Herald of Ice

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sidtherat wrote:

all i talk below is the 'explosion' stuff. 'added cold' part is straightforward enough

One note - Herald of Ice effectiveness depends on initial hit damage (well, sort of). As it needs to have enough 'freezing' component (cold or lightning with 3Dragons) to freeze and shatter. Without it explosions simply dont happen and entire scheme is useless..


Herald of Ice has 20% effectiveness. and it hits once. thus i do not think that 'added chaos/lightning' typo of gems makes much sense. what makes sense is stuff that augments built in damage

Cold To Fire. It double dips on: spell damage, elemental damage, area damage and cold damage. and it has no mana multiplier! most effective on end game chars due to double dip being the more effective the more passives are taken. Someone using Doryiani Calayst mace will get 110% inc cold damage, and then 50% of that already increased cold will get converted to fire and inreased by 110% fire again.. this stuff is seriously powerful when planned for. just like any conversion in elemental build.

Cold penetration. 33% reduced mob resistance might mean up to 50% more damage. Never a bad choice - sadly it costs mana.

Blind/chance to flee/Stun (with working - finally - stun threshold reduction for spells!). Utility stuff, no mana multiplier. Blind seems the strongest.

Increased AOE/Conc Effect - matter of choice. HoI damage is low so making it 50% higher might be tempting. On the other hand for a build with already significant +AOE% like mine higher AOE means really big coverage. Matter of taste. Sadly both supports are rather expensive

if I were to pick my favorite?

Herald of Ice + RedMana + Cold To Fire. 3Link. simple, effective, cheap. perfect for spellcasters as their 'supplementing' aura.

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Arthikas wrote:

IMHO, any blind, flee, or stun supports to HoI are counter-intuitive: I want mobs dead quickly if possible, not crowd-controlled and still waiting to be dispatched. HoI is mainly a dmg skill, not as much CC, and in most cases (as a caster) it should be supported as such. Maybe in some party scenarios, idk.

YMMV, batteries not included, etc...

So for me, it's Cold Pen, Conc Eff, or Cold to Fire. Still need to test the first 2.

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Allnamestaken wrote:

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Arthikas wrote:

IMHO, any blind, flee, or stun supports to HoI are counter-intuitive: I want mobs dead quickly if possible, not crowd-controlled and still waiting to be dispatched. HoI is mainly a dmg skill, not as much CC, and in most cases (as a caster) it should be supported as such. Maybe in some party scenarios, idk.

YMMV, batteries not included, etc...

So for me, it's Cold Pen, Conc Eff, or Cold to Fire. Still need to test the first 2.

I would suggest fire penetration, since with Cold to Fire you are dealing slightly more fire damage than cold.

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UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

I think if you shatter a mob you can't explode it.