Hardcore Frost Witch Guide (Last Updated May 8th)

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lumino6 wrote:

Actually Zealot's Oath can be good, you just need to boost your Life Regen with your gear

This will allow your energy shield to regen permanently, with a boost after a 3-6s wait
So, for example, if you have 5% per second life regen :

Permanent = 5% ES regen per sec
If no dmg for 3s = 35% ES regen per sec

So, if you can get that regen (of life leech if you go for Life Reaver), it could save your life

Only con is : You need to get that regen somewhere, so if your gear doesn't give you life regen/leech, those 2 passives are useless

Yeah, because trying to reach for the health regen passives is gonna prove difficult. They're situated:

In the Templar start area (1.0%), in the Marauder start area (1.5% and 0.4%), in the Duelist area (1.5%, 1.0%, 0.4%, 0.4%) and in the middle-left (accessible easiest from Marauder) (0.4% 0.4% 0.4%). That's a massive 7.2%/second regen, godly if you're a Blood Magic build with 4000 life, but not too godly on ES, plus it means giving up tons of ES.

Now that you mentioned life regen, I thought about trying to actually get all the life regen nodes (and a ton of life+ nodes too), for an unusual build I guess: a bow elemental duelist blood magic (maybe it's common?).

Here's how it looks like:



A whopping +7.4% life/second regen (I must have counted badly earlier).
A pretty high +197% maximum life
3% of physical damage leeched as life
10 life on kill

+80% elemental damage with weapons
+10% elemental damage
+30% fire damage with weapons
+30% ice damage with weapons
+73% all elemental resist
+5% max elemental resist

I like to make builds focused onto one thing, and I guess melee is a bit too risky for my taste. So this build might just be it for my style.

The original frost witch build seems REALLY good, Im really excited about this one.
Any tips for making this build into a more minion based build keeping all the main cold skills?

Regarding Zealots Oath, I was thinking about picking it up and using it in conjunction with vitality aura and rejuv totem as an emergency method of regenerating energy shield. Rejuv totem is rather strong by itself and if necessary for a particular map to run vitality, it seems for one point it would be a good/strong method to regen ES. Comments?

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Halestorm24 wrote:

Regarding Zealots Oath, I was thinking about picking it up and using it in conjunction with vitality aura and rejuv totem as an emergency method of regenerating energy shield. Rejuv totem is rather strong by itself and if necessary for a particular map to run vitality, it seems for one point it would be a good/strong method to regen ES. Comments?

Imo plant your skeleton totem, and if you constantly get hit so much that you can't regen, go away for 3 seconds, regen, come back.

For one I'm not going to be running 2 different totems (even if not using them at once) just because of situational times it could, maybe, might, be useful. It takes valuable skill shortcuts.

Vitality aura, even at max, is a measly 1.5% life/ES regen (for a high 40% mana reserved). If your problem is getting hit too much, I doubt it'll change things (I think you get hit more than 1.5% worth per second). Imo auras are mainly useful for party or minions, except the flat-cost ones if you have high mana. Use Discipline instead, it's a flat cost at least.

In an ideal party, every member is running a 30%/40% aura so that everyone has all buffs when you're in a tight pack. Then it's worth it. Having all the buffs at once for 40% of your mana (or whatever reduced, still high) is good. Having just one of the % mana buffs is usually not that good in itself. The flat-cost ones are only good if you can afford them at or near max lv, lv 1 Clarity won't help much.

Revised the merciless section a bit. After going through merciless multiple times I've found it to be easier if Ghost Reaver is picked up earlier (Act 1 or 2).

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hoiland wrote:

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GhostlightX wrote:

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Viperface wrote:

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

Ideas? Suggestions?

What curse are you spamming? While Frostbite looks great on paper, it was getting me killed. I recommend swapping to Temporal Chains or Enfeeble. And Ice Spear has no max range as far as I know, so you can kill stuff from several screens away.

Also not sure why Cold Snap isn't loved more in this thread. I use it with Elemental Proliferation, Cold Penetration and Added Cold Damage now. My Icy is level 53 and currently well into Mericless Act 1 and I am owning everything, with few Life nodes in my build (I have 500 HP and 600 Shield). The reason is Cold Snap. It has a much higher Freeze chance than any other cold spell, and with Elem Proliferation you only need to freeze one target and everything near it will Freeze as well. By the time they unfreeze, CS is off cooldown and you just pop it again for a further mass freeze. I can keep the entire screen frozen pretty much as long as I want.

CS ftw

Wait...you are level 53, in Merciless Act 1 and only have 600 ES?!

Sweet Jesus man!!! You are going to get 1 - shotted.


I am 47 with 2,000 ES and so-so gear.

Other than that, you are correct, CS is a great spell if used correctly :)

Ok so I tried this build, my first HC char. So I got to act3 and got 2 shot by one of those teleporting mobs (a rare). Now I died at lvl 34, but I still don't understand how you can have 2.000 ES. Where do you find this great ES gear, I suppose you already have a lot of good geared stashed farmed with some other char? I had pretty good gear tbh and I don't come close to those numbers. I had about 390hp and 400es and I died like nothing, how do you manage to survive and where does this miracle gear come from?

And this was how far in the skill tree I got before I died.


Thanks

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Ok so I tried this build, my first HC char. So I got to act3 and got 2 shot by one of those teleporting mobs (a rare). Now I died at lvl 34, but I still don't understand how you can have 2.000 ES. Where do you find this great ES gear, I suppose you already have a lot of good geared stashed farmed with some other char? I had pretty good gear tbh and I don't come close to those numbers. I had about 390hp and 400es and I died like nothing, how do you manage to survive and where does this miracle gear come from?

Your first HC char might explain why you died easily.

Avoid/run from rare/unique monsters, use your skeletons, and possibly fight them only from afar (Cold snap, ice spear). Without mitigation, you're just asking to die if you run headfirst into enemies.

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SaraZeal wrote:

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Ok so I tried this build, my first HC char. So I got to act3 and got 2 shot by one of those teleporting mobs (a rare). Now I died at lvl 34, but I still don't understand how you can have 2.000 ES. Where do you find this great ES gear, I suppose you already have a lot of good geared stashed farmed with some other char? I had pretty good gear tbh and I don't come close to those numbers. I had about 390hp and 400es and I died like nothing, how do you manage to survive and where does this miracle gear come from?

Your first HC char might explain why you died easily.

Avoid/run from rare/unique monsters, use your skeletons, and possibly fight them only from afar (Cold snap, ice spear). Without mitigation, you're just asking to die if you run headfirst into enemies.

Ye I played with a friend who plays a shadow and usually takes them on and i just handle the dps, so it's not like I am running head first into anything. Guess I had some bad luck too, had pretty bad lightning res and the mob had power charges with lightning dmg and it blinked on to us and hit me twice.

I just did Vaal Normal, at lv 36, 370 life, 420 ES, 75% all elemental resist, he was cake, easy as pie. I was so apprehending this (my second time fighting Vaal) because my Ranger died 4 times on my first SC playthrough, where I didn't expect his pattern.