This is my first guide, so please keep it friendly

I've been playing D2 since 2004
I enjoy different builds [generally for casual PVM]

In the recent Ladder I decided to try a Hybrid Bow Sorceress w/ ICE Bow, Enhant and Frozen Orb
Thought I'd share the build with people

ds-skade
lvl 90 Sorc
Current Ladder

With my current gear [there is room for improvement], ds-skade has...
6000 dmg per arrow
600 dmg per shard w/ Frozen Orb
1,500 Health [will be improved when I get more charms]
70/20/10/10 Res w/ Fade [will be improved when I get Anni and more charms]

Merc does 2.5-7.5 K dmg

She can solo Hell P4 [haven't tried P8] including Trav, Chaos, Nili, Ancients and Baal

Shout out to Neoncypher's Frozen Bowstress guide [https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=32415373&p=]
I twerked his build and added Frozen Orb

Terms
PVM - Player vs Monster
FHR - Faster Hit Recovery
FCR - Faster Cast Rate
ICE - Ice Runeword Bow
IAS - Increased Attack Speed
AR - Attack Rating
Chant - Enchant Skill
ED - Enhanced Damage
Eth - Ethereal
BP - Breakpoint
LL - Life Leech
CTA - Call To Arms
BO - Battle Orders
CBF - Cannot be Frozen

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ICE Bow Sorc Chant/Orb

Notes
ICE has 20-30% Cold Skill Dmg and -20% Enemy Cold Resistance - these DO affect Frozen Orb
ICE w/ Chant will land you at 6K + dmg, which kills relatively slowly compared to other Sorc skills
You will rely on Merc and Orb for most of your dmg
FCR is not as important in this build, because we are using Frozen Orb and Arrows
FCR is still important for safe and speedy teleporting
IAS, AR and RES are the main concerns here
I will discuss what I am currently using in Ladder, and what one should ideally use
Must have CBF
Aiming for 10,000 Attack Rating to be able to hit in PVM

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Sorceress Breakpoints

FHR Frames
0% 15
5% 14
9% 13
14% 12
20% 11
30% 10
42% 9
60% 8
86% 7

Aiming for 20 FHR BP with Eth Treks

FCR Frames
0% 13
9% 12
20% 11
37% 10
63% 9
105% 8

At least 37 FCR BP [for teleport] - you will get 60 w/ Spirit and Fort
You can use CTA BO, then swap for a Wizard Spike [50 FCR] to reach the 63% BP

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Skills
20 Chant
20 Warmth [boosts chant]
20 Fire Mastery [boosts chant]
20 Orb
X Cold Mastery [w/ plus skills AND -20 cold res from ICE Bow, you should put enough here to reach -100 cold res]
1 all cold pre-reqs
1 Static Field
1 Telekenesis
1 Teleport
** 1 Frozen, Shiver and Chilling Armor [they boost each-other]
** Rest in either Armor of your choice, or Static Field [more in static increases the range, so you can spam it from a safe distance]

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Stats
Strength - enough for gear [w/ Torch, Anni, and gear, you should reach 156 str for Spirit Monarch Switch]
Dexterity - enough for ICE [ideally Diamond Bow base, with req 132 dex]
Vitality - rest of your points go here
Energy - none [because we are spamming arrows and have 20 warmth, mana isn't a big concern - also in general you shouldn't be putting points here...]

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Equipment

Weapon [Switch] - CTA
Ideally 6/6/4
Battle Orders = massive boost to life and +1 skills

Shield [Switch] - Spirit Monarch [33+ FCR]
+2 skills for Battle Orders
You could use Lidless Wall here, and put the left over points from Strength into Vitality [just make sure you have 89 Strength for ICE], but you will have trouble reaching 63 FCR BP for safe and efficient teleporting

Weapon - ICE Runeword [Diamond Bow base]
lvl 18 Holy Freeze Aura
20 IAS
150-210 ED [I rolled 210 <3]
Ignore Defence
20-30% Cold Skills DMG [affects Orb] - I rolled 30
-20% Enemy Cold Res [affects Orb]
7 LL
20% Deadly Strike

Helm - Night Wing Veil
Socket w/ 15/15 IAS/All Res Jewel
+ 2 Skills
Increased Cold Skill Dmg [Ideally 15]
+ Dex

Armor - Options...

I swap between Viper Magi [for FCR] and Treachery currently, though non-ETH Fort is probably the best...

