Ice Ice Baby! - Cold Snap (HC Viable)

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Brazilski wrote:

Hmmm,.. in that case I might actually go for the freeze, especially with that FB templar on my side. It also leaves the whole curse option open, and even without WD, Hex Master might still be an interesting pick-up at one passive point. In big parties you can take point, kite everything and pre-curse enemies for your team.

That's what I do, otherwise their silly CwDT Curses get messy, so going first is faster. And it's quite safe, really.

Got a level 19 GC, looks promising from testing, will need to think how I handle the links. On the same 5L as Cold Snap it gives a tooltip of about 4.5K, but it hits several times, so it's at least double. In any case, it still feels far too weak to be a great DPS skill (compare to Fireball, Arc, Freezing Pulse...), sadly.

And no, Blood/Mind Drinker don't affect it, same way they don't affect EK.

I've been sitting on currency for weeks since reading about this build and I'm seriously on the verge of dropping bank for a Romira's. This looks like so much fun especially with the grasp effect. I do have some questions, mainly pertaining to how terrifying this build will be to run solo. I play standard but that XP penalty still hurts :(

1. How's single-target DPS working out for you? I always fall into the trap of builds that do massively well against crowds then crap out against bosses with huge life. Is Cold Snap spam enough for them? Have you explored Glacial Cascade's use in such situations?

2. Given that you freeze and shatter everything I suppose survivability isn't much of an issue, but again it boils down to that one high-life boss monster that insists on staying alive after you've snapped the hell out of the entire screen, and he's super pissed off. Do you feel squishy at all with this build? (edit: just noticed your 5L Cloak, I'm guessing the answer's no?)

3. TL;DR how well do you think Elsa here performs solo?

Thanks again for sharing this build (and for the laugh from clicking on Part 6 of the leveling order).

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Chatturgha wrote:

I've been sitting on currency for weeks since reading about this build and I'm seriously on the verge of dropping bank for a Romira's. This looks like so much fun especially with the grasp effect. I do have some questions, mainly pertaining to how terrifying this build will be to run solo. I play standard but that XP penalty still hurts :(

1. How's single-target DPS working out for you? I always fall into the trap of builds that do massively well against crowds then crap out against bosses with huge life. Is Cold Snap spam enough for them? Have you explored Glacial Cascade's use in such situations?

2. Given that you freeze and shatter everything I suppose survivability isn't much of an issue, but again it boils down to that one high-life boss monster that insists on staying alive after you've snapped the hell out of the entire screen, and he's super pissed off. Do you feel squishy at all with this build? (edit: just noticed your 5L Cloak, I'm guessing the answer's no?)

3. TL;DR how well do you think Elsa here performs solo?

Thanks again for sharing this build (and for the laugh from clicking on Part 6 of the leveling order).

Hi :D

1 - Single target DPS for me is ~3K per hit (not counting Cold Penetration or Curses), at 2.3 Casts per second. That's on a 5L. On a 6L and slightly better gear, I can reach 4K or so per hit? Other than Kraytin the faerie-striker that has like 200 Cold Res (Seriously, WTF, I double-curse and he's still Cold Resist?!), I can Freeze most/all 76 map bosses without Proliferation. 77+, you sometimes freeze on a 6L, but it's not safe without Proliferation.

Glacial Cascade does more DPS (I think, it's hard to tell), but it's also much smaller and to be honest, this isn't the right tree for it (too much Cold/Elemental Damage, no Haste, no Hatred, wrong colors).

If you want to freeze well without Proliferation, you REALLY need as much Freeze Duration as you can get. That means Q gems are crucial to you, and that I'd seriously consider the +30% Freeze Duration nodes (my Marauder version had those, last league). I'm told between clear speed and safety here, but Freeze Duration is very noticeable when you get to the really high-hp guys.

2 - No, I'm never squishy. Only things that sometimes get me are Piety and Dominus. In other words, high-burst spell damage. You can fix that somewhat if you focus on Block / Spell Block, but I don't encounter it often enough to care. Other map bosses really aren't that scary, even the casters.

3 - Elsa does fine. She does about a million times better in a party, but she's ok on her own. I run ahead of the pack on 78 maps and I don't die. Don't underestimate Arctic Armor and Vaal Pact.

