[0.10.0] Build of the Week submissions

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Talaysen wrote:

snip

this is cool... have you experimented with elemental equilibrium?

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rogueyoshi wrote:

"

Talaysen wrote:

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this is cool... have you experimented with elemental equilibrium?

I have not, since it's quite far away from where I am on the tree. I'm not sure it would work since Lightning Arrow hits multiple times, so extra hits of it would take a damage penalty.

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Talaysen wrote:

Character: Iglaine
Infractem Frost Wall

Damn you took most of my (as of yet mostly unleveled) build, at least the frost wall piercing arrows part.

I wana submit my lvl 84 bow 2 totem duelist with 6 auras. Ign Owner.

Hardcore Cold Snap Witch
IGN: Plastic_Cup

Introduction:
This build was created to utilize a skill that is underused and in some cases not used at all, let alone as a main damage source. This build revolves around critical strikes to provide your damage and fuel for your main ability, this provides sometimes unpredictable and dynamic game play while maintaining extremely fast clear speeds.

The Build:


This build utilizes a Unique item called Voll's Protector to accommodate your use of Cold Snap. Cold Snap has a cool down that can be completely bypassed by consuming a Power Charge.

Beginning the build is very easy, you start with a slightly weaker Freeze Pulse HP Based Build and transition later to Cold Snap when you have your support gems and build at a comfortable level of Crit and acquire a Voll's Protector (with at least 3 linked Sockets).

Once you make your transition you will start by using Ice Spear at range to collect 5-7 Power Charges via Crits. You can begin to spam Cold Snap at this point and the very first time it crits you will see the beauty of this build.
NOTE: This IS a Hardcore character and I have encountered Elemental reflect packs, although they can be scary if it is en masse', it will not outright kill you in most cases even without a Life Leech Gem.

Gems and Gear:
The Gems you NEED for this build to work are very limited and almost all of them benefit directly from Quality.

You will need:
1-3 Cold Snap gems (Preference I use 2, one for single targets and one for AOE, you can use a third as a Power Charge Generator to avoid Ice Spear)
Ice Spear
Clarity
Discipline
Purity
Critical/Elemental Weakness (Solo/Team Respectively)
Increased Critical Strikes
Increased Critical Damage

Added Support:
Concentrated Effect
Increased AOE
Added Cold
Added Chaos
Added Lightning
Cold Penetration
Elemental Proliferation
_______________



FAQ:

What happens when you don't crit for a while?
The simple answer to this is that you always have Ice Spear as your fallback spell, in an instance that your Cold Snap does not crit within the (roughly) 11 casts you get to expend per cycle a few Ice Spears will get you back rolling again.

Is this end-game viable?
ABSOLUTELY and your map team will love you for it. This build has the passive benefit of freezing almost everything on screen full time and a Quality Cold Snap makes it even better.

Pros:
Incredible AOE and Single Target Crowd Control
Shocks with Added Lightning
Great damage
Good solo clear speed
No max range on Cold Snap
Synergy with a Wander is amazing

Cons:
Some crit dry streaks that have to be made up for with Ice Spear
No ES buffer for Incoming damage
Damage will suck mid-game
Charge Management

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Plastic_Cup wrote:

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sounds like a sick build... vid plz?

Lighting Strike Staff Templar

IGN = Lass_Uns_Tanzen Level 75

Skills
Lightning strike
Leap slam
Glacial hammer
Blood rage
Skeleton Spell totem

Auras
Grace
Anger
Wrath

This build is to show staves can be used effectively as a melee weapon and should not be underestimated. Im currently sitting on 2.75aps, 4.8k dps lightning strikes when buffed with blood rage.

Are submissions still being taken? :(

up

(My previous dude with this build died to ele reflect Molten Shell oneshot so I'll edit my new guy in)

SpontaneousCombustion_

Triple Elemental Shock/Freeze/Burn caster Templar

This build is based around stacking all three elemental status effects on entire mobs with single casts. Main damage source is burning, which is amplified by shocks. Because burning takes some time, freezing is added to neutralize the burning mobs.

Build Features:
- Massive AoE Burn damage with single target fireball
- Two underused spells (Shock Nova, Cold Snap) put to a good use
- Elemental Equilibrum
- Two unique items: Searing Touch, Cloak of Flame
- Hardcore character
- Very fast kill speed combined with good survivability thanks to freezing

The build has evolved quite a bit during leveling. It started out as a mega burn build with a Elemental Proliferated Fireball with high chance to ignite. Then I started to look for ways to boost the burn damage and found shocking and Elemental Equilibrum. Finally I added freezing to make battles a lot safer, which is when the build reached the form it has today. Now that I look into it it's a bit similar to faerwyn's burner build except I have taken things a bit further :P.

