"Ice" zon question

[Necronium]

Hello amazon enthusiasts. I recently acquired an ice bow with the intent of making a frost maiden. Looking at the ctc frost nova, would it be better for me to go strafe/multi over cold arrows? Im sure the - cold on the bow would greatly benefit cold arrows but couldn't mass frost novas occur from using multi? Plus its in a gmb, so it wouldn't be as fast as if i had a mat bow. Which i know cold arrows benefit more from having a faster attack rather than more physical damage.

Im very new to zons, only other exp was a javazon a few years back.

[Pyrotechnician]

For those that have an infinite amount of wealth/items I highly recommend this build setup, its very comprehensive in terms of speed vs. damage comparisons of a GMB Ice versus a MB Ice.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?812103-The-Frostmaiden-Some-Equipment-tests

The ctc frost nova will be producing quite a few of them using strafe which of course will keep everything slowed, but thats not really the point of using ice. Besides, anything that gets close is either going to be frozen solid from Frozen Arrow itself or slowed by the Holy freeze aura that it provides. The main boost your looking at from ice is the -enemy cold resistance, the rest of it is just gravy.

[hubb]

CTC effects are only carried by the middle two arrows of Multi, so if you're after pretty effects then Strafe is your best bet. The frost novas won't be more than that though, and Ice's physical damage isn't anything amazing. Freezing Arrow is a super fun skill, and with 100% pierce you'll still get plenty of novas going off

[Necronium]

thanks for the replies, kinda let down that aside from being flashy all the novas would be for naught. I was looking at frost maiden originally when i thought of ice, and also thought about fishyzon. I tend to like less used characters/items and i dont see many cold arrow zons.