[1.14B HC/Nemesis] Ninja Crit Caster (5x11.6k FP DPS) [Videos]

Im lvl 79 in Nemesis now with your build and i had a blast leveling it.
I just wanna say "thank you" for that awesome strong build. Im sitting currently at about 3k dps with 6 power charges and im oneshoting rares in 67 Maps :)

If anyone is interested heres the gear i currently use:



I decided to get Cold Snap in my 4 link instead of Freeze Mine, because i dont like the playstyle of Freeze Mine, and its working out pretty well atm. But i havent done any content above 69 yet.
Gonna grind some more levels to get the last missing lifenodes and then im gonna try to play 70+ maps at about lvl 83-85.


Ill hope to get a lucky chance on Void Battery soon to push my DPS even further :)

Thanks for sharing your build with us.

I had one question though.

Instead of taking the Freeze and the two 6% cold damage nodes in the beginning of the shadow passives, you took the two intelligence nodes instead.

Was this just to save one passive point?

The extra cold damage and 5% more freeze looks really good.

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Snoozey wrote:

When soloing what curse would your recommend? Frostbite or crit weakness

Frostbite initially - Crit weakness only gets stronger at level 70+

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Perz wrote:

cool char, i like it

Cheers!

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Steifoss wrote:

Im lvl 79 in Nemesis now with your build and i had a blast leveling it.
I just wanna say "thank you" for that awesome strong build. Im sitting currently at about 3k dps with 6 power charges and im oneshoting rares in 67 Maps :)

If anyone is interested heres the gear i currently use:

Spoiler

I decided to get Cold Snap in my 4 link instead of Freeze Mine, because i dont like the playstyle of Freeze Mine, and its working out pretty well atm. But i havent done any content above 69 yet.
Gonna grind some more levels to get the last missing lifenodes and then im gonna try to play 70+ maps at about lvl 83-85.


Ill hope to get a lucky chance on Void Battery soon to push my DPS even further :)

Thanks! Yup I was considering cold snap as well - how does it fare? The only reason I would hesitate to use cold snap is because it deals more damage than freeze mine to white mobs and would make it tougher to freeze bosses. That's a sensible way of pregressing to higher level maps, although beware of the physical spell damage bosses (Museum, Villa, Labyrinth, Jungle Valley, Maze, Academy).

Gl with chancing void! :) If you're looking to buy however, buying a 6L Cloak (was 10 ex the last time i saw one on sale) and being able to link added chaos to it will improve your DPS far more than void will.

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Berserkenstein48 wrote:

Thanks for sharing your build with us.

I had one question though.

Instead of taking the Freeze and the two 6% cold damage nodes in the beginning of the shadow passives, you took the two intelligence nodes instead.

Was this just to save one passive point?

The extra cold damage and 5% more freeze looks really good.

You're welcome!

Yes you're partly right in that it was to save one passive point. However, there are also other reasons:

1. the 5% freeze isn't actually that good for a high crit chance character, because you'll be critting very often and it's probably stronger for those not crit-oriented.
2. Because freeze pulse is linked with added lightning and added chaos and does about 40-50% cold damage and the remaining 50-60% lighting/chaos damage, spending 3 points to get 20% increased cold damage will only benefit 50% of your DPS, whereas if you spend 3 points on 24% incr projectile speed at the ranger area for instance, it would improve your DPS further.

Hey, I got couple of questions for you !

When you use cold penetration on freeze mine, are you 100% sure that FP on frozen enemies penetrates the cold res ?? I though it wasn't a debuff on the monster but just the linked spell ignoring some of the monster's resistance.
If not, then have you tried using cold penetration on FP directly ?

Did you have problems against elemental resistant / cold resistant monsters ? Is added chaos dmg the solution ?
I'm not using FP but other spells, I have atm FP+LMP+added cold+faster casting for single target, since that's everything I have for that.

Isn't there anything else viable for single target dps as a cold caster ? :/ I'm a bit disappointed on that, my ice nova - tanky caster is reaching maps and has troubles with 2 things : elemental resistant mobs ( take much longer to get killed ) and single target dps ( especially on .... elemental/cold resistant ones ).
I wanted to use arctic breath + Conc effect for single target but it doesn't seem really efficient at the end, maybe linking it with LMP and trying to cast it close enough to have all projectiles exploding on the same target ?

I didn't know freeze mine was debuffing cold res, I'm gonna need to use that.

thanks ^^

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Fruz wrote:

Hey, I got couple of questions for you !