The Build

Passive Tree


First I took all the easy available life and resistances as well as Elemental Adaptation in the Templar and Marauder areas and also grabbed some Elemental damage and AoE increases. Then I ventured towards the witch area for more life, Pyromaniac, Inner Force, Elemental Equilibrum, Static Blows and Eldritch Battery, then even more life. Next step is getting Freeze Duration and Breath of Rime... and more life.

Bandit Rewards:
Normal: +40 life
Cruel: +1 skill
Merciless: +1 skill

Gear



The most important items for the build are the Searing Touch unique staff and the Cloak of Flame. Both need to be high item level to have enough sockets. Searing Touch adds massive bonus to burning and +2 levels to my fireball and all it's supports. Cloak of Flame is important for the +10% Ignite chance. The Cloak is also good defensively: with 80%+ fire resistance it is practically 16% physical damage reduction which also boosts the effectiveness of armor.



For rest of the gear I use stuff with as much life and resistances as possible. At the moment most of it is not optimized by any means. I prefer strength and strength/intelligence aligned gear. Main mods to look for are life, resists and armor. I used Doedre's Tenure unique gloves before finding the ones I use now: the spell damage bonus is great for applying status effects while the cast speed penalty is no problem when burning is the main damage source. However, dps is high enough without them and at merciless the extra defenses from good gloves are really needed.


Skills

Three spells are used to spread status effects to the entire screen at once. Main damage is Fireball linked with Chance to Ignite, Elemental Proliferation and Concentrated Effect. Quality is very important for the Fireball gem for the ignite chance, currently I have a 82% chance to Ignite with Fireball (without Flammability calculated in). Concentrated effect adds a huge damage multiplier to the burning at the negligible cost of reducing the AoE of Fireball explosion, which is very small to begin with.

To support the burning, I use shocking which I apply with Shock Nova. Quality is again important for the shock chance and duration. The spell is supported by Elemental Proliferation, Increased Area of Effect and Lightning Penetration. A single cast will inflict almost everything on the screen with three shock stacks. The larger the mob, the more effective the shocking is (more rolls for shock chance to proliferate to the entire mob).

Finally to make sure the enemies are not a danger while they burn, this build uses Cold Snap supported with Elemental Proliferation and Increased Area of Effect. Cold Snap is chosen because it has a built in chance to freeze and a huge bonus to freeze duration. Also the damage is quite low so it does not shatter the enemies too much which would stop proliferation of all status effects. Again a single cast freezes entire screen of monsters, and the bigger the group the more likely this is. I use two gems so I have some ease with the cooldown.

Important note about the three spells I use is that they're chosen because they all get a chance to inflict status effects on each cast even without criticals since I have not invested at all in criticals.

Because I alternate casting the three spells, Elemental Equilibrum adds a huge damage bonus to all of them, thus I clear mobs very quickly despite having only few dps nodes in the passive tree. Curse used is Flammability, for added chance to burn (92% with curse)

For Auras I have Purity and Vitality for survivability and Discipline to get more mana and mana regen. Long term goal is adding Determination to the mix.

Also I just got my hands on the new Searing Bond skill which I will test out once leveled. Theoretically it should fit this build well since all the burn damage bonuses I got will boost Searing Bond as well. If it turns out to work well there is always the possibility to link all my spells with Remote Mine, take Ancestral Bond and play around with two Searing Totems.

Gameplay

Playing this build is efficient and fun. When engaging mobs I first cast Cold Snap from the other end of the screen, which usually freezes everything. After this I toss a single fireball at the group which ignites everything (a larger monster group requires several fireballs of course). Then I finish up with a Shock Nova to apply 3x shock on everything and use another Cold Snap to reapply the freeze. Against most mobs all these steps are not necessary, usually I'm fine with one Fireball and a Nova.

Against bosses this build is pretty safe. Since most of the damage comes from burning, I do not need to hit them often which leaves a lot of time to kite. I use a rotation of Cold Snap -> Fireball -> Cold Snap to apply -50% fire resistance to both the initial hit and the burning. Both spells can be cast at very long range so I don't need to put my character within range of the boss.

This build is very nice in party play too. Everyone loves when all mobs are frozen and shocked. Also because I use all three elements I can always debuff the enemies resistances in the most helpful way for the rest of the party (ie. in a party with lightning/fire characters finish with Cold Snap, with cold/fire guys finish with Shock Nova, and so on).

-Ropetus