Quote (Animage @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 12:26pm)

I prefered my mavazon to run with remainder of points in Strafe, Valk, and remaining in penetrate.

Used Freezing Arrow to pop as many as I could while valk and merc took all the distraction away from me along with the free point in decoy. Went glass cannon so my strafe wasn't all that bad.

Nice guide and glad to see a real pvm build put up


Always loved HF merc with insight or the might merc rocking pride when I was just fooling around.

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Quote (izParagonzi @ Sun, 14 Dec 2008, 23:26)

WF with -15% req jewel = 114 Str Not sure what would be great mods on this jewel besides the 15 ALL RES

Quote (MatLob @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 04:00pm)

Nice guide... I like those shining amazons

Chill effectiveness:
There are some more ones that are immune to chilling effects ... in all difficulties Frozen-Scourge, Death-Lord, Talic and Korlic, in nightmare and hell Frozen Creeper and Frozen Terror and in hell Wraiths, Willowhisps, Undeath Fetishs, Andariel and Lilith (and some more like Mummy Sarcophagus that aren't this important).
Thanks for the update, if I listed all, I think I would have made another page for the guide

Mana:
Don't forget MaeK you get if using Silks.
Definately a useful tip, but with the setup I listed, I relied on the ML/LL (forgot about the undead)

Damage Formula Table:
I don't understand why you are linking to the normal damage formula... we are using FA and Strafe which both use an extended formula (for FA this one will calculate only the physical damage). I think it's more irritating than usefull so I would remove this tiny part. If someone wants to calculate his damage he can look at his character screen, it's not lying in this case.
Strafe would be the only reason based on the LL/ML return

Merceneries:
Fortitude is the armor of your choice if you use a Rouge but on Mercenery Treachery will always be better because of tons of IAS (means higher effective damage and faster applying of CB) and Fade. This is a good armor, it is listed, personally I prefer Bramble for the Thorns Aura vs Cold phys immunes on Valk and Decoy.

Why should I need a Thorns aura offered by Edge? Just an option, wouldn't really use personally.
You should add how much IAS we need from helmet (if using Forty) to reach a Breakpoint. For Fanaticism aura level 15 those three need 30 (8 FPA), 20 (9 FPA), 35 (9 FPA). Hydra Bow will result in the most damage per second. Crusader Bow is another possibility because it has the same speed and average damage as Hydra Bow. Hmm, Crusader bow yes good choice, as for the IAS bps on mercs, did not come to mind
Why are Stygian Dolls more dangerous with a Merc that will block those compared to a rouge that would run away from them? If running Hell Baal by yourself with Might/Pride Merc with mass dmg, once you enter the THRONE room from the stairs, you could get swamped by them, your merc kills fast and before you know it, you are dead, this is not good in HC, also, if running to meph and you get stuck, merc kills, same problem
Strategy against Iron Maiden: Cast a Decoy in front of the cursing Oblivion Knight so he will focus her and only casts Decrepefy. But normally you should kill them before the Mercenery reaches them... I use that strategy with my Berserker Barb (well I howl then tele on Oblivion knight
Even with no weapon the Merc would kill himself really fast if cursed with IM... I always prefer high damage weapons so you can kill huge enemies faster. So Insight compared with Treachery and Andy's would be the weapon of my choice (that's personal preference because I also hate it to drink potions). Okay, I have found that Merc lives long enough as I kill off the monsters pretty fast.

IAS-Calculator:
Why do you link to the worse one before you link to the actual version (why do you link to the old one)?
I just added both for the hell of it.

Socketing:
I would stat more strength and fill the armor with a RBF... would result in much more damage than you would gain with some more dex. A RBF can also be used in helmet and bow. Your physical damage will be lower but the main part should be the elemental one. Also knockback isn't this essential... we are freezing so we don't really need to dig them away. This is an option that is useful especially for the Vita Zon, considering they are not out for phys damage, just more elemental.

Amulets:
Nice list, nearly every usefull amulett got mentioned. I would only add a rare/crafted one which can have skills, leech, resistances, stats, life, mana,... but those are really rare.

