[1.3] Witch Freezing Pulse Crit (HC)

Hello all!


Build Videos
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Coming Soon!



Build Explanation
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When playing PoE, I try my best not to look at any guides. I personally just like the feeling of conceptualizing an idea, and then pushing the build as far as I can with what I can find. I play self found (MOSTLY) but will buy items here and there if I feel I need to. Most builds I do end up having a unique associated with it, but this time the unique was an afterthought. It's a good progression item, but is still replaceable if I find something.

The initial concept of the build was to be a laddering build. I wanted it to have effective progression and I wanted to be able to Crowd Control easily for safety. I'm fairly new to the idea of laddering, but after about 8-10 hours into Torment/Bloodlines I was in the top 1000. I ended up dying to cruel Dominus due to poor play, and went to bed. This first iteration of the build was a shadow. I was pretty pleased with its effectiveness in cruel, but I felt its early game was lacking.

The next day I woke up and reviewed my tree and decided Witch was the way to go. She had a better early game, mana pool/regen and I had to go into the Templar tree for various things, and doing so early really helped in the way of Defenses. Overall I think the witch is much better.

When I leveled the witch, I caught up fast. Within 3 days I caught up and was in the top 1500 on the ladder again.


There are a few aspects of this build that can be improved upon, and the items I've found aren't the best, and I'm working in the normal leagues to fix this. Will update the guide with information when I get better stuff!



Tree
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Witch tree:
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https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAvYJXK_6z6QLfim0ZakPAVAj0vOofxy2LK3gFQiycrrNBltD1TLM6WFXGg9usmONqFm_60h0Uj0aboffXNukkqiSwFy-ApEKjZp6QVRo4wBonL-w4gpuaO-FzogAEs_Af1abtPMBmEQ9MLSKBnqFWSo48F1QUsNsLgh7sGMHFiEJJUfDVj_oHHpUuDkgRll3y34RCwwL-jDZh4lVLJpXyHWSd6_W2-vemjmQvb9kTcLsWv2yMnao2PeOEYqxQMNteFkCFfWNDidNw1Q==


Shadow tree:
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https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgYA8GsV55eXRXxzs4w234QC_l3yQsMOSElR8NWVLgceEZYmlWHiVUtsjJ2qNj3jhGKsL2_ZE3C77BiP-oIeiELBxdsLTC0UsCKBnqFWSo48F1SVIMHzakPAVLzqaxcI9EyzLR_Q9UGWrrMFQlAw215VxoPbBAc6WBps42oWbySqNum2-vemjmQdFPrSJLAXL4CkQqOQVRo47DgnL4KbmjvkItWm7TwRD6yY99eboY9G4XMEs6IA8B9wUonTcNVfKuvkhX0pTxZAY0PyHWSd6_U=

I had mana issues with this build, but generally the same outcome as the witch.



Stats and DPS
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No Power Charges
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Full power charges
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Build enablers / cost
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I'm completely self found other than:


I bought this for around 20 chaos, it's not super expensive, but keep in mind it's not super cheap if your looking for quick and easy builds. This item IS replaceable, but it's difficult.


Equipment
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Gem setups
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Curse on hit Herald of Thunder
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So the main thing I found is that Curse on Hit Herald of Thunder is VERY helpful, and it keeps power charges up whenever I'm in combat.

I don't have to manually cast assassins mark, which is great because that usually takes a lot of time. I initially had curse on hit Herald of Ice, but found it to be pretty terrible.


Cold Snap Prolif
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The second notable setup is my Cold Snap setup.

It's amazing utility. It's pretty much the panic spell while mashing flasks. I have had no issues with strongboxes on this character.


Purity of Ice
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To deal with reflect, I get aura nodes on the tree and run Purity of Ice, and I carry around a Sapphire Flask. However, reflect still is a problem. My intent is to socket life leech into my Freezing Pulse setup, but for now I just play it safe and take it slow around reflect.


Freezing Pulse
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The freezing pulse setup is pretty good. I really like it so far, I messed around a bit with GMP and it works just as well, but I just prefer LMP at the moment, and I think with the awakening coming out, it will be the stronger of the two (but we'll see).

I swap out added chaos with item rarity if I'm running low level maps. I was levelling freeze mine to test some stuff out, but it turned out to not be that great.



Bandito's
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Normal - Oak
Cruel - Kill all
Merciless - Alira
Hello, just thought I'd let you know I tried this out in the HC 5day solo. I too died at cruel Dom (in the final phase no less) @ Lvl 52. Not sure exactly what happened, but most likely bad play on my part. I was slightly under level and potentially got greedy. Regardless, the build seemed solid especially for the crap gear i had. May try again and get EB earlier in order to help run a higher AA. Self found made it tough, no CWDT, no spell echo, faster projectiles, etc., so I'm interested in trying this again in reg HC.

Thoughts:
- Curious as to why you choose added chaos over cold pen, unless it's an attempt to help with reflect.
- Could see dex becoming an issue in self found leagues
- Cold snap prolif was amazing once i was able to upkeep powercharges with curse on hit.
- I might try investing in the Templar Celestial nodes vs Heart of Ice just for comparison. Just don't think it's efficient enough to warrant the long run for the damage nodes.

Last edited by Deaddawg#2613 on Apr 27, 2015, 3:59:15 PM

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