[1.0.1] HeavyUnit's 21k Single Target CI FP Crit Build!

I’ve been posting on the forums a little more regularly since release. There are a lot of new players and PoE has a ton of information to digest, so I like helping people out when I can. I’ve gotten several PMs from people here in the Witch forum about my build as I’ve been active giving pointers on other FP builds. My build is pretty straight forward, but I’ve noticed some differences in gear selection and tree routes that I decided it was a good time to make a guide. I will refrain from most theory crafting in this guide. Honestly, I haven’t done a ton if it myself in general for PoE. There may be better optimizations of a cold crit witch, but this is what has worked for me. For the purposes of this build, I have spanned across the witch tree (due north in the overall tree), templar (west of the witch), and shadow (east of the witch). Feel free to PM me or contact me in game if you have any other questions about the build.

IGNs:
Standard - EmeraldQueen
Domination - MadameDeficit

Current Stats:
10.7k Energy Shield
6.7k Damage Per Projectile (~21k single target DPS)
Capped Res

Why FP?

Freeze pulse is the best crowd control spell in the game. While the damage doesn’t scale quite as well as bow skills or melee skills, keeping mobs locked down on harder maps makes you a good party member and a very reasonable choice for a solo build. In addition, it’s a simple build that focuses on ES and crit chance, so it’s a good beginner build that doesn’t require a ton of theory crafting to understand.

Life or CI?

I have chosen to go the chaos inoculation route with this build. In addition to chaos damage just being plain annoying and hard to stack resistance for, ES is an easy stat to pump and get to respectable enough levels to run high level maps (73+). There are pros and cons to both, of which I will discuss throughout the guide.

Pros:
1.Good survivability due to good resistance nodes / gear available to witches and ES users. ES is also easy to stack. Before I finished my 6L chest with 1k ES, I was running a respectable 5L 700 ES chest and middling ES rolls on other gear all of which were fine for me to get into high level maps.

2.Simple understanding of the tree. We stay primarily in the Witch and Shadow tree, though I venture into the Templar tree for ES and crit nodes.

3.Great Crowd Control good for solo play and people love it in parties.

Cons:
1.Status ailments: Since these are based off a percentage of your life if you weren’t running CI, they can be instant death for you. There are options available that can protect against some (mainly stunlock and freeze) but they can take away from damage or other survivability mods that you may want. It’s a tradeoff and will greatly depend on solo or party play (or your playstyle in general).

2.Low comparative damage: Spell damage nodes don’t scale as well since Freeze Pulse is a static amount of damage at a given level. For physical users, damage nodes scale with your weapon damage, of which vary greatly and can ultimately do more damage with an end game weapon.

The Build:

I’ve decided not to give specific builds for different character level thresholds. I believe that needs will dictate what defensive stats you should be prioritizing while you are leveling. If you are a standard / hardcore player that has plenty of twink gear or wealth saved for better gear, for example, you may be able to jump to CI earlier than someone who is starting from scratch in domination or nemesis. I chose to go CI once I had a decent 5L because I needed both life leech and mana leech to make sure I could sustain constant spam of FP and ensure usage of Vaal Pact. Until you take CI, you will of course need to take the life nodes in the witch and templar trees in favor of the CI keystone, the nodes behind it, and various ES boosters in the templar and shadow trees. The core of the build as far as damage and other survivability stats should remain mostly the same.

Core Build:
This is the bare bones base for your damage. You will need to take life nodes before CI and at different levels of the game. As I said, I am not listing what your tree should look like at different levels. Use your judgement and take defensive nodes while filling out the core of the build.

Before CI:
You may start sprinkling in some ES nodes / clusters as well at this point as you will be working your way toward CI.

After CI:
This is what your tree should look like at level ~82. You may need to sacrifice some DPS at this point for more ES nodes.

