Another M'avina's Amazon build guide.

@moonlit recently posted a build for an MF Zon utilizing the M'avina's set, which actually was something I had planned ahead as well. Our builds differ, so I thought I would share mine as well for ideas.

I usually try to build my characters around moderately quickly achievable levels. So I aim for completed builds at or below level 90. The extra 9 or more skill points usually go towards synergies of some sort. That being said, I too have planned out a "M'avazon" build.

Feel free to edit and tweak to your liking. Skill wise I have 2 versions depending on your preference. Even with a base level 1 skill your end Pierce percentage will be around 70-75% which is more than enough without Razortail for this build, so keep that in mind.

Level 87-90: Variant 1 ( Valkyrie Version) This version is what I plan to use, requires level 87, technically 90 if you max Valkyrie but 87 is enough. After the Valkyrie reaches level 17 you can choose to max it over the next few levels, or start pumping Pierce, Penetrate, and Critical Strike. Keep in mind that your Freezing Arrow doesn't benefit from Penetrate or Critical Strike, but your Multiple Shot and Guided Arrow do. Overall you benefit from a beefy Valkyrie and will end up with a 24 arrow Multiple Shot after a few charms. Guided Arrow will be used to handle most bosses in combination with your Mercenary.

Level 84: Variant 2 (Dual Element Version) This alternative version requires level 84 and drops Guided Arrow along with Valkyrie in favor of splitting elements between Freezing Arrow and Exploding Arrow. You lose a bit of single target damage sacrificing Guided Arrow, but you can easier deal with cold immunes thanks to Exploding Arrow. Once your synergies are maxed, feel free to start adding points to Pierce or other skills of your choosing. This build still uses Multiple Shot, but the value of Critical Strike and Penetrate are much less because you will be using Multiple Shot far less due to having two other forms of AoE between Freezing Arrow and Exploding Arrow. Feel free to drop Multiple Shot from the build entirely if you wish to invest more skill points into Pierce. Anyway, let's move on.

With a few easy to get charms, the build aims for the 52% FHR breakpoint, and an additional 10% run/walk to compensate for the heavier armor class. You'll need two small 5% FHR charms, and 12% FHR on a grand charm to hit the 52% breakpoint. The run/walk can be achieved by a 3% small charm, and a 7% grand charm. Secondary mods won't matter on these, but aim for useful secondary stats if possible. The main goal is to reach those breakpoints.

Since you'll be running with M'avina's Battle Hymn you are limited in options in a number of slots. You can play around A LITTLE bit but not too much since you will require 20% more IAS from either a Shael rune or an amulet to hit the 89% attack speed breakpoint, sadly a 15% IAS jewel won't help you here. Highlord's Wrath or The Cat's Eye depending on your preference if you're not running a Shael'd bow. If you choose to use Shael in your bow, you can run with Crescent Moon Amulet or Atma's Scarab, yet again preference. That being said, if you do run with a IAS amulet, you can use a Nef rune in your bow for knockback, or slot in a Perfect Skull for some extra leech. An Ist Rune in your bow is another solid option if you want some extra Magic Find. Since this build lacks significant leech, you will probably want to have an alternative bow and amulet setups to swap to depending on the situation. Such as a Atma's Scarab or The Cat's Eye and Sheal bow, with a Crescent Moon Amulet in the stash for when you need additional survivability. Some things won't require having a lot of leech, while other areas will. Ideally this build will work the best with a nice Dual Leech Ring, but you don't NEED one. You can use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band to great effectiveness with this build too.

The basic stats and gear is as follows:

STR: Enough for gear
DEX: Enough for gear
VIT: YES
ENE: NO

You could alternatively choose to run a split between energy and vitality since your mana pool will be shallow. Or you could run limited vitality and heavily invest in dexterity for some additional damage. Keep in mind that the Amazon heavily favors the vitality stat so you can make the most of it with heavy investment. Plus you're going to be kind of squishy as it is. Lot's of choice here honestly, the stats are very flexible. As for the gear...

Weapon: M'avina's Caster *(Socket: Shael Rune -or- Nef Rune -or- Perfect Skull -or- Ist Rune)
Helmet: M'avina's True Sight **(Socket: Perfect Topaz -or- Ist Rune -or- Cham Rune)
Armor: M'avina's Embrace (Socket: Perfect Topaz -or- Ist Rune -or- Um Rune)
B elt: M'avina's Tenet
Gloves: M'avina's Icy Clutch
Bo ots: War Traveler (Magic Find) -or- Gore Rider (Power) -or- Goblin Toe (Budget)
Amulet: * Crescent Moon Amulet -or- Atma's Scarab -or- Highlord's Wrath -or- The Cat's Eye -or- The Eye of Etlich (Budget)
Ring 1: ** Raven Frost (Required without Cham'd Helmet)
Ring 2: Carrion Wind -or- Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band -or- Manald Heal (Budget) -or- Cathan's Seal (Budget) -or- Dual Leech Ring

*Your amulet and weapon socket will vary based on which corresponding thing you have chosen.
**If you use a Cham Rune in your helmet, you can swap out the Raven Frost for another ring of your choice.

