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

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shibloble wrote:

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dracolucis wrote:

Just poking my head in here to say thank you for all your work. *hands a virtual ice cream* (not made from the ex-zombie over there, I swear!)

Thanks, although this page is out of date.

Then back to work. Update! UPDATE! *whiplash*

I've been leveling a witch in anarchy based on this guide. She is at level 44 right now. Loving it, pretty awesome concept here.
A few observations, first, ice spear is crazy powerful. I have mine hooked up to LMP and crit damage. Rediculous. Also, frostbite is somewhat overpowered IMO.
Did anyone else find the +30 strength/dex nodes under CI indispensable? I'm barely keeping up with the requirements for LMP/FP/IIQ. Of course, I don't have a lot of ear yet so this may change. At this point though, I'm seriously considering taking the nodes over on the Templar side as well when I get there.

I'm to the point where running discipline as well as clarity is uncomfortable, leaves me with about 100 mana to cast with. This is fine for my FP, as I have it a attached to a mana leech, but it is unsuitable for ice spear spam. Need some more mana from equipment.

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Bada_Bing wrote:

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shibloble wrote:

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dracolucis wrote:

Just poking my head in here to say thank you for all your work. *hands a virtual ice cream* (not made from the ex-zombie over there, I swear!)

Thanks, although this page is out of date.

Then back to work. Update! UPDATE! *whiplash*

I sort of quit playing the game, thinking about coming back to it after my classes are done. Right now, it's too much work to manage this post, school, work and youtube :P

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EriktheRead1 wrote:

I've been leveling a witch in anarchy based on this guide. She is at level 44 right now. Loving it, pretty awesome concept here.
A few observations, first, ice spear is crazy powerful. I have mine hooked up to LMP and crit damage. Rediculous. Also, frostbite is somewhat overpowered IMO.
Did anyone else find the +30 strength/dex nodes under CI indispensable? I'm barely keeping up with the requirements for LMP/FP/IIQ. Of course, I don't have a lot of ear yet so this may change. At this point though, I'm seriously considering taking the nodes over on the Templar side as well when I get there.

I'm to the point where running discipline as well as clarity is uncomfortable, leaves me with about 100 mana to cast with. This is fine for my FP, as I have it a attached to a mana leech, but it is unsuitable for ice spear spam. Need some more mana from equipment.

IS is very strong, its more preference however, I like the speed that FP has that IS doesn't.
Frostbite is very good, until you get later in the game, where damage isn't as important as surviving. "A dead dps is no dps" right?

You will need to take Dex nodes and Str nodes, you will keep them until you get really really good endgame gear.

Try to get an item with 30% or great mana regen. Before I quit I had a subpar wand, but it had 50% mana regen. I could spam anything, without mana leach.



If I come back to PoE, and decide to keep playing a CCW, I will be rerolling.

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EriktheRead1 wrote:

Did anyone else find the +30 strength/dex nodes under CI indispensable? I'm barely keeping up with the requirements for LMP/FP/IIQ.

I've so far tried to stay out of them, based on the expectation that as gear comes, I'll not need them any more. Considering the info above I guess I'll grab one or two +30 nodes =/

While I have to admit that I haven't read all 40+ pages of this thread, I don't recall seeing much info on mob resistances end-game. The hard-hitting magic/cold resistant mobs (like some of the anarchy bandit bosses) are a real pain, because at my current level/gear (30) freeze generally won't work, so I flail about wildly and hope to slowly whittle them down with the odd spear (while thanking the spirits that none of them had any sort of regen / energy shield).

So my question if I may: Is it really viable to build a one-element-only witch for end-game? My first (and, ofc, doomed) attempt at witching saw me filling up all of the main element trees and taking up some wand skills for the physical component. Could anybody shed some light on end-game witching please?

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dracolucis wrote:

So my question if I may: Is it really viable to build a one-element-only witch for end-game?

Not only is it viable, it is recommended. You don't have enough points to split between different elements. Usually you also have only one place for a 5/6L (your chest) to put your main nuke into. The rest is just support.
Mob resistances are capped at 75%. Using a cold penetration gem will bring it down to under 45%. (For further info: http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Penetration).
If you have trouble atm with some mobs: Use spell totem + summon skeletons once you are lvl 31.

Since .11, the passive tree is a bit different. 8% ES nodes are now 6%. Those 5% general spell damage nodes are now 6% (the same as the element-specific nodes).

I'm curious if this has altered anyone's tree plans.

Also, is it worth it to get a lot of cast speed from the passive tree? For 3 points we can get 10%, but is that a good use of points?


-VG-

In another thread here, people are talking about using Grace and getting Iron Reflexes. For a Witch. I always thought IR was too far out of the way to be worth it, but I guess they're trying to run Grace, have IR turn that into armor, then use Body and Soul nodes and pop granite flasks when in trouble.

In addition to having a lot of ES and CI. Is that overkill? I mean, it would be awfully hard to spec into damage/speed/crit chance/Ghost Reaver/Nullification with all of those, right? Seems to me survivability might be high that way, until you actually have to freeze and kill things.

For a cold witch going into Shadow territory (but not Templar yet; not sure if/when that'll happen), would you think IR is important, or a waste of points?


-VG-

Im always confused when people are trying to force tank solution on dps classes... Well imo armor and evasion can be easiely replaced. Instead of "taking hits" just increase your casting speed/ fast projectives and add Ghost Reaver and maybe Mana Leech if u can't spam FP. Of c sacrificing survivability requires a good ES gear (specially after nerf). The only problem i can see is "Oak like" bosses but still... with a little bit of practice totem and quicksilver flask will let you catch a breath.

Im 83 lvl, 4k FP(LMP) and 1k IS(GMP totem) - with +210 IIR and 40 IIQ

My build is here:


Dunno if i can solo +71 maps ive only done alone 70 ones, so far

Thanks shibloble for the guide! I built as a shadow and made something in between two of the passive trees you listed and I like the results a lot. Here's the tree I've taken in Onslaught: I'm 64 in act 2 merci and have pretty good survivability and damage so far.


For skills I planned something on the basis of being in a party support role... laying down tons of Ice Spears with a totem to double up and create a killzone. As it turns out it's pretty viable for soloing too in a lot of situations.

1) Ice Spear + LMP + Mana Leech + Power Charge on Crit
2) Ice Spear + Spell Totem + Faster Casting + Crit Damage
3) Freezing Pulse + LMP + Faster Casting + Item Quantity
4) Frostbite (solo) or Crit Weakness (in party)
5) Temporal Chains
6) Clarity
7) Determination

The main tactic is to cast the totem and stand near it, ideally both of you fire clouds of ice spears in the same direction, locking down and critting the enemy crowds at a distance. Your crits produce Power Charges, your totem has extra crit damage to make use of them. The freezing pulse is mostly for self defence when the bad guys break through, I found it very useful for staying safe and when full of power charges it crunches up lines of mobs nicely.

I've done this build on the cheap, I spent 1 chaos on a wand with 95% cold spell damage and 25% crit mult, I used a 950 body armour from my stash and I spent 3 chaos on a 280 armour 211 es kite shield. Oh and 3 chaos of a geoffi's crest to help with resists, I have ele resists capped and 32% chaos now, it's plenty for this point in the game. Gotta love the mature onslaught economy we have now!