Hardcore Frost Witch Guide (Last Updated May 8th)

So ive made my witch around this build and now i sit at level 77. I was wondering why you decided to venture to the left to take body and soul instead of taking a second nullification to the right of arcing blows. I fail to see the importance of 60% armour when we don't have any armour on our gear. Is this just to boost granite flask effectiveness?

"

Treeeee wrote:

So ive made my witch around this build and now i sit at level 77. I was wondering why you decided to venture to the left to take body and soul instead of taking a second nullification to the right of arcing blows. I fail to see the importance of 60% armour when we don't have any armour on our gear. Is this just to boost granite flask effectiveness?

The reason I went over there at first was because it gave me the most ES % (60) vs 1 ring in the Shadow area (50).

What I also liked about going over to get Body and Soul was that it set me up to go into the Templar area to pick up some solid cold damage and mana nodes. However, I later figured out a more efficient way of getting there after getting Inner Force.

Another small reason that lead me to that route was I wanted to eventually take advantage of the 90% ES to shield nodes under Elemental Equilibrium. I haven't taken them yet, below is my current build.



What I would like to get to, and where I am personally heading to next is Ghost Reaver. Then I will be filling out the Nullification rings and adding to my ES even further.

On HC, I am almost always going defense first and worrying about spell/cold damage later.

Eventually, this is my ultimate build that I am trying to get to:



Did I take the most efficient route? Probably not. I really undervalued the ES cooldown nodes and probably overvauling the ES 90% shield nodes that I will get later.

"

Treeeee wrote:

So ive made my witch around this build and now i sit at level 77. I was wondering why you decided to venture to the left to take body and soul instead of taking a second nullification to the right of arcing blows. I fail to see the importance of 60% armour when we don't have any armour on our gear. Is this just to boost granite flask effectiveness?

Armor aside, that cluster provides 60% energy shield + 10% resists and is only 4 int nodes away. That alone makes it worth getting in my book. The additional armor and the fact that the path neighbors Zealot's Oath, Avoid Cast Interruption, and several Energy Shield on Shield nodes completely tip the scales though.

Hi, I have been following your guide from ~35 lvl and I have some questions:
1) How to deal with mana problems(currently having ~300 mana with aura up and ~130 with 2 auras up, with total a bit above 600 mana)... My pulse has greater projectiles and faster cast gem and is taking 55 mana per cast(60 with crit gem added). That makes like 5-6 casts, not counting ~20 manaregen what I have. With my 2.5+ casts per sec I burn all my mana in 2 seconds and cannot regen it quickly enough. Is there any way to fix this?
2) Currently level 62 with 3800 ES, 4600 with aura(what I cant use with my current manapool). Is this good enough? Using CI ofc, but is there point to get life leech for ES? Or is there any other method for regening ES?

Thankssss!

"

mndelmar wrote:

Hi, I have been following your guide from ~35 lvl and I have some questions:
1) How to deal with mana problems(currently having ~300 mana with aura up and ~130 with 2 auras up, with total a bit above 600 mana)... My pulse has greater projectiles and faster cast gem and is taking 55 mana per cast(60 with crit gem added). That makes like 5-6 casts, not counting ~20 manaregen what I have. With my 2.5+ casts per sec I burn all my mana in 2 seconds and cannot regen it quickly enough. Is there any way to fix this?
2) Currently level 62 with 3800 ES, 4600 with aura(what I cant use with my current manapool). Is this good enough? Using CI ofc, but is there point to get life leech for ES? Or is there any other method for regening ES?

Thankssss!

1. You'll want to deal with it by regenerating more mana than you're using. Put on a mana regen amulet and maybe get mana regen on at least one other piece of gear and you should have no problem. Having only around 100 mana unreserved is normal, but if your regen is where it should be, you'll never run out. That's with 2 support gems on Freezing Pulse. You probably won't have the regen for putting 3 support gems on it without using Reduced Mana or Mana Leech.

2. It'll be enough if you can fix your mana and get Discipline up. At level 62 I have no problem keeping 3 auras up so I'm not sure how it can be such a problem for you (Link them with Reduced Mana in a 4-link.). Life Leech with Freezing Pulse is really important and should be done as soon as you can afford a 5+ link chest and the mana cost. The only other way to regen energy shield (aside from getting out of combat) would be to get Zealot's Oath and use Vitality or a Rejuvenation Totem.

"

mndelmar wrote:

Hi, I have been following your guide from ~35 lvl and I have some questions:
1) How to deal with mana problems(currently having ~300 mana with aura up and ~130 with 2 auras up, with total a bit above 600 mana)... My pulse has greater projectiles and faster cast gem and is taking 55 mana per cast(60 with crit gem added). That makes like 5-6 casts, not counting ~20 manaregen what I have. With my 2.5+ casts per sec I burn all my mana in 2 seconds and cannot regen it quickly enough. Is there any way to fix this?
2) Currently level 62 with 3800 ES, 4600 with aura(what I cant use with my current manapool). Is this good enough? Using CI ofc, but is there point to get life leech for ES? Or is there any other method for regening ES?

Thankssss!

Hey, there are several ways to remedy your problem.

1st is to not use GMP. Lesser projectiles does a fine job, for a reduced mana cost.

2nd is to use Mana Leech support on your freezing pulse. Should be enough to leech back your cast-mana. Make sure to lvl it up to like 2-3%.

3rd is to get more mana/mana regen gear.

4th is to get a quality reduced mana, level it up, and join it with your auras.

.

Added a section with my own gear and skill tree.

Asdf. :P

Question, how come you dropped the 2nd set of Evasion & Energy Shield nodes in your last tree?

You have it at the end of Merciless, but it's not in your final end-game build, any reason why?