2.2 Elementalist Ice nova. Insane clear speed, AoE, and damage. Super cheap

Just because i had the extra time, I decided to give this build a try. I'm a bit mixed on the whole point of it, but for a softcore build that costed something like 1 alch. the result has been somewhat decent. I tweaked it a little bit with running a doedre's + ele weakness and frostbite; but it's somewhere between genius and insanity.

The DPS more or less pre-act 3 - late act 3 ~ picked up a lot, but at the same time with the perandus chests hiccup'd quite a bit. Now, bare in mind, I'm typically a block char, not an ES char, and usually melee, but over-all with some work arounds with bosses (which tbh have been a hiccup in and of themselves) using glacial cascade brings somewhat of a successful outcome with bosses.

However, if you're looking for a HC build, even starting out with full ES, i wouldn't recommend as is.

over-all, though, I am very satisfied with this build in how it quickly it came together and feels like it's "workable". My fears with this build stem from a lack of ES, and some hesitation to sway too far from wanting to feel like --- "what if this was a start of a season?"

the result would be incredible.

I've been debating some sort of 6l tabula rasa work around for bosses, (perhaps all-innish on the event, but after playing a trapper, traps on bosses work really well!) Maybe bear trap, or some type of fire storm trap set up, i'm definitely open to suggestions but wanted to bump your thread with some real-results.

"

Freegells wrote:

Yea I was just about to reply this thing about Whirling Blades... But now I'm already accustomed with Lightning Warp.

And about the gem thing, I'm still using Controlled Destruction instead Increased AoE because I'm still levelling and my damage sucks a little (not geared at all). I know that if I use Concentrated Effect the damage would be awesome but the AoE would be meh. Some numbers just to illustrate:
- Ice Nova in a normal Bitterdream linked with Spell Echo and Controlled Destruction: 5.360dps
- Ice Nova in a normal Bitterdream linked with Spell Echo and Increased AoE: 3.920dps

This, for me, is a really impressive dps difference. Thus the AoE difference isn't that much.


To finish my post, have 1 question: in your leveling skill trees you take the spell damage and cast speed first nodes until the 70's tree and then you change that nodes to the ES and mana ones from the 80's to the end. Is it just an error or I can refund those early points and apply them to the other side?

Hm those deeps seem low. What level are you at currently? Also yeah if you prefer controlled destruction over IAoE then go for it. I actually don't remember what I leveled with. I might have used controlled Destruction as well.

And no the leveling skill tree is not an error. I suggest that you start off with some damage nodes and keep them until your damage gets to be really high, then spec into the ES nodes and refund the damage ones

continuing tracking image @ 61
side notes: like 10 failures on lab in normal[no joke, unfortunately, poor play, bad luck, blah blah, q.q] + leaving my client open for at least/approximately 2 1/2 hours


other side note: don't skip cast speed earlier in favor of ES, make sure if you're looking at his 10 pt tree vs his 100 tree, he does say multiple times to NOT TAKE ES EARLY, and instead get something like 15%cast speed.

I also highly recommend as early as 40-50 trying to corrupt for faster casting. Now being 60~ it's about 1k dps gain, the other side effect to consider is more or less the theory crafting behind a ranged ice nova x2 [spell echo] x spell effect [ignite/freeze/shock]. Still very truly prefer glacial cascade for bosses. The amount of movement required to dodge in most instances allows for at least one cast. The problem with nova besides having to be "closer" and "stopping" is just a vision issue with nova caking over any ground effect.

I highly recommend this build for a lot of reasons --- particularly in time. to be honest, for how often i "die" the only area i fell short was somewhere in the 60's between act 2 and act3 where i fell behind the leveling and sac'd a level to vaal over-soul [act 2 boss]. But even at level 61 I've managed to more or less clear most of act 3. The builds potent... until you can't freeze something....... with perandus chests [more of that], in addition to heavier mob types in general towards the end of act 2.

I don't post my death count to be negative towards the build, to be honest, i've really been loving it. I wish I could insulate a few more sillier deaths but, I'm a melee left clicker, 1 button player. Getting used to lightning warp and running away, it'll take time. :D

@super_pk1

Thank you very much for your results and positive comments. I'm glad you're enjoying it and it's great to have someone to post results for more of the leveling process, as I, myself, am an endgame player at heart and generally don't post build guides till ~ level 90 and generally forget what went on in leveling. So yeah, you're feedback is awesome.

You're death count is a bit higher then mine, but not substantially. I'm have 197 @ lvl 91. And deaths really get a lot less bad once you gear for maps and get a lot of ES, etc. I'd say I had probably < 15 deaths after level 80

P.S my total ES pool at level 91 is 6,564 and with 1,676 life.

I'm honestly surprised you are having trouble with Perandus boxes. They seem very easy for this build to me. I usually just leap slam into the middle of them and cast and they die. Although I do remember dying to them some during leveling. I honestly think though that if you do a re-gearing to get yourself some higher amounts of ES, and maybe use leap slam/whirling blades to get fortify, I think that you're deaths will go down a lot. Once I got my "mapping gear", A.K.A. I didn't look for level requirements, My deaths went down a lot and my build majorly started to shine. I just recently had someone messaging me about the build saying they were dying a lot and I asked them to link their gear and there was a lot of low level uniques, etc. with little to no ES. To get good results in mapping, you're going to need a good sized ES pool. Something like 3.5k seems probably good for low level mapping.

Must start by saying great guide, a question though, on your gorge run it looks like your using glacial cascade but theres no mention i can see of it in your links

"

cantrill1966 wrote:

Must start by saying great guide, a question though, on your gorge run it looks like your using glacial cascade but theres no mention i can see of it in your links

Well using it at the beginning of the Gorge run was a mistake. But I use it for the more difficult bosses. It does a little extra damage and has a much better range. I swap it out for Ice nova when I need to. You can generally keep it in your off hand or an extra unlinked socket.

Here I am again... But now to say just one thing: I FREAKING LOVED THIS BUILD. Seriously. I don't even have will to play in my other characters.

Today I finished my set and got level 78, my DPS problem isn't that big anymore (with heralds, frenzy charges and elemental overlord it's like 25k), have nice ES/Life pool and almost max all resists. Thank you for this amazing and totally budget build guide! Planning to do the boring as hell Labyrinth now.

I am really enjoying this build as well! I just attempted swapping Area of Effect for Cold to Fire and using The Consuming Dark in my offhand. I kill things so fast and i am only level 59. Cant wait to see how this progresses.

"

Yuguru wrote:

I am really enjoying this build as well! I just attempted swapping Area of Effect for Cold to Fire and using The Consuming Dark in my offhand. I kill things so fast and i am only level 59. Cant wait to see how this progresses.

Try using Controlled Destruction instead and use http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Pyre. This ring converts all your cold damage to fire damage (instead only 50% of Cold to Fire) so your final damage should be even better with more chaos damage.

Wow guys I'm so glad you're enjoying this! It makes me very happy that you like it XD

I'll try to post my newer slayer build later this week. It's a much more tanky build that I'm doing now, and it's very fun as well XD