Rings:
Why not using SoJ? Of course in most cases Raven/rare would be the combination you are looking for but the mana-boost offered by it will also help your mana management (I would prefer SoJ than Bul's). Once you replace the BK with SoJ, you lose LL, valk level etc, you should really be getting mana return from Strafe or Multi depending on what the individual uses, personally I would not opt for Multi either because it uses as much mana as it is trying to leech.

Boots:
Silks can help you to manage your mana problems. true, I just stuck with the best damaging boots,
Rare/crafted ones with resistances and so on can also be a good choice if you need more resistances but I wouldn't use them on this build (but I also wouldn't use Sands... wtf? )

Equipment:
It's a very good idea to post different setups this way to compare but why are you only changing the amulet? It seems that WTs, Bul's and Raven are the only real possibilities. In this case it's just a comparison of amulets... I would change the rings to see the difference and also replace the row DS (we have CS so it is not really important) with CnbF and include a setup which two rare/crafted rings which offers more leech but no CnbF (which is nice but not that essential). I know there are not so many different setups and the will mostly depend on the amulett but with Crescent Moon for instance I wouldn't use a Bul's but SoJ, with Atma's I need more IAS than with Highlords so I have to fill one socket with an IAS-jewel instead of a RBF, etc... Also You reach IAS-values that aren't necessary. With Faith you should look for 92-99, without you need 89.
I started setting up a table based on different rings with different ammies, boots, etc, but it started becomiing a real mess, BUT, I am working on an even better table layout for my next Frostmaiden guide, this is based on different setups, weapons, armor etc. It will include Life/Dex/Vita totals also.

Skills:
I would always max Pierce and let D/A/E on one or if I don't need a Valkyrie no points. I really dislike it when those skills interrupt my Strafe... If you use Valkyrie you should look for some levels when she gets new equipment (especially a new weapon):
After the diminishing returns and only getting 1% per skill in Pierce (do not know what level it will use 2 skill per  1%) it was more advisable to utilise those extra points into other helpful skills, whether it be Penetrate, Valk, Crit Strike or D/A/E, well that was my thought when concerning Glasscannon - Vita build vs SC or HC.

So level 8, 17 or 27 are the levels you should looking for.

Nice guide anyway Thank you for that, it seems that all information is always welcome.

ED/Min/Max (30% ED/10 Min/9 Max would be perfect and priceless)...
Do you really want to use a WF on a Frostmaiden? WF is a great physical bow but there are better possibilities on dealing elemental damage, particularly Faith, Ice, Lycander's or Wizendraw. The WF idea for a Frostie comes to fruition based on getting the best Physical/Elemental Hybrid Bowazon, especially when you can Kill D Clone by yourself.

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Quote (c_Tlaloc_c @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 06:28pm)

Wow great guide and very well written. Sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky!

Quote (Krakaos @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 08:59pm)

i got your help from my frostmaiden a while ago
and i see the guide has come along nicely.

mavinas frost maidens work soooo well.
but i found out, having about 10% mana leach was enough, since the radius from the impact also leached (go figure) so your mana does go back up quickly.

i also did some fiddling round with mine, and one point in passive skills was enough, cause once you freeze them, you dont needa worry to much bout dodging etc:

but other than my points.

the guide is awesome, cause we need a frostmaiden guide up on here.

well done!

Quote (izParagonzi @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 07:45pm)

Thank you for your input, it is a welcome change, even though it is an old build.

I am not too certain on the "cold splash" damage returning the mana, but the initial physical damage of the single arrow hitting a monster is 100% and the return is from that, BUT, I could be wrong.

Yes most passives like Dodge/Avoid/Evade at base is good, just trying to cater for different views from people .

Once again, thank you for your input.

Quote (Krakaos @ Mon, Dec 15 2008, 10:55pm)

i might be wrong with the splash, but i dont think my mana would go back up so quickly any other way.
catering for everyone is what we do on jsp isnt it lol