[2.3] ICE SHOT FORKER - the omnidirectional shotgun

Thanks to my buddies who test and theorycraft, Shinfuuma, Ahfack, Deep, Jorge, and the rest of you mofos. Also, thanks to ViperMagi for elucidating some cryptic mechanics of this game when it comes to projectiles and subprojectiles.[/i]



ICE SHOT, RENOVATING AN OLD SKILL ANEW:
+ Ice Shot has been a staple bow skill since patch 0.9.12 in 2012. Many strong builds have been published that capitalize on the strengths of this beautiful skill, e.g. the rail gun, the pyre shot, to name a few. What's different about this version is that it capitalizes on fork rather than pierce.
+ Thus far, all shotgun mechanics have utilized 100% pierce with frost wall. Here, we rely on FORK.

FIRST ADVANTAGE (NATURAL CONVERSION):
+ 100% natural conversion. The AoE conal explosion is 100% cold. No need for any conversion gem or gear slot, saving you those slots for other more important uses (e.g. defense, dps).

SECOND ADVANTAGE (SCALABLE RANGE):
+ Ice shot's max range can be scaled with increased aoe. You can't do this with any other bow skill. As an example, LA's secondary AoE has a base unit of 18 units, meager compared to Ice Shot's cone. By supporting the ice shot cone with the Increased AOE support gem as well as passive AOE nodes, ice shot surpasses the range of LA or any other bow skill.
+ When the arrow expires, the arrow automatically explodes its cone. This means you can spray offscreen at targets. Many people have commented that we are wasting the shot if the arrow hits the target first. But in a sniper to sniper fight, Ice shot wins at MAX range. Just back up a bit. And if they come in close, that's when the magic happens (please continue reading).

THIRD ADVANTAGE (SAVE POINTS):
+ Save at least 7 passive points, since we don't need to spend points on the pierce chance cluster on the right side of the tree. Actually, having any more pierce chance besides Powerful Precision will be detrimental to this build.

FOURTH ADVANTAGE (CROWD CONTROL):
+ Chill enemies. The ground ice lasts 1.5 seconds, stacking with temp chains and wither.
+ Against opponents with poor resistance or life pool, you can perma-freeze them.

FINALE ADVANTAGE (OMNIDIRECTIONAL SHOTGUN):
+ A minimum of 5 hits per arrow on any target near a stack of frost walls.
+ The massive AOE offers superior coverage, capable of reaching targets moving away from the frost wall.
+ Turn the frost wall used by many other builds (e.g. LA, EA) right back at them.

GIFS AND VIDEOS:


A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN AMAZONPRIME ARROW:

+ In this diagram, we have 1 arrow at the bottom, moving towards a frost wall. It pierces it due to Powerful precision (assuming we are standing close enough to the frost wall). The AoE cone triggers (the trapezoid). The arrow continues.


+ The piercing arrow continues its journey, with degenerating pierce chance due to Powerful Precision. With lower pierce chance than before, it encounters a second frost wall.
+ At this second frost wall, the arrow fails to pierce, thereby triggering a fork.
+ Remember, among subprojectiles, fork is lower in priority than pierce. As soon as the arrow fails to pierce, it is guaranteed to fork 100%.
+ Fork results in 2 arrows that branch off at 60 degree angles to the left and right, also generating 2 more cones! These cones overlap near the point of fork.

SUMMARY OF THE PIERCE AND FORK:


BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET! ARROWS RETURN TO YOU (POWERFUL PRECISION).
+ Each arrow can only fork ONCE, so the next subprojectile trigger is "ARROW RETURN."
+ The 2 forked arrows encounter a third frost wall. Because these arrows have already forked, the only subprojectile trigger remaining is Arrow Return (also provided by Powerful Precision).
+ These 2 returning arrows also trigger 2 cones pointing backwards towards the player, completing the shotgun sequence. Thanks Fanon for pointing this out.


