[3.0] [HC] Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build [VIDEO]

No real changes for 2.2. Take Inquisitor and you're good to go.

Hello Eustacio !

I am more than happy that you updated your build for the 2.2 ascendancy patch ! I must say that I played your build in the 2.1 patch, and this was extremely fun ! I think people underestimate the power of chilling and freezing particularly with totems. Or they have toaters computers , cause this build can be somewhat laggy. Or they dont like the small numbers in the tooltip DPS of this build. Or they prefer playing the flavor of the week build. They simply don't realize how such a build can be efficient, and particularly fun to chill and freeze everywhere. I really love your build. Just one thing, being not in love with the soul mantle, cause I hate being cursed like hell, i chose another body armor, and no longer need autoflagellation jewel. No need about your special rings as well, so it's easier to cap resists with regular rings. Then I don't need to run purity of fire and and I can then run an additional dps aura in order to compensate the dps boost given by the autoflagellation mechanic . But, it's actually only a matter of preference.

Having said that, I would like to talk with you about the ascendancy, I don't understand your choice. You mentionned the ''templar inquisitor'' choice, any nodes except instrument of virtue. I took a look at it, and I can't explain myself at all what brought you to this choice. Please help me to understand. 'cause, what I see is the following :

The Rightous providence node :
"100% crit chance against ennmies that are affected by no Elemental Status aliment." This is totally useless as we are chilling and freezing everywhere , and by the way, this build is non-crit and you use controlled destruction gem that reduces crit chances.
''45% crit. multiplier against ennemies affected by elemental status aliments'' That would be normally good, but almost useless in this build for the same reason as mentionned previously, this build is non-crit.

The Inevitable judgement node:
''Crit strike ignores ennemy resistance'' useless , this build being non-crit
''Non critical strikes penetrates 10% of ennemy elemental resistance'' This thing is good.

Augury of penitence node : that's ok
Sanctify and pious faith nodes : well maybe that's me who does not understand all the game mechanics, but i don't see how consecated ground can be really an important advantage in this build.

Finally, I don't see actually anything in the templar that would really impress me.



In other hand, i found somehing that could deserve the time to analyze.
For example, if you start SCION, and you take the spec DEADEYE, almost everything apply and is good for your build !

DEADEYE :
50% projectile piercing
20% projectile speed
Projectiles gain damage as they travel further, up to 30% (and we know that artic breath are projectiles that travel very very far !)
also FIRE AN ADDITIONAL PROJECTILE !!!!!!!!!!!

you may combine for example the DEADEYE sub-specialization with for example the witch ELEMENTALIST that seems not bad at all (30% increased damage of each damage type for which you have a matching golem !!!)


OR, if you wanna boost really your DPS, you may wanna start WITCH ascendancy ELEMENTALIST, and look at the nice following numbers. That adds also some increased effects on freeze and chilling aspect of your build(cherry on the cake !)

In taking pendulum of destruction, shaper of desolation and liege of the primordial you get all those numbers :

30% elemental damages from the small nodes
3% chance of freeze from small node
40% increased damage of each damage type for which you have a matching golem (so, you dont put this guy only on a CWDT ! lol)
4% cast speed from small node
15% increasde duration of elemental status aliments (so, our chill and freeze effects !)
Every 10 seconds, 100% increase damage for 4 seconds (so that means a 40% increase average damage!)
20% chance of conflux for each kills (that means you chills and freezes everything during 4 seconds)

So, the elementalist witch, for me, it's really a BIG WOW!



Being not a theorycrafter, I don't know at all what would be the best thing between a scion deadeye-elementalist, or scion deadeye-something else. or a pure elementalist witch. A thing is sure, I don't understand the choice to start as a templar whatever is the ascendancy chosen in the templar, for an artic breah tri-totem build. Let me know your thoughts please.

Other than that, a huge GRATZ for your build, that isn't obviously the flavor of the week. But, we don't care really about that, lol, your build is so efficient and funnnnnnn to play !!!


