[2.1] Whaitiri's Blood Magic Cold Snapper

cold snap trapper has been a thing for a long time in hardcore leagues, the extra multiplier traps grant and the fact you didn't need to worry about the old reflect was a large boon.

Why Lord of the Death. Just starting to level this build in (firestorm) in 1monthHC lets see how its works out!

@Vilvander: It's a little durability boost for your golem, but it's not THAT important. I used to have a 5/6l golem where it was more impactful, but GC just seems more reliable.

Goodluck in 1mHC!

Currently not playing PoE much, except I'm doing daily missions with this character. So I consider that character "close to retirement", so here's my thoughts. This is from perspective of "two player party"

My "Snapper Witch" is currently level 89, my second highgest leveled character, my highest being level 90 Kinetic Blast Scion.

For a long time, I wanted to make Cold Snap character. When I finally bought Romira's Banquet for cheap and my sister got Taryn's Shiver from master, I decided it's time make one.

Leveling was a bit difficult. Damage wasn't that high, I couldn't use Cold Snap that often and Glacial Cascade is damn boring skill to use. Good thing that my sister played "Life Leeching Duelist", so her character carried mine to level 60, that's when fun started.

I think that this was quite balanced build. It wasn't that squishy, so it could survive well and the fact that most enemies are freezed helps too :). While the damage isn't that high when looking tooltip, there are hidden modifiers (elemental penetration, Taryn's Shiver) and at least this synced well in our party, improving both damages and granting extra survivability.

Act 4 was semi-difficult on Merciless. Most mobs were medium in difficulty, but the bosses hard. Voll went down easily, Daresso and Kaom were painful, Piety was OK, Harvest bosses were doable and Malachai was close to impossible to do without dying (I'd argue that is because of desing, not damage).

I've also done some PvP and this is semi-competent character in that. Mostly because some people are caught pants down because they froze, but most of the time I end up fighting some block character that doesn't do nothing.

In the end I'm quite happy with this character. It's fun and satisfying to play. Party play is possible, depending what others are playing and how well you want characters to sync. This surpassed my Kinetic Blaster many levels ago. And what I've watched upcoming skill tree, there wont be dramatic changes.

@RaivokasMagma: Thanks for your feedback! Glad to see people having success with this build.

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I got some cool new ideas for this guide in 2.1, maybe even going into a completely different direction than Hybrid Life + ES.
If anyone's planning to play this build in 2.1, please wait a few days after patch until i was able to test all new uniques and ideas to find the best balance for this build.

Completely remade this build and updated for 2.1. I'm not really interested in playing Cold Snap anymore, but people requested an update so here it is. Have fun everyone!

why no +1 power charge above witch starting node?

@unlucky_child: It would be wasted. With RT + Romira's we never run out of charges, unless your Cold Snap desyncs. It rarely happens, but if it does just use Glacial Cascade once and you got charges back for Cold Snap.

last questions, why did u stop playing it? boring?
and i was thinking about using MOM, but with those auras seems really hard.
Clarity, frostbite, will probably drop HOI and mark out

what about killing end game bosses? atziri + uber atziri? malachai?

You seem to expect a little too much of Cold Snap. Its single target damage isn't good at all, i thought the inclusion of a seperate single target spell made that obvious. Unfortunately, non-crit Glacial Cascade isn't that great either.

Atziri-viable? Maybe if you dodge long enough. Apex will be tedious and Atziri herself can't be chilled nor frozen, which disables the defense of this build. There are better builds if your goal is to farm Atziri. Malachai? Merciless yes. Uber Atziri & Core Malachai? Forget it.

I've solo'd with Cold Snap to 90 before 2.0, but it simply lost its appeal to me. With the addition of Call of the Brotherhood, there are more effective ways to do most of what Cold Snap can. I hoped the Cold Snap treshold jewel would bring a bit more life back to this skill, but it's rather disappointing.
Only things where Cold Snap is still superior is for freezelocking bosses in party-play, or for PVP. This guide was updated on request and is mostly targeted at the former, people who like to have a supportive role in their party.