[1.2][Beyond] Crit Ice Nova Build w/ Glacial Cascade (Work in Progress)

Is it viable without crit?

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past week. I didn't play as much as usual the last week, but was able to get back to it this weekend. I'm currently level 81 and going strong in Beyond. I tried ice nova out tonight in a few maps and I feel like it's still going to be a little while before I'm ready to make the switch. That said, I picked up a 5L and am running cold to fire with glacial cascade which has been a blast.

Some random notes:

- It's been a lot harder than I anticipated to get mana regen needed to sustain my skills while running the auras I want to run. I've had to go a bit out of my way to pick up some mana regen on the tree.
- I ended up getting more ES nodes on the tree than planned. I'm currently sitting at 3180 life with 4867 energy shield for almost 8050 combine life+es.
- Vaal Discipline is amazing in beyond. I'm using it on hard portal packs and it makes everything a lot less stressful.
- I'm running an Amethyst Flask permanently to help with those annoying flicker strike beyond packs. Also using a saturated eternal life flask to help counter chaos degen.
- I picked up a pair of voidbringer gloves. I'll put glacial cascade in these after switching to ice nova.
- Picked up a cheap Rainbowstride in preparation for Rumi's Concoction.
- Got pretty lucky with the 5L. I bought it white and used 7 scour/alchs on it before getting mediocre life, 500+ es, a good resist, and space to craft another resist.



Current Gear:



Flasks:

Level 62 with this build now and I'm having some big survival problems, but that is mainly due to the fact that my gear is kinda crappy.

Running a very similar build. In fact, a description you made of "Cold Snap to freeze, Lightning Warp in and spam Nova" is basically the idea I had for my build when I started the character.

I just hit 50 so I'm still in the leveling phase but just using a 3L GC + Cold Pen and Added Lightning in a +2 cold sceptre with Ice Nova + Conc Effect somewhere, pretty much works.

For white packs, I Cold Snap, warp in and Nova stuff to death. The AoE isn't very large but the packs aren't very large at this point either.

GC takes care of blues, rares and bosses.

I have been using Cold Snap in a 3L with Curse on Hit and Assassin's Mark so I get the cursing in. Not sure if I will stick to that or not. I will want Ele Prolif on Cold Snap which puts it at a 4L right there so it might not be optimal. Are you self casting curses?

As for survival... I run 2 insta pots, a granite and now that I can support AA (lvl 7 currently) I'm much better at surviving. Still have to play smart though.

Hey,

amazingly, the character I started to follow your build is still alive in Beyond (lvl73 now).
However, I came close to dying way too often using Ice Nova, due to its nature of playing like a melee, and me having no armor.
So I spent all my respec points and some regrets, and switched to Crit Ice Spear. Using my friend's tabula, she now freezes anything and everything at safe range, DPS is also great to the point where I really have to worry about reflect lol.
So, don't get me wrong, your idea is good. I just didn't feel safe with it on a HC league.
Gonna see how far I can push a 6L crit Ice Nova without having VP lol :P

Good luck to you!

You inspired me to make this build on Rampage, sort of. This is what I'm doing atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdVC51Nzlm4

So, the switch to ice nova is complete! I'm still working through some details, but it's working pretty well. I'll try to get a video up soon and will do a writeup about link options and my experiences so far.

"

helgi wrote:

I have been using Cold Snap in a 3L with Curse on Hit and Assassin's Mark so I get the cursing in. Not sure if I will stick to that or not. I will want Ele Prolif on Cold Snap which puts it at a 4L right there so it might not be optimal. Are you self casting curses?

I'm self casting assassin's mark, but I really would like to run dual curse with temp chains. Self casting 2 curses gets to be really annoying though. I'm really not sure what I'd drop if I were to do that, but I might use a second ice nova with curse on hit to do it. At this point I have a 5L ice nova; 3L lightning warp; 3L w/ vaal discipline, inc duration, and assassin's mark; 4L GC; 4L Cold Snap; and 4L aura setup. I would also really like to run 2 vaal disciplines for more consistent availability once they charge up.

"

therealjcool wrote:

amazingly, the character I started to follow your build is still alive in Beyond (lvl73 now).
However, I came close to dying way too often using Ice Nova, due to its nature of playing like a melee, and me having no armor.

I finally switched to ice nova at 83. I experienced the exact same thing you did and decided to stick with glacial cascade until I was ready to switch. I have no armor, but am running arctic armor and have something like 3200 life + 4500 es with life leech applied to es. This actually works out to be pretty comparable to my GC build that had 4k life and 1600 unreserved mana with MoM. I use vaal discipline for tough spots although stun can still be a problem and I've been making sure I start getting out of trouble with 1-2s remaining on vaal discipline.

Once I get a Rumi's Concoction (planning for max block with 50% spell block when it's active), I think the build will hold up really well in higher level maps.

"

Xeroith wrote:

You inspired me to make this build on Rampage, sort of. This is what I'm doing atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdVC51Nzlm4

Cool! Glad to see someone else trying out ice nova in higher level maps. Those hp drops look really scary though. I'm finding that, in beyond, my 4500 es can disappear almost instantly against some of the archers and I've actually been dropped to half health very quickly (almost 6k dmg taken) twice which I remember quite distinctly because it was very scary.

Ugh just Ripped at 59 to a desynch on a rare box with freeze and an exile, wishing I hadn't opened it that said love the build remaking it.

Here's a video as promised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKjlBZphBJM

I ran into Bameth (spawns at 2:30 in video) for the first time and felt it would make a good video. Still a lot of work to be done on the build and the damage is a bit lacking on ice nova still. That said, this is my first time encountering Bameth and I think all things considered it went pretty well. I will say, after this fight I now realize I need a bit more life and some chaos resistance to feel comfortable in higher maps.

"

JohmaSho wrote:

Ugh just Ripped at 59 to a desynch on a rare box with freeze and an exile, wishing I hadn't opened it that said love the build remaking it.

Ouch, sorry about the rip :(

Glad you'll be remaking though. Did you also decide to level with glacial cascade or were you able to make it work with ice nova?

This was horribly played and I deserved to die: