[2.1] The CoCSnapper - A Cast on Crit Cold Snap build

Heya!

This is my first build guide. Questions, comments etc. are welcome and much appreciated :)

[2.1 update]



[2.0 update at the end of the guide]

Please note that I've made a character on this same base in multiple leagues now, and the guide has to live with is. Thereby some things such as skill tree links in the main text are outdated. Also things such as gear and character stats will vary depending of the character referred to.

Why did I make this guide?

This is a build I really enjoyed playing in Bloodlines. So much actually that for the first time after dying with a character I've continued to play it in Standard.

Altho I've kinda wanted to share this I've hesitated making a guide, since in my eyes it's just another CoC build. Same passives, same gear, just one gem changed.

After playing a couple times with RaizQT and Cha_Siu_Bao on their stream people asked me for passive tree and stuff. I did a quick search for a similar build, but didn't really find one in here nor in youtube. Sure people must have done this before, but who gives a crap, here's my version.

Why did I happen to make this build

1) Cold Grasp MTX is awesome and I wanted to use it again.
2) I died with a phys Kinetic Blaster.

I really enjoyed how KB clears, but didn't want to reroll it. I remembered trying out CoC ST build with Cold Snap in Nemesis, but it never felt right. But when I put this gem setup in my 4l Voll's Protector I found myself running back and forth City of Sarn thinking about how cool it was even with such an unoptimized tree.

Voll's Protector and HC were something I was never able to see in the same sentece, not until I saw Ikikaze play Fakener far into maps. So I decided to give it a shot too.



Pros, cons and general thoughts

Just as Kinetic Blast this build really shines when it comes to thight packs, but then again open areas with mobs shattered around feel painfully slow to clear. Boss kills vary from decent to painful when it comes to high evasion and cold res bosses.

Because of Life Leech gem and Vaal Pact single reflect isn't a problem. However resistances are somewhat hard to cap so you really have to watch out for curses! Reflect maps I'd just skip.

Death came to me in form of Shrapnelbearer at level 87. I was farming for midnights and of course didn't bother to check the map mods. Having played veeeeeerrryyyy much Incinerate I've just grown the habit of close face tanking for shotgunning. With this one it had been somewhat successfull "tactic" aswell because of evasion and decent freezing. I was aware of the poison bombs but thought they are an on kill effect. So yeah, enjoy, this is what you all love! Ps. What kind of tamale do you like?

Map mods

Curse Immune: pretty much a no go
Blood Magic: could be done with self cast curse, but would be damn annoying.
Minus Max: Just don't. Reflect hurts
Reflect: Again. Reflect hurts. Don't.
Enfeeble: Doable, but as for any crit build. It ruins the fun.
Half Regen: Manageable
No Regen: Manageable
Fracturing: Heaven

Planned level 100 passives

The tree focuses on Crit and life, leveling tree being nothing but balancing between the two. I suggest getting Acrobatics early on aswell as making your way to Scion life wheel so you can take Vaal Pact the moment you get a 5l Volls.

For leveling you're good with any skill that you can scale with gear/crit. I myself leveled with Spectral Throw to 40 when I was able to equip my wand and start Snapping. Of course it isn't super efficient that early on, but damn, it's just so much fun.

(I can add some suggestions for lower level trees if requested)

Bandits
Normal: Oak
Cruel: Kill
Merci: Alira

Gear&Gems

Just like the tree, gear is all about balancing between Crit, life, stats and resists. The only necessity being a Volls Protector.

Links for 5l Voll's Protector
Kinetic Blast - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Cast on Critical Strike - Cold Snap - Life Leech

If you feel cocky and want things running early on, you can drop Life Leech and go with just a 4l. Of course that makes you very vulnerable to reflect. You should also drop Vaal Pact til you have 5l with leech.

I don't have a 6l, but I believe a good final link would be Inc Aoe or simply another spell. With my current gear I have 59% rarity so Item Rarity gem could be a viable option aswell. I've also been toying around with the idea of Three Dragons and Elemental Proliferation for the 6th link. (Hey look burn prolif build!)

Single target
Barrage - Cast on Critical Strike - Cold Snap - Glacial Cascade

This seems to work decently, but a lot more testing should be done for sure.

CWDT Setup
Cast When Damage Taken - Enduring Cry - Immortal Call - Increased duration

In my case the gear is all dexterity based and getting 4 red sockets would have required quite a pile of chromatics, so I dropped Inc Duration and put in a Frost Wall, which ended up being over leveled and just something I didn't bother with.

Heralds
Curse on Hit - Assassins Mark - Herald of Thunder - Herald of Ice

As meantioned before the build mostly relies on mana gained on kill from Assassin's Mark and thus you'll need to have enough mana to attack 3-4 times before you run out. This results relatively little mana reserved. And also makes the use of Reduced Mana gem questionable in opposition to limited amount of gem slots.

Others
Again because of mana self curse and lightning warp are both linked to Blood Magic. Remaining sockets can be used to level up other gems, such as Purity of Elements, which can be changed with Herald of Ice to make it easier to run Ele Weakness maps.

Flasks
The flask setup is pretty much the same as for every character I've made.
- Jade flask for extra evasion
- Quicksilver with Curse removal
- Instant with Freeze removal
- Instant with Shock removal
- Slow flask with Bleed Removal. I figured a hybrid flask to be good for this one, since it mostly relies on mana gain on kill from Assassins Mark and there will be moments when you just run out of mana. Other one of my rings does have 2% mana leech, but I'm not quite sure how big of an effect it really has.


2.0 Update



Videos


Q/A


Thanks for reading.

More information and videos will be added later on!

Reserved

Very well written mate! :)

Thanks man, really means a lot coming from you :)

[Also, Atziri video added]

Nice build and walk through.

Hi, thanks for the guide. I am wondering what you did with purity of ice, if it ever nessecary to use? Is reflect even an issue with vaal pact and life leech?

Purity of Ice and couple of other gems are there just to level up.

I've had a close call with reflect, when I got cursed with Elemental Weakness, just as I hit the reflect pack. I had the resists barely capped, so they dropped down to around 40% there. But yeah, with capped resists, Phase Acro, Life Leech and Vaal Pact reflect is not a problem at all.

2.0 update spoiler added to the end

Added a Oba's Cursed Trove run done in Tempest

You need to take advantage of other environment "hitboxes" too...

A wall is not the only thing blocking the KB explosions: try the forest trees, the tree stumps, the debree & props.

I actually found out several "exploitable" props hitboxes while playing my explosive arrow scion.

Give it a try...