ULTIMATE Frost blades guide
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@Tempada
My thinking was that instead of using Enlighten (which is quite budget breaking), the Alpha Howl would have 4 green sockets with Hatred, Grace, Herald of Ice and Mana Leech, so as long as Herald of Ice does anything, it will leech mana. That's also the reason for going with mostly physical damage and getting mana leech nodes on the tree. I do see how using mana is not as easy as blood magic or soul taker. Clearly this hasn't been tested, but if I'm even a little bit correct about how much Herald of Ice will be hitting, I think it should work. |
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" I doubt it will. With acrobatics there is only two ways to be sucessful: crazy hp/ES + evasion, or capped block. Also you better hope you will chill bosses, freezing is too optimistic. And in the first place I don't think you will be using FB on bosses. As I wrote it's not single target skill at all. |
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" Hmm, the mana leech seems unreliable unless you have really high crit chance since the only time it will leech is when you get the HoI explosion. I've tested a Dreamfeather phys-based Frost Blades build on a level 95 character in a 5L QotF, and while I still need quality on my gems, I have to say it's really weak for the investment and level. Around 28k dps with 7 frenzy charges and solid gear. It's a lot of fun, but it struggles to clear in high level maps. Perhaps it would feel better with a 6L and Cold Penetration, but I don't know if Frost Blades is really meant to be a competitive endgame main skill. " Yeah, at lower levels Dreamfeather is going to feel quite weak with Frost Blades. I don't agree with people who say that QotF isn't worth it if you can use Whirling Blades. The skill goes even faster with higher movement speed, QotF shines in places where Whirling Blades is useless (tight spaces, uneven ground), and some people prefer Leap Slam anyway since it can get you over gaps and curse multiple enemies at once with Curse on Hit. Plus Dreamfeather has about two decent chest chest options if you want to make the most of evasion (QotF and Hyrri's Ire, but Hyrri's lacks life, resists, and speed). Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
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Frost Blades + CoC + Ice Spear + Fork
Get every Projectile / Cold / Crit node you can. That's what I'm currently theorycrafting. Try loading up http://poeurl.com/zsNxe0N in the offline builder from http://cb.poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/ It's what I'll be doing if my Duelist RIPs. The Duelist is using a thrusting sword for more range and a shield to hide behind. There are great Frost Blades nodes near Duelist and his damage output is quite good, but unfortunately CoC + Ice Spear was a bust without enough crit nodes. On him I'm just using Frost Blades + Fork + Multistrike + Added Fire. The beauty of Frost Blades and Ice Spear is that both are Cold and Projectile. An added bonus to using either daggers or one-handed swords is that you can quickly jet between packs of monsters with Whirling Blades. It's also a great escape mechanism and a great way to trigger buffs/debuffs (I use it for Fortify.) I do think thrusting swords are the best Frost Blades weapons because of the range and critical strike multiplier, but the easy crits from daggers are too good to pass up. Keep in mind this is all theorycrafting as my Duelist is only 58 at the moment and I haven't even gotten started on the Shadow. By the way, another benefit to these builds is that you can spec into Elemental / Cold nodes early on to level with Ice Crash and Wideswing. EDIT: I suppose I should link my Duelist build as well: http://poeurl.com/zsHIs4A EDIT2: If you take the full URL you get from poeurl you can decode it @ https://poebuilder.com/ Last edited by DB42#0456 on Jul 16, 2015, 4:40:59 PM
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I'd very much like to see a duelist 2h resolute technique tree for warbands. If maybe you could PM me tree or post it on your op that'd be great!
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I'm levelling Frost Blades - Blind - Melee Splash - LMP with dual claws at the moment, and even with un-great gear it does very well. Dual Strike + Melee Physical + Added Fire for single target, Vigilant Strike and Ice Golem. Warlord's Mark works nice, but I've been testing Punishment (which is awfully interesting now). Don't have Assassin's Mark yet, but I imagine it would work nicely.
This is the lategame I'm going for. Mana's a problem. Manageable with potions. |
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" Those links seem far from ideal. Drop Melee Splash and LMP (they decrease damage by a lot), get Multistrike and Fork. I wouldn't use Blind either, but I can see the appeal. " It only gets worse as you level gems and get more links. Spirit Void on tree? Blood Magic gem? Mana on hit jewels? Eventual Soul Taker? Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
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Apparently Marauder makes a decent 2H Frost Blader. I'm rerolling as this because I have a nagging suspicion that my Duelist is about to RIP with nearly 2Ex worth of gear.
