[2.0 updated] Shmizz's hardcore perma-freeze guide

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CircAG wrote:

I have a 9% quality FP, do you think that is high enough to use faster casting or should I use faster projectiles?

Really it's all about how the skill feels to use. If you feel like your damage is dropping off way too much and your totems are basically dealing melee damage, you would want to use faster projectiles / get a higher quality gem. If you're fine with the way they feel and your aoe clearing is solid, faster casting will help you more than faster projectiles.

Thank you, Shmizz! You are a great help.

Sorry for all of the questions I'm giving you, I just don't want to waste something when I've already leveled her pretty high (at least high for me).

I was wondering, should I buy a 5l if it's below lvl 55? Or should I make sure it's lvl 55 so I can try to alc it and get +2 cold skills? Or would the 5l be perfectly fine.

Thanks again.

Very nice guide, i am very happy with how i am doing and only with a 5L +2 to cold gems staff.
But in my search for items i need to ask your opinion on a couple of unique items.

First what do you think about Rime Gaze for the cold damage bonus. Tho i guess the slower es recharge would be a big hit.

Maybe also this is good?

But what i wanted to ask most is about 2 unique staffs.

Sire of Shards and Taryn's Shiver. http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sire_of_Shards http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Taryn%27s_Shiver

Tho both loose the bonus level of gems, with Sire of Shards you could maybe then replace Rain of Splinters with a different jewel? Will the effect of firing in a nova work tho?
And with Taryn's Shiver you get everything you need except for a cold gem level, so i guess that would be a pretty good staff?
I know both are expensive with a 6L, but i guess i want something to work for.

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CircAG wrote:

I was wondering, should I buy a 5l if it's below lvl 55? Or should I make sure it's lvl 55 so I can try to alc it and get +2 cold skills? Or would the 5l be perfectly fine.

I would recommend buying a +2 cold staff and trying to 5-link it rather than buying a 5-linked staff and trying to +2 cold it. It is much easier on average to get a 5-link

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Dzumi wrote:

First what do you think about Rime Gaze for the cold damage bonus. Tho i guess the slower es recharge would be a big hit.

Maybe also this is good?

But what i wanted to ask most is about 2 unique staffs.

Sire of Shards and Taryn's Shiver. http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sire_of_Shards http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Taryn%27s_Shiver

Tho both loose the bonus level of gems, with Sire of Shards you could maybe then replace Rain of Splinters with a different jewel? Will the effect of firing in a nova work tho?
And with Taryn's Shiver you get everything you need except for a cold gem level, so i guess that would be a pretty good staff?

Rime gaze is simply not worth it in this build. The cold damage is nice but only 30% for a mediocre helm with no resists.
doryani's belt is nice but this build can't make use of the cold leech and freeze chance is kinda meh in a crit cold damage build. I would prefer a belt with really high life and resists in the end game.
Taryn's shiver can be really nice in the end game if you are in a large group very consistently. the 20% increased damage to enemies that are frozen applies to everyone in your party, however taryn's is ridiculously overpriced and does less damage than a +2 staff while solo. You can pick up a crappy +2 staff for 1 chaos or a good one for 10c and 5-link it and you will be much better off than using taryn's.
Sire of shards is a really interesting one. I won't say it's bad, but it certainly changes your gameplay style. You lose the huge base damage you get from a +2 or +3 staff which will lower your single target dps even when you factor in no longer using rain of splinters, however you also gain a huge amount of aoe potential because you can stick the totem directly in the middle of the pack of mobs and obliterate them in a few casts. Personally if I had an infinite amount of currency I would go for a +3 staff with good rolls every time. I don't think any unique can match up to that, however sire of shards is quite a bit cheaper than a perfect +3 staff so it might be a good stepping stone for you to farm up enough currency to buy a +3 staff. If you have one, certainly use it.

Hey Shmizz,

Just wanted to give you an update on my witch right now. I am in merciless at lvl 59 and started the build at lvl 57 (when I could use my staff).

I bought a 5L staff and used about 12 alts and it gave me +2 cold skills :).

Super happy about that!

Everything is running smoothly, but I do want to share 2 problems that people may have as well.

1) My range is terrible. I want to put faster proj, but I'm too scared to chromatic for 3g,1b,1r. I feel like that would take too long.

