[2.2] Ice Crash: Size does Matter (including leveling guide video)

All Ice Crash characteristics mentioned above look promising.
Even though you might think you suck at clicking melee skills, you will find out for sure once you tried lockstep. Advantages of a non targetted skill remain. Shift button (force stand still) FTW, not only for icecrash, but also for leapslam, that this build frequently uses.

The first thing I worked on was, how big of an Ice Crash can I make and how big of an Ice Crash do i want to use. AoE is a good investment, since it also works on the Herald of Ash burning effect. Watch for the red bloom’s in some massive shrine video’s and you’ll see they are able to reach beyond all borders of a 1,9k-1k resolution screen. Besides Ice Crash and Herald of Ash there’s aura radius, curse radius, Enduring cry radius, Leapslam and Vengeance damage radius.
Making a big Ice Crash was all good fun. Stopped trying around 140%, and could only increase if I’d nerf myself with pillar unique staff or other gizmo’s. Since 2.2 you can push even further with the ascendancy Slayer and the new helm enchants. In the end I settled on roughly 80% increased area of effect on Ice Crash. It’s well beyond in the range where some close shooters stop moving and start to take pot shots at ya; so you can slam away at the target’s at hand, and don’t have to worry about the snakes creeping up to you. Another cardinal distance benchmark for me is the distance totem aura’s have. Once you engage a pack of monsters, and you do not want to fully commit by leaping into the pack with a crit buff, you'll need Range. Anough range to engage and stun the pack and clear that totem in the background simultaneously. You will need range to safely kill nemesis volatile rares. And that’s kinda the reason I’ve settled on 80%. Besides the range of totem and monster aura’s, there was another big motivation; it provides for a lot of freedom for positioning. Mainly generating forgiveness, quality of life, and safety.

80% would mean I would have to take the templar AoE nodes and wouldn’t be running concentrated effect by default. I would carry one with me for some boss fights, Master Vagan, maps with small hallways. Think and you’ll come up with more uses for the gem swap.

Another awesome introduction was Lockstep. Byebye desync. Second kickass bonus for this build would be stunning. Stuns could create armies of desynced monsters in predictive mode.

Converted damage into cold will help with chills, and thus longer stun duration. And there we have the weapon of choice cut out and brought to me on a platter; a two handed mace. Icing on the Ice Crash mace would be a Coronal Maul with 6% increased area of effect implicit mod.

The way to move forward from here is ofcourse Leapslam. Lockstep, AoE, Stuns, yeah can’t miss that one now.

For defense we turn to the classic marauder stuff; endurance charges and armor. Cast When Damage Taken – Enduring cry is no longer working since Enduring cry is a type “warcry” now and not a spell. Manual cast enduring cry it is then, and since we’re stunning…. Endurance charge on melee stun. Survival is our business, we don’t want to let the charges run out, and Immortal Call got nerfed and got kinda boring anyway. Curses that synchronise well with stunning are: Temporal Chains and warlord's mark. For armor we have to see if we can do without Determinaton & Grace.

That leaves another introduced survival mechanic: The fortify buff. Reduced damage taken, not just physical, its prismatic. Everything. Duration is short, so the trick is to keep it up somehow.

All of the above will consume most the the gems slots available, so the only thing to fix is mana management. The mother of all puzzles. We are not witches, No Parfumy blue potions for our Marauder, only man’s drink. Fortunately Patch 2.2 did wonders. Ice crash mana has been reduced, players mana has been increased at each level gain and it brought a new dual leech node near the duelist, not just for physical damage, but for all attack damage that solves it all.

cba to level up gems in the second weapon slot, so I'm dragging a heavystrike boss stunner
along for when I don't have time to swap stun/conc effect into ice crash setup.


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Character has been fine tuned, and running T10-12 maps mostly solo.
Im rerolling cannot be stunned and elemental reflect mods.
Preferring not to run curse immune maps.

Now that the character is sorta finished, doing unique maps like Oba's cursed trove for fun.


Link to Tree level 90

Act 2 Bandits quests:
Normal: Help Oak or kill all.
Cruel: Help Kraityn or kill all.
Merciless: Help Oak or Help Kraityn or kill all.

Ripped on Piety the abomination (Nightmare Manifest), map lvl 76.
Couldn't stun lock the boss, did it the old fashioned way, leapslamming like rope jumping over the beam. went fine untill boss 50%, had some lag, and found my corpse in 2 whirlwind puddles. Tough luck, but was cool to finish the character, had lots of fun.





