[1.3]Cold Witch guide for beginners (Lvl 1 to Atziri)

purity of elements->purity of ice
LMP->GMP
lategame when you can. I think you should state that.

BTW against reflect: fire trap - crit dmg - concecrated effect - fire pen
BTW2 I respected 4int nodes and picked 2int and 2dex nodes instead-much easier that way to lvl GMP :Phttp://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBAW8C4wL-BAcFQgVbBukHHgelDY0OSBEvEVARlhXXGmwbJRzcHU8egR8CIvQnYSepKworDSycLL81uTbFQZZCS0LDRtdHBklRSbJLjUuuTLNWY1xrXcZd8l8qX2pgbWSdbAttGXBScNV-WX_GghCESIXFhq6J04t6i4yMNo5kj_qVLpmana6nCKcrrrO0xbUEtve2-sHFw23Q0ND12CTZW9vn3fPesN-E34rfsN--4XPi9-Qi5wvpAutj6-Tr9e0g8NXyHfO-96b_HA==

Leveled up my freezing pulse cold witch to 73. My first and only ramapage charachter. So far there hasn't been many obstacles. Strong build right from start to end.

My items:


Stats:
Life 3619
Shield 668
Res 75 elemental/-40 chaos
Damage with fp 3766/sec
Spell crit chance with fp 37% (This is without assassin's mark)
Spell crit chance with fp with 7 power charges 58% (This is without assassin's mark)
Spell crit multi with fp 278% (This is without assassin's mark)

Things that usually kill me are: jumpers and dischargers. Sometimes chaos snakes too. This only happens when more than 3 surprise me at the same time. I have been thinking about ways to deal with these.

I think the best course of action is to actually go for acrobatics and phase acrobatics. It will take me 11 skill points to get there. I will lose half armour. No big deal i have no armour in the first place. I will lose half my es. Ok i got 668 which is helping but i think the two aforementioned keystones will help more.

What do you lot think? I'm only 7 points away from those keystones (have saved up a couple of points)

Also another question. Maintaining 7 power charges via assassin's mark is kinda hard. Most of the time i'm on 1-4 charges. I have been thinking about replacing cold pen in my 5link with power charge on critical and also replace assassin's mark with frostbite to counter the lost effects of cold pen. I also gain 10% freeze chance from frostbite. Thoughts?

"

noobdw wrote:

purity of elements->purity of ice
LMP->GMP
lategame when you can. I think you should state that.

BTW against reflect: fire trap - crit dmg - concecrated effect - fire pen
BTW2 I respected 4int nodes and picked 2int and 2dex nodes instead-much easier that way to lvl GMP :Phttp://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBAW8C4wL-BAcFQgVbBukHHgelDY0OSBEvEVARlhXXGmwbJRzcHU8egR8CIvQnYSepKworDSycLL81uTbFQZZCS0LDRtdHBklRSbJLjUuuTLNWY1xrXcZd8l8qX2pgbWSdbAttGXBScNV-WX_GghCESIXFhq6J04t6i4yMNo5kj_qVLpmana6nCKcrrrO0xbUEtve2-sHFw23Q0ND12CTZW9vn3fPesN-E34rfsN--4XPi9-Qi5wvpAutj6-Tr9e0g8NXyHfO-96b_HA==

1) Actually I would drop any purity aura once I have max resists on gear. In late game with a block build that has spell block (rathpith + rainbowstrides for example) running a tempest shield is more beneficial while reserving less mana.
2) Even in lategame I prefer LMP over GMP. There has been a debate which one is better since ages. I side with the argument stating that the advantage of the dps increase of 2 additional projectiles is outweighed by the disadvantage of higher mana costs and the damage penalty per hit which lowers your freezing chance. I don’t want to make a basic principle out of it (if you weigh the advantage/disadvantage differently, use it) but I ain’t recommending GMP either.
3) Reflect: I use fire trap on my fire witch for reflect and because it synergizes well with fireball (burning ground stacking with ignite damage). With a cold witch I recommend trap – cold snap – elemental proliferation – concentrated effect or iaoe. Damage is a bit higher than fire trap, it synergizes well with a freezing build and it is VERY good when laying around boxes to be opened. If you botch the smoke mine retreat it freezes everything that pops up giving you enough time to react.

