[1.2.1] Crit Glacial Cascade Build - Cheap & Powerful - 1.3 passive tree added

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kompaniet wrote:

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monkeydave wrote:

Thanks. now if I could just figure out how to upgrade rest of my gear. I'm scared to go Cloak of Defiance because I've only got 2k mana, 700 after reserving Herald of Ice, Clarity and Purity of Ice.

2k is more than enough mana and purity of ice is not needed.

I went with cloak instead of carcass jack. With the cloak there is no problem with elemental reflect. That's a big plus. The downside is of course losing the 20% aoe bonus from carcass (if there is a choice between the two) I think cloak is superiour though. There is more than enough aoe without carcass.

Current items. Lvl 86.

Spoiler

11000 dps with 7 power charges up. 60% crit chance. 540% crit multiplier. Only running clarity + herald of ice + arctic armour. Don't bother with hatred if using the cloak. It only adds 500 damage or so. Use hatred if using carcass jack.

Using freeze totem to open even freezing boxes safely and smoke trap to add extra safety vs boxes with exiles that cause the screen to freeze for a second or two.

and your build ?
and is 11k max dps or does it go higher with everything calculated in

It's 14k+ now with 7 power charges. Got new jewelry and leveled up glacial cascade to lvl 19. It was 18 before. Also leveled up to 87.

Bought these rather cheap.


Found this right by corrupting a box.


Also found a new shield that increased dps a lot.


Build is almost exacly according to guide. I just started as a witch instead:


Soon i'm gonna do a rematch vs my worst enemy. The jungle valley boss. I'll be damned he he can kill me again. He is the only boss i haven't killed so far. I even did double torture chambers, pietys and what not. But that bastard and maybe the flicker spiders always killed me before i could kill them.

4000 life
2200 mana
Mind over matter
Arctic armour
240 mana regen (enough for lvl 20 arctic armour)
10k dps without power charges
14k dps with 7 power charges
75 elemental res
-40 chaos res

Sure it's always possible to increase dps. But i think i have found a sweet spot now. I don't really need much more dps at this point and time. I can do high lvl maps with enfeeble and kill everything fast enough and that is enough for me.

You can always add glass cannon uniques like maligaro gloves, rat nest helm, double crit wands and all that. But it comes at a cost. I prefer a more balanced charachter. Even added some rarity 40% + the iir gem via herald of ice. Every little bit helps.

I could add hatred or haste aura but i prefer a big mana pool instead when using the cloak in order to be able to soak up the big hits. Remember with the cloak mana is effective life too. It's important to have mana available to take hits.

Takes too many skill points to pick up the aura reservation skills so i think i am pretty much set as is now.

There are always people running those auras in multiplayer anyway and for solo play they are not worth it (with cloak)

so since I also use this build and kinda like it since its my first spellcaster :)


with charges up I got around 21.5K dps :) gotta upgrade pcoc soon & inc. crit dmg so far was doing max of 77 maps going to do 78 and try running atziri but dont know if I can get past 3 bosses if I can atziri is piece of cake :)

from some deadly achievments I solo´ed merveil in necropolis & that shitty fire hag in crematorium :P for tough staff I swap for saffells shield.Currently running PoI/HoI/clarity and once my artic armor is 20% gonna start using it till I can use it :) thinking about adding PoF or PoL but kinda running out of gem slots lol

Level 83. About 12k DPS with charges, 15k if I'm with my party. How do you guys manage without life leech? I am scared to switch it out for Increased Critical

My current gear:



Also, would love any advice on what gear to upgrade. I've got about 3 exalt sitting around.

I'm curious, is the Phys damage from Glacial Cascade enough to say Hatred is better than running Haste?
I just swapped out my lvl 7 Hatred(just started my char recently) for a lvl 1 Haste and it's basically the exact same tooltip dps increase. lvl 1 Haste takes me to 323, lvl 7 Hatred to 323.9.

It seems like Haste is better at the moment, but I'm not sure about at higher levels?

The movespeed + cast speed for Cold Snapping before moving onto Glacial Cascade does seem like it'd work well too.

Edit: After checking the skill gems, I noticed that you can only run a level 6(94) Haste with the dex requirement of a level 20 Hatred(95), but I still think if you can find the extra Dex on gear to get a higher level Haste while still capping resists/getting high crit chance etc that it might still be better overall, especially because of the movespeed.

