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

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Sulinia wrote:

Interesting build. Going to try this in beyond, however, wouldn't a Cold to fire gem paired with a Defiance make reflect easier, since some is physical which isn't reflected and some is made into fire because of the gem, which Artic armor reduces?

Only thing keeping me from trying this in maps is the obvious problem with reflect.

From my scrubcore experience yes, if you crit into like 8+ mobs you actually do kill yourself on elemental reflect, so it might be reasonable to try your idea.

Some more observations from my experience: I used to play with increased AoE and I swapped it for Conc effect when I got my Carcass Jack. The effect was surprising - big descrease in survivability as I couldnt get enough space between me and mobs. This was solved by getting lower level Conc effect (Im currently running lvl 16) and Divinarius.
I took Divinarius over my wand because even though I lost a lot of dps (3k on my cascade), I gained a lot of crit and the AoE which once again helped my survivability.

I also dropped Rime Gaze. It is not greedy. It is TOO greedy. I was thinking about trying out Maligaros, but I feel like if I want to trade resists for offense somewhere, then it is on jewelery where I can get crit, damage, cast speed AND life.

Okay I took this build as a basis and build a Dual Wield Divinarius + Carcass Jack AoE Build, you can find my current lvl 70 templar skilltree here (witch would be a bit more optimal, but I was sick of rolling witches :D): http://poeurl.com/y0LwusN

Next points would be just grabbing extra crit/multi/castspeed

Any feedback on the build is truly appreciated

Here are my items:



I'm actually not sure on which links to use on Glacial Cascade, I read the OP, but I feel like added Lightning would be more dmg than chaos? Just because of the shock stacks

What would be the ideal 5L without life leech on glacial cascade? (I'm rampage and have ice nova with LL anyway)

Currently at 65 and the HP you got is very low. I'm sitting at 3,6k HP with all HP nodes taken. I'm really thinking about getting mana nodes so I can run MoM and Defiance, since the HP is simply too low for Beyond. Or would spending 14 points to get to and take the Scion HP wheel be better?

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Darth_Silegy wrote:

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Sulinia wrote:

Interesting build. Going to try this in beyond, however, wouldn't a Cold to fire gem paired with a Defiance make reflect easier, since some is physical which isn't reflected and some is made into fire because of the gem, which Artic armor reduces?

Only thing keeping me from trying this in maps is the obvious problem with reflect.

From my scrubcore experience yes, if you crit into like 8+ mobs you actually do kill yourself on elemental reflect, so it might be reasonable to try your idea.

Some more observations from my experience: I used to play with increased AoE and I swapped it for Conc effect when I got my Carcass Jack. The effect was surprising - big descrease in survivability as I couldnt get enough space between me and mobs. This was solved by getting lower level Conc effect (Im currently running lvl 16) and Divinarius.
I took Divinarius over my wand because even though I lost a lot of dps (3k on my cascade), I gained a lot of crit and the AoE which once again helped my survivability.

I also dropped Rime Gaze. It is not greedy. It is TOO greedy. I was thinking about trying out Maligaros, but I feel like if I want to trade resists for offense somewhere, then it is on jewelery where I can get crit, damage, cast speed AND life.

Concentrated effect reduces the area effect with 30%. increased area effect op 20/20 gives 43% increased area effect. Used together = 69% increased area dmg + 13% increased area effect = massive bonus.

If you replace area effect with con, you will jump down a ton of area effect. This is why you put them ALWAYS together. Increased area effect removes counters the reduced area effect of the concentrated effect. Using concentrated effect alone = useless.

Rim gaze is good for the spell totem.

Fixing survival with more dmg isn't what you need, what you need is to focus more on defense items and focus more on dmg gems.

A good combination for example that will enhance your char massively is:

pledge of hands, judgement staff ( 7l weapon basically ) + Defiance cloak

Defiance cloak gives 100 more mana, 50% mana regen + evasion + 40% of the dmg goes to mana = 40% dmg reduction on your hp + regen is better as that 40% gets regened on a different regen pool aka mana pool.

The 110 mana works well with pledge of hands 100% mana increase = free buff = more room.

160 spelldmg, 100% mana increase + free 20/20 spell echo which gives you room for 1 more free gem, push in that slot increase critical strikes ( 20/20 = 125 crit ) and you got a beast of a weapon, that still does more spelldmg then both of your daggers combined ( only half the crit ) but gives you 10% more cast speed + a massive mana pool where you can run a additional dmg increase buff in ( haste/hatred ) and also adds towards your defense massively.

Concentration + increased area effect reduces the lost increased area coverage of carcass jack so that the lost space only is 7 area instead of 20.

You can get on top of it, gloves with temporary chain on hit to even reduce the dmg more of monsters that you hit.

Options enough.

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Darth_Silegy wrote:

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Sulinia wrote:

Interesting build. Going to try this in beyond, however, wouldn't a Cold to fire gem paired with a Defiance make reflect easier, since some is physical which isn't reflected and some is made into fire because of the gem, which Artic armor reduces?

