I like the whole idea around using a cheap class set like mavinas to make a FA bowazon shine at budget. But I would probably say its still better to just go 20freezing arrrow 20cold arrow and then look at what u want to farm and decide on that what second element u could need. Points in Ice Arrow are just wasted. U can just get a few charms with cold dmg on it and increase the freezing length by that and get some more useful skills. dodge, avoid, evade, critical strike and penetrate are good at 1pt, with some +skills from set. You can go like 3 hybrid specs or the pure frostmaiden spec. Just look at the monsters resistances in area lvl85 and pick the elements that fit u the best. Even if u dont fully utilize the set when using javelin+shield it still works to get u going and farming stuff in different areas. U can get like +3 javelins easily, even while playing through the quest and then just slap on a shield with resistances (ex: spirit if u have the str or shael eth in a shield is even decent). Frost/Psn : 20FA, 20CA, 40Psn Javelin Skills, 1pt wonders, rest pierce Just throw any javelin and res/+skill shield on. decent dmg to kill Cold Immunes . Use Freezing Arrow and Plague Javelin depending on enemies or in conjunction when kill cows for example. Fishyzon (works close to naked, so mavinas makes it better) : 20FA, 20CA, 1pt wonders, 1 Pierce, 1pt Valk, 20LF, rest LF synergies You can use any +skill javelin u find and deal decent amount of damage, good for area clearing and doing most content possible. Use Freezing Arrow as main, and lightning fury for groups of cold immunse. Skip single CI monsters if necessary. Magezon : 20FA, 20CA, 20EA , 20IA , 1pt wonders, rest pierce Use Freezing Arrow or Immolation Arrow depending on enemies. Skip Fire+Cold Immunes Frostmaiden: 20FA, 20CA, 1pt wonders, 1-x Pierce, 1-x Valk, 1-x Decoy Basically same as the video, but no need for freezing arrow, no need for penetrate except 1pt. Get pierce as high as u like and rest of ur points go into valk and if u have some leftovers into decoy. U have a really tanky valk and a somewhat tanky distraction in decoy if u spent the points into it. For any bow build or amazon in general i would really recommend putting a point into valkyrie. It just makes life so much easier, when u cast her in front of a group to gather them up to then just delete them with freezing arrow or any other skill. No offense to your video in any way. Just wanted to add onto it with some ideas. Your idea of your build is perfectly viable as seen in the video. Just wanted to give people some options to experiment with when using mavinas. Its a decent and cheap set all around and there are many possibilities with it to clear most of the areas there are without investing anything more into it. But i wouldnt say that anyone should focus on getting the full set to get this or any build going, unless some1 really likes it or have the pieces laying around in stash. An alternative could be 3piece irathas (any of the pieces) or razortail or wisdom helmet (if u got the pul) to lower the need on points in pierce by a good amount. +3bow/20ias or 2/20 gloves are also very easy to obtain. Melody in any +skill bow for a good chunk of skills, Smoke chest, resist rings or any other rings like ravenfrost, +skills amulet if u can find any. Basically +skills and resists where needed and cold dmg charms with a +2 freeze length (modifier ex: shivering of the glacier) Gets u farming in hell p1 for sure. In the end its all preference and many things are viable :D Just wanted to share my experiences maining frostmaiden/frosthybrid for many many years. Playing around with the frostmaiden and her hybrid capabilties on budget and mavinas is so fun as they are all perfectly viable for hell farming. Frostmaiden just looks great, feels great to play and even the skills sound so nice and satisfiying.
I was gonna comment this as well. The second cold arrow only increases the freeze length of the final arrow so it's relatively pointless in general if you are just needing damage. COuld easily dump those 20 points into something more useful for sure. Or go hybrid so you aren't boned in some areas anyway.
What boots and amulet are you using on this build? I have everything I need to make this viable including all the charms. I was thinking of going A2 defiance merc. How much IAS do I need on gear and do I socket the armour and helmet with a 15% IAS jewels? I have a 40% ED + flat cold dmg jewel I was thinking of putting on the bow. I am not too concerned about attack rating since I have a Metalgrid stashed and might use that instead of Cat's eye. For boots I was thinking War Traveler or perhaps IK boots or Infernostrides for more MS as Infernostrides have the blaze proc.
@@Roskismummoamulet: any +2 zon skiller will work. Up to you too decide what other stats are on it. Boots: personally - silk weave, for the +5 mana after each kill as you burn through mana with freezing arrow. but War Travs are a good switch for added magic find.
@@Roskismummoexperimenting is the fun part about this set 😁. I personally dont recommend putting enhanced damage Jewels in a weapon, as they only increase the base stats of the item. ED jewels in armour & helms however, apply to character damage and work with those Min/Max damage charms you have in your inventory = better result 👍
Playing this build for 2 days now and totally loving it. Destroys WSK and throne with ease if you skip ice arrow for fire/explosive and the shattering sound is.. like hitting the pot on a slot machine every second. And lvl17 Valk is the bomb
i like the budget playthroughs the most. instead of going into the trading market and getting over powered quickly, feeling like there isnt much left to experience on a given character. With d2r ive basically avoided the market and opted to just play with my buddy and share gear between us, he has never been into trading himself. were talking ive been playing since 1999, at least 2 good sessions a year. Theres much more to learn when you avoid trading, and the game is greatly extended. With that considered i cant really see mavs as a budget set since i havent found a single piece in 2.4 yet hahaha, but i have nearly completed the IK set, which is very good itself.