Your Mercenary will be from Act 2 Nightmare, Offensive with the Might aura.

Weapon: Hone Sundan (Sockets: Shael Shael Amn)
Helmet: Andariel's Visage (Socket: 15% IAS Jewel)
Armor: Treachery

Hone Sundan gives your mercenary 45% Crushing Blow. He will be your boss damage, during bosses you will become support. With Andariel's Visage and Treachery along with a 15% IAS jewel he will meet the highest breakpoints with a Yari or Ghost Spear. Ideally you want Ethereal versions of all 3 items, and an upgraded Hone Sundan. Between your Valkyrie from the first build variant and your mercenary he should be quite self sustaining. A decently good damage with up to 17% Life Leech. If you find his survivablity is acceptable without the Amn Rune, feel free to socket something else. However the only real alternatives are a Ber rune, which adds negligible damage since his Crushing Blow chance is already good enough or an Um Rune. Mercenaries do not benefit from a Mal Rune's Prevent Monster Heal since it can only be applied by the player character.

You can also feel free to scrap this entire Mercenary and use an Insight, you'll need to recalculate the breakpoints for his attack and Jab though depending on his weapon. Another option would be to use an Infinity, especially if you decided to go with the second build variant and wish to take advantage of dual element types. Your mercenary in this regard is a yet another flexible part of the build.

Overall this build for being an M'avina's based build and fairly budget, will get the job done. It's capable of Hell Chaos Sanctuary and pretty much all other areas with varying player counts. Your charms other than the ones mentioned initially are very flexible. You'll want to be carrying a Gheed's Fortune, Annihilus, and Hellfire Torch EVENTUALLY, but they aren't needed. The initial skill point distribution takes the additional +4 skills into account, however until you get your end game charms, you can supplement your skills with a few other skill charms of preference. Aim for resistance, life, mana, and max damage/attack rating charms as inventory space allows.

Here is an example of the first skill allocation at level 87 after +3 from Fletcher's charms, the +1 from Annihilus, and +3 from Hellfire Torch bonuses have been accounted for. If you want 2% more Pierce, feel free to swap 1 Fletcher's charm for an Acrobatic passive charm. Doing so however will require an additional point in Multiple Shot to maintain the 24 arrow max. Feel free to experiment with skill charms here. Your total MF won't be anything near a dedicated MF build, but you'll have enough to feel comfortable hunting without feeling like you're missing out as long as you're running with War Traveler's and Gheed's Fortune. You should be hovering around 230% MF in total plus or minus a few charms or a Perfect Topaz or two if you decided to socket Cham or Um Runes in their place. Rare rings can also add some additional magic find if you have some that meet the other requirements for your chosen setup. Hopefully between @moonlit's build, and mine someone can put together something really interesting.

I’m getting the feeling that we’re going to be trying so many configurations of this build. I’ll probably end up with like 4 instances of Mavs bow, armor, and Diadem, each socketed differently. E.g. one all cold facets, one Ist Topaz Topaz, one with Ohm in bow. And prolly will end up resetting skill points a bunch of times along the way! Good luck!

Holy shit this is an amazing build. It looks so hard to create though.

moonlit wrote: 4 years ago

I’m getting the feeling that we’re going to be trying so many configurations of this build. I’ll probably end up with like 4 instances of Mavs bow, armor, and Diadem, each socketed differently. E.g. one all cold facets, one Ist Topaz Topaz, one with Ohm in bow. And prolly will end up resetting skill points a bunch of times along the way! Good luck!

For sure. I have 4 more builds ready to make guides out of. A 3-piece hybrid element Tal Rasha's Wrappings MF Sorc, a melee Passion and dual Dream enchantress Sorc, a pure physical Windforce and Faith based Bowazon, and a hybrid Blade Of Ali Baba MF Gold Find Barbarian. I just haven't written everything up yet. Usually they're cookie cutter with a twist somehow. So many new things to do in resurrected, the wait is ALMOST over.

IronLesbian wrote: 4 years ago

Holy shit this is an amazing build. It looks so hard to create though.

