[2.1] [SC/HC] Crit Acrobatics Freeze Pulser

Hey folks, just wanted to share the character I've been playing in Talisman so far.

I wanted to make a life based character that didn't rely on the Scion wheel for it's lifepool but could still have nice number above the red globe. Currently at level 92 I have 5.5k life so I consider that goal to be achieved.

First things first, the passive tree:


This nets you 159% life from the passive tree without counting jewels. I currently only have 2 sockets picked up for another 13% life. There's a few options to get some more raw life in favour of damage or utility if you so desire. For example, you can drop the Frenzy charges and get 16% extra life on the tree.

Secondary focus is on efficient damage nodes and evasion, grabbing projectile speed where possible. I picked up some flask nodes because I personally like having them, but you can drop those in favour for more damage or life if you wish. Getting all of the projectile speed means that you don't need a quality Freeze Pulse gem at all, the range will be just fine even without Projectile Speed on a wand.

I decided to pick up Frenzy Charges and use Ice Bite in my main 5link. The passive tree is lacking quite a bit of cast speed compared to other spell builds so with 6 Frenzy Charges I get up to par with those. The 30% more damage I get from them is a very welcome bonus.

For bandits I went with Oak/Alira/Kraityn for Life, Cast Speed and a Frenzy Charge. I consider Life and Cast Speed the best choices by far in Normal and Cruel, but in Merciless it's mostly up to you, but I wouldn't get the passive point. An Endurance Charge is very nice if you want to play HC with this build, a Power Charge gives the most damage output and a Frenzy Charge is the best if you want to stick with my flavour of this build. Pick what you like most here.

Point of note: I'm playing a Shadow because all my builds end up being Shadow builds. You can just as well play Ranger or Witch with this if you prefer. For Witch take the Spell Damage and Cast Speed nodes to link up to the tree, for Ranger you can get the Projectile Damage nodes, with easy access to the Life & Evasion nodes too.

If you want to play this build in hardcore I'm convinced it can be done. I would probably play Ranger in stead of Shadow because the starting nodes are a little better for defense. You wouldn't get as much intelligence until later in your leveling though, so you may have to adjust your playstyle a bit.


This version sacrifices mostly some cast speed and some spell damage in favour of even more life and evasion. With this you'll hit around 6k life with a rare chest. If you wish to use, say, a Lightning Coil, you'd still have around 5.5k easily but with less Evasion.

My current gear is good, but by no means perfect. There's still a number of big upgrades I can get but most are going to be expensive. I consider this a good point to share the build and gear as it is still within reach of most players in this state.



That just about covers what I wanted to say in this post. I made a video that goes into a bit more detail as I prefer speaking over typing this stuff. There's footage from an Academy in the video too and I might add a few more recorded maps if there is a demand for those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCLMG0885g

Thanks for reading and leave a comment if you want to try out the build or have any questions! Peace!

As someone who prefers the mobility of Whirling Blades. Does this build work using Daggers. Any changes you could recommend to compensate?

A dagger would work just as well as a wand (or a scepter!), trading cast speed for more crit chance. A good Golden/Platinum Kris is definetly an option if you want to stick to Whirling Blades. You can use the dagger 3link for Whirling Blades/Faster Attacks/Fortify no problem.

Really love this build. Derp bunch of times in HC though and re-roll over and over hehe.