Ice Bowa Gear Questions

Some questions - I understand matriarchal is better as you can hit 7 fps with Faith Merc, gloves and nosferatu - do I even want nosferatu - or rather arach?
Second question was what to do for head gear and armor - how important is more cold-res-reduce sind you don't run Infinity - or do you run Infinity?
3os and 4os sacrificing everything for +35/-35 or rather use Enigma and Death feathom for 35/-5 and 4 skills - or some mix?

Any other smart ways to reduce cold res somehow?

Infinity is definitely an option to consider, check the other thread (not far) for this.

For head the most common is a faceted Nightwing.

PS. The other thread : forums/frost-maiden-ice-bowazon-guide-t1447182.html

I did Ice maiden in two seasons, love it.
Never tried to go for the 6th break point, but thinking about it- Faith has two weaknesses- you lose on Infinity which is huge (-85 cold res), and Faith has a tiny radius. I cant imagine the 0.4 attack per second is worth more than the 85% cold res.
As for rest of gear- headpiece you want a perfect nightwing's and a perf facet. If you cant get a pefr nightwing, a 3 perf facet

Helm might be better(though it costs way more). Armor- I did 2 versions- doing 3 facet armor and 15%ias- was tons of damage enough for p8 cows, but I hated merc AI and not being able to reposition. Second version was Enigma (I think I still put 5/5 facet in the nightwings, taking me to 4th breakpoint). I just farmed places with less hp like wsk and swampy pit. I think Chaos was still good. Still talking p8.
I enjoyed the Enigma version far more, though socketed armor version was significantly stronger.

Belt was

Razortail, but maybe you can go nosferatu and 96-7

Pierce. Maybe the 3 percent off doesnt do much. You have the skill points for it anyway.
Death fathom is sorc only. What dis you mean by that?

Nosferatu's Coil

or.houster wrote: 8 months ago

...and Faith has a tiny radius.

Tiny or not, it still has a larger radius than

Conviction (Infinity), and it need only hit you, not the mobs. But besides that, I suppose the -res could be worth more than reaching the final breakpoint, at least in theory (assuming it actually hits mobs), I haven't run any numbers or compared it in practice.

ShadowHeart wrote: 8 months ago

or.houster wrote: 8 months ago

...and Faith has a tiny radius.

Tiny or not, it still has a larger radius than

Conviction (Infinity), and it need only hit you, not the mobs. But besides that, I suppose the -res could be worth more than reaching the final breakpoint, at least in theory (assuming it actually hits mobs), I haven't run any numbers or compared it in practice.

Yes that's the reason I went Enigma in the second version. Much smoother gameplay, even if the damage is lower. Cows is boring anyway.
Can you reach 142 with Enigma? 15 in nightwing, hlord, 2/20 gloves, nosferatu, Ice and the Faith all add to 118 no? Still missing 24. You have to ditch nightwing for a triple ias jewel

Helm... another major damage loss.
I mean you gotta change bow or the Enigma no?
Am I missing something? (High chances (-=).

or.houster wrote: 8 months ago

[..]
15 in nightwing, hlord, 2/20 gloves, nosferatu, Ice and the Faith all add to 118 no?
[..]
Am I missing something? (High chances (-=).

You are indeed. If you're going with Faith, the fana doesn't just add IAS like other gear would, it also drops your breakpoints. So you're not looking at 142 needed with a matri but you're suddenly only looking for a measly 44 extra IAS (beyond fana itself) to max out (or up to 48..depending on how bad the fana roll is). So basically, any one IAS piece beyond the Ice and 3/20 gloves.

It actually opens up your other gear choices quite a bit to focus on more raw dmg, rather than IAS.

Though yeah, loss of Infinity would hurt.

Schnorki wrote: 8 months ago

or.houster wrote: 8 months ago

[..]
15 in nightwing, hlord, 2/20 gloves, nosferatu, Ice and the Faith all add to 118 no?
[..]
Am I missing something? (High chances (-=).

You are indeed. If you're going with Faith, the fana doesn't just add IAS like other gear would, it also drops your breakpoints. So you're not looking at 142 needed with a matri but you're suddenly only looking for a measly 44 extra IAS (beyond fana itself) to max out (or up to 48..depending on how bad the fana roll is). So basically, any one IAS piece beyond the Ice and 3/20 gloves.

It actually opens up your other gear choices quite a bit to focus on more raw dmg, rather than IAS.

Though yeah, loss of Infinity would hurt.

I had no idea! Wow. Now I'm curious about using Faith in other builds!

*Death fathom = Nightwing - sorry it was late.

I am afraid merc AI is dumb and the Infinity uncle will not wander where I am shooting - that is my only issue - and porting into mobs feel like defeating the purpose of a bowa.

But you might be right and Infinity is simply too strong... especially vs Ice immunes - given you get 1 facet using nightwing on top of Ice only. I am not sure if a 4 facet armor is really worth it and I am not aware of anything else lowering cold immunes - so you will be stuck with ~60% immunity on immunes.

xigua wrote: 8 months ago

*Death fathom = Nightwing - sorry it was late.

I am afraid merc AI is dumb and the Infinity uncle will not wander where I am shooting - that is my only issue - and porting into mobs feel like defeating the purpose of a bowa.

But you might be right and Infinity is simply too strong... especially vs Ice immunes - given you get 1 facet using nightwing on top of Ice only. I am not sure if a 4 facet armor is really worth it and I am not aware of anything else lowering cold immunes - so you will be stuck with ~60% immunity on immunes.

A wonderful pairing to every merc dependent build is Enigma. Port just a lil' off the mobs and take a few steps back, and dont forget, even close up it's safe- you freeze them in place. Just go where cold immune isnt abaundent, like Chaos, a lot of wsk 2 and 3, or pits where all life pools are low anyway. You also got arcane and tombs, I think only the vampires are cold and you can just high five them and move on. If you really wanna farm anywhere, you got to use the armor, but it'll be such an inconvience and sometimes not enough.
Enigma+infinty playstyle was very fun to me.