[1.1.5] Kenzorz Crit Glacial Cascade Witch (updated for 1.3.0)

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Asqures wrote:

Hai, I definitely want to try out this build but before I mess up my tree, I wanted to ask something. I've been told casting speed is not important for ice builds (because apparently the freeze duration depends on the damage dealt per hit, therefore high damage > speed) but you've stacked a lot of it and claim it's very important. *much confusion* Someone care to elaborate? ;_;

Other than that, I should make sure I have high crit rate/multiplier, elemental damage and not cold due to GC's physical damage, and AoE radius increases as well, I suppose?

On a side note, would a Scion be a good choice for this build? :|

High damage is important for freeze duration yes but that doesn't mean you should neglect cast speed, I've only spent 9 points on cast speed.

In order of priority of offensive stats you need:
Crit chance/multiplier > Spell Damage > Cast Speed > Elemental Damage >= Cold Damage (depends if you want to use Added Lightning or not, otherwise Elemental damage isn't any different to cold)

Scion is not good for this build, my build doesn't reach out to the Scion area at all so it's kinda pointless to play as her. Shadow and Templar are OK though.

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Carrotizer wrote:

Why skill point over 4% cast speed for bandit quest?

You can already get a lot of cast speed on the tree, getting a passive point allows for more flexibility whereas taking the cast speed bandit point means you're stuck with it unless you want to spend 20 Regret Orbs.

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4Karbon wrote:

Hi, I like your build! I would like to try it in the Rampage League.

For leveling passive tree how should I proceed?

Updated the "Leveling Up" section of my guide with the 1.2.0. tree

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Kenzorz wrote:

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4Karbon wrote:

Hi, I like your build! I would like to try it in the Rampage League.

For leveling passive tree how should I proceed?

Updated the "Leveling Up" section of my guide with the 1.2.0. tree

Rough outline for what your passive tree should look like, patch 1.2.0.

Obviously you don't have to follow this 100%, reach out for the life nodes earlier on if you need them, take the +30 Strength/Dex Nodes if you need them early on.
21 Points
41 Points
59 Points
84 Points
98 Points

Thanks so much mate!

Hm, I see. My reasoning was that you seemed to take all the "3 points for 12 cast speed" nodes, so why would you NOT take 1 point for 4% cast speed? (On a related note, are passive tree bonuses and item bonuses multiplicative with respect to each other?
I'm very excited that most of my planned skill tree matches your build :D

Also, aren't flask effect nodes pretty efficient with Doriayn's Amethyst Flask? Percentage-wise, that seems to be as good of a damage boost (and leech!)

Granted, I'm not sure how the nodes work exactly (if I use Granite with % armor bonus, it only seems to buff flat 3000 amount, unless I'm wrong), but they still seem decent.

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Carrotizer wrote:

Hm, I see. My reasoning was that you seemed to take all the "3 points for 12 cast speed" nodes, so why would you NOT take 1 point for 4% cast speed? (On a related note, are passive tree bonuses and item bonuses multiplicative with respect to each other?
I'm very excited that most of my planned skill tree matches your build :D

Also, aren't flask effect nodes pretty efficient with Doriayn's Amethyst Flask? Percentage-wise, that seems to be as good of a damage boost (and leech!)

Granted, I'm not sure how the nodes work exactly (if I use Granite with % armor bonus, it only seems to buff flat 3000 amount, unless I'm wrong), but they still seem decent.

You can get the flask nodes if you want, I just don't think it's worth it to spend 3 points that benefits the flask I almost never use though.

Thanks for your build, i respecced into it already before the patch ( as we almost had identical builds already, and changed gems + gear wise. I must say the dmg skirocketted with your build for sure, a really good build.

After the patch 1.2 i respecced into your new build but soon found out that i lacked the dex + strenght talents which prevented me from using my gear. So i had to respec with 4 regrets in order to get those 2x 30+ strenght en dex talents/skills, maybe its handy to put a note into your main page that people need to keep this in mind :P.

Other then that, i did changed my gem solution a little bit.

My old setup with your build was ( the difference ) ( pre 1.2 )

( i use your old gem build, because i never use lighting warp anyway )

- vaal cold snap + spell echo + cold penetration + increase area effect. ( with the skin on it it looks really good, but it also is really effective to freeze the entire screen basically "your panic button" ) it does a bit less dmg then vaal ice nova, but the freeze is really solid.

