Diablo II: Frost Maiden Skill Layout

A Frost Maiden is a ranged Amazon fighter that uses Freezing Arrow to vanquish her enemies. The skill setup is as follows:

Critical Strike - 1
Inner Sight - 1
Dodge - 1
Cold Arrow - 1

At level six Cold Arrow becomes available. It will have to be used sparingly as the mana cold is fairly high. However monsters at this point can still be dealt with by using starting gear, or anything picked up along the way. Bosses are the only monsters that require skills to be utilized.

Cold Arrow - 7
Avoid - 1
Slow Missile - 1

At level twelve Cold Arrow has become much more deadly and while it is still used sparingly, makes short work of any monsters it is used on.

Cold Arrow - 11
Ice Arrow - 1
Penetrate - 1

At level eighteen Ice Arrow becomes available. Only one point will be placed in this skill. While it is a synergy of our eventual final skill Freezing Arrow, it only gives a bonus to the cold length of the skill. Since length is nerfed in Hell it is a waste of skill points to use Ice Arrow for that function, instead charms and +cold items are obtained (Ravenfrost) as each separate item adds to the cold length time. However even with one point, Ice Arrow is extremely useful in Normal to freeze monsters in their tracks so they can be dealt with easily.

Cold Arrow - 16
Evade - 1
Decoy - 1

At level twenty-four Cold Arrow has become the weapon of choice to deal with any monsters, so mana is an issue that needs to be managed constantly.

Cold Arrow - 19
Freezing Arrow - 1
Pierce - 1
Valkyrie - 1

At level thirty all of the main skills become available. Freezing Arrow replaces Cold Arrow as the skill of choice due to it's splash damage. The Valkyrie provides an excellent, resummonable tank to keep monsters away from the player character and Pierce provides the opportunity for Freezing Arrow's damage to multiply against packs.

Cold Arrow - 20
Freezing Arrow - 20

By level forty-seven the damage of Freezing Arrow has been maximized and the player is cruising through each level. Mana management is a constant concern however so FA cannot be used against all targets and a regular attack must be used, along with allowing the mercenary and valkyrie to deal with many of the monsters while they are frozen by FA.

Valkyrie - 20

At level sixty-five the valkyrie is maximized and provides the most durable tank possible in the game. This takes much of the heat off of the mercenary and allows him/her to require far less resurrections. Also at this point the character is completed with her main skills. Now it is time to choose a backup skill.

There are two options, Magic Arrow or Immolation Arrow. Magic Arrow requires an additional 19 points and is completed at level seventy-nine, while Immolation Arrow requires an additional 21 points and is completed at level eighty-one. Each has it's desired points, however I suggest Magic Arrow as the better backup skill. When maximized MA requires zero mana and also does not use a physical arrow, so it can be fired indefinitely. This comes in very handy when mana has been drained or when an arrow supply is limited, such as the Ancients battles.

Items with plus skills are extremely helpful due to the scaling factor of the cold skills and the need to increase some of the utility skills that receive only one hard skill point, such as Pierce. A high damage bow is a necessity to allow MA to be a viable backup skill, otherwise the player will be relying heavily on the mercenary and valkyrie to deal with all cold immune monsters.