[2.1] Qwark's HC viable Glacial Cascade build, cheap and tanky
|
Bump
|
|
|
Hi,
I'm currently following your build but I see that you take very little Cold damage nodes. What is your take on that choice? |
|
" Glacial cascade has no need for offensive nodes beyond a few specific ones which are too good to pass up. The really good nodes are just far away enough to cost way too many points to get which means you have to sacrifice something, either crit, jewels or survivability, and that's not something you should ever do with glacial cascade. The recommended version of the build get 4 jewels, that's about 30-64% increased damage depending on how much you're willing to spend on jewels. Each can be "worth" up to 8 passives or even more if you spend money. Nevertheless, the build isn't reliant on them, they're extremely good but you don't need them in the slightest. Just a 4L can very easily clear maps. Last edited by Qwark28#7687 on Aug 5, 2015, 9:45:05 AM
|
|
|
B
|
|
|
B
|
|
|
B
|
|
|
Hey,
I have been working on a similar build but using EB/ZO/MOM to manage my defence. Why did you decide to go the way you when, and did yo consider EB/MOM style? |
|
" EB/MOM would cost 5 more points and it's better to have up to 9.5k+ effective life rather than 5 to 5,5k life with a 30% reduction. Realistically, it will be tons of burst damage that's going to end up killing you and I think that 8k+ EHP along with EC + fortify + CoF + CWDT and more are good enough to save you from that situation. Considering all that defence and mitigation, I thought it better to then work on a larger EHP pool. It's all about whether you want 4k ES over 30% mitigation of ~5k life which is then, effectively, 6.5k life. The only advantage I see in MOM is better protection against chaos damage in situations where it'd make your ES non-functional. Last edited by Qwark28#7687 on Aug 18, 2015, 7:20:33 PM
|
|
|
I'm gonna try it out, as you say its only 5 point investment. You also forgot the added defense possibility of being able to reserve 100% mana.
My idea is to use Herald of Ice, Anger, and Arctic Armor. If I ever get an Alpha's Howl I could also pick up Sovereignty and run Grace instead of AA. Here is what I got planned so far: https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAAuMHpYIQ37AsnEmyrrNBlgVC0PVVxoPbBAdMszpYUDAgbtteUlOXlT1fl_RtGWpDwFQI9Lzqaxci9GwLkydJsdfP-TfviH_GEZZJUfDVlS4HHvIdZJ3r9Y_62wuCHohCwcUOSHBSidNw1V3y34RCw4w2Av4mlWHiVUsWv-vufIMRLZrgU1JFnUVHMtHAZqIABLPwH2jyPAXvfJ_fmjvVpu08KU_kIoV9a7c62Ow4GjiQVScvGmz3weNqFm8kqjbp-tIXL2TnVdaApGNDDdGFMg== I also plan on using the Blood Dance boots to supply the majority of my ES regen through ZO. |
|
" The point I was making is that 5 points is too much and it lowers your defense. It's much better to have a 10k effective life pool than 5.5k x 30% whenever mana is up, which is 7,150 effective life assuming you still maintain a 200%+ life Your aura setup doesn't get herald of lightning which means you lose the ability to autocurse and there is no defense to be had in reserving 100% because you have no defensive auras left to run. Grace and Determination are pointless to run and Discipline no longer gives you a larger EHP pool, meanwhile you're already running AA. Anger is unneccesary, you already do tons of damage, easily clearing high lvl maps because of how good glacial cascade is as a skill. Grace isn't what you want to run on this build because you don't actually have any evasion rating, whatever you do you're not going to be able to scale Grace properly so it's an actual defense while AA is always active while doing DPS. Blood dance is also not needed because you're maintaining frenzy charges with HoI linked with ice bite + you lose upwards of 90 life + ES which on its own wouldn't be that troublesome but you are wearing cloak of flame so 2 pieces without life is pushing it for HC. Overall, the 10 points you spent in total and 2 uniques without life leave you with your chest, boots and helm having no life or important resistances and running 2 auras which are of very limited effectiveness. Your tree has 173% life which is about 4,4k dropping down to 4k with your uniques and has no jewels whatsoever that can roll up to 7% ( ~ 140 ea ) life and 8% ES ( ~ 100-180 ea ). Even with your extra aura and MOM mitigation, you can barely mitigate enough to in theory reach just the life pool of the original. And of course, damage. A good jewel will have about 25% spell damage minimum + life so using Anger for extra DPS doesn't even matter because you're sacrificing 24-32% life and 75-160% worth of spell damage to run it. Good jewels are worth 5+ passive points. Last edited by Qwark28#7687 on Aug 19, 2015, 3:51:01 PM
|
|
