[1.3] The Crit Philosopher - CI Crit Cold Witch - Freezing Pulse, PCoC & Echo

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Saxarona wrote:

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oldirtybomber wrote:

Great guide! My first go as a wander.
I'm used to face tank melee so this is quite a difference.
Very slow leveling to 60, even tho i had some decent gear to move me along.
I know im not fully equipped yet but it just seems a little weak, Artic armor sounds great but can this build run a high lvl of it? I got mine at lvl 10 currently and just barely able to maintain.
Is this build just supposed to spam granite flasks constantly ?


Now on to the tree, it maybe the melee in me but i just want to stack more ES.
Looking at where you go in the templar area just doesn't look appealing.

I'm considering going down and getting foresight, harrier, truestrike.
Also continuing through trickery to pick up the 12% ias & 28% ele in 5 nodes.
All this as a replacement to where you went in templar. Probably pick up frostwalker / fire for res if needed when i swap out to rathpith & doryani

I've got the shield & belt recommended, just need a few more lvls to try it out.

Glad you like it so far. This build doesn't have much mana, so you'll not be able to run high level AA. At early stages, spamming granites is usual, but as you progress (generally when you get block) you simply ignore the hits. The idea of the build (generally of any non-armor Witch) is not to get hit too much; use your lightning warp to re-position yourself and freeze/kill them before you get killed. That's the main advantage of high crit chance and a freezing spell from afar.

The Templar part of the Tree was meant for leveling, if you skipped it, you can invest it in other defensive (I'd recommend) stat now. Take a look at the "Current Tree" below the final progression in the original post: it takes block nodes and ES/Evasion nodes instead.

Your gear is very good! Block chance is greatly boosted with both Rathpith and Rainbowstride, so I'd recommend going for that instead of armor. If you want more damage, I'd probably invest in those Ele Dmg and Cast speed nodes near the Shadow, but I'm not sure if going down 'till Truestrike is worthy (at least for me, I'm 8 nodes away).

Tell me how it goes when you get to try on your new gear! :D

Ok, i will let you know when i switch gear.I'm starting to go into the block nodes, there are a few available (decisions,decisions ;D) Need some better chest armor too, i was thinking a hybrid ev/es piece or maybe even that atziri unique armor might be better. your thoughts ?

Where are you picking up projectile speed? It would be better if i could get some more range with fp, currently using a totem with spear & lmp to start freezing so its safer to go in close.
Also accuracy, mine currently at 67% ;/

Finally, a few more thoughts in the tree because so many things are so close. increased duration of freeze cluster,the 70% es recovery cluster, possible dual curse (cwdt curse on hit), more mana/regen to get AA to a higher lvl. Do you have any experience trying these or thoughts on them?

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oldirtybomber wrote:

Ok, i will let you know when i switch gear.I'm starting to go into the block nodes, there are a few available (decisions,decisions ;D) Need some better chest armor too, i was thinking a hybrid ev/es piece or maybe even that atziri unique armor might be better. your thoughts ?

Where are you picking up projectile speed? It would be better if i could get some more range with fp, currently using a totem with spear & lmp to start freezing so its safer to go in close.
Also accuracy, mine currently at 67% ;/

Finally, a few more thoughts in the tree because so many things are so close. increased duration of freeze cluster,the 70% es recovery cluster, possible dual curse (cwdt curse on hit), more mana/regen to get AA to a higher lvl. Do you have any experience trying these or thoughts on them?

I've seen some Sacrificial Garbs hybrid EVA/ES with up to 900 ES; the leech and resistances are insane, but I suppose the price is too. If you can afford it, go for it; it also looks badass!

I did not pick projectile speed because my Freezing Pulse is 20% Quality, which adds 60% projectile speed and it's massive. If you can get a quality FP, do it. It's completely worth it.

Accuracy doesn't affect spells (and hence FP is unaffected too). Your chance to hit is always 100% unless your target has Phase Acrobatics or Block Chance. This also applies if you're blinded (Altar, gem or "Shadow Walker" Nemesis mod); your Freezing Pulse will be unaffected.

As for where to go next, it depends on what you want/need. Damage scales better with cast speed and crit multiplier than with spell damage and ele dmg or cold dmg.

I'd not go for Breath of Rime, investing in freeze chance and freeze duration is not as good as investing in cold damage (which also results in both freeze chance and duration* increase). In any case, I think Heart of Ice is better. Dual curse could be an option. Stack both ele weakness and frostbite and they will surely end with negative resistances, though I don't think it's very necessary. I'd definitely go for more mana, which means more regen and at a greater extent, more auras.