Only thing keeping me from trying this in maps is the obvious problem with reflect.

From my scrubcore experience yes, if you crit into like 8+ mobs you actually do kill yourself on elemental reflect, so it might be reasonable to try your idea.

Some more observations from my experience: I used to play with increased AoE and I swapped it for Conc effect when I got my Carcass Jack. The effect was surprising - big descrease in survivability as I couldnt get enough space between me and mobs. This was solved by getting lower level Conc effect (Im currently running lvl 16) and Divinarius.
I took Divinarius over my wand because even though I lost a lot of dps (3k on my cascade), I gained a lot of crit and the AoE which once again helped my survivability.

I also dropped Rime Gaze. It is not greedy. It is TOO greedy. I was thinking about trying out Maligaros, but I feel like if I want to trade resists for offense somewhere, then it is on jewelery where I can get crit, damage, cast speed AND life.

Lowering your con effect level only reduces damage, it won't help you with extra range at all.

Thanks for this build! This is my first time playing path and I found Glacial Cascade early on and thought whoa this skill is awesome! I had no idea what I was doing and until about level 70 I had just built everything on my own lol Once I saw this build I sold all my currency, got as many orbs of regret as I could and redid EVERYTHING. I didn't really wanna reroll a new character. But now everything in my skill tree is pretty close to what you have. My GC build is slightly different because I am still kinda rough and I die to just being stupid sometimes so I changed it just a touch to help me stay further away from enemies but still get decent dps. Also instead of a spell totem which I always forgot to use, I have cold snap traps, and instead of lightening warp(also forgot to use) I decided to go with frostbite and arc with cast on damage taken.

Again thanks so much for this build! The other GC builds I saw weren't nearly as helpful ^_^


Here's a bunch of stuff about my character. Don't destroy me pls like I said I am still pretty new to this game and still trying to work out some things with my gear. Once I get my currency back up I plan on 5L or 6L(if my Vorici is high enough by that point) my chest and moving some gems around after that.

Gear:


My stats so far:


Skill tree so far:



I guess my question would be after I catch up to your skill tree, where should I go next? I mean I know the league is gonna be over soon but I do plan on making this toon again on the new league. So it'd be cool to know where to go next :D

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OMGnancyWTF wrote:

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I didn't play this char after the huge Witch area revamp in patch 1.2.0. and I don't really keep track of this guide anymore so my word isn't 100% good but here's some passive points you could consider spending in the future:

The Quick Recovery cluster (Life + Life regen + mana regen) cluster just above Elemental Equilibrium).
The cast speed + elemental damage nodes at the start of the Shadow area.
The Blood Drinker cluster (just to below the Shadow's power charge) for more life
The block nodes near Witch
The block nodes near Templar

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Kenzorz wrote:

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OMGnancyWTF wrote:

snip

I didn't play this char after the huge Witch area revamp in patch 1.2.0. and I don't really keep track of this guide anymore so my word isn't 100% good but here's some passive points you could consider spending in the future:

The Quick Recovery cluster (Life + Life regen + mana regen) cluster just above Elemental Equilibrium).
The cast speed + elemental damage nodes at the start of the Shadow area.
The Blood Drinker cluster (just to below the Shadow's power charge) for more life
The block nodes near Witch
The block nodes near Templar

Thanks so much! :D

OK, so firstly, thanks guys for correcting me on Conc effect. For some reason I thought the AoE reduction scales.
As for Pledge of Hands, Id lose life and a shitton of crit. Plus the currency investment. But it sounds like a good option, going with PoH and CoD, I already have some 650 free mana.
Right now Im sitting at 5,2k life, 25k DPS and 60% chance to freeze and Im able to kill anything except of Atziri (yes, even Palace Dominus, Megaera, Vaal Temple trio and other holocausts), so Im really quite happy with the build as it is.

As for Rime Gaze, I did play with it for quite some time, but then again, when you think about it, you just sac some 120 life and a lot of resists (free suffixes for crit and cast speed on jewelery) for something you only use on bosses and boxes anyway. And the DPS difference is like what? 3k in really good gear? I mean, honestly, at this level dropping the totem for Kaoms Roots actually sounds like a good option (Bone Rhoas are actually the only thing that killed me lately if I dont count FPS drops, invisible Flameblast and some other randomness).

Here is my level 91 tree:
I dropped some mana (still running lvl20 AA) and 1 10% damage node to grab the Blood Drinker cluster and reroute the way to Trickery through Freeze (3 points vs 2, 28% cold damage + 5% chance to freeze vs 20 Int). This is the best my brain was able to come up with, if I decided to go for lvl 92, Id probably swap Merc bandits from skill point to Oak.

That about sums up my thoughts for now, but hey, Im still learning, so I might come with something totally different later :D

Any chances for an update of this build after the 1.1.3 patch?