So i am playing around calculators and also tried a bit with single player but in the end i am not sure about the final result.
So want to make a Frost Maiden, meaning most dmg comes actually from freezing arrow.
Thing is that often guides suggests to make “Ice” but I don’t see any benefit of it.
Does less dmg because it is way slower and the biggest down side is that you basically leech 0 mana as you have no phy dmg.
So for me there was no contest in real game play that Faith beats Ice any day even in a frost maiden setup.
Now the 2 setups I compare are actually:
Faith Grand matron bow and Faith Matriarchal Bow.
Main difference:
With GMB i need a 120/45 ias helm and a nos belt for 7 Frames
With MB i can run a 15/40 Nightwings and razor for 7 frames
I am not 100% sure how much the max pierce will actually affect the dmg.
GMB has a little higher phys dmg if you run multi shot and guided arrow (e.g. chaos sanc)
Dmg against Obilivion Knight as example: (no special inventory)
GMB:
Freezing arrow: 27k
Multi: 7k
GA: 11k
MB:
Freezing arrow: 29k
Multi: 6k
GA: 9k
what do you think is stronger at multi farming? It seems depending on the mobs (no immunity) the cold dmg varies a lot.
Freezing arrow consumes alot of mana, so it’s better to shot few powerfull then many weak projectiles. Besides +20 ias is quite okay, and you can easily reach fast breakpoints with the right equipment.
MAEK still works without phys damage and works very well with fast killing AoE Like freezing arrow.
I really doubt that. The aura is annoying, but the + cold skill damage and - cold resist is just too good. The real choice is MB or GMB ice. I may even consider an good rolled upped frost rainbow lycander over faith for frostmaiden. But that mainly depends on the rest of your setup (which breakpoints you can reach at each bow). But i think most of the time ice GMB should be BiS, unless you’re able to keep mana income high enough for MB, or you run hybrid with strafe and want the higher damage / ml of lycanders.
In a nutshell without writing a large text-wall, few things for you:
Matriarchal Bow as Faith = 45%ias for 7fpa
Matriarchal Bow non-faith = 145%ias for 7fpa
Diamond/Shadow Bows as Faith = 65%ias for 7fpa
Diamond/Shadow Bows non-faith = 200%ias for 7fpa
Grand Matron Bow as Faith = 95%ias for 7fpa
Grand Matron Bow non-faith = 295%ias for 7fpa
In other words:
Ice in Matriarchal will need 45%ias for 9fpa, 75%ias for 8fpa, and 145%ias for 7fpa.
Ice in Diamond/Shadow = 65% 9fpa, 105% 8fpa, 200% 7fpa
Ice in Grand Matron = 90% 9fpa, 150% 8fpa, 295% 7fpa
Ice bow is slow, despite it looking like it is the best option.
Hope this info helped you figure out what you needed to do on the setup.
i tested all setups with hero editor and with ice i am running out of mana like nothing.
with faith i do not need any mana pots. occasionally i have to throw in a multishot to leech full mana quickly.
also the dmg is badically the same because of 2 frames more.
with both faith bows you stay full mana all day with ice you drinking mana pots like no tomorrow.
strafe sucks and i never considered it.
with faith you can delete frost immunes as well even with freezing arrow.
i would say it is more of an hybrid but turns out it works better than ice.
there are some scenarios where ice seems to be better and that is against monster with high phsy dmg reductio. e.g. diablo or baal. but to be fair, even ice sucks against bosses hard, but never the less has more dmg against those than faith hybrid
Have you tried MAEK? Should keep your mana up for hordes. ml also somehow works due the physical part, but MAEK works alot better for FA (Just like LF). Single target with FA is obviously problematic (Just like LF).
You mean mana after kill? Not familiar with the shortenings.
The only item that provides it are silks i believe?
Works well with hordes of mobs, but is actually terrible if you not always want to leave stragglers alive
Basically the result was:
The dmg of both builds is very similar, with faith 7 frames and ice 8-9 (depending on bow).
Faith got higher phys dmg and thus has more leech (also because attack rating is much higher so the phys part won’t miss
Ice got higher cold dmg but that also means that you are terrible at killing cold immunes
the combined parts of phys and cold of both builds are very similar ±200 dmg (without infinity)
with infinity, ice will scale a little better but not actually very very little.
I do find that it is more fun with faith because you attack faster, also you can farm anywhere as you got 3 types of dmg, which is quite nice. Phys+cold immune is very rare and sure it takes a while to kill with magic arrow but if you use ice and use magic arrow to kill cold immunes, it takes waaaaaay too long because there are tons of cold immunes everywhere
cows p1 are easy with both builds, but the better thing about faith is that you easily could switch (without respec) to full physical and just multi mow down everything.
P8 I think all 3 builds are not great. You can kill but the clear speed is kinda meh.
Phys completely sucks in P8 and frost arrow is too little aoe to mow down big packs
Yes, mana after each kill.
Caster crafting recipes (especially gloves are interesting for ama), TIR, jewels, Lore, valkyrie wing, que hegans, rare circlets rings amulets, nosferatus, silkweave,…
If you go with ICE in a Frost Maiden build, my advice is using a GMB.
You can use Strafe as your backup damage (Physical), so more Raw damage is a big help. This skills procs well with your mana leech and with the 25%Frost nova on strike that ICE has, giving a good crowd control even when you not use your Freezeing Arrow.
Faith is also good but in this case you prioritize the Physical damage in a build where the cold damage should your main damage.
technically yes, but after all the goal is to clear areas the most efficient way and you are still using the same skill if you prefer the visuals of frost maiden.
CC is more than enough with freezing arrow anyways.
I prefer Ice Grand Matron Bow for pvm situations. This bow also gives 7% life steal with deadly strike and -enemy cold resistance. With Nightwings you can get 50% cold skill damage and -30% enemy cold resistances. You may also pair poison damage with cold when you have both it’s a nice combination. But you can compare it to having like 6 cold facets 5/5 on the bow. This bow is very useful for clearing crowds in one shot you don’t even need much dexterity. With Razortail belt you can almost have max piercing making one shot go that much farther. Each enemy struck your leeching life and mana if you have managed leech items. This can also trigger several lvl 22 frost novas simultaneously from one shot.
For pvp you might be better off with faith but it depends from person to person because everyone has different stats. Like any element sure it can be absorbed. Damage can be reduced physically or magical.
For mercinary there’s lots of routes to go but one I enjoy is throwing Wrath bow on my mercenary. Peace armor for slow missle and critical strike, now rogue has inner sight and slow missile. Helmet you can’t go wrong with a Vampire Gaze. Throw a cold facet in it to make it 30-60 cold damage and 5%/8%/5%/8%.
Lots of people are going to be afraid to try something like this most prefer the classic cookie cutter build with faith and multi shot strafe guilded and don’t know how to try anything else. But that’s okay because in the end having fun is what’s most important. Who cares about who’s the strongest or who’s the toughest. Too many people trying to hard to be the best. You play Diablo for fun if you like Ice go Ice if you like Faith go Faith. Each bow is beautiful and great to use.
If your not sure what one then just get a Faith of Ice Grand Matron Bow.
-Valkyries