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

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Leanord wrote:

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saked_ wrote:

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Edit: crit chance and crit dmg are the lowest of the support gems in terms of dmg added. I don't ever recommend using them.

Is this correct?

Is it better to use Cold Pen then Crit Chance on FP ??

hi haha :D and it depends if your target has cold resistance already then the cold pen would probably give you more damage, if your target has no resistance then it will give bonus to your damage (not sure how much).

No it is linear. I don't know the value it increases damage by either, but whatever it is, it applies regardless of whether the target has Cold Resist or how much (because Penetration is additive (well subtractive) and can make the resistance go negative as you said).

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So then your point is that it's better to have a more naturally fast cast rather than one which needs to be constantly fed, because constantly feeding it means you just run out faster and don't have time to refill?

If you have a decent Wand / Bow and want to use Frenzy, then it will save you all the Cast Speed nodes (which are typically less effective than Frenzy). Or you could take both, but your aman pool probabky won;t handle it. I use Frenzy on both a Ranger and a Witch and I really like it. It is extremely easy to maintain the charges because each new one resets the duration of the whole stack. Even if you do not want to spam Frenzy, a single use of it every 10 seconds will keep your full stacks up. Very easy to do - you soon get used to the timing.

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shibloble wrote:

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saked_ wrote:

question;

I have both LMP as well as GMP.. Which one do I pick? GMP on IceSpear & LMP on FP ?

It depends. GMP will give you more damage to groups, LMP gives more damage to single targets.

I run GMP on FP and LMP on my ice spear totem.

I would do the opposite. I do not think you ever manage to hit targets with more than 3 Pulses when you GMP it, except in a few rare cases such as very large targets, so GMP on Pulse is a damage loss. I believe I read on this very site that this is the case. GMP on Spear will hit, because you are not casting spear unless you are miles away in the first place.

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I also ignored 15% crit chance unless it led to something better, since, well, only so many points to spend. But if it's better to get those and ignore some of the cold damage nodes, please, do tell, so that I can consider that as well.

You need a mix. But if forced to chose, favour Crit Chance nodes imo. You are a Cold Witch. Your survivability relies on you being able to freeze stuff. This means you can do two things:

a) Use Cold Snap with proper support gems
b) Crit with Pulse and Spear

So even if a damage node could be shown to increase your dps more than a crit, I would still consider taking the crit, to increase your freezing power.

Hi there !

Great guide, thx ! =)

I have a few questions regarding my witch. This is my build :
- CI
- main spell : Ice spear (LMP/increase critical damage/pierce atm)
- support spells : ice nova totem + forst bite
Passive skilltree : http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAW8C_gVCBVsHYwx9DkgPxBBpEH8RLREvEVARlhXXFr8W8xzcHdkmPCycLKYsvy-dMJcy0TQKN2Y3gzmKO3w74TyOQZZCw0NURUdG10-_VkpWY1crV8lapl3GXfJgbW0ZcFJw1XNTdYp8g31Tf8aCEIKbhEiGrofbiEKLeouMjDaOZI6-kyeVBJmanYCdo56hoi6io6brpyuus6-btQS2hrb3tvq4k7jKu9bAUcBUwcXB88Ntxp7N-tQF14bcx93z34TfsOFz4vfkIuaB6rrrY-vu7BjtIPId8-r3pvyr

My questions :
1) Which support gems should I use for Ice Spear ?
atm, I have only a 4 link armor, but in the long run, I'm planning to get a 6 link. As Ice Spear is my main spell, I plan to use the 6 links for this spell. Currently I'm using LMP/increase critical damage/pierce, so there are two slots left. Should I rather focus on a 100% cold basis (increased cold dmg + cold penetration) or should I go for lighting dmg ? I don't have a lot of %elemental/%spell in my passive skilltree (but I have some on my gear), so I wonder if the lighting damage will be sufficient to shock mobs ?

2) Is ice nova totem really a good idea ? I tried a few spells on it and until now, this is the one that convinced my the most. The only annoying thing is that I have to cast it relatively closely to the mobs, so I have to recast it several times. Is there a better alternative according to you ?

3) Is it worth it to spend a passive skill point in an additional +30 dex nod ? Currently, I have 75 dex, which does not allow me to max LMP/pierce (and later added cold/cold penetration if I choose these). But I have quite a limited gear ...

thx for your answers !

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Golgho wrote:

Hi there !
My questions :
1) Which support gems should I use for Ice Spear ?
atm, I have only a 4 link armor, but in the long run, I'm planning to get a 6 link. As Ice Spear is my main spell, I plan to use the 6 links for this spell. Currently I'm using LMP/increase critical damage/pierce, so there are two slots left. Should I rather focus on a 100% cold basis (increased cold dmg + cold penetration) or should I go for lighting dmg ? I don't have a lot of %elemental/%spell in my passive skilltree (but I have some on my gear), so I wonder if the lighting damage will be sufficient to shock mobs ?

2) Is ice nova totem really a good idea ? I tried a few spells on it and until now, this is the one that convinced my the most. The only annoying thing is that I have to cast it relatively closely to the mobs, so I have to recast it several times. Is there a better alternative according to you ?

