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

12% cast speed (6 passive points worth) only added 500 or so tooltip damage. Not worth the points at all. Tested with loctonial caress the unique gloves.

You mentioned that Ice Spear can also be used as the main attack. Between IS and FP, which do you think is stronger at the moment? Been playing around with both and can't seem to decide which is stronger.

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Unspec wrote:

You mentioned that Ice Spear can also be used as the main attack. Between IS and FP, which do you think is stronger at the moment? Been playing around with both and can't seem to decide which is stronger.

I can't decide either. On my rampage char i'm constantly switching between a qual20 FP and ice spear depending on the map i'm running. In outdoor maps i feel more comfortable with ice spear as one can freeze/kill the mobs without getting in their attack range. The wide range and high second form crit of ice spear really shines in that settings. You can for example perma freeze Carnage in a Colonnade map without him having a chance to hit once whereas with FP you have to get closer and risk of him hitting you first. Indoors on the other hand i have the feeling that my clearing speed is better with FP as one is in close vicinity of mobs very often and just hits more attackers with fp's aoe than with three first form ice spears.

In the life based build ,why you dont get EB?

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stopthismachine wrote:

In the life based build ,why you dont get EB?

It is optional. The mana cost of freezing pulse doesn't necessarily require EB. Everybody that runs into mana problems because he wants to use a high level arctic armour for example should have enough common sense to invest the 2 points for EB.

EDIT:
On the other hand this being a beginners guide i should edit the first page a bit.

Hey Bada Bing,i want to thank u for this guide,Im doing a life based build since i didnt want to invest much currencies in the process of making ci.I just hit 60 lvl,was doing ok for most part till now,sometimes it seemed that i am doing kinda slow,then i supported myself with spell totem+ice spear and it was ok till i switched to my selffound 6 link chest.I kinda waited for it whole game and now its pretty inefficient cause of not having enough mana to spam fp.

But thats not biggest problem for me(i can spam mana flask),its that i feel really squishy now,since i switched to 6 link chest i died numerous times and dont know whats the problem.I didnt rolled stats on chest yet,im feeling it would need good RNG to get it nice with not so much currencies.

I have 700 ES,2k HP and my Dps on fp without charges is 2770.I still didnt get cwdt+ec+Immortal call,but it feels like i will have to do it now.I am using clarity lvl 4 and Herald of ice.Also i used unique with Temporal chains on hit,now i switched to frostbite.

1)Can u comment on my build and tell me where its gone wrong?and mb some gear that I should pay attention to?I have about 30 chaos orbs,mb i would use half of them.
2)Do u think this build is more efficient with CI?
3)I thought mb going for EB and buy cloak of defiance for Mind over matter,do u think it would be good for defence?
Heres my passive:

And my gear:

Hope some1 will help me ;d.And srry for my english...

1) I would stick to a life build. Getting decent ES gear is more difficult than getting life on gear. Besides you already have a 6L chest you might wanna keep but with the low ES on it it will be hard to make a decent CI build.
2) You need more life on gear:
- Get rid of Lori's Lantern. Aside from resists it has no useful stats. Get a resist ring with life + another needed resist.
- Another belt that has 80+ life + 1 needed resist. cost 1-3c.
- Use alterations to reroll the stats on the chest. Aim for a high life roll. (-> checkout http://poemods.com/ on what tiers can roll on it as i don't know the ilvl of your chest). If you also get a decent 2nd stat use a regal on it. After that craft an additional mod on the chest. Haku at lvl6 offers 26-30 single resist for 4 alchs for example. If later (in endgame) you want to optimize the stats on the chest you can still scour it/remove the crafted mod and repeat the life roll until you get the higest tie without an an addtitional mod. Spend 2 exalts on "can have multiple crafted mods", throw on a regal and then craft 3 additional mods.
- Shoes are nice but have a lookout for some with life/movement speed/1 resist that has only 2 suffixes used so you can craft an additional required resist on it.

