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

So for 2.0 you dont' recommend GMP or LMP at all?

Thanks. This has probably been the most helpful thread for me.

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mike4334 wrote:

So for 2.0 you dont' recommend GMP or LMP at all?

No. As shotgun no longer works all you get here is a better aoe coverage at the expense of lower damage per projectile and worse freezing. With the nerf to freezing in 2.0 you need all the damage you can get to freeze stuff in higher game content. Therefore i recommend using only a single projectile.

If you feel really uncomfortable with the aoe of a single projectile then use LMP. Having fun with a certain playstyle is more important than clearspeed.

Well.. this is exactly the guide I"m looking for at the moment, a beginner's guide to cold witch.

However.. I can't see the passive skill tree!! It's an old revision that doesn't display as a result.

Can anyone help with this? I'm doing freezing pulse as my main spell, just starting out.

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CrazyBolas wrote:

Well.. this is exactly the guide I"m looking for at the moment, a beginner's guide to cold witch.

However.. I can't see the passive skill tree!! It's an old revision that doesn't display as a result.

Can anyone help with this? I'm doing freezing pulse as my main spell, just starting out.

Most of the guide is outdated and pre-2.0.

I haven't played a cold witch since then so i can't really give well-founded advice. I updated my cold witch when ascendancy was released though (did the labs and played a handful of maps), so you can have a look at my char DieYoungStayPretty for a revised tree/gem setup.

A few remarks:
I recommend using a firestorm - curse on hit setup as this gives an additional 25% cold penetration with elementalist's Mastermind of Discord.
I still think it is best to focus on single hit damage instead of high damage per second by stacking cast speed. The ability to freeze (as well as shock with Shaper of Desolation) depends on single hit damage to make it past the freeze/shock threshold versus magic, rares and bosses.
That's also the reason to stay away from Elemental Overload. It might help your average damage but at the expense of peak damage (by stacking critical damage) which really hurts the ability to freeze stuff.

Don't use phase run in the cwdt setup if you want extra damage from frenzy charges (by using blood rage).

Winds of change gauntlets are bis. Especially the projectile speed allows to use a dagger (for the crit) over a wand (which can have projectile speed). Whirling blades-fortify with a dagger gives a bit of additional defense.

If you want to farm überlab this might be the wrong build. It lacks the most important features for that: armour, a big life pool and life regeneration. It should be ok to do it once for the fourth ascendancy though. I would pick Paragon of Calamity over Beacon of Ruin as 4th ascendancy (if you prefer offense over defense you might take Beacon though). First ascendancy to pick: Shaper of Desolation.

When leveling pick life nodes first. Annihilation is enough to get some crit (and freezing) through nomal difficulty.
Head for the shadow part first, then get the templar stuff.

Reserved I'm going to try this in Atlas in a few moments. could you maybe update the tree when you ahve a chance for the new atlas league. I want to try this one. Gonna follow it all the way through.

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The_Morgawr wrote:

Reserved I'm going to try this in Atlas in a few moments. could you maybe update the tree when you ahve a chance for the new atlas league. I want to try this one. Gonna follow it all the way through.

Sorry, but i'm not going to update this build as i haven't played it for quiet some time. Most parts of the guide are outdated and no longer correct. See the posting above yours.