2) I hardly ever crit my ball lightning. It is very rough to get it up to the 5 stacks that I have, and even more difficult to keep the 5 stacks up.

Do you have any advice on keeping the crit stacks up?

Thanks man!

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CircAG wrote:

1) My range is terrible. I want to put faster proj, but I'm too scared to chromatic for 3g,1b,1r. I feel like that would take too long.

2) I hardly ever crit my ball lightning. It is very rough to get it up to the 5 stacks that I have, and even more difficult to keep the 5 stacks up.

Do you have any advice on keeping the crit stacks up?

Thanks man!

remember you can always use the vorici chromatic calculator to find the best way to use chromatics to get the colors of your choice. cold spells are a pain in the ass now because you need mostly green gems. I would recommend just picking up every chromatic item and getting as many chromes as you can, there's really nothing else you can do.

I never had a big problem keeping up power charges myself but there are a couple things you can do. Buying better crit gear will obviously help as well as just getting more of it in the tree, level 57 is really low and you usually don't invest heavily in crit until the late game anyway.
You can also swap out to firestorm for your curse on hit setup because it has a higher base crit chance and does a decent job of spreading your curses around too.

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Shmizz wrote:

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CircAG wrote:

1) My range is terrible. I want to put faster proj, but I'm too scared to chromatic for 3g,1b,1r. I feel like that would take too long.

2) I hardly ever crit my ball lightning. It is very rough to get it up to the 5 stacks that I have, and even more difficult to keep the 5 stacks up.

Do you have any advice on keeping the crit stacks up?

Thanks man!

remember you can always use the vorici chromatic calculator to find the best way to use chromatics to get the colors of your choice. cold spells are a pain in the ass now because you need mostly green gems. I would recommend just picking up every chromatic item and getting as many chromes as you can, there's really nothing else you can do.

I never had a big problem keeping up power charges myself but there are a couple things you can do. Buying better crit gear will obviously help as well as just getting more of it in the tree, level 57 is really low and you usually don't invest heavily in crit until the late game anyway.
You can also swap out to firestorm for your curse on hit setup because it has a higher base crit chance and does a decent job of spreading your curses around too.

I literally just did the vorici thing haha. I only have him high enough to do at least 2 green sockets, but i got 3g the first try! Let me tell everyone, that you probably want faster projectiles. It is INSANE how much better this build is. I can finally kill things that I can't even see on my map.

And for the crit, I didn't read that part in depth enough before I posted. Sorry about that! I got some crit on my amulet, but that's about it for now! I don't really need the crit right now tbh. I do plenty of dmg without it!

Thanks for all the help :)

Hello Shmizz,

First of all, thank you very much for the build! Looks really fun, I've always wanted to do a FP build, but never quite got around to doing it, will definitely re-spec into this after leveling as DFT. Couple of questions, though:

1. Do you think this build could go Low Life? 30% more dmg sounds amazing with FP, especially in softcore. Maybe invest a bit more into ES?

2. Would it be worth to go wand + shield? What about Voidbattery? I understand we would lose the 5L curse setup, but I thought maybe the dmg would make up for it.

Thanks again mate!

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An00bisLikesPie wrote:

1. Do you think this build could go Low Life? 30% more dmg sounds amazing with FP, especially in softcore. Maybe invest a bit more into ES?

2. Would it be worth to go wand + shield? What about Voidbattery? I understand we would lose the 5L curse setup, but I thought maybe the dmg would make up for it.

1. With the proper gear yes. If you can afford really high ES gear and a shavs it would be easily manageable. The reason I don't suggest it in the build is that it's a build aimed at newer players or players starting in a fresh league who don't have lots of spare currency. Personally I would suggest spending extra currency on insane jewelry with life, resists, ES, and lots of crit and crit multi. That will probably give you more of a benefit than going low life on a per cost basis.

2. With a wand and shield you lose out on the +2 gems from your staff and gain most likely a large amount of ES. It can be worth it if you feel squishy, but given that you use totems in the build, you're quite tanky when played right and I never felt the need for a shield. If you have the currency for a voidbattery, I think you might as well just go for a +3 cold staff instead because voidbattery won't pull ahead in damage until you are dual wielding them.