2.1 Waves of Cold *Barrage CoC - Freezing Pulse Build* Fast Clear

I noticed (like many others) that the new Threshold Gem for Barrage made it a prime Cast on Crit distributor. This build is similar to the Shatter Chuck builds of old, but takes advantage of new game elements to work around the Shotgun Nerf. The goal of the build is to produce enough Barrage projectiles that the generation of Freezing Pulse procs gets close to the limit of 20 per second.

In practice, this can happen pretty frequently (although briefly) against large packs and the clear speed is remarkable. Against single target mobs that can withstand multiple barrage rounds (Re: Bosses) it often reaches the freezing threshold to add a great deal of defensive ability. Currently my gear freeze locks just about every boss up to Tier 10 map bosses. I don't have perfect gear for it and this is a talisman build so it does not make use of legacy items.

With better gear I suspect it will freeze lock virtually all bosses and rares. With better gear being defined as Dual Void Batteries, Skyforth and a 6L GGGGRB ES Chest and GG Jewels. So I don't expect to hit that goal during Talisman.

- Incredible Clear Speeds
- Freezes and Shatters just about everything
- Is a "Fire and Forget" build in the sense that you largely point, click and it all dies
- White/Blue packs are usually one salvo
- Rares without Elemental Resists die in less than a second
- Freeze locks most bosses

- If you aren't freezing it or dealing more leech return than it hits back, its dangerous
- Not very suitable for Hardcore
- Relies on "active defense" of freeze locking mobs
- Suffers against highly resistant bosses and rares
- Is an elemental build
- No stun immunity

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYBAx4FQgX5DXwN0Q-rD8QQWBEvEVAV1xXwFr8ZihvIHU8fQSBuJIsk_SoLKjgrCiycLL8tHy2oM5I1uTY9N9Q7fEGWQxNFfEZxTLNQMFFHUXRWY13yX2pfsGNDZJ1tbG-ecFJwu3cHf8aBrIMJhMWGrocTidOMC4w2jumP-pMnlSCVzJcGl5ebtZykoS-io6OKpHimmacrrrOvm7GQtAy0OLjKuXy-gL6KwcXB1cHzwzrEospKytPP3dAf0NDQ9dte3vjjhOUZ51Tquuv17BjssO0_7g7v6_GK8h35Y_v1_94=

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYBAx4EBwVCBfkHHg3RDkgPqw_EEFgRLxGWFfAWvxmKG8gfQSBuI_YkiyT9KgsqOCsKLJwtHy2oM5I2PTfUO3xBlkMTRXxJUUyzTZJQMFFHUXRVS1XGXfJfsGHiYqxjQ2SdbIxtbG-ecFJ3B3_GgayDCYPbhMWHE4nTjAuMNo7pj_qTJ5UglS6VzJcGl5ebtZyknaqhL6Kjo4qkeKaZrrOvm7GQtDi4yrl8voC-isHVwfPDOsSiykrP3dAf0PXbXt7444TlGedU6_XssO0_7g7v6_DV8YryHflj-_X_3g==

Barrage (lvl 3!)-CoC-Chain or GMP-Life Leech-Freezing Pulse-PCOC or Cold Pen

This can be accomplished with a 5L Voll's Devotion in order to build out cheap. PCOC should be exchanged for Cold Pen if you are using Skyforth or some other way to maintain your Power Charges. Personally I don't like the "Power Charge on Kill" mechanic for this build because its useless against most bosses. The PCOC gem also has a great benefit from the Quality (20% Crit Chance)

GMP vs Chain

I have found Chain to be superior in virtually every way. First and foremost, its more defensive as it spreads Pulses in every direction. Second its Quality benefit is much more suitable to your Freezing Pulse procs. The Projectile Speed from the tree, FP Quality and Chain Quality is an awesome amount and your pulses fly around like bats out of hell. Frozen bats out of hell.

