Frost Blades

Thanks.^^^

Really wish this skill was better.

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Vipermagi wrote:

The Projectiles are still Attacks 'with one-handers' (or whatever). Twin Terrors for example will apply.

And more appropriately, so will "fencing". Its increasing the damage/crit etc of one handed melee weapons, but that weapon is being used to create a projectile. So it works.
This would also apply to spectral throw. While, "master of the arena" inc melee physical does not.

I am making a solid go of Frost blades atm.

Things of note. The single target damage is still very weak. the damage buff is ok. but its still often pretty painful. Relying on decoy totem to buy time, and diamond/silver flasks to deal any real damage single target. Aoe clear is strong. everything explodes.
Multistrike is required. Trying to use this skill without MS's "autotargeting" is abysmal.

Currently doing elemental DW pathfinder. Focusing on general attack damage, weapon buffs, getting neither melee, or proj passives.
Pathfinder is a bit op, so that might have something to do with it..
not sure if sad or good, current clear speed, and power is largely from edict of fury, rampage gloves, and I am pretty sure the powerful synergy of Master alchemist 20% shock/freeze and herald of ice/thunder.
That said, as a venue to apply these things. its working well..

Fork vs chain. Chain is mechanically superior for Frostblades of course. however, the support's massive global damage reduction kills it. Its more then a bit lame you must get chain from deadeye or touch of anquish, for this skill the be mechanically pleasing.

Anyone know why chain's "less damage" is not projectiles only?


Edit: ah, figured it out. its because Arc is not a projectile. So, chain is broken for all melee skills , because of Arc.

Well ive done a Dual Doryanis Catalist ranger with deadeye ascendicy and its much better than i ever though. The no penalty to dmg chain just makes the skill really good, in fact this is prob top 3 clearspeed build i ever saw in Poe. Also if you get a very good suport full auras and stuff, you just get insane tooltip dps, like milions insane tooltip dps, you heard me milions.

I changed my mind on the necessity of chain/fork.

I am now thoroughly convinced quite the opposite.
Late maps, Uber lab, Atziri, etc... Frostblades aoe is inherently very powerful, not needing nay investment into it all.

The skill is the opposite of Molten strike.

Molten strike and Frostblades both have separate melee and projectile components. MS will spawn 3 projectiles on melee hit. This proj are aoe tagged and will shotgun. They travel very short distance. This means Molten strike will scale most effectively with projectiles, aoe, etc. GMP/Pointblank, dying sun, carcass jack. IT is extremely powerful single target and short range melee. But due to lack of range, very weak at distance.

Frostblades however is, again, the opposite. It has huge innate attack range. This innate attack range, greatly increases dps just from raw utility. DPS uptime is dramatically increased as you can attack from outside melee range, eliminating the need to Whirling blades in at all. This is also a huge defensive boon, as you attack from outside melee range from them attacking you. GG to volitiles. only Voll/dominus smashes have large enough aoe. (wonder if foil range changes will make even them a memory?)
FB's projectiles fire off from your primary target, but DO NOT HIT it. Molten strikes projectiles DO. Lit strikes projectiles fire from YOU, so THEY hit the primary target as well. FB do NOT. Chain and fork, are the only means to bounce back at that primary target, but this requires a secondary target to bounce from... This is a giant trap. Do not build Frostblades focusing on those projectiles. what you CARE about, is that primary target. And, the defensive benefit of long range attacking, as well as the dps increase from attacking farther away.

I do recommend slotting fortify into frostblades itself. As noted, you attack from outside whirling blades range. Thus, can't really makes use of it to get fortify. And its +melee phys is actually useful. Alternatively, champion or scion fortify on hit, to free up a gem slot. Pathfinder is extremely strong for frostblades as noted previously. 40% elem damage, 20% elem status, immune to elem status, elem DR, charge gain. then, surgeons or elem pen.

Has there been a reduction to this skills range since 2.5? I may just be remembering wrong, but it feels FB's weapon range is lower now, even despite the inherent buff that came with the latest patch.

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_Tiem wrote:

Has there been a reduction to this skills range since 2.5? I may just be remembering wrong, but it feels FB's weapon range is lower now, even despite the inherent buff that came with the latest patch.

I also feel like it is lower, but only feel like that at higher levels. Doesn't help that I am playing on a different screen, certainly doesn;t feel like you have bigger or longer reach.

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paulinhocouto wrote:

Well ive done a Dual Doryanis Catalist ranger with deadeye ascendicy and its much better than i ever though. The no penalty to dmg chain just makes the skill really good, in fact this is prob top 3 clearspeed build i ever saw in Poe. Also if you get a very good suport full auras and stuff, you just get insane tooltip dps, like milions insane tooltip dps, you heard me milions.

I am doing same because I did a shadow version with unique claws that chain on max frenzy and ìt was fun but thought how cool to chain all the time and not be restricted to these claws.Also projectile speed is easier to get with ranger.

But yes only on cruel but also only 4 link and feels like it has good clear speed.Need to do lab yet in cruel and get +1 chain.Only doing 4k but so many things to upgrade it yet.

Everybody has said pretty much what I've agreed upon. The main thing which I dislike from this is the Skill doesn't trigger the Projectiles when attacking breakable objects which is also the same problem with Wild Strike.