"

kompaniet wrote:

Things that usually kill me are: jumpers and dischargers. Sometimes chaos snakes too. This only happens when more than 3 surprise me at the same time. I have been thinking about ways to deal with these.

I think the best course of action is to actually go for acrobatics and phase acrobatics. It will take me 11 skill points to get there. I will lose half armour. No big deal i have no armour in the first place. I will lose half my es. Ok i got 668 which is helping but i think the two aforementioned keystones will help more.

What do you lot think? I'm only 7 points away from those keystones (have saved up a couple of points)

Also another question. Maintaining 7 power charges via assassin's mark is kinda hard. Most of the time i'm on 1-4 charges. I have been thinking about replacing cold pen in my 5link with power charge on critical and also replace assassin's mark with frostbite to counter the lost effects of cold pen. I also gain 10% freeze chance from frostbite. Thoughts?

The best way to deal with jumpers/discharges still is skel totem (and block) imo. 87.5% virtual evasion with the skels up is the best you can get. 11 points is too much of an investment. With 4 incoming goatmen for example you dodge 1 on average and get hit by the other three. I don’t think that significantly enhances your survival (compared to the totem)
I have dodge/spell dodge + ondars + high evasion on my EA ranger (with Atziri’s Step for additional spell dodge) and it still is more fragile than my cold witch and needs to move a lot to stay alive.
As for Assassins Mark: that’s my experience with it too. I gives a nice extra bonus with the power charges but you can’t make a power charge build around it. If you want to center your spell around power charge usage (for example if you want to use void battery in endgame) you have to use pcoc.
Assassins Mark is better than frostbite if you have an additional 100% increased critical damage (rough estimate). Otherwise I’ld stay with frostbite because of the additional freeze chance.

Thanks for your reply. Yes i have skeleton totem and it's good. But you don't always have time to deploy it in time hence my idea to pick up acro/phase acro. Those are always active.

"

With 4 incoming goatmen for example you dodge 1 on average and get hit by the other three.

True i may dodge 1 or 2 out of 4 but it could mean i survive this sudden burst of damage. 4 of them might kill me outright while 3 let me survive and react. That's the way i see it atleast.

It's eleven points from the power charge node on the right side. Sounds like a lot. Yes.
We can also look at it the other way. What else is there to pick up that is better?

Another idea is to devote a 4-link for ec+ic combo. This is good but has it's limitations. Only works vs physical damage and suffers from low efficiency vs ranged attackers.

Regarding assassin's mark i don't know if i got my point across. I have taken all the power charge passives. I meant that it feels like a waste to have 7 power charges when i'm mostly on 1-4 charges anyway.

Void battery is out of the question for me. I am not rich. I have a grand total of 16 chaos orbs on rampage =) There is only 1 void battery for sale on rampage league for a price of 35 exalted orbs.

I have made 16 chaos in two weeks playtime. It will therefore take me 1440 days to save up for a void battery wand :D

Jokes aside. Can you guys make use of all power charges? I'm contemplating dropping some of those passives but i haven't yet made up my mind.

I have 278% spell crit multi as i wrote in my previous post. So if your maths is correct i am well above the threshhold for when assassin's mark is better than frostbite.

Another thing sprung to my mind. For fp gmp is only better than lmp when shotgunning up close? It feels like it'd lose out on those semi range encounters right?
If you use gmp how many waves do you have to hit each monster with to surpass the damage from lmp?

"

kompaniet wrote:

True i may dodge 1 or 2 out of 4 but it could mean i survive this sudden burst of damage. 4 of them might kill me outright while 3 let me survive and react. That's the way i see it atleast.

It's eleven points from the power charge node on the right side. Sounds like a lot. Yes.
We can also look at it the other way. What else is there to pick up that is better?

Another idea is to devote a 4-link for ec+ic combo. This is good but has it's limitations. Only works vs physical damage and suffers from low efficiency vs ranged attackers.

Like i wrote i never took that option for my cold witch so i can only theorize about it (backed with my experience with it with my EA ranger): I'm sceptical if the investment is worth it. The mana pool if taking Eldritch Battery will be smaller and your granite flasks will be less efficient. Speaking of which: Before investing 11 points i'ld try saving 1 exalt and buy a Rumy's Concoction granite flask. 30% extra block and 18% spell block during flask effect is almost as efficient as (phase) acrobatics.
And yes.. cwdt+EC+IC helps as additional defensiv layer.