My Build at Level 90:

Tree stats at level 90:

Notable Keystones:
All of our ES clusters across the three trees give us +# to all resistances.
Templar Tree: Body and Soul, Faith and Steel
Shadow Tree: Nullification

This is a great boon as it gives us some flexibility in gearing. There is no need to have perfect tri-res gear with these nodes in conjunction with various other nodes throughout the build. With my current setup and purity running, I am well over cap for all resistances, making maps with the elemental weakness mod a non-factor.

Ghost Reaver: This is of course one of the most important keystones. While many people lament the unavailability of vaal pact in combination with ghost reaver in the new tree, I never found it necessary. Ghost reaver on its own is a must however. ES is a CI user’s life, and we need to make sure we have sustainability in any environment. This is a no brainer among life and CI users, but ghost reaver is how we make it happen for CI.

Crit Clusters: This build revolves around critical strike chance. As a spell, the base critical strike chance of Freeze Pulse is a static 6% (shown on the tooltip in game for FP). Spells differ from weapons (attacks) in that they are what they are. Weapons can roll a local critical strike chance increase that would alleviate taking so many crit nodes in the tree if you saw fit. Daggers, for example, with the right local crit roll can have 10% or more crit chance, which propagates to your attack skill. Spells do not benefit from this. Power charges are a way to increase spell crit chance but at the cost of other passive nodes. As you can see, I have taken every major crit cluster available to me. I am currently sitting at 48% crit chance with a healthy amount of crit multiplier (500 with the increased critical damage gem).

Other notes on tree:
I’ve seen some builds here in the witch forum that focus on the aforementioned power charges as a supplement to crit chance and damage. As I stated in the opening of this guide, I haven’t done extensive testing on which one is strictly better. The problem with running a power charge build, is you need a way to get power charges which takes up a gem slot (power charge on critical) and an expensive piece of gear to really make it work (Void Battery Wand). I will get to gearing shortly and talk some basic numbers on this.

There may also be some less than optimal choices in my tree. In the templar tree I decided to take celestial walker and prestidigitation. At the time I needed the resistances, and the mana regen / other stats provided by this group of nodes are nice. It may be best to play with this a little and see what works best. I may do the same. Those points may be better used for more crit or ES. Patch 1.0.1 Note:I think with the change to purity, this set of nodes is a must now. Purity can still be run, but if you can cap res on gear and passives you may be able to run a different 2nd aura.

The spell damage nodes to the left of Mental Acuity in the shadow tree may be unnecessary as well. I took them because they are 12% nodes, though again it could be correct to move into another crit cluster down toward the Scion starting position instead.

Play-Style:
This build is very much about positioning. Positioning is even more important if you decide not to run Eye of Chayula and Dream Fragments (discussed later). The best advice I can give on positioning is be wary of ranged attacks. Most melee mobs will get frozen before they can get to you. Archers / Spellcasters can often get a volley off before you get the chance to hit them however. It’s important to notice when they are making their attack and sidestep the shot to position yourself to the side of the mob and blast away. This is effective because while you sidestep the attack, the mob must finish their attack animation and reset for another attack, giving you the time needed to reposition. Once you get one freeze off, you should be able to melt them down before they can do significant damage to you. The picture below illustrates this:

The key is the ability to hit large groups of mobs with one FP wave so that they are all frozen, giving you and/or your party ample time to DPS them down. For unique bosses in non-map areas and map bosses, your curses and totems are what keep you alive. Most of the time you will have to go toe to toe with them, make sure you carry the proper flasks and kite as needed.

Bandit Rewards:
This was my first character, and if I had to do it over, I may choose differently on some of these. I killed all three bandits for the skill point in every difficulty. The one I would consider taking back is the Cruel quest. Helping Alira in cruel nets you +4% Cast Speed. I could have taken this instead of taking a +3% node on the tree, but all of my +3% nodes on the tree are in paths to other nodes, so I’m not sure. Helping Kraityn in Normal gets you +8% to all resistances, but I don’t think this is necessary considering our tree, gearing, and use of purity. The point seems more valuable, though take the all res if you need it. If you are a power charge based build you will of course want to help Alira in Merciless for the extra charge.

