[2.2] A Storm of Ice and Fire - Avatar of Fire CI Whispering Ice - Uber Viable!

So - how much damage does CTF and Avatar of Fire add to this build? Here's a comparison.



This is my icestorm as it is normally right now.

Now, let's de-allocate Avatar of Fire and swap Cold to Fire for Controlled Destruction (43% more spell damage, we have to compare to an ideal use of the freed socket, after all)



Well, that's.... lower. So Cold to Fire is providing a larger damage boost than controlled destruction, a 43% more damage modifier! Costs more mana, too.

Granted, if you were going for a non avatar of fire build you'd have different passives allocated and different jewels, but the point stands. CtF is a huge damage boost, and anyone claiming it doesn't provide additional damage on the same order of magnitude as a More multiplier is mistaken.

And just imagine if we were to compare it to our weakest support gem, rather than our strongest....

Will you be updating this build for 2.2?

The exact effect of CtF+AoF is not hard to calculate if you are not lazy. Here:

My stats with the current gear (no Golem):

Int = 1593
Icestorm avg hit = 6216.11
Crit chance = 5%
Crit multiplier = 150%

Modifiers from the tree (my tree):
Scion start: 8+6+6+6 = 26% inc spell dmg
Trickery: 20% inc ele dmg
Coldhearted Calculation: 12% inc spell dmg
Snowforged: 25+25+10+8+8 = 76% inc fire/cold dmg
Blast Radius: 20+10 = 30% inc area dmg
Occultist's Dominion/Frost/Fire Walker: 16+8+18+18 = 60% inc spell/ele/fire/cold dmg
Retribution: 14% inc spell dmg
Amplify: 20% inc area dmg
Light of Divinity: 15% inc spell dmg
Elementalist: 10% inc ele dmg

Modifiers from jewels:
Rare #1: 15+15 = 30% inc spell/fire dmg
Rare #2: 14% inc spell dmg
Izaro's: 23+23 = 46% inc fire/cold dmg

Modifier from WI:
1% inc spell dmg per 10 Int, i.e. 159% inc spell dmg with 1593 Int

Modifiers from the gems:
Cold to Fire 20q: 10+10 = 20% inc fire/cold dmg
Controlled Destruction 22/20: 10% inc and 46% MORE spell dmg
Spell Echo 21/20: 10% inc and 10% LESS spell dmg
Concentrated Effect 22/20: 10% inc and 61% MORE area dmg
Fire Penetration 22/20: 10% inc fire dmg

Total increased damage (applies additively):
26+20+12+76+30+60+14+20+15+10+30+14+46+159+20+10+10+10+10 = 592%, or 1 + 5.92 = 6.92 multiplier

Total MORE damage (applies multiplicatively):
1.46 * 0.90 * 1.61 = 2.12 multiplier

Crit chance * multiplier gives me another modifier: 1 + 0.05 * 1.50 = 1.075

Icestorm deals 1-3 cold dmg (i.e. avg 2) per 10 Int. So the base avg hit with 1593 Int is:

159 * 2 = 318

So without the mystery effect of CtF/AoF my avg Icestorm hit would be:

318 * 6.92 * 2.12 * 1.075 = 5015.08

And in reality it is 6216.11

Meaning that CtF/AoF gives me 6216.11 / 5015.08 = 1.24 multiplier, or 24% MORE damage!

Wow! Even more than I thought. Not sure where the extra damage is coming from (feel free to double check and see if I missed something). But CtF+AoF is definitely a big deal.

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Kelvynn wrote:

Wow! Even more than I thought. Not sure where the extra damage is coming from (feel free to double check and see if I missed something). But CtF+AoF is definitely a big deal.

Is there a way to utilize Elemental Overload passive effectively in the build?

That would be another 40% more dmg..

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nel0angel0 wrote:

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Kelvynn wrote:

Wow! Even more than I thought. Not sure where the extra damage is coming from (feel free to double check and see if I missed something). But CtF+AoF is definitely a big deal.

Is there a way to utilize Elemental Overload passive effectively in the build?

That would be another 40% more dmg..

I may very well be wrong, as I'm only just getting started with this build. But it seems like an obvious pickup to me, without any real investement needed. I have 6.5% crit chance on my Ice Storm and with the large number of hits, one crit every 8 seconds seems trivial to get.


Unrelated note, @Kelvynn, I was curious about Flame Golem. I usually see Chaos Golem being the go-to to be able to soak more damage. Is that extra damage mitigation unneccesary or do you just prefer more damage?

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Kelvynn wrote:

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deadbyt3 wrote:

How hard is it to farm The incantation in cruel until you get a WI? If it's possible what skills would you play with to grind the WI? Firestorm?

In Cruel? I imagine the drop rate is absolutely horrible. You'd be much better off getting to Merciless and trying it there. Dunno how hard it is to find (I have 2/4 from doing Springs probably more than 100 times since 2.0; never looked for it though), but I'm sure that Cruel is a bad idea.

Any AE skill you are comfortable with will do. Act 2 mobs are pushovers.

Yeah, I looked up some threads on reddit where people tried to farm the card. Took them days without result... So probably not worth going WI as first char as you said. Gonna go with an EQ marauder and just farm the staff as fast as possible. Thanks for your contributions to the guide, really really looking forward to trying WI again but this time as scion instead of witch. Elezerker is going to be super awesome!

Never thought about playing the same build league after league, but this time its a really
hard decision not to play this build again. The damage buff will be insane again, I think.

Using a damage support gem instead of life leech gem (thx to berserker), getting 10% more damage from berserker, 30% from elementalist and 40% from the new note is unbelivable.
The defence allready was one of the best in game, and now the damage will get a lot more, too.

If that works out like we all think, there could be a nerf coming in 3 months :-(

No icestorm enchantments in the new patch... Seems they forgot all about this skill? Sucks considering how massively good some of the other skill enchantments are. :/

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deadbyt3 wrote:

No icestorm enchantments in the new patch... Seems they forgot all about this skill? Sucks considering how massively good some of the other skill enchantments are. :/

We just don't need a damage enchantment on head. The one on boots will be more than enough, if you consider the huge boosts we're already getting with Ascendancy.

I'd probably go for the Arctic Armour head enchantment; it is awesome and partially counters the increased damage we are going to take when choosing the Berserker sub-ascendancy.

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Skarwind wrote:

Will you be updating this build for 2.2?

Yes, there will be a 2.2 update the day of launch with the important changes, followed some time later with updated videos - new uber video, new map clear video, and (hopefully) a twinned Core clear. If any of the ascendancy content is crazy hard, I'll show that too.

Elemental Overload is not as effective for this build as we hope, I think. Icestorm seems to determine crit per cast, so we do not actually get many chances to crit. Do not expect to achieve constant uptime on the butt - however, it will still be completely worthwhile as a 1 point investment if you are not running controlled destruction.