Hardcore Frost Witch Guide (Last Updated May 8th)

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It's your gear. Like you said, it's crappy. Put a little effort into it and you won't get "smashed" by stuff. Killing things in 2-4 pulses is normal though (and are you thinking that's bad?).

I dunno. I just got the impression that Cruel difficulty was a cake-walk for everyone else and people were just one-shotting things t.t

What kind of gear should I be aiming for? I don't really understand the whole damage system; if I get a wand that gives something like +15% spell damage and +50% physical damage, does that mean 50% of my spell damage will be converted to physical damage and stacked on?
And for defensive items, do I just straight up stack ES?
Should I even bother getting DEX & Str items to level up my support gems? Or is that just a job for passive points?

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I would swap around IS and FP. Put LMP on IS along with Crit Damage, and put Increased Crit Chance and Faster Projectiles onto FP. Fight things from further away.

I would also use those slots on your chest to get Cold Snap into your mix. This spell is extremely powerful at higher levels. CS + Elemental Proliferation = entire screen frozen solid most of the time. Seriously try this! You hit a few enemies with CS and they freeze for 5+ seconds. During that time, any other enemy that walks within 20 yards (radius goes up with level) of the frozen guys will freeze! Hence nothing will get near you and you can kill with IS from long range most of the time.

Alright, I'll try this once I get lucky with chromatic gems. Don't have the green spots to mix and match yet :C
How should I go about fighting ranged creatures? I feel like their cast time is always shorter than mine (For Ice Spear) and if it's a stack of them or something that attacks fast like the Bug Queens in Act3, I just get stunned before my spell finishes casting.

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What kind of gear should I be aiming for? I don't really understand the whole damage system; if I get a wand that gives something like +15% spell damage and +50% physical damage, does that mean 50% of my spell damage will be converted to physical damage and stacked on?

+50% physical damage on a wand only affects the unmodified damage of the wand's normal attacks (ie not spells), and it's already modified on the damage (who will appear in blue). Only useful if you use Siphon (which is considered a physical projectile attack).

It won't apply to your spells.

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And for defensive items, do I just straight up stack ES?
Should I even bother getting DEX & Str items to level up my support gems? Or is that just a job for passive points?

Yes, just ES, not evasion or armor, you're unlikely to have the stats to equip them anyway. I'd get the DEX and STR nodes to the left and right side (the +30 ones) as needed. I prefer not making my equipment (including gems) dependent on "borrowed" stats, unless it's my main stat (I'll get more int anyway). I gear resist wise.

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How should I go about fighting ranged creatures? I feel like their cast time is always shorter than mine (For Ice Spear) and if it's a stack of them or something that attacks fast like the Bug Queens in Act3, I just get stunned before my spell finishes casting.

You can try Freezing Pulse, with LMP and FP from up close, they'll chill and freeze, even with cold resist. I use Ice Spear for ranged enemies who don't constantly spawn new enemies. If you got enough DEX and INT, you can always use Fire Traps, and don't forget to Summon Skeletons to prevent being overwhelmed especially vs yellow or orange mobs.

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lumino6 wrote:

First of all, thanks a lot for this build, it's freaking awesome up to now

I only died because I panicked when the dude froze me at Tidal island in Cruel, so instead of using my flasks, I watched ...

Second, questions
1- Why are you getting the resistance from the Bandits on Normal, wouldn't the skill point be better in end-game?

2- There is a 30% increase ES from shield node HERE (ignore the path). Are you planning on getting it or is 2 skill points wasted for this node?


I have more questions, but I'll concentrate on getting my witch in Merciless first :P

Thanks

1. I actually have been getting the skill point here instead (The witch I was using when I first wrote the guide in closed beta is long gone and I haven't changed that particular part since.). I'm going to go through and revise a few things like that soon.

2. Yes, I picked that one up in merciless. I think that's in the guide already actually.

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rz2yoj wrote:

2. Yes, I picked that one up in merciless. I think that's in the guide already actually.

Must have been looking at the wrong 3rd tree instead of the 4th, because I see it now :P

Thanks

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Daijanus wrote:

May I ask why you are using freezing Pulse with LMP and not Ice Spear?

