[2.0] Ten Link Arctic Breath

This build uses two uniques in order to get what I would call a "psuedo ten link". This is nothing new or revolutionary and I'm sure it has been done before, but I figured I'd explain how/why I'm using these particular uniques.

The first:



A Pledge of Hands gives linked gems level 30 spell echo, so a 6L Pledge = a 7L.

The second:



Asenath's Gentle Touch gives all your attacks and spells a level 1 Temp Chains when they hit. Through corruption, it can also give a lvl 10-12 Elemental Weakness on hit as well. Considering you normally need to link "Curse on Hit" along with two curse gems to your skill to achieve this, you could perhaps consider this an extra three links.

So, all together, that is basically a TEN LINK skill.

Now, looking at the other stats on the these two items, you can assume a build that uses these items will be an elemental spell build. Apart from that, you can really do anything with this combo.

I choose to use Arctic Breath.

So why Arctic Breath?

The strongest reason is the most simple one: it creates chilled ground. Since I already slow everything with Temp Chains, also chilling everything is a great, natural skill to pair.

Apart from that, the skill can actually still "shotgun" post-2.0 changes. Because it is also an AoE on top of being a projectile, even though the individual projectiles do not explode when hitting the same target, the explosions from each projectile can over-lap and damage everything multiple times. The tricky part is getting them to all explode - but this can be done in a few ways. If you want to know more, I'll explain further below.



So what about damage?

First off, since this is a "ten link" build, let's look at what links I run:

Arctic Breath + Faster Casting + GMP + Concentrated Effect + Hypothermia + Cold Penetration (+ Spell Echo + "Curse on Hit" + Temp Chains + Elemental Weakness)

I focused on creating strong, pure cold damage explosions with good "more" multipliers and as little "less" multiplier as possible. For some explanations on why I'm not running certain other supports, check below.



The other big factor to this builds damage is the use of the jewel system. Because I wasn't looking at currency as a factor, I chose to heavily invest in jewel sockets and skip many of the traditional important damage nodes that I deemed too many points to path to. I was able to buy all 40%~ damage jewels to make this investment worth it. In total, I get EIGHT jewels - with only one of these being a non-damage, unique jewel.

Here is an example of one of my jewels:



That's 44% increased damage!

Since none of my jewels are over three travel points, taking 40% as my average damage from a jewel, this is around 13.3% damage a point for a three point jewel - and MUCH higher for the one or two point jewels.

So what about defense?

This build mainly uses four things to stay alive: Chill, Temp Chains, Mind over Matter and Fortify.

Anything I hit will automatically be chilled and cursed with temp chains. This combo gives the build a ton of "hidden" survivability. It does not make the hits hurt any less, but when nothing actually hits you, you might find you tend to stay alive ;) With proper positioning, you can take on some very scary things and live to tell the tale.

Because I use a Pledge of Hands, I have 100% increased mana. I use this to my advantage by turning mana into effective life with Mind over Matter. With high mana regen and 30% of all damage coming out of my mana first, big hits are a lot less scary feeling.

To further this, I also make use of the fact I wield a staff to get a safe-to-proc Fortify buff. With all the increased AoE on my tree and gear, I can use a Ground Slam tied to Inc AoE, Faster Attacks and Fortify to hit something at the edge of my screen to gain Fortify. Whenever facing a tough pack/ rare, reflect, or a boss, it's a great buff to pair with MoM to stay alive.

...

And that's the basics of the build! :)

111 Point Tree:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwAA8pe31ghnm13bWZM6qJotqL0ne8OxkL6AGDwYVoMJ-eiCx0GHKPq3PriTg8z-ChzcPC3YvfJF6-6PGoNfNZI64acImuCFMv6Ppledro9G2CRFnU3j5YsabFH7m6E2xYVtU1L52-QiNunNFhhqHwLVgX7H1aYkqh8YeC8yNAQHJNjtPBZvfOWVBIPb6-RMs5o742pYB6-bVcZfKtAfl5Wf34KbEFg6WO_rUlPvfDwF7DgsnD1fl_TAZoV7bRkEs2ZUvYII9KIAVyvAVPAf_rNqQ7zqFbjIW5YynL4NHzwo

***Important: The Jewel just south of Mind of Matter contains an Int>Dex Unique Jewel to convert 60 Int into Dex for gear/gem requirements***

A taste of what you get:

• 143% life
• 52% increase aoe
• 104% mana
• 190% mana regen
• 8 jewel sockets

Uniques...

• Pledge of Hands: Required for the "ten link" factor. Gives a large damage boost and mana boost (that we can convert to defense through Mind over Matter). Very simple item.

• Asenath's Gentle Touch: Required for the "ten link" factor. Hard to get a hold of and can run expensive in temp leagues, but worth it for the punch this low level glove packs. Free dual cursing, synergy with chilled ground, and huge damage boost through the free penetration. The stats on the glove are not T1, but mana, life and int are all great to have.

• Carcass Jack: Not required, but a nice treat to have. Extra AoE is very important when running Conc Effect and no Inc AoE as it helps over-lap those explosions. A bit of damage, some resists, and a decent life roll make this an over-all good item.