"

kompaniet wrote:

Regarding assassin's mark i don't know if i got my point across. I have taken all the power charge passives. I meant that it feels like a waste to have 7 power charges when i'm mostly on 1-4 charges anyway.

I did get your point. If you have invested in additional power charges via tree AM won't be enough to keep them at max.
You have two options: Either don't take extra power charges in the tree and be content with the occasional PC bonus of AM. Or you want to fully use max power charges in which case you have to use pcoc. You could use ice spear - lmp/gmp - pcoc - whatever to generate charges and then switch to freezing pulse for major attack. If constantly switching between two spells bothers you, you could use fp with pcoc although i'm not a fan of that solution as you would have to drop another valuable support gem for it. Imo using fp with pcoc is a legit setup for late game (meaning you have a high 80s char you intend to really invest some serious currency into) with a 6L and void battery(s) for a dedicated power charge build (so definitly nothing you use while still leveling).

"

kompaniet wrote:

Another thing sprung to my mind. For fp gmp is only better than lmp when shotgunning up close? It feels like it'd lose out on those semi range encounters right?
If you use gmp how many waves do you have to hit each monster with to surpass the damage from lmp?

You can't compare LMP and GMP on some neutral value (like dps for example) so i don't bother diving into math here. It is comparing apples with oranges. It is better freezing vs higher dps. I value safety (freezing) therefore i take LMP. Other players favour dps and take GMP.


EDIT:
Just discovered
Cabdru - Hardcore Freeze Pulse Crit AA EB Acrobatics build!!
So there you go, viable build using (phase) acrobatics.

Started playing this a few days ago, and it's probably the cheapest and easiest leveling char I've played so far. All I had to do is buy a Lifesprig for just 2c.

It's insane how fast you can clear entire areas with FP+LMP, Clarity, and Assassin's Mark. I even got to 1-shot Perpetus in a3n for the first time ever thanks to this combo.

I thought FP was gonna be boring, but goddamn it if this build isn't starting to grow on me, especially for a first char on a new league. Can't wait for Faster Projectiles and Cold Pen.

I was also leveling with lifesprig and a magic wand. Found the lifesprig from a box in the flooded cave in act 1. I made use of the vendor recipe for a +1 cold skills wand with a 3 link. Used this 3 link through all of normal mode with the following gems: Fp + lmp + added lightning.

I checked the vendors every single level up for a wand with a 3 link with 2 green sockets or 1 green/1 red to make a new +1 cold skills wand so i could put faster projectiles or life leech there but they never sold one and putting the fp link in another piece of equipment lowered damage too much. That +1 cold wand is very powerful.

Upon reaching cruel or late act3 normal i bought a 4 link heatshiver for an alch or something and put my fp link there instead.

I used faster projectiles until mid merciless just because i found it early. The gem itself is not a reward from quests so you have to trade for one or be lucky.

I think cold pen or added cold are better later in merciless when monsters get some resistances. You can get projectile speed on wands and the karui ward unique amulet equals a 10% quality fp gem.

That's how i did it atleast. Maybe some other people can tell about their leveling experience with a fresh league charachter.

Edit: Thanks for that link bada bing. I will probably go for those acrobatics passives now and see how it turns out. That unique chest is rather nice too with built in mom. Will switch to it later when i have sufficient funds.

"

kompaniet wrote:

I used faster projectiles until mid merciless just because i found it early. The gem itself is not a reward from quests so you have to trade for one or be lucky.

It is a quest reward for ranger upon entering Merveil's Caverns in normal. One could simply create a new ranger to fetch that gem. Getting there should take less than an hour (and can be considered practice for races). Just don't waste time clearing instances.

Hello :)

Shouldn't Glacial Cascade be added to the list of cold spells?

"

Tyraziell wrote:

Hello :)

Shouldn't Glacial Cascade be added to the list of cold spells?

No. This is a freezing pulse (or ice spear) build. Adding GC as secondary attack makes no sense for FP as it neither can be used to build up power charges (one might use ice spear to do that if one doesn't like to link pcoc with fp) nor is it as useful as trap - cold snap to freeze mobs (especially when opening boxes). It is a primary attack that has its own build.