D2R Season 9: Ice Bowazon Build Guide

Ben Author

Created - 11.12.2024 Updated - 12.12.2024

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Season 9 of Diablo II: Resurrected does not add any noteworthy content to the game. However, Blizzard did implement one significant change that benefits all D2R builds. What is that, you ask?

Well, the company has now provided players with the means of moving their characters without using the mouse. This is done by binding the movement buttons to whatever key they like. The said feature is incredibly useful for magic users and ranged attackers because kiting and firing were quite cumbersome to do back in the day.

That said, welcome to our D2R Ice Bowazon guide! Here, we will talk about one of the builds that excels at killing mobs efficiently at long distances. Furthermore, this is one of the builds that utilizes the new feature implemented in Patch 2.8 to a great extent.

Why Choose the Ice Bowazon?

Being able to freeze enemies is one way to survive in Diablo II: Resurrected. Even though builds that have this utility only have a limited health pool, they can still last long even in Hell Difficulty. If this sounds good to you, then the Ice Bowazon ticks all of the right boxes!

Also known as the Frostmaiden, the Ice Bowazon utilizes Freezing Arrow as her main damage dealer. Our version of this D2R build also has Strafe, which is primarily for leeching life and mana from enemies.

To keep the monsters frozen, you have to use Freezing Arrow (FA) constantly. Freezing Arrow is a powerful elemental damage skill in Diablo II: Resurrected. When used, the Amazon fires an arrow imbued with cold damage that causes an explosion after colliding with enemies or terrain. This makes FA a good skill for destroying huge packs of monsters.

Just like any projectile-based Amazon build in D2R, you want to attain a 100% chance to pierce through targets in order to maximize the clearing potential of this build. The good news is that there are plenty of items that can help you achieve that, which will be discussed later in the guide.

The Ice Bowazon is an incredible ranged attacker that excels in areas where monsters are usually bunched up together like The Secret Cow Level and certain Terror Zones.

What’s interesting about Freezing Arrow is that its freeze duration, which is two seconds by default, can actually be increased by adding cold damage modifiers on your gear.

You see, any source of added cold damage in Diablo II: Resurrected comes with an inherent chill duration. When you put some cold damage small charms in your inventory, for example, each charm is calculated additively to lengthen FA’s freeze duration.

Why is that important, you ask? This is a useful piece of information because there is an ailment duration penalty at higher difficulty levels in D2R. So, if you just rely on the two-second freeze duration of FA, then that will only last for a short period in Hell Difficulty!

As to the question of which build is better—the fire-based Amazon or the Ice Bowazon—that really depends on preference. While the former can theoretically output more damage via Immolation Arrow, the latter has more survivability due to freeze.

If you are concerned about the damage capability of this build, we promise you that it does not have any problems dealing with any monster in Diablo II: Resurrected, so long as you are able to equip her with the right items.

Playstyle

The Ice Bowazon in Diablo II: Resurrected has a straightforward playstyle, with avenues for more dynamic gameplay if you want.

Freezing Arrow is your main damage dealer on this build. Because you do not have a lot of HP, use this to last longer on the battlefield. You might have to work on your aim to ensure that every arrow hits the intended target. Don’t worry, you won’t need much attack rating to land shots with this particular skill.

Strafe is mainly used as a way to regain life and mana back through leech. In case you don’t know, only physical damage from melee strikes and ranged attacks can take advantage of the leeching mechanic in Diablo II: Resurrected. That is why you need Strafe despite having Freezing Arrow to destroy the minions of Hell and survive while you’re at it.

Always have your trusty Valkyrie up to soak damage. When you maintain your distance, the Valkyrie does an admirable job of getting the attention of your enemies away from you, giving you peace of mind as you shoot at them from afar.

Valkyrie is not available until you’re level 30. That is why you are going to use Decoy in the meantime for exactly the same purpose; to soak damage and keep enemies from attacking you.

Stats

• Strength: Depends on gear
• Dexterity: Depends on bow base
• Vitality: Spend the rest of your attribute points here
• Energy: Just enough to get to 1,000+ mana (with gear)

This D2R Ice Bowazon build is one of those characters in the game that have pretty varied attributes depending on your gear.

The amount of DEX that you need to allocate largely depends on the bow base you’re going to use for the Ice runeword.

Allocate points to STR just enough so that you can wear your equipment. When employing certain D2R runewords, be mindful of the item that you will use for the base because that will dictate how much strength your Ice Bowazon should have.

If you’re wondering why some points have to be allocated to Energy, that’s because this Diablo II: Resurrected build is quite mana-intensive. Aim to have at least 1,000 mana or more with all of your gear equipped.

With most of your points already spent in the aforementioned attributes, your HP is going to be less than ideal due to low VIT. This might look scary, but the major reason why you need not worry about this is that the Ice Bowazon can reliably freeze enemies with her main skill.