Gems / Skills:
The thing I hate most about using FP is that we must have life and mana leech in a 5L or 6L for end game. Since we are a spell / elemental user, leech mods in the tree and on gear do not work for us, as they are dictated by physical damage done. Before taking CI, it is feasible to rely on flasks for life, and is thus not necessary to run life leech. In the early levels, once you grab a 4L I would run as this:

FP - LMP - Faster Casting - Mana Leech

If you do not have a quality FP gem, it may be better to use Faster Projectiles instead of LMP or Faster Casting. I would advise using mana leech as soon as you can. Mana regeneration in this game is lackluster, and many people I have talked to who have put a premium on it still have problems late game with spamming FP. Mana leech is the means to do this, it’s a must. Faster Proj allows the FP projectile to travel faster. Since the FP projectile has a ‘lifetime’, the faster it travels, the farther it goes in a given amount of time.

Once you grab a 5L, it’s time to take CI and Ghost Reaver. I would hold out for one with 400+ ES. They are relatively cheap in the permanent leagues (standard / hc) but it may be necessary to take what you can get in challenge leagues. NOTE: This is the core gem setup for this build!

FP - LMP - Faster Casting - Mana Leech – Life Leech

Luxury 6L:

FP - LMP - Faster Casting - Mana Leech – Life Leech – Increased Critical Damage / Power Charge on Crit / Cold Penetration / Other Damage gems

The sixth gem is up for debate. For pure damage, I think increased critical damage or cold penetration is far superior. However, added lightning is nice for party play since you will shock stack for added damage by the party. Power charge on critical is good if you need them of course. I chose to run LMP over GMP because the casting cost multiplier for GMP is quite prohibitive, especially once you obtain a 6L. The shotgun effect of LMP is just fine, priced at a lower mana multiplier, and is better in indoor maps. Use whichever you prefer.

Auras:

1.0.1 Patch Change


With the change to auras, we must be a little more selective with what we want to run. Before the change, I was running Discipline, Purity, and Haste. Since the change I dropped Haste. Purity and Discipline seem like the winners when looking at the aura pool. All of the damage auras are based off of physical damage (anger, wrath, and hatred) so they are of no use to us. A case for determination can be made, as we have two ES clusters that provide an armor bonus. In addition to granite flasks, we would have a nice balance. I still chose to go with discipline because it adds a nice amount of ES (1800 overall ES added for me).

The other auras are not really in the discussion, though I am open to suggestion on the topic. One aura that I feel is overrated is Clarity. Mana regen is not necessary and generally lackluster anyway since we are using mana leech. Even with reduced mana it still reserves some of your mana pool which could make a difference once you are running with a 6L. That said, always make sure to run your auras with a Reduced Mana gem. In addition, I have grabbed one mana reservation node between the witch and shadow trees to help mitigate reservation costs as well. I don’t believe more is necessary unless you want to try for a third aura.

Curses / Utility:
I currently have 3 curses that I can switch between. Elemental Weakness, Frostbite, and Enfeeble. Frostbite is used for solo play and elemental weakness for party. Enfeeble can be swapped for other defensive curses of preference. Temporal chains is nice, but I typically run in a party, and enfeeble is just better against hard hitting bosses or nasty mods on maps. Please don’t be the selfish bastard who overwrites good party curses with frostbite. I assure you, your damage in a party is not as important as the group. Use Temp Chains, elemental weakness, or enfeeble. Don’t be that guy!

Patch 1.0.1 has changed Cast When Damage Taken quite a bit, but I believe it is still worth running. Enduring cry is still fine at the lower levels since our charges are capped at 3 anyway (unless I'm misunderstanding this gem). Molten shell has gotten strictly worse though it still could serve a purpose. Other 4L items can be used for totems which are nice ways to supplement damage or survivability. If I am soloing, I generally run a skeleton totem for a meatshield. You can link whatever to it really. I have minion life and damage linked with mine, but experiment and see what works for you. In my other totem, I run ice spear with GMP and a damage gem. I rarely use this in party play, but the option is there.