I was building a strafezon until I saw this video then I went for the cold skills. Then nm Andariel dropped an unique Cedar Bow which grants + 3 to bow skills, + 3 to Immolation arrow and +50% piercing attack + explosive arrows all the time (normal attack). It blown my mind because I was worried about the inmunitties of the enemies. Having a blast using that new bow that fits quiet well with the ice bowazon. I wonder if the fire skills overlap the cold ones (?). Can't wait to get to hell difficulty to properly test this build :D
I had this video come up and liked what I saw and subscribed. I got very excited to try this and rushed off to build my M'avina's build. There were definitely some points of struggle along the way and I certainly wouldn't recommend this as a starting build for anyone, but I had a lot of bows and archer gear taking up shared storage, so it gave me an opportunity to try out some things and eventually find a really good build based on M'avina's set. Exploding arrow: Getting this skill early on made life a lot easier, but it's life span of usefulness is a bit limited, stops being effective around A3. Immolation arrow: Great skill, much like the Firewall sorc skill and if you can keep your merc up to keep stuff in place, is very effective. Freezing arrow: Never seems to be the killer that it could be, but if you're used to sending a single Blizzard or Frozen Orb, you'll need to learn to fire more often and have patience with this skill. Best bows early: Kuko Shakaku (+skills) & Buriza (pierce, freezing, high-ish dmg) Armor: Stealth then Peace works for armor Helm: Lore or Sazabi work well Boots: Natalya's are nice, Infernostrides can be good too Glove: I had some +2 bow, +10 IAS I wore up until 70 Belt: Razortail is BIS Rings: +res until you can put on Raven frost To be honest, getting to 70 to put on the bow and armor was not a fun time and none of the other items are worth wearing prior to being able to put on the whole set. There is plenty of gear that you can get easily in the game that almost seem to be better options not to mention getting all of the set pieces took me about a week of trading and farming (and, I was kicking myself because just last week I vendored the set bow and had the hardest time getting the bow again). Eventually, I found that using the build listed here didn't work well for me and after two respecs I think I've landed on a very good build that can farm lvl 85 areas pretty safely and easily. First and foremost, I'd recommend everyone look hard at getting a high level Valkyrie built early because she'll tank better for you than your merc and getting that meat slab to stand there and get all of the attention while you fire your arrows is the best way to go, not to mention, you can recast her anytime you like. Oh, and I like to pre-cast Decoy before entering rooms to keep baddies from rushing you. Assuming taking your archer to level 85: Passive tree: 1 pt. in each, 17 hard pts in Valkyrie Bow tree: 20 pts FA, 20 pts Immolation, 16 pts Cold Arrow, 10 pts Exploding Arrow --> for every level > 85, alternate pts between Cold Arrow and Exploding Arrow ActV merc, Frenzy: Smoke armor, Tal's helm, Djinn Slayer & Lawbringer swords Note: I can't keep the A2 merc w/Insight alive long enough to be useful, too squishy. I'm considering trying the A1 merc with an Insight bow or maybe another bow that could be useful (Edge, Kuko, something with an aura?). A5 merc is a beefy boy and able to take a lot of damage and you can keep him standing a lot easier with pots than the A2 merc. Gear: M'avina's set, Eye of Etlich ammy, SoJ, Raven Frost, Natalya's boots, some +all res charms. I have no skiller charms (yet). Super simple to run the above build: I keep Magic Arrow (not the default Bow's skill, the one from the tree so I get the +skills on it) on left-click, FA on right-click, Immolation on main alternate shot. I always have Valkyrie up and I use Decoy when facing big groups to keep the heat off of myself, the merc and Valk. Cold Immunes: Immolation + Magic Arrow on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk Fire Immunes: FA + Magic Arrow on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk Magic & Physical Immunes: FA + Immolation on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk Lightning Immunes: All of the above (they die very quickly) Fire + Cold Immunes: Kill all of the minions and then let your Valk and merc do the kill with you supporting with Magic Arrow (free of charge), Decoy to distract the boss and pots to keep the merc standing. Farming A2 Stony and Ancient's is nice because the doorways and thin hallways control the mobs rushing at you and keeps everything in front of you, very survivable.
Update: In my experience so far, this build is far safer than my Hydra-FO build (going to similar areas due to lack of Cold and Fire immunities), I really don't have to worry too much because of the damage types available to you (magic, cold, fire, physical) means you can go a lot of places and handle everything plus the Decoy and the Valk is just so hard to bring down even when surrounded. The only downside is that I go through mana pots quickly, but I never run out so, it is all good :) I'm now at level 77 and having a lot of fun running this set with near impunity! The only things I worry about are dolls in Durance, but that's probably true for every build.
