A Cold Crit Witch Guide 2.0 (RE-DONE!) Check it out!

New poll is up regarding the videos. I want to know what YOU guys would like to see in them.

Also, someone help out Nevzat please. I have been busy, don't have the time to help him myself. Thanks in advanced!

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Nevzat wrote:

Guys can you comment on my gear please?

What needs work?

Not sure whether to use this shield, excellent for FP but not enough ES??

How do FP witches fare in maps higher end?

Sorry about not being able to help you earlier. And that no one else decided to help.

Assuming your a non-CI build.

Few upgrades you should focus on, in this order:
Gloves>Belt>Helm>Wand
in your case

GLOVES:
The only thing your gloves have are cold resis.
Try to get a 4L ES or armor/ES hybrid gloves with increased ES (% or max) and max health.

BELT:
Your belt does NOTHING other then give you extra strength. Weapon ele damage does help spells. Try to get some form of health and resistances on it. (Try for ES if you don't need strength as well)

HELM:
Try for a pure ES or ES/Armor hybrid helm. Same stats, try to get a higher roll of ES %. Also try for a 4L

WAND:
You need higher spell damage. Your wand has nice stats, it's a shame that it lacks so much spell damage. Higher Crit chance would be nice as well. 3L as well.

ALSO: If your non-CI, you will need MORE chaos resis, you have none.


You can switch out the shields if you manage higher ES on the rest of your gear. As it is now, it will be too risky. That shield is almost the "perfect" shield, in terms of stats. If only it had ES % and health rather then int and max ES


FP witches fair well in end game maps, IF you understand your limits. End game is really dependent on gear. I haven't played a ES/Health hybrid, so I do not know HOW gear dependent they are, but I CAN assure you that you won't do anything with sub-par gear.

With enough crit/damage/cast speed, and the right skills, you can be pretty much untouchable in a majority of the maps.

Been following this for a while and some great info in here. Got me up to 76 in Soft Core as a CI cold crit witch. I just wanted to mention 1 thing that was really game changing for me. Elemental Proliferation on totem. Once started using this, my survivability went through the roof.

A bit about my set up...

4L Spell totem with Ice Spear, LMP and Elemental Proliferation.

4L Freeze Pulse with LMP, Cold Penetration and Faster Casting.

4L Clarity, Purity and Discipline with Reduce Mana.

4L Arc with Lightening Pen, Mana leech and Added chaos (not used so much any more but very helpfull in tight spaces to help clear a room safely without going into the room.)

3L Raise Zombie, Raise Spectre with minion life (rarely do I use zombies any more and almost never use specter. Spectre is not even on keybind any more. Was helpfull as meat shields earlier on).

Wand has Frostbite, Enfeeble and Bear trap. I keep frostbite on middle mouse button and put it on everyone. I will switch bear trap in for zombies keybind on some bosses.

5k Energy shield, Max resists a bit over 2k on FP.

A couple more tips...If you get strength on belt and dex on a couple items, you can save passive points and easily make your 106 or so requirement for your red and green gems. I do not use any +30 nodes for my gems. Chain belts do not have many good caster stats so get max ES, some Str and resists. Anulet, get +Attributes. Gloves have the same lack of caster stats as belts do so you really want to focus on Mana, Energy Sheild and get some dex. One of your rings should be able to finish off your Dex and Str requirement. Do not depend too much on the rings for these stats as rings have tons of sweet caster mods. Here is my gear...



Ignore my wand gems for now. Was switching gems around last night and game crashed so I went to bed.

I hope some of this post is helpfull.

Hi, I was planning on making this kind of witch and was wondering if there are Cold Immune monsters like there in D2 and will I be having problems with Main Bosses with this type of Witch?

I'll be making my passive different than yours but the idea, I think, is probably the same. :D

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shaftofpleasure wrote:

Hi, I was planning on making this kind of witch and was wondering if there are Cold Immune monsters like there in D2 and will I be having problems with Main Bosses with this type of Witch?

I'll be making my passive different than yours but the idea, I think, is probably the same. :D

There are no immune's in the game, only resistance mobs. They are easy to deal with if you take frost bite and/or cold pen support gems.

Bosses CAN be extremely annoying if your not up to par with your gear. That being said, until around level 30 or so, you most likely won't be able to do almost anything alone. Normal could possibly be the hardest difficulty for a solo cold witch. (not counting end game maps, which could STILL be easier if you have good gear)

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Lachis wrote:

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Felkor wrote:

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Lachis wrote:

Frenzy charges wont be worth it. A quality gem is better to obtain while taking more defensive, or dmg nodes.

I agree that spending nodes just to to gain 1 charge is not a good idea.
However, if the +1 Frenzy charge is on your path...

It's 5% Castspeed per charge. The only thing you haev to do is put one button before starting farming an area. For 15% (+5% for the merciless quest) with no drawback, it seems legit for me.

It should never be in your path as a cold crit witch.

What about the one just past the Nullifications? It would be a three-point investment.

However ...

For those same 3 points, we could get 9% increased speed from Witch starting point, or 10% from the area just East of there.

I see people talking about cast speed, but I don't see a lot of the speed nodes being taken in their trees. Does anyone know why that is? Are they overlooking something? Or are the speed nodes not efficient compared to other ways of obtaining more speed?

Just to be clear, in case someone says "it depends on your exact build," I do plan on getting CI and running Blood Rage, using Pulse and Spear as primary attacks.

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VideoGeemer wrote:

What about the one just past the Nullifications? It would be a three-point investment.

However ...

For those same 3 points, we could get 9% increased speed from Witch starting point, or 10% from the area just East of there.

I see people talking about cast speed, but I don't see a lot of the speed nodes being taken in their trees. Does anyone know why that is? Are they overlooking something? Or are the speed nodes not efficient compared to other ways of obtaining more speed?

Just to be clear, in case someone says "it depends on your exact build," I do plan on getting CI and running Blood Rage, using Pulse and Spear as primary attacks.

i had the cast speed nodes specced but changed em. even with 650 mana(after auras) and tons of manareg i still run dry from time to time with 5l (67 mana cost) fp at 0.4 castspeed. also often you cant just stand there and fire away so the dps from castspeed is wasted while pure dmg always matters.
also after i planted my totem and casted 2-3 times normal enemies are dead anyways.

btw build is awesome. ive started soloing docks at 60, 66 maps at 65 and now dabbling into 67 and 68 maps with 67. 3k es(ci), max resists & 3300dpsx3 on fp. i need more es but so far i havent rolled more then 250 on my chest :P

what do you guys think about my build so far ? i think i need some serious mana nodes though...that gmp gem i just bought is so mana intensive.....



and here are my items ... any tips ? (some of them are crap, i know)

Hi, thanks for the guide.

I was wondering if Frost Nova == Ice Nova?

(see spells section)

Erm

your items are horrific... even pure melee items would give you better stats and imho your linking is completely off.