CI Cold Witch (CI at lvl 40!) Ghost Reaver & Zealoth's Oath - by iNotSure - [Updated on 28-02-2013]

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For one you seem to go for high crit damage as where I will go for High crit chance. I'd rather freeze them a few times then freezing them less but doing insane damage when I do.

that's right, because ice spear has 600% increased critical strike chance in 2nd form I don't need that much crit rate ;)

it's something else with freezing pulse

"

iNotSure wrote:

and maybe you don't need it

Here is where you lose me. You even say yourself you don't need CI that early, so why do it? It's not like it's a challenge type thing, trying to man up, because it's not really a man up passive. There's no logic behind it.

In my opinion chaos dmg will be a pain in the ass in act 2/3 in Merciless. Thats why I want to get it early.

Ofcourse you can get it later as in my build but with this build it just shows that going CI early is just as viable as in getting it later.

I'm actually highly interested in this build because I frankly don't want to split my passives with life AND ES and have to manage both HP and mana flasks. I'm also starting my Witch up soon, and hopefully for a point of comparison.

I could join u on that quest. As i have changed my build a bit I kinda wanna reroll. Cause my tree doesnt look like the tree anymore. Would be a waste to use my regrets tbh. Need all the currency to roll a 6L on my 6S chestpiece

I do have some pointers to add

1. Wrath does not affect spells this is pulled off the wiki: ''Damage added by this aura will only be added to hits made by attacks, it will not be added to spells or damage over time effects.''

2. The spec when taking both sides of ES nodes under witch start then skip the right side and when you are over on the left side next to reduced chance to interupt casting go 1 int node more down just as you would with the ES right side then get all the ES + AR its still 8% ES just 8% AR aswell and then you get Body and Soul at last +10% to all resists and 20% AR + 20% ES why more point effecient. You need the phys resist on merc it would look something like this


3. get blood rage keep it at lvl 1 tho, since CI's are immune to chaos dmg it doesnt do damage at all so its just free 20% faster casting

Hope you find these helpful - about the 2nd thing with ES + AR update your build to that you lose nothing to have to spend 1 more point to get body and soul imo its totally worth it :)


This way you dont lose out on any points:

Just a quick reply on your post on point 2:

I agree but disagree as well lol. I go into the shadow tree because of crit on that side. So I was thinking of using some hybrid Evasion/ES items. But I'm not completely sold on that one, might take the armour and ES passives near the templar instead. Especially when I get Mana problems. So I'm still overthinking that one.

Got no more time but i'll look at it later tonight and ill check it out. Good thing for you on pointing it out :)

And yes, I forgot about bloodrage. Ill implement that one as well (Totally forgot about it lol).

So thx for the pointers. Ill get back on this later tonight and will update the first post.

"

iNotSure wrote:

Just a quick reply on your post on point 2:

I agree but disagree as well lol. I go into the shadow tree because of crit on that side. So I was thinking of using some hybrid Evasion/ES items. But I'm not completely sold on that one, might take the armour and ES passives near the templar instead. Especially when I get Mana problems. So I'm still overthinking that one.

Got no more time but i'll look at it later tonight and ill check it out. Good thing for you on pointing it out :)

And yes, I forgot about bloodrage. Ill implement that one as well (Totally forgot about it lol).

So thx for the pointers. Ill get back on this later tonight and will update the first post.

Np i prefer ES/AR but that might just be me :)

heya every1 from one more fellow witch.
I am rolling lightning/CI build and I am at lvl 55 atm with no CI yet(btw I play softcore as my pc tends to lag a lot).

my build is like this:


and I plan to make it like that:


Reading your post and a few comments though I was just wondering, can I not play an ES build without ghost reaver?
My main nuke is arc and as u may know it is pretty mana greedy. So I was planning to link it with:
Faster Casting+Lightning Penetration+Reduced mana+Elemental Proliferation+Chain or Mana leech
Overall my planned gems are going to loke something like that:

-Arc+RM+FC+EP+LP+Ch/ML
-Sparks+FC+Fork+LP+GMP/ML
-Purity+Clarity+Discipline+RM
-Spell totem+Skeles+FC+ML
-Conductivity(maybe linked with ID or IAOE if I have slots left)

The thing is: Do u believe that a pretty beefed up ES can be efficient without Ghost Reaver?

I'm in Default league fyi.

My build goes a different direction, and one could say more "HC" than most. I ditch the entire right side of the Shadow's tree for Templar tree with it's 2 Body and Soul notables, which are so powerful for what they do. The concept behind this build is that if they can't reach me, they can't hurt due to the crowd-control abilities and freeze/chill effects. My build at lvl 66 (endgame): lvl 66 Build

The great thing about Body and Soul notables is that the armor % part will buff the Granite flask usage and any piece I use that's Templar equipment. I'm not sure if this build has enough ES, but I'll have to see for myself later. Currently my witch is at lvl 31 with 200 odd health and 500 odd ES, so she's survivable so far in Normal.

My skill layout is different from the norm:
Freezing Pulse + LMP + ICS + Faster Casting + ManaLeech/FasterProjectiles
Ice Spear + LMP + ICD + Faster Casting (and yes, not with totem)
Ice Nova + Spell Totem + Increased AoE + Faster Casting (not sure if Faster Casting increases the rate of fire or the actual summoning of the totem)
Cold Snap + Concentrated Area of Effect
Frost Wall
Discipline + Clarity + Purity + Reduced Mana
Frostbite + Haste + Reduced Mana

I plan on making this Witch unapproachable, untouchable except ranged mobs. No melee mob should be able to get in close, especially not with Frost Wall.