Now, being a newbie, I'm wondering: since we lose the weapon with the +minion damage is there worth in discarding Zealoth's Path + Spiritual Aid + Faith and Steel to go pick Vaal Pact instead (Vaal Pact does not affect the ascendency's ES regen)? The pathing to Spiritual Aid etc plus the loss of those nodes is about just the same number of skill points needed to reach VP.
We would undoubtedly lose damage though we could change Enfeeble for a damage increase curse to compensate (I also imported the build and changed to Cerberus to check the DPS loss and it actually gained a bit of Vortex DoT damage, but I doubt that's correct), but the build has plenty of it. We gain survivability, but the build seems to have plenty of it as well, so for me it's a wash. But even without butchering part of the build to grab VP this feels like a good leveling choice.
Some builds don't have a lot of wiggle room to change things about as they are only just barely passable with defence or damage dealing so you have to stick to it rigidly. One of the nice things about this build is there's quite a lot of wiggle room, our damage and defence are both great so you can chop and change it about to suit your own needs.
That said, in my opinion, the minion nodes give quite a good damage boost even without the weapon and are a good option still. I wouldn't recommend dropping enfeeble in favour of a DPS aura to make up for going for leech from Vaal Pact, enfeeble helps us stop taking damage and reduces the damage when we do get hit which is much better than being hit harder and leeching shield back afterwards.. Always better to mitigate than to repair.
That said we do have the wiggle room and levelling is quite easy so either route will most likely work.
"
CedricDur wrote:
I notice no difference using Frost Bomb, the -25% to enemies is not making an noticeable difference in the HP bar going down without or without using it.
Whilst levelling it won't really make much difference, things die so quickly anyway.. it's only later on does it really shine.
"
CedricDur wrote:
Downsides is the awkwardness of it. Vortex has a long enough CD that it can't be spammed and Cold Snap needs a frenzy charge to bypass the CD which sometimes isn't available. The mana costs are fine until I start spamming everything for Syndicate bosses and then I'm out, but that's what potions are for.
Not sure if you're aware but Vortex and Cold Snap don't stack with themselves (they do with each other) so no point spamming multiple ones of them at a time just 1 Vortex, 1 cold snap and 1 vaal cold snap then phase run round the edge to keep mobs stood in it.
Obviously the higher we can keep our DPS the less we have to re-cast or cast multiple spells so from a mana point I'd also rather keep minion nodes rather than go after vaal pact too. For the mana side, remember to flame dash to keep arcane surge buff up for better mana regen and you can get some mana regen rate on gems too.. I used this search for mine https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/RmX99Wh7
Good job guys. I just completed all Shaper Guardians with this build SSF.
Gonna push for shaper/uber elder soon. Still need some upgrades, because i use shit pieces (weapon etc).
You need to replace you weapon ASAP. It has adds cold damage to spells which screws up the elemental equilibrium and makes it so everyone has 25% more resistances against you all of the time. I would take off elemental equilibrium until you can get a weapon and make sure no other gear has “adds cold damage to spells”
I'm loathe to mention things since being a newbie my 'discoveries' have usually long since been tested and usually discarded if they were not mentioned, but this is working for me, so, well.
These two go together like a house on fire since the shield is cheapish (bought mine for 7c) and a leveling item and the weapon cost me 2c. Grabbing Ghost Reaver (leech applies to ES) is literally one point to the side of the OP's build so there is no downside to it.
I'm just 47 atm but I see my ES going up even with my poor damage.
Now, being a newbie, I'm wondering: since we lose the weapon with the +minion damage is there worth in discarding Zealoth's Path + Spiritual Aid + Faith and Steel to go pick Vaal Pact instead (Vaal Pact does not affect the ascendency's ES regen)? The pathing to Spiritual Aid etc plus the loss of those nodes is about just the same number of skill points needed to reach VP.
We would undoubtedly lose damage though we could change Enfeeble for a damage increase curse to compensate (I also imported the build and changed to Cerberus to check the DPS loss and it actually gained a bit of Vortex DoT damage, but I doubt that's correct), but the build has plenty of it. We gain survivability, but the build seems to have plenty of it as well, so for me it's a wash. But even without butchering part of the build to grab VP this feels like a good leveling choice.
I'm loving the build btw. Damage is good, Cold Snap lets me hit mobs that are ranged. Actually, Cold snap is the real star of the show to the point I feel I ought to just have Cold snap have all the supports and Vortex be the one with the 4l and Bonechill reserved to the tougher bosses.
I notice no difference using Frost Bomb, the -25% to enemies is not making an noticeable difference in the HP bar going down without or without using it.
But yes, I don't feel tied to *having* to melee or backtracking when Cold Snap is ranged.
Downsides is the awkwardness of it. Vortex has a long enough CD that it can't be spammed and Cold Snap needs a frenzy charge to bypass the CD which sometimes isn't available. The mana costs are fine until I start spamming everything for Syndicate bosses and then I'm out, but that's what potions are for.
I really don’t like your weapon and shield combo at all. They do go together in some builds but not this one. The only good thing about the weapon is the highish spell damage but the spell leach and cast speed are for the most part wasted. The shield is also almost completely wasted as the crit multiplier doesn’t apply to DOT and neither do the flat cold damage to spells. You would be much better off getting a cheap scepter with less spell damage and a little cold dot multiplier and then a shield with a decent amount of es for cheap.
Ideally you will get the “cast a spell when you use a skill” craft on your weapon and then make sure you don’t have any added flat cold damage to spells to help proc EE but that doesn’t have to be the first step.
My Vortex tooltip damage is 61318 Cold damage per second in my hideout, 69253 with arcane surge, how could I get it to 150k+? And is Rime Gaze and Bated Breath good for damage? I have good resists.