5x 5-Linked pieces of gear with 6 sockets, too bad I didn't get a 6L.
Still working on carcass and trying to vaal corrupt gloves into temporal chains on hit.
The weapon was an awesome alteration orb; 164% ED Tyran + 26%speed. Going to 2x Yolo exalt it and hope for stun or other decent mods. 5 linked a carcass but decided to go for an astral for more armor and life. It's HC afterall. Sold it, yolo exalted the coronal maul, respecced into scion life wheel to try it. but respecced back because I missed the dps (25k tooltip in hideout)

Link to Tree

DUELIST.
Respecced my cycloner into Ice Crash, to test some stunning on bosses. Wanted to see the effect of the changed made to chill (in combination with temporal chains & stun) mechanics.

Link to warbands Tree 94

Leveling GUIDE Video Playlist: Normal-Cruel-Merciless-Maps HC

2.0 Testing Stun on New bosses- playlist will eventually transform into a general stun guide

2.0 Tempest league lvl 84

2.0 Tempest league lvl 74

Beta Play List

Leveling GUIDE Video's: Normal-Cruel-Merciless-Maps HC

Different playstyle for unwavering maps

Stunning End game bosses: Dominus one of the hardest to stun. Vid was about him bugging out though, but it show's how effective it can be to have a stun gem at hand.

Stun Guide

Map Pool Guide

Approaching the limits: 141% Increase AoE

Reflect: Phys & Elemental & Thornflesh

Atziri

I've made a couple long video's about leveling up your Ice Crash marauder.
Leveling GUIDE Video's: Normal-Cruel-Merciless-Maps HC

These contain not only a manual for Ice Crash, but also goes in depth about leveling in general (weapons, armor and flasks).

A few notes:
- Keep a look out for these uniques:
* Asenath gloves (trying to corrupt a rare for the temporal chains mod is very expensive. A level 1 temporal chains gem gives alot of slow, way more then pre 2.0.)
* Blood dance boots: Even though this build runs bloodrage, the boots give
**** Changed from 1 % to 0.5% each frenzy charge *****.
**** Bloodrage change: it has less attackspeed and 25% chance to gain a frenzy charge instead of 100%****

Be versatile:
- When things don't go your way, or you have trouble with the new boss fights:
* Level Fire gems in your weapon swap, and save a +x level fire sceptre and a shield (or double sceptre). Fire gems: Flame totem, Fire trap (A1 normal vendor), searing bond. Pick those up when available from vendor (forgot if searing bond was available in A3, might be good to keep it in mind for when flame totem gets nerfed at launch).

While leveling my 4th Ice Crash marauder I used a flame totem to devastating effects, even while having no fire damage skill nodes. If it stays the way it is, might be best (safest) way to level up, until the fun starts with a geofri's and ice crash gem around level 28.

The new totem Ancestral Protector has taken the good old flame totem role, to safely
kill nasty bosses with your first character.

In [2.2] the mana problems are gone.
-Players get more mana from leveling up
-Ice Crash mana cost has been reduced
-Duelist tree area now contains manaleech with attacks
(leeching from all damage and not leeching from only physical damage)


1-Ice Crash
2- Increase Area of effect <=Swap=> Concentrated effect <=Swap=> Physical to lightning
Conc for bosses, Master quests, Maps with small hallways, etc etc.
The physical to lightning gem is to do zero physical damge for physical reflect maps
3- Faster attacks <=Swap=> Hypothermia
Quality Hypotherm is a rare source for increased chill duration. With 30% increased duration, it's much easier to chill the strongest bosses in the game. It will act like you are doing 30% more damage. Chilled bosses will be stunned longer. The physical to lightning gem is to do zero physical damge for physical reflect maps
4- Melee physical damage
5- Weapon Elemental damage
6- Added fire damage <=Swap=> Lifeleech <=Swap=> Fortify <=Swap=> Stun
Swap with Lifeleech for reflect maps, Fortify for when the monsters cannot be stunned (check play style in video Zana unwavering), you might not want to leapslam into unwavering mobs because of the obvious danger. Or for solo Haku missions where you cannot utilize leapslam, else you'd drop the spirit, so you swap in fortify. I've now accumulated 72% reduced enemy stun treshold. So if I socket a stun gem in here, it's the perfect safe boss killer. Stunlocked Dominus in Palace with it. pretty good stuff.

No setup is set in stone, be versatile.

Vagan level 8 Mod:

"

Taotao11 wrote:

The owner came up with an original option for leapslam too.
Thx for sharing Tao



1-Leapslam
2- Faster Attacks
3- Fortify
4- Endurance charge on stun


Alternative:
- Curse on Hit
- Warlord's Mark
- Temporal Chains
This really depends on the number of links available to you. If you have cursing gloves, then 6L is ideal so you can curseonhit-warlord's mark You'd drop endurance charge on stun first. Otherwise you might have to swap fortify back to Ice Crash.

1-enduring cry

1-Hatred
2-Blood rage

4- Increased duration
I do not turn on blood rage in Haku missions. All the regen is needed when running the gauntlet.


