[Proof of Concept] Winter is Coming: a glacial hammer freeze lock build

Because I wanted a melee staff build, and a glacial hammer build, and it all went downhill from there when I decided to combine them. I'm something of a fan of freeze/shatter builds too. Turns out it can be done without a staff, if you're a maces kind of guy.

The idea is to freeze all the things, all the time. As melee.

Pros
- freeze lock

Cons
- not all that much damage, though sufficient for soloing lower maps

Multi-target: Glacial Hammer - Melee Splash - Multistrike - WED - Elemental Proliferation
Single target (optional): ditto - Melee Physical Damage - Added Fire Damage - Faster Attacks or Multistrike
Auras: Reduced Mana - Hatred; consider running Clarity/Determination/Haste/Purity
More damage: 20Q Shock Nova - Spell Totem - Elemental Proliferation - Faster Casting
Other utility: Leap Slam, Flicker Strike, traps, curses, coldsnap/freezemine
Extra defenses: Enduring Cry, Immortal Call, Molten Shell

Notes on skills:

For a sixth gem linked to the AoE Glacial Hammer, I would use Melee Physical Damage. Another option is Faster Attacks - but as the build relies on freeze locking, I would greatly favour getting big numbers per attack over higher attack speed. Q20 Added Cold is nice, but I find it not strictly necessary.

An interesting trick with the Multistrike gem is that you can target click anywhere, and even if the first attack hits air (as it does about half the time, silly melee) the other two will still connect to nearby mobs.

I still swear that melee splash builds aren't playable without MS, but if you feel otherwise, this would be the first gem to take out and replace. This is because freeze builds favour high damage per hit, in order to increase freeze duration.

Yes, it's a melee build without HP return on the primary AoE. Mostly I get away with this by freezing everything and having a lot of HP regen. Gear leech also helps, even though it only applies to part of the damage dealt. The alternative is to remove WED or Multistrike (or MPD if you have a 6L) and replace it with a Life Leech gem.

The totem serves two purposes: to draw aggro from you, and to spread shock. It has to be a quality shocknova, because you will never proc shock the regular way due to RT. Quality Arc also works, but I feel that shocknova is better as it has more chance-to-shock and hits more enemies.

You may be able to get some use out of cold snap and freeze mine; the optimal linking of these skills will be left as an exercise to the reader. (Hint: Elemental Proliferation.)

This character can be built from a Templar, Marauder or Duelist start.

Remember, all of the build links are SUGGESTED builds, and you should always seek to tailor a build to your own play style, available gear and acceptable level of risk.

Leveling up, first go for RT. Fill in the rest depending on what you need at the time: you should end up with AoE in templar, IR below duelist, and HP nodes in between. And lots of regen, never forget the regen.

Besides that, what you want to build is situational. For staff builds, I recommend taking at least the one block chance cluster. If using a shield, get shield block. Maces have incredible numbers of fairly efficient damage nodes, if you're so inclined.

I do recommend picking up the really good reduced mana reservation cluster near templar, if you can spare the points. You probably can.

This build does not go anywhere near EB or CI. It can pass near BM, if you are willing to give up the bonus damage from Hatred.

Normal: 40 HP (Oak)
Cruel: 18% IPD, 8% IAS or skill point (Oak, Kraityn or kill all, respectively)
Merciless: Endurance Charge or skill point (Oak or kill all, respectively)

When in doubt, just take the skill point. It's fine.

Stats to look out for on equipment:
Get a high physical damage weapon as your first priority. I favour a staff, but there's more damage in maces or a Marohi, and of course you may choose to go the 1h+shield route, in which case sceptres aren't half bad. And when I say high physical damage, I mean the actual X-Y DAMAGE, not DPS. Freeze duration is based on damage PER HIT.
Pick up a couple of % mana leech on gear, it really helps. Life leech too, and for this one don't stop at a couple of %.
Naturally, you want as much of HP and resists as you can get.
Added mana and % mana regen are also good stats to look for, if you can get them in addition to the above.

Uniques good for the build:
- Kaom's Heart (self explanatory) if going 2h
- Carcass Jack (one can never get enough AoE radius) if going 2h and can't afford Kaom's
- Marohi Erqi
- Hrimsorrow, Goathide Gloves. Yes, you read that right. Who wouldn't want extra cold damage for even more freeze? The trade-off is that I deal less physical damage to leech HP and mana from.

Do whatever you like until you get access to Melee Splash. Get the 5L as quickly as possible. At early levels, the WED gem isn't strictly necessary with a decent weapon (Geofri's Baptism is amazing for its level, by the way) so feel free to use LL in that socket or just skip it entirely for a 4L. Probably still not strictly necessary even through Piety merciless, but this being an RT build, damage is a perpetual issue.

Walk up to them. Start attacking, secure in the knowledge that they're probably all going to die way before they unfreeze.

In case of more dangerous situations, raise a shocknova totem to distract them from you, and then go nuts on them. The totem both acts as a distraction and increases your freeze duration with shock.

How do you get dex?
Good flippin' question. I cheated and used an Astra, but there are enough dex nodes nearby. And of course the road to IR is pretty much all dex past a certain point.

Why not crit?
It's an additional layer of complexity on an already somewhat tricky craft, and I don't really like making crit builds on the left of the tree due to persistent accuracy issues. While I'm sure it can be made to work, I just didn't bother, particularly considering the chance-to-freeze intrinsic to glacial hammer. RT is so much simpler, and it turned out to have sufficient damage to get the job done.

What gear are you using?
How's the build working out for you?
Cleaned up Piety in act 3 merciless at level 60, and then started actually tweaking the build for defenses. Doing blue 66-68 maps just fine.

Kiri is a reroll addict with a penchant for big numbers, less popular skills, and building around specific items and playstyles.

Kiri is happy to take PMs and in-game questions, and will stream on request.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABAcEswVbE8wUIBRxFVAXLxdUGF0YkRiwGYUaOBpsHwIigSSqJ08pTy0fMok2xTbpP5tBqkSBRtdMs03YT_NQR1H5VcZV1lfiWfNdxmBtZOdtGXKpd-V8u4CkgW-Cm4uMjHaOPI9GkFWSfZhvnYCdrp48ogCmZKcIpzCnhKpSrKq0-bUEwBrIzMmYz2XQ0Ngk2t3cI93z3sHhc-Nq5CLkreXP7Djsy-0g74_wH_GK83H3Mvjr-tI=