Frost Maiden Boss-killing ?

[killian27]

Frost Maiden Boss-killing ?

Vixon, so far, has been on a tear throughout the game. She's sitting at ActV NM at the moment, and made it there running at players 8. This build is really a blast, the freezing arrow skill just dominates almost everything. With a merc, a valkyrie, and a decoy, there is a wall of defenders keeping any crowd of monsters at bay. Zero deaths so far (knock on wood).

My question is about boss-killing. She kills Boss's really slow, Diablo (NM) took several minutes last night, which I really don't mind since she breezes through everything else so quickly, but I would just like to make sure I havent overlooked anything I should be doing to speed up boss-killing.

Current Set-up:

Weapon: Buriza/Kuko on switch, sometimes a Rogues just because the speed is fun
Armor: Duriels Shell
Belt: M'avinas
Gloves: Laying of hands (the increased damage does effect Diablo right?)
Boots: Waterwalks
Helm:Steelshade
Amulet: a rare with +2 passive and magic skills and some resists
Ring:manald
Ring:rare with leech and resists
4 or 5 sc's with cold damage

Skills (hard points) (Vixon is clvl 66)

FA and synergie 20 pts
multi-shot ~3
magic arrow ~3
valkerie 9
1-2 pts in various other skills

Merc: Hone Sundan for weapon, smoke runeword for armor, and a rare helm that is ~600 defense



Pretty decent setup imo, geared towards mana leech. I hope using the buriza is not considered cheesy... its the best bow I have found, and it leechs back enough mana to sustain FA.

I seem to dish out plenty-o damage to every non-boss monster, but NM Mephisto and Diablo took a considerable amount of blue pots and time to kill.

So, are there any options that I am missing? The only thing really I havent tried, that I probably should is switching to wizendraw for boss-killing.

Other bows I have available:

Wizendraw
Skystrike
Rogue's
Demon Machine
WidowMaker
Magewrath
Riphook
Eaglehorn* my friend that I MP with found this bow the other day, but so far I have stuck with using only equipment that I have found, and I intend to keep doing so. But ofc, I could just run Hell mephisto more until I find one, if it would be a huge help.

crap, I didnt intend to write a book... o well

 

[Nightfish]

Play bosses on players 1. The merc with CB should be enough to handle them. Next question.

Also you could go melee with CB and help your merc. That's what my bowzons do. NF's patented CB setup: 4Eth2Shael-weapon, guillaume's face, goblin toe and you're a lean mean boss killing machine. (more eths if your AR sucks really bad)

 

[farting bob]

A few minutes to kill P8 diablo in nm is not to chabby. My frost maiden isnt a great boss killer, but i use her to run areas now, not bosses. Apart from dropping to P1 i cant think of anything to majorly speed up your boss killing.

 

[SeDnA]

Rylai CrestFall? Frost Maiden? Well she's a good hero in early game. Great disable(Frostbite), and a nuke that slows(Frostnova), and an aura(Brilliance) that benefits herself and her caster teammate beside her! A very powerful ultimate which deals crazy damage. What more can you ask?

Except that a bkb will counter her totally for 10 seconds.

Hope you don't mind the O/t

 

[killian27]

Play bosses on players 1. The merc with CB should be enough to handle them. Next question.

Also you could go melee with CB and help your merc. That's what my bowzons do. NF's patented CB setup: 4Eth2Shael-weapon, guillaume's face, goblin toe and you're a lean mean boss killing machine. (more eths if your AR sucks really bad)

Now why would I switch to players 1, when I've been playing players 8 the whole time... seems cheesy, I won't switch to players 1 for ancients either... I will however switch to players 1 or 3 when i get to hell.. lol. And she doesnt meelee, she is offended that you even suggested it.

seriously though, thanks for the suggestions...

@FB ok, well I may just need a change of mindset when playing her... and running area's would benefit me in the long run anyway, my barb is a great boss killer, but no so good at running some area's... thanks!

@Sedna, np... though I did have to google that, because I didnt have a clue what your reference was to.. lOl.

 

[HBeachBabe]

bosses are supposed to be harder than everything else. take it as a challenge. keep Big D frozen/chilled as much as possible and let your moron tank him. with CB he should be able to whittle him down. Strafe will leech your mana back.

 

[PyroStock]

A L17 Valk gets a rare elite weapon, but given the damage penalty minions get against bosses it might not be too big of a difference.

Are you using a Might Merc?

Semi-off topic: How do Duriel and Baal determine the "threat level" of their attackers for deciding who they attack? I couldn't keep my FrostMaiden's Might Merc alive with NM Duriel as he kept ignoring my L23Valk and even the Decoy for him, so I had to do the fight without him until there was only a sliver of life left on Duriel. He did have on MF gear, but I didn't want to take time muling protective equipment and wanted him to make the kill with MF gear for hopes of a good drop... I don't need to say how that drop turned out. I've noticed with my FireHunter that 90% of the time Hell Baal cannot stop playing with my Grizzly, which is great. 10% of the time he goes for me & he never goes after my Merc. I would love the same for my Amazon and have bosses focus on her Valk and not the Might Merc.