For movement / positioning I use lightning warp. Leap slam is another option. Basically anything that can get you out of a tight spot or allow you to traverse a map easier is good to have in a socket somewhere.

Gear:
This will vary wildly of course. Not everyone has access to the same currency pool and people have different preferences. My current gear is as follows:

Core ES Items: Life has certainly gotten better post release. The buffs are noticeable, but it also has made life based gear more expensive, as the demand for this gear has of course risen as a result. Regardless of that, ES gear has remained steady and is relatively cheap. Benchmarks for lower level maps and areas (66-70) should be roughly as follows – 200 ES Helm, 200 ES Shield with Crit, 100 ES Gloves, 100 ES Boots, and a 400 ES Chest. Using the same jewelry, these benchmarks, and a level 20 discipline gem I would still have 6k ES. This is certainly fine for entry into maps and high level non map content. Each of these items are cheap in all leagues. I just traded 1 chaos each for a 200 ES helm and shield in domination. In standard they should run a few GCP a piece. You will of course need to keep resistances in mind.

Off Stats: It’s important to note that you will want to prioritize STR and DEX to the point of being able to use all of our gems. This can come in any combination. You’ll notice that I am wearing an onyx amulet, two Le Heup of All, have DEX on my gloves, and using a heavy belt to make sure I hit the thresholds I need for all of my gems. Citrine amulets can be used in place of an onyx, but the additional INT provided by an onyx boosts your mana pool and ES. It’s also possible to still use a chain belt (which has an implicit ES mod) with STR/DEX mods depending on the rest of your gear. Refer to the links for our gems at the end of the guide to see attribute requirements.

Crit Chance: This should be taken on any slot that can roll it. Shields and wands are the places you will get most of your crit outside of the tree (not including top end uniques). The max roll for Spell Critical Chance is 109% on an item with itemLevel 76+. This is an end game number, but gives you a point of reference. With the end of the old challenge leagues, we now have available diamond rings which can roll a maximum of +30% global critical strike chance. Plan your build accordingly.

Spell damage and cast speed: These will be found mainly on your wand and shield, though jewelry can supplement these stats as well. The problem with stacking cast speed is jewelry with this mod on it, in addition to other defensive stats you’d like to have, is not cheap. This is the reason I have chosen to forgo the godly jewelry in favor of what you see above.

Other Gear / Gem considerations:

Void Battery Wand:

As I mentioned before, it is possible to build a FP crit witch with power charges instead. I chose not to do this because I did not want to invest in a Void Battery. If you choose to go power charges, this wand is a must. With my current setup, if I swap Increased Critical Damage for Power Charge on Crit in my 6L, the damage difference is quite noticeable. Granted, I’m only running 3 power charges, but my sheet DPS with critical damage gem is 6500 per projectile, and with power charge on crit (and 3 charges) is only 4500 per projectile. If I had a Void Battery the numbers would differ I’m sure. First off I’d take the power charge nodes in the middle of the Witch tree, between the Curse nodes to the north and blast radius in the middle. I would also take the power charge passive from the Bandit quest in Merciless. In this configuration, with a Void Battery, I would have a maximum of 6 power charges (1 from Void Battery, 3 naturally, 1 from the tree, and 1 from bandit quest), +28% spell damage from each charge (+3 from passive node, and +25 from Void Battery), and 300% increased crit chance from 6 charges. So for comparison’s sake, take a look at the numbers for my wand and a Void Battery with full charges:

My Wand: 71% Increased Spell damage, 18% Cast speed, 95% Crit chance, 150% Increased Crit Damage (from gem)

Void Battery: 88% Spell damage (28*6% from each charge – 80% from Void Battery), 10-20% Cast Speed, 300% Increased Crit Chance, and an additional 50-65% increased Crit Chance mod on the wand

It’s clear that the Void Battery configuration is superior, though I am unsure how much the crit damage increase gem would offset the differences between the two configurations. However, in standard league a Void Battery goes for 10-13 exalted orbs. I’m not sure what they currently go for in other leagues, but it’s certainly a tier 1 unique, and will not be cheap. Please note, if you are not planning on investing in a Void Battery (or already have one), then I would advise not running a power charge build. It is something you can spec into later if you find / buy one. I have chosen not to invest in one because I am rounding out my other gear, it is something I may move into at a later point.