Update: Level 82 now, finished Hell last night at level 78 - Died for the first time in Hell facing the Ancients * Ancients takes a lot of pots, took about 25 minutes of running around before finally finishing them off * I noticed that the Ancients completely ignore your Decoy and mostly ignore your Valk and merc too - Hell Throne room was the easiest I've ever had, none of the mobs presented any issue, *even final wave* (!), just FA'd them to zero while Decoy, Valk and A5 merc tanked them all - Baal fight took awhile, I even crashed about 80% through the first time, ran back did the Throne room (again, no big deal, which surprised me) and took him down after 15-20 minutes - Went back and farmed Trav and LK for a few runs, Trav was really pretty easy...surprisingly so, just fired arrows towards the doorway until they were all dead This is the least stressful Hell experience I've ever had, the tanks are just so good at keeping the mobs away! I've got a Hammerdin, FoHdin, Hydra-FOrb sorc, Javazon, Summoner necro on ladder right now and none of them have it as easy as this M'avina's Bowazon. Even souls aren't giving me a lot of heartache, I got mobbed by them in the Frozen caverns, they actually took out the merc and Valk, but I just retreated a bit, resummoned the Valk, proceeded a little slower, constantly firing FA in the direction any lightning bolts came from and I never dropped below 50% hp the rest of the cavern. I now commit to killing every Soul I come across to make up for all of those years of RIPs from those bastards...now, if only the same was true for those farking dolls...they still scare me. This bowazon has now become my favorite char to play, I really didn't expect that, I've always preferred the Javazon or Blizzard sorc, but this Amazon just works. Thanks MacroBioBoi for turning me onto this set!
@@Gtsugaru NM Trav for belt and gloves, bow I've had drop 3 times, different places, I had to trade for the helm, that's the hardest to get. I've found 4 Kuko's, always hate giving it up, it was just such a good bow all the way thru NM.
Latest update: Level 87; Build continues to excel, I can go pretty much anywhere due to the damage types available to me. There aren't many Fire+Cold immunes, usually pack bosses once in awhile, but it is easy to just resort to Magic Arrow and let the merc, valk and decoy handle the kill (if I want). You can even do Maggot Lair, which most builds hate, but it is pretty easy for this bowazon. I'm currently messing with an alternate equipment setup; Mist bow (+6 to bow skills, 100% pierce, +40% res!), Nightwing helm, Ravenfrost, Silks of the Victor (the blue armor looks soooo good and appropriate) socketed with an Um, etc. I'm trying to decide whether to use Frostburn (+40% mana) gloves or some +2/+10 gloves, the build still uses a lot of mana, but still super safe. Last comment; biggest problem for this build is boss killing. Even with great gear, it isn't the fastest boss killer, normally taking a few minutes and soaking up pots. However, most situations are pretty simple as long as you don't get overwhelmed by dolls or something. Playing multiplayer, you have to be considerate of players that depend on corpses (Necro, mf Barbs, etc.) because you have a tendency to 'break' a lot of mobs with FA and that will ruin it for them.
Mac I would love to see your take on re-optimizing sets for D2R. Mavs is such a great showcase of how sets can bridge the gap between progression and endgame (especially packing the +100mF bonus) and I think that moving some of those same advantages to Exceptional sets could change the way we think about gearing; similar to how they changed Naj. The main downside to the Mavs is the diadem is TC87 and the armor is TC81 so though it is almost valueless its not exactly common which is why I thinking about focusing on the Exceptional sets.
i've made this multiple times with full bow skillers, torch, anni and sc lifers. she is at best a support char to help freeze. her dmg output is really weak but the build is cheap and fun to use. if you play p8, dont expect to be doing much dmg. if i tweaked it for more dmg, it wouldnt be that much of a difference. plus the added cold dmg from charms would be very close to none if you went that route.
Another gem! I’d love to see you look at kuko bow enchantress with high pierce and Bow merc with high pierce kuko and wisdom etc. teleporting and machine gun game play tears through high player nm cows and can clear players 3 hell cows fast if you have around 8k dmg buffed because of interaction of pierce on multiple targets packed together etc. Gear I use includes treachery, highlords, laying and razor tail. Other slots flex! It makes you never want to play an ele bow zon again lol. Feels like you are using the d3 ability rapid fire with high ias! 🔥
First Sazabi and now M'Avina sets have found new life. I've always felt bit sad that set and unique items can be pointless with the crazy runewords. Well now there's a sweet set and build to try.
I LOVE most WC3 characters and I am trying to build a Sylvanas Windrunner character. The Assassin LOOKS sick, but I hate the ASS skill set. Vigor + Revive 🔥🔥
Additional freeze duration is almost worthless. I’d take the ice arrow points and put it into valk. 15+ valk does a really good job of tanking, especially with budget merc gear.
@@MacroBioBoi 🧢🧢🧢! You aint moving shit cause a budget merc is dead in any fight that matters. 20 hard points for not a single % in cold damage in a video with “budget build” in the title rofl 💩build
One thing I learned after hundreds of Arachnid Lair runs is that its small size and simple layout are a deception. Without teleport, you'll need to backtrack and run in circles A LOT. So while faster run/walk is great, this is where an ammy with teleport charges or Naj's staff on swap would truly shine, because you don't need to teleport too often, but the freedom to teleport at specific points is massive. Or you can just run a sorc, but this isn't what this video is about. :D Great content as always, Mac!
The benefit to running arachnid a lot is that there are only so many layouts, similar to spider cavern, so there's a bit of a learning curve that can eliminate the requirement of teleport.
@@MacroBioBoi True, I believe there are... four? But a couple of the layouts have these key dead-end pockets that don't lead to the rest of the area, so you run in, scout for a unique pack, kill it if there is one, then run back out and do a U-turn instead of teleporting to a large room right behind the wall.
