[2.6] CI FrostBlades Raider/Pathfinder [Permafreeze T15 bosses, 4:17 Shaper Run, 1:49 Chayula timer]

Some people were wondering if they could do end-game bosses with worse gear and answer is pretty much yes. As raider I've done all guardians and shaper, farmed uber labs etc usually with no problems and T15 bosses are a joke even at this stage. Some deaths here and there but usually due to tough mods or mistakes. Even so damage is there and in H/O I'm sitting at 186k dps and 9.3k ES. It's way lower than Invalesco but it's good enough to clear all content BUT you won't have "melting guardians/shaper" feeling. Got 7ex to spend and possibly will reach over 200k+ but I won't bother getting 15ex claws, 14ex vaaled gloves, 4ex jewels and so on as prices are ridiculous and unfair...

I see many guys who start this build go straight for rare claws, but you really shouldn't underestimate Anguish claws, especially with strong roll. Also since your DPS will be high you will always clear maps faster with Anguish due to frenzies and chain.
P.S. yes helmet is shit, but has resists lol

What I like is that Brototem usually can handle all ele-reflect mobs but if not (ex, tough essence) bringing Rumi, Jade, Oak flasks might be essential not to rip yourself. Also gave him cull for fun :)

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Hollycz wrote:

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Pjey wrote:

Having trouble finding a good pair of es boots that got movespeed and high es and resses

Just lookin at nice 193 es boots with 25% mvt speed and 34% all res.
Also if you dont have skyforth then you do not need to consider all the things I have to. just get all the gear you need and finish with some 25%+ mvt speed 2 res boots so you are maxed out. that should be no problem and it should be cheap too

Please link me a poe.trade search of where you are finding thes "cheap boots"

Everything I find is 1.5ex and higher.

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Hollycz wrote:

now im gonna spam and cry a lot!

well i was talking about UBER LAB :P i killed myself in normal atziri :D dont think i can try uber yet, need to see how to position myself best not to one shot myself on reflect. probably need to get rid of multistrike but i wonder what RED gem would be the best instead, if it was green i'd go more atk speed but for red one i have absolutely no idea :(

also got a free suffix on a ring but i need resists which sucks (otherwise i'd get +crit chance), tough to get good ones if you have only 1 cold res on helmet and that shield is actually making this possible (im capped with 81% atm). i will look for 500+ with int and resists but i doubt i will get a nice 3 res shield (atm there are some 3 res for about 5-10ex but no int). But you are absolutely right, i need to get higher ES as im already one-shotting myself on higher life reflect mobs. i still need a better AMU so maybe i can get some resists on those and then get myself a better shield.

Which has another issue - there are no good amulets out there. i need flat ES, ES %, phys. dmg and crit multi. all of them are worse then what I have yet costs 3ex+. Also need some strenght on those to free up a skill point from +30 str and re-spect to that 10% ele reflect reduction which i must do asap (atm waiting to finally get lvl 3 enlighten to free 1 point from 4% reduction, im glad i have that 3% on helmet so i can afford that). guess i will sack that flat ES on amu :(

same with Jewels. there are just simply no jewels on poe.trade and if there are, they are overpriced (10ex etm). Lucky i sniped one for 1 ex today with 30multi, 13 chance and 16 cold dmg. im sniping those with multi and atk speed atm but simply there are NONE.

so basically yeah, with more power comes more danger from reflect.

Uh. now im gonna watch some shit and come back tomorrow to start looking for items again :D

thanks for the help Invalesco! last question for you tho. is this enough to kill guardians / shaper yet?

Ah oops! :p regarding uber atziri - it's actually less of a dps check as compared to shaper and mostly involves a lot of dodging and moving around. Unfortunately, what makes frost blades so good - the auto-aim projectiles, makes it annoying to use vs atziri because of the reflect phase. You will have to remove multistrike - replace it with added fire instead, and you'll have to stand in the center of all 4 images and aim at the non-reflect image. That in itself is inherently difficult coz she will immediately start charging a flameblast at your location, forcing you to move away from the center, after which you'll need to find a way back again. Just replace frost blades with blade flurry for her imo. Your damage will drop, but u don't need that much dps vs atziri anyway; most importantly the reflect phase won't be a pain.

For amulets I don't have %ES as one of my criteria as that can be master crafted. I just look for ones with other desired mods. It's usually cheaper that way.

Regarding jewels - unfortunately they've been getting snapped up pretty quickly. None of my jewels cost me more than 10c, but they're likely worth multiple exalts now. Sniping will also be tougher unfortunately coz there will probably be more ppl waiting to snipe at any point in time.