Voidbringer Gloves:

These gloves are excellent but come with a price. The mana cost increase is prohibitive once you get a 6L. In addition, these gloves do not offer resistances or off stats you may need to equip your other gems. If your res is fine, and you find STR / DEX in other places, I would definitely run these. The damage output is real nice, though given my current setup, I am not sure my mana pool could support them, though I haven’t tried yet. +80% mana cost is a huge number for a 6L spell.

Raindowstride Boots:

Not much to say here. Even after the unique nerfs on release (lowering the +all res mod on these), these boots are still BiS by far. Mana, res, move speed, and good ES. It’s hard to beat. Sure, a tri res set of boots with move speed and comparable or better ES exist, but they will cost quite a bit.

Jewelry:

There is quite some debate on this for CI users. It really depends on your playstyle and party vs. solo play. As mentioned before, status ailment vulnerability is the cost of running CI. The Eye of Chayula amulet (cannot be stunned) and Dream Fragments ring (cannot be frozen) mitigate this downside. I run neither however. Many people may disagree, but the difference in other survivability and damage stats is quite large as neither dream fragments or eye of chayula offer much of anything outside of their respective protections from status ailments.

If you plan on running solo or play in a hardcore league, it would be more advisable to run both of these pieces. They are relatively cheap, and of course offer protection from these drawbacks of CI. I do think that a skeleton totem can mitigate much of the drawback regardless, so you can test without them and see what you prefer.

In party play, I would most certainly run neither. I own an Eye of Chayula for certain bosses / areas, but I bring it with me for those maps and equip it only when I need to. The reason for not running these in a party is with 5 other people, you are not the sole focus for mobs, thus with good positioning you can avoid ice attacks and surrounds by mobs. I can tell you that the only times I have died to stun lock was against the Weaver boss in Jungle Valley map, and against the boss from Crematorium map. Cast when damage taken (linked with molten shell and enduring cry) can help with mitigation for Weaver. Spell Block can save you from Crematorium boss, though Eye is strictly better in both cases and are the times I carry my Eye with me into a map. If I were forced to make a decision on running at least one, I would run Eye of Chayula. The onyx amulet gives me STR / DEX stats for gems and frozen can be mitigated by flasks.

For your rings otherwise, shore up other areas that you need. I chose to go with two Le Heups because it’s such a good all around ring (hence the name). I don’t care about the rarity, though when I solo docks / ledge it helps. Instead, the best mods are the damage / all stats / and resistance mods. In a perfect world I would find a pair of rings that have +Cold Damage, cast speed, res, some combination of DEX / STR, and +% ES but these will not be cheap. And again, the all stats help your overall mana pool and ES as well.

Sixth Gem Slot:

As I mentioned before, test with various gems once you get a 6L to see which one you prefer. Generally speaking, increased critical damage and cold penetration are going to be best for raw DPS. Something to consider with a green (DEX) or red (STR) based gem for this last gem slot is rolling the correct color combination on your chest. Since I believe the 5L gems are core (mandatory), if you choose to run cold penetration you will need 4 off color gem sockets on a pure ES chest (1 red – life leech, 3 green – mana leech, LMP, cold penetration). This is not easy to roll though it’s feasible. I would not consider an EV/ES chest, as evasion isn’t as useful to this build as armor would be. If you can grab a nice AR/ES chest, it could be worth considering with the +% to Armor nodes we have taken throughout the tree.

