[1.3]Two Dragons build (crit arc: freeze everything+high dps, 1.3.0 buff! )

Here's why I didn't do 3 dragons with Arc ages ago:

If a body shatters, it won't chain.

This means in solo play, a crit with your arc will only kill 1 enemy. Not 5, not 6, just 1. Waveclear becomes utter trash. Trust me, I've tried it and it's kinda terrible, and in high-end party play, people use crit phys builds with Hatred so your freezes end up piggybacking their freeze and doing nothing.

Also, prolif shock with Arc is infinitely more effective. You could just have an Ice spear prolif spell totem or something for the freeze, it would be way more effective. Taking the shock out of Arc just kills the efficiency.

Also, survivability is really, really bad. It's OK to have a few uniques that lack HP, but out of your entire build, only 3 items provide decent HP. Also, you only have 134% HP or something. That in itself tells me the build won't do squat in 76-78 maps asides from ripping a ton, unless you have videos of you soloing dual courtyard bosses or something.

Solo, I agree with everything you're saying. It's quite difficult to freeze the screen when they die quickly. That also means without the screen frozen, mobs do damage and I die on high end maps.

Party play is where it gets going though. The mob life multiplier means there is plenty of time to distribute arc freeze before things start shattering. Yeah there are phys crit hatred builds out there, and for the stuff they are hitting, my freeze wouldn't help, but melee can't freeze multiple screens. The mechanics of arc as a spell are better suited for distributing status effects than any other spell.

Until I get a couple more lvls I can't really say if dual courtyard will be doable (solo), but (in a party) I can easily run through most 76 maps freezing nicely. If I get into a courtyard map, I'll try to record what happens :P

I really appreciate the input :)

In parties crit power siphon lmp/gmp + chain would freeze more efficiently. Even spectral throw is decent since it pierces.

I would appreciate if you could show a Solo play video.

Secondary, the reason Im saying its better to go without three dragons, is not because this is a crappy setup, its because it can be more effective for the following reasons:

1. Arc isnt a very crit-friendly spell with just 4% base. However, shocking is extremely easy with it, especially with a Q Arc.

2. Flame totem is neither crit-friendly, nor does the low amount of dmg per hit guarantee (talking about higher lvl maps here, resistant high hp mobs etc) even breaking the 300ms treshold needed to actually shock.

3. Sometimes, you run an easy map, say sea witches, and you dont even have time to put up a totem, because its only slowing you down. In this case, having your arc freeze instead of shock, will not only break the chains, but also miss out on you shocking mobs, thus missing out on half of your dmg.

Herefore, my conclusions are:

1. Dont go crit. You will have easier time scaling your dmg, you can even use Moonsorrow, for some chance to blind, extra lightning dmg etc. Or some GG wand. Also, you wont have to waste your offhand to an inferior shield, or second wand/dagger for more crit, and can just use a high life shield, with armor, maybe just a ES shield with good spell dmg roll on it. You even have the capability to go with Doryani's catalyst later on for huge dmg boost and 1% leech.

2. Dont go with a Totem that merely even does dmg to matter. If you still want to freeze mobs, use Cold snap (Very Very effective). Considering you would put arc in a geofri's cres/The vertex, you have your chest, which in this case can even be a defensive chest, like Cloak of defiance, you know, so you wont die, Cold snap, linked to Prolif, Cold pen, Conc effect, Added cold dmg (with Q for extra freeze)

3. You dont have to waste your item slots for crit items, resulting in more life, more plain cast speed and spell dps, And, the most important, no infernal mantle, resulting in being able to either have a good mana pool for MoM or being able to wear more aura's, maybe even haste.

Of course, the idea is awesome, dont understand me wrong, but even for someone like me who like weird ideas (Dual totem crit explosive arrow is my next project) it sounds inferior to going non-three dragons, just due to the nature of lightning spells pairing up with crit.

Thanks for the reply leary. My next build will explore "normal" means of shocking/freezing :P

As for the solo vid, I just put up a 68 rare (I don't have high lvl maps) but it shows the build off pretty well.

@MatrixFactor - I did end up trading inner force for the increased freeze duration and I'm freezing everything now. Interestingly, i can support a higher lvl AA without inner force. AA mana reqs scale faster than clarity with inner force, i guess unsurprisingly.

I also removed my zombies in favor of light warp, cus, reasons.

Thnx for the video. Its dps looks solid (more arc than the build, arc's the spellcasters ST basically) and you can keep the mobs frozen. Im just a bit sceptical about that flame totem being worth the cast time in that map, none-the-less you were still shocking mobs with it. Only life seems a bit too low to run anything above 72 solo.

One of the reasons I think the totem is so crucial at the moment for this build, is because it takes a lot of the danger out of entering a room. It's like a little scout for me. It goes ahead of me and draws that initial wave of death. Most of the time while mobs are running for it they get frozen around it and then proceed to be totem fondled. If I had to spend a lot of time summoning (ie more than the initial summon before a group of mobs) than yeah it definitely wouldn't be worth it.

As for life, yeah. Not a lot I can do about it atm. I plan on switching gifts from above out for a crit ring with life/cast speed. I also need to respec into normal oak reward. And from here on out it is life nodes. I'm fairly confident I'll be able to get 3k+ in a lvl or two.

Updated to a semi-final build revision based on forum suggestions/personal preference. Final revision will be when I get a 6L :)

Again, thanks for all the input! I'm happy to say that high lvl party play is a big success! Goal achieved :)

hi! i am really interested on this build, will you update the passive tree for 1.2? thanks!

Updated for 1.2.0

We got a HUUUGE buff to the build!!! Check it out!