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monkeydave wrote:

Level 83. About 12k DPS with charges, 15k if I'm with my party. How do you guys manage without life leech? I am scared to switch it out for Increased Critical

My current gear:

Spoiler

Also, would love any advice on what gear to upgrade. I've got about 3 exalt sitting around.

I use doryani belt for the 1% leech. It seems to be enough for me. Roll some surgeon flasks too. They are great in crit builds. I don't know what you should upgrade. It seems you have great equipment already.

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Scotteeh wrote:

I'm curious, is the Phys damage from Glacial Cascade enough to say Hatred is better than running Haste?
I just swapped out my lvl 7 Hatred(just started my char recently) for a lvl 1 Haste and it's basically the exact same tooltip dps increase. lvl 1 Haste takes me to 323, lvl 7 Hatred to 323.9.

It seems like Haste is better at the moment, but I'm not sure about at higher levels?

The movespeed + cast speed for Cold Snapping before moving onto Glacial Cascade does seem like it'd work well too.

Edit: After checking the skill gems, I noticed that you can only run a level 6(94) Haste with the dex requirement of a level 20 Hatred(95), but I still think if you can find the extra Dex on gear to get a higher level Haste while still capping resists/getting high crit chance etc that it might still be better overall, especially because of the movespeed.

I think both are pretty equal. If i had the dex and mana for a 60% aura i would use haste for the move speed and cast speed. Not many people run this aura in a party but there is always someone running hatred so there's that too.

I only use clarity and herald of ice.

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kompaniet wrote:

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Scotteeh wrote:

I'm curious, is the Phys damage from Glacial Cascade enough to say Hatred is better than running Haste?
I just swapped out my lvl 7 Hatred(just started my char recently) for a lvl 1 Haste and it's basically the exact same tooltip dps increase. lvl 1 Haste takes me to 323, lvl 7 Hatred to 323.9.

It seems like Haste is better at the moment, but I'm not sure about at higher levels?

The movespeed + cast speed for Cold Snapping before moving onto Glacial Cascade does seem like it'd work well too.

Edit: After checking the skill gems, I noticed that you can only run a level 6(94) Haste with the dex requirement of a level 20 Hatred(95), but I still think if you can find the extra Dex on gear to get a higher level Haste while still capping resists/getting high crit chance etc that it might still be better overall, especially because of the movespeed.

I think both are pretty equal. If i had the dex and mana for a 60% aura i would use haste for the move speed and cast speed. Not many people run this aura in a party but there is always someone running hatred so there's that too.

I only use clarity and herald of ice.

Well that could be an argument for running some level of Haste if you're playing with someone who is already running Hatred I guess.

I'm also curious about Arctic Armor, mainly just if with your current gear/setup lvl10 is the highest you're able to run it at or if the mana regen is enough to support higher levels while moving.

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Scotteeh wrote:

I'm curious, is the Phys damage from Glacial Cascade enough to say Hatred is better than running Haste?
I just swapped out my lvl 7 Hatred(just started my char recently) for a lvl 1 Haste and it's basically the exact same tooltip dps increase. lvl 1 Haste takes me to 323, lvl 7 Hatred to 323.9.

It seems like Haste is better at the moment, but I'm not sure about at higher levels?

The movespeed + cast speed for Cold Snapping before moving onto Glacial Cascade does seem like it'd work well too.

Edit: After checking the skill gems, I noticed that you can only run a level 6(94) Haste with the dex requirement of a level 20 Hatred(95), but I still think if you can find the extra Dex on gear to get a higher level Haste while still capping resists/getting high crit chance etc that it might still be better overall, especially because of the movespeed.

With my items i have 240 something mana regen. Can run lvl 20 or higher aa. Regen will go up as mana pool increases with level also clarity will improve of course.

