[2.6] The Curse Whisperer - Tri-Curse CI Whispering Ice Berserker - Viable for Everything

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Graiaule wrote:

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Black_Gun wrote:

nonetheless, being able to somehow kill shaper isnt enough for me personally to consider a build "viable" in the sense that I want to make it my league starter...

Kelvynn, does the life build need a Kaom's Heart to feel as strong as the old CI build?

It will never feel as strong (overall) as the old CI version...

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Black_Gun wrote:

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Graiaule wrote:

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Black_Gun wrote:

nonetheless, being able to somehow kill shaper isnt enough for me personally to consider a build "viable" in the sense that I want to make it my league starter...

Kelvynn, does the life build need a Kaom's Heart to feel as strong as the old CI build?

It will never feel as strong (overall) as the old CI version...

Quite true. I meant to ask: "did you need a Kaom's Heart for the Shaper run?"

WI is actually pretty cheap to start with and scales pretty well. The other popular builds, Sunder and Frost Blades, will have a lot more competition for items than a WI build.

not quite. given the ssf aspect of new leagues i guarantee you'll have better chances of scaling into low tier maps with sunder than with wi. you need a lot more essence crafting to make the life based wi beserker work because you would ideally want essence crafted armor pieces with high int rolls. you have less jewel slots for powerful 2-3x damage rolls and int. getting an astramentis is still going to be very expensive and you do need it to keep up stat requirements for dex and str. playing around with a 80 int rare amulet was a pain in beta because i had do sacrifice skill points to get required dex.

it all depends on how fast you expect to progress with a league starter build. if you go sunder with a bit of luck you can probably be at the top of the ladder, with WI you don't stand a chance. the only good part is that you can do izaro with decent gear at lvl 75 and immediately start doing max key runs. but since they've also talked about changing drops, silver keys and adding treasure key rewards to puzzles, it may take longer than before to do a max key run so it might not be worth it anymore. for me the best part about the build was the massive amount of currency you could farm in lab runs. mapping was not enjoyable and taking down shaper really isn't worth it. also, if you're not lucky with getting fragments for uber atziri, that's also too expensive to run for profit.

i think going with sunder until you have the staff, astramentis, helmet, a few int essences and conversion jewels is the best way to aproach this. even vendor crafted weapons will work great with sunder and the strong beserker ascendancy nodes to get you through leveling, and that recipe doesn't cost anything of value.

the build can be just as strong as before i'm sure, i've reached really high damage levels and as long as you have currency to invest in good gear, the survivability will also be there. the new boots with 5% int, 25% ms and power charge interaction might even help fit atziri acuity into the build. then you'll have a lot of instant mana leech also. i think the big problem with wi is going to be resists again and although we could use a purity i'd like to have the option of reserving as little mana as possible.

Love your whispering ice builds, play it every league and now that CI is dead I wanted to put my 2 cents in.

I think the build is just as strong as before with around the same EHP and potentially the same or more damage.

My iteration, would love some feedback.
Level 86, 19.3k average hit, 6.7k life 3k mom

Gears pretty good but definitely achievable, but I wanted to see potential damage would be while at the same time not using too many points.

When do ya think 3.0 guide will be out ... would love to see the build and tree so i can find a build that is close to the same tree.. to a starter build.. or what you think is the best to start out with

also i think this build and 3.0 will be even more fun to play just because we dont know the limits of this build and we really dont know just how great this build will become.. or will it :P i cant wait to see!!!!

i'm still not sold on the idea of using kaom's instead of a chest with resists life and int. the only new unique i think is a good endgame goal is the new atziri acuity. using ele focus over cd lets you crit a lot with icestorm and even if it doesn't happen all the time, that instant regen for mana would be so huge for the build.

i'm also considering dropping scorching ray + cwc. there's so much mana to work with now, self casting it could be a thing again.

le: you need to use at least two curses and it's best you spec into the +1 curse on the tree than lose a ring slot for it.

If you want highest EHP possible you'll grab Kaoms, Cloak and Belly are good alternatives, the latter giving about the same EHP.

Crit would have been viable, but having to get life, int and crit, that tree is going to be stretched.

Sr + cwc is king because not only does sr act as penetration itself, and cwc is still a more multiplier, it negates the mana cost and gives it a ridiculous cast speed, you would have to use faster casting and spell echo to compete and you're still losing 2 gems but now you have a less multiplier.

You don't need 2 curses at all, WI is a boss killer and bosses/shaper have 60/80 curse resistance respectively, so I don't see the value.

I'm happy to see this build is not completely dead. Massively nerfed, sure, but so are most other builds it seems.

I'm still out of town until Sunday and don't have much time online. I'll try to post a basic guide and then fill in the blanks later.

Some quick answers:

- It's much easier to start with the Life version than it ever was with the ES one. Life/AR is far more effective than ES as early game defenses. So if finding the staff was not hard for you before, it's still just as easy as before. And finding Astramentis is just as hard as before.

- Can do just fine with 2 rare rings. I dropped both extra curses in the final version of the build, went with just Enfeeble. And my gear was crappy and lacked resistances after switching to Kaom, so I killed the Shaper with just 2 rare Int/resist rings. Those are very cheap. Tons of room for upgrading. If you get items good enough to free a ring slot, Perandus Signet gives about 150 Int at lv 90.

- Kaom's or Belly was necessary for me in my situation to survive the Shaper Slam and T16 bosses with mods. With a 120-ish Life rare chest I had 4.3k Life, with Kaom's 5.3k, and somewhere in that extra 1k was the threshold that meant the difference. But for anything below T15 a rare chest and 4k Life is fine.

- I only leveled to 90 and prioritized damage and other mechanics over Life. And everybody on beta was lacking at least 3 point. Leveling isn't hard until 95. So if you get to 93-94 in the league, you can get 1k Life from those 6-7 extra points. Even more if you find a good 4-mod jewel with a life mod. So then Kaoms/Belly won't be necessary even for the endgame.

- Nothing in 3.0 will be as OP as the 2.6 CI builds. Get over it. This is enough to kill everything and get 40/40. Yes, it takes some more skill or experience in T16/17, but everything below that and the Lab is still easy. If that's not 'viable enough' - I'm sure the streamers will make something that everybody can use just as easily as they do. ;) I don't really care how many people play my build, I don't get paid for it.