Skills

• 20 points on Freezing Arrow
• 20 points on Cold Arrow
• 20 points on Strafe
• 8 points on Pierce (or until 100% pierce)
• 16 points on Valkyrie
• 10 points on Evade
• 6 points on Penetrate
• Put 1 point on the following skills:
• Ice Arrow
• Magic Arrow
• Multiple Shot
• Guided Arrow
• Inner Sight
• Slow Missiles
• Decoy
• Dodge
• Avoid
• Evade
• Critical Strike

In this D2R Ice Bowazon guide, the only mandatory skills here are Freezing Arrow, Strafe, Valkyrie, and Pierce. The rest of the points can be spent however you see fit.

Strafe is to enable you to leech life and mana off of enemies. Mana leech is incredibly useful because of how costly the Ice Bowazon’s skills are.

Valkyrie is mainly there for soaking damage and to ensure that enemies won’t pursue you. Both the Valkyrie and Mercenary help you stay alive despite having less than 1,000 HP.

In the endgame, if you feel that you are no longer having issues with mana, you could remove Strafe and its prerequisites. The points that you gain back can be allocated to Ice Arrow to boost the damage of FA, as well as Evade for improved survivability.

During the leveling stage, Cold Arrow is going to be your main damage dealer. You have the option of using Multiple Shot for mana leech as well. Do not forget to put points on the skill prerequisites along the way.

As soon as you reach level 30, put 1 point on Freezing Arrow. Get Valkyrie on your next level up. After that, the points that you gain in the next levels should be allocated to FA until it reaches the max level.

Breakpoints

You need to hit a couple of important breakpoints for the Ice Bowazon. The first is the 75% IAS breakpoint, which presupposes that you use the Matriarchal Bow as the base for the Ice runeword.

Another important breakpoint that this build needs to hit is FHR (aka Faster Hit Recovery). Aim for at least 52% (6 frames), though 86% (5 frames) is the most preferred.

If you want to know more information about Amazon breakpoints, we have a handy guide for that!

Ice Bowazon Gear Recommendations

There are some fantastic pieces of gear that the Ice Bowazon can wear to make her an effective killer. Keep in mind that the endgame bow is a bit on the expensive side. If you want to skip the grind, you can head to our D2R store and get it in an instant!

Helmet

Is your Ice Bowazon struggling to keep her mana up without chugging tons of Mana Potions? Wisdom is an affordable helmet that helps address that problem!

This D2R runeword is best known for having the trifecta of mana modifiers, including mana leech, mana on kill, and damage goes to mana. The last bonus means that if you get hit, your mana is restored based on a small portion of the damage you’ve received.

Another notable thing about Wisdom is that it has the same piercing attack modifier as that of the Razortail. That’s why if you’re going to wear this particular runeword, you only need to spend so many skill points on Pierce to achieve 100%!

You need a good amount of FRW (Faster Run/Walk) to move out of harm’s way as quickly as possible. If you don’t mind using Mana Potions, then you can go for the Valkyrie Wing as opposed to Wisdom for the helmet slot.

The Valkyrie Wing provides you with a 20% boost in both FRW and FHR. These are quite helpful stats that allow for quick repositioning even when you are hit.

If you choose the Valkyrie Wing, make sure that it has +2 to Amazon skills and 4 mana after each kill for additional sustain. While you’re at it, have Larzuk in Act 5 put a socket on this thing so that you can insert a 20% IAS jewel to hit the necessary attack speed breakpoint.

Apart from its +2 to skills, the Nightwing’s Veil is a solid option for the Ice Bowazon mainly because it boosts cold skill damage by up to 15%. If you put a Rainbow Facet: Cold jewel inside, your Freezing Arrow will deal significant amounts of damage guaranteed!

Body Armor

The Ice Bowazon is an incredible build damage-wise, but it is definitely mana-intensive. This is even more pronounced when you do not allocate points to Strafe for mana leech. Luckily, there are plenty of D2R Ladder items that are capable of sorting out any mana issues you may have.

At level 17, you can have your Frostmaiden wear body armor with the Stealth runeword on it. This provides some handy stats for this character, including 15% mana regeneration, 25% FRW, and 25% FHR. And oh, it has a Faster Cast Rate too!

The next logical upgrade to the Ice Bowazon’s armor is Peace. By inserting the Shael, Thul, and Amn runes into a suitable armor base, you acquire an item that provides +2 to Amazon skills, +2 to Critical Strike, and a hefty cold resistance boost, which comes in handy if you use Cold Rupture at some point.

Although this runeword is bereft of defensive attributes, it makes up for it by allowing you to summon a relatively sturdy Valkyrie ally to take damage for you.

Farm The Countess in Act 1 Nightmare Difficulty until you get the runes necessary to complete the Peace runeword.