Thank you

Hey there,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Work has been crazy and that's usually my forum time. :)

Glad you like the build and it worked out for you in 2.1! Ascendancy didn't bring a ton to the build I'm afraid. Here are my thought processes on the matter. This got long, so I broke them up into Scion, Elementalist, and Inquisitor.

Thank you Eustacio for your reply.

After having read your analyze of the situation, I am afraid to come at the same conclusion as you. This 2.2 patch doesn't bring anything awesome for cold damage totems players.


I made some preliminary checks with the scion. You're right I was wrong about the deadeye. We don't want pierce for this build. Finally, even if there was something really good with the ascendant, we lose so many nodes with a scion start that it becomes non interesting even if it can be viable with something else than deadeye.

About the elementalist. I hadn't realize that the conflux would apply only on ''you'', and not on totems. So, about the remaining big nodes, there is not many things to take.

Templar inquisitor. It's so so. I may be wrong, but in my opinion, your path inevitable judgement and righteous providence is a HUGE 4 points sacrifice only to get a 10% elemental penetration. All the other stuffs about critical damages in this path, are all useless as the build is non-crit. So, we don't have many choices. The pious path and augury of penitence. That's just ok, but not really awesome.

And the Hierophant tempar with the nodes that adds 2 totems at the huge penalties cost (10% per totem placed on the ground), is actually a big trap, or in other words, a big crap.

I am really deceived that GGG planned nice things for fire totems and physical totems, but nothing for all other (cold, lightning) totems....

Last thing, the link of your skill tree is no longer working 'cause it was linked to the old 2.1 patch, it would need to be updated for the current patch.

Thank you.

Updated the skill tree.

Scion start is reasonable actually. Come out the life regeneration path. It's two nodes difference. Not build breaking at all.

I want Hierophant to be a thing. I may still test it, just to see how it feels, but the math tells me it won't be worthwhile.

how that build works on Atziri?

Oh, patch notes for Atlas of World/Essence League are out now.

Arctic Breath is getting a 35% damage buff!

Yes, it is. That'll be a nice bonus for our build.

I've removed Frostwall and Vaal Glacial Hammer, btw, from the list of suggested utility gems for this build. That interaction has been removed.

As for Atziri (answering this horribly late), I imagine it is possible, but I am a terrible Atziri player. I don't really fight Atziri much at all (I think I've fought her a half dozen times total since she came out a couple years ago across all builds I've tried), so if someone wants to run this build (probably in Softcore as a test) and video some successful Atziri death, I'd gladly link it in the main guide. I suspect it's viable, but you'll have to watch out for the sheer amount of ground cover keeping you from seeing what she's casting.

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astrolab2000 wrote:

And the Hierophant tempar with the nodes that adds 2 totems at the huge penalties cost (10% per totem placed on the ground), is actually a big trap, or in other words, a big crap.

Could someone explain why the Hierophant's Ritual of Awakening is a "big trap"?

I'm currently playing a quad flame totem build for the second time, and first time around I didn't notice any drawback from Ritual.

Sure. Here is the math between 3 totems (Node + Soul Mantle) and 5 totems (Hierophant + previous).

Standard Setup
3 Totems @ 100% Damage Each: 100% * 3 = 300% Total Damage.

Hierophant Setup
3 Totems @ 76% Damage Each: 76% * 3 = 228% Total Damage.
4 Totems @ 68% Damage Each: 68% * 4 = 272% Total Damage.
5 Totems @ 60% Damage Each: 60% * 5 = 300% Total Damage.

You lose 8 percent damage with each totem, so your 5 totems are only doing 60% damage. Previously, it was a larger percentage loss per totem, so you actually dropped in DPS compared to the Node + Soul Mantle setup. You can see how 3 totems with Hierophant is significantly worse than 3 totems with Soul Mantle + Node with regards to damage as well.

So you must have 5 totems out to do the same amount of damage that 3 totems do without the node. That means if one totem dies or doesn't hit your enemy, you're doing less damage.

EDIT: Cleaned this up, added a little information.