3) Is it worth it to spend a passive skill point in an additional +30 dex nod ? Currently, I have 75 dex, which does not allow me to max LMP/pierce (and later added cold/cold penetration if I choose these). But I have quite a limited gear ...

thx for your answers !

1) Take lightning damage if you can deal a fair amount of damage with it. Lightning only shocks if the damage done by the added lightning does 2% or more of the targets health. OR if you use static blows, it's 10% regardless of damage.

2) Never heard anyone run ice nove, most people use ice spear, which I would recommend. If your using nova for the AoE freeze/chill, put proliferation on the ice spear totem.

3) Yes, respec it out later if you have dex on late game items. Witches need dex and str in order to use LMP/GMP and reduced mana cost.

Thx for your answere

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shibloble wrote:

1) Take lightning damage if you can deal a fair amount of damage with it. Lightning only shocks if the damage done by the added lightning does 2% or more of the targets health. OR if you use static blows, it's 10% regardless of damage.

2) Never heard anyone run ice nove, most people use ice spear, which I would recommend. If your using nova for the AoE freeze/chill, put proliferation on the ice spear totem.

3) Yes, respec it out later if you have dex on late game items. Witches need dex and str in order to use LMP/GMP and reduced mana cost.

1) Ok. I think I won't deal enough damage with lighting. I'll rather concentrate on cold dmg. Besides, I like the idea of a pure one element build.

2) Do people use LMP on it then ? Because if the Totem only launches 1 ice spear, it seems quite limited for me ... but does it still do enough damage then ? (I guess so if most people use it ... but with the -40% malus + the malus of LMP ...)
Yep, I use for both dmg and freeze/chill. Since it has a nice radius, it contributes to the constant freezing/chilling of mobs while dealing a fair amount of dps (in my point of view at least)

3) Ok, I'll do that thx !

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Golgho wrote:

2) Do people use LMP on it then ? Because if the Totem only launches 1 ice spear, it seems quite limited for me ... but does it still do enough damage then ? (I guess so if most people use it ... but with the -40% malus + the malus of LMP ...)
Yep, I use for both dmg and freeze/chill. Since it has a nice radius, it contributes to the constant freezing/chilling of mobs while dealing a fair amount of dps (in my point of view at least)

Since ice spear almost always crits, it still does great damage. I prefer LMP on ice totem, as it does more damage to single targets. But if you want it for the sole purpose of freeze/chilling, GMP would be the better choice.

All right. I'll test that !

Thx for the tips ;)

edit : actually, I have another question. I'm quite concerned by the fact that I have 0 armor. Indeed, as I am CI, all my stuff is 100% ES. So I don't have a single armor point. This is quite annoying and I can feel it when I take physical dmg (especially those you can't really dodge, such as archers, chargers, flicker strikes etc.).
I'm trying to balance it with granit potions and molten shell, but it's not really satisfying. It's REALLY annoying to cast molten shell again and again and granit potions are active a very short time (even if my granit flask refills very fast thanks to the charge on crit mod, I can't be 100% of the time under granit).
What do you suggest to face this issue ? I'll try the new skill (arctic armor) when I'll drop it, but I'm afraid it'll cost a LOT (to much) of mana =/

Ice Spear, LMP, Elemental Proliferation on totem. Everything stays Frozen and you will not take a lot of physical damage. Keep your totem up and you do not need armor. As a Frost Crit witch, you are not supposed to get hit much.

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Daarknight wrote:

Ice Spear, LMP, Elemental Proliferation on totem. Everything stays Frozen and you will not take a lot of physical damage. Keep your totem up and you do not need armor. As a Frost Crit witch, you are not supposed to get hit much.

Once again I have to disagree with such advice. Proliferation gem is a DPS loss to whatever spell you link it to, even your totem, because you could have linked something that upped DPS by a LOT instead. The best solution is to use Proliferation on Cold Snap (especially a quality one). Cold Snap is one of the best freezers because it has the ability built in. It is extremely reliable, can be dropped at almost any range and is not your main nuke. This makes it perfect for the Proliferation duty and means you can make you main nukes deal some REAL damage.

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GhostlightX wrote:

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Daarknight wrote:

Ice Spear, LMP, Elemental Proliferation on totem. Everything stays Frozen and you will not take a lot of physical damage. Keep your totem up and you do not need armor. As a Frost Crit witch, you are not supposed to get hit much.

Once again I have to disagree with such advice. Proliferation gem is a DPS loss to whatever spell you link it to, even your totem, because you could have linked something that upped DPS by a LOT instead. The best solution is to use Proliferation on Cold Snap (especially a quality one). Cold Snap is one of the best freezers because it has the ability built in. It is extremely reliable, can be dropped at almost any range and is not your main nuke. This makes it perfect for the Proliferation duty and means you can make you main nukes deal some REAL damage.

Freezing Pulse does the killing, not ice spear. For me, Ice spear's damage is about 1/3 that of freezing pulse assuming that only 1 of my pulses hits a single target. Any Gem you link to ice spear will increase it's damage by about 20-25%. It still falls miles short of FP and I control FP. Also, I cast it once and it keeps freezing stuff for 30 seconds. The extra FP casts more than make up for the loss of damage that a buffed ice spear would put out. Every time you cast cold snap, you are not casting FP (opportunity cost).

I can send my totem in a room ahead of me and the whole room is safe for me to enter 1 second later. That is invaluable.