Derped

I think i got a few things that i wanted to addres after reading your guide.

chest:

Cloak of defiance is better then carcass jack reasons are:

why defiance is good:
1) defiance gives you a ton of more survival in general
2) increases your mana pool + mana regen for buffs and for a better arctic armour
3) splits dmg up which makes you tank monsters a hell lot more easier ( specially reflect monsters )

why carcass jack isn't that great:
1) the dmg increase isn't a 100% increase in dmg from what the numbers state on it for glacial cascade, the problem with GC is that the smaller the area of the skill is the more it hits the same monster in one cast as it hits a monster multiple times. Therefore increasing its range towards a massive half map coverage isn't smart as it reduces pretty much your dmg output.
2) defense is a hell lot lesser then defiance which needed for higher maps and bosses as they can do a ton of dmg. ( your regen is also more effective through leech as it only has to cover 60% of your health pool instead of 100%, your mana regen will take care of the rest ) "basically people can drop life leech gem if they got the need for it ). You will require either 1% life leech which you can get through my 1h solution below here or doryani's belt ( if not a ring with 1% leech on it )

Weapon:

1h solution:

If you want to have a cold snap ( which i honestly don't understand as it just slows down your killing entirely ) you are maybe better off to get a doryani's catalyst which features itself already lvl 20 prolification which makes you able to push the other gems inside the weapon slot. This free's up another 4 slot item. The weapon is cheap and features amazing stats ( 110 elemental dmg, 40 crit, 12 cast speed and the 1% needed life leech ).

Staff solution:

I think a staff is more interesting, a staff like pledge of hands, judgement staff. The staff basically gives you 160% spelldmg, 100% mana increase ( which is massive ) and a lvl 30 spell echo which basically removes the need for 1 gem. ( its basically a 7link staff )

this removes the need for spell echo and basically gives you room on even a 5l staff for 6 gems which will increase your dmg output drastically.

Also the extra mana will make it possible for you to run a additional ( with cloak of defiance ) buff which could be haste if you want, this also increases your dmg drastically.

Cold snap:

To get back at cold snap, i honestly don't see the reason for this skill. It slows you down, there is no need to freeze them as you simple can already freeze them with your glacial cascade if they don't drop down instantly already. I think a better solution specially if you go the staff route = a spell totem. ( specially when you can have 2x 6l solutions or 5l whatever you get ).

Get a glacial cascade spell totem, don't want to invest much or still want to go with a shield instead of a staff you can use Rime Gaze. The crown basiclaly gives you mana + 10% cold dmg + concentrated lvl 15 effect = 64% more area dmg.

Spell totem > glacial cascade > increased area effect > added chaos dmg/ spell echo. ( basically your helm is now a 5l item ).

Otherwise push it into the staff or chest if its 5l.

You can now throw in a totem on the ground that does half the dmg you do basically with your skill and spams it automatically, that already increases your dmg output drastically instead of having ice nova which frankly just slows you down.

Glacial cascade gem setup:

This is another point i wanted to adres. why do you not go for concentrated effect + increase area effect to counter act teh concentrated effect. The dmg on lvl 20 with concentrated effect = a massive boost.. like 69% more area dmg boost.

Also if you go for the staff and can afford or are lucky to 6l it you can go this route:

glacial cascade > added chaos dmg > increased area effect > concentrated effect > power charge on crit ( not needed with assasins mark) / increase critical damage > increase critical strike chance / cold pen.

Power charge on crit can be dodged with assassin mark which also gives you even more room for dmg increasement.

If you have like 15k now, you will have like 30k+. And add a totem with that that casts on top of it another glacial cascade to even enhance it more and put vaal haste into your armour which will even more drastically improve your dmg.

Vaal haste + haste:

Why not get a gem on your gear that is vaal haste? thing increases your cast speed / run speed drastically and therefore your dmg output for a short period. Include increased duration with it and you can go nuts for a short time period after killing a few monsters. Your dmg will be even more higher.

Haste was already explained.

Power charges:

I honeslty don't see much use in this concept for this build to be honest. It only limits yourself to use power charge on crit in your armour ( in groups, as frankly assassin mark is pretty much impossible to pull off here through other peopel debuffing ), or having to use assassin mark. your dmg will be with this solution already high enough to migrate all those power charges gains ( if i look at this thread the gain is only from 11k > 14k, which frankly isn't much increase in total.

Getting rid of it also gives you the possibility to go for elemental curse on hit gloves ( unless you want to dual curse. This will instantly reduce the resistance of enemy's you hit without having to cast anything to debuff anything yourself = speed up the killing process massively. Only drop the totem when you are gona start a boss or a big pack of monsters that you will be hitting for a while.

Anyway, i just wanted to put some points forwards maybe you can do something with it.

conclusion:

basically you will double your dmg, and get double the survival with this solution.