You are going to use Peace for a considerably long time because the next two body armors are quite expensive. Chains of Honor has all of the nice bonuses that you could ever want on an endgame character in Diablo II: Resurrected.

It has good damage mods, such as increased damage to demons and undead, as well as +2 to all skills. On the defensive side of things, it contains 65% all-resists, an 8% damage reduction, and a 70% Enhanced Defense!

Chains of Honor requires some expensive runes like Ber and Ist but it is very much worth it for the price! To save yourself from allocating too many points on strength, choose a 4os Dusk Shroud for this one (4os means “4 open sockets”).

Now, if you are quite bothered about the Ice Bowazon’s low health pool, you might want to get Enigma. This not only increases your maximum life by 5%, but you also get some life after each kill.

Moreover, Enigma has that “15% damage taken goes to mana” modifier, which does aid in addressing the mana problem that this build is notoriously known for.

Weapon

The endgame weapon for the Ice Bowazon won’t be available until level 65. So, what are you going to use until then? Well, the Wizendraw is certainly up to the task!

Available at level 24, the Wizendraw has a bunch of bonuses that you definitely need on this particular Diablo II: Resurrected build. However, its main attraction is that it can reduce the enemy’s resistance to cold damage by up to 35%!

In addition, this unique Long Battle Bow raises your mana pool by a considerable amount. This is thanks to its flat 30 mana and 15 additional points to Energy.

If we were to ask you where this D2R build got its name, what would your answer be? Well, that is from the aptly named Ice runeword, of course! This amazing runeword has all of the things that you can ever want to improve the damage output of the Ice Bowazon!

First of all, Ice has that rare combination of +30% to cold skill damage and -20% to enemy cold resistance. These two already give so much power that we could end our discussion here. However, these are not the only noteworthy mods on this thing.

Whenever you hit enemies with Freezing Arrow, you also have a chance of casting a devastating level 23 Frost Nova. This provides the added benefit of slowing enemies down while you’re attacking from range.

Now, Freezing Arrow is best utilized against huge packs of monsters. To round them up without getting hit, Ice grants a level 18 Holy Freeze aura when equipped, which effectively chills enemies, reducing their movement speed in the process.

As to which bow base you are going to use, we recommend a Matriarchal Bow that has +3 to bow/crossbow skills. This is because the bonuses that are already on the item will still be there even when transformed into a runeword in D2R.

Weapon Swap

• Call to Arms: Only for using Battle Command and Battle Orders. Use a Flail for the base so that you only need 41 STR for this.

Shield Swap

• Lidless Wall: While Spirit is often paired with Call to Arms for the sake of buffing your D2R character, it requires at least 156 STR for a Monarch Shield (w/ 4os). To save some attribute points, the Lidless Wall is a great alternative due to its +1 to skills and a few bonuses to mana.

Gloves

A pair of gloves that have a 20% IAS is recommended if you want to maximize the Frostmaiden’s damage output. Sander’s Taboo, part of the Sander’s Folly set, provides the attack speed bonus that you crave. Besides that, it increases your health by 40 points, which is substantial at the early stages of the game.

The ideal gloves for the Ice Bowazon, however, are those that have +2 to bow skills, mana leech, and some resistances, in addition to the 20% IAS. You could try crafting these yourself but you can head to our D2R store to get it immediately.

Boots

“Mana on kill” is quite a useful bonus for the Ice Bowazon because it helps sustain mana while casting her most damaging skill. Having said that, the Silkweave has a couple of mana modifiers that work great for this particular build.

Aside from mana on kill, wearing the Silkweave increases your maximum mana by 10%. This effect is much better the more points you allocate to Energy.

Aldur’s Advance only has one bonus related to mana, but its other stats make it an incredible option for the Ice Bowazon as well. The boots’ 40% FRW ensures that no enemy can catch up to her while kiting.

Moreover, the 50 points bonus to life and up to 50% fire resistance that these boots provide help immensely when you’re playing Diablo II: Resurrected in Hell Difficulty.

If mana continues to be a problem in the mid-game, then the only way to address that is by wearing boots with a trifecta of mana bonuses. They should also come with FRW, but the other stats can be anything that you need.

Amulet

With only a small amount of points left for VIT, any item that grants bonus attributes is definitely welcome on the Ice Bowazon build. Mara’s Kaleidoscope is amazing when it comes to this because aside from providing you with a five-point increase to all attributes, it grants +2 to skills and up to 30% all-resists as well.

While most Ice Bowazons take the Highlord’s Wrath for that +1 to all skills bonus, The Cat’s Eye is a better choice in our opinion. This is because this unique amulet increases your movement speed by 30%, not to mention that it also bolsters your defense against melee and ranged attacks. And oh, you’re not really missing out because The Cat’s Eye also has a 20% IAS!

