Superior base worth it for ice runeword?

Thanks to today's CS TZ gifting me Jah, I'm ready to make Ice for my frost maiden. I have a +3 GMB ready to go, but curious if I should hold out for a superior. The primary damage comes from the skill, but the added physical damage from the base should help with leech, yes?

TL;DR Matriarchal Bow Ice > Grand Matron Bow Ice

You can reach a better breakpoint with MB at 75 IAS which is easily doable (gloves, amulet, bow, jewel in nightwing). 80% to 90% of your damage comes from the cold enchantment, so faster attacks are better than ones dealing extra hundred physical on the maximum side of range for gmb.

1) Superiority of the base has next to no implications on the final phys dmg here, and therefore hardly affects leeching. The 25% to 30% cold dmg does.

2) Unless you plan to reroll some, the ED bonus at 140-210 will screw you over more often than not, sup or no sup.

3) Superior 4-socket +3 skill bows are incredibly expensive. If you were waiting for a Jah to make it, are you going to wait fot several more Jah to buy the base? Unless SSF.

I have 2 Ice MB, one at 157ED dealing some 150-390 phys, one at 203ED dealing around 180-450 phys, so almost 50% ED on the base translates to not even a hundred extra in absolute numbers. Ew.

Good luck with the roll in either scenario you go with.

+1 on the Mat bow, that's what I use on my assassin (trap + WW with Chaos)'s a1 merc.

The quicker speed makes it better than the GMB for that use - except of course if you already reach the top breakpoint from the remainder of your gear, but it's not easy.

Yea superior base isn’t worth the cost & stress. While i agree that mat bow is technically better, with a decent set-up you’ll still be killing crazy fast with either option. For my frost maiden i also want to take the Infinity from my merc and give him an Insight, mana regen saps kill speed. I even tried re-rolling the maiden’s stats for a max dexterity set-up to try and optimize her leach: it was a waste of a token.

I recommend instead of spending the funds on a superior bow use them on other good sources of +mana/kill

Enjoy! She’s a fun build!

Tried Silkweave ? They usually help a lot for mana per kill

Oh yea, silkweaves, gore riders and war travellers: pretty much every one of my characters uses one of those 3… maybe the aldur set Boots

Thanks all for your input. My takeaway is, if I happen to find a 15% sup GMB, sell it.

Finding a +3 Matriarchal Bow is trickier than I thought. Been farming hell cows on a 0% mf toon for a bit, no +3 yet. Stocking up on cube fodder to roll one when I get it and hope that 1-in-5 shot comes through first try.

I appreciate the votes to go for it. If I don't find the ideal bow in the next few days, I likely will.

cristobal03 wrote: 2 years ago

Thanks all for your input. My takeaway is, if I happen to find a 15% sup GMB, sell it.

Finding a +3 Matriarchal Bow is trickier than I thought. Been farming hell cows on a 0% mf toon for a bit, no +3 yet. Stocking up on cube fodder to roll one when I get it and hope that 1-in-5 shot comes through first try.

I appreciate the votes to go for it. If I don't find the ideal bow in the next few days, I likely will.

Are you building this char SCNL? I've got a 4os Matriarchal Bow +3.

Appreciate the offer, but it's less fun if I don't find it myself. It'll come, I'm a patient guy