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" That's an old tree... But you might be onto something with the idea. I'm pretty sure melee physical damage only affects Frost Blade's initial hit and not its projectiles, so keep that in mind when choosing your tree path (and if you planned to use the Melee Physical Damage gem). Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
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Tree I'm working on at the moment: http://poeurl.com/zsTiKkL
Basic Stats
Basic Stats: 186% Increased Life 5.9% Increased Life Regain 237% Increased Physical Damage Total (Includes damage with 2H Weapons and swords) 61% Increased Projectile Damage 45% Increased Projectile Speed 40% Increased Frost Damage 122% Increased Evasion 156% Increased Armour 33% Increased All Res 5 Jewel Sockets 6 Frenzy Charges (Additional from act 3 Merciless) *These Stats do not include Jewels Auras: Hatred Herald of Ice Herald of Ash Info: We would use Blood Magic on Frost Blades which would do away with the Mana problems, my only concern is the sustain we would have with the little life leech on the tree, to try and make this slightly better we would run Blood Rage and stack Armour. I personally don't like to use Herald of Ice as the build does not run crit so the chance to freeze can be quite low, the additional damage that Herald of Ice gives also seems to be lackluster unless you can proc the AOE effect. To try and improve the chance to freeze we can run them within the jewels, and also run Hypothermia on Frost Blades. With 5 jewels it would give us around 25% chance to freeze if you managed to get 3% on every jewel which i believe is the max roll(?) (Including 10% From Hypothermia)
Bandits
Bandits:
Normal - Help Oak Cruel - Kill All Merciless - Help Kraiytn 40 Increase Life Talent Point 1 Additional Frenzy Charge
Links
Links:
6L - Frost Blades(Q) - Multistrike - Hypothermia - Added Fire Damage - Fork(Q)(?) - Blood Magic(Q) I've been using fork but it sometimes feels lackluster, i have not tried it with Pierce but i can imagine it being effective. Physical Projectile Attack Damage Could also be an option if it is quality as it increases all physical damage. If you really want to freeze you could of course run an Ice Bite but the damage trade off might be too much. I would like a way to fit in weapon elemental damage, or possibly replace something with it. 4L - Cast When Damage Taken - Ice Bite - Cold Snap - Blood Magic Cold snap has a huge chance to freeze and its further increased with Ice Bite, not sure if ice bite is actually needed, you could run Blood Rage in here if you're too lazy to press it.
Jewels
Jewels:
Jewels are pretty overpowered right now so the bonus we get for having 5 sockets is insane for the cost of the talent points. In jewels we want to go for the following: Increased Damage / Increased Physical Damage Increased Maximum Life Increased Chance to Freeze Increased Life Leech The Fourth stat on a jewel can pretty much be down to the user, if you feel you already have enough sustain you can go for base strength, more damage or go for some more defensive's. You can add Cold damage, increased damage with 2H Weapons for example. With Max Rolls on the Jewels you are looking at: 50% Increased Damage /OR/ 80% Increase Physical Damage 35% Increased Maximum Life 15% Increased Chance to Freeze 2% Increased Physical Damage Leeched as Life If you don't need leech then you can get one of these instead: 80% Increased Frost Damage 50 Strength 70% Increased Damage with Two Handed Weapons 90% Increased Armour 50% Increased All Resistances Wrap Up: That's all I've got for now, i would like to find a way to easily apply Frostbite to large areas of mobs to further increase the freeze chance. Currently not sure of an efficient way to do it so feedback is always welcome. I was also thinking of running the 2 aura nodes near the Scion tree and the one at the bottom of the Duelist with an Alphas Howl to let us run a fourth Aura, possibly vitality if sustain is a problem or purity of elements. Not entirely sure if its worth it or not though. I also have worries that Increased Life could be a higher. Feedback is welcomed. Bare in mine most of the later stuff is theory, I'm not 100% sure if our sustain is good enough later on with the low life leech we have and if the additional leech is enough from Blood Rage. *Edit - Added additional Jewel stats Last edited by Chrisy743#5768 on Jul 17, 2015, 5:47:22 PM
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