SUBPROJECTILE PRIORITY: PIERCE > FORK > RETURN
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Projectile#Subprojectiles

SUMMARY OF ALL CONES FROM ONE ARROW:


AT A MINIMUM, WE HAVE A GUARANTEED 5 hit shotgun, PER ARROW!
+ These diagrams assumed only 1 pierce on 2 layers of frost wall, with the 2 forked arrows returning on a third frost wall. Now, add in GMP, and several layers of spell-echo'ed frost walls. You do the math.

THE SWEET-SPOT:

+ There is no greater class for Ice Shot than yours truly, the Ranger Deadeye.
+ Powerful precision with ZERO BASE PIERCE CHANCE is all you need to work this magic.
+ FORK (provided by Rigwald's quills or the Fork gem) is a subprojectile mechanic that triggers 100% as soon as your arrow fails to pierce.
+ With powerful precision, your arrows have a degenerating pierce chance starting from 100% down to 0% at max 65 units. This means that as your arrow loses pierce chance, your fork chance inversely increases. What this means is that on a multi-layered frost wall shenanigan, you can trigger more shotguns than a 100% piercing LA.


+ As such, the caviat to this build is distance. At close range (less than 18 units, you can't trigger the fork because powerful precision pierces, and an arrow that pierces, can't fork at the same time). At max range, you can't pierce at all, so you can only fork. But in mid-range, you will pierce enough to deliver your arrow deep into the frost wall cluster, and then trigger a massive fork. Thus, the sweet spot is mid-range combat.


THE RECIPE:
COMPONENT #1 = POWERFUL PRECISION (RANGER DEADEYE PASSIVE)


COMPONENT #2 = RIGWALD FORK (or fork gem)


COMPONENT #3 = Increased AOE

+ AoE passives near the witch, and the 20% AoE from Endless Munitions


GEMS AND LINKS:
- G ICE SHOT
- B INCREASED AOE (so important! don't even think about conc effect)
- B Crit chance / Crit damage (depending on your gear)
- G FORK (if you don't have Rigwald's Quills), Block Pen or Faster attacks (depending on your opponent)
- G COLD PENETRATION (the conal explosion is 100% phys to cold (built-in)
- R WED (60% more multiplier that scales completely with the AOE cone)

LIFE VS CI:
+ This build is written as a CI, simply because I have better CI gear than life gear. However, with the current meta changing from offscreen to close distance sustained combat, CI's larger healthpool is a definitive advantage over non-Legacy Kaom builds.
+ If you are life-based, then you are actually encouraged to wear Kaom's rather than Lioneye's vision. This is the one bow build where having more pierce is detrimental. You don't want any more pierce chance beyond Powerful Precision's degenerating pierce chance, so as to not negate fork.

CLASS & ASCENDANCY:
+ There is no greater class for this build than the Ranger Deadeye. Ice Shot utilizes every perk of Deadeye! Extra arrow, more AoE, more Projectile damage, and most importantly, the degenerating pierce with arrow return that synergizes so well with fork.


PASSIVE TREE (CI):


MY GEAR:


FEEDBACK AND IMPROVEMENTS BY FANONFLOWER:


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FOUNDING FATHER OF THE VOLLEY FIRE BARRAGE WANDER
(VOLLEY FIRE WAS NERFED 3 DAYS AFTER MY GIF)
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1513844



IGN: AMAZONPRIME or CASTABLANCA

very nice detailed guide.

note: nice build.

my recommendations

thx rupe, couldn't have done this without your support.

you missd the point that ice shot fork hits backwards too

"

Rupenus wrote:

you missd the point that ice shot fork hits backwards too

YES!

Chill ground got a pvp reduction tho (it was patched in 2.0, trying to find the patch note), also without FW (or a basic Wall) the secondary dmg of ice shot doesn't hit the main target (it hit behind) so you're loosing 50% elemental dmg penetration.

Semms pretty good mid range indeed but those layered FW seems like a huge disadvantage against LA or KB users as it will greatly help them. But if it work, it's all good.

Nice guide with pictures.
I want to see videos!

ice shot has offscreen advantage over LA. i'd use barrage vs Ice Shot.

I agree but only with 100% conversion wich doesn't seems to be the case if I understood the guide properly.

Omnifuckery!!! Well done, sir!