[1.1.X] Arctic Breath + Fireball "Cast on Crit" Frenzy Wander (with Video)

Introducing my Level 86 "Cast on Crit" Wander (Templar). His name is Knuser. Its a powerful and fun build so I thought I'd share its details with the community.

Highlights

1: ~18k dps LMP Frenzy with a 6L. + 1500x3 damage per Arctic Breath proc + 2300x3 damage per Fireball proc.
2: 70% chance to crit x 3.6 attacks/sec x 88% chance to proc per crit = 2.2 procs/sec per target. That means at least 8360 dps (3800*2.2) from AB and Fireball procs.
3 : ~34k dps single target 4L Power Siphon (Also used as a Power Charge generator)
4 : 6 Power Charges and 5 Frenzy charges
5 : 2 Auras (Wrath, Anger)
6 : 35% chance to block attacks, 29% chance to block spells
7 : ~3300 life + ~2700 ES
8 : Ghost Reaver to leech ES instead of life
9 : Berek's grip to leech both ES and Mana with elemental damage

Offense

CoC Frenzy (Arctic Breath+Fireball)

Knuser uses a Fast and High Crit Wand with +Elemental damage and Spell Damage (See link below). His main skill is Frenzy supported by Weapon Elemental Damage, Cast on Crit, Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Arctic Breath and Fireball. With 5 frenzy charges, 6 Power Charges, he attacks about 3.6 times per second with a crit chance of 70%. With max charges and self-buffed (Wrath and Anger), Frenzy deals around 18k dps, without counting the Arctic Breath and Fireball procs dps. So contrary to many other CoC builds that deal negligible dps with their CoC attack, its not the case with this build.

With max charges and a level 20 Cast on Crit gem (88% chance to proc on crit), I estimate that the proc rate of Arctic Breath and Arc is 62% (70% chance to crit x 88% chance to proc on crit). With an attack speed of 3.6 per second, that means about 2.2 procs per second. However, since I use Frenzy with 3 projectiles, If I hit 3 targets with frenzy, AB can potentially procs 6.6 times per second (2.2 x 3). But with the 74% chance to pierce from the Projectile Weakness curse, that number can get much higher.

Power charges generator and single target skill

I use single target Power Siphon to generate Power Charges but also to kill rares and bosses. Linked with Weapon elemental Damage, Faster Attack and Critical Dmg, it deals ~34k dps.

Also, with 2 passives spent in increased Power charges duration, I only need to get a killing blow on a monster with Power Siphon every 13 seconds to maintain the 6 charges. While soloing, its easy to do. In full party, not so much. So I replace Critical dmg gem by Power charges on crit when in full party.

Auras

I normally run 2 auras : Wrath and Anger. In "50% reduced mana regen" maps, I replace Wrath by Clarity. In elemental weakness map, I can replace Wrath by Purity.

Curses

For large packs, I feel like Projectile Weakness is the way to go. The chance to pierce (59-74%) and the accuracy bonus (-68% to monster's evasion) helps frenzy to hit more targets, more often. As a results, Arctic Breath and Fireball procs a lot more. The Accuracy bonus helps the naturally weak accuracy of the character (low dex). The other effects of Projectile Weakness, 34% More damage and 22% chance to knockback, aren't too shabby either.

Against single targets (boss) or heavily resistant monsters, Elemental Weakness is more efficient. So I use both curses, depending on the situation.

Other utility skills

Cold Snap : Supported with 20% quality Added Cold Damage, Increased Area of Effect and Elemental Proliferation, it has about 65% chance to freeze for a very long duration. And the area covered is huge. I've found that its the best way to leech life with Berek's Grip. The power charges generated by Power Siphon also allow to use Cold Snap without cooldown.

Cast when damage taken setup 1 : Level 1 CWDT linked to enduring cry (lvl 5) and Increased Area of Effect.

Devouring totem : To quickly replenish energy shield.

Defense

With my current gear, I have around 3300 life and 2700 ES for a total of ~6000 health. I also have a decent chance to block (35% against attacks, 29% against spells) and chance to evade (around 22%). The build's passives includes +46% to all elemental resists, so its not hard to get max resists with normal gear.

The build also includes Ghost Reaver so the life leeched either with the Devouring totem or Berek's grip helps to replenish the Energy shield pool. Its particularly useful in chaos per second maps where ES cannot replenish by itself.