Why spent skill points on ice arrow though? It just adds freeze duration. I only spent 1 points there and the enemies still remain frozen till they die. You can spent the rest of your skills to max guided+multy for cold immune or max the first two fire skills. I m using mavina set and Vidalia neck + boots and I m having a blast.
@@MacroBioBoi I read your guide about OSkills on maxroll. I have a question about "chance on hit" skills. If I equip a storm lash on a druid and I put my skills on tornado synergies, are the tornadoes procked from storm lash affected by my synergies? Do +all skills from gear increase the skill level of stormlash tornadoes?
@@lefgia they are increases by synergies. + Skills don't affect them, except in scenarios like Prayer Aura for Cleansing/Meditation and Druid Summon synergies.
Know this is old video and prob wont be responded to, but would putting points into inner focus instead of penetrate and using that help with the explosion better and blessed aim would stack with it. Or i guess using an act 1 merc with insight bow and have her inner focus
Future Mac here to say: I wouldn't worry about getting the Inner Sight + Blessed Aim to help with AR. Penetrate and more than good enough and you just use a different aura on the mercenary. Prayer to double dip on healing with Insight before Infinity, or Might to increase his damage output.
Are you sure you have to hit in order for it to pierce? I always though that was the super benefit of ice maiden is that you need 0AR to make a build that does incredible ice damage. And by extent the same with javazon needing 0AR cause the lightning fury pierces and fires off the X number of lightning bolts when a target is collided with or pierces through a target.
didnt quite understand, mavina set is not good to have? even for budget? something u said on start with mistake also passive for starter and later replace with bow skillers? what is best if u can have any budget on this gearsetup
Mavinas has always been used on budget cold skill bowazons. There is no budget build for physical bowas. Physical is definitely tailored more towards PvP. The elemental bow skills arent even viable in PvP. I love that D2 has builds that dont work in PvM, but work spectacularly in PvP, and vice versa. hopefully they dont mess with that in the future
I like the whole idea around using a cheap class set like mavinas to make a FA bowazon shine at budget.
But I would probably say its still better to just go 20freezing arrrow 20cold arrow and then look at what u want to farm and decide on that what second element u could need. Points in Ice Arrow are just wasted. U can just get a few charms with cold dmg on it and increase the freezing length by that and get some more useful skills.
dodge, avoid, evade, critical strike and penetrate are good at 1pt, with some +skills from set.
You can go like 3 hybrid specs or the pure frostmaiden spec. Just look at the monsters resistances in area lvl85 and pick the elements that fit u the best. Even if u dont fully utilize the set when using javelin+shield it still works to get u going and farming stuff in different areas. U can get like +3 javelins easily, even while playing through the quest and then just slap on a shield with resistances (ex: spirit if u have the str or shael eth in a shield is even decent).
Frost/Psn : 20FA, 20CA, 40Psn Javelin Skills, 1pt wonders, rest pierce
Just throw any javelin and res/+skill shield on. decent dmg to kill Cold Immunes . Use Freezing Arrow and Plague Javelin depending on enemies or in conjunction when kill cows for example.
Fishyzon (works close to naked, so mavinas makes it better) : 20FA, 20CA, 1pt wonders, 1 Pierce, 1pt Valk, 20LF, rest LF synergies
You can use any +skill javelin u find and deal decent amount of damage, good for area clearing and doing most content possible. Use Freezing Arrow as main, and lightning fury for groups of cold immunse. Skip single CI monsters if necessary.
Magezon : 20FA, 20CA, 20EA , 20IA , 1pt wonders, rest pierce
Use Freezing Arrow or Immolation Arrow depending on enemies. Skip Fire+Cold Immunes
Frostmaiden: 20FA, 20CA, 1pt wonders, 1-x Pierce, 1-x Valk, 1-x Decoy
Basically same as the video, but no need for freezing arrow, no need for penetrate except 1pt. Get pierce as high as u like and rest of ur points go into valk and if u have some leftovers into decoy. U have a really tanky valk and a somewhat tanky distraction in decoy if u spent the points into it.
For any bow build or amazon in general i would really recommend putting a point into valkyrie. It just makes life so much easier, when u cast her in front of a group to gather them up to then just delete them with freezing arrow or any other skill.
No offense to your video in any way. Just wanted to add onto it with some ideas. Your idea of your build is perfectly viable as seen in the video. Just wanted to give people some options to experiment with when using mavinas. Its a decent and cheap set all around and there are many possibilities with it to clear most of the areas there are without investing anything more into it.
But i wouldnt say that anyone should focus on getting the full set to get this or any build going, unless some1 really likes it or have the pieces laying around in stash.
An alternative could be 3piece irathas (any of the pieces) or razortail or wisdom helmet (if u got the pul) to lower the need on points in pierce by a good amount. +3bow/20ias or 2/20 gloves are also very easy to obtain.
Melody in any +skill bow for a good chunk of skills, Smoke chest, resist rings or any other rings like ravenfrost, +skills amulet if u can find any. Basically +skills and resists where needed and cold dmg charms with a +2 freeze length (modifier ex: shivering of the glacier)
Gets u farming in hell p1 for sure.
In the end its all preference and many things are viable :D Just wanted to share my experiences maining frostmaiden/frosthybrid for many many years. Playing around with the frostmaiden and her hybrid capabilties on budget and mavinas is so fun as they are all perfectly viable for hell farming.
