Mavinas set. Will this build work? (Long post)

[Etza]

Mavinas set. Will this build work? (Long post)

Hi!
Im making a frostmaiden using Mavinas set and have some questions about skill selections and equipment.

The first skills to max will be cold arrow and freezing arrow. Im thinking about maxing strafe too for cold immunes and to leech my mana back. Will that be enough to keep my mana up? I know that Freezing arrow is draining the mana really fast and I dont want to invest any points in energy at all.
I will use highlords wrath too for +skills and deadly strike. The bow doesnt have a lot of physical damage and i think that highlords deadly strike will help with that, and also to save some skill points from critical strike.

I think of putting only 1 point in pierce. With +6 from the set and +3 from torch and maybe some skill GC too the pierce will be around 75 or so. Is that enough?
My build will be like this:

20 CA
20 FA
20 Strafe
20 Valk
1 D/A/E
1 CS
1 Penetrate
1 Pierce
7 pre req.

Total points 93

+10-12 skills from set/Torch/Skillers

STR: As little as possible
DEX: The rest of my points
VIT: Little or nothing. Maybe 50-75
ENR: No points at all


Equipment:
Mavina set
Highlords Wrath
Ravenfrost
Mana Leech Ring
War Travelers

Highlords or Eye of Etlish? I think deadly strike is really important for a low damage bow and also 20% IAS. With Highlords and 2x15 IAS Jewels I will hit the 120 Strafe break point. I will loose some cold length though.

Is the Valkyria really necessary? I love the Valk but with FA and Merc the enemies will be standing still anyway.

Will the AR be high enough for strafe to be able to hit with only 1 point in Penetrate and +skills?

Is the damage from strafe/CS/Deadly Strike enough to kill/leech? Dont want to put any points in energy or using insight for merc. and I hate to rely on potions to keep my mana up. The answers I have read on this boards is divided in two groups. Some people think its enough to leech and some think you have to get an insight merc and some energy points +mana charms to prevent having mana problems.

Is it better to use a swith for Cold Immunes? Dont want to use a javalin. Maybe another bow on swith for physcal damage?

Is the pierce lv good enough with 1 point and +skills?

Is the damage from FA/Strafe high enough to be able to kill fast in a multplayer game?


Really sorry for the long post but I have searched the forums without finding the right answers. Thoughts appreciated

 

[phool]

Re: Mavinas set. Will this build work? (Long post)

I'd get pierce up to 79 or 80%, probably at the expense of valk which can survive well with less investment (but won't kill well regardless) and probably raise penetrate more for more effective strafing but skill setup is basically solid. 75% is satisfactory though.

Critical strike makes deadly strike pretty ineffective. I'd go for a +2 zon amu with mana leech and as much as possible of all the usual good stuff like str/dex/life/res, you could even get this with some cold damage for a longer freeze (but I wouldn't go out of your way for it, just a few scs with 2 cold damage modifiers on top of the raven will make your freeze duration skyrocket). Strafe is more of a backup skill, FA's ias bps are the ones to really worry about unless you've got a strafe bp in easy reach.

FA can kill quite well in semi full games against the right type of enemies - densely packed ones without high cold res. Strafe is going to be rather slow with mav's set though. Strafe isn't normally about killing so much as leeching on mav FA/strafe builds. You want to resort to strafe as little as possible though...

I'm not sure about an affordable switch for dealing with cold immunes. Does your merc use a reaper's by any chance? Harmony could be decent, some elemental damage, ok physical damage and also provides vigor.

 

[maiku]

Re: Mavinas set. Will this build work? (Long post)

Hi!
The first skills to max will be cold arrow and freezing arrow. Im thinking about maxing strafe too for cold immunes and to leech my mana back. Will that be enough to keep my mana up?

It can help, but I find it's much better to have multiple sources of mana, from +40-50 mana GCs, "Insight" on Merc, and +mana per kill items. If you reach about 400+ mana, leech or no leech is pretty irrelevant. IIRC, my M'avina Frostmaiden has something like 450-500 mana w/ equip and charms.

I think of putting only 1 point in pierce. With +6 from the set and +3 from torch and maybe some skill GC too the pierce will be around 75 or so. Is that enough?

I usually like to get it around 80-85%, but if you want to run with 75%, that's still decent. However, remember that FA derives most of its damage from piercing, so more piercing will help you get more cold explosions.

My build will be like this:

20 CA
20 FA
20 Strafe
20 Valk
1 D/A/E
1 CS
1 Penetrate
1 Pierce
7 pre req.

Total points 93

+10-12 skills from set/Torch/Skillers

STR: As little as possible
DEX: The rest of my points
VIT: Little or nothing. Maybe 50-75
ENR: No points at all

That's about how my setup was. Except no Vita at all and most into Dex.

Equipment:
Mavina set
Highlords Wrath
Ravenfrost
Mana Leech Ring
War Travelers

Highlords or Eye of Etlish? I think deadly strike is really important for a low damage bow and also 20% IAS. With Highlords and 2x15 IAS Jewels I will hit the 120 Strafe break point. I will loose some cold length though.

Doesn't matter. You'll have tons and tons of freeze/chill time with this set. Trust me. If you need more, add a few charms.

Is the Valkyria really necessary? I love the Valk but with FA and Merc the enemies will be standing still anyway.

I find she's really nice for going into areas like Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Keep in Hell, where the Merc may die from IM. Also, she's a good distraction for bosses while you Strafe them to death...if you like to kill bosses. I used mine to solo CS and WSK often for MF and would kill the bosses afterward. BTW, this is a super safe set, because your +skills raise your D/A/E and resists high.

Will the AR be high enough for strafe to be able to hit with only 1 point in Penetrate and +skills?

Yes. I also recommend a Demon Limb on switch. Then you can get some crazy AR numbers.

Is the damage from strafe/CS/Deadly Strike enough to kill/leech? Dont want to put any points in energy or using insight for merc. and I hate to rely on potions to keep my mana up. The answers I have read on this boards is divided in two groups. Some people think its enough to leech and some think you have to get an insight merc and some energy points +mana charms to prevent having mana problems.

I prefer to use "Insight" on Merc for convenience and as a safety net, but to be honest, once your mana pool and leech get to be enough, you can kind of forget about it. If my Merc dies in CS, sometimes I don't notice.

Is it better to use a swith for Cold Immunes? Dont want to use a javalin. Maybe another bow on swith for physcal damage?

One more option you might want to consider is an Atma's Scarab as your primary amulet instead of Eye of Elitch or Highlord's Wrath. While fairly useless for FA, it makes your Strafe carry a lot more punch when you need to mow down Cold Immunes or PIs. If you have enough +skills from bow skillers, this might be something to think about.

Is the pierce lv good enough with 1 point and +skills?

Already covered this, but I think 80-85% is what I'd shoot for. You might find 75% enough for your needs. Unfortunately, can't get 100%...miss that Razortail.

Is the damage from FA/Strafe high enough to be able to kill fast in a multplayer game?

Yes, but try to round up enemies for bigger cold explosions and more damage. FA seems to kill with ease. Strafe seems to do much better once you add something like Decrepify or Amp into the equation. Decrepify can come from your Merc via a Reaper's Toll and Amp from Atma's.

 

[Duality]

Re: Mavinas set. Will this build work? (Long post)

I've been thinking about making a build like this, (still need the damn bow though) I'm curious though, do bow skillers help enough to make it worthwhile to try and get a few?

And is strafe enough, considering the fairly low damage of Mav's bow, to actually clear an area packed with CI's in more than a 1 player game? Infinity wont break most CI's, (even if I had the runes to make it) so that's out of the question, I suppose the truly rich could put a GMB Faith on switch, but what about the rest of us? Highlords + Mav's set will put you at the 9 frame BP.

Harmony in a blade bow (since I have a 4os one, lol) will put me at the 9 frame BP as well... Is that worth it?

Also, what would you socket in the helm/armor?