Freezing Arrow Amazon Guide
Last Updated:February 12, 2025|Changelog
The Freezing Arrow Amazon primarily focuses on dealing Cold Damage and, well, "Freezing" them, which is fantastic for Crowd Control. This build is great for dense areas and very satisfying with its Ice Explosions.
This build also has multiple damage types, which is great against Immunes and different tactical situations. Think of this build like an elemental spell caster with Fire and Cold Damage types. The Standard Variant shown on the right uses Immolation Arrow and Exploding Arrow for Fire Damage in addition to the Freezing Arrow Skill.
As an extra layer of safety, we can even cast Decoy and Valkyrie to take some heat off of us while moving.
The new Seasonal Runeword Hustle has opened the door for MASSIVE min-maxing potential on Freezing Arrow! See the Variant and Playstyle sections to learn how to incorporate it into your gear.
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 75 before transitioning to it. Check out our Amazon Leveling Guide and our General Leveling Strategies to reach Level 75.
Beginner Friendly ✔
Relaxed Gameplay ✔
Fast Paced Playstyle ✔
Lots Of Crowd Control ✔
Multiple Damage Types ✔
❌ Low Mobility
❌ Relatively Squishy
❌ Gear Can Be Hard To Get
❌ Heavy Mana Dependency
❌ Bad In Open Low Density Areas
Sunder Charm Setup
Patch 2.5 introduces a new way of breaking Immunities: Sunder Charms. Any enemy that would be Immune to your damage type is instead reduced to 95% Resistance, before any other Resistance reductions apply. (e.g. Conviction, Lower Resist) The Charm also reduces YOUR Resistance against the sundered damage type! Check out our post on Sunder Charms to learn more about these new Charms. The following setup uses Cold Rupture, allowing you to farm anywhere you want.
Gear Changes
To optimize Freezing Arrow Bowazon with the Sunder Charm we need as much -% Enemy Cold Resistance as possible. Equip Nightwing's Veil and Ice Matriarchal Bow.
Counteract the negative effect of Cold Rupture with Sapphire Small Charm of Vita and Cruel Claw.
Terror Zones
The new Terror Zone mechanic combined with Sunder Charms open up a wide range of farmable areas. The following list highlights the best and worst Terror Zones for this build on the Starter or Budget setup. With the Sunder Charm Setup, more Terror Zones become accessible. Learn more about Terror Zones here and see how they stack up in our Terror Zone Tier List.
Best
✔ The Secret Cow Level - High Density, No Immunities
✔ Travincal - Quick Access, Council Members ONLY
✔ Nihlathak's Temple ONLY - Quick Access, Pindleskin
✔ Tristram - Many Elite Groups, Quick Access
✔ Stony Tomb - High Density, Many Elite Groups
Worst
❌ Pit - Immunities, High Physical Damage
❌ Claw Viper Temple - Immunities, High Physical Damage, Slow Access
❌ Act 2 Sewers - Trash Mobility, Immunities
❌ Frigid Highlands - Low Density, Immunities
❌ Crystalline Passage + Frozen River - Immunities, High Physical Damage, High Elemental Damage
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. dodge
2. evade
3. avoid
4. valkyrie
5. Strafe (To proc Hustle)
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. pierce (Until 69%)
2. freezingarrow
3. coldarrow
4. immolationarrow
5. explodingarrow
6. firearrow
Freezing Arrow* is your main Damage Skill. The Skill shoots an arrow in the direction you are aiming. It deals Cold Damage and applies a Freezing/Chilling effect for a duration to anything it either hits directly or is in range of the arrow's explosion. This Skill does not require Attack Rating to hit targets and Freeze them.
Immolation Arrow* is a backup Damage Skill that deals Fire Damage. This Skill can pierce targets and leaves an AOE Fire on the first target you hit.
Exploding Arrow* is a backup Damage Skill that deals Fire Damage. This Skill pierces targets and explodes on each target it hits, dealing AOE.
* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)
strafe*: Fires multiple arrows that auto-target at different monsters within range. This is used specifically to proc Hustle's burstofspeed buff, gaining us a massive amount of Skill Increased Attack Speed and Skill Faster Run/Walk. This buff is required to maintain the fastest possible IAS Breakpoint with the Standard setup.
Pierce* is a very important Skill for this build. It allows your Projectile (Arrows/Javelins) to pass through your enemies allowing you to not only deal damage to your first impacted target, but also the ones behind them.
Dodge*, Avoid*, and Evade* passively grant you a chance to dodge enemy attacks in the situations mentioned in the Skill. A dodged attack is negated completely.
