2.1 LL Whispering Ice! Up to 10,5k ES, 2.2k Int and nearly 17k Avg.Dmg! NEW THREAD UP!

"

lightofeast wrote:

Your gem setup is different from the one in your staff.

You stated cold to fire..

It should be cold penetration yea?

"

shalq wrote:

Hello! First and foremost thank you for writing up this informative and helpful guide.


I haven't bother trying out the Whispering Ice yet, because just as it was introduced its prices were awfully high, and it seemed to me like getting capped resists is nigh impossible in a build basing on unique items in every slot. But as I theorycrafted a bit, I kind of discovered the true potential of this build: the never-ending progression. Basically every small upgrade of gear/gems (both levels and quality) matters a lot, and every passive point provides a significant boost - even past level 90. Plus it's much easier to acquire shavs after all the T1/T2 drop rate buffs, so switching to low life from CI isn't that hard anymore. Same goes for switching from rares to perandus+uniques path.
I won't have enough time to test all the new stuff in upcoming expansion, so I decided to fully commit to a WI character, pumping all the currency into one build :P but I digress...


I was torn between a few ascendancy classes, namely: Guardian (+10% aura effect, low life = many auras = strong buffs but might need to drop VP and take ZO instead), Trickster (LOADS of evasion and ES, loads of cast speed), Elementalist (insanely strong damage boosts for non-crit builds) and Occultist (extremely high ES regen, auto corpse explosion).
I was, until today. The reworked keystone "Liege of the Primordial" in the Elementalist's tree is in my opinion enough to outweigh Occultist's defensive properties (well, unless you really want to focus on defense due to playing on hardcore). Because of that, I'll go for Avatar o Fire for just 1 point and simply use cold to fire instead of spell echo. A high level flame golem and pendulum of destruction will both give tremendous amount of increased damage, especially considering the fact that only WI itself provides high +% spell damage, and there's almost none of +% increased elemental/spell/area damage that we pick on the tree. I have no idea if Snowforged cluster is worth 3 points instead of simply getting more int, but two things are certain: it's much much easier to craft or buy dual element cobalt jewels than pure cold/spell ones, and flame golem > ice golem for any caster build.


Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying Elementalist is the best choice no matter what, but let me share my thoughts about the Occultist subclass choice for WI build:
- Forbidden Power is totally useless.
- If you go for Malediction, you have to use some CoH spell (arc, firestorm) or corrupted asenath's (hard to get in a fresh league). Self casting curses suck, although the combo with whispers of doom for tri-curse and doedre's scorn sounds very interesting.
- Profane Bloom IMHO isn't strong at all if you don't have a lot of +% increased damage/area damage/chaos damage. Automatic corpse explosion is nice (Necromancers won't play with you, though).
- Void beacon is totally useless.
- Wicked Ward and Vile Bastion are both super strong for ES regen, but at the same time their power is limited by many factors (like burning ground from map mod / A1 exploding dogs / A4 miners with lanterns, or many chaos DoTs). Stun protection from Vile Bastion is very unreliable, though...
Generally speaking, I think that Occultist might be better if you want to stay CI and never switch to low life. Chaos immunity -> easier to stay on 100% ES. More ES through passives behind CI and rare vaal regalia -> more ES regen/sec.

"

Zahkriisos1337 wrote:

Cheers, Zahkriisos! :)

"

Bataille wrote:

Thanks for your build, I am planning to respec my lvl 92 templar in Standard to this one. Guardian basically adds a high lvl Discipline (+ armor & physical damage reduction + aura effectiveness + stun immunity on block). To also boost offense I will try to fit in a Vaal Righteous Fire. Haven't done any math but low life with tons of ES, that might be fun.

"

MoldyDwarf wrote:

Thanks for your build guide. I've been enjoying it.

I've been using a spell damage Vinktar's flask with my build and wondered if you've thought of doing so. It provides a really nice damage boost and a lot of leech that's useful in nasty situations.

"

shalq wrote:

"

Zahkriisos1337 wrote:

Cheers, Zahkriisos! :)

Thanks for the answer man.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of solaris lorica at all, I'd rather stick with CI until I get shavs. My reasoning here is that it's kind of pointless to force myself into low life, not having fully leveled auras. Same for lvl 2/3 empower and 2x lvl 2/3 enlighten. Going the "poor man's shavs" path feels... too sub-optimal. :P

I haven't consider picking up frost and fire walkers for extra resistances, might adjust my planned passive tree a little.

And yes! Yet another incredibly strong support gem for non-crit builds. DELICIOUS. Definitely not going to use spell echo and faster casting in favor of it (+ cold to fire). Also I'm almost sure it's not going to affect chilling at all. It states cannot inflict elemental status ailments but the chill from Icestorm comes through the iced ground - totally different things. RIP 10% chance to freeze from Hypothermia, though.
Speaking about upcoming expansion and the new toys that it brings, I'm wondering if there will be some helmet enchantment for Icestorm... Let's hope they didn't forget about us!

Is that secret project associated with ascendancy subclasses? Sounds interesting ;]