[3.0-3.1] Blight CwC Chaos Glacial Cascade

Here is a Glacial Cascade build to utilize added chaos damage with CI.

Video
with 5L:

• Normal Atziri
• T8 Cemetery (8mods including maxres, reflect, no-regen)
• T12 Vault
• T15 Colosseum

with 6L:

• T15 Beachhead
• T16 Pit of the Chimera
• Shaper (3rd phase, Noob)

Core Concept
"Gain x% of Elemental Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" sums up each elemental damage even if they are converted -- When we use 100% cold skill with 80% cold-to-fire conversion, the effective elemental damage for the chaos conversion is 180%, though the elemental damage output is still 100% (cold:20% + fire:80%).


Now we have 180% of effective elemental damage with two Pyre rings,


and gain 75% of it -- so added chaos damage is 135% !

Version Update

Offence

• Use Cast while Channelling to overwrite Glacial Cascade's cast time (0.8s)
• 50% more chaos damage from Blight with Spreading Rot.

Defense

• CI for Incandescent Heart
• Mana Guardian to compensate for no shield and the low ES body armour
• GR+ZO: hybrid recovery by leech and regeneration

Pros & Cons
Pros

• T15-16, Atziri, and Shaper viable.
• Tough enough -- 10kES and 25% of elemental damage mitigation.
• Blight can keep enemies at the best distance for Glacial Cascade.
• Can run maps with almost mods, including no-regen and reflection. Later mentioned.

Cons

• Lack of movement skills for wand builds.
• No damage on critical strike (5%), though EO and 240% increased damage will follow.
• A specific endgame enchantment (40% conversion for GC) is desired, though an alternative cheap solution exists.
• No stun immunity; Avoiding stun by Pantheon, Bastion of Hope, and enchantments on boots.

Passive Skills
Passive Tree

• 117pts (Lv.96 with Oak) - CI, GR, ZO, EO, 6 sockets, ES, mana, flask. MoM is just for mana nodes.
• See below for leveling tree.

Jewels

• 2x Healthy Mind on top and right sockets
• 2x Spreading Rot on two left sockets
• 2x free sockets on outer edge

Ascendancy - Guardian
1. Radiant Faith - Grants maximum Energy Shield equal to 15% of your Reserved Mana to you
2. Time of Need - Every 5 seconds, 30% of Maximum Life Regenerated over one second
3. Bastion of Hope - (5-55)% additional Block Chance
4. Choose your favorite one; I chose Prayer of Glory - Using Warcries is Instant

Bandits
Oak is recommended. +20% physical damage and 1% life regen are worth 2 passive points.

Pantheon

• Major: Soul of the Brine King - Important. Defense against stun.
• Minor: Soul of Tukohama - Physical damage reduction and life regen.

Path of Building
https://pastebin.com/vras9Ma2

Skill Gem Links
Main (6L):
Blight - Cast while Channelling - Glacial Cascade - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Concentrated Effect
10 mana at Lv.20

Wither Totem (4L):
Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting - Increased Duration (Lv.16)
33 mana at Lv.20. Increased Duration's gem level is limited by character's strength.

Movement (3L):
Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Arcane Surge (Lv.7)
39 mana at Lv.20 (>= Arcane Surge's threshold 32)

Aura (4L):
Hatred - Discipline - Arctic Armour - Enlighten (Lv.2+1) (99% reserved)
1% unreserved is enough and the best for Radiant Faith. We have 4000+ maximum mana.

CwDT (4L, 2L):
Cast when Damage Taken (Lv.1) - Immortal Call (Lv.3) - Warlord's Mark (Lv.5) - Frost Wall (Lv.10)
Cast when Damage Taken (Lv.20) - Summon Stone Golem

Warcry
Enduring Cry (Lv.9)
The gem level is limited by character's strength.

Gears

Leveling Tips
Shade of Solaris requires only level 30, but you might not able to use them at the level because of the price (20-30c each). So, use different setups until you get them.


Overall, this build is not expensive at all except two Shade of Solaris, Taste of Hate, and an enchanted helmet. Let's explore the atlas to find remaining items!

vs. Map mods
Physical Reflection has no effect to the build, and -x% maximum resistance is mitigated by Incandescent Heart.

No Regen
Just drop Arctic Armour, and we will have 1000+ mana. The main skill requires only 10 mana per cast, we can easily keep mana with CwDT Warlord's Mark.

Elemental Reflection
Glacial Cascade in this build consists of Ele:40% + Chaos:60%, so we should consider about elemental reflection.

• Switch pantheon to Soul of Yugul (25% reduced Reflected Damage taken).
• Use dual The Consuming Dark to convert 60% of fire to chaos.

The Consuming Dark (1alc-) is also useful until you obtain Shade of Solaris (20c-).

Skill choice
I chose Glacial Cascade because it is a physical spell -- added cold damage from Hatred (36%) and Taste of Hate (20%) are really strong. Physical-as-Chaos part of Atziri's Promise also boosts Glacial Cascade, but the impact to DPS is small (<4%).

Other Cold Spells
You can use other cold spells of course, and will not need to consider physical to cold conversion. Frostbolt and Ice Nova are solid choices in this case. Also, you should spend 50% of mana for another purpose instead of Hatred.

