Max Ice PVP Guide (Level 140)
In the current meta, Max Ice PVP is definitely the strongest out of all other schools due to its high health, high resist, and high damage cards. If you’re first starting out PVP and you’re not sure which school to choose, Ice is definitely a great beginner school PVP. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best gear and card set ups for Cosmic Ice PVP.
Best Gear for Max Ice PVP
Although there is no “best ice pvp strategy” since everyone’s play style is different, I will walk through the most common gear set up I have seen in the arena that have gotten wizards to Warlord.
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If you follow this guide, you should end up with stats like this:
Key Stats Here:
- 107% damage (Medium-high damage for an ice wizard)
- 76% resist (Insane resist!!)
- 95% pip chance
- 109 Shadow Pip Rating (chances are you’ll have a lower shadow pip rating than your opponents but your resist will help you tank their hits)
- 20% accuracy (Probably the worst aspect of Ice right now. You’ll have a 5% chance of fizzling your shadow spells)
Best Hats for Ice
Out of the 2 highest rated gear in the game, we highly recommend the Krokopatra Blizzard Fez (and it’s easier to farm for too). With the Krok hat, you’re getting 15% more resist in exchange for damage, accuracy, and shadow rating. Without the extra 15% resist though, you’re very susceptible to getting one shot by a storm or a fire with high pierce.
Where to get gear
You can get the Krokopatra Blizzard Fez by completing the Krokopatra Exalted Duel. These duels are dropped from new world bosses or can be purchased from the crowns shop.
An alternative to the Krokopatra Blizzard Fez is the Hood of the Cold Hearted from Darkmoor. You can get the Hood of the Cold Hearted from the Graveyard in Castle Darkmoor. Malistaire the Undying (the third boss of the graveyard) drops this hat.
You can get the Dragoons Hat by crafting it with alchemical extracts, salts, and crystals. The vanguard version is also droppable by King Detritus in the Abandoned Backyard. For more information, check out our Dragoons Farming guide.
Best Robes for Ice
The Dragoon’s Icy Armor is definitely a MUST HAVE for ice PVP players! You’ll become an absolute behemoth in the arena with this robe because of its insane health and resist.
The next best alternative if you do not have the Dragoon’s Icy Armor is the spooky carnival suit. This suit gives you the same amount of shad rating as the dragoon’s robe, 3% more accuracy, and 2% more resist. You’ll lose out on health and pips though.
The turquoise raiment is also a great alternative, however, you will be losing a substantial amount of shadow pip rating and critical block in exchange for that extra 15% in damage you’ll get.
Where to get gear
You can get the Dragoons robe by crafting it with alchemical extracts, salts, and crystals. The Vanguard version is also droppable by Greggors & General Greyflame in the Foetid Crypt. For more information, check out our Dragoons Farming guide.
You can get the Spooky Carnival Suit from the Spooky Carnival Bundle ($29). It’s currently retired but will come back during special events.
You can get the turquoise eagle’s raiment from the Skyvern’s Hoard Pack (399 crowns) in the crowns shop.
Best Boots for Ice
For boots, Dragoon’s Icy Boots is a MUST for max ice PVP and PVE. If you don’t have any dragoon gear yet, I highly recommend going for the boots first because it buffs your stats by so much and provides boot sharpen and potent cards.
As a next best alternative, you can use the Silent Knight’s Snowboots instead. It gives you less health, critical, damage, and resist, but is the gear that is the most similar to the dragoon boots in the game.
Where to get gear
You can get the Dragoons boots by crafting it with alchemical extracts, salts, and crystals. The Vanguard version is also droppable by Prince Viggor in Viggor’s Tomb.
You can get the Silent Knight’s Snowboots from the Winter Wonder Pack (299 crowns) in the crowns shop.
Best Wands for Ice
You have 2 choices for main wands to use. The first wand is the executive cryo meter – which gives more shadow rating and damage. However, if you would like to go for a more defensive strategy, you can use the Road Legend Skull – which gives more critical and block in exchange for damage. You also get an extra 3% resist from the cool rider set bonus if you pair this wand up with a cool rider pet; like the rude goblin.
An alternative to the cryo meter is the sky captain’s boarding hook. It doesn’t give as much shadow rating but it will match the executive meter’s damage.
Where to get gear
You can get the executive cryo meter from a number of different bosses in Karamelle but I got mine from The Quake Charmer in Sweetsburg.
The Road Legend Skull from the Road Warrior’s Hoard Pack for 399 crowns.
The Sky Captain’s Boarding Hook from the Iron Sultan’s Gauntlet or from the Sinbad’s Hoard Pack for 399 crowns.
Best Pets for Ice pvp
In the current meta, Pets are probably the most important “gear” for PVP right now and also the hardest to get! The good news is, you can customize your PVP pet with whichever stat suits your playstyle.
The most common max ice PVP pets are the enchanted armament and the rude goblin. The enchanted armament is a great way to get a sharpen blade card and has high pet stats (to add extra resist and damage to each pet ability). Moreover, the rude goblin is also a great pet because it gives the 3% set bonus from the Cool Rider’s set and also has high pet stats to give extra resist and damage.
