[1.3] Expensive Crit Glacial + Ice Nova Low Life Build ( dps: 200k+ / 160k+)

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GATYGUN wrote:

Intro:

As there are no good glacial cascade builds for 1.3 and i get constant questions how i get ~100k dps with glacial cascade and ~90+k ice nova dps, i will make a simple guide for people to show them how.

Like the title states, it's not really a cheap budget build, but i am sure people can use cheaper gear with this build. It will only reduce there damage by a lot. As most damage comes from low life + voids and running boosted buffs.

Life + Mana + Energy shield:



Defense:



Gear:

Spoiler

Reason Gear:

Spoiler

Weapons:

Really no choice here void battery's are the absolute best. mine void battery's give me 365 spell damage + 32 cast speed + 81 mana + 569 critical strike chance. This is calculated with power charge bonuses.

There is nothing that can compete with this at all.

Necklace

1) Mana Regen ( glacial uses a lot and you need some regen to run arctic armour )
2) Resist cap is absolute the first thing to take into account
3) crit / crit multiplier / cast speed / spell damage all is good for your build. Even 22 spelldamage on your neck can give you a lot of a damage boost.
4) energy shield ( the more the better )
5) mana ( always good )

Ring's:

1) Dex / Str if you want to dodge nodes and use high level gems
2) Mana regen ( again glacial uses a lot + AA, if you can get 150% over your 3 jewels that would be absolute the best so you won't have any mana issue's)
3) Resists can't say it enough 75% cap is needed, but because of our build we will hit 75 fire / 80 ice / 76 lightning resist, keep this in your mind.
4) cast speed / crit is always welkom as bonus
5) energy shield = more is always better
6) mana / int is always interesting.

Helmet:

Highest ES possible, i myself bought my 400 energy shield on rampage for 10c, on standard it's expensive as hell but really it's the only item besides the chest where you can get large chunks of energy shield on. Any other stat is pure bonus.

Gloves:

Maligaro's Virtuosity Deerskin gloves are the absolute best here. I use non legacy, because short on cash atm and i got these as drop. Only downsize no resist or energy shield, but doable with a shav and high energy shield helmet.

As i don't have acuilty atm, and it's only 50% better then vaal pact the leech with 2% leech from neck / belt is stil absolute dreadful for this build, acuilty will also have to result towards a life leech gem, so the hundred+ of exalts for a few nodes isn't interesting to me.

Belt:

You can use energy belt / resist belts / or doryani's. I myself think that doryani's is a solid belt that spreads defense + damage well. The 1% leech is just a bonus tho.

Boots:

Best here would be high energy shield + high resists + high movement speed. But my budget didn't allow me this. I do have a high energy shield boots, but without movement speed. And frankly movement speed is important in my vision.

So i compromised with rainbowstride. The energy shield is decent on it, the movement speed is also decent, but the resists good. All with all a good solution to go for. There are better frankly.

Gems:

Spoiler

Void Battery 1: reduce mana > vaal haste > Assassin mark
Void Battery 2: Reduced duration > lightning warp / righteous fire > Arctic armour
Helmet: Clarity > Blood magic > reduced mana > Purity of Ice
Boots: cast when damage taken ( lvl 5 ) > immortal call ( lvl 5 ), incraesed duration (lvl 20) + endurance cry ( lvl 5 )
Gloves: Herald of ice > Haste (lvl 20) > Herald of thunder > Reduced mana
Shav: Ice Nova / Glacial Cascade > Life leech > Added chaos damage > Spell echo > Faster Casting > Concentrated Effect ( i switch out faster casting for power charge on critical for bosses that i can't attack without power charges already being up. ) "15k dmg reduction then".

Buffs that i use depends on the situation:

Spoiler

Mapping:

Clarity > Haste > herald of ice > herald of thunder > purity of ice

Doing atziri:

Clarity > Discipline > herald of ice > Herald of thunder > purity of ice

1.3 Build:

Spoiler

https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMA34pLrukCGyXZW20Zl_RSUz1fl5URUKcrNbkdT0yz215QMET7TC0RDzvjZAmKKND1QZaus5UgLR_B81yKoqN_xhGW8NWVLgcee9eP-uv1ZJ3yHUlRY0MOSPLh2-dHBl9qXfJwUonTcNUqOKlutfI1kti9_gq3PkGH-eiCxyj66-64kwhnkzq9Jxg8ljLIWxW4DXxXyY9G99esmJuhhX0WQClPV5TtPNWm73w8BZo7n9_AZoRIXGvDbSycBUKnCEVHMtEQfwx9xp7sGNkTcLsvb18qdFV4DVivNugB56cwn8s=

Explanation build:

Spoiler

1: Power charges

We need power charges as simple as that because of void battery, so we cover the top power charge the left and right one on the skill map also.

2: Increased radius of area skills

Highly important we get those, they will cost you a large chunk of nodes but it's absolutely crucial. The reason for it being crucial is that we don't use increased area of effect gem, div's or carcass jack. Those 4 would give us otherwise ( 84 area of effect ), we also use concentrated effect which reduces our area even more which gives us 114 area increase lesser then we could have ) Which is massive.

The tree will give us 52-54 and 12 increased area damage. It's a must.

Luckely the increased area nodes are on the left side close towards the power charge and in the middle + on our way towards vaal pact.

3: Vaal pact

It's needed with life leech gem to counter reflect. With 80% cold resist and also doryani's 1% leech belt, there is no way in hell we are going to die on reflect. We are imuum towards it.