Gear and skills setup :



What kind of gear you should look for

With passives that provides +114.6% to energy shield, 53% to evasion and 28% to armor, energy shield is naturally the first defense you should look for on gear. Evasion/ES is not a bad idea either since any investment in evasion provides very nice returns when you are below 20% chance to evade. Obviously, you should also get as much +life as possible. The build provides only +132% so having lots of +life on gear is important.

Another thing to look for on gear is Dex and Accuracy. First, to run level 20 frenzy, you need at least 151 dex, but the build provides only 84. So, you'll need to get at least 67 dex from gear. In the other hand, since the build provides a very low amount of dex and +accuracy% passives, a large amount of +Accuracy needs to come from gear. Including dex, I have +1221 Accuracy from items and despite this, my chance to hit vs level 79 monsters is only 86%. However, against typical maps level 70-72 monsters, my chance to hit is probably much higher (90%+). When using projectile weakness, the accuracy problem is not nearly as bad.

Finally, +mana and mana regen is another very good item mod to look for. The build provides +44% to mana and +80% to mana regen, but that still not nearly enough to sustain 5L charges frenzy (with 4 charges) with a 1.5 attack speed weapon. The +176 mana (thanks largely to Rainbowstriders) and +110% mana regen from gear is what allows me to do it. Without such gear, I'd need to either use a mana leech gem or use Eldritch Battery.

Link to the build's passives choices :



Bandit rewards (I underlined my choice)

Normal : 40 Life or +1 Passive points.
Cruel : +8% attack speed or +1 passive point
Merciless : +1 frenzy charge

Recommended Uniques

Berek's Grip : All the item's mods are great for the build. The +cold dmg% helps Arctic Breath dmg, the +lightning dmg increases Frenzy/Power Siphon dps. The 5% of Damage against Shocked enemies Leeched as Mana greatly helps mana generation and the 5% of Damage against Frozen enemies Leeched as Life is helpful too, particularly with Cold Snap. Both Leech works with elemental damage so they fit the build perfectly.

Rathpith Globe : +10% life, High ES and block%, +Spell dmg and Spell block. All useful mods for the build.

Rainbowstride boots : Spell block, Very high amount of +mana and decent ES.

Crown of Eye : For obvious reasons, this unique helmet would be perfect for this build. Both Frenzy and Power Siphon dps would greatly increase with Crown of Eye thanks to the +121% spell damage from my wand and shield. I can't afford it yet though.


Gameplay Video :

Soloing level 71 map (With Elemental weakness and Critical damage instead of Projectile weakness and Fireball)

Soloing level 70 map
(With Arc instead of Fireball)

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated !

bump !

Original post updated and improved with more details.

Hi,I think your build is very interesting and I want to give it a try but I'm not by any means wealthy on any league, is your build leveling friendly? do I need a lot of gear to make it work? thanks :)

Looks brilliant. Can I ask why you don't take AoE nodes?

Running a similar build. guessing you skipped chain because of the mana cost? I leveled as a spectral thrower but am having trouble justifying switching to wands because I don't feel frenzy+lmp gives as many procs as ST does.

frenzy+chain+lmp was good for procs but too mana intensive while no chain made it not proc enough compared to ST+lmp.

"

namus wrote:

Hi,I think your build is very interesting and I want to give it a try but I'm not by any means wealthy on any league, is your build leveling friendly? do I need a lot of gear to make it work? thanks :)

Hello,

I'll admit that I didn't level this character from level 1. It was a level 79 character that I leveled up as a Ground Slammer during open beta. With the full passives reset that we got with the game release and the introduction of the Cast on Crit support gem, I wanted to try something completely different.

However, If I had to start from scratch, I would probably level him up as a typical Elemental dmg Power Siphon build. Except for a few exceptions, the same passives choices are the same for both builds. Once you are high level enough to use a 5L chestplate, you can start using Frenzy (or Power Siphon) with cast on crit + Arctic Breath + LMP + Crit damage. Once you get a 4th frenzy charge and enough mana regen to sustain a fast attack speed, Frenzy becomes clearly superior to Power Siphon and should be used instead.

In term of gear, it shouldn't be harder than most other builds. +Elemental wands aren't hard to come by. Gear with ES + Life isn't in high demand so its usually cheaper than pure ES gear. Spell damage + elemental dmg gear is even less in demand which should also make it cheaper.

"

Kirielis wrote:

Looks brilliant. Can I ask why you don't take AoE nodes?

