Thinking of trying again ice bowa with Ice MB along with Infinity merc

But I see people using Faith GMB + Insight merc

And what armor should I use? CoH or Fort? I figure that enigma is bad with ice bowa...

Both enigma and fortitude can probably be equally as good. The +2 skills boosts cold damage quite a bit, and the frw and teleport helps in getting around. But losing the 300% ed from fortitude means it will take longer to deal with cold immunes. Either way, i do think, if you have a merc with a strong enough weapon and good gear, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. And most of the other monsters are not cold immunes, so boosting that damage will make you faster either way.

I personally like the insight + prayer merc combination. Having that extra regen is just so helpful. Against non-cold immunes, you will deal so much damage anyway so you really won't miss the might aura damage. Merc will deal good damage without it, and if you have strafe+atma's scarab, you will proc amp dmg on those monsters most of the time, and when that happens they die very quickly either way.


Weapon: Ice gmb. Mb has faster attack speed, but it also does about 30% lesser damage. This is something you will really miss out on when you've played for a few weeks. I've learned the hard way.
Helmet: Nightwing's veil, preferably with cold facet. Check ias tables of course.
Gloves: A good pair of rare +2 bow/xbow
Belt: Razortail
Boots: War traveler to boost magic find, or really it is a free choice here. Use what you need. Waterwalks give a good life boost. Silkweave have mana on kill, which can help recuperating mana further if that should be an issue. Triple resist boots is also an option.
Ring 1: Mana leech rare ring; Even if you have crazy high mana regeneration, having a bit of mana leech is so effectful that it is good to have it. The ring should have a good resist boost.
Ring 2: Stone of jordan or wisp projector. Soj if you need even more damage and mana; Wisp if you want to use heart of wolverine to boost physical damage and ar for you and merc, along with the lightning absorb. Raven frost can be used if you find that you are chilled more often than you like. But being chilled, if it happens rarely enough, can be countered with thawing potions.
Amulet: Atma's scarab to help deal with cold immunes.


Always remember the standard routine: Use the level 23 enchant charge from demon limb on you and merc to boost attack rating a huge amount.

Charms: Utilize as needed for best effects; Skillers, life, mana, frw, resists. Resists will most likely be a big issue. Pre-casting fade in the fire pillars on river of flame with treachery is an option, but is tedious. Depends on if you're playing hc or sc.

Merc: Treachery + guillaume's face helps him quickly deal with cold immunes.

how do you max resist then w/o Kiras ? Shouldn't you get coh or something with high resist ?

I didn't know having max resists was a criteria here. I did mention about resists. It's going to be an issue, unless you choose to switch nightwing's for kira's guardian with an um rune. That's going to go a long way. If you then get at least 2/3 anya quests, that helps too. Getting max resists will be difficult.

I have tested a lot of different items and abuilds around freezing arrow. I think faith gmb is the best bow and hybrid phy/cold is also the best. If you focus on cold damage you destroy anything not inmune, but you are slow as shit to kill inmunes. Also, by having high phy damage you can leech more mana, freezing arrow EATS your mana. I went for forty as armor, but enigma is never wrong.

I show my items and skills at the end of the video: