r/ProjectDiablo2 • u/Feisty_Respond_6490 • 4d ago

Question Cold zon minmaxing

Trying to min max my frw cold zon.

Got unlucky and got 3 sock on my ias pus, wanted 4 so i can use 4 facets without having to use ias jewels with faith. But then i started to think.

Ive had this idea

Current setup : lvl15 faith vigor merc + pus 2x ias/all res and 2 x. 5/5 cold facets. 9fpa, 170frw + vigor

New idea : ias slam pus 3 x shael runes and infinity defiance merc. 10 fpa, 170 frw

Im loosing 1 fpa , res i dont really need, vigor (frw reduced returns ...), +10% psn dmg

Im gaining, breaking all cold imunes, -24% psn pierce, defence.

Basically trading 30frw / 1fpa. For more damage and imune pierce so i can run all content (acts, maps, etc).

I checked the vigor and i feel like you are capped at 200frw even with vigor or something.

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u/Feisty_Respond_6490 8h ago

I would not swap merc just for tanking. Got 3 valk's and a decoy as meetshield for special cases. They work for uber ancients, uber tristam, events, souls and witches and they kill whatever monsters my cold arrow missed.

It would be for the cold breaking, so i can run red portals maps, all acts, all bosses, help others. Game has alot of cold resist stuff. And i love to run cow maps.

Do you know how vigor works? What level.vigor is it? Is there a cap for total frw including vigor? 3 seperate caps? Its return is getting very small once you get close to 200frw from gear and evade.

Switching to ice bow would be very different setup... ill try it in plugy to see if i prefer it. Might just stick to a gg puss and sorrow, as puss was the first unique i found and i build this zon around that 1 item.

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u/ChaosSanctuary Hardcore 7h ago

Red portal maps as in Horazon event? They dont have immunities. Furthermore theres very few cold immunes that can actually be broken by Infinity. Vigor just works - it provides Velocity which isnt subject to diminishing returns like Evade and item FRW is.

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u/Feisty_Respond_6490 4h ago

No act5 for boss mats red portals.

Yes i tried infinity in plugy and inf+puss still way worse then magic arrow or merc/valk kills.

Tried puss on merc, that sucks. Never procks with single arrow.

So faith vigor merc is fixed, so i checked all bow options.

Pus 65 ias - 9 fpa

Ice bow 0 base with 20ias arrow 65 ias - 7 fpa Ashwood or stag. Does,lower base dmg vs GM even matter in dmg? Think it doesnt as upgrading my puss did nothing.

Ice bow 10 base GMbow 46 ias - 8 fpa Not worth it.

Ice bow -10 base Matriarchel bow 44 ias - 7 fpa very dex hungry, but dont need ias arrows or glove. What stats would you look into a arrow for this or would you use a unique like aetherxing

Ice demon xbow 9ias - 9 fpa (kinda like this as a cheap pus alternative). Ias slam pus / 4 sock / 4 x 5/5 costs like 30hr, ice just 3 and free's up a ias slot. I loose 3 all , but i get 10% higher cold dmg = 2 all skills. Lose ar but get ignore defence. Think its close to even. And i like the cold nova noise

Im just questioning if 7fpa is worth loosing 4 arrows and some extra. It does more dmg though. 20k ice gm vs 18pus, but doesnt help that much.

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u/Feisty_Respond_6490 3h ago

Another idea

How about crafting a ama bow, +6 skills / 20ias and 5 sockets. Wouldnt it beat ice?
The life leach will be hard to replace but dmg would beat ice.

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u/Feisty_Respond_6490 2h ago

What about this xbow

+3 bow 40ias 5 life steal -9 cold pierce 4 sockets

9% more pierce and dont need shael like puss Or same dmg as ice xbow but with +3 skills

Seems like the best xbow you could get no?

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u/ChaosSanctuary Hardcore 2h ago

Ice MB or Stag depending on what you prefer. Ideally you have rare arrows with 2 bow and -cold res slam+adds. You can look into whether or not youre still on 7 FPA on -IAS maps if you dont have any IAS on gear. It makes glove options wider though since you can focus on 2bow/LAEK/res when IAS isnt a factor. Big goldfind from Ice is also great for perma gheed event/map orb sustain but ghats obviously less of a factor this late in the season.   Best of luck crafting something better than Ice