[2.2] A Storm of Ice and Fire - Avatar of Fire CI Whispering Ice - Uber Viable!

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Kelvynn wrote:

Skill point all the way! I have no idea why the main post says that 5% cast speed is better. It makes such a tiny difference in the cast time, you won't even notice it. This is not a build that constantly spams its main ability. We cast, move, cast, move. A skill point is far more valuable than 0.01s shorter cast time. IMO.

I diged a bit deeper in to the thread and found your 2.1 build. then i compared the radius of CE Icestorm from OPs 2.2 Uber Atziri video to your 2.1 Double Palace CE Icestorm, or at least i tried with two videos made by different people doing different things... ;)
I bring this up because i can not see much difference between the radius of your and ops version. inspecting your skill tree on lady winter and ops build, the difference is your build got 10% more increased area than Baals build right?
i am not a fan of faster casting compared to the other damage options available, but i can imagine that for mapping or lower content i might just run around with inc aoe rather then CE. My question is; does the additional 10% aoe spread the damage to much to even bother gem swapping?

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Kelvynn wrote:

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lordchopf wrote:

I am so torn on the cruel bandit between the 5% cast speed and the skill point :/

Skill point all the way! I have no idea why the main post says that 5% cast speed is better. It makes such a tiny difference in the cast time, you won't even notice it. This is not a build that constantly spams its main ability. We cast, move, cast, move. A skill point is far more valuable than 0.01s shorter cast time. IMO.

Idk man, I feel like 5% cast speed is the correct choice to make here considering this build hits the soft cap on damage pretty early on (91-92) which is quite early compared to most builds. The 5% cast speed is much more valuable than 1 more 10 int node that you might get with that bandit skill point. I would agree that the skill point is more valuable if you don't plan to push past lvl 90 though.

Hi, some questions:
1. Inc AoE on tree. Is it worth?
2. How about pathfinder sub-class? 50% inc flask charges, onsaught flask with duration would always up, i think.
3. Is reflect problem?

Btw, there is boot enchant % avoid stun, if you have killed recently, with stun avoid passives on tree it grants stun-immunity, if you are fast enough.

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Wicirelllis wrote:

Hi, some questions:
1. Inc AoE on tree. Is it worth?
2. How about pathfinder sub-class? 50% inc flask charges, onsaught flask with duration would always up, i think.
3. Is reflect problem?

Btw, there is boot enchant % avoid stun, if you have killed recently, with stun avoid passives on tree it grants stun-immunity, if you are fast enough.

1. Personal preference
2. Personal preference, perma onslaught from flasks would be exactly the same as having perma onslaught from raider
3. You out-leech reflect

I took skill point over cast speed and I regret this. Icestorm have long cast animation with spell echo and after casting I feel like immobilized for a second. I think this 5% cast speed would make movement a bit more smooth.

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Kimbroslice wrote:

Idk man, I feel like 5% cast speed is the correct choice to make here considering this build hits the soft cap on damage pretty early on (91-92) which is quite early compared to most builds. The 5% cast speed is much more valuable than 1 more 10 int node that you might get with that bandit skill point. I would agree that the skill point is more valuable if you don't plan to push past lvl 90 though.

What soft cap on damage?

For each level after about 92, you get something nice with a skill point. You respec a few nodes switching between things, each one slightly better for 1 more point. It sucks when you are 1 point short of a jewel socket. You don't grab random Int nodes just for their own value, there is always a bigger prize behind them. You may get an odd node or two at the very end. But if you actually get to lv 100 then 20 regrets to change that odd point into 5% will be nothing.

However, the biggest thing about it is that 5% cast speed doesn't make any difference that you can possibly notice. We are talking about 0.02s time.

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Hoodwinks wrote:

Has anyone mentioned taking the Juggernaut Ascendancy to be stun immune? seems like it would save a lot of points.

It's not going to work for this build:
"You can't be Stunned while you're at maximum Endurance Charges"

So you can be stun immune while killing trash. That's not going to help against the things like Trio. Also, you'd have to give up CWDT IC to avoid losing charges. No way.

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Asag wrote:

I took skill point over cast speed and I regret this. Icestorm have long cast animation with spell echo and after casting I feel like immobilized for a second. I think this 5% cast speed would make movement a bit more smooth.

No, it would not. The difference of 0.02s is impossible to notice. The only noticeable difference for this build is the one between using FC and not using it.

Icestorm has a long cast time, and you do stop in place for a while when you cast it. It just takes a little time to get used to it and develop a rhythm.

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lordchopf wrote:

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Kelvynn wrote:

Skill point all the way! I have no idea why the main post says that 5% cast speed is better. It makes such a tiny difference in the cast time, you won't even notice it. This is not a build that constantly spams its main ability. We cast, move, cast, move. A skill point is far more valuable than 0.01s shorter cast time. IMO.

I diged a bit deeper in to the thread and found your 2.1 build. then i compared the radius of CE Icestorm from OPs 2.2 Uber Atziri video to your 2.1 Double Palace CE Icestorm, or at least i tried with two videos made by different people doing different things... ;)
I bring this up because i can not see much difference between the radius of your and ops version. inspecting your skill tree on lady winter and ops build, the difference is your build got 10% more increased area than Baals build right?
i am not a fan of faster casting compared to the other damage options available, but i can imagine that for mapping or lower content i might just run around with inc aoe rather then CE. My question is; does the additional 10% aoe spread the damage to much to even bother gem swapping?

You can play with the AoE values in the Firestorm Calculator. Icestorm works exactly the same.

I wanted to eliminate the gem switching. It doesn't work well in many places anyway. There are many maps that aren't wide open spaces, where extra AoE radius is wasted. And there are mobile bosses that are too hard to hit with pure CE. So I found that 20% increased AoE lets you use CE permanently with almost the same Icestorm radius and damage spread but with CE's huge MORE dps multiplier. Baalorlord settled for 10% for whatever reason. 10% radius difference should be noticeable. According to the calculator, it's about as efficient dps-wise as 20% but you just get a smaller radius. Note that each of those AoE nodes also adds 10% increased area damage (20% for 2, 30% for 3 nodes).

For lower content you can do whatever you want. But why? It's not like you do Dried Lake runs with this build. There are much more efficient AoE trash clear builds out there. The only thing that comes to mind is Labyrinth. But it's not a wide open area and you don't need extra AoE there. My setup works perfectly for Labyrinth. I do switch CD for FC for faster running though.

Here, I made a video of a Labyrinth run just now:

Labyrinth in 9 minutes

Today's layout is not the fastest I've seen, it has an annoying section in the middle. But this is how it looks in general.

much appreciated, exactly what i was looking for. Did not know there was a calc ;)