[2.1] Mind over Matter Freezing Pulser - safe, good damage and affordable

At about 280 mana a second, Freezing Pulse doesn’t come cheap. At full casting speed, we spend 170 mana more per second than we regenerate, which is still possible for a long time for a build with 1.1k unreserved mana. To help out with mana and life, Warlord’s Mark is linked both to Cast When Damage Taken (at a low level) and to Herald of Ice + Curse on Hit, which triggers rather often.

Freezing Pulse + Faster Casting + Controlled Destruction

The first three skills are self-explanatory due to their power. After that, I usually also run

Faster Projectiles

either for staying away from dangerous mobs or faster clearing. The fifth link varies between

Lesser Multiple Projectiles

- you CAN clear packs without it but it’s just slower, or

Cold Penetration

for single target against bosses or uniques. There’s also the possibility of Added Cold Damage, which gives even higher tooltip damage due to good damage effectiveness, but I think the other options provide better and safer clearing. If you are a bith wealthy and need something for a sixth link, a level 3 or level 4

Empower

will give you a big damage boost.

Herald of Ice + Curse on Hit + Warlord's Mark

A decent damage boost – adds about 2.5k DPS – but more importantly, clears stragglers from packs and curses mobs not in full killing range but about to get close. Against dangerous bosses not surrounded by mobs I sometimes switch it off to have more unreserved mana available to soak up bigger hits.

There's the option of using a fourth link for

Hypothermia

which gives you noticeably stronger ice explosions at the cost of 5% mana reservation. I think it's worth the mana cost as you'll clear faster unless you're doing really dangerous maps where you want as much mana as possible (thanks to burned20022003 for the suggestion).

Cast When Damage Taken (level 1) + Warlord's Mark (level 5) + Increased Area of Effect

To curse enemies where Herald of Ice doesn’t trigger. CWDT + curse is not always good, but with Warlord’s it’s pretty perfect because the amount of leech doesn’t get reduced at lower levels of the spell, and leech is most needed after taking damage.

Clarity

You can choose which level you want, I found around level 8 good for providing decent regeneration while still leaving unreserved mana at a comfortable level. I switch to level 20 when I take out Herald of Ice.

Enlighten

If you happen to have an Enlighten at level two or three, by all means get yourself a five-linked Coil and put Enlighten + Clarity + Herald of Ice (plus the Curse on Hit combo) in there. You will be safer with more unreserved mana. But be aware that getting three blue sockets on a Lightning Coil can require quite a lot of Chromatic Orbs (we're talking about 500+ here) and might not be worth it if you don't have much currency.

Lightning Warp + Less Duration + Faster Casting

Because I don’t like to walk where I can warp…

Vaal Clarity + Increased Duration

Before engaging a boss or opening a strongbox, I switch on Vaal Clarity (ideally with Increased Duration) to save 280 mana/second and have a bigger health buffer to work with.

Rallying Cry

I haven't tested this at all, but it seems like it could act as a lesser Vaal Clarity without needing souls, plus it gives some damage. I still run Vaal Clarity and don't get into situations where I would need the extra mana that much, but if you do, or want to run another Vaal skill (like Vaal Grace) then it could be worth running.

As mentioned, a Pledge of Hands is almost non-negotiable for this build due to effectively adding a link and vastly increasing our mana for Mind over Matter. If you can’t get it, a Taryn’s Shiver or any staff with high spell/cold/elemental damage will do (you could also dual-wield Doryani’s Catalyst if you manage to get a Lightning Coil with four blue for your Freezing Pulse).

For defense, you really want



which is also hard to replace but not that expensive to get. The build doesn’t scale armour or energy shield very much so you’ll have a hard time replacing it with a rare with high stats.

There’s one other item almost perfect for this build:



High projectile speed, damage AND life? We’ll take it! The drawback isn’t very noticeable as long as you remember to get 30% increased movement speed boots.

As for the rest, fill up resistances and life, and look for high flat mana increased and high percentages of mana regeneration. I choose to wear a



for both stats but it's in no way mandatory.

Level 85 tree:



Bandit choices should be Oak - Alira - passive point.

As you can see, we take a number of jewel sockets to be filled with spell damage/cold damage/life/projectile speed etc. For leveling, I recommend first pathing to the Templar side of the tree, taking Mind over Matter only once you have rather good regeneration and leech going, then go towards Sniper and finally the Shadow area. Since we don't actually pick up many nodes specific to cold damage, up to level 50 or 60 you can use a skill that is stronger in the early stages like Bladefall, Firestorm or Flame Totem. Good gear in those early stages would be Lifesprig or a Reverberation Rod (dual wield if you feel safe enough).

There's the possibility of picking up Acrobatics for only a five point investment after going to the Shadow area. This will very much increase the tankiness of the build so is definitely a viable choice for Hardcore. Points for that should come off the projectile damage nodes below Scion (4), Heart of Oak (2) and/or Occultist's Dominion (3) - if you use all of them you can get Phase Acrobatics as well. Damage will suffer a bit but if you feel you alrady have enough damage or have access to a 6-linked Pledge this is a very strong option.

This build allows you to play it in very different ways. If you want to go fast and dangerous, you can Warp right before packs and get maximum damage at close range. If you are playing in Hardcore or just don’t want to die, you can shoot from long range. For both styles, you want to be mobile – since Freezing Pulse pierces, you want to get as many mobs as possible in one direction before you to maximize your clear speed and be safe. This requires some walking or Warping around.

There are not many map mods this build can’t do. Elemental reflect and Blood Magic are the ones I don’t do, for obvious reasons, but apart from that everything is possible. Curse immunity takes away our leech so we link Herald of Ice with Life Leech and Freezing Pulse with Mana Leech (taking out Penetration/Faster Projectiles). You’ll leech a bit less life but still survive. No life or mana regeneration maps also require mana leech (with Herald or Freezing Pulse) and maybe an additional mana flask. Mods like Elemental Equilibrium or Cold Resistance are a bit annoying and need Penetration instead of Faster Projectiles but they’re still very doable. If you hit Curse immunity + no regeneration + Equilibrium + Cold Resistance…well, I think it’s time to use that Chaos Orb.

Why no Arctic Armour?

Fits with the cold theme and provides extra defense. Someone did the math and concluded that the protection from Arctic Armour would outweigh the reduction in unreserved mana in Mind over Matter builds, but that doesn’t take into account the high mobility of this build. By all means, switch it in for Herald or Clarity against bosses which deal a lot of smaller fire/physical hits!

Which advantages does this build have over going the critical strike route with Freezing Pulse?

While Freezing Pulse focusing on crit has the advantage of freezing a mobs a lot more frequently, it has the disadvantage of being weaker defensively when either getting unlucky with crits for a few seconds or when facing tough bosses which can't realistically be frozen. Many points spent on crit chance/multi mean that there aren't that many left for life and defense. In addition, Pledge of Hands + Mind over Matter is a really strong defensive mechanism which a crit build couldn't really use since it would lose 12-15% crit chance from dagger and shield. So while crit Freezing Pulse can certainly be made viable, it seems a riskier choice than this build.


To be expanded as new questions get asked…