Because Freezing Pulse creates an arc in front of you, so the enemy can get hit 3 times by the spell, one for the middle, and twice for the edges of the spell, making it so that Freezing Pulse actually can causes 210% damage (70% due to LMP * 3)

Ice Spear will always hit 1 unless the monster is right next to you, and your main goal would be for that never to happen, making LMP on Ice Spear weaker

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rz2yoj wrote:

Kill all the bandits for the extra skill point. There are so many more useful things in the passive tree than +4% cast speed. More importantly, I think the average value of our skill points is greater than +4% cast speed.

I would really appreciate if you could explain this statement or give some examples of passives you imply here. Because calculations tell that "+4% cast speed" would give you more dps than would any single average passive in the end-game. Obviously, the increase is even more substantial during mid-game.

Thanks for the guide, first, as I have been trying to follow this as close as I can. I am curerntly level 38 in Lunaris Temple, and I am getting crushed. I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong, or am just not very good at this. I constantly run out of mane, so I cannot hit. This is getting me killed. I am glad I did not play hardcore or my game would have ben very short.

I am using freezing pulse for left click, Ice spear right click, I picked up Frostbite and launch it first, helps kill in 2 shots rather than 5-6. That is my main question, I find the monsters need to be hit too many times in order to die, and when they come at me in dozens, there is no surviving, I can only run. I have died in Lunaris on the 3rd level over 20 times.
Kole id just crushing me in 1 hit. I have Ice nova, use clarity, and raise zombies st times too.

Stats:
Life is 346
Shield is 672
Mana is 504 (def need more)
Dps is 47.9
aps 1.10
Main hand total combined damage 32-84
Life regen is 2.5
mana regen 14.1
Int 240
str 34
dex 64

my run speed is -7 for some reason, not sure how to change that
I use jewelry and potions for the 75 resists, which without re hovering 30-50


I cannot outrun Kole, and he scoops me in, so I really am not even hurting him

Ideas? Suggestions?

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Thanks for the guide, first, as I have been trying to follow this as close as I can. I am curerntly level 38 in Lunaris Temple, and I am getting crushed. I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong, or am just not very good at this. I constantly run out of mane, so I cannot hit. This is getting me killed. I am glad I did not play hardcore or my game would have ben very short.

You're probably not using Clarity.

I'm using Clarity with 200 mana reserved for it (out of about 400), it makes my mana regen go from 12.2 to 26.2 mana per second. Which is sufficient to pretty much spam Freezing Pulse that has LMP and FP linked to it. I'm only lv 33, in Act 2 (right before Waterfall, taking my sweet time, because I don't want to remake for being reckless/hasty, I do play HC).

I'm using normal attack for left-click (mainly movement), ice spear for right click, summon skeleton for middle-click, freezing pulse on Q, frostbite on W, cold snap on E and fire trap on R, clarity is on T.

My gear is not optimal, even for my level (and in Lunaris, better stuff drops). You should only count spell DPS if you don't use basic attacks.

Ice Spear, 1 projectile 42% faster speed projectile, 69-103 ice damage +73% crit multiplier, 138.6 dps at 0.68 second per cast. Main use it enemies who won't come close (like snakes, constructs) or yellows due to the high freeze.

Freezing Pulse, 3 projectiles, 42% faster speed projectile, 56-84 ice damage, 136.2 dps at 0.52 seconds per cast. If groups of enemies or anything that won't be able to ignore it and hit me comes, I spam it.

Summon Skeletons, max 4 skeletons, 186 life per skeleton. Took no minion node or support gem. Bait for enemies especially when they're strong or resistant (purple, yellow or orange mobs that have high HP/resist or attack). I can also use them as scouts just in front of me, if they stand around, no enemy, if they move somewhere, enemy close that way.

Frostbite -34% resist, +10% freeze chance. Not supported by any gem as of now. I seldom use it. I'd use it against cold-resist champions, orange, bosses probably.