However if you like a more directional wave of cold, then GMP gives you that. Either one is workable but in my experience Chain is just better

CWDT-IC-Inc Dur-Curse of Choice or Vaal Disc
CWDT-Ice Nova-Cold Snap-Inc AoE
Blasphemy-Frostbite
Discipline or a Purity of Choice
Herald of Ice
Ice Golem
Arctic Armor
Purity of Elements
Vaal Haste/Discipline
Flame Dash or Lightning Warp (Lightning Warp clearly superior but costs more Gem Slots)

There are many options here. A lot of it will depend on your preference and whether you are a life based build or a CI/ES build. You only need enough mana to summon your Ice Golem and cast a 2-3 Barrage Salvos. By using Mana Gain on Hit Jewels in your three open Jewel slots you do not have mana problems. I find that with Chain I only need +4 Mana Gained on Hit (2 Jewels) and my natural Mana Regen to maintain my pool. Your Barrage is very cheap to cast even when 6L and using Voidbringers (37 Mana per Cast).

A dual curse build is possible by throwing in an Ele Weakness with your Blasphemy. I personally find that the amount of gear options you would have to sacrifice or tree points make it a bad investment. However, if you are rich and can afford a +1 curses items without sacrificing Accuracy or Resistances, more power to you. Or if you have a Level 100 char ready to go and want to climb out to the +1 Curses Wheel.

I am currently working on freeing enough Mana Reserved through the tree and Enlighten gems so I can run Discipline, Herald of Ice, Arctic Armor and Blasphemy while still having enough mana to summon an Ice Golem.

Armor

6L Belly of the Beast is BiS from all angles. With your tree bonus to life flasks plus the Belly bonus, your life flasks are just awesome.

6L Lightning Coil is comparable if you can stack up enough lightning resist. The build lacks in physical defenses and the 30% physical conversion to lightning adds a nice defensive mechanic.

5L or 6L Voll's Protector. A 5L Voll's is likely how you will get started in the build and then move on to more expensive options as you can afford.

Helm

Rare helm with Accuracy, Life and Resists. Rat's Nest is a possibility but you lose a lot of life and in general you are not suffering for DPS due to the incredible number of Freezing Pulses flying around.

Gloves

Rare gloves with IAS, Accuracy, Life and Resists. A note about Maligaro's is necessary here. As your gloves, helm and jewelry are your only real sources of Accuracy and as Accuracy is highly important to CoC builds you will want to skip Maligaro's here. Unless you can get to 94+% to hit without parking Accuracy in your gloves, in which case feel free to use them.

Boots

Movement speed, Life and Resists

Belt

Doryani's Catalyst - Cold Version; cheap, easily accessible and quite frankly you can't really do better. Second option would be a high life belt with resists and flask effects.

Rings

Diamond Rings with Accuracy, Life and Resists

Amulet

Hexclaw Amulet with Life, Accuracy and Critical Strike/Multiplier mods. Resists on your amulet are a bonus here. Your amulet is one of the few places where you can stack great Critical Strike (up to 75%) and 30% Crit Multiplier.

Shield

Critical Strike Chance for Spells, Spell Damage, Life and Resists. +2 to Cold Gems is a nice bonus if you can find it for your Ice Golem, Blasphemy and Frostbite gems. However the emphasis should be on Spell Crit and Spell Damage/Cold Damage. Dual Void Batteries is the best setup if you can afford it.

Wand

This is a pretty specific target if you are not sitting on a Void Battery. An Omen or Prophecy wand is your best base due to the 9% base critical strike chance. It is important to note that Tora can craft critical strike on these wands to get you a wand that will bring you to 95% chance for crit strike via your tree and other gear. THIS IS IMPORTANT to achieve.

A single Void Battery will not get you to 95% chance to crit with your wand, but the overwhelming amount of Spell Damage makes up for that shortfall. You will not be able to achieve that kind of bonus from a standard wand.

So you want your wand to have the following (or obviously a combination thereof)

Spell Crit
Spell Damage
Cold Damage
+x Cold Damage to Spells
Crit Multiplier
Attack Speed
Base Crit Chance of at least 11% (Note: You will need to test with your gearout to see what base % is necessary to hit 95%. You may be able to get away with less than 11%)

Believe it or not I have not found these wands to be particularly expensive. The wand I am using I bought for 5c and crafted the critical strike onto it.

To repeat a Void Battery is your best option.

Flasks

Instant Life Recovery Flask of Heat
Big life flask of Staunching
Atziri's Promise for extra damage and leech
Surgeon's Sapphire Flask of Warding (For reflect rares)
Nice movement flask
Taste of Hate instead of one of the above if you feel like it

Armor

High ES 6L chest with resists. This can be very expensive and if you don't have one I suggest you stick with the life version of this build until you do. The resists are key because they will allow you to use specific uniques that add a great deal of power to this build. Unique options are not really that good here as you will want an ES chest of 650+.