I haven't tried with a higher level AA though. I'm currently at 1377 Mana total, with 1255 reserved for Clarity, Discipline, Herald of Ice and Tempest Shield, and 122 left for infinite pulses, curses, lightning warps and an always active level 10 AA while moving. If the area has 50% regen maps I just disable AA.

I know it kinda sounds suicidal, but with Rathpith. Rainbowstride, Tempest Shield and some nodes, I'm blocking attacks all day :D

I'd love to see a video of this build... it SOUNDS good... but I have no idea what it actually does in terms of gameplay :)

Updated the original post with the following:

- Updated current tree with optimized version. Thank you very much for your input, jaredh!
- Added a gameplay video. Not too good, but not too shabby either!
- Added some newbie-friendly tips courtesy of PathOfDisco in the second post!
- Moved TODO, Changelog and Special Thanks to second post.

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brunowa wrote:

I'd love to see a video of this build... it SOUNDS good... but I have no idea what it actually does in terms of gameplay :)

Just uploaded a vid here. Please tell me what you think, guys :D

I know this map is not that high level, but asking people in chat seems to bring Temple Piety as a difficult boss so I went for it. Rolls were kinda against me, but using Life Leech instead of IIQ (which I use most of the time) is really safe.

Didn't focus much on clear speed so you can actually see the idea of the playstyle, gem setup and stuff. Got some highlights too in case it's too long for you to watch.

I switched my gear, picked up a nice es/ev chest and invested a bunch in block nodes and it feels a lot better. Did a few lvl 71 temples my self, piety was not much of an issue. the spell block seems to be working well, but my dps is pretty low (3600ish tt). I'm now using a divinarius until i can get something better.

Haven't killed merc Dom yet, hoping i can leech enough es on his final form while having enough remove bleed flask charges. I might try today.

Have you done a Atziri run yet? Is it possible to do with this build ?



New gear/tree

why LMP, not GMP?

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oldirtybomber wrote:

I switched my gear, picked up a nice es/ev chest and invested a bunch in block nodes and it feels a lot better. Did a few lvl 71 temples my self, piety was not much of an issue. the spell block seems to be working well, but my dps is pretty low (3600ish tt). I'm now using a divinarius until i can get something better.

Haven't killed merc Dom yet, hoping i can leech enough es on his final form while having enough remove bleed flask charges. I might try today.

Have you done a Atziri run yet? Is it possible to do with this build ?

Looking good! Take a look at the last updated tree I posted (it's in the first post) and see which improvements could be adapted to your case (like the Aura nodes improvement explained some posts above by jaredh).

I haven't done Atziri runs yet, so I'm not sure. Maybe with block nodes and some practice it is possible. If you by chance try it out, tell us how it goes!

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Trixilai wrote:

why LMP, not GMP?

Because LMP provides better damage per pulse, and thus each pulse with LMP has a greater chance to freeze than each GMP pulse. That's the main reason why. If you prefer higher damage in your tooltip you can swap for GMP provided that you have enough mana to sustain continuous fire.

Hey, can you update the gear/gems you are currently using?

Sure thing!

Right now this is the gear I'm using:



Sockets required are the following:

► 5L Regalia: FP 20/20Q - LMP lv18/20Q - Spell Echo lv19 - PCoC 20/20 - Item Quantity 20/20/Life Leech 20/20/Empower 2 (depending on map mods and if I'm in party)
► 4L Circlet: Tempest Shield lv19 - Discipline lv20 - Clarity lv20 - Reduced Mana lv20
► 4L Boots: Lightning Warp lv19/20Q - Added Lightning 20/20 - Faster Casting 20/20 - Reduced Duration lv20
► 3L Wand: Herald of Ice lv18 - Frostbite lv20/12Q - Reduced Mana lv19


These 2 linked but it's not necessary, they work alone very well:

► Blood Rage
► Arctic Armour
► Portal (if you want to save some scrolls and space)

The rest of the sockets is for leveling/placeholder. I'm currently leveling:

► Item Rarity
► Tempest Shield
► Spell Echo
► Herald of Ice
► Increased Critical Damage
► Enlighten
► Enhance
► Empower

Thanks for your build!

atm i'm level 63 and i switch CI. No difficulties encountered at this time.

My gear: