[1.3] pabrt's Frost Wall Kinetic Blaster - Budget Friendly!

Also to be clear, I have not exhaustively tested every possible setup, and would love to be shown a stronger 6l. Anything optional in this build is subject to change/personal preference.

For example I barely tested any other second spells, I mostly was testing supports for KB itself. Some spells which I didn't consider are looking pretty good, like Spark/Arctic breath (GMP + 100% pierce shotguns pretty well).

new video of 75 bazaar with: -max, added fire, smothering, exiles, chilled ground
http://youtu.be/cIWz9EREH3c

I might make another one using added chaos or arctic breath or something

74 Residence using tabula rasa
6th link is Power charge on Crit

http://youtu.be/z-IrdkAKx4w

I'm probably going to switch from voll's to belly of the beast in the longterm, in light of PCoC's viability and the greatly improved life/mana.

First off, such a cool build! I was hoping for a little insight on some gem choices here. My situation is, I have only a 5L. I can use tabula rasa, or a 5L belly, voll's, or rare evasion, actually even a lightning coil. I have those all up to 5L. With herald of thunder and curse on hit assassin's mark, i can get some power charges that way, i don't really mind. If I use an armor with some decent evasion, this will help my defenses tremendously. Only problem is getting the GGGBB on my Voll's. Not many chromes left lol.

Anyways, something I've noticed and would like some input on: I frequently use LMP instead of GMP in my setup with Tabula Rasa, and it seems like I clear a little faster. Also seems like I can control it a little better, feels more nimble I guess. I feel like more often than not the extra projectiles from GMP are wasted. What do you think about this? Have you tried LMP? I don't think this has been mention in the thread, forgive me if it has! :)

Also, I went shadow as I had an 83 with free respec. I went down to ondar's guile, since I have decent evasion :P Good evasion shield, and a little decent on rest of gear (this is why belly or a rare evasion chest would just add on some extra padding :P )

My tree, in case you have any critiques:

Again, LOVE this build !!

You know what, regarding my post above, I think as long as i can always keep my cone small with GMP, I can get faster clearing speeds. And relying on HoT with curse on hit / assassin's mark is not very good. I just don't have the funds for a 6L, so I think it's Tabula Rasa or Voll's if I can get the right colors for me!! I would love to use a 6L belly.. OMG that would be cool, plus that armor looks nice :P

Also, I currently have a little life leech and mana leech on gear, but it looks like Thief's Torment is WAAAY better, as the leeching is instant. I might give this a go. It would let me wear better gloves with more life, but I'll probably lose some damage from my two rings and life. I just think the instant mana leech would be really nice, every now and then I shoot 'regular attack' because i won't regain it fast enough. I am running HoT / HoI / and grace though... :D only like 96 mana to play with!

Again, SWEET build!

I would recommend using Tabula or Voll's (Though I wouldn't bother if it's a 5l) from those choices. I definitely think you should use Thief's Torment, as it synergizes better with this build than life leech does by a ton.

Regarding GMP vs. LMP, I never tried LMP, but in theory I see no reason why it would be superior to GMP.

Anyway I haven't been playing or exploring new things for this build because I've been busy with school. I'll update the OP if I find anything cool, but other than that I'll mostly respond to questions about gearing/passives/etc.

I'm currently playing a lvl 76 phys KB shadow on bloodlines. Dropped all my currency on a 190pdps 10.1 crit wand, 2x crit rings @ 1 ex each, 6L ev chest, got life/resist items everywhere else. With 6 power charges up I have around 75% crit, 5k GMP dps, and 12k power siphon dps for single targets/stragglers. However, I'm starting to feel the power really drop off in 72+ maps. I basically have to play indoor maps so I can shotgun better with kinetic blast.

So now I'm thinking about switching to coc frostwall for the better dps/safety, but I have a few questions.

First of all, due to all the currency I dropped on gear, and because of my build, I'd like to stay physical. I'm sure ele is optimal with this set up due to many hits, but would phys be that much worse?

As for rings, i do have a thiefs torment that I used to level with, but I don't know how I feel about dropping my 2x diamond rings. They are flat phys, accuracy, 70+ life, resists. I would have a really hard time making this up with my other gear, especially resists since I use atziris step. Do you think I'll be ok with just my mana/life leech from phys damage?