Flasks:
Flasks are for sure preference driven, at least as far as what you carry on you at all times. Generally, I carry 3 quicksilvers, 1 granite, and 1 sapphire flask at all times. These flasks are rolled such that they dispel status effects and recharge on critical (surgeons affix). Depending on the map, I bring whichever element protection I need from my stash. I personally like having 3 quicksilvers because in tight / experienced map groups, you are flying around the map and clearing exceptionally fast. For solo play or less experienced groups I would bring a broader array of flasks that can help in varying situations. If you notice, many of my flasks dispel frozen / chilled and bleeding. With low armor and being CI, freeze and puncture really hurt. For this reason, however, I find it less necessary to use Dream Fragments. It’s rare in parties that I am focused solely by cold spells, and having multiple flasks that dispel frozen (and recharge fast) negate the need for it. Here are all my rolled flasks:

Maps and Mods to Note:
I won’t go into every detail of map bosses and which ones to be careful of. There are a lot of maps, with each respective boss presenting a different challenge and damage type. The more you run maps, you will learn which bosses are harder for you and what to bring against them. Refer to the link at the end of the guide for the map wiki page. You can take a look at all the maps and what boss each contains. Some of the more troublesome map bosses (and the maps and map level they appear in) are:

Map Bosses


Mods


I think that about covers everything. I hope people find this guide helpful, I've put some time into it. Please feel to have open constructive discussion here if you choose. And again, hit me up if you have any other questions. Thanks for reading!

Link to Map Wiki:

Links for Gems Used:
6L Gems:

Utility Gems

Excellent guide. Thanks for making it clear that the build is not set in stone. And we have options.

Thanks man, I put some time into it, hope it's helpful.

very helpful indeed.

Great guide sir :)

Good material in there, that's for sure. Here's my take on your work :

# You detailed a lot, and while this is good, you end up with a massive wall of text. Consider using spoilers and a summary to make it clearer - that'll also help you keeping track of what you want to add or update.

# Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but I'm playing a "good ol'" freeze pulser myself, and while I haven't brought my character as far as yours, here are a few reflections :

-> You choose not to run clarity and thus spend a gem slot on mana leech, potentially wasting "Cold Penetration" - That's probably linked to your high cast speed (98% w/ haste, 20% LMP and 20/20 faster casting) - Maybe some nodes could be dropped in favor of Aura nodes. But that'd probably need to be calculated. So far I can run a 5L FP (FP / LMP / Faster casting / life leech / Increased Crit. Damage) just fine - but I have quite a lot of mana on my gear. However, "No regen" or "50% slower regen" maps are a problem.

-> 4L Cold snap + Trap + Increased AoE + Ele prolif. You get rid of cold snap's annoying cooldown (which you can't bypass anyway) and gain a great crowd control tool that deals decent AoE damage.

-> I personally don't really like getting to the "Body and Soul" that early. It's best in the case you get a Vaal regalia or a saintly chainmail, but if you end up getting a Carnal Armor (easier to get your sockets) you'd probably gain a bit more using Evasion. But its not that's not a big deal i'd say.

Overall really nice guide, only needs to be split up in clear parts and have a couple of in game videos incorporated :D

Edit : detailed a bit more here and there.

"

Stakhanov wrote:

Good material in there, that's for sure. Here's my take on your work :

# You detailed a lot, and while this is good, you end up with a massive wall of text. Consider using spoilers and a summary to make it clearer - that'll also help you keeping track of what you want to add or update.

Maybe, but I dislike the idea of people just opening up what they want to see, like gear and the tree, without reading anything else in the build. Meanwhile, I get PMs or messages in game asking questions about things I covered in the guide that they did not read. I love helping people, but am not cool with spending my time on people who refuse to do a little research of their own. That being said, perhaps you are right. Something to consider going forward.

"

-> You choose not to run clarity ...