Decoy* spawns a duplicate of yourself on the area you target drawing the enemy's attention to it.
Valkyrie* also can be used like a Decoy but she acts similar to a Mercenary as it follows you and attacks monsters.
enchant*: increases the target's Attack Rating by a large amount and adds a small amount of Fire Damage. This buff last for over 11 minutes when cast from demonlimb. This AR is pivotal to maximize your Chance to Hit.
* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)
* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS
Attributes
Note: This section provides you with the standard Stat Point allocation. Build Variants can require a different allocation!
Strength
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Strength your gear provides when equipped.
Dexterity
Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Dexterity your gear provides when equipped.
Vitality
Allocate any remaining Stat Points into Vitality after meeting Strength, Dexterity and Energy requirements.
Energy
Allocate an appropriate amount of Stat Points into Energy for your Mana costs. You don't gain much Mana from your gear, and your Skills require a lot of Mana.
Essentials
While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.
Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.
Gear/Base Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) M'avina's Battle Hymn makes a great setup for Hybrid Cold and Fire damage when using the full set together.
| Slot | Item Options | Desirable Stats |
| Weapon | Ice Matriarchal Bow Faith Matriarchal Bow Mist Matriarchal Bow Melody Harmony Stag Bow Wizendraw M'avina's Caster1 Insight Stag Bow | +x to All Skills +x to Bow and Crossbow Skills [Amazon Only] +x to Amazon Skills +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Piercing Attack +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit +x% to Cold Skill Damage -x% to Enemy Cold Resistance +x to Attribute All Resistances +x |
| Off-Hand | Arrows | Quantity: x of x |
| Weapon-Swap | Call to Arms Hustle Demon Limb Lower Resist Charge Wand Staff of Teleportation | +x to All Skills +x% Faster Cast Rate +x to Battle Orders +x to Battle Command +x to Battle Cry +x to Teleport +x Mana All Resistances +x Level x Lower Resist [x/x Charges] |
| Off-Hand-Swap | Spirit Lidless Wall Ancients' Pledge | +x to All Skills +x% Faster Cast Rate +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x to Attribute +x Life +x Mana X Resist +x% |
| Helmets | Pain Visor Diadem Valkyrie Wing Nightwing's Veil Andariel's Visage Kira's Guardian M'avina's True Sight1 Lore Wisdom Shako | +x to All Skills +x to Amazon Skills +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Faster Cast Rate +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Piercing Attack -x% to Enemy Cold Resistance +x% to Cold Skill Damage +x to Attribute +x Life +x Mana X Resist x% Cannot Be Frozen +x to Mana after each Kill x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Body Armor | Enigma Chains of Honor Duriel's Shell Treachery Peace Smoke Stealth M'avina's Embrace1 | +x to All Skills +x to Amazon Skills +x% Faster Run Walk +x% Increased Attack Speed +x to Teleport +x to Attribute +x Life X Resist x% Damage Reduced by x% +x to Life after each Kill x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Gloves | Hit Power Crafted Gloves Archer's Gloves of Alacrity M'avina's Icy Clutch1 Sander's Taboo Magnus' Skin Coral Gloves of Alacrity | +x to Bow and Crossbow Skills [Amazon Only] +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute +x Life +x Mana X Resist x% x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Belts | Razortail Arachnid Mesh Nosferatu's Coil Goldwrap Battle Belt Credendum M'avina's Tenet1 Death's Guard Demonhide Sash Garnet Belt of the Whale | +x to All Skills +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Piercing Attack +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute X Resist x% +x to Mana after each Kill x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Boots | War Traveler Silkweave Aldur's Advance Natalya's Soul Rare Boots Garnet Boots of Acceleration Sander's Riprap | +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x to Attribute +x Life +x Mana X Resist x% +x to Mana after each Kill x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Amulets | Highlord's Wrath Caster Crafted Amulet Mara's Kaleidoscope The Cat's Eye Blood Crafted Amulet Fortuitous Amulet of Luck Chromatic Amulet | +x to All Skills +x to Amazon Skills +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute +x Life +x Mana X Resist x% x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Rings | Raven Frost The Stone of Jordan Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band Nagelring Rare Ring Fortuitous Ring of Fortune Triumphant Ring of the Mammoth | +x to All Skills +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute +x Mana Increased Maximum Mana x% +x Life X Resist x% Cannot Be Frozen +x to Mana after each Kill x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Charms | Grand Charm Large Charm Small Charm | +x to Bow and Crossbow Skills [Amazon Only] +x% Faster Run/Walk +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x Life +x Mana X Resist x% x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Unique Charms | Annihilus Hellfire Torch Gheed's Fortune Cold Rupture | Monster Cold Immunity Is Sundered +x to All Skills +x to Amazon Skills +x to All Attributes All Resistances +x +x% to Experience Gained x% Extra Gold from Monsters x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Reduces all Vendor Prices x% |
The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to immunities or bad layouts. These areas are strong without a Sunder Charm.
Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Variant.
Act 1
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Mausoleum | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| The Countess | - | Runes Key of Terror | ||
| The Pit | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Andariel | ✔ | Uniques Sets Jewelry | ||
| The Secret Cow Level | ✔ | Runes Runeword Bases Charms / Gems / Jewels | ||
Act 2
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Stony Tomb | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Ancient Tunnels | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Maggot Lair | - | All Item Types Max Area Level | ||
Act 3
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Arachnid Lair | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level | ||
| Travincal | - | Gearing Runes Charms / Gems / Jewels Gold | ||
Act 4
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| River of Flame | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Chaos Sanctuary | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Diablo | - | Uniques Sets Leveling (Level 97-99) | ||
Act 5
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Pindleskin | ✔ | Gearing Gold Leveling | ||
| Nihlathak | ✔ | Key of Destruction Leveling (Level 97-99) | ||
| Worldstone Keep / Throne of Destruction | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Baal / Waves | - | Uniques Sets Max Area Level Leveling (Baal for Level 97-99) | ||
Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.
Act 2 Desert Mercenary
The Act 2 Desert Mercenary is hired from Greiz. He can be equipped with a Spear or a Polearm, a Body Armor and a Helmet.
Every Act 2 Mercenary has access to an Aura and uses Jab as his base Attack. The Aura activates once the Mercenary has engaged in combat and remains active between traveling to and from town. The Auras available are based on what difficulty you hire the Mercenary from.
Infinity, Might
Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to deal with enemies that are immune to your main damage source. Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances and Defense with Conviction Aura, drastically boosting damage.
Gear Progression
| Slot | Early-Game | Mid-Game | End-Game |
| Weapon | Insight | Insight | Infinity |
| Body Armor | Smoke Lionheart Skin of the Flayed One Rockfleece | Treachery Duress Shaftstop Duriel's Shell Guardian Angel | Fortitude Treachery Chains of Honor |
| Helmet | Bulwark Undead Crown The Face of Horror Gemmed Mask Temper | Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Guillaume's Face Vampire Gaze Crown of Thieves Stealskull Kira's Guardian Rockstopper | Andariel's Visage Flickering Flame |
The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.
If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.
General
- Use Freezing Arrow to Freeze and kill monsters with icy attacks. This is fantastic for dense areas.
- Before infinity, use an Insight on your Mercenary to reduce Mana problems. Silkweave also greatly help reduce the use of Mana Potions. Freezing Arrow is a very Mana intensive Skill.
- Kite enemies to group up behind each other. With 100% Chance to Pierce you can get Freezing Arrow's procs on each target it hits, dealing massive AOE-damage.
- Always keep a distance and use Valkyrie or Decoy in dangerous situations. This build is generally squishy and can either get stuck in Faster Hit Recovery or just die when your allies are not around to tank for you.
Immunities
- Use Immolation Arrow and or Exploding Arrow to fight against Cold Immunes or single target monsters if needed.
- Use Lower Resist against Cold Resistant or Cold Immune monsters to bring down their Resistance in the early stages. In most cases you can’t break their Immunity because of their high Resistances.
- Cold Rupture breaks ALL Cold Immune monsters and brings them to 95% resistance. Pair this with as much -% Enemy Cold Resistance as possible.
Late-Game
- MIN-MAX PREBUFF STRATS: Equip Hustle to proc burstofspeed using strafe on your way to your farming area and every 2 minutes while in it.
- If not min-maxing, cast battlecommand and then battleorders at the beginning of your farming session and whenever the buffs run out.
- Swap to demonlimb and cast enchant on yourself. This increases our ability to Pierce against Bosses/Elites as well as increasing immolationarrow's damage.
- A Mercenary using Infinity Giant Thresher for Conviction can help you break some Immunities and deal more Fire or Cold Damage.
- Teleport provided by either Enigma or a Staff of Teleportation allowing you to move from place to place, reposition yourself, and reposition your Mercenary and Valkyrie.
Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.
Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
Increased Attack Speed speeds up your attack animations. Weapon bases have different IAS breakpoints. Values for recommended weapon options provided below. Consult the d2planner for other bases.
