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

I have a quick question, with Ancestral Bond preventing you from dealing any non totem damage, how is Ball Lightning suppose to crit or apply curses? Forgive me if I am missing something ty.

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AnathSkidd wrote:

I have a quick question, with Ancestral Bond preventing you from dealing any non totem damage, how is Ball Lightning suppose to crit or apply curses? Forgive me if I am missing something ty.

you don't need to deal damage in order to proc curse on hit. All that ancestral bond does is prevent the skill from dealing damage, you can still cast it and it can still "hit" enemies dealing zero damage.

Hello,

I am currently levelling a witch with this build and it is very nice. Thank you for your post!
I had the luck of finding an exalt in late normal so I could afford a +2 5l staff and a 20q FP and made the switch at level 44. I freeze everything except end of act bosses.
Here are my two cents:
I would recommend using dual curse as soon as possible (higher priority than PCoC), especialy if you have not built up enough crit yet. Also Rain of splinters ASAP.
I went in the templar beginning area before getting power charges and crit chances.
Instead of using mana flask, for levelling I run HoI+HoT+AA+Clarity lvl 1 or 2 (the elreon rings help) because I was too lazy to manage pots.

Now for the questions. I was fiddling with end game build and I ended up with this

This way you can get rid of all the +3 cast speed which are really underwhelming in my opinion. You lose cast speed and elemental damage but I guess it can be balanced by a good jewel. More importantly, it frees enough points to get Unnatural calm which is slightly better than the scion ES wheel. What do you think?
In order to still do the swap around level 80, you would have to postpone filling damage nodes (I would say the templar one which does not seem so good). Would this compromize too much the DPS or the perma freeze?

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darkpoulp wrote:

This way you can get rid of all the +3 cast speed which are really underwhelming in my opinion. You lose cast speed and elemental damage but I guess it can be balanced by a good jewel. More importantly, it frees enough points to get Unnatural calm which is slightly better than the scion ES wheel. What do you think?
In order to still do the swap around level 80, you would have to postpone filling damage nodes (I would say the templar one which does not seem so good). Would this compromize too much the DPS or the perma freeze?

The reason cast speed nodes are more significant than they appear is each cast speed node affects both of your totems. If you self cast and you get 3% cast speed, you simply get 3% cast speed. If you have two totems casting, you get 200% of the effect from each cast speed node, then reduced by 30%, for a total of 140% effectiveness on every point of cast speed you get. I would consider cast speed nodes to be among the most important on the tree personally. As a side node the 3% cast speed nodes at the witch start lead to extremely efficient 12 and 15% spell damage nodes, so going point by point you should also factor that in.

Overall, given enough gear / gem levels, if you are comfortable with your clear speed and freezing abilities, you can definitely opt for more ES and sacrifice some dps. It's a totally reasonable thing to do. When I did the build personally my goal was to make it cheap and cost effective and with that being so, you don't get much damage on gear as it all has to go towards survivability to make it hardcore viable and I personally felt the damage nodes were much more needed for my own character.

I wouldn't recommend dropping the templar damage wheel entirely, but delaying it is a definite option. The more elemental penetration you get, the less effect it has until mobs reach zero resistance at which point it starts scaling linearly. This means that if you have the gem sockets to run the cold pen gem and you have the cold pen in the witch tree, the templar penetration becomes significantly less important.

What items do you use to apple more than +2 curses

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Vilvander wrote:

What items do you use to apple more than +2 curses

You can use 1 or 2 doedre's unique rings to get +1 curse each.
you can spec into the curse nodes near the top of the skill tree for 5 extra points but you do get a bunch of curse effectiveness.
you can corrupt +1 curse on any amulet with a vaal orb.
You can also use the windscream unique boots if you can forfeit some energy shield.

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Shmizz wrote:

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Vilvander wrote:

What items do you use to apple more than +2 curses

You can use 1 or 2 doedre's unique rings to get +1 curse each.
you can spec into the curse nodes near the top of the skill tree for 5 extra points but you do get a bunch of curse effectiveness.
you can corrupt +1 curse on any amulet with a vaal orb.
You can also use the windscream unique boots if you can forfeit some energy shield.

Okey thanks, also how you gain enough Dex to level those green cold gems. I got 30dex node and some dex items and they still cant go better than lvl 12-14

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Vilvander wrote:

Okey thanks, also how you gain enough Dex to level those green cold gems. I got 30dex node and some dex items and they still cant go better than lvl 12-14

rings, amulets, and gloves are all good sources of dex

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Vilvander/characters

Could you check my Icedoge character. I got new chest waiting for me and gonna replace my second ring. What should I go for next for more dps?

EDIT: got new chest right ring and amu.

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Vilvander wrote:

Could you check my Icedoge character. I got new chest waiting for me and gonna replace my second ring. What should I go for next for more dps?

EDIT: got new chest right ring and amu.

your account tab is set to private, i can't view it. your best bet for more damage is to get a better weapon. 5-link +2, 6-link, 6-link +3, etc. other than the weapon the best places for damage are on rings and amulets for crit and crit multi