Best armor for ice maiden on NL?

I made a budget ice maiden and am having fun running the mav set.

But im looking to take it to the next level and was wondering what the best armor would be on NL (ie no prebuff with hustle)

Enigma vs CoH vs Treachery vs jewelers plate of xxx?

Ive been leaning towards either treachery or the jewelers plate bc of the ias it offers making it eaiser to hit 8 fpa with ice matty bow. I plan on using maras for the all res and skills rather than an ias ammy.

Im also planning on using nightwings socketed with a cold facet bc i think that will probably offer better dmg output than a jewelers tiara of speed with 3x cold facets although im not sure.

I thought about socketing a jewelers armor with 2x ias jewels with maybe mpk or another mod and then either 2x all res/mod rare jewels or 2x cold facets.

Just seeing what peoples opinions are about the best combo for dmg output and survivability.

Of course once you can make hustle on NL being able to prebuff for the bos will change things

I suggest Enigma for mobility and all round best armour for elemental bowazons:

  • +2 skills to boost your core skill damage, while also boosting your passives
  • Teleport to reposition your mercenary for better infinity/conviction placement and control
  • Life after each kill for aiding survivability and making the build lower maintenance
  • Teleport and faster run/walk for general mobility and faster clear speeds
  • Strength, damage reduction, maximum life bonuses

All really nice things for sure but what do you about resistances? Or are those not a big deal when youre freezing most things and can dodge/evade some dmg

Edit also is it important to hit 8 fpa? Bc enigma really handicuffs you for the ias on other gear

Anya quests, Anni and torch cover a lot of your resistances, then on top you have resists from your ring, glove slots and further resists from charms that you can get. Ravenfrost adds to your cold absorb, highlord’s wrath adds lightning resists and flickering flame on your mercenary can round off your fire resistance.

You won’t have max resists in hell but you will have good enough resistances for a build that can also stack more life than a physical bowazon and for cold bowazons also freeze targets in place.

8 fpa can be achieved using an Ice matriarchal bow, gloves, highlord’s and IAS in your nightwing’s veil (IAS/mana per kill).

1 Like

Yeah thats what i saw in your video and some other recommendations for gear if going enigma. I had considered doing that at the time i made this original post but ive decided to go a different direction and see how i like it.

Right now my plan is: nightwing with cold facet, treachery, maras, nos coil, and caster 2 bow gloves that also have mpk. Definitely lacking the mobility of enigma but everything else i think will be about the same. Plan will be to proc fade at the beginning of a session and just see how long it lasts and how easily it gets refreshed.

If it doesnt turn out well then i might consider respeccing and going down the enigma route

So i tried out:
Nightwings -5/+20 cold dmg
Maras
Ice
Treachery
Caster gloves with 2 bow, str/dex, fire res, 2 mpk
Nos coil
Ravenfrost/rare mana leech, mpk ring and silkweaves

Definitely noticed a significant dmg output compared to mav set.

Still lacking the mobility of enigma but overall i enjoyed it. I got harmony on switch and merc stayed with me most of the time in open areas. Fade proc from treachery is up about half the time. Ill test it out some more but felt like even without fade i was only in danger of dying once due to souls in wsk so maybe resists arent as important as i thought.

I do enjoy the extra mpk as well. Didnt have to pot as much for sure.

2 Likes

Mana per kill, a small amount of leech, and a mana pool of about 500-600 gets me by just fine soloing. In bigger games, though, it’s not sufficient unless someone is kind enough to have Insight or the group’s killing speed is quite fast.

2 Likes

Yeah i agree with that, but 95% of the time I’m solo farming so it works well.