1-Warlord's Mark
2- CWDT
3-Herald of Ash
4-Increased burning damage

#Note: prefered curse is temporal chains on hit. If you do run a CWDT setup, linking it to Molten Shell is a nice buff to your defense. Do be aware of the danger involved: You do not control when your molten shell goes off.

Vengeance
- Endurance charge on stun
- Melee Phys
- Lifeleech

Chaos Gollem Flame Gollem Stone Gollem
- Life Leech
- Minion Life <=> Melee Phys dmg
- Fortify

1 2-4L Combo Vegeance and Gollem*
3-Life Leech
4- Melee phys dmg

#Note
Chaos gollem lvl 20 gives 4% reduction.
CHaos gollem lvl 22 gives 5% reduction.
That's a nice bonus, the gollem still does not do any significant damage on level 22 though, even with melee phys gem and hatred aura.
It does draw some agro, and dies like a fly to anything nasty.
(without fortify & minion life that is)
However, with some manual Enduring Cry casting (taunt), besides stunning the screen, he can live through alot without any investments. However the question remains if the 155 Int (lvl 20) investment is worth the max level. Might be better off with a lower level version, and use skill nodes for other stuff. So if you can get the int from gear, go for chaos.

other option could be
1 Bloodrage
2 3 Vaal Grace/Haste
4-Increased Duration

Latest change to bloodrage: 100% chance to gain frenzy down to 25%.


Another great option for boss slaying is using a second weapon with heavystrike. The benefits come at a financial cost: you cannot levelup spare gems. So think twice before selling your old weapons when you upgrade; it might be a perfect heavystrike weapon. This is especially true when you do not use ice crash with a blue gem swap: AoE <=> Conc effect.
P2W: Use cometics to make your weapons look different, so you get a visual confirmation about the weapon you're currently using.

I'm not particular fan of Arctic breath when you have 6L's.However it works great when you only have 5L's. This setup puts alot of pressure on your gollem/vengeance setup since it takes a compleet 4L for best efficiency.
CWDT-Arctic breath-GMP can create alot of frozen ground. This ground effect can be prolonged with increased duration and will chill monsters. A great defensive option that will also trigger temporal chains on hit. Although you won't get hit much when you stunlock the screen, it might save you from hazardous moments; like getting jumped by an unwavering pack on champions (unwavering= cannot be stunned).

If you want to see it in action; check the leveling guide, it's featured in the last minutes of the "maps" video.

*** Added august 2015: Since the bloodlines mod thron flesh (scary double reflect) from the Beta did not get implement in the awakening launch; molten shell is unlikely to RIP you.
Molten Shell
- Life Leech
- cwdt
This can be a nice defensive option if you have the room for it. For leveling surely nice, if you got a 4L can add warlordsmark.

Dual cursing is nice, but if you only use 1 I'd suggest
leveling up with warlord's mark, and changing to temportal chains later on.

Curses that synchronise well with Stun are:
-Temporal Chains
-Warlords Mark

Apply Temporal chains with Asentath uniqe gloves / corrupted gloves.
Apply Warlord's mark with either curse on hit or blasphemy





In comparison to current live stats (pre 2.0), the difference between lvl 1 and 10-12 Temporal chains is not that big.
However, the difference between asenath and a corrupted rare can be huge.

*******************************
Found another source for more reduced enemy stun treshold:
Warbands league item: ranged 5-10%


To determine how much stun duration / reduced treshold you need, consider this:

When you leapslam into a pack, you want them to be stunned so you can hit them again before they wake up. The whole first strike - first stun - first kill philosophy.

However, if you increase the stun duration even further you might be able to use another skill before the monsters wake up.
The skill rotation would be: 1) leapslam 2) Rallying cry-Enduring cry 3) Ice Crash

Latest patch changes:

"

GGG_Neon wrote:

Version 2.0.2
Temporal Chains' slowing effect now applies multiplicatively with Chill's slowing effect. This will result in less of an impact when both are used on the same target.

2.0.2 Patch Notes

I usually carry 2 life flasks. One instant recovery (shock or bleed) and one fast recovery of staunching (bleed)

For reflect you need:
- Sapphire flask
prefer "of Heat": cannot be chilled and frozen. Monster cold dmg got an indirect buff. Because of the shotgun removal and consequent reballancing, the cold dmg has increased dramaticly, and thus you get way more chilled and frozen then when playing pre 2.0. Since we got lockstep, unwavering stance, this option will make sure everything will run smooth, no hickups or slowing down. Other option would be the unique Taste of Hate flask.
- Granite flask

that leave the last slot for a curse immune flask. Best charge/duration for that is a quicksilver flask.