Yup ur stats can defo kill shaper.

Thanks @meka and @xnote for your inputs!

Touch of Anguish really is a very solid claw for its price, especially with its high base crit. The only really significant upgrade after that would be a 350+ pdps claw with >1.7 APS and >7.5 base crit. Anything below that probably isn't a significant enough upgrade to overpay for.

Regarding boots - if you feel something is overpriced and too expensive, you probably don't need it that much to pay that price. May I suggest using brinerot whalers instead. They go up to 200 ES, have nice ms, nice Lightning res and give bonus dmg to boot. Most importantly, they're much cheaper. You can make up for the other res on other pieces of gear.

Hey Invalesco I am absolutely loving this build. I started out following Mathil's build but I was having issues killing bosses. I switched to your build and it has been smooth sailing. I need a little advice on what to start upgrading gear wise. With my current gear I can kill up to tier 14 bosses but just can't quite get the tier 15 bosses. I have saved up about 5Ex so what do you think would be the best bang for the buck?

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JasPes wrote:

Hey Invalesco I am absolutely loving this build. I started out following Mathil's build but I was having issues killing bosses. I switched to your build and it has been smooth sailing. I need a little advice on what to start upgrading gear wise. With my current gear I can kill up to tier 14 bosses but just can't quite get the tier 15 bosses. I have saved up about 5Ex so what do you think would be the best bang for the buck?

Heya!

Ok there are two ways you can go about upgrading your char.

Firstly, when you're having trouble killing the t15 bosses, is it because your DPS is sorely lacking, or is it because your ES is too low (7.3k is probably a little too low to be trying to facetank bosses), resulting in a low stun threshold and therefore resulting in your constantly getting stunned?

If it's the former (DPS), I would suggest looking for a ring and n amulet upgrade with +flat phys. You may also want to invest your next points into getting the jewel sockets close by, as good jewels are the most major source of DPS after claws and jewellery.

If it's the latter (ES), you may want to look into getting a better ES shield or an atziri's splendour.

You can also opt for the in-between by getting an amulet with flat phys, crit multi and %ES, which would improve your DPS and ES.

Now, for your current setup - are you able to chill the t15 bosses reliably? I ask this because if you aren't able to, you will not benefit from the 20% penetration from pandemonius. May I suggest linking vortex to a level 1 cwdt for the reliable chill.

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JasPes wrote:

Hey Invalesco I am absolutely loving this build. I started out following Mathil's build but I was having issues killing bosses. I switched to your build and it has been smooth sailing. I need a little advice on what to start upgrading gear wise. With my current gear I can kill up to tier 14 bosses but just can't quite get the tier 15 bosses. I have saved up about 5Ex so what do you think would be the best bang for the buck?

now? its a good time to get some steel rings and amulet with +phys dmg.
your belt needs some work too (more resists)
also pick another jewel slots that make a ton of difference (you dont need 4 stat jewels, those are impossible to get now just get a nice 3 stat one with at least 1 crit multi and atk speed (and 3rd should be either more multi, atk speed or damage)
your helmet needs some love too with resists

Also regarding your gems and passives.
First of all go and buy a herald of ASH (yes adds more dps and also much better for mapping, you will see), put it all to your helmet or where you can get your B-B-R-G slots easiest. you actually need to link it with your enlighten support to work with mana reduction
If you want to map fast what works for me is CWDT + increased duration + immortal call + vaal haste (vaal gems are not trigered by cwdt). if you click it as often as you get souls it will speed up ur mapping a lot and also makes bosses easier.

To get another jewel slot i suggest regretting aura effect and Influence (next to CI) and putting that 2 points into a jewel slot on the left next to alchemist. Actually now looking at full screen of your tree so definitely regret those 2 points and put them to Claws of the Magpie

Want to point out that it seems like it has no real difference at first after let's say I bought a jewel and it added me 4k flat dps on FB. what happens then is after you put on flask, power charges etc. that 4K becomes 50k /guessed that one:D/.


Also Invalesco, what do you think about regretting those 2 HP/ES nodes just below CI and putting those points somewhere else? like higher ES nodes or more utility/dmg nodes. i'm gonna do that but need to see what to do with my points (probably +flask nodes that i miss)
EDIT: also one more suggestion coz im fighting with strenght requirements. if you path UP from vaal pact you will get 10 str, 10 dex instead of 20 dex which makes (to me) life easier. Also if u need +30 there is node up there too thats free for taking but maybe you wont need it anymore with +10 extra (in ur case)
EDIT2: looking at it now after lunch you can easily take coordination and save another point at +8% phys damage you had to take. Think those will make ur build a bit better again :) let me know what u think

How do we deal with being frozen in place? I'm at level 78 right now. Trying to do t11-13 maps, but keep getting killed by alot of stuff. Mostly I feels like i'm missing a lot and not leeching enough or im being frozen and killed. Runing Taste of Hate, Wise Oak, Diamond Flask with antibleeding, Atziri Promise and Rotgut. Should I change rotgut into a QS flask with anti freeze? Or is it anything i'm missing?