When you use cold penetration on freeze mine, are you 100% sure that FP on frozen enemies penetrates the cold res ?? I though it wasn't a debuff on the monster but just the linked spell ignoring some of the monster's resistance.
If not, then have you tried using cold penetration on FP directly ?

Did you have problems against elemental resistant / cold resistant monsters ? Is added chaos dmg the solution ?
I'm not using FP but other spells, I have atm FP+LMP+added cold+faster casting for single target, since that's everything I have for that.

Isn't there anything else viable for single target dps as a cold caster ? :/ I'm a bit disappointed on that, my ice nova - tanky caster is reaching maps and has troubles with 2 things : elemental resistant mobs ( take much longer to get killed ) and single target dps ( especially on .... elemental/cold resistant ones ).
I wanted to use arctic breath + Conc effect for single target but it doesn't seem really efficient at the end, maybe linking it with LMP and trying to cast it close enough to have all projectiles exploding on the same target ?

I didn't know freeze mine was debuffing cold res, I'm gonna need to use that.

thanks ^^

Heya fruz!

Yup, because of the wording on the gem, as well as the wording 'Vulnerable to Cold' that pops up on mobs.

Ya I experimented with cold pen while leveling. It's great initially when you're doing mainly cold damage, but the benefits offered by added chaos and the ability to shock (added lightning) outweigh cold pen later on in the game.

Ice Spear is probably the safest option for long range single target DPS early on, but once you get a 20q FP as well as the ranger proj speed node, I daresay FP, because of its ability to shotgun, will still outdps ice spear even at a safe range. Yeah ice nova is so awesome for AoE in normal, but really doesn't scale very well with content later on in terms of DPS. it becomes more useful for cc instead.

I've found arctic breath probably more useful for CWDT because of the chill effect, but unreliable as a main dps skill - mainly coz it causes me fps lag, as well as the fact that it moves slowly and crashes on obstacles.

Unfortunately, until they release more cold based spells. FP is still the king of dps for cold crit casters. Everything else is for CC, with Cold Snap at the top of the list, followed by Ice Nova/Ice Spear and probably Arctic Breath imo.

you're welcome! :)

That's kinda what I thought =((


I know that the debuff from the freeze mine apply, but are you 100% that the penetration works the same ? that's what I was asking, didn't formulate it clearly thought.
Basically, is the mob debuff by for 15% ( FM ) or 50% ( FM + Cold Pen ), because as the wordings are different, I would guess that cold penetration is effective for the dmg of the freeze mine, but then not for any other spell you would cast after it. I'm asking this because since you are using freeze mine with cold penetration, I definitely might be wrong on that one since I didn't test it.

My build is kinda centered around Ice nova, so I took some area dmg/radius nodes, and I'm of course using concentrated effect. That means that I have now :
Ice nova + faster casting + concentrated effect + cold penetration.
When I'll get a 5L ( need a carcass jack ... tough getting it self-found -_-" ), I'll add life leech I guess.
So do you think that I should drop cold penetration for added chaos dmg ? ( since this one doesn't shotgun ? ( I havn't tested if added dmg benefit from concentrated effect yet, do you have a clue about this ? )
The gems are only lvl 17 so I'm still lacking damage anyway.

Arctic breath, however, does shotgun =)
it doesn't pierce, but it shotguns, and more important : it benefits from concentrated effect also ( and therefore goes well with the build ). Since Ice Nova is here for AOE purpose, I'm looking for something to be able to burst down single target more easily, and since the character is meant to be tanky ( works nicely atm ), it can be at very short range ( arctic breath shotguns much more easily at short range, so that removes the slow projectile problem. I could use it to kite in dangerous situations as well ).
Atm, I'm trying LMP + arctic breath + concentrated effect + faster casting, and it looks pretty satisfying ( arctic breath only lvl 15, I think it has some potential ). I guess that the best option for that would be using a Rime glaze and add added chaos/lightning dmg or life leech to it, but finding 2 uniques self-found ? ^^".

Now, I'm gonna wait to get the last gem rewards, I'd need CwDT and GMP to be efficient, so I'll wait a bit to see if I drop either of those to get the other one like that.

I know that Freezing Pulse is probably just more efficient, but I'd lke to try something else ... deeper than just using it during couple of hours and dropping it =).

I'm not heavy on crit, I'm just boosting the crit chances with a dagger and a shield ( I'll soon take 4 points that will give me 120% additional crit chance, but I didn't plan the build to get power charges, maybe I'll change it ). I feel that crit is the way to go to be optimized though =/, and that power charges are a must-have in any cold caster build.