4: Unwarering stance

Makes you stun imuum, so you won't have to bother with low run speed ( boots ) or necklace / ring to counter it. specially for atziri a must, for mapping not much tho.

5: Critical strike chance and multiplier

Get as much as you can off it, but don't remove to much energy nodes to get it.

6: Spell damage / cast speed / energy shield.

You will heavily profit from spell damage, damage wise, but i would advice to spend the points more into defensive solution like more energy shield. Cast speed on the other end is also a really nice damage boost and with glacial cascade it works really well because of making the skill more snappier.

This is also the reason why i did pick up at the top ( because of 2x wand ) dark arts.

What gems to use with glacial / ice nova and when

Spoiler

The links i always use are:

1) Life leech = highly needed for regen ( if i don't need much leech, i can swap it out for empower, but i prefer life leech in most situation
2) Concentrated effect = biggest damage boost towards ice nova / glacial cascade
3) Spell echo = repeats skill = cheap on mana and gives a high amount of cast speed
4) Added Chaos damage = highest damage added skill and works well with atziri flask + splits damage up towards other nature.

5) Faster casting / increased area of effect / power charge on critical:

This one changes a lot, and i will explain why:.

1) faster casting

I use this one, when i need burst, and just hit a lot of damage, its better then added lightning damage dmg wise or any other damage gem, It also makes glacial a hell lot more snappier. But will drain a lot more mana. Because of clarity + jewels this will be no issue.

I use this mostly when i run higher maps, or need to fight boss fights with glacial cascade, i use this on higher level maps with ice nova on pack groups.

Keep in mind buffing assassin mark is needed to generate power charges. But this will go incredible fast with both glacial and ice nova, there is absolute no issue maintaining the charges.

2) increased area of effect

The reason i use increased area of effect is, when i need to kill low level maps that have monsters spread out far with ice nova or with glacial. When the damage doesn't need to be top tier but the coverage helps you more. It also helps really well against hard hitting more ranged monsters like in atziri.

Keep in mind buffing assassin mark is needed to generate power charges. But this will go incredible fast with both glacial and ice nova, there is absolute no issue maintaining the charges.

3) Power charge on critical

I use this gem when i can't hold my power charges up, basically group maps or when i just want to do maps without the hassle of debuffing.

For solo play other then bosses which i can't jump with power charges i will not bother with power charge on critical and swap it out.

Glacial cascade and Ice nova:

Glacial for more burst (bosses harder packs ) and ice nova for more aoe ( mob packs works really well ), that's basically what i do.

Damage stats:

Keep in mind that these pictures are already outdated, as i have more damage nodes atm through leveling up and better level/quality gems.

These four gems are always used: "added chaos damage / glacial cascade / ice nova / spell echo / concentrated effect".

Glacial cascade (85k-200k dps)

Spoiler

Glacial with faster casting + Life leech:



Glacial with faster casting + empower lvl 3:



Glacial with power charge on crit + life leech:



Glacial cascade faster casting + empower lvl 3 + righteous fire:



Glacial Cascade with faster casting + life leech + righteous fire:



Glacial Cascade with power charge on crit + life leech + righteous fire:

Ice Nova (70k-160k dps)

Spoiler

Ice nova with faster casting + empower level 3:



Ice Nova with faster casting + life leech:



Ice Nova with power charge on crit + life leech:



Ice Nova + faster casting + empower lvl 3 + righteous fire:



Ice Nova + faster casting + life leech + righteous fire:



Ice Nova + power charge on crit + life leech + righteous fire:

Current damage is much like the other damage pictures higher, but it gives you a idea.

A example of me killing domi first phase with power charge on crit gem + life leech = 83k dps:



Killing second phase domi with faster casting + life leech + righteous fire = 180k dps.



Righteous fire:

Extremely high damage increase tool, but the downsize is that it burns down your energy shield. Because we have such a high amount of leech, on a boss fight when you keep doing damage there really isn't a issue to keep it up. Because we have also fast energy shield recovery, there is no need to carry a healing potion with us after the fight.

You can slow down the energy drain by using a fire resistance flask and or use a purity of fire lvl 20 buff. But i won't use the skill unless i face a boss. ( basically the same way as cast on crit chucky builds use it ). It boosts the damage massively.

Flasks:

I use the following flasks:

Reasoning behind the flasks:

Resist flasks doesn't really need explaining, extra resistances. Try to carry recharge on critical strike flasks, which helps a ton and get the standard anti freeze / curse imuum "atziri" / remove bleed mods on it.

Movement speeds, always handy for farming. It just makes clearing a map a whole lot faster

Atziri flask, i use this for the damage mainly. It gives me a nice chunk of damage increase and also provides extra leech which can be helpful when using righteous fire or enter reflect maps.

Doedre's elixer greater mana flask is the most important flask in my vision for boss fights for this build. It happens a lot with domi or vaal in atziri that your power charges drop before the fight starts because of the long intro.

this is especially annoying with domi second phase. As it takes probably a good 22 seconds before the fight actually starts. This results in losing your power charges ( they only stay for 14 sec up ).

This will make the killing speed 10 times slower, as i will lose massive amounts of spelldmg from no charges on voids + having to result towards power charge on crit gem which removes my faster caster gem. This potion makes it possible to jump on domi second phase with full force and wreck him instantly. The same goes for other bosses that feature the same delay.

Video's:

Upcoming.

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mrskuld wrote:

Hey, I noticed in your guide you left out the Bandit Quests. Did you kill them all?