I wouldn't mind to see this in action. Even if you take aura nodes, running more than 3 auras is more than difficult. At max level, clarity gives you 24.6 mana regen with 440 mana reserved. For the sake of this calculation, lets assume you take the entire aura cluster between witch and shadow and sovereignty between the witch and templar in addition to linking it with reduced mana. This costs you 7 passive points but you gain 21% less mana reserved and 38% more effectiveness from your auras. I'm not entirely sure on how reduced mana is calculated with the aura nodes, but this is how I did the math:

(440 * .71) = 312.4 - 65.6 (the 21%). This means max level clarity reserves ~246 mana. The math isn't super important here on reservation costs, but instead the amount of regen you get. A max level clarity with 38% more effectiveness is 34 Mana regen per second. My current pool is 1068 and mana regen from the tree is +80%. So:

Base Regen = 1.75% of max mana = 18.69
Clarity Regen = 34
Regen with nodes = 52.69 * 80% Extra Regen = 95 mana per second

My 6L currently costs 69 mana per cast, but would be 109 per cast with cold pen. at 3.16 casts per second, we're talking 344 mana per second to sustain constant spam of FP. My math be wrong, and I am open to the correct calculations if it is, but considering these numbers it is not sustainable. DPS = 0 if you cannot cast your spells. Not to mention you will have to sacrifice other stats in the tree in favor of the aura nodes. Yes, you can increase your mana pool which increases your base regen and also gives you more of a pool to cast from before running out, but you are then limiting yourself to more exact gear to run end game which could cost more currency.

"

-> 4L Cold snap + Trap + Increased AoE + Ele prolif. You get rid of cold snap's annoying cooldown (which you can't bypass anyway) and gain a great crowd control tool that deals decent AoE damage.

This sounds pretty nice, definitely something to consider for a solo player especially. Skeleton totem is, in my opinion, one of the best all around totems for INT users, but again much is preference, thanks for the heads up.

"

-> I personally don't really like getting to the "Body and Soul" that early.

This is totally up to the individual. If they need the ES then I would take it, but sure it may not need to be taken when I mentioned it. This is why I also mentioned that nothing is set in stone as far as what your tree should look like at any level. I wanted to give people a general idea of what they should focus on before and after CI and the core build filled out.

Thanks for the feedback man. I wrote this guide to get people started, but to also get feedback on the build in general to see if it could be optimized.

"

HeavyUnit wrote:

Maybe, but I dislike the idea of people just opening up what they want to see, like gear and the tree, without reading anything else in the build. Meanwhile, I get PMs or messages in game asking questions about things I covered in the guide that they did not read. I love helping people, but am not cool with spending my time on people who refuse to do a little research of their own. That being said, perhaps you are right. Something to consider going forward.

Yeah, got pretty much the same problem w/ my own cold/crit/discharge guide, being asked questions that were already answered. The good thing of splitting things up is an easier access to each information, the downside is that people tend to skip important parts. On the other hand, the wall of text won't discourage people who are interested in your build - and will likely read through it several times and get used to how you structured it.
Also, "Spoiler" and "Quote" tags can get a bit messy, so beware if you decide to use them.

"

Math

I wouldn't mind to see this in action. Even if you take aura nodes, running more than 3 auras is more than difficult. At max level, clarity gives you 24.6 mana regen with 440 mana reserved. For the sake of this calculation, lets assume you take the entire aura cluster between witch and shadow and sovereignty between the witch and templar in addition to linking it with reduced mana. This costs you 7 passive points but you gain 21% less mana reserved and 38% more effectiveness from your auras. I'm not entirely sure on how reduced mana is calculated with the aura nodes, but this is how I did the math:

(440 * .71) = 312.4 - 65.6 (the 21%). This means max level clarity reserves ~246 mana. The math isn't super important here on reservation costs, but instead the amount of regen you get. A max level clarity with 38% more effectiveness is 34 Mana regen per second. My current pool is 1068 and mana regen from the tree is +80%. So:

Base Regen = 1.75% of max mana = 18.69
Clarity Regen = 34
Regen with nodes = 52.69 * 80% Extra Regen = 95 mana per second

My 6L currently costs 69 mana per cast, but would be 109 per cast with cold pen. at 3.16 casts per second, we're talking 344 mana per second to sustain constant spam of FP. My math be wrong, and I am open to the correct calculations if it is, but considering these numbers it is not sustainable. DPS = 0 if you cannot cast your spells. Not to mention you will have to sacrifice other stats in the tree in favor of the aura nodes. Yes, you can increase your mana pool which increases your base regen and also gives you more of a pool to cast from before running out, but you are then limiting yourself to more exact gear to run end game which could cost more currency.

