?!?! i want to go NOVA build, and your and this one are the only 2 i found, but i cannot decide WHICH ONE!??!
I am poor as fuck btw and a casual player, which build cost less?!
basically do pledge of hand cost less than your 2 crit dagger?!
I would recommend going with his build.
He spent time in the beta fleshing out his build and I've only had a few days and I'm speccing a lot more towards PvP than anything else this season. I'm barely playing my nova as it is.
I am begging you please post a updated tree I love ice nova so much and I would really love to see your tree. even if its a picture of the old one I can tweak it a bit so its updated. but I would need to first see what it looked like pre 2.0 with the awakening release. please ice nova is by far my best loved skill in game and I would very much love to see it. and even if the other guys build was made in beta u still may have created this in just a few days but in my opinion isn't that how they all are created every famous build was thought up from the likes and dislikes of the community and dedicated POE players. so I'm positive yours will not be any less appreciated by the community then there's were.
I thought I'd make a post for people interested in using a really underrated skill.
Pros
1. The clear speed for all maps is absolutely insane. (I mean one of the best in all of PoE) 2. All bosses are ez/fast kills. 3. Everything is either instantly dead or permanently frozen. (You're virtually invincible) 4. Atziri is an absolute piece of cake.
Cons
1. Reflect packs are a pain to deal with. It's not impossible with purity/flask, you just need to not blindly teleport into one. This is incredibly lessened by the use of cold to fire and a high level arctic armour however. 2. Can't do reflect maps (unless you wanna take your sweet ass time and who likes to do that?) 3. Not quite Uber Atziri viable.(you make up for this with ungodly clear speed on all other content)
MapMods
Here's a breakdown of the significant map mods and what to do if you roll them:
Blood Magic = Turn all your auras off. Slightly less damage and tankiness but can still run the map. Ele Reflect = Reroll the map. No regen = Turn off Arctic Armour, change your curse on hit to Warlord's Mark and bring a mana flask in case you don't apply the curse properly. You'll be fine. Half regen = Turn off arctic armour. -max res/ele weakness = Avoid reflect packs entirely.
Every other mod is ezpz.
This is the tree optimized for boss killing. We're using Cold to Fire in place of Cold Penetration here.
PvETree
These stats are with 4 power charges + atziri flask which should be almost 100% uptime.
You're probably wondering why I'm not getting the extra power charges when they're so close. Truth be told, I play with friends a lot and it's impossible to keep my charges up with the curse because the build farms so fast that I have to wait for them to catch up. #FirstWorldProblems right?
I'm using Haste instead of Purity of Ice because I have 3% leech and I know how to be careful with reflect packs. If that's not your case, just stick with Purity of Ice.
Gear
For a 5L option, just take out added cold damage or cold penetration (use cold pen for elemental resistant mobs).
For those who cannot afford the daggers, don't despair! For a long time, I used a doryani's catalyst and a divinarius and this is what the clear speed looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bAohfxQ798
Bandits
Norm: Oak
Cruel: Eramir
Merc: Alira
Atziri Strategy.
Swap Ice Nova and Added Cold for Arctic Breath and GMP when killing the overseers, the trio and atziri.
Swap the CWDT gem of the cold snap/temp chains setup with purity of fire for the Atziri fight and turn off Haste/Purity of Ice.
With some practice, you'll find the right position to be in for proper shotgunning of Arctic Breath.
Mapping
You can kill all bosses pretty fast with nova if you have the gear for it. If you don't, then I would advise switching to GMP + AB against certain bosses like crematorium, palace, necropolis, etc. Especially if you're in a party.
With my current gear, I can play in parties of 6 and clear packs of mobs before anyone gets to land a skill/spell.
If you have good gear and want to spam mid tier maps (72-76), you can take out concentrated effect and put in increased area of effect instead for a nova that looks like this:
PvP
As you can see, I also tried my hand at PvP with this setup. So far it performs relatively well. Not top tier material, but I barely queue and I'm hanging around the top 20 when I do queue. If you want to make this into an actual PvPer it might be a good idea to get traps on swap or a ranged spell with power charge on crit.
If you guys need/want more information just post here and I can edit the post to make it look pretty and stuff.
I played the other version on here for a week or so, and died more times than I care to remember. Light warping into the middle of monster packs is very risky, even with a good setup and good gear.
On the other hand, this build does clear packs ultra fast and looks spectacular! It is fun to use and smashes monster groups to bits.
Probably the fastest clearing, as the OP said. However, be aware that it is rippy, and be prepared to die if everything you do is not 100%, or anything goes wrong.
The build is definitely worth trying though, as smashing packs is such good fun...
I made this tree for HC, based on my experiences in the awakening closed beta. It is viable once you got decent gear/gem level, however still risky of course.