Frostmaiden just looks great, feels great to play and even the skills sound so nice and satisfiying.
I was gonna comment this as well. The second cold arrow only increases the freeze length of the final arrow so it's relatively pointless in general if you are just needing damage. COuld easily dump those 20 points into something more useful for sure. Or go hybrid so you aren't boned in some areas anyway.
Hey thanks for posting this! Brainstorming what type of zon to run next season and these are all great ideas.
What boots and amulet are you using on this build? I have everything I need to make this viable including all the charms. I was thinking of going A2 defiance merc. How much IAS do I need on gear and do I socket the armour and helmet with a 15% IAS jewels? I have a 40% ED + flat cold dmg jewel I was thinking of putting on the bow. I am not too concerned about attack rating since I have a Metalgrid stashed and might use that instead of Cat's eye. For boots I was thinking War Traveler or perhaps IK boots or Infernostrides for more MS as Infernostrides have the blaze proc.
@@Roskismummoamulet: any +2 zon skiller will work. Up to you too decide what other stats are on it.
Boots: personally - silk weave, for the +5 mana after each kill as you burn through mana with freezing arrow. but War Travs are a good switch for added magic find.
@@Roskismummoexperimenting is the fun part about this set 😁. I personally dont recommend putting enhanced damage Jewels in a weapon, as they only increase the base stats of the item. ED jewels in armour & helms however, apply to character damage and work with those Min/Max damage charms you have in your inventory = better result 👍
Ice maidens are so underrated, also the sound effect of shattering monsters is deeply satisfying.
It's just an incredibly satisfying build to play.
Probably my favorite build ever for that exact reason
Not if your a horker- then it becomes painful
@@zalcal8256 yeah.. i remember they asked me to revert to normal arrows which pains me.
Imagine Blizzard would change it to - all skills with no element damage shoot magical arrows 👍
it's nice when streamers are highlighting more budget oriented builds since not everyone runs around with top tier gear all the time.
the m'avina set is budget ? mk
I love these types of videos. Too many videos on YT these days talking about broken/elite builds, but then show 20 HRs worth of equipment.
Playing this build for 2 days now and totally loving it. Destroys WSK and throne with ease if you skip ice arrow for fire/explosive and the shattering sound is.. like hitting the pot on a slot machine every second. And lvl17 Valk is the bomb
Man, I love these build videos. I am all about builds that have a budget option but also have endgame gear goals.
i like the budget playthroughs the most. instead of going into the trading market and getting over powered quickly, feeling like there isnt much left to experience on a given character. With d2r ive basically avoided the market and opted to just play with my buddy and share gear between us, he has never been into trading himself. were talking ive been playing since 1999, at least 2 good sessions a year. Theres much more to learn when you avoid trading, and the game is greatly extended. With that considered i cant really see mavs as a budget set since i havent found a single piece in 2.4 yet hahaha, but i have nearly completed the IK set, which is very good itself.
Excellent content.
I really like your channel and you truly help the community a lot.
Keep up the great work!
I got my zon to from level 87 to 90 in AT on my solo self found plugi LOD run using a Ice/ straft bowazon. It was a blast!
Gg
I was building a strafezon until I saw this video then I went for the cold skills. Then nm Andariel dropped an unique Cedar Bow which grants + 3 to bow skills, + 3 to Immolation arrow and +50% piercing attack + explosive arrows all the time (normal attack). It blown my mind because I was worried about the inmunitties of the enemies. Having a blast using that new bow that fits quiet well with the ice bowazon. I wonder if the fire skills overlap the cold ones (?). Can't wait to get to hell difficulty to properly test this build :D
I had this video come up and liked what I saw and subscribed.
I got very excited to try this and rushed off to build my M'avina's build. There were definitely some points of struggle along the way and I certainly wouldn't recommend this as a starting build for anyone, but I had a lot of bows and archer gear taking up shared storage, so it gave me an opportunity to try out some things and eventually find a really good build based on M'avina's set.
Exploding arrow: Getting this skill early on made life a lot easier, but it's life span of usefulness is a bit limited, stops being effective around A3.
Immolation arrow: Great skill, much like the Firewall sorc skill and if you can keep your merc up to keep stuff in place, is very effective.
Freezing arrow: Never seems to be the killer that it could be, but if you're used to sending a single Blizzard or Frozen Orb, you'll need to learn to fire more often and have patience with this skill.
Best bows early: Kuko Shakaku (+skills) & Buriza (pierce, freezing, high-ish dmg)
Armor: Stealth then Peace works for armor
Helm: Lore or Sazabi work well
Boots: Natalya's are nice, Infernostrides can be good too
Glove: I had some +2 bow, +10 IAS I wore up until 70
Belt: Razortail is BIS
Rings: +res until you can put on Raven frost
To be honest, getting to 70 to put on the bow and armor was not a fun time and none of the other items are worth wearing prior to being able to put on the whole set. There is plenty of gear that you can get easily in the game that almost seem to be better options not to mention getting all of the set pieces took me about a week of trading and farming (and, I was kicking myself because just last week I vendored the set bow and had the hardest time getting the bow again). Eventually, I found that using the build listed here didn't work well for me and after two respecs I think I've landed on a very good build that can farm lvl 85 areas pretty safely and easily. First and foremost, I'd recommend everyone look hard at getting a high level Valkyrie built early because she'll tank better for you than your merc and getting that meat slab to stand there and get all of the attention while you fire your arrows is the best way to go, not to mention, you can recast her anytime you like. Oh, and I like to pre-cast Decoy before entering rooms to keep baddies from rushing you.
