Amazon (bowzon) for lifer here.
Played amazon religiously 20 years ago. I felt it was largely missing from D3, and now that D2R is out I am back with my beloved class.
That being said, the PvE game in comparison to other classes is weak. Personally I prefer Freeze Arrow (frost maiden / toxic frost maiden) so I will be focusing on that build in this post.
This build is a lot of fun for me. This time having played through the game from release, using Kuko Shakaku through NM, then getting a Lycander’s Aim upgraded, then eventually a Faith (grand matron +3). To be honest I didn’t see really any major improvement in my build going from Lycander’s to Faith, then I realized I should have made Ice.
So I sold my Faith, made a new Faith in a Hydra bow for merc, then gathered runes to make Ice in another Grand Matron bow.
So here we are. I have Ice and Faith. My clear speed of hell cows is decent, but in comparison to other classes like sorc or necro, it’s kind of sad.
I think the Ice runeword needs a few tweaks to make it a worthy runeword. I suggest the following in addition to its current stats:
+7% mana leech
+3 to Freeze Arrow
+3 to Cold Arrow
+3 to Ice Arrow
Also, Frost Nova is weak. In its current form it’s just fireworks; it looks pretty but is does almost nothing. This should be buffed to:
25% chance to cast level 40 Frost Nova on striking
I should be annihilating anything that isn’t resistant to cold but the truth is I have to focus so much on cold damage (ormus’s robes, nightwing, ice facets in both), skills and mana management that I lose mobility and survivability. For cold immunes I rely on physical bow damage but it’s garbage numbers on Ice, especially if it rolls a low ED%. Instead I swap to javs for plague/poison jav (which are also maxed) but even then, it’s just more expensive things. I need upgraded eth titans and possibly a Pheonix in Monarch for mana management/fire damage.
In conclusion, the current buffs received from the rune word alone are almost negligible and other items such as Pheonix, Infinity, should not be mandatory in addition to Ice. For such an expensive rune word this should be way stronger than it is currently.