[2.0] Whispering Ice + CI + High int. Safe and very strong

I was getting stun killed all the time and have been working my way towards Unwavering Stance.
I popped in Arctic Armor out of desperation and am now considering abandoning that path and just loading on more ES. I haven't been stun killed in days. I'm probably going to steal that one guy's cast on stun idea too.

Do any of you think Arctic Armor is enough and save all of those passive points?
I'm going to map a few more days before I decide.

Having a lot of fun with this build, about to transition into CI in a few levels (62 right now). I was using Faster Casting+Spell Echo+Cold Pen.+Added Lightning damage for a while, then I switched out Added Lightning for Controlled Destruction, and it's pretty nice. The 100% reduced crit doesn't affect this build in particular, but the %more spell damage does. No Inc. AoE and Conc. Effect yet, can't sustain the mana.

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bigpfeiffer wrote:

I am running a whispering ice build. I would highly recommend using a cast when stunned--cold snap--ice nova---elemental prolif---inc aoe as a 5 link in ur chest. My gems aren't even lvl 18 yet and if I get stunned even once the whole screen freezes. I haven't died from any white or blue mob since I switched and I've done 82 maps with that. It's an under rated defense for this build.

So with this protection, you don't need to run down to unwavering stance at all? I'm definitely on board for that! Just got to level 37 this morning on Hardcore Talisman and really loving this already.

Just want to mention that with the new support gem Controlled Destruction, this build got a lot more DPS. I switched out Increased AoE for CD and have a pretty sizable damage increase.

Will you update for the new patch ?

This build is even better in 2.2

* Perfect to go with Elemental Overload

I Just picked up Snowforged node + a crit chance cluster (Annilation is in my path already) and using:
Orb of storms + power charge in crit + Curse on hit + Elemental weakness

This setup keeps Elemental Overload up 100% of time which is 40% MORE Elemental damage all the time, it makes my tooltip damage (at level 73) jumps much higher than OP image (level 82), it vanquish maps few levels higher than my character

* The free power charges can be spent to bypass Cold snap cooldown time (For those who use Cast on Stun + cold snap + Elemental proliferation + Increase AOE) giving you better chance to survive in tight situations

* Occulist (for witches WI) is great boost for survivabilty
Flat energy shield, % Energy shield, faster recharge of Energy shield, recharge of Energy shield don't interrupt once it starts, recharge shield by every enemy you kill, immune to stun while shield is full ... What can I say more?

Oh yes, Profane bloom is nice fruit on the top of your damage, like a chaos version of HoI which doesn't need enemies frozen but just cursed (which orb of storm makes sure of)

*I haven't tried Zealot's Oath + Stone Golem + some life regeneration , but it sounds appealing

* If you don't like Elemental Overload mechanism, you can go for "Controlled destruction" + the new "Elemental focus" + "concentrated effect" supp, More and More and MORE damage // At the cost of no frozen enemies though (Chill will stay as it comes from the icy ground not the spell directly)