- reduce mana , hatred , clarity. ( hatred added a good 800 dps that pushed me from 6500 to 7800 ( my gear is not yet optimal dmg wise ).

I also use frost bite in a left over slot in my chest which is 5L but has 6 slots. It's handy for tanky bosses or resist monsters to push out that extra dmg.

With the 1,2 build and skills and changes i got your build + the str and dex skills, but changed my gems again a bit.

I wanted to use clarity + hatred + herald of ice. ( herald of ice seems like a good fit, its only lvl 1 yet here, but already adds on raw dmg 200 dps and you got to explosion on kill as extra with that ).
Hatred adds another 1600 towards the mix, and clarity is always needed for mana regen.

But in order to do this i have to push it with reduce mana towards 4 slot item, which would require me to cut into vaal cold snap solution and remove cold penetration ( Which is fine as i use it to freeze the screen anyway with it ).

So basically i end up with this build in 1.2

lvl 83 vaal/cascade/hatred/herald build 1.2

with the next gem setup different from yours:

chest ( carcass jack = 20% increase area effect ) : glacial cascade + spell echo + concentrated effect + add chaos dmg + life leech. ( 6th non linked slot, frost bite )

Shield: vaal ice cold snap + increased area effect + spell echo

Boots: Hatred + clarity + reduce mana + herald of ice

helmet: rim graze ( lvl 15 concentrated effect + 10% cold dmg for free )

I must say after the 1.2 patch, somehow my dmg has skyrocketted.

My main skill mainly did ~8000 dmg, but now hits 14.000 dmg. My totem almost doubled also on dmg, i can now with this patch finally use artic armour while moving ( like you mentioned ) which always was a risky type of thing to do, with all the buffs on i still have 600 mana left to spend which is more then before the patch + the extra regen is really helpfull.

I'm also a sucker for the additional animations and skins that showcases :P.

- skull effect skin on hatred
- herald of ice ( extra aoe explosion of ice + icy hands )
- vaal cold snap + hand skin, just to sweet to pass on :P )
- add with it ice skull + ice crown + ice weapon + ice feet + artic armour, and i'm set :P

All with all, thanks again for your update on your build and your build in general. I really like it, even if i made my own spinoff from it. Thanks.

Is it worth it to aim for the Heart of Ice cluster ? (Cold dmg)
It's 7 skill point, but maybe with dropping some life..

Same question for aura nodes, since Clarity+Discipline+Hatred+Herald of Ice need 145% mana reserved (+ clarity)...

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GATYGUN wrote:

All with all, thanks again for your update on your build and your build in general. I really like it, even if i made my own spinoff from it. Thanks.

You're welcome. :)

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Akalamiammiam wrote:

Is it worth it to aim for the Heart of Ice cluster ? (Cold dmg)
It's 7 skill point, but maybe with dropping some life..

Same question for aura nodes, since Clarity+Discipline+Hatred+Herald of Ice need 145% mana reserved (+ clarity)...

It might be worth going for Heart of Ice I don't know, I didn't play this build during 1.2.0 so there's a lot of things I don't know that could make the build better!

I think you should use Clarity + Discipline + Herald of Ice. Hatred costs too much mana.

Yeah I'll do this at the first time, and later see if I can add Hatred with an Alpha. (Sovereignty seems too far)


I aim this for lvl 87 : http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA37DfioIQB6WPpgLjRKtJslWuLJwFQkGWrrPQ9UyzLR-XlQQHlSBSU-vkg9sfAsHzPV-X9F8qVcY2xYIeoqNtGdgk2wt_xg_ECPSnCBGWL507fMBUna4HHg5IFvO4ympDGmyVLl3yoi4mPOQiFm_w1XDVUEKOZLUEJKqP-klRidOMNvemXcY26ev1cFJzs1VLtvpG1-NqZJ3DCSoL8Gth4u0g8h25k_PqFecmleFzl5cWv4uMRXwFW5_fPAXvfIM4FE0Es6IAAnEUsEwtF1SOPFZKnqEigQ==

Changes (mine have xxx compared to yours):

+5 maximum mana
-6% maximum mana
-5% increased buff effects
-15 maximum life
-34% increased maximum life
+2% cold penetration
+71% increased Cold damage


Don't know if 115% life is enough now..

Herald of ice is absolutely insane with this build. More dmg than any other aura in the game for this.

Oh, one more thing. Seeing as "shocked" does not stack anymore, are the listed support gems for Lightning Warp still viable?