Thanks again !

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Fruz wrote:

That's kinda what I thought =((


I know that the debuff from the freeze mine apply, but are you 100% that the penetration works the same ? that's what I was asking, didn't formulate it clearly thought.
Basically, is the mob debuff by for 15% ( FM ) or 50% ( FM + Cold Pen ), because as the wordings are different, I would guess that cold penetration is effective for the dmg of the freeze mine, but then not for any other spell you would cast after it. I'm asking this because since you are using freeze mine with cold penetration, I definitely might be wrong on that one since I didn't test it.

Oh the penetration doesn't apply any debuff. It just applies to the damage dealt by freeze mine, as well as the calculated damage for the freeze effect.

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My build is kinda centered around Ice nova, so I took some area dmg/radius nodes, and I'm of course using concentrated effect. That means that I have now :
Ice nova + faster casting + concentrated effect + cold penetration.
When I'll get a 5L ( need a carcass jack ... tough getting it self-found -_-" ), I'll add life leech I guess.
So do you think that I should drop cold penetration for added chaos dmg ? ( since this one doesn't shotgun ? ( I havn't tested if added dmg benefit from concentrated effect yet, do you have a clue about this ? )
The gems are only lvl 17 so I'm still lacking damage anyway.

Yes added damage support gems do benefit from the radius nodes if linked to an aoe spell. If it's just ice nova and no other added dmg supports i'd prob stick to cold pen rather than added chaos tbh.

"

Arctic breath, however, does shotgun =)
it doesn't pierce, but it shotguns, and more important : it benefits from concentrated effect also ( and therefore goes well with the build ). Since Ice Nova is here for AOE purpose, I'm looking for something to be able to burst down single target more easily, and since the character is meant to be tanky ( works nicely atm ), it can be at very short range ( arctic breath shotguns much more easily at short range, so that removes the slow projectile problem. I could use it to kite in dangerous situations as well ).
Atm, I'm trying LMP + arctic breath + concentrated effect + faster casting, and it looks pretty satisfying ( arctic breath only lvl 15, I think it has some potential ). I guess that the best option for that would be using a Rime glaze and add added chaos/lightning dmg or life leech to it, but finding 2 uniques self-found ? ^^".

Ya I can imagine arctic breath having potential if you've already taken area nodes. good luck with the uniques, u never know!

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Now, I'm gonna wait to get the last gem rewards, I'd need CwDT and GMP to be efficient, so I'll wait a bit to see if I drop either of those to get the other one like that.

I know that Freezing Pulse is probably just more efficient, but I'd lke to try something else ... deeper than just using it during couple of hours and dropping it =).

Agreed. It's always good to try something else, although I do wish another ice spell would be released. I've probably tried the bunch and despite the nerf to FP, still find FP the most fun - not so much because of the damage (or lack of it), but rather the utility - aoe coverage, cast speed, mobility, etc.

"

I'm not heavy on crit, I'm just boosting the crit chances with a dagger and a shield ( I'll soon take 4 points that will give me 120% additional crit chance, but I didn't plan the build to get power charges, maybe I'll change it ). I feel that crit is the way to go to be optimized though =/, and that power charges are a must-have in any cold caster build.

Thanks again !

Sadly, crit is the only way to go to make elemental spells work atm. The only elemental spellcaster build that can afford not to go crit and probably still do alright is an ice build based on Taryn's Shiver. But that's expensive as well and it's another piece of gear to have to 6L.

You're welcome!

Working on this beauty right now. Just dinged 54. Up until this point the build was doing pretty killer damage but mana was a huge problem.

I picked up the chest piece and good boots last night however and whalla, problem solved.

Definitely need some decent gear and lots of EV/ES for this to do what it should but when you have it, this build really shines.

Good Work!

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realryanclark wrote:

Working on this beauty right now. Just dinged 54. Up until this point the build was doing pretty killer damage but mana was a huge problem.

I picked up the chest piece and good boots last night however and whalla, problem solved.

Definitely need some decent gear and lots of EV/ES for this to do what it should but when you have it, this build really shines.

Good Work!

Good to hear! Don't forget to grab jewellery with mana regen as well! Thanks!

Added some boss fight examples under gameplay videos. For those of you mapping, just be wary of certain map bosses that can hit Acro users very hard (mainly the EK/physical spell damage bosses).

Jungle valley boss for instance crits for up to 5k damage (as shown in the vid)

Also, Academy boss - never ever try to facetank without immortal call