Rings

Other D2R builds might wear the Raven Frost only for its “Cannot Be Frozen” modifier, but it serves more than one purpose for the Ice Bowazon!

It adds cold damage on top of Freezing Arrow’s damage, making it hit harder with each projectile. Furthermore, this ring increases the freeze duration of enemies that are hit by FA, ensuring that they have no chance of getting to you even at higher difficulty levels!

The +20 DEX that this ring gives you helps you reallocate your points to your other attributes, such as vitality or energy. So really, the Raven Frost is an incredible investment if you are going to play the Ice Bowazon build in Diablo II: Resurrected Season 9!

The Stone of Jordan is popular for raising the level of your skills by one. But, you’re actually wearing this ring primarily for its 25% increase in maximum mana (IMM). This particular modifier is global, by the way, which means that it is factored in after calculating the flat mana boosts from your other items and skills! In other words, if your base mana is already very high, it gets exponentially bigger with IMM!

Belt

Although Wisdom is an incredible Diablo II: Resurrected runeword that you can use as early as level 45, it is eventually replaced with much better options later down the line. As mentioned earlier, Wisdom was particularly useful because of its additional pierce chance. Don’t worry, there is a substitute for that on the belt slot in the form of the Razortail.

The Razortail is actually the best-in-slot belt for the Lightning Fury Javazon, but that is the case for the Ice Bowazon as well. Besides its pierce bonus, this belt provides excellent defensive bonuses in ED and thorns damage, causing your enemies to think twice before hitting you!

Charms

• Hellfire Torch: +3 to Amazon Skills, 20% all-resists, and +20 attributes
• Annihilus: +20 to attributes/skills, +1 to all skills
• Gheed’s Fortune: 40% Magic Find (MF)
• Small Charms: Added cold damage, resistances, FRW, or life
• Grand Charms: +1 to Bow/Crossbow skills and life

Mercenary

Tired of spamming Mana Potions just to keep up with the insane attack speed and damage of the Ice Bowazon? If so, you want to equip your Act 2 Mercenary with the Insight runeword, which is popular for granting the Meditation Aura.

Because the runeword is cheap, you might want to roll several Insights until you achieve the level 17 Meditation Aura. At this level, the said aura boosts your mana regeneration rate by a whopping 700%!

Since Insight is devoid of any life leech to sustain your Mercenary, it should be paired with Andariel’s Visage. Insert an IAS jewel so that your Desert Hireling attacks like a madman. But on a more serious note, this is to ensure that he receives health (through life leech) fast enough to survive in Hell.

Here is the ideal gear for the Ice Bowazon mercenary:

• Weapon: Insight
• Body Armor: Fortitude
• Helmet: Andariel’s Visage (w/ 20% IAS)

Tips and Strategies

• Invest in Mana Modifiers: The D2R Ice Bowazon is a pretty mana-intensive build, so much so that it’s a chore to sustain the said resource at higher levels. Since elemental damage cannot leech mana in Diablo II: Resurrected, you are better off investing in items that grant mana on kill or passive mana regeneration.
• Get Plenty of Cold Damage Charms: Once you have your main gear sorted out, spend some currency to purchase small charms that give added cold damage. This not only makes Freezing Arrow hurt more, but it also lengthens the freeze duration of the said skill (as explained earlier in the build guide).
• Swap Insight for Infinity: When you have invested in items that increase mana and improve mana regeneration rate, then the Meditation Aura provided by Insight will be of no use to you. If you no longer have mana sustain woes, then replace Insight with Infinity for more damage (via Conviction Aura).
• Movement Speed is Crucial to Your Survival: While Freezing Arrow itself keeps enemies from attacking you, what about the monsters that are not hit by the cold damage projectile? That is why you also need movement speed bonuses on this build because FRW allows you to run faster when needed.
• Equip M’Avina’s Battle Hymn Early On: If you have a good number of D2R runes at your disposal, you could wear the full M’Avina’s set as an alternative to the individual items we’ve recommended earlier. When you have the set items equipped, you can enjoy a 40% increased attack speed, 188% Enhanced Damage, 377 Magic Damage, +2 to bow/crossbow skills, and a chance to cast a level 15 Nova on hit.

Final Thoughts

The ability to freeze enemies with every hit is the dream of many D2R builds, and if that is what you want to achieve, then the Ice Bowazon is the right one for you!

Although she does not have a high health pool, the Frostmaiden barely gets hit once she is equipped with the endgame weapon, the Ice Matriarchal Bow.

Take note that this is a rather mana-intensive build. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to address that. Just bookmark this guide for future reference if you are struggling to sustain mana at any point during your D2R journey.

With that said, are you convinced to play the Ice Bowazon in Diablo II: Resurrected Season 9? If so, please tell us why you want to play this particular build.

In the meantime, you can head to our D2R Store if you need help with any items during the current ladder season!