[0.11.0] Aimlessgun's Cold Caster Guide [Now with RF/PA section] Videos! [

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XNOTE wrote:

Hey. I'm 64 lvl Shadow and following your build. Must say it is very enjoyable and fun to play with this style and I give you a big credit for this. So far I solo'ed all my way until now but in Act 3 Merciless I got more issues with surviving mobs who can gasp close to me and hit me, also chaos/lighting shooters is a true pain. Any suggestion how I could keep solo without dying :)?

My gear is solid. I use skeletons as a meat shield, Spell totem with ice spear and FP/Ice Spear as my main attack. Got 1.6k dps, 1.4k HP, 1.3k ES, almost maxed resistances (-44% chaos), using Quicksilver flask to escape dangerous situations.

P.S. in Merciless Act 1 - no deaths, Act 2 - 1 death, Act 3 - 6 deaths already.

Act3 is just hard. You're probably going to have to play ultra carefully in certain areas. Sewers with the alchemists, barracks with the arc casters, probably solaris as well, it might just be a matter of throwing up a totem in front of you constantly and ice spearing a lot. If you're not already doing it, keeping zombies up is also helpful even if it's annoying to constantly refresh them (and look for unfrozen corpses).

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kulnan wrote:

I have a quick question. Why not spend the 2 points to grab Unnatural Calm?

Pre-80, the build is mostly focused on this path to them templar area and the only things that deviate from it (and thus can be changed easily) are either very high efficiency DPS nodes or HP. For me personally I didn't think it was worth dropping significant DPS or 2 HP nodes to get UC with the amount of ES I had. If you have pretty good ES gear though, I can see it being quite worthwhile.

Hey Aimless, just a quick question for you, but im a lvl 80 shadow pretty much using the same build as you. On your link,for your lvl 80 build you have 1 more skill point then I do. I went mana skill skill for bandits @_@ just wondering if there was an error in your build link, or if I am missing a skill point somewhere haha! ;o

Thanks

ps here is a link to my build
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYBAuMC_gVCB2MHpQj0DkgPxBGWFE0WvxdUGYUabB8CIoEkPCSqJpUnqSpbLJw2xTbpO3w74UGWQsNG10lRSbJVS1XGVkpXK1ptWqZdxl3yYG1h4mZPa9ttGXBScNVzU3kDfll_xoFJghCDOIfbi3qMNo48jmSPRpUEnYCdo52unqGiAKKjpwinK6dcr5uyOLQ4tQS2-rjKwFHAVMHzz2XQ0NIZ1U_W0dgk3Mfd895334TfsOL342rjhOQi5RnxdvPq96b79fyr

Got some problems. Please answer me
1)Not enough Dex for lvlup LMP gem. Why u didnt took Agility Nod Near Might?
And where i need to take dex?
2)why u didnt took Chaos Resistance? Is it unimportant nod?
I have good resists, but not chaos...

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Grapeyou wrote:

Hey Aimless, just a quick question for you, but im a lvl 80 shadow pretty much using the same build as you. On your link,for your lvl 80 build you have 1 more skill point then I do.

Good catch, I linked a lvl 81 build!

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sebay wrote:

Got some problems. Please answer me
1)Not enough Dex for lvlup LMP gem. Why u didnt took Agility Nod Near Might?
And where i need to take dex?
2)why u didnt took Chaos Resistance? Is it unimportant nod?
I have good resists, but not chaos...

The build assumes you will get some dex from somewhere on your gear. Usually this is an Onyx amulet but could also be Maligros or another source. If you don't have any dex on gear, just grab one more 30 DEX node, then respec out of it once you get some DEX (you will eventually want to get Maligros which will give you that dex if nothing else).

I added the chaos resist node to the high level build. I didn't find chaos damage killing me, but then they added the poison bomb alchemists back into maps...and yeah those guys are horrible, so I'd definitely take it for maps.

Hi. I want to make this build with CI with maxed dodge ES/ mb someone already did it?
my gear

your lvl 82 link doesn't seem to be working for the skill tree.

There are some big problems in this build:

1 - The elemental damage nodes from shadow are some of the WORST nodes on the entire map, and you're taking these just to take the 8% projectile nodes. While this nodes are good, you're still just averaging 6.5% dmg nodes for those 6 nodes. A 6.5% dmg node is not worth taking. 3% cast speed nodes are approximately 3000% better than 6.5% dmg nodes =p

2. - Taking Extra 15% crit chance nodes from the Bloodthirst cluster sucks. These nodes are terrible. Grab Nloodthirst and leave the rest.

3. Frost Walker leg of the Witch tree is not great either. 8%/4% cold resist nodes are not exciting, and they lead nowhere. Its way better to veer left from Savant and go to the inner force cluster. This cluster is one of the most powerful in the entire map and people really have no understanding of how good it really is.

