[GUIDE] Ice Bowazon - Focused on farming

Here’s a guide about an amazing non tier build, very defensive, fun and beautifull to play, with a very high amount of damage against group enemies.

Weapon - Ice Matriarchal bow
Swap - Call to Arms and Lidless Wall
Helm - Nightwing’s Veil with a 15% IAS jewel
Amulet - Highlord’s Wrath
Armor - Enigma on Mage Plate
Gloves - 3/20 bow skills
Ring - Raven Frost
Ring - Stone of Jordan
Belt - Arachnid Mesh
Boots - Caster craft with resists and high mana
Charms - Cold Sunder Charm, Bow skillers, small charms with life/mana or life/resist

Status
Strenght - needed
Dexterity - needed
Vitality - none or few points
Energy - remaining points

Skills

20 Freezing Arrow (main skill)
20 Cold Arrow
17+ Pierce
3-5 Dodge, Avoid and Evade
10+ Valkyrie

Merc
Infinity
Andariel’s Visage
Fortitute

This build makes a very relevant use of any +skills/+bow skills from gear.

Matriarchal Bow is for sure the best base for Ice. You need 75 IAS to reach the 8 frames attack speed, wich is one from the higher. With Grand Matron Bow, you would need 147 IAS to reach the same breakpoint, and 89 IAS to reach the 9 frames attack speed. Also, the physical damage from GMB doesn’t do much here.

I took out Mara’s amulet and a 5/5 facet from helm to reach the 8 frames attack speed, and it totally worth.

Call to Arms is really the best option for weapon swap, as it gives a lot of mana, really needed, and 1 extra point skill, and also a high amount of life.

When tested it before with much more points on vitality, and less on enery, I had always problems of lacking mana. Now, I don’t have this problem, even without mana leech.

There are lots of remaining skill points, and a nice way to play is using a 2/20 gloves with mana leech and Strafe to recover mana. I’m not using this gloves or strafe, and still don’t have any mana problem.

My life, with only 2 life skillers, is 531, and get to 900+ with Call to Arms. But I don’t have any problem with this. It’s a very defensive build. Freezing Arrow just freezes lots of monsters, Holy Freeze slower all monsters in a high area around you. Merc, Valkirye and Decoy are you tank minions. Dodge, Avoid and Evade gives more than 50% each of evading an attack. All these skills with teleport makes you almost unkillable if played right.

So, you don’t have do fear low life and negative resistances because it’s tanky with other sources of defensive skills.

Also, Infinity is required for damage. Some people says about Insight, but, as said, mana problems are totally solved with lots of points on energy and some gear that gives more mana. I don’t even need mana leech or mana potions. We don’t have much Resistance Reduction for cold immunes, and Conviction helps a lot here, along with high attack speed.

I tested it on P8 Cow Level TZ 96, and it’s very strong. Like Javazon, it takes advantage from high monster density with Pierce.

The only downside is the low Cast Rate for teleporting. But it’s for every Amazon build, there’s not much that can be done here.

So, I think this is the best build for this Bowazon.

Any opinions will be apreciated.

Have fun.

EDIT:
Some observations:

1 - This build was made thinking on fast farm, prioritizing damage and mobility

2 - 2k mana and mana potions and you’ll have no problems lacking mana

3 - The perfect caster boots would be:

30% FRW
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
Regenerate Mana 10%
20 To Mana
Lightning Resist 40%
Fire Resist 40%
Cold Resist 40%

or

30% FRW
Increase Maximum Mana 5%
Regenerate Mana 10%
60 To Mana
Lightning Resist 40%
Fire/Cold Resist 40%

Update 03/06/2024:
Caster Gloves with 3 Mana After Each Kill is very usefull on this build, but still would need many points on energy - problably 1.000 - 1.300 mana would be fine - and mana potions.

Didnt recommended Silkweave Boots because a TriResist one do much more for the build, that lacks resistances, and mana can be solved by other ways. The caster boots offer some mana, altough less sustain than Silkweaves, but is a much better item overall. While with the gloves you lose only 1 extra skill point and it also can roll resists.

The perfect caster gloves would be:

  • 2 Bow skills
  • 20% IAS
  • 3 to Mana After Each Kill
  • Regenerate Mana 10%
  • 20 to Mana

More any 2 of the following:

  • 30% to a single resist (can roll any of them an up to 2 resists, problably the best option since the build lacks resistances. Actually, it’s possible to have a 3resist caster gloves, but it would mean you wont have +skills or IAS)
  • 40 to Mana (very good addition)
  • 15 to Dexterity
  • 15 to Strength
  • 3% of life or mana leech (mana leech is not that usefull since the physical damage is very low, but the life leech can be good with Ice’s leech)

About to read this, but cannot believe there is not a single reply… be back after digesting the guide.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to summarize this.