Actually this is the most budget of the ones I mentioned above. The hardest part of this M'av build I'd say would be to get War Traveler's. A lot of the rest can be done really budget with items I listed in the other categories. I'm still fairly confident than M'avina's set pieces will be fairly cheap, because not very many people utilize them. The mercenary for example can be almost anything as long as you're getting the Might aura. His equipment doesn't matter, and can be substituted for quite a few things. Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest instead of Andariel's Visage, a variety of weapons, Treachery is cheap, but even Duriel's Shell would work fine for a good while. Out of the whole M'av set, the most expensive piece would probably be M'avina's True Sight the rest should be cheap.

UnrivaledPiercer wrote: 4 years ago

For sure. I have 4 more builds ready to make guides out of. A 3-piece hybrid element Tal Rasha's Wrappings MF Sorc, a melee Passion and dual Dream enchantress Sorc, a pure physical Windforce and Faith based Bowazon, and a hybrid Blade Of Ali Baba MF Gold Find Barbarian. I just haven't written everything up yet. Usually they're cookie cutter with a twist somehow. So many new things to do in resurrected, the wait is ALMOST over.

Sounds like a blast. I only wish I had time to run several chars to endgame but will have enough fun just with an Amazon since I’ve never made one before and since respeccing changes everything really, much less likely to get bored (or frustrated) when we have the option of resetting skills and stats any time! Plus I like that Amazon benefits so much from higher levels in terms of just increasing chance to hit, phys damage, etc. The builds in this class rely on a healthy mix of skills, gear, and stats…depending on the details of the build.

I'm a sucka for set builds (well, and unique item builds as well), M'avina's set is one of my favourites. I'm right in-time to find this topic as I'm progressing my character with all items possible socketed already and some of them furnished with a whatever I managed to find/trade for cold facet by now. Thank you for sharing, that's gonna be fun.
I'd add as my M'avina's builds are always around cold damage first, I prefer my Act 2 mercenary wielding an ethereal based polearm Doom.

ganseng wrote: 6 months ago

hi all, didn't want to make a new thread..
i'm currently leveling to mavina, now lvl 52 and Freezing Arrow with ~1.3k dmg. i use the unique bow that reduces cold res by 35%, which is a nice dmg boost. but are there better options till lvl 70?
i think i have almost all unique bows and crossbows in the chests

Best Frost Maiden bow is Ice (clvl 65),

ganseng wrote: 6 months ago

hmmm it seems only lycander could be better.. or Ice at lvl 65?
then dmg output is pretty limited on the build

Comparing Ice with Lycander is like comparing a Ferrari and a Fiat. Both are cars from Italy. That's where the similarities end.

vued wrote: 6 months ago

Wizendraw >>>> Lycander for magezon. Even Ice is not a huge upgrade since it's lacking ECR.

Ice does have ECR -20% and also up to +30% Cold Skill Damage (compared with up to -35% ECR and no CSD on Wizendraw).
Wizendraw is BiS in Classic, since it's the only source of ECR (besides Cold Mastery). But not in Expansion.

vued wrote: 6 months ago

Trang Oul wrote: 6 months ago

vued wrote: 6 months ago

Wizendraw >>>> Lycander for magezon. Even Ice is not a huge upgrade since it's lacking ECR.

Ice does have ECR -20% and also up to +30% Cold Skill Damage (compared with up to -35% ECR and no CSD on Wizendraw).
Wizendraw is BiS in Classic, since it's the only source of ECR (besides Cold Mastery). But not in Expansion.

You forgot that Wizendraw can have a facet, Ice can't.
We are talking about -40/+5 vs. -20/+30.

Put that against a sundered enemy and you'll notice that Wizendraw is quite strong, even together with Nightwing's and Infinity on Merc.

Wizendraw is probably the best budget bow for Frost Maiden, true. Ice is still better with most monsters if made in a +3 base, ideally Matriarchal Bow for speed. Even a 5-5 facet cannot compete, only with sundered monsters. A Matriarchal Bow base is much faster than a Wizendraw's Long Battle Bow. Plus you get the Holy Freeze aura for defense and some life leech. The clear (expensive) winner for endgame: Ice. Frost Maiden M'Avina works to a certain degree,

ganseng wrote: 5 months ago

hey, a question..
i found a perfect superior Matriarchal Bow with +3 to skills and +15% dmg, without sockets. if i Larzuk it, it will get 6 sockets, and there is no other way to get it to 4 sockets, so i have to trash it right?

If you use the add socket to normal weapon cube recipe, you have chance to get that 4 socket.

bbb0 wrote: 5 months ago

If you use the add socket to normal weapon cube recipe, you have chance to get that 4 socket.

It's superior (since it has 15% ed) so the cube recipe won't work on it, only Larzuk can add sockets to a superior item.

@ganseng the max is 5 actually for Matriarchal Bow, but no, you can't make it get 4 in any way. A 5os bow is still a possible base for Mist.