Helm

High ES Helm with Accuracy, Resists and Strength. You need to stack up some strength on your gear in order to be able to use CWDT setups with Increased Duration gems. If you plan on using Lightning Warp, then you will need it for Reduced Duration. Also depending on your mana pool you may end up needing Reduced Mana for your Ice Golem.

Gloves

Voidbringers are BiS. Huge amount of ES, Spell Crit and a nice chunk of ES regen when clearing maps. Your barrage attack is super cheap on mana consumption and is easily replaced due to your belt choice and a few + Mana on Hit Jewels. Lastly the +1 to Elemental Gems allows you to set your cold gems up in here for an additional bonus. Accept no other.

Boots

Skyforth are far and away BiS if you can afford them. This frees up another gem slot on your armor allowing you to add a second Ice spell or (better) cold penetration. If not;

High ES, Movement Speed and Resists rare.

Belt

Auxium. Protects you from freeze problems, gives a chunk of ES and give you nice mana leech % from your base attack out of your wand. True your physical attack with your wand is tiny, but then so are your mana leech needs.

Rings

Diamond Rings with Accuracy, Strength, Resists and ES mods. A nice thing you can do here is make sure one of your Diamond Rings is similar in its Resists to a Pyre unique ring. Then when you hit a bad map for Cold Resists, you can slap a Pyre in and change your Frostbite curse out for a Flammability. Burn everything instead of freezing it. Or reroll the map if you don't care :)

Amulet

Hexclaw Amulet with Accuracy, Strength and Critical Strike/Multi mods. Energy shield bonuses are a nice plus. However this can get pretty pricy. But hey if your rich, your rich. Have fun.

Shield

Again Dual Void Batteries are best, but if you cannot afford (like me) then a High ES shield with Spell Crit, Spell Damage and Resists is best.

Wand

This is a pretty specific target if you are not sitting on a Void Battery. An Omen or Prophecy wand is your best base due to the 9% base critical strike chance. It is important to note that Tora can craft critical strike on these wands to get you a wand that will bring you to 95% chance for crit strike via your tree and other gear. THIS IS IMPORTANT to achieve.

A single Void Battery will not get you to 95% chance to crit with your wand, but the overwhelming amount of Spell Damage makes up for that shortfall. You will not be able to achieve that kind of bonus from a standard wand.

So you want your wand to have the following (or obviously a combination thereof)

Spell Crit
Spell Damage
Cold Damage
+x Cold Damage to Spells
Crit Multiplier
Attack Speed
Base Crit Chance of at least 11% (Note: You will need to test with your gearout to see what base % is necessary to hit 95%. You may be able to get away with less than 11%)

Believe it or not I have not found these wands to be particularly expensive. The wand I am using I bought for 5c and crafted the critical strike onto it.

To repeat a Void Battery is your best option.

Yes this was just pasted from the life section.

Flasks

Diamond Flask of Heat
Hallowed Mana Flask of Staunching (For when you do run out of mana and for a flask you can spam against Corrupted mobs)
Atziri's Promise
Surgeon's Sapphire Flask of Warding (For reflect mobs)
Movement Flask
Taste of Hate is a nice defensive flask to switch in

3 Volley Fire Jewels in the obvious places
For your three Rare Jewels you have a lot of options as your Freezing Pulse skill has a lot of keywords. You are also wielding a wand, a shield (maybe) or Dual Wielding Void Batteries.

You will want some +2 Mana on Hit Jewels. I find two to be the magic number for me, but perhaps you will find you can survive on one or need all three.

Basically when choosing Jewels;

Crit Chance>Crit Multi>Spell Damage/Cold Damage/Projectile Damage>Freeze Duration

Freeze Chance is meaningless as you are running FP at over 80% crit chance. Crits automatically apply Freeze. Freeze Duration is decent though as it pushes some bosses into full lockdown mode between Freezing Pulse hits. However, as a rule Chance to Crit and more damage tends to be better as it also extends freeze time while increasing your leech returns.

I have found the Jewels to be pretty easy to craft/trade because there are just so many keywords to tap into on this build