Frost Blades

What did u choose at third Bandit Rewards? Skillpoint, Power or Frenzy Charge? I feel like going for Frenzy since i picked up 3 frenzy points in my skill tree. But Power Charge sounds good too since im going crit and then there is the Skillpoint which could also be usefull....hmm.

I feel like there are better DPS gems than Ice Bite. I could use the 6 points which i used for frenzy charges put somewhere else.



Frenzy Tree -28 Physical Dmg and Attack Speed with 6 Charges-





Non-Frenzy Tree -56% Physical Dmg, 20% Attack Speed, 6% Block Chance-




I have to spend 1 more Skillpoint but the stats i get are worth it.



After i got all my points in the Non-Frenzy Tree will work my way to get the Frenzy Charges and 1 Power Charge which would look like this:




The only thing i have now is that i dont know if i should get the Frenzy Charge since i will get the charges in the Tree later. But since i picked up a Power Charge Point too i could choose the Power Charge reward. Crits are helping with Freezing enemys and overall boost to my crit would be great. with 5 Power Charges and that much crit from the tree i will one shot literally everything. But the Skillpoint seems good too since i invested that much points in my tree...

A major improvement to this skill would be that if it doesn't hit anything, it shouldn't consume any mana.

"

Riukodou wrote:

What did u choose at third Bandit Rewards? Skillpoint, Power or Frenzy Charge? I feel like going for Frenzy since i picked up 3 frenzy points in my skill tree. But Power Charge sounds good too since im going crit and then there is the Skillpoint which could also be usefull....hmm.

Imo...

Health from Oak
Skill Point
Frenzy Charge

Why not the 16% increased damage ? They nerfed it and theres alot more you can do with 1 skill point now.

Alright, I've now given this skill enough testing to where i feel I can fully review it. I'm currently playing a two hand sword crit duelist using this as my primary skill.

-As people have said, its very clunky without multistrike but multistrike comes with problems of its own.

-I was hoping the weapon attack range bonus would increase with levels. This could be a fun mechanic for the skill. maybe +1 range every 4 gem levels would suffice.

-My favorite 4 link setup is (Frost Blades - Phys to lightning - Weapon Ele Damage - multistrike). I pair this with Herald of Ash and Herald of Ice to help spread the damage around a little (i'm debating swapping this to a full 50% reserve damage aura). Despite having a 4 target cap, I feel this is a better setup than using chain or lmp on it as the decrease in damage on those setups slows you down anyway. Hitting a multistrike crit will one shot almost all white packs and most blue backs with a high phys damage weapon. I plan on using a Maraketh Crit two hand sword once I reach that level.

-Using chain and multistrike is very very fun but also incredibly bad. Its possible to use just chain and since the projectiles seek targets very nicely, it works fairly well. The damage loss however just doesn't seem to be worth it. Chaining this skill when I was overleveled in a zone so that clear speed still felt nice was the most fun I had using this skill. Perhaps chaining once should be a base mechanic of the skill? It's so fun to use chain I almost want to use it despite the terrible dps loss.

Overall I find the skill very fun to use albeit somewhat clunky. It is by no means a top tier skill at any job. Its target cap of 4 makes it bad aoe clear without support gems that inevitably lower your damge. Its single target is abysmal. Despite this it's still very usable. I think it could benefit from a 50% phys to cold conversion rate so that phys to lightning could be more optimal for building. I think the skill just needs its niche. Right now it doesn't perform any one thing very well. Either push the AoE clear power of the skill or pump up its damage as a 4 enemy only clearer.

I wonder, why no one mentioned "Physical to Lightning" gem for this skill? It allows you to shock enemies on crit (gaining damage boost) and proc Herald of Thunder with CoH attached. It also adds decent DPS (especially with WED gem) and it has quite low mana multiplier.

I gave the skill another chance and I kinda like it, even though I still feel it's a bit weaker than say Reave. Weapon range and attack speed are imo key stats when using this skill.

"

MortalKombat3 wrote:

I wonder, why no one mentioned "Physical to Lightning" gem for this skill? It allows you to shock enemies on crit (gaining damage boost) and proc Herald of Thunder with CoH attached. It also adds decent DPS (especially with WED gem) and it has quite low mana multiplier.

I've been using it for quite a while now, (using a crit dagger tree) so the dps gain is amazing, since i shock and freeze everything.



I think this is a very versatile skill, you can easily do any reflect map if you change your gems accordingly

Currently making a build with this on my Duelist. Going 2H sword crit.

I'm starting to feel this skill is basically a "Melee" equivalent Lightning Arrow.

Chain is fantastic for this. Haven't tried LMP yet, but I imagine it should be more fluid for pack clearing. Yes, the dps loss is quite substantial, but it just feels so much better with chain. Multistrike is also absolutely essential as the targeting of most melee skills like are terrible.

Currently on a 4L with FB - WED - Chain - Multistrike.

May also experiment with Herald of Ice and Hypothermia, focusing on the shatters as the AOE clearing method.

Either way, this skill requires another single target skill, especially if focused on maximising projectile damage.

EDIT: Ok, adding LMP/GMP on top of Chain/Fork is definitely too much damage lost. Fork does seem to do better. This skill would really benefit so much if it had an innate +1 chain on the projectiles.