4. I would veer up from the witch/temp +30dex/str area and grab Divine toughness.

5. I see you skipped elementalist in the Templar area, good job, that nodes sucks and people overrate it. However, i would continue left from the bototm life area and grab Body and Soul. 11% ES/Armor +2.5% all resist is an awesome 4 group node

6. I would continue NE from the With/Shadow Fitness node to grab unnatural calm.

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Nitpick stuff

A. The Throatseeker cluster is pretty overrated imo. 14% crit dmg nodes are ok, but not insane. I just don't think its worth 5 points for this prsonally and would rather use those to grab life nodes.

Thanks for the criticism. I will address these points in turn. I'm going to be referencing spreadsheet results a bit, you'll have to trust me that my spreadsheet is functional :) (it has accurately matched my ingame DPS thus far!)

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Mugaaz wrote:

There are some big problems in this build:

1 - The elemental damage nodes from shadow are some of the WORST nodes on the entire map, and you're taking these just to take the 8% projectile nodes. While this nodes are good, you're still just averaging 6.5% dmg nodes for those 6 nodes. A 6.5% dmg node is not worth taking. 3% cast speed nodes are approximately 3000% better than 6.5% dmg nodes =p

A theoretical 6.5% dmg node will currently give me 139 tooltip DPS. A 3% cast speed node will give me 139 DPS. So in terms of DPS, they are about equivalent. Cast speed does have the additional benefits of more freezes and easier movement, but carries a mana consumption cost. The thing that really decides me is that early on those 8% projectile nodes are a huge boost, and it helps with early leveling.

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2. - Taking Extra 15% crit chance nodes from the Bloodthirst cluster sucks. These nodes are terrible. Grab Nloodthirst and leave the rest.

A 15% crit chance node will net me 131 DPS. This beats out a 5% spelldmg node and only slightly underperforms 3% ICS. However, more crit carries additional defensive benefits via freezing, as well as recharging your flasks faster.

Also, once I get quality versions of multiple projectiles and faster casting, that 20% additional cast speed will sightly devalue a 3% ICS node relative to other stats, putting both 15% crit and a 6.5% dmg node ahead!

Lastly, in terms of performance you can't see on the tooltip or in a spreadsheet, more crit performs extremely well against lower HP mobs, such as whites or even blues in low maps. A crit will 1 shot things, and slightly lowering my overall tooltip DPS while increasing my crit will increase the rate of 1 shots, effectively increasing my efficiency vs white mobs.

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3. Frost Walker leg of the Witch tree is not great either. 8%/4% cold resist nodes are not exciting, and they lead nowhere. Its way better to veer left from Savant and go to the inner force cluster. This cluster is one of the most powerful in the entire map and people really have no understanding of how good it really is.

Inner Force is great. However, in this build it's buffing 2 auras and a quicksilver flask. Taking 2 extra 10 stat nodes and then spending 3 points for that did not seem worthwhile to me. It would be 60 base ES and 5.7 base mana regen, which is pretty solid, so I wouldn't argue with you if you wanted to take it, moreso if you can run a granite.

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4. I would veer up from the witch/temp +30dex/str area and grab Divine toughness.

That is in the two higher levels of the build. I don't take it earlier because I'd rather run over to the juicy templar start area first :)

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5. I see you skipped elementalist in the Templar area, good job, that nodes sucks and people overrate it. However, i would continue left from the bototm life area and grab Body and Soul. 11% ES/Armor +2.5% all resist is an awesome 4 group node

This one is really going to depend on what state your gear is in. I mention it in the guide talking about doing a conversion to an armor/ES EB/Inner Force build, but its true that it would also be quite good if you have good ES gear. I should arguably take it now, as it will give me a bit more ES than four life nodes would give me HP, plus the resists and granite flask boost. I'll adjust the guide to mention this.

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6. I would continue NE from the With/Shadow Fitness node to grab unnatural calm.

If there are 8% life nodes available anywhere, those will usually be a better two point investment, unless you really value ES delay. But, as with Body and Soul, it depends on your gear. Also in general, point for point I prefer HP to ES.

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Nitpick stuff

A. The Throatseeker cluster is pretty overrated imo. 14% crit dmg nodes are ok, but not insane. I just don't think its worth 5 points for this prsonally and would rather use those to grab life nodes.

A good option. If I were to convert this build to HC that circle is one of the first things I'd change to HP (partially to reduce reflect risk!). However, don't underestimate its DPS contribution. Recall the 6.5% dmg or 3% ICS nodes discussed above that would give me about 139 DPS? A 14% crit dmg node would give me 256 DPS.

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Spiralcut wrote:

your lvl 82 link doesn't seem to be working for the skill tree.

Fixed, thanks!

Hi aimless, thanks for the great build. Have been looking at it for a while now and start to steer my character in this direction.

Have a quick query though:

You mentioned that 6.5% damage = 3% cast speed = ~15% crit chance = 7.6% critical damage (I divided this one from your 256DPS). Really nice figures to know, but I lack the base numbers to make more sense out of it. Would like to know your current % increase in each of the 4 areas.

Thanks a lot!

c