 points into ice arrow. This is the extreme example, if you are 'fully stacked' with cold damage items the ratio might be only 5to1. :rolleyes:

My point is the dynamics of the frostmaiden haven't changed a whole lot since the start of this game, though things got easier with LOD, and even easier with 1.10. The stats on ICE are just amazing, I hope some day to find the runes to make one. But I'd put up a well built frostmaiden using Lyc's Aim or Melody in a +3 Matri or Ceremonial bow vs. a poorly made ICE bow build.:wink3:

A well built Frostie with ICE?
Wow, that is just too easy.....I wanna do that.:laugh:

[Evrae Altana]

Here's my own Frostmaiden if you want to compare:

Helm: 20/-5 Nightwings Veil (Faceted of course)
Armor: CoH dusk shroud
Bow: "Ice" GMB (I'd like a matriarchal, but whatever)
Belt: Razortail for the extra pierce
Amulet: Crescent Moon (the mana leech is just awesome)
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: SoJ (some extra mana and skill never hurt. I was planning to stick a dual leech ring here, but felt that my leeching needs were already covered.)
Boots: War Traveler (more damage certainly helps with leech)
Gloves: http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3566/screenshot002hb1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
(They have all the things I want for a Frostmaiden glove. Plus skill, IAS, some mana leech, and even some MF to boot. She's currently not using this right now since the gloves are on Ladder and my Frostmaiden is on NL. She's using a 2bow/20IAS/some other mod gloves for now.)

Stats:
enough strength for gear
I put a couple of points in vitality, just enough to get ~800 life
The rest went into dexterity for some more physical damage

As for the inventory, I have 7 bow GCs along with the Torch (left a 4x2 space to pick up items). Under these GCs, I stuck cold damage SCs for extra freeze length.

[Silent Shaddow]

Evrae ill trade u my ice matrai for ur ice gmb if ur on euscl but mines a low roll tho :embarassed:
oh well its an ice :jig:
runs off to get cold dmg charms and bow skillers

[windwingwind]

The ice mat bow on my starfer switch is soooo lovely :jig:

[Eilo Rytyj]

Hey Evrae, what merc do you roll with your Frosty? I was milling a Frostmaiden build over in my brain, and your gear is almost exactly what I envisioned.


I personally was thinking against going with an Infinity feller (as people naturally would do with an elemental character), instead opting for a (Fire Arrow) Faith Rogue.

I really couldn't care less if I can't break cold immunes, having 2 archers behind a Valk and Decoy, each firing like machine guns sounds much more appealing.

Faith would make your Physical aspect of damage that bit sweeter, and Inner Sight (boosted up to +4 skills by Faith & Andy's Visage) would cover the -defense lost from Conviction.

Oh, and there's that little thing about being immune to Iron Maiden (someone mentioned Chaos, didn't they).

[Big Boss]

Here's my frostmaiden build: (http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot068jv4.jpg)

Helm: Nightwings Veil (faceted)
Armor: Nigma mage plate
Bow: Ice Mat bow
Belt: Arach's mesh
Amulet: Highlords
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: SoJ (the mana really helps...u need lots of mana or mana leach)
Boots: Treks
Gloves: Rare 20ias/2 bow
Charms: Bow skillers, mana

with this build i can get away with base str, just enough dex for the bow and the rest into vita. i do about 4.3k damage with freezing arrow, and my attack speed is pretty decent. I don't get much mana from leach, but i have just about 800 mana which can keep me going for a while anyways, i just need to pot once in a while. my resists suck, but they haven't really been a problem since im ranged, and most things die fast anyways (besides cold immunes). i use an infinity merc...it doesn't cut all the cold immunes in the game (like in baals throne), but its still the most useful weapon for a merc for this build imo. Valk and my merc can finish off anything that I can't.

[Quietus]

Hey Evrae, what merc do you roll with your Frosty? I was milling a Frostmaiden build over in my brain, and your gear is almost exactly what I envisioned.


I personally was thinking against going with an Infinity feller (as people naturally would do with an elemental character), instead opting for a (Fire Arrow) Faith Rogue.

I really couldn't care less if I can't break cold immunes, having 2 archers behind a Valk and Decoy, each firing like machine guns sounds much more appealing.

Faith would make your Physical aspect of damage that bit sweeter, and Inner Sight (boosted up to +4 skills by Faith & Andy's Visage) would cover the -defense lost from Conviction.

Oh, and there's that little thing about being immune to Iron Maiden (someone mentioned Chaos, didn't they).



I've considered doing the same... doing that you'd be able to carry a grand matron ice, as well, and still hit 2 frame strafe. I've never been too worried about the first shot of it, but those two frame follow up arrows are important to me. Max cold/freezing arrow, valk, strafe, enough peirce for 100%, rest into penetrate maybe?

[Evrae Altana]

Hey Evrae, what merc do you roll with your Frosty? I was milling a Frostmaiden build over in my brain, and your gear is almost exactly what I envisioned.I chose an Act 2 Might merc. I need all the extra physical damage I can get. As for his gear, I usually never invest too much into my mercs since their main job is just to provide me with an aura and tank. He wears Andy's Visage, Shaftstop, and Reaper's Toll. The Reaper's lowers enemy physical resistance so I can leech even more mana. Plus, Holy Freeze from Ice combined with Reapers makes for super slow bosses. :jig:

[Bornaloserbaby]

so what are the Weapon speed break points for a Matriarcal Ice bow?
Are they different for strafe and FA?

ALSO

What if you used Atmas or WWS on switch for cold immunes.

With an Infinity merc +amp surely that would remove cold immunity??

[Evrae Altana]

With an Infinity merc +amp surely that would remove cold immunity??Amp only lowers physical resists. It will not help break cold immunity.