- Aquamarine
Creates chilled ground, ideal to keep bosses chilled while stunlocking them.

If you going for the chaos combo: Jewel & Atziri's Promoise you'll have to swap out the quicksilver, and then move the anti curse to the saphire flask. Of warding on a life flask is Always less desired. In the case of Taste of Hate you'd be forced to move the anti curse onto the fast recovery flask, and then the instant flask has to be anti bleed.




Nerf to MI jewel, from 8 to 4 seconds. Will need uber clear speed to keep that up consistently. (only discovered the nerf on 29th of June)

*Note: In the spoilers I mention Ice Crash v1.0 and v1.1. With v1.1 I mean the version that got nerfed for the first time on the 5th of june. Base damage was reduced on first, second and third ring. I've Noticed on end game (lvl 77+ maps) I needed unwavering stance. and respecced accordingly coinciding the v1.1 changes (respec cost me roughly 50% increased physical damage). So my damage did not go down because of the patch alone. Currenly leveling up another Ice Crash build that I call v1.2 after the lifeleech changes patched late June.

Physical Reflect: Is not much of a problem. Only 15% of your damage constitues out of physical damage. With endurance charges, chaos gollem, granite it won't hurt. However if you run a physical reflect map, you might want to swap some gems around for easy mode. The physical to lightning gem converts the last 50% of your dmg so you actually do no physical damage. If you want to be able to leech abit of mana, then there's Hrimsorrow gloves.

Elemental Reflect: Now here's trouble. You do alot of elemental damage. Especially in big parties you will not be able to take the spike damage. Sapphire flask & Purity of Ice all well and good, but why run the risk. You can either nerf your own damage or swap some gems around and go full phys with leapslam. If you have time to prepare, swapping Ice Crash for Groundslam is a good solution too. Best is to just reroll the map.

This Mod from the BETA has not been introduced (......yet!)
Bloodlines mod: Thornflesh. If you are on autopilot, cruising through maps and fall asleep behind the steering wheel, you will die. The packs can be huge, and you cannot take the spike damage. Especially in big parties. Every non vaal pact build has this problem. I do not wish to give up on the life regeneration, so the solution is simple: Do not engage the full pack. Since your leapslam doesn't do much damage, use that to kill and split the pack. Switch to Ice Crash only when you feel very save.
#Note: Vaal pact has been moved. It's no longer within reach of this build. No problem, it never was mandatory.

I've put a video up in the video spoiler where you can see some testing. There's a couple more video's about reflect in the beta play list.
#Note: During the beta rares would have a combined reflect mod. Both elemental and physical. At the time of writing these mods are split up again.

So I've leveled up another marauder, taken these life leech rate nodes and the +4% max life leech rate.

You can reach the cap of life gained / second (20% and with skill nodes 25%-30% or whatever the final changes will be, of maximum life per second) rather quickly. And leech rate does nothing if you are leeching at the maximum leech rate already. I had wrongly assumed they did. So the life leech rate nodes aren't good at all when you reach that capping point. You reach that cap quickly even with Ice crash where only a small part (20% orso) of your damage is physical.

And it get's even worse. When you stop hitting (example: because of movement to avoid a boss attack) the life that you leeched with faster leech rate will stop ticking sooner, and thus making you heal less because the life recover duration is shorter.

Life leech rate points might be a thing when you finish your build, and run the numbers with your dmg & attack speed versus how fast you reach the cap with 1 target (a boss) in front of you. increasing the cap life leech rate with 4% is good, but probably only worth it when you've reached end game.

So for leveling, life gain on hit is king, perhaps combined with a little bit of lifeleech.

*More changes have be done to the skill tree, life leech rate has been transformed into increased life leech per second. This removed a draw back of having increased life leech rate.

Twin Vaal is easy, like always.

Trio is dangerous, but can do it either way, as long as you kill the machine gun demon first. Note: the end of the fight is bugged, there's always 1 remaining puddle spawning adds.

During the atziri fight I didn't want to spend my pots to remove curses. So i swapped the temporal chains gloves for elemental weakness. A "free" curse , because I overclock my resists.

During Quad atziri phase I tried to stunlock the flameblaster and burst that target down while popping a topaz flask. Or stunlock the lightning mini boss and pop a ruby flask.
Multi Atziri can be chilled and stunned, so I left the Hypothermia gem in the setup.

Still needed more practice to get skill rotation right. Removal of concentrated effect gem during adds phase seems efficient, but probably not needed. During adds phase it's vital you recharge blood rage & endurance charges and pickup the fight starting with a leapslam for the fortify buff. Can also linkup icecrash with fortify, but I tried to keep the burst dps as high as possible.

Was unsure of the amount of damage this character could take with the fortify buff. Seems with fortify and a ruby flask you can easily take a mini flameblast.