• Doryani's Invitation (Cold): Not required, and does not add much more than a good rare. You basically sacrifice a good life roll for 0.2% cold leech and some freeze change with flasks up. For Standard, I'd say it's a fine sacrifice to make.

• Careful Planning: This jewel convents 60 int on my tree into dex - as well as giving up to 24 dex itself. This is the easiest way I found to get the dex required for the build. It is not required, but making up the 80+ dex needed can be rather tricky.

For rares...

• Amulet: Corruption can be useful here. If you can, aim for either a corrupted 0.2% cold leech or +1 curse (you can drop 5 points if you get that). Other than that, just look for the usual. High life, resists, stuff like spell damage and cast speed are nice luxury stats. If you can, try and grab Mana regen.
• Ring x2: Look for the usual stats, but also high mana regen and/or mana rolls to help with MoM. Spell damage and cast speed are nice luxury stats, again.
• Helmet: The usual stats, mana/int are nice.
• Boot: The usual stats, a good movespeed roll is essential, mana/int are nice.

For bases, you can either double-down on getting more ES to pair with the ES from Carcass (a little effective life can go a long way) or try to get high armor to pair with the roll on your Dory belt (a little phys reduction can go a long way, too).

For jewels...

Here are all the jewels I am using for example:



The stats you are looking for are as follows:

• Increased Spell Damage While Wearing a Staff (up to 16%)
• Increased Cold Damage (up to 16%)
• Increased Are Damage (up to 12%)
• Increased Projectile Damage (up to 12%)
• Increased Spell Damage (up to 12%)
• Increased Damage (up to 10%)

You can also get different types of Cast Speed rolls. These are probably comparable to a single damage roll - maybe better - but I decided to go flat damage as it was easier to find and I had a large amount of good cast speed already.

Defensive stats are also a good bonus (life, mana, resists, etc.) but I'd look for three damage rolls before worrying about anything else.

Pledge of Hands
Arctic Breath (+ Spell Echo) + GMP + Conc Effect + Hypothermia + Cold Pen + Faster Casting

* My main set-up. Quality is great on GMP and Faster Casting to give an extra 20% cast speed total between the two. It's a mana intense set-up, but so worth it for the sick deeps. In case of a 5L, I'd drop Faster Casting.

5/6L (Chest)
CWDT (lvl 5) + Arctic Breath (lvl 8) + GMP + Added Cold + Mana Leech [+ Life Leech / Blind / Fork]

* This set-up is meant to help apply chill + your on-hit curses to anything that chunks you down *(often something behind you that would not otherwise be hit by your line of fire) while also giving you back a bit of mana that you lose from Mind over Matter. Added Cold makes up for the low base damage of the un-leveled skill. If you have a 6L, I'd add in some utility or maybe a second spell? It's up to you. Personally, I run Clarity in my extra, un-linked socket.

4L
Ground Slam + Faster Attacks + Inc AoE + Fortify

* This lets you get a fast, safe fortify buff up. It should hit the edge of the screen and not have too much wind-up with a leveled faster attacks.

4L
Herald of Ice + Mana Leech + Cast When Stunned + Ice Nova

* This is a nifty little 4L that gives two ways to get some mana back. Your Herald procs give a nice, consistent amount of mana gain, and when you are getting stunned by something like a charge rhoa, it makes sure to curse them via Ice Nova and give you a bit of mana back, too. The mana is important when dealing with Mind of Matter!

4L
Ice Wall + Flame Dash + Faster Casting [+ Portal / Clarity]

* This 4L is basically all my "spare change". I had a BBBB corrupted Asenath's so this is what I came up with. Clarity should be somewhere else if possible (an extra socket in a 5L/6S chest is great for this) as Faster Casting causes it to reserve extra mana. A fast dash and frost wall is a great thing, though, and these give some extra buttons to push and fill out the build's utility.

• Normal: Life
• Cruel: Point -or- Cast Speed
• Merciless: Point

Personally, I went Life/Point/Point, but you do have some options. The cast speed in Cruel is a good option, but either way I don't feel it makes a huge difference until you are dealing with level 100 min-max. I don't run charges with this build, personally, but if you fit them in then take an extra whatever-charge-type-you-want.

This build levels SUPER well. One of the easiest/fastest/safest leveling experiences I've had since 2.0. If you pre-buy good jewels and Asenath's w/ EleWeak, you will be living in luxury.

I switched to Arctic Breath + LMP as soon as I hit 28 and swapped to GMP at 38 when it was available. For other links, stuff like Added Cold and Hypothermia is great for leveling.

I used this staff till 68 when I could switch to Pledge:



The free Cold2Fire is great and makes cold resist mobs a lot easier while leveling.

Apart from that, I just used basic rares with some life and resists. Nothing fancy. The build plays very well with just a 4L till you get your Pledge.,

Current level: 84

Offense

• Arctic Breath (lvl 19 gems): 12,164 dps
• (not counting area damage, conc effect, hypothermia, cold pen, ele weakness, or shotgunning)

Defense

• Life: 4,187
• Energy Shield: 591
• Mana (un-reserved): 1,175
• Mana Regen: 195.1 / sec

Build Overview + 75 Dark Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5BrKbTNgA

Current (2.0)



Out-dated (Pre 2.0)