[1.2] Tanky freeze pulser with possible dual curse, instant leech option, atziri capable, hc viable

Main skill:
Freezing pulse (you really want quality for projectile speed) -> Empower/life leech -> greater/lesser multiple projectiles -> spell echo -> faster casting -> added cold damage/cold penetration

Curses:
Ice nova/ball lightning -> curse on hit -> elemental weakness/warlord's mark -> frostbite

Auras and stuff:
Reduced mana -> purity of lightning -> tempest shield
Reduced mana -> clarity -> herald of ice -> purity of fire/discipline
Empower -> arctic armour -> lightning warp -> reduced duration

With doryani's catalyst (still experimenting):
Cast when stunned -> cold snap -> life leech
You could also do cast when damage taken -> enduring cry -> immortal call or manual cold snap.

I have 68% block and 75% spell block with 5200 hp, 2580 mana. I have 270 mana regen. My tooltip dps is currently at 10200 (multiply by 3 for a total of 30600) with lmp or 7300 (multiply by 5 for total of 36500) with gmp.

The main defenses in this build are going to be high block, lightning coil and arctic armour.

Why block and spell block?
Because you can't have as much overcapped resist anymore so I think the best spell mitigation is now spell block.


These 2 items are must have for spell block.

Reflect and why no purity of ice?
Because at 75% spell block you will barely feel reflect anyways. The good thing with freeze pulse is that you do less damage at range, so you can use this to take on a very large pack.

Why lightning coil?
While you can't have as much resist as before, I still feel it is a solid choice. With 79% lightning resist, you mitigate 31.6% of physical damage. You can use granite + topaz flask for some nice physical damage mitigation. I'd suggest using a topaz with dispels shocked. My build only require 3 blue sockets which is reasonably doable with this item.

Why no crit for 1 gazillion dps?
Because it is too hard to remain tanky with high block and hp.

Lesser vs greater multiple projectiles
I am still uncertain which one is the best but I will list my observations.

Lesser multiple projectiles:
- Less dps on paper.
- Fewer projectiles means less vulnerable to corrupted blood.
- Tend to be better at range.
- Cost less mana. I use it in half regen maps.
- Might be better for life leech? Higher hits mean more leech per hits.

Greater multiple projectiles:
- Higher dps on paper.
- More vulnerable to corrupted blood.
- Higher mana cost.
- Better aoe coverage.
- Projectiles on the far right and left tend to miss targets. I am uncertain if they actually hit my target even when I'm right next to it. In theory it should do more dps on a single target at close range.

Added cold damage, cold penetration, added lightning damage
I use added cold damage over lightning because I want cold damage, since I leech off cold damage. Added cold also provide a chance to freeze with quality which is nice. I use it over cold penetration because I use double curses. Most of the time, monster's resistance are already crushed. I uses empower over added lightning also because I want more cold damage and having a red slot is useful and easier to get on a lightning coil.

Flexibility
The build has some options:
- For a really high level, late 90, I would take the flask nodes in the witch area.
- You can use ice spear or arctic breath with the same supports if you want to do good damage at distance.
- You can swap empower for life leech for more leech or blood magic to do no regen maps. You can use item quantity if you are playing in a permanent league.
- You can swap added cold damage for cold penetration to do curse immune maps.
- You can drop dex nodes if you have nice gear with dex on it.

Empower
I haven't tested with a level 21 freezing pulse and a level 4 empower, because I don't own them, but I'm pretty sure it would beat any other support.

Dual curse

This build can make full use if this item. It is a very cheap and common unique, so you can corrupt them until you get the additional curse mod.

Atziri items
The belt and the sceptre are really nice but not required. You can use life leech instead of empower or added cold damage.

Stuns
As you can see, this build doesn't have stun immunity. You will have to expect to get stunned. This is why I am using cast when stunned gem.

Leveling
I am not going to make a complete leveling guide, but I will simply say that you can use freezing pulse all throughout the game. You should focus on getting hp, mana and mana regen first. You want enough hp not to get one shot and enough mana to sustain your casting. Block is less important while leveling. You will not be very tanky until mid 80, where you start getting block nodes, so you will have to play careful until then.

Auras
At the moment I am able to run a level 21 arctic armour without discipline. I can run purity of fire instead. If mana regen is a problem, you will need to run discipline and then I don't think you can run with tempest shield. You will want some nice ES gear with hp and resists for mana. With masters, you can get some additional mana by adding ES.

Vaal pact version
I have been experimenting with it and I like it so far. With this version, you can use warlord's mark and life leech gem for some insane life leech. Warlord's mark has been changed so that the leech apply to all damage on hit. I have calculated with my current build that I leech about 2300 hp per second and I'm still doing about 6700 gmp tooltip dps. I much prefer this build for doing Atziri. For most of the content you will be fine using only life leech gem or warlord's mark.