Running Valyrium instead of skyforth^^

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Pjey wrote:

How do we deal with being frozen in place? I'm at level 78 right now. Trying to do t11-13 maps, but keep getting killed by alot of stuff. Mostly I feels like i'm missing a lot and not leeching enough or im being frozen and killed. Runing Taste of Hate, Wise Oak, Diamond Flask with antibleeding, Atziri Promise and Rotgut. Should I change rotgut into a QS flask with anti freeze? Or is it anything i'm missing?

Running Valyrium instead of skyforth^^

Dunno what you play so hard to say. If you are pathfinder once you get Master Alchemist then your issues are no longer there.
If you miss leach and already have Soul Raker, then you need more DPS and upgrade your inventory (cant see ur character so can't tell you more then this).
If you get stunned often then you need to get more ES and it should help you out. Just pick some +% ES nodes asap. considering you are lvl 78 and probably rushed damage nodes its the problem right there.

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Hollycz wrote:

Also Invalesco, what do you think about regretting those 2 HP/ES nodes just below CI and putting those points somewhere else? like higher ES nodes or more utility/dmg nodes. i'm gonna do that but need to see what to do with my points (probably +flask nodes that i miss)
EDIT: also one more suggestion coz im fighting with strenght requirements. if you path UP from vaal pact you will get 10 str, 10 dex instead of 20 dex which makes (to me) life easier. Also if u need +30 there is node up there too thats free for taking but maybe you wont need it anymore with +10 extra (in ur case)
EDIT2: looking at it now after lunch you can easily take coordination and save another point at +8% phys damage you had to take. Think those will make ur build a bit better again :) let me know what u think

Heya!

1. Those 2 HP/ES nodes give a total of 15% ES + 10 str (which with shaper's touch translates to another 2% ES) for a total of 17% ES. For 2 points, I feel that 17% ES is well worth it, especially for the Str which we need.

2. That is very valid alternative Pathing, especially because there's a better node in which to invest that one point you save by dropping the 8% phys dmg node: the 10% phys and chaos node to the right of CI. Good suggestion, will change the trees accordingly, thanks!

Just a bit of an update on my gear (gems are still leveling so don't mind them) and still playing around with Flasks, but think I've settled on these ones for now. Also, gear is on Standard so don't go crazy over it:


Current Gear


Current Tree



Pretty much the tweaks I want to make are:

1. Eventually get the colors I need on this chest piece to transition over to it:



2. Get to level 95 and likely stop there as that is about as far as I can go with the level grinding before it becomes far too much of a chore for me.

3. Get my gems up to max level.

4. Not totally sold on my flask choices, though I think most of them are set at this point.

5. Potentially get a pair of Shaper's Touch gloves with the Elemental Weakness Curse on Hit corruption on them.


At this point, most of that stuff is min/maxing and finishing up the passive tree. I did use the Path of Building tool and it appears that at level 95 when all is said and done and I have all of my buffs up, I'll peak out at almost 2,600,000 DPS, which is not too shabby. That's with the Elemental Weakness thing and what I currently have. I think overall that's likely as far as I'll be able to push the build...getting to level 100 would certainly allow me to max it further, but the time investment is just not worth it in my eyes.

That all said, one thing I did notice for this build that I am not sure if anyone touched on that is rather important for it...positioning. With the way Frost Blades works you really DO NOT want to go jumping into a group of mobs and try to go ham on them. Not that you likely couldn't do it, and could very easily survive it, but it's just not worth it. The major issue being that your Frost Blade projectiles will likely get wasted and lose their punch. Even with Multistrike, you'll likely target enemies where there's only a few adjacent enemies the Frost Blades can hit, but most will go flying off into the wild blue yonder and hit nothing.

Instead, you're better off keeping just a little distance and positioning yourself so you're in line with the enemy you want to hit and groups of enemies behind that target, or slightly adjacent to it. That way, all the Frost Blades will have something 'auto-target' and you'll hit way more targets. That might seem like something basic, but you'd be surprised people who might gloss over that.