Kind of what I feared, with all your "Increased Cast speed" from gems and nodes, clarity by itself just doesn't cut it. Here's what happens for me under normal conditions :
- 2.42 (w/o frenzy) casts per second
- 69 mana per cast
-> 167 mana drained per second
I'm regenerating 147 mana / second (didn't take the 2 "influence" nodes) hence, i'm "draining" 20 mana per second, which, considering I have 336 mana left, makes 16 seconds of permanent casting. *note that i'm using a perandus signet which give me roughly 35 mana/sec*
Works quite well, but again, i'd say it depends on what gear you have at hand. If you got that 2nd green slot then you can effectively skip clarity and sustain from your dps. If you don't, clarity becomes a must-use (for a while). What makes those aura nodes a bit weak in the end is that running 3 auras (Discipline + Purity + Haste) takes roughly 3k base mana if you want to have 300 left :°[/quote]

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This sounds pretty nice, definitely something to consider for a solo player especially. Skeleton totem is, in my opinion, one of the best all around totems for INT users, but again much is preference, thanks for the heads up.

Reading through your guide made me want to give the skelbro totem a second chance. Now I run both of these options :3

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Thanks for the feedback man. I wrote this guide to get people started, but to also get feedback on the build in general to see if it could be optimized.

You're welcome :) Your "numbers" without power charges made me drop mine on my FP witch, out of curiosity, and because even though PCoC could fit on ice spear to keep the 6L FP "untouched", maintaining them was quite boring. Gameplay is a lot smoother now that I only care about blood rage.

Yeah Cold Snap in a 4L seems like it would accomplish the same thing. The key in solo play is taking the heat off of you so you can perma freeze mobs and stay relatively safe. Skeletons are an easy way to do it, but so is cold snap it looks like.

You've got me thinking on not running mana leech though. It would be super sweet to not have to run it. I think the only feasible way of doing it would be using a gem in place of mana leech with a relatively low mana multiplier. Since cast speed is so important to maximize the number of crit procs, I think you should be aiming for about a .3 cast time with this build. I am currently at .31. That being said, it kind of rules out cold penetration since it's such a huge multiplier. Here are casting costs with a couple of different gems in my current setup:

Increased Critical Strike (115% multiplier) = 80 per cast, 252.8 mana/s
Faster Projectiles (110% multiplier) = 76 per cast, 240.16 mana/s
Cold Penetration (150% multiplier) = 109 per cast, 344.44 mana/s

Doing some math, if I somehow got to a 3k mana pool (which is insane btw lol), increased my regen rate to 160%, and took the nodes for auras, my regen would look like this:

Base Regen = 1.75% * 3000 = 52.5 mana/s
Clarity = 34 mana/s
With Regen% on gear/nodes = 86.5 * 160% Extra regen = 224.9 mana/s

It can be done, but it greatly depends on what nodes have to be sacrificed in the tree to help get you to a 3k mana pool. With my current tree, I should be able to make up for the mana regen on gear. It's hard to say if the new damage gem would make up for (and exceed since that's the point) my current setup. I suppose I could do some more calculations on it, maybe I will. The biggest problem with not running mana leech is you shut yourself out of no regen maps. I mean, I don't like to run them anyway, but half / no regen maps are runnable for me currently even if they are a pain in the ass.

How effective would this build be in nemesis? Would one need to change much about the build to make it viable enough to survive?