❄[1.2] AoE Perma-Freeze Witch (Infinite Cold Snap, Prolif, Curses, Auras) [GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE]❄

Here's a brief guide to a fun no-cooldown cold snap build I've been using in rampage. The only necessary unique is the moderately cheap Romira's Banquet ring. Cold snap is great since it easily mass freezes when paired with the Elemental Proliferation support gem. There's still a lot of room for build tweaking/optimization so everything listed is subject to change. As I continue to level I'll be grabbing some more life nodes, endurance charge nodes, and maybe more ele damage nodes. I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions!


Gameplay:
Spider's Lair:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeknjceC2nY&feature=youtu.be

79 Solo Dominus Kill:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUgUEQLtgc&list=UUyG5Fevhygxdo1n87xBjeDg
*using conc effect rather than inc AoE shortens the total fight to about 2 minutes*

Freeze Locking the Jungle Valley Boss Room: http://i.imgur.com/Kqj13cA.jpg

74+ maps: coming soon


Current Level 80 Tree (99 pts):
End Game Tree (107 pts): *Removing the points allocated toward 2 extra endurance charges cuts the tree down to a much more attainable 100 points. May take aura or ele damage nodes instead of more charges*



Build Pros: Thematically fun/fun to play! Needs less life/defenses than most builds because it's very easy to freeze the whole screen of enemies. Even when hit, CWDT activates a seperate CS chain that usually freeze locks the whole screen/mob cluster. Cold Snap has a very high base damage making it good for both AoE and single target damage. White mob packs shatter in one or two cold snaps and most bosses/exiles can be freeze locked. Generally fun to play especially with the cold snap microtransaction skin. Capped resists are still possible even with the use of 3 low resist uniques. Dual curse hugely boosts snap damage. Leaves no corpses for enemies to explode or feed off of (shatters everything). No crits = no instagibs to reflect packs. Since curses are linked to Curse on Hit and another Cold Snap gem, cursing requires no downtime or risk of death to the character. The curse linked cold snap consistently freezes mobs and can sometimes even one shot white packs. Play style is not very prone to desync. Also constant freezes make dodging telegraphed attacks (ie. Kole's hook or devourer projectiles) extremely easy by simply taking a few steps to the side. What this build lacks in pure offense is more than made up for by its control/support power.

Build Cons: Requires some semi-expensive gear. Takes a ton of damage when actually hit (somewhat alleviated by CWDT set up). Weak to ele reflect, although it's not much of a problem if you use a sapphire flask and play defensively toward a reflect pack. Slower clear speeds than my drillneck ice shotter and less durable due to lack of evasion (although carcass jack does give a fair amount). Takes a bit longer to kill curse immune mobs.

Skill Links:
-5L Main Damage: Cold Snap-Spell Echo-Elemental Proliferation-Increased AoE-Life Leech (swap Increased AoE with Concentrated Effect for bosses if necessary)
-4L Defensive: Cast When Damage Taken-Cold Snap-Elemental Proliferation-Enduring Cry (or immortal call, still testing)
-5L Curses: Cold Snap-Curse on Hit-Frostbite-Elemental Weakness-Increased AoE
-Utility/Defensive: Portal-Vaal Ice Nova (possibly vaal haste or vaal lightning warp instead)-lightning warp-Arctic Armour
-4L Auras: Clarity-Herald of Ice-Discipline-Reduced Mana

Skill "Rotation:" First, use the curse-linked cold snap to apply frostbite and elemental weakness as needed. This will usually freeze the target pack as well. Next, use your dps linked Cold Snap to freeze/kill any remaining mobs. Spam until the pack is dead.

Build Leveling Summary:
Level to 60 using freeze pulse and a spell echoed cold snap with elemental proliferation on cooldown. Take eldrich battery early and make sure you grab Resolute Technique upon reaching level 60. Run the clarity aura as soon as possible and level it according to your mana requirement. Grab reduced mana, herald of ice, and discipline as soon as possible. Clarity and herald of ice should be used right away. You may need to wait off on discipline until later on when reduced mana is a higher level. At 60 drop freeze pulse and use cold snap exclusively with Romira's Banquet.

Mandatory Gear:

Helpful Gear/Uniques:


(for optional weapon swap culling)

Potential Gear Upgrades:
-Voll's Devotion (unlikely)
-Boots with a MS roll

Bandits: Normal Oak, Cruel Kill, Merciless Kill


IGN: Bleak_Grip

bump for feedback

Uploaded gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeknjceC2nY&feature=youtu.be

Planning on uploading some more videos later (ie. solo dominus, higher level maps, etc.). Would still love some feedback or suggestions.

looks like a really fun build. might give it a go in the future. why not run with dual Divinarius for greater AOE and self cast the spells?

That's something I actually hadn't thought of and sounds kind of interesting. The only thing I'm not self casting is the stuff linked to CWDT and the curses linked with curse on hit. I'm guessing you're referring to self casting the curses though. I was self casting the curses before I got a second 5L but it made the character a lot more vulnerable to immediate damage (curse on hit cold snap avoids this problem by cursing and freezing simultaneously for more defense). Also, the cold stats on Taryn's Shiver seems to help the build more than dual wielding divinarius. My current AoE radius using the inc aoe gems, carc jack, aoe nodes, etc. seems to be fine for the time being. I don't think the aoe and spell damage increase given by divinarius warrants dropping the bonuses on Taryn's. I haven't tested it though so I could be wrong. Thanks for the idea, I'll def think about it some more.

You say you need more mana regen, but you have 2 40% mana regen nodes (witch, templar) right next to you. Those would probably be more efficient that those 3 mana nodes you have in the witch area.

oops completely forgot about the templar regen node. I'm already planning to grab the witch one in a few levels. I'll try to shift some points around and update the trees. I don't actually need more mana regen right now, but it would definitely be nice to get a few more nodes to run arctic armour at a higher level. I can also probably get a bit of extra mana regen on a piece of gear. Thanks though for reminding me about the templar node, really helpful

This looks so damn fun and something ive been wanting to try for a long time. Any way to tune this to work for HC? It looks really squishy atm.

It is a bit squishy but I still have several life nodes to grab in the next few levels. Even so, I doubt that this build would be a wise choice for HC. As I mentioned in the post the freezing prevents most mobs from hitting you, but once you actually are hit it hurts a lot (since no MoM). I made the build purely with SC in mind since I knew it would probably be riskier to play.

I'll take a look at the tree and see if I can come up with a hardcore variant though.

Edit: I have around 3.5K HP now with the option of grabbing a few more nodes

I'm leveling a character to do something very similar to this build.

I have a 6L carcass jack so I'm thinking that taryn's might not be ideal. It has great stats but since i wouldn't use the +1 to gems on my main spell I'm considering other options. I've been looking at Apep's Rage and wondering if it might go well with a shield (like rathpith) or dual wielded (with itself or a high spell damage/mana/manareg wand). Do you think that much casting speed would help with damage output and freezelocking? Using a shield would also open up block/spell block options.

Alternately I'm considering buying a 5L taryn's and using Windscream or some other way to get +1 curse and doing a 3 curse setup with enfeeble or temp chains. Thoughts?