Other Lightning Spells
Another setup is to use lightning spells with 2 Call of the Brotherhood rings. Shock Nova and Ball Lightning with CwC, or Storm Burst without CwC would be good. Wrath (+21%) is less effective than Hatred (+36%), but still good. You will have 220% of effective elemental damage with 2 rings and Cold to Fire Support, but I'm not sure it is worth.

CwC Trigger Spells
Instead of Blight, Wither is another candidate to trigger CwC. I think Blight is better for clear speed, but you can use Wither if you focus on boss kill.

• Blight: 50% more damage in initial 1.6s. Requires 2 sockets. Lower mana cost.
• Wither: 48% more damage after 2s. Free 2 sockets. Don't need Wither totems. Higher mana cost.

hi, nice build and thanks for sharing!

Anyways, why dont you include Hatred in your damage calculation at the beginning? You shoud have 216% effective elemental damage and 162% added chaos damage with lvl 20 Hatred

You can also consider to use Eber's Unification for another 8% ele as chaos damg added https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Eber%27s_Unification and also gains the Void Gaze skill:

Void Gaze
Applies a debuff to Enemies, removing some of their resistance to Chaos damage.
Enemies get -10% to Chaos Resistance
Skill lasts 2.5 seconds

greetz

"

Norec wrote:

why dont you include Hatred in your damage calculation at the beginning? You shoud have 216% effective elemental damage and 162% added chaos damage with lvl 20 Hatred

It was to simplify explanation of the concept. Also, I think the 36% is "more" factor rather than effective base damage, like Controlled Destruction.

"

You can also consider to use Eber's Unification for another 8% ele as chaos damg added https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Eber%27s_Unification and also gains the Void Gaze skill

Added description for Eber's Unification and other gears to be considered.

The concept of this build really has my interest peaked :). Would you recommend it as HC viable? I could see the leech making it fairly sustainable, as long as you're paying attention of course.

Also what are your thoughts on a Cherubim's for the chest piece instead??

"

Waskallywabbit wrote:

Would you recommend it as HC viable? I could see the leech making it fairly sustainable, as long as you're paying attention of course.

I think so. MoM is useful before taking CI. You can start with Scorching Ray CwC fire-converted GC until you get gears.
Note that dual-wield Shade of Solaris are only for damage; you can swap it for a nice shield to run really dangerous maps.

"

Also what are your thoughts on a Cherubim's for the chest piece instead??

Nice stats if you go life-based, but keep it in mind that you need BBBBBB (6 off-colors) in it.

Hi, really like the build idea. Was wondering if you could go hybrid life/es and use the Occultist instead of Guardian.

But maybe wouldn't work with incandescent heart then...

Have you thought of any way to get critical strikes easier with this build? Maybe CWDT - orb of storms - increased crit or adding increased crit to the flame dash setup?

edit: I had a go at making my own (very similar) passive tree:



Don't you think that the physical and chaos damage nodes at the shadow start are worth it? Also, since I haven't played the build yet, I don't know whether getting the aura reduction nodes and Ghost Reaver are needed.

"

locobilbo wrote:

Was wondering if you could go hybrid life/es and use the Occultist instead of Guardian.

Occultists (Witch/Scion) are good for offence, but I need more ES to use Incandescent Heart. If you go for life-based, Pathfinder is another choice to keep up Atziri's Promise and gain additional chaos resistance.

"

Have you thought of any way to get critical strikes easier with this build? Maybe CWDT - orb of storms - increased crit or adding increased crit to the flame dash setup?

You cannot use OoS from CwDT unfortunately, but crit CwDT setup is interesting. I don't think crit Flame Dash is good idea; it hardly hits enemies in my usage.

"

Don't you think that the physical and chaos damage nodes at the shadow start are worth it?

Path of Building says those shadow's nodes, Force Shaper, and a +40 jewel provide almost same dps per passive point.

"

I don't know whether getting the aura reduction nodes and Ghost Reaver are needed.

You can drop aura reduction and Enlighten if you drop Arctic Armour. Ghost Reaver might not be needed if you play with manual-dodge style. I play with facetank style, so I want both AA and leech :)

Hey thanks for the replies, I'm in the process of leveling up a character for this build. I'm not a big fan of path of building yet but I took a look at your character:

I think this tree might be better than the one you currently have planned, depending on how much you value 12% all res and aoe https://pastebin.com/wG98kds0

I also wonder whether it would be a good idea to get the aura effectiveness nodes near zealots oath and then use clarity to reserve the remaining mana. Both aura's are worth scaling imo. Sorry for being so nosy.

Looking at the Occultist - she does so much damage - but I can't see a way to get over 8k energy shield with her. Wicked ward and Vile bastion might be enough extra defense though. With blight, void gaze, void beacon and profane bloom enemies would take so much chaos damage.

"

locobilbo wrote:

I think this tree might be better than the one you currently have planned, depending on how much you value 12% all res and aoe

Thanks! I updated my tree, but I will take sockets and flask nodes instead of Shadow's starting.

Interesting build, completely playable as described and looks like fun. Adding to the build guide section, sorry for the delay.

Cheers.