Fire Trap 61-90 fire damage on hit, 27.5 fire damage per second hereafter. Supported with chance to ignite, now at 29%. Mainly for tough enemies I know are coming/close. I'd use it on bosses and such since I figured you can actually throw them pretty accurately and far at enemies (originally, I didn't think you could even throw them, but I since got more comfortable with the controls). It's extra dps on top of your skeletons and ice spear when they're far (and bosses you usually want to keep far).

Clarity 8.4 mana per second, reserves 200 mana

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189 int
67 str
73 dex

54% fire resist, 75% lightning resist 75% cold resist, 16% chaos resist (without potions).

374 life, 300 energy shield, 421 mana

+71 life is from gear, no +% life node
+40% mana regen from passive, +26% mana regen from amulet

Gear-wise I favored slots to equip Ice Spear + Crit multiplier + Faster projectile (blue+blue+green) and slots to equip Freezing Pulse + LMP + Faster Projectiles (blue+green+green) and elemental resists (either +% all resist, or two medium +% elemental resist per item). I didn't favor ES, it's my 3rd criteria. All other bonuses are only a plus.

I've never died with this, but as I outlevel areas a bit, it makes me a bit safer.

Edit:

Kill speed, weak enemies (monkeys) die in one Pulse, stronger enemies die in 1 critting spear or 2 pulse, purple-name bear-like monsters can survive 5 Pulse hits. Oranges vary. If I see my ES run out I run away til it regens (and probably summon skeletons), so I'm never in big danger. I probably would be in danger with very fast moving enemies if I was already low health (the Sarn town enemies that like to use traps and whirling blades, a rare could get to me if I don't take precautions).

I don't use Cold Snap much yet, mostly leveling it. It definitely needs bigger aoe and elemental proliferation to be more useful, given the cooldown.

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Viperface wrote:

Thanks for the guide, first, as I have been trying to follow this as close as I can. I am curerntly level 38 in Lunaris Temple, and I am getting crushed. I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong, or am just not very good at this. I constantly run out of mane, so I cannot hit. This is getting me killed. I am glad I did not play hardcore or my game would have ben very short.

I am using freezing pulse for left click, Ice spear right click, I picked up Frostbite and launch it first, helps kill in 2 shots rather than 5-6. That is my main question, I find the monsters need to be hit too many times in order to die, and when they come at me in dozens, there is no surviving, I can only run. I have died in Lunaris on the 3rd level over 20 times.
Kole id just crushing me in 1 hit. I have Ice nova, use clarity, and raise zombies st times too.

Stats:
Life is 346
Shield is 672
Mana is 504 (def need more)
Dps is 47.9
aps 1.10
Main hand total combined damage 32-84
Life regen is 2.5
mana regen 14.1
Int 240
str 34
dex 64

my run speed is -7 for some reason, not sure how to change that
I use jewelry and potions for the 75 resists, which without re hovering 30-50


I cannot outrun Kole, and he scoops me in, so I really am not even hurting him

Ideas? Suggestions?

You need more DPS. If you don't have Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Faster Projectiles on Freezing Pulse, now is the time.

Also, in case you haven't noticed yet, Freezing Pulse deals more damage if you are next to your target. The further away, the less damage. Considerably less.
Get yourself a Granite Flask of Iron Skin and drink it when you see a pack of mobs getting near you, and kill them with 10000 armor.

Get Clarity, get Discipline if your mana can bear it. Get +% cold damage gear/+% spell damage wand and shield.

And, finally, play Hardcore. There's no better way to learn than to learn the hard way.

How do you deal with reflect elemental damage? I imagine firing a freezing pulse into a pack of those would be a pretty bad idea.

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Incze wrote:

How do you deal with reflect elemental damage? I imagine firing a freezing pulse into a pack of those would be a pretty bad idea.

Can trap damage be reflected by reflect damage? Because if not, I'd use that. And skeletons if the same applies (if it reflects on themselves I don't really care).