3) It is tricky to get a hybrid ES/life build going. Considering your mana problems i'ld rather switch to full life and take Eldritch Battery.
4) Get another weapon. If you can't sustain the mana cost of your spells the cast speed on the wand is wasted anyway. Crit is only local and doesn't apply to spells which leaves manareg as the only useful stat. I would recommend a dagger with 60/80 implicit crit and some spell damage. Make sure it only has 2 prefixes used as Catarina with lvl6 can craft 1%cold damage leeched for 4 chaos.
5) Level clarity further up and put it in your helmet. Drop either empower (that additional lvl ain't that important for those auras) or drop tempest shield if you don't have enough mana.
6) Drop added lightning damage. Bad choice. In endgame you won't shock anything with it. Recolour your chest and use life leech instead. That should solve part of your survival problem. With lvl 65 you might try rolling two (2) seething divine flasks. Depending on your playstyle that might be enough to survive even without a life leech gem. In that case use cold penetration instead of LL or some added xxx gem.
7) Replace faster casting with spell echo asap.
8) Try switching ice spear and freezing pulse. They use the same tree/gem setup. Ice spear allows you to attack from far away. That and a much higher freezing rate will keep your more safe.

Ty for ur answers!!!
I still dont undestand whole prefix and sufix thing but ill read some posts in order to clarify it.My chest ilvl is 68.I rolled it with some chaos orbs and left it like this:

In chest i wanted to put cold penetration or added cold damage instead of added lighting,but im affraid will i get so many blue colors once i start chromatic it.
1)Im using a shield with tempest shield aura,dunno if i should go for dual wand build or dual dagger build?Should i get some evasion based shield since its much higher than my armor stats?
2)Im still using Karui ward amulet,but since i have quality FP should i replace amy with another one?
3)Im gonna go for 7 power charges do u thinks its worthy?I know ele reflect is gonna be a problem but i will probably skip those maps later on.
4)Do u think this build is normal atziri viable at all,since she cant be frozen?:-)Im not aiming for it,I just want to know is it capable?
5)would these would be usefull for me in any way?

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Restekpa wrote:

Ty for ur answers!!!
I still dont undestand whole prefix and sufix thing but ill read some posts in order to clarify it.My chest ilvl is 68.I rolled it with some chaos orbs and left it like this:

Spoiler

In chest i wanted to put cold penetration or added cold damage instead of added lighting,but im affraid will i get so many blue colors once i start chromatic it.

Every rare item can have 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. Magic items can have 1 prefix+1suffix. Check out http://poemods.com/ on the list of available mods.
The chest is an eva/es hybrid. It should be no problem rerolling it for 4B1G1R for a life leech gem (recommended if you have survival issues) or 4B2G for cold penetration. Don't use added xxx damage gems. They are inferior to cold penetration which offers 35+ MORE damage (although it won't show up on the tooltip).

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1)Im using a shield with tempest shield aura,dunno if i should go for dual wand build or dual dagger build?Should i get some evasion based shield since its much higher than my armor stats?

Your current shield is ok (spell damage + manareg + 2 resis are useful stats). Don't change to a dual wand build. Your survivability would suffer a lot.

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2)Im still using Karui ward amulet,but since i have quality FP should i replace amy with another one?

You can drop it if you have more than 15% quality on your FP. 9% is a bit low. Maybe you can get projectile speed on a new wand or use faster projectiles as support gem.

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3)Im gonna go for 7 power charges do u thinks its worthy?I know ele reflect is gonna be a problem but i will probably skip those maps later on.

If you go for a power charge build it would make sense helping Alira in merciless.

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4)Do u think this build is normal atziri viable at all,since she cant be frozen?:-)Im not aiming for it,I just want to know is it capable?

I don't know how viable freezing pulse is for atziri. It sure is possible with ice spear. Level ice spear and switch it for FP when facing Atziri. Being able to do max damage from a distance sure is better than being forced to facetank/go near for that fight.

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5)would these would be usefull for me in any way?

Spoiler

Sure. Having some spell block never hurts. If you plan on fighting Atziri you will probably need them along with Saffel's Frame and a Stone Of Lazhwar for max spell block.

Is it worth now going for "Breath of Rime"?
CI build with all POWER nodes. (Breath of Rime is really close to one)

Lot of people complained on "Breath of Rime" but I think it has been changed. I've seen opinion that it somehow lowers freez threshold of mobs.