1 Like

Edit to Add;

Matriarchal Bow is for sure the best base for Ice. You need 75 IAS to reach the 8 frames attack speed, wich is one from the higher. With Grand Matron Bow, you would need 147 IAS to reach the same breakpoint, and 89 IAS to reach the 9 frames attack speed. Also, the physical damage from GMB doesn’t do much here.

I took out Mara’s amulet and a 5/5 facet from helm to reach the 8 frames attack speed, and it totally worth.

not sure I can get to 75ias… maybe with Nosfer… but would like to get to Arach’s like you… hmm.
I did have a MB with =# in stash and roller Ice in it, and it came out with +27cold and 206%Ed, so, better than my GMB… need to add 12 points to Dex to use…

With charms and SilkWeaves I’m at 81%frw…


I have a few Tokens I can use and, foolishly put 20 points into Ice Arrow… not sure what I was thinking.
Can easily recover those to put into Pierce, and add a bit more to Penetrate.

Have the runes and Base to make a Mage Enigma, but inot sure if it is a benefit seeing as I run a Phoenix Monarch on swap.

Just realized I currently have 60ias, and with a 15/15 that I mentioned above I would achieve 75ias… hmmm… maybe use that Token and run the MB to get to the 75%ias…

Have 11@res ring with 1maek and +5 min damage… hmmm.
Current ring is a 9+ @res with 117AR and 5% mana stolen…
Thoughts?
Works great with magic/guided arrow for mana leach…
Thoughts?

ok, respec’d…
Swapped the GMB for the MB (added to Dex and Life is down to 1609 from ~1800).
Swapped the RazorTail for Arach’s (Pierce is at 91% from previous 100+%).
Swapped the @res ring for an SoJ. (res not too bad… compared… still junk, but, Amazon)

  • have Wisp and Tgods in stash for gloms, and have Dwarf in stash for Trav).

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update;
I’m not sure the MatBow with the associated/increased-investment in dex for the +ias to be anything more than a Mana drain vs the GMB.
With max’d Cold/Freezing arrow - I’m not seeing the need/benefit for the increased ias…
I’m gping to go roll a few more terror zones, but, for my play style I’m not seeing the advantage of the IAS… YMMV.

Lower attack frames generally mean better mobility and higher dps (and higher mana usage), but the advantages kind of depend on the enemies that you’re facing. If you already kill them in one shot, then you won’t notice as much. If you’re facing enemies that are spread out or have higher HP, then you’ll notice more because you can get off your shots more quickly.

If you’re using more mana, then you’re firing more shots. For mana leech, I use a single point in strafe for packs of enemies, or guided arrow against single targets.

I prefer the faster speed, but it’s perfectly viable to use a lower IAS build if that’s more fun for you. You may be experiencing a difference in mana also because the GMB has more physical damage over the Mat. Bow, so it would leech more. It can be mitigated with extra maek, or dexterity for physical damage for leech, or higher leech gear. It’ll just depend on what gear you have and play preference.

2 Likes

Well guys I’m struggling…
The 75% IAS MB setup really did not suit my laid back play-style.
I hate to (permanently) loose the 15/15 jewel in the NightWings…
Also really like the idea of the Arach’s/SoJ combo adding +2 skills…
But, for me, seems saving the points needed in Pierce (Arach’s), and re-allocating them back to Penetrate and Critical (for Valk and I) is a better deal for how I play.
I recognize I was tossing arrows faster, but, when everyone is Frozen/Slowed it was not a game changer (to me)… and, I hate picking up Mana/Juv pots just to roll along…
I’m a cruiser… :).
Going to burn up a Hel to open the NightWings socket back up, toss my last 5/5 Cold facet in it, and got back to RazorTail and Penetrate/Critical…
May keep the HhighLords, but have a really nice +2 skills @res amulet I’ll throw on…
See how it goes…

Thanks for all the ideas/theory-crafting/experience and keyboard time you have spent/shared to help me along.