By the way, Romira's is dirt-cheap now. I saw it at 15c lately several times.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply and for answering all my questions! Good to know that Cold Snap is good enough for single target damage as well. I forgot about Cascade's phys damage component, that does sound like too much to work with.

About squishiness, it really looks like MoM in some form is a nice fix. Playing a really squishy ele wander at the moment and I'm really missing the relative toughness from an old EB/MoM/Arctic character who had far worse gear. Really curious to see how Mindspiral works with all that as well.

Oh, and I really appreciate how open-ended your gem links are, by the way, gives plenty of options for variations on CWDT, utility totems and whathaveyous. Though what use a skelly brotem/blind flame totem has when everything is frozen and/or dead escapes me at the moment.

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CantripN wrote:

By the way, Romira's is dirt-cheap now. I saw it at 15c lately several times.

LIES. Where is this magical bargain basement of uniques that you speak of? Xyz is still spitting out results in the exalt range at the moment :( Thanks for that tip though, didn't think it was so cheap now. I'm gonna go lurk in trade chat and see what happens.

"Good enough". That really depends what you expect :D

If you come to this from a Wander or a good melee char, getting what amounts to 10K DPS at best isn't amazing. It's "enough", but you won't be fast like melee, if that's what you're looking for. For lower 70s, it's fine solo, but if you try to do 77-78 alone, you'll find it's slow work. Safe, but slow.

You're still a caster, and GGG won't let you forget it.

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That said, your job is CONTROL, not damage. Damage is just a fortunate side-effect.

EDIT: Got a new Mindspiral!

So... Got myself a new toy.


Will probably make a melee build for it, but it does fine for Cold Snap for now :D

Now running 2 Cold Snaps. One with maxed AoE and such on the Catalyst, one with maxed DPS, on 5L.

Oh, I had realistic expectations about this build from the start, and I'm glad that you're so upfront about this being a control rather than a DPS build. I do wonder how much more damage could be squeezed out of it with a few passive/support tweaks, something I'll have to try for myself.

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CantripN wrote:

You're still a caster, and GGG won't let you forget it.

Sad, isn't it? Cold is my favorite caster element in every ARPG, and Cold Snap, Ice Nova and Arctic Breath are the only cold attack spells I really like, but they all have their own issues. And it really does feel like self-casting has more disadvantages than the alternatives like CoC builds (which granted do taper off in power at higher levels), totems and traps. I just want to stand in the middle of a huge mob and chain cast Ice Nova, but nooo, the damage is terrible and the spell's low crit means I'll die before anything freezes properly.

I love Cold Snap so much for the "cast anywhere" nature of the spell, something that the other elements don't really offer. Flameblast has an interesting mechanic though. I was actually wondering what would happen with a Storm Call/Three Dragons build. Same cast anywhere mechanic save for the little delay, which does feel a bit like D2 meteor as someone around here pointed out. Could be interesting, actually.

Ps, grats again on the new plaything. More Cold Snap is always a good thing!

This is my first time playing the game.
I'm following this build :)

I'm at level 42 now, cant wait to get level 60 and try to buy that ring :D

Using Searing Bonds + Fire Penetration + Burning Damage to get through the mobs.

I dont know how to post my equips here, so that's it.

Im playing on Standard League, if someone could give me a hand there, just add me :D


Thanks a lot for the Build man!
I'll try to update my status soon.


Edit:
My passive Tree by now:

Glad you're having fun!
I play on Ambush, but if you're online later, I can help you out with gear on Standard. I have so much stuff there I just don't need.

You can link gear by pressing your character at the top left while inside the text field, and click on the items. It links them to the post.

BTW, Fire Penetration doesn't work on Searing Bond, since it doesn't actually DO damage, per se. It makes them burn, but it's not directly doing anything. That's fine, though, since SB can handle any/all content until quite late in the game.

You should be noticing it by now, but yours DPS is more than enough, what you need is LIFE. You don't have nearly enough of it, so start grabbing Life Nodes.

It's such a shame MoM is in the middle of nowhere. I'd use a 6L Thousand Ribbons if I could, or a Carcass Jack. As is, not dying is preferable.