Assuming taking your archer to level 85:
Passive tree: 1 pt. in each, 17 hard pts in Valkyrie
Bow tree: 20 pts FA, 20 pts Immolation, 16 pts Cold Arrow, 10 pts Exploding Arrow --> for every level > 85, alternate pts between Cold Arrow and Exploding Arrow
ActV merc, Frenzy: Smoke armor, Tal's helm, Djinn Slayer & Lawbringer swords
Note: I can't keep the A2 merc w/Insight alive long enough to be useful, too squishy. I'm considering trying the A1 merc with an Insight bow or maybe another bow that could be useful (Edge, Kuko, something with an aura?). A5 merc is a beefy boy and able to take a lot of damage and you can keep him standing a lot easier with pots than the A2 merc.
Gear: M'avina's set, Eye of Etlich ammy, SoJ, Raven Frost, Natalya's boots, some +all res charms. I have no skiller charms (yet).
Super simple to run the above build:
I keep Magic Arrow (not the default Bow's skill, the one from the tree so I get the +skills on it) on left-click, FA on right-click, Immolation on main alternate shot. I always have Valkyrie up and I use Decoy when facing big groups to keep the heat off of myself, the merc and Valk.
Cold Immunes: Immolation + Magic Arrow on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk
Fire Immunes: FA + Magic Arrow on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk
Magic & Physical Immunes: FA + Immolation on group surrounding the Decoy, merc and Valk
Lightning Immunes: All of the above (they die very quickly)
Fire + Cold Immunes: Kill all of the minions and then let your Valk and merc do the kill with you supporting with Magic Arrow (free of charge), Decoy to distract the boss and pots to keep the merc standing.
Farming A2 Stony and Ancient's is nice because the doorways and thin hallways control the mobs rushing at you and keeps everything in front of you, very survivable.
Update: In my experience so far, this build is far safer than my Hydra-FO build (going to similar areas due to lack of Cold and Fire immunities), I really don't have to worry too much because of the damage types available to you (magic, cold, fire, physical) means you can go a lot of places and handle everything plus the Decoy and the Valk is just so hard to bring down even when surrounded. The only downside is that I go through mana pots quickly, but I never run out so, it is all good :) I'm now at level 77 and having a lot of fun running this set with near impunity! The only things I worry about are dolls in Durance, but that's probably true for every build.
Update: Level 82 now, finished Hell last night at level 78
- Died for the first time in Hell facing the Ancients
* Ancients takes a lot of pots, took about 25 minutes of running around before finally finishing them off
* I noticed that the Ancients completely ignore your Decoy and mostly ignore your Valk and merc too
- Hell Throne room was the easiest I've ever had, none of the mobs presented any issue, *even final wave* (!), just FA'd them to zero while Decoy, Valk and A5 merc tanked them all
- Baal fight took awhile, I even crashed about 80% through the first time, ran back did the Throne room (again, no big deal, which surprised me) and took him down after 15-20 minutes
- Went back and farmed Trav and LK for a few runs, Trav was really pretty easy...surprisingly so, just fired arrows towards the doorway until they were all dead
This is the least stressful Hell experience I've ever had, the tanks are just so good at keeping the mobs away! I've got a Hammerdin, FoHdin, Hydra-FOrb sorc, Javazon, Summoner necro on ladder right now and none of them have it as easy as this M'avina's Bowazon. Even souls aren't giving me a lot of heartache, I got mobbed by them in the Frozen caverns, they actually took out the merc and Valk, but I just retreated a bit, resummoned the Valk, proceeded a little slower, constantly firing FA in the direction any lightning bolts came from and I never dropped below 50% hp the rest of the cavern. I now commit to killing every Soul I come across to make up for all of those years of RIPs from those bastards...now, if only the same was true for those farking dolls...they still scare me. This bowazon has now become my favorite char to play, I really didn't expect that, I've always preferred the Javazon or Blizzard sorc, but this Amazon just works.
Thanks MacroBioBoi for turning me onto this set!
Amazing. Kuko Shakako was the best find for this build, nightmare Andariel dropped that awesome bow.
What are the best places to find Mavinas set?
@@Gtsugaru NM Trav for belt and gloves, bow I've had drop 3 times, different places, I had to trade for the helm, that's the hardest to get. I've found 4 Kuko's, always hate giving it up, it was just such a good bow all the way thru NM.
Latest update: Level 87; Build continues to excel, I can go pretty much anywhere due to the damage types available to me. There aren't many Fire+Cold immunes, usually pack bosses once in awhile, but it is easy to just resort to Magic Arrow and let the merc, valk and decoy handle the kill (if I want). You can even do Maggot Lair, which most builds hate, but it is pretty easy for this bowazon.
I'm currently messing with an alternate equipment setup; Mist bow (+6 to bow skills, 100% pierce, +40% res!), Nightwing helm, Ravenfrost, Silks of the Victor (the blue armor looks soooo good and appropriate) socketed with an Um, etc. I'm trying to decide whether to use Frostburn (+40% mana) gloves or some +2/+10 gloves, the build still uses a lot of mana, but still super safe.