 

[killian27]

A L17 Valk gets a rare elite weapon, but given the damage penalty minions get against bosses it might not be too big of a difference.

Are you using a Might Merc?

Semi-off topic: How do Duriel and Baal determine the "threat level" of their attackers for deciding who they attack? I couldn't keep my FrostMaiden's Might Merc alive with NM Duriel as he kept ignoring my L23Valk and even the Decoy for him, so I had to do the fight without him until there was only a sliver of life left on Duriel. He did have on MF gear, but I didn't want to take time muling protective equipment and wanted him to make the kill with MF gear for hopes of a good drop... I don't need to say how that drop turned out. I've noticed with my FireHunter that 90% of the time Hell Baal cannot stop playing with my Grizzly, which is great. 10% of the time he goes for me & he never goes after my Merc. I would love the same for my Amazon and have bosses focus on her Valk and not the Might Merc.

Im using a HF merc, imo they just seem to be able to handle more on their own.. i know its some overkill since any monster will inevitably be frozen by FA anyway, but slow down a surge of monsters before they get to me is most beneficial to my play style.

As far as keeping bosses off of me, my valkyrie is much smarter than my moron. Basically with durieal i would just recast my valkyrie in between duriel and my self... basically right on duriel if possible... she would keep him off me while i spammed FA... then when i saw her life slivered i would be ready to cast her again.. ofc i was as far away from duriel as possible at all times.

As for your merc... I think there is a rather large penalty against your merc on first kills against act bosses... im sure someone will correct me if that is wrong.

 

[PyroStock]

As far as keeping bosses off of me, my valkyrie is much smarter than my moron. Basically with durieal i would just recast my valkyrie in between duriel and my self... basically right on duriel if possible... she would keep him off me while i spammed FA... then when i saw her life slivered i would be ready to cast her again.. ofc i was as far away from duriel as possible at all times.

Yep. That's what had to do with NM Duriel, except since I had L23Valk Duriel never got her below 1/2half.

As for your merc... I think there is a rather large penalty against your merc on first kills against act bosses... im sure someone will correct me if that is wrong.

I know there is a damage penalty, but I've never heard of a MF penalty for a Merc making a kill. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[killian27]

Yep. That's what had to do with NM Duriel, except since I had L23Valk Duriel never got her below 1/2half.



I know there is a damage penalty, but I've never heard of a MF penalty for a Merc making a kill. Can anyone confirm this?

umm... i thought the merc's Mf was combined with yours for a merc kill, and the merc's MF ignored when you make a kill.... sorry your statement earlier i didnt realize your were talking about MF

 

[crazy_bear]

Doesn't CB work with a bowazon too (with a penalty, but still effective)? Why go to melee? Goblin Toe, Guillaume's face, Blood Gloves, long battle bow with 4xeth 2xShael... strafe for lots of hits quickly, then switch for the kill.

Of course, you don't have strafe so you'd have to use some other attack.... but the same principle should apply.

Anyway, good luck!
CB

 

[Hrus]

Laying of hands increase only your physical damage (and only if you successfully hit the enemy). +2 bow skill gloves can really improve your main attack. If you strafe, keep in mind the next delay thing. (It's 4 second for Strafe, so it's better to attack with big slow Xbow if you attack 1 target)
I have played 2 untwinked FA zons, and they kill bosses really slow, they aren't bosskillers, nothing can be done. You can use wand of Lower Resists if you use FA continually against bosses. It will increase your damage noticably.

 

[killian27]

Laying of hands increase only your physical damage (and only if you successfully hit the enemy). +2 bow skill gloves can really improve your main attack. If you strafe, keep in mind the next delay thing. (It's 4 second for Strafe, so it's better to attack with big slow Xbow if you attack 1 target)
I have played 2 untwinked FA zons, and they kill bosses really slow, they aren't bosskillers, nothing can be done. You can use wand of Lower Resists if you use FA continually against bosses. It will increase your damage noticably.

It did not even dawn on me that LoH would only effect my physical damage... makes sense though... see thats why the forum is so great.. even if sometimes its only to point out what should be obvious:thumbsup: Im cool with the fact that she is a slow boss killer, I just wanted to make sure that I hadnt overlooked anything obvious really. Hopefully she will handle Hell pits well, since my barb, who is a fast boss killer, does not fair as well in hell pits (not a high players setting anyway)

OT: What is the concensus on running hell pits, as far as players settings. With mf on, i just cant run players 8 pits with my barb safely. Without mf I can, or players 3 or so with mf... either way I never seem to find much.

So, players 3 with mf or players8 with no mf? I think it would have to be players 3 and mf... but like i say, i never find much.

 

[Hrus]

As the last MF guide by Nightfish (?) says, it's most efficient to run areas at Players 1, if you run for sets/uniques. (Bosses are most important for S/U and their drops are not affected by players settings). However, I like to run the Pits at P3, because it doesn't slow me consiredably and I get more charms/runes/jewels/gems. If you have really powerful build you can do with higher settingsd easily too.