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

Main: Freezing pulse + faster casting + faster projectiles + LMP

Freeze help: Ice spear + spell totem + Faster castig + LMP

Boss/rare sniping: Ice spear + crit damage + cold penetration

Meat shield: Skeletons + minion damage + minion life

Auras: Discipline + Clarity + Reduced mana

Curses: Frostbite or Temporal Chains for occasional crowd control (much easier to approach and dodge archers / casters, it also prolongs chill/freeze)

I sometimes use Blood Rage for farming easy areas, but if I had to choose between temporal chains and rage for maps I go for chains, since range gives me a bit more speed, while chains save my ass from speedy enemies

1) Upgrade my wand, I'm currently looking at a few daggers with more crit, similar spell dmg and +70+ mana, also maybe some better and 4-linked boots. This would give me a bit more ES and slightly better crits, but the extra mana is essential so I can:

2) Use purity. It would allow me to max resi at 81 (with inner force) and free the rings for more quantity / rarity gear (right now got rather low). I aim to have 150-200 mana which allows me to cast my ice spear totem, the rate of mana regen is superb although I stopped upgrading clarity a while ago so I should be fine with a single mana flask just in case.

3) Link my 6 socket into a 5-link (although it involves hundred of fusings, I guess it should be quicker than trying to buy one, as I have never dropped an exalt, have a few GCPs, and nobody ever would sell me a 600 es 5/6-link for anything else than several 'pure' exalts in this ridiculously inflated 'economy').

4) A 5-link would allow me to use life-leech which I then couple with Ghost Reaver (already have 2 points waiting, can get 3rd by respecting out of Dex node I don't need and the last point needed with come with next lvl). CI is ok (immune to chaos, self-recharge, and generally cheaper node-wise), but the fact that I can't rely on flasks means that I often have to retreat, cast a few skellies as I recharge and go back again. Throw in a magic archer mob and I have to retreat a few times if I'm unlucky with freezing. Being able to recharge 500-1000 ES per second (depending on the size of mob) would make me much more efficient together with constant freezing.

5) Respec out of INT/ES from the path below Nimbness and take the route from inner force cluster under the witch start point, which would get one more immediate ES. I went the path below nimbness because it's closer to a crit chance cluster, but I doubt I will even lvl this char far enough to fill it in (ES is of more importance now).

Other option is to go to arcane potency for more crit chance and dmg multiplication, but I'm happy with how often I crit and the damage is OK, the problem is more about sustaining speed and retreat less which should be better with (even 5%) ES leech. Maybe I could even drop faster proj for cold penetration on the freezing pulse if I get tankier.