Last comment; biggest problem for this build is boss killing. Even with great gear, it isn't the fastest boss killer, normally taking a few minutes and soaking up pots. However, most situations are pretty simple as long as you don't get overwhelmed by dolls or something. Playing multiplayer, you have to be considerate of players that depend on corpses (Necro, mf Barbs, etc.) because you have a tendency to 'break' a lot of mobs with FA and that will ruin it for them.
Awesome vid mate I’m now keen to build this on my Amazon 😊
Mac I would love to see your take on re-optimizing sets for D2R. Mavs is such a great showcase of how sets can bridge the gap between progression and endgame (especially packing the +100mF bonus) and I think that moving some of those same advantages to Exceptional sets could change the way we think about gearing; similar to how they changed Naj. The main downside to the Mavs is the diadem is TC87 and the armor is TC81 so though it is almost valueless its not exactly common which is why I thinking about focusing on the Exceptional sets.
There's a lot that you could say about reoptimizing sets for sure. If I get the inspiration to do so, that might make a great video.
i've made this multiple times with full bow skillers, torch, anni and sc lifers. she is at best a support char to help freeze. her dmg output is really weak but the build is cheap and fun to use. if you play p8, dont expect to be doing much dmg. if i tweaked it for more dmg, it wouldnt be that much of a difference. plus the added cold dmg from charms would be very close to none if you went that route.
I really like your out of the box thinking when it comes to viable builds. These are great vids considering d2 isn't very respec friendly.
Thank you kindly!
I dont want to kill my Javazon so I'm starting a new one. Just found the last part I needed, the bow. Thanks for the review.
Another gem! I’d love to see you look at kuko bow enchantress with high pierce and Bow merc with high pierce kuko and wisdom etc. teleporting and machine gun game play tears through high player nm cows and can clear players 3 hell cows fast if you have around 8k dmg buffed because of interaction of pierce on multiple targets packed together etc.
Gear I use includes treachery, highlords, laying and razor tail. Other slots flex! It makes you never want to play an ele bow zon again lol. Feels like you are using the d3 ability rapid fire with high ias! 🔥
This sounds like a cool build I want to try, would you use flickering flame or do you need wisdom in the helm slot?
@@ttvv90 kuko plus razor tail is enough pierce! Wear flickering flame for sure.
That is what i wanted to try out just for the sake of doing it! Cool that you made it work!
PS DAT THUMBNAIL!
Nice video Macro!! Best D2R creator on YT right here!!!
I appreciate you!
My guy this build looks awesome. I love to see a set be useful. I am going to try this one out :)
First Sazabi and now M'Avina sets have found new life. I've always felt bit sad that set and unique items can be pointless with the crazy runewords. Well now there's a sweet set and build to try.
Great Build!
Great comment!
I LOVE most WC3 characters and I am trying to build a Sylvanas Windrunner character. The Assassin LOOKS sick, but I hate the ASS skill set. Vigor + Revive 🔥🔥
Additional freeze duration is almost worthless.
I’d take the ice arrow points and put it into valk. 15+ valk does a really good job of tanking, especially with budget merc gear.
To each their own, I like having the freedom to freeze and only manage my Mercs movements.
@@MacroBioBoi 🧢🧢🧢! You aint moving shit cause a budget merc is dead in any fight that matters.
20 hard points for not a single % in cold damage in a video with “budget build” in the title rofl
💩build
nice video , im currently looking for mavinas set in SP :D
this will be even cooler now with hustle on swap instead of harmony. lose vigor in town, but burst of speed helps you go brrr
i built a fire\ice bowazon with my mavs, certainly worth it.
Nice Thumbnail 🤪🧙🏻♀🥶
One thing I learned after hundreds of Arachnid Lair runs is that its small size and simple layout are a deception. Without teleport, you'll need to backtrack and run in circles A LOT. So while faster run/walk is great, this is where an ammy with teleport charges or Naj's staff on swap would truly shine, because you don't need to teleport too often, but the freedom to teleport at specific points is massive.
Or you can just run a sorc, but this isn't what this video is about. :D
Great content as always, Mac!
The benefit to running arachnid a lot is that there are only so many layouts, similar to spider cavern, so there's a bit of a learning curve that can eliminate the requirement of teleport.
@@MacroBioBoi True, I believe there are... four? But a couple of the layouts have these key dead-end pockets that don't lead to the rest of the area, so you run in, scout for a unique pack, kill it if there is one, then run back out and do a U-turn instead of teleporting to a large room right behind the wall.
@@i_am_ergo I treat it just like pindle, do the run, save and exit. There's no backtracking necessary.
Why spent skill points on ice arrow though? It just adds freeze duration. I only spent 1 points there and the enemies still remain frozen till they die. You can spent the rest of your skills to max guided+multy for cold immune or max the first two fire skills.
I m using mavina set and Vidalia neck + boots and I m having a blast.
I like the additional freeze length since it decreases in hell and monster's cold resistance also reduces its length. To each their own.
@@MacroBioBoi I read your guide about OSkills on maxroll. I have a question about "chance on hit" skills.
If I equip a storm lash on a druid and I put my skills on tornado synergies, are the tornadoes procked from storm lash affected by my synergies?
Do +all skills from gear increase the skill level of stormlash tornadoes?