1 Like

Threw on a decent Mara’s… +2 skills was nice but she really does not need the @res.
Tied the +2 skills @res amulet and… ya…
Put the HighLords back on.
Removed my @res mana leach ring and put my SoJ back on.
@res does not seem significant on a character that removes monsters faster than they can attack… my observation.
Not sure the ring’s mana per hit was doing much anyways when I essentially 1 shot every individual and 1-2 shot most random mobs.
With Plague and Phoenix on swap, pausing for a moment once and a while to recover life/mana is not an issue for me… I just cruise.
Typically use magic arrow to leach (49magic/51physical) which does not cost stack or mana depletion. Yay!

–Guess I forgot to hit “reply”, and the above was from later that same day/evening…

I went ahead and reached out to an online friend that had a 118%EDef/15coldskill/20dex/9coldabsorb that we made a deal on.
Had 2 socket quests remaining, so added a socket in the NW’s. and tossed my last 15ias/15@res jewel into it… as I had not totally given up on the “fast” build.
Just ran the Tombs TZ95 and, to be honest with the heavy monster count I was missing the fast side a little.
So… ok… and now Cows… arg…
Well, with the 15ias NW’s helm on hand, I figured I’d put my GMB & Cold-facet helm away and try the MB /15ias Helm combo for Cows.
Grabbed my mule and my MB, got back to my charter… ARG! not enough Dex!!!
Had a 240/20 RavenFrost in my shared stash, and, Yay, enough Dex.
result…
The 75%ias is definitely working well in Cows… wowzers… She’s no light-Javazon (duh), but she is certainly my 2nd fastest Cow killer (I do not have a Sorc or Assassin build, or Barb, but, melee, so…)

In short… I think GMB with Cold NW/5-5facet… and MB with NW/15ias/15@res are both amazing… each in a different situation.
Going to alternate between both setups depending on the TZ.

Hope this guide helps you.

A high attack speed makes a lot of difference on DPS, specially if you can achieve higher frames without getting rid of affixes that concedes pure damage that, on Ice Bowazon, are + skills, + cold skill damage and - enemie cold resistance.

Since this build lacks - enemie cold resistance, Attack Speed gets much valuable to kill Cold Immunes. And also, if you want a smooth P8 farm, the attack speed becomes very important.

Anyway, actually, from this build, maybe I would use Silkweaves and invest more points into vitality and less on energy. But remember that you still need a lot of mana to have a nice gameplay with this build.

But, that tip to use GMB because it makes your mana leech better, seems very bad. You physical damage will still be low, mana leech is not good on this build, and you also loses attack speed. Also, you would need a very high mana leech to make it worth, even with GMB, and lose attack speed, meaning less DPS. The difference on physical damage from Matriarchal Bow to GMB, for hell and leech purposes, is low, and it totally doesnt worth.

Since to achieve the 8 frames attack speed you need 75% IAS, there’s no much things i would change here to find space for a high mana leech, but you can use Hustle on swap to open the amulet slot or even the socket slot on helm, altough I dont think it worth because Call to Arms is a high mana source and it also provides more damage and utility through + skills and more survivability through more life. But, if you think you dont need that much these affixes, a 2/20 caster amulet would be great for more mobility.

But, I need to say that I already tested the Crescent Moon amulet, and it totally surprised me - the mana leech was very good and recovered all mana used on the ice arrow. I didnt test this, but I think its very viable to try Hustle on Swap and Crescent Moon amulet in order to try a high mana sustain from items that allow you to invest much more points into vitality.

Also, Phoenix is not good on this build because you explode into ice all the corpses you kill. And if you want to kill them with Strafe, youll take a long time for that, even on P1.

And remember to teleport with your swap weapons if you use Spirit.

1 Like

Recently found a Tiara with +2 Zon skills /and/ 20fcr and… with 27 charges of TelePort… and… 2 open sockets!!!
Tossed two cold facets in it, and made a Fortitude from a DuskShroud I’d been hoarding…
Rolled 1.25 Life and only +26@res… oh well.
Respec’d, to attempt a fcr build (f2-cr rings/Forti/Arachnid’s), and… ya, hmmm… crappy.
Respec’d agin, to be able to have enough Dex to run the MatBow. Grab’d the NightWings with the 15ias jewel in it… and…
Now I get it.
But…
She looks so much better with the Tiara on, I cannot help but run that.
And Enigma has so much faster run/walk… ya, hard to forgo it.
But to your point, I am now favouring the Mat.Bow over the G.Mat.Bow…
3 bars to level 95… and I might respec to better allocate now that i know what i like… hmmm… getting short on Tokens…