Hardcore Frost Witch Guide (Last Updated May 8th)

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You took lots of +8% max mana nodes, but didn't take the +12% mana node right in the start area. There's also a +20% mana regeneration right there.

Haha, whatever.

To be honest I just threw the rest of the points in mana, take them out if you'd like.

Have any of you guys tried a build like this with taking Energy Shield on a Shield nodes?

There are 4 in total and would take you 6 points to get them for 120% ES bonus to your shield.

2 questions from this....is this 120% ES bonus additive or multiplicative with the other ES bonuses? If additive, would getting 120% on top of normal ES bonus be worthwhile to the overall ES you lose? (or damage if you take away from those nodes)


I have a feeling this would be a great option if you can grab an ES shield that has +max ES and % increase ES on them. Those 2 (prefixes?) could make your shield 1500 ES easily, if not higher.

just started the game yesterday. So far i love it but i have a question.

I started out as a fire witch and after some reading today decided to go to Frost witch. Would it be better to restart or trade for the skills i missed?

Hey, at what lvl should I stop leveling my Clarity gem? It's now level 4 and it tooks me 50% of my mana.

Thanks

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Really great guide, it helped me a lot for my first char on Path of Exile.

I have one question: how did you manage to get 1700 ES at level 46? I'm 47 right now and only have 1250 with discipline. I could probably find gear with better ES since, for example, my helm or spirit shield are not that great but I don't really know how I could reach 1700ish.

Show me your gear and maybe I can say. There wasn't any trick or anything to it.

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hoiland wrote:

Have any of you guys tried a build like this with taking Energy Shield on a Shield nodes?

There are 4 in total and would take you 6 points to get them for 120% ES bonus to your shield.

2 questions from this....is this 120% ES bonus additive or multiplicative with the other ES bonuses? If additive, would getting 120% on top of normal ES bonus be worthwhile to the overall ES you lose? (or damage if you take away from those nodes)


I have a feeling this would be a great option if you can grab an ES shield that has +max ES and % increase ES on them. Those 2 (prefixes?) could make your shield 1500 ES easily, if not higher.

I'm about 95% sure they're multiplicative with the shield affixes and additive with the passives (but don't actually have them yet), so they should be pretty comparable to the 8% nodes we have so many of.

Here's the shield I'm using at the moment (starting to outgrow it though and Minion Life is just there so I can level it):



For each 30% shield es passive I would get 65 more energy shield. I have a total of about 840 energy shield on my gear so for each 8% passive I would get 67 more energy shield. Assuming my ratio of shield es to total es stays the same, the passives would have about the same value.

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rz2yoj wrote:

I'm about 95% sure they're multiplicative with the shield affixes and additive with the passives (but don't actually have them yet), so they should be pretty comparable to the 8% nodes we have so many of.

Here's the shield I'm using at the moment (starting to outgrow it though and Minion Life is just there so I can level it):

For each 30% shield es passive I would get 65 more energy shield. I have a total of about 840 energy shield on my gear so for each 8% passive I would get 67 more energy shield. Assuming my ratio of shield es to total es stays the same, the passives would have about the same value.

Yah, but if you got a shield with 500 or more ES...might be worth it.

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hoiland wrote:

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rz2yoj wrote:

I'm about 95% sure they're multiplicative with the shield affixes and additive with the passives (but don't actually have them yet), so they should be pretty comparable to the 8% nodes we have so many of.

Here's the shield I'm using at the moment (starting to outgrow it though and Minion Life is just there so I can level it):

For each 30% shield es passive I would get 65 more energy shield. I have a total of about 840 energy shield on my gear so for each 8% passive I would get 67 more energy shield. Assuming my ratio of shield es to total es stays the same, the passives would have about the same value.

Yah, but if you got a shield with 500 or more ES...might be worth it.

It's still worth it even with the 216 ES shield. At some point we've taken ALL +8% ES nodes anyways.

I did make a build taking the ES on shield nodes. If you take those and nodes around, you also increase block chance significantly (which helps for physical damage, especially given no armor rating). Near the Body and Soul area is a shield 6-node thingy where you can get +15% all element resist when-using-a-shield nodes (2 of them) as well, making it easier to cap resists even in Merciless.

In this build:



Go always kill-all-bandits, and with 120 skill points total, you can take shield block (+2%) and shield mastery (+4% block) in the shadow area where only one of the 3 is taken, along with the ES +8% cluster below Witch that's not yet taken.

It makes for a very very defensive shield Witch build. And I guess that's more viable in HC than going for chill duration, frozen duration, chill after frozen, spell damage, perma curses/dual curses or wand damage to get better usage from Siphon (like the +50% wand physical damage near CI). In SC I'd probably go after those instead of the shield nodes.

what about Zealot's Oath? I mean, can you use a flask to be even safer with your shield?
and Doom cast? (2 nods next to CI) it's not worth it?

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dwarfguardian wrote:

what about Zealot's Oath? I mean, can you use a flask to be even safer with your shield?
and Doom cast? (2 nods next to CI) it's not worth it?

Flasks aren't "life regeneration" and still don't work with Zealot's Oath. If you pick up Zealot's Oath you'll have to get your regen through Vitality, Rejuvenation Totem, passives, etc.

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rz2yoj wrote:

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Really great guide, it helped me a lot for my first char on Path of Exile.

I have one question: how did you manage to get 1700 ES at level 46? I'm 47 right now and only have 1250 with discipline. I could probably find gear with better ES since, for example, my helm or spirit shield are not that great but I don't really know how I could reach 1700ish.

Show me your gear and maybe I can say. There wasn't any trick or anything to it.

Well, I may not be so far away from 1700, upgrading my chest can give me a lot apparently. I'm just wondering if you found yourself with this ES at level 46-ish or if you spent time farming to get better gear. I feel like looting something with a good ES roll is quite rare.