I personally use a standard triple damage, proof, mighty pet with a 5% spell defy + may cast brace jewel. The mighty ability will increase strength which increases resist and damage.
If you don’t want to go for an extra 7% of damage, you can replace this ability with May Cast Sleet Storm. This increases your damage by 25% and increases accuracy by 5% (which will increase your shadow spell cast rate from 95% to 100%).
Best Amulets for Ice
The best amulet for Ice PVP in my opinion is the Uber Wonderneer Rope. I prefer this one over Dragoon’s Icy Charm because it gives additional resist and an extra square jewel socket. The only downside is that you lose the set bonus from the dragoon’s set (if you were using the dragoon’s helm). Your power pip chance goes from 105% to 95%.
Where to get gear
You can get the Uber Wonderneer Rope from The Quake Charmer in Sweetsburg or the Abberrant Paradox.
You can get the Dragoon’s Icy Amulet by crafting it with alchemical extracts, salts, and crystals. In addition, the Vanguard version is also droppable by Satharilith in Duomo.
Best Athames for Ice
I would recommend the Dragoon’s Icy Athame over the Uber Wonderneer Knife because you’ll lose the extra 3% damage and ice pip conversion rate without the dragoon athame (assuming you are using the wonderneer rope as an amulet). Pip conversion is extremely important for ice because most of your utility spells are odd pips (i.e. polar swarm – 3 pips, frostbite – 5pips, wintermoon – 5 pips, etc).
Where to get gear
You can get the Dragoon’s Icy Athame by crafting it with alchemical extracts, salts, and crystals. The Vanguard version is also droppable by Renegade Druid in Crannoc Dorcha.
You can get the Uber Wonderneer Knife from the Aberrant Paradox in Karamelle City (Final Boss).
Best Rings for Ice
There is only one ring recommended for high level PVP (lvl 100 and up) and that’s the Duelist’s Daredevil Ring (Level 100+). This ring is just such a great ring for health, pierce, damage, and pips – making it very difficult to top.
Where to get gear
You can get this ring from Brandon Mistborn in Unicorn Way for 5500 arena tickets.
Best Decks for Ice pvp
Decks don’t provide a huge amount of stats so your deck choice won’t impact your game too much. I currently use the Duelist’s Devil-May-Care deck for max ice PVP right now because it gives me a little bit extra in critical, critical block, and pip-conversion. Alternatively, you can use the Terror of carpathes cards or the Icy paradox deck if you value additional health over pip conversion.
Rank: Duelist’s Devil-May-Care Deck (1), Uber Sweetsmith Box (2) 
Where to get gear
The Duelist’s Devil-May-Care deck can be purchased from Brandon Mistborn in Unicorn Way for 9000 Arena Tickets.
The Terror of Carpathes Cards (Triangle) can be crafted. You can get the recipe from Harker in Castle Darkmoor.
You can get the Icy Paradox Deck from Arachna Magna Magus from Empyrea.
Ice PVP Deck setup
Max Ice PVP players typically have longer lasting games due to their ability to heal and their low damage output. As a result, a good deck set up involves packing many cards (sometimes even taking up the entire deck!)
The below shows an example of a life deck set up (but you should tailor it to your preference):
Key highlights of deck set up:
- Make sure your side deck packs a lot of utility cards (i.e. tower shields, coldiron, polar swarms, triage, etc). Balefrost and Polar Swarm TCs are the most important because they help you keep bubble control and takes off shields.
- As an ice, you’re likely to play more defensively so make sure to pack set shields or spirit/elemental shields in your main deck and side deck
- Pack as many ice blades as you can and a few solid hitting cards (i.e. Lord of Winter, Abominable Weaver, Shatterhorn)
Ice PVP Strategies
The above strategy is the strategy that worked the best for me. Some other strategies I’ve seen that worked for others are:
Frost Minotaur Strategy
This is mainly a low level PVP strategy so people rarely see the frost minotaur coming. You can pack pretty lightly and make sure you stack your blades to prepare for your hit. Make sure to have at least 3 pieces of gear from Dragoons to get the set bonus!
NOTE: this strategy can easily be stopped with a double shield but you can also counter it with shrike or pack shatters.
Ward Strategy
This is something that I have seen work but I don’t recommend it because it really takes the fun away from PVP. Nevertheless, if you’re really looking to get that Warlord badge, you can use this strategy. This essentially involves creating ward pets to stack your resist up against the heavy hitting schools (i.e. storm and fire) and spamming brace/fortify so your resist will be over 100%.
This is something that I have seen work but I don’t recommend it because it really takes the fun away from PVP. Nevertheless, if you’re really looking to get that Warlord badge, you can use this strategy. This essentially involves creating ward pets to stack your resist up against the heavy hitting schools (i.e. storm and fire) and spamming brace/fortify so your resist will be over 100%.
You’ll still have relatively high damage (about 93% to 100% damage) and you’ll have 91-92% base resist. Add along a couple of shields and a brace or fortify and you’ll basically be impenetrable.
Make sure you pack a few reshuffles in case you run out of cards. The trick is to pack defensively and slowly wear down your opponent.
Was this guide helpful? Let me know! What’s your opinion on Cosmic Ice PVP?
Other guides to check out:
PVP Guides