@@lefgia they are increases by synergies. + Skills don't affect them, except in scenarios like Prayer Aura for Cleansing/Meditation and Druid Summon synergies.
@@MacroBioBoi 20 points doubles the freeze length from 2 seconds to 4 seconds. That's... absolutely not worth it.
@@schwann145 see my previous statement.
Know this is old video and prob wont be responded to, but would putting points into inner focus instead of penetrate and using that help with the explosion better and blessed aim would stack with it. Or i guess using an act 1 merc with insight bow and have her inner focus
Future Mac here to say: I wouldn't worry about getting the Inner Sight + Blessed Aim to help with AR. Penetrate and more than good enough and you just use a different aura on the mercenary. Prayer to double dip on healing with Insight before Infinity, or Might to increase his damage output.
G8 video man
Thx fam!
Magic find does affect the rarity of what drops from chest, player count increases the amount of items that drop
Not from sparkly chests.
thanks for the great vid. can you do a vid on immolation / fire damage bowa? that doesnt use a infinity / pheonix plz
Legit, this is the first time I've seen someone wear this set lol
Hard same
@@MacroBioBoi doin the lord's work.
Is another very interesting build
So sick
I tried this build but found i was fighting a lot of cold immunes. Still working it
You definitely want to farm areas without cold immunes
@macrobioboi Does Blessed Aim now work with penetrate? I remember they used to cancel one another (i.e. only one would work).
No they don't, the Mercs will be stronger than yours for a while and once you can manage AR by your self you can swap him out.
@@MacroBioBoi Thanks!
Rainbow Facets (cold) should be the way to go?
Absolutely
Wack a Dol rune in ya bow. Freeze + flee is the bomb over knockback.
Are you sure you have to hit in order for it to pierce? I always though that was the super benefit of ice maiden is that you need 0AR to make a build that does incredible ice damage. And by extent the same with javazon needing 0AR cause the lightning fury pierces and fires off the X number of lightning bolts when a target is collided with or pierces through a target.
Lightning Fury does not perform a hit check, it is different than skills which do perform hit checks.
@@MacroBioBoi hmm appreciate the info.
I only see spaced out cows... Be...cause of... Cow poop... Fungai/mushrooms... "Spaced out"
*Has left the chat*
Thanks for the content 💝
This was a rollercoaster. You're welcome!
didnt quite understand, mavina set is not good to have? even for budget? something u said on start with mistake
also passive for starter and later replace with bow skillers? what is best if u can have any budget on this gearsetup
It's bad for Physical Bowazon. It's GREAT for cold Bowazon.
Can you put a 3-piece set on a cold A1 merc - any specific benefits?
She can't get the + to cold skill damage so I wouldn't really recommend it.
Why you need ice arrow? it only give freez dutarion? You can take valkyrie for that 20 points or evade skills
Can you do this build and put a point in valk. I really like the valk.
sure you could
You have to hit the target in order to pierce? That’s news to me. But don’t elemental arrows always hit?
No, they explode on impact but they still roll to hit. Ever wonder why they give attack rating on the skill?
What about Ice with Poison Javelin on switch. Poison is DoT. Ice and freezing slows things down.
It would do ok, the gear isn't great for Javs on swap but it could work.
@@MacroBioBoi I was looking for an alternative to going fire since that had been not too fun or good in the past.
Now, I think this is a really nice build. But I think javazon is prob better for a budget. Very Interesting build tho :D
What's the trade site you mention?
Traderie.com
basically a fireball sorc, but ice, and without teleport, unless teleport charges on an ammy or switch
Except pierces and explodes multiple times, and attacks with a weapon, and has blonde hair.
@@MacroBioBoi so the only real difference is pierce.. lol
too bad your belt slot is taken, snowclash adds some nice flat cold
What did u put in armor?
A physical damage jewel for a different build
Can they drop items after freeeze?
Yes
@@MacroBioBoi thank you, watching from Philippines
Why do you use ice arrow? I never used it they get frozen for long enough with only one pick
Just for freeze length. Putting the points elsewhere doesn't really do much.
@@MacroBioBoi ah ok.. i forgot i always do explosive arrow too..
Isn't multishots synergies bugged right now anyways? So it's not getting the buffs it's supposed to.
Not according to my most recent testing.
What boots?
Any boots you'd like. I use FRW tri-res with Magic Find
Price of Mavinas set just doubled
from 20 to 40 Pgems?
why is there 20 points into ice arrow? seems like a big waste when u could have used them for passives.
I like freeze length
Why bother maxing ice arrow it doesnt add to damage output, just freezes longer...
Probably for the freeze length
but if you have managed to find a cold sunder charm why not just run cold sorc instead..
Because some people play things they want to instead of other things they don't want to?
Since when you need attack rating on ice/fire skills 🤦🤦🤦 You'll hit anyway.
They actually don't "Hit", they just explode on impact, but don't pierce, where you actually get your damage from.
kind of weak... footage is in nightmare difficulty. is it similar in hell difficulty?
This is a great budget build for early hell, yes.
bows are weak bc arrows need sockets
That's why you turn her into a wizard.
Mavinas has always been used on budget cold skill bowazons. There is no budget build for physical bowas. Physical is definitely tailored more towards PvP. The elemental bow skills arent even viable in PvP. I love that D2 has builds that dont work in PvM, but work spectacularly in PvP, and vice versa. hopefully they dont mess with that in the future