Third, there's the build issues. I skipped the true strike/hired killer area, and instead went to ranger start for more life/evasion. If I drop the 2x diamond rings, that will bring my crit chance down to like 65%. Is that enough for this build, or should I consider just respeccing out of those nodes and grabbing true strike cluster?

finally, should I maybe just wait till I build up more currency again, and just make a new char, focusing on elemental this time? I'm going to post my gear when I get home from work, so you can understand my dilemma. Some of them are real GG pieces that I don't want to have to replace, but it seems switching to coc frost wall would require me to do so.

Edit: How do you feel about spell totem + frost wall + faster casting? How close would it emulate what you accomplish with your build? Would it work ok with only my 40% pierce from tree? My current set up is KB + PPD + FA + GMP + PCoC + LGoH. I guess I could drop the life gain on hit for pierce, but I worry about reflect. By using life leech gear, combined with LGOH gem, i get a similar effect to Vaal pact.

"

Nerdicide wrote:

First of all, due to all the currency I dropped on gear, and because of my build, I'd like to stay physical. I'm sure ele is optimal with this set up due to many hits, but would phys be that much worse?

I run the build as phys and it's fine, I would also assume ele performs better but I haven't tested it extensively. Ideally someone else who has played ele version could chime in here.

"

As for rings, i do have a thiefs torment that I used to level with, but I don't know how I feel about dropping my 2x diamond rings. They are flat phys, accuracy, 70+ life, resists. I would have a really hard time making this up with my other gear, especially resists since I use atziris step. Do you think I'll be ok with just my mana/life leech from phys damage?

Leech is pretty much worthless with this build unless you take vaal pact or have acuity. You can read up on leech mechanics to see why.

You don't need to use Thief's Torment, but you would need to answer your life and mana problems somehow, potentially you could run clarity + vaal pact and use your diamond rings. If you go ele you can't use life leech as effectively, making Thief's Torment even more attractive.

"

Third, there's the build issues. I skipped the true strike/hired killer area, and instead went to ranger start for more life/evasion. If I drop the 2x diamond rings, that will bring my crit chance down to like 65%. Is that enough for this build, or should I consider just respeccing out of those nodes and grabbing true strike cluster?

You need as much crit as possible, ideally 95%. You can always run assassin's mark to help out there. With a 10.1 wand you need a huge 640.59% crit chance assuming 6 power charges. With a higher crit wand (prophecy) you can lower that to around 468.60%. You can skip some crit nodes if you use a high base crit wand, but with a 10.1 you will want every possible source of crit.

"

finally, should I maybe just wait till I build up more currency again, and just make a new char, focusing on elemental this time? I'm going to post my gear when I get home from work, so you can understand my dilemma. Some of them are real GG pieces that I don't want to have to replace, but it seems switching to coc frost wall would require me to do so.

I only have a little experience with ele (respecced lv70 alt). Theoretically it is better, but I can't really say definitively. Regarding switching gear you can sell your stuff on poe.trade if you find you like the build, in the meantime it can run on extremely cheap gear (tabula, thief's torment, cheap wand/rares).

"

Edit: How do you feel about spell totem + frost wall + faster casting? How close would it emulate what you accomplish with your build? Would it work ok with only my 40% pierce from tree? My current set up is KB + PPD + FA + GMP + PCoC + LGoH. I guess I could drop the life gain on hit for pierce, but I worry about reflect. By using life leech gear, combined with LGOH gem, i get a similar effect to Vaal pact.

Spell totem frost wall works differently than this build. It is used as supplemental linear scaling to a high constant damage attack. This build uses frost wall as exponential scaling to a lower constant damage attack.

If you use this build you have zero wiggle room on your links, you must use KB + CoC + FW + Pierce + GMP + PCoC. The only exception is voll's protector, which gains 1 free slot in exchange for terrible mana and defenses. 100% pierce is mandatory. Thief's Torment makes you reflect immune without using a support. My advice is to reread the OP in order to understand the build mechanics more thoroughly.

Updated links in OP.

Voll's 6l changed to show possibilities based on color
Recommend Additional Accuracy
Curses changed to Assassin's Mark

Together these two changes provide a nice boost to reliability

New video using Additional Accuracy

78 Palace
http://youtu.be/HzAjFP-Rt_M

Remaining monsters were the ones spawned from vagan

Also when the new patch hits this build gets a huge buff because of flask changes, making it even stronger!