Good question. I know that Arctic Breath would benefit from the increased Area of Effect, but Frenzy and Power Siphon would not. I tried to spend most of my offensive passives on things that would benefit both the Arctic Breath and Frenzy/Power Siphon part my setup i.e. elemental damage, crit damage and crit chance. Since most of my damage still come from frenzy/Power Siphon, I was ok with allocating some passives in some of the best Notable to increase frenzy/Power Siphon dps such as Fusillade, Haste, Catalyze and the extra frenzy Charge.

"

helgi wrote:

Running a similar build. guessing you skipped chain because of the mana cost? I leveled as a spectral thrower but am having trouble justifying switching to wands because I don't feel frenzy+lmp gives as many procs as ST does.

frenzy+chain+lmp was good for procs but too mana intensive while no chain made it not proc enough compared to ST+lmp.

Yeah, I guess someone could replace the wand by a dagger and use Spectral Throw instead of frenzy. Wand passives would need to be replaced by dagger passives too.

The biggest advantages of Spectral throw is the natural piercing and lower mana cost.

Obviously, you'd lose attack speed because Frenzy provides +68% attack speed with 4 charges at 20% quality. You'd also lose range. Spectral throw range is kinda short unless you use faster projectiles. Chances to crit would be lower too because of the lower local chance to crit of daggers compare to wands.


The mana cost is one of the reason why I don't use chain with my frenzy set up. But also the damage penalty of 50%. Personally, with frenzy's insane chance to crit (75%+), I'd rather use Increased Critical damage. Its amazing how much dps boost I get with it. I wouldn't replace LMP by Chain either.

This sounds really fun! I'm going to try it out and see what's up.

Can you maybe shed some light on this build over a Cast on Crit Quill Rain setup?

Easier crit chance here, but Quill Rain attacks 3x faster.

"

shifted1119 wrote:

This sounds really fun! I'm going to try it out and see what's up.

Can you maybe shed some light on this build over a Cast on Crit Quill Rain setup?

Easier crit chance here, but Quill Rain attacks 3x faster.

Good question. As a general rule of thumb, the higher is the attack speed x crit chance result (proc ratio), the higher is the chance to proc spells.

Quill Rain attack speed is 3.11 vs 1.5 for the Imbued Wand. So its 2.07 times faster, not 3 times. If you manage to get a Imbued wand with maxed local attack speed (16%), the difference is even smaller, 3.11 vs 1.74, or 1.79 times faster.

Quill Rain local crit chance is 5% vs 8% for the Imbued Wand. So, the Imbued wand crits 1.8 times more than the Quill Rain per attack. If you manage to get an Imbued Wand with maxed local critical chance (+38%), the difference is even larger, 5% vs 11.04% or 2.2 times more chance to crit per attack with the wand.

So, Quill rain proc ratio 15.33% (3.11 x 5%)

Base Imbued wand proc ratio is 12% (1.5 x 8%)

Perfect Imbued wand proc ratio is 19.2% (1.74 x 11.04%)


However, as a templar, its much easier to get +critical chance% than +attack speed%. My build, for instance, provides +580% chance to crit (including 7 x Power charges) while it only provides +107% to the attack speed (Mainly via to frenzy+frenzy charges). If we apply those numbers to the Quill rain/Imbued wand' attack speed and crit chance%, we get :

Quill Rain : 6.4 attacks per second x 34% chance to crit = 217.6%

Base Imbued Wand : 3.1 attacks per second x 54% chance to crit = 168.6%

Perfect Imbued Wand : 3.6 attacks per second x 75.1% chance to crit = 270.25%


So, all other things being Equal, Quill rain generates more procs per second than a base imbued wand but less than a perfect Imbued wand. However, you have to keep in mind that higher attack speed also means higher mana cost while higher crit chance doesn't.

Also, base damage of the Quill rain is not only very low, it halves all attack damage so while Arctic Breath dps may be the same than with a wand, Frenzy dps won't compare to what you'd get with a wand. Also, with a wand, you can get other useful modifiers like spell damage, + flat elemental damage or +elemental dmg%.

Another difference is that a wand let you use a shield (for a defensive set up) or a 2nd wand for higher attack speed while the Quill Rain forces you to equip a Quiver.

Finally, as a templar, you have an easier access to the wand passives, including the very nice Fusillade Notable (6% increased wand damage per Power Charge) while Bow passives are kinda out of reach.