UP'd Viper Magi
Socket w/ 15/15 IAS/All Res Jewel
1 skill
30 FCR [helps reach 63 FCR BP with Spirit Swap]
50 all res

Treachery
5% chance to cats lvl 15 Fade [gives 65 all res] - problem is this won't often proc because you shouldn't be getting hit... [can proc by standing in Fire]
25% chance to cast lvl 15 Venom [boosts psn dmg]
45% IAS!
20% FHR [could even reach 32 FHR BP w/ ETH Treks]

NON-ETH Fortitude
20% chance to cast lvl 15 Shiver Armor [massive boost to Defence, and with this you would save points that otherwise would go into the cold armors...]
25 FCR [great for teleport]
300% Enhanced Dmg - big game for your arrows
200% Enhanced Defence
+100 Life [or whatever your current lvl is]
5 Max Lite Res
25 All Res

**Belt - Trang
For CBF - must have this for this build
66 Life and 33 Mana are cute

Gloves - Laying of Hands
20 IAS
350% DMG to Demons is sweet
50% Fire Res is nice [res are tough with this build]

Boots - ETH Treks
20 FHR
15 Strength and Vitality
70% Poison Res
These are great for FHR BP

You can also use Gore Rider for Crushing Blow

**Amulet and Rings - Angelic Set
+3000 AR Per Ring w/ Chant active [which stacks for 6000 AR] - must have 10,000 AR to hit comfortably in Hell

**Charms
Highest Sorc Torch [3 Skills, Stats, Res] - prioritize higher Res over Stats
Highest Anni [1 skill, Stats, Res] - prioritize higher Res over Stats
8 x AR/Life Grand Charms [132/45 is perfect]
1 x Poison Dmg Small Charm [451 is perfect]
6 x All Res/Life Small Charm [5/20 is perfect]

You could also go for Fire Skillers w/ Life to boost fire dmg
I'd avoid Cold Skillers, because your Orb is already doing sufficient dmg

** If you manage to get 10,000 Attack Rating from Charms, you could use Ravenfront for CFB, which means the belt slot would open up. You could then use Noferatus's Coil [for IAS, LL and Slows Target] or Razortail [for Pierce]. You could also use a Sorc Amulet w/ Skills, FCR, stats and res or Highlords; and Ravenfrost, a Bul K'Thos, or dual leech ring w/ stats and res instead...

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Merc - A2 Offensive [Might Aura]
Weapon - Pride
lvl 19 Concentration Aura [big boost in physical dmg]

Helm - ETH Vamp Gaze
I currently have it socketed with FAL [for 10 str to use weapon]
Ideally socket with 10+ Str and 15 IAS Jewel

Armor - ETH Fort
See comments above

You could also use an A1 Cold Merc with Faith [for Fanatacism Aura]

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Game play
You will rely on Orb and Merc for most of you dmg
ICE will do a chunk of dmg to Cold Immunes

Shoot Orb [aim for it to explode on a group for max dmg]
Spam a few arrows
Shoot Orb

For scary Boss packs, you can spam Glacial Spike...
Even at low lvls, Glacial Spike freezes for 2+ seconds...
So you can safely spam Static Field
Then spam Glacial Spike again
Then go back to Orb and arrows [Merc will help too]
Glacial Spike also helps keep your Merc alive

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I hope you all enjoy this build
I'd love to hear your feedback



ducksoup

This post was edited by ducksoup on Dec 24 2019 01:09pm

Only put points into the Armor Skills if you don’t plan to use Fortitude!

i feel like capitalising on an explode arrow bow for aoe fire and dream helm for single target light would be better

You should add razor tail as an option for belts while using a Raven for cbf.

Well then it’s not an Ice Bow build

Dream Fire Bow Sorc builds are out there, and I wanted to try something new. Also Ice bow boosts Frozen Orb

ty for the feedback

In the guide, I note that Ravens for CBF is better, and then there would be room to use Nos Coil or Razor Tail. Thing is, with that you only have 4000 AR, which is not enough to hit reliably in Hell. So then you need tons of AR charms, which would be very good.

It’s the beginning of Ladder and I don’t have the ideal set up (yet)

For now I am using Trang Belt for CBF and double Angelic Set for 10K AR.

ty for the feedback

weird build, i love weird builds, how does it play?

Same, dude - I enjoy weird builds.

It plays surprisingly well. Ice bow w/ Chant doesn't kill extremely fast, but it does well enough. I do rely heavily on Orb and Merc. I will say my res are currently very low, so I aim to get a bunch of all res SC's [ideally with life]

Whats your favorite "weird build"

I played in like 2005 so my weird builds are everyone elses old and tired been done 500 times. I like stuff like wwsin, auradin, singer barb, zeal sorc. currently trying out a hybrid riftsin build and im probably going to make a psn necro and zerker barb later. The community has evolved so much since my time, we were never trying stuff like this, hats off to you.

Hell yeah man, cool builds. I always loved WWsin, Singer Barb and PSN Necro

And thanks!