Just a quick look at your profile, I'd say that 61k is about where I'd expect to be with a level 16 vortex in a 5 link, to me I think the biggest damage increase you can aim for would be to aim for a 6 link and level up vortex a bit more, currently for me a level 18 vortex in a +1 chest has me at 110k tooltip in hideout and there's still room for 3 more levels + support levels.
I'd probably say that if you have a spare 1ex lying around, get a 4B2G skin of the loyal, its worked amazingly for me and thanks to the 100% increased global defenses giving 100% increased es, it's only about 600 total es less than a 588 es vaal chest yet adds 15-20% more damage near enough due to the +1 level of gems.
As for rime gaze and bated breath, I think rime gaze is pretty ok and might act as a decent alternative if you can cap resists elswhere, it would actually give me about 30k more DoT dps (806k -> 840k) if I put it on instead of a -9 cold res helm according to PoB. Bated breath on the other hand doesn't add much damage at all, a 10% increased is very little when compared to how much %inc is added by other gear + tree, it's mainly used for defenses, but with how much %inc es we get on the tree, a crystal belt should still work out better, but still, it's probably the best belt you can use until you can get a decent crystal one.
Not sure if you're aware but Vortex and Cold Snap don't stack with themselves (they do with each other) so no point spamming multiple ones of them at a time just 1 Vortex, 1 cold snap and 1 vaal cold snap then phase run round the edge to keep mobs stood in it.
Yes, I'm aware of it, but when I spoke of the awkwardness it was in the sense of us running around and we see a pack, throw Vortex, then there is a second pack close by and we run to it and press Vortex and it's still on CD. It's not too difficult to work around by alternating spells.
Also, tested some more and I knew there was a reason why I don't go about touting my 'discoveries'. The DoT effect does not trigger the leech, apparently only the initial hit does.
Last edited by CedricDur#2207 on Jan 2, 2019, 12:41:07 PM
Not sure if you're aware but Vortex and Cold Snap don't stack with themselves (they do with each other) so no point spamming multiple ones of them at a time just 1 Vortex, 1 cold snap and 1 vaal cold snap then phase run round the edge to keep mobs stood in it.
Yes, I'm aware of it, but when I spoke of the awkwardness it was in the sense of us running around and we see a pack, throw Vortex, then there is a second pack close by and we run to it and press Vortex and it's still on CD. It's not too difficult to work around by alternating spells.
One of the things that helped me a LOT was getting used to the double cast, which is the idea of when you cast vortex, just pop cold snap right outside of it. For a .1s studder, you can clear about a screen and a half of AoE between the two!
Thank you for your hard work on the guide! I have a few questions/thoughts.
* What do you think about this version compared to the ZiggyD version that uses Malachai's Artifice with Storm Brand in it to proc EE (see my profile for an example). I feel like your version may be tankier due to the curse setup and more convenient due to the weapon trigger (instead of manually casting Storm Brand and Frost Bomb on bosses), at the expense of some damage from Frostbite and different passive allocation. I'm wondering if it's worth the money to switch. I've beaten Uber elder but the extra tankiness from curses really appeals to me.
* You could consider adding the Recover % of Mana and Energy Shield when you Focus craft to your Body Armour section. I have found that it's really nice as a panic button, and it looks like you have an open skill slot for Focus.
*I have also seen some versions is Vigilant Strike with The Vigil gem for even more tankiness from Fortify. Any thoughts on that?
Hi! Great guide, really like it! I'm currently in Act 5 and like the play style so far, just still a bit hard to get used to the kinda small AoE size of vortex, some ranged mob always stays out of it -_- (would be awesome if it sucked nearby enemies towards the center :p).
What made me choose to follow your guide is the crafting part honestly. I'm a total noob when it comes to crafting, and I'm excited to start learning and doing it when i get to that point. I have a couple of qustions:
1. As I said, i'm a total noob with crafting (never crafted anything from scratch really), so what gave me some doubts is what are the steps after i have the white base and before i use the fossils. The resonator picture says "reforges a rare item with new random modifiers" ( i never used a resonator either, so not sure how they work), does it means the item needs to be rare before i can use the resonator? and i need to alt spam the item for desired modifiers, then use a regal orb, then the resonator with fossils? Or do i use the resonator with the fossils on the white item? what confused me is the wording on the resonator. Sorry if that was explained somewhere and i missed it, as i said i never crafted anything besides using the crafting bench :p
2. Would it be better to buy a lvl 1 enlighten gem and lvl it up, or get a corrupted lvl 3 one and save to buy a lvl 4? i'm not using vaal discipline yet (not much mana regen as im leveling, so im running clarity), but would like to know what's the best way to do it.
Thanks again for the great guide, i'm looking forward to the crafting guides for the other equips and to start crafting them myself !
Don't worry, still learning much of this myself too. To answer your questions:
1. The fossils/resonator can be used directly on a white item, it's worth watching ZiggyDs fossil crafting guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk3iCZ9p1lE if you haven't done it before as he shows how it works and explains it (simple enough for a noob like me to understand).
2. Enlighten gem does nothing for you at level 1 but takes a long time to level up to 2 as it needs 200+ XP to reach that level. You're best off buying a lvl 3 corrupted as I believe these are cheaper than lvl 2 but I would also socket an extra lvl 1 in your weapon swap gear to start levelling up... I then used the syndicate farming as if you get Tora as a rank 3 in Research she will grant you 200m XP to a gem. (which is nice to keep doing and selling the gems for a little income).
Thanks, i'll def check it out! Think today i'll be close to finishing the acts and try crafting some stuff already. Will also grab some of the gems.