Faith Matriarchal Bow
| Frames | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| Freezing Arrow Gear IAS | 0 | 8 | 22 | 42 | 60 | 75 | 142 |
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)
Faster Hit Recovery is not required for survivability in this build, but early breakpoints can be utilized.
| Frames | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| FHR | 0 | 6 | 13 | 20 | 32 | 52 | 86 | 174 | 600 |
For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary concern is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.
This build is Hardcore viable. If you are unaccustomed to this playstyle, we recommend trying this build on Softcore to gain experience on how to successfully pilot it.
Build Variants
Setup
Freezing Arrow Amazon aims to get as many + to Skills to increase our Cold Damage from freezing arrow. Then your prioritization is Increased Attack Speed from Hustle on swap and mobility from Harmony Stag Bow's Vigor[/d2planner-skill' Aura. The Charms in the inventory are representative of options for increasing survivability and damage output. Remember that Attack Rating is important to allow our arrows to Pierce the targets and maximize the explosions per attack.
Mercenary
Equip your Mercenary with a Body Armor and Helmet that provides Resistances and Life. [d2planner-item]Insight[/d2planner-item] is an easy Runeword to make that gives a great amount of damage and Quality of Life with [d2planner-skill]Meditation. Hire the Might Aura Mercenary for extra damage on the field.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. dodge
2. evade
3. avoid
4. valkyrie
5. Strafe
(To proc Hustle)
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. pierce (Until 69%)
2. freezingarrow
3. coldarrow
4. penetrate
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Setup
Freezing Arrow Amazon focuses on +x% to Cold Skill Damage, -x% to Enemy Cold Resistance, and Bow Skills for more damage. We aim to hit 75% Increased Attack Speed in total with a Faith Matriarchal Bow and Hustle prebuff. One of the most important stats for this build is +x to Mana after each Kill with the heavy Mana cost of FreezingArrow. Use Cold Rupture Grand Charm instead of Fletcher's Grand Charm of Vita to farm Terror Zones with Cold Immunes.
Mercenary
Hire a Might Aura Mercenary for extra damage against Single Target and Cold Immunes. Infinity Giant Thresher pierces Resistances and even breaks some Cold Immunities. Andariel's Visage, and Fortitude provide the remaining damage and survivability needed.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. dodge
2. evade
3. avoid
4. valkyrie
5. Strafe
(To proc hustle)
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. pierce (Until 69%)
2. freezingarrow
3. coldarrow
4. immolationarrow
5. explodingarrow
6. firearrow
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put 124 Stats Points into Energy and the remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Setup
The Set Variant is fairly cheap, well-rounded, and also even makes your character glow! SHINY! Items and stats of interest include: Cannot be Frozen from Raven Frost, a great amount of damage with Fletcher's Grand Charm of Vita. Cold Rupture instead of Fletcher's Grand Charm of Vita to enable farming in Terror Zones. Swap to Hustle and use Strafe to prebuff during farming sessions for mobility and a faster attack frame.
Mercenary
Hire a Might Aura Mercenary for extra damage against Single Target and Cold Immunes. Infinity Giant Thresher pierces Resistances and even breaks some Cold Immunities. Andariel's Visage, and Fortitude provide the remaining damage and survivability needed.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. dodge
2. evade
3. avoid
4. valkyrie
5. Strafe
(To proc hustle)
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. pierce (Until 69%)
2. freezingarrow
3. coldarrow
4. immolationarrow
5. explodingarrow
6. firearrow
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put 98 Stats Points into Energy and the remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Summary
- Enough Strength and Dexterity to wear gear and put 100+ into Energy with the remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
- Keep your distance during combat and pay attention to the enemy’s positioning, movements, and Auras.
- Utilize the combination of Freezing Arrow and pierce by stacking up large groups of enemies before attacking. This strategy increases your damage output drastically!
- Use ImmolationArrow, Exploding Arrow, and your Mercenary against Cold Immunes.
- Use Valkyrie or Decoy in dangerous situations.
- Keep your Battle Command, Battle Orders and Valkyrie up at all times.
- Insight Scythe Mercenary solves your Mana problems in the early stages of your progression.
- Have fun!
I hope you enjoy this build! This is one of my favorites because of satisfying icy explosions and turning enemies into ice cubes. This is a very chill build and visually rewarding. Happy hunting!
Good luck!
Credits
Rewritten and Updated by MacroBioBoi
Originally Written by BTNeandertha1
Reviewed by Teo1904