[3.0] Cold snap build idea

1. 114 mana cost, 3.71 cast speed, 404 unreserved mana. this means in less than a second, im out of mana. Even the 367.3 mana regen isnt enough to cover for that 422.94mana per second use when holding cold snap down. Any workaround for the mana sustain?

2. Whats the vaal pact for? You have no life leech nodes/mods at all. Is life sustain purely using the single bubbling divine life flask?

3. For single boss. PCOC in the cold snap link is not reliable enough to start generating the first power charge. Spell echo will only give 1 charge with pcoc when it crits, which will immediately be used up for casting the next cold snap. Theres no accumulation, but rather, just generating one charge to be consumed immediately, which is risky without voll's protector. With voll's protector, theres a better chance of accumulating charges. Of course theres the classic orb of storms + inc crit + pcoc, with questionable reliability when you have to generate enough charges to spend them at a rate of 3.71 casts per second.
With voll's protector, does it give 2 charges or 1 charge when you crit with spell echo?

4. Any other ways for reliable power charge generation without voll's protector? Sacrificing an armour slot for a crappy armour just to allow the build to work sucks. GGG should really come up with more power charge generation options that dont require killing.

5. Good job trying to get cold snap to work. i have always been curious on how cold snap can be made to work.

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crab~shit wrote:

1. 114 mana cost, 3.71 cast speed, 404 unreserved mana. this means in less than a second, im out of mana. Even the 367.3 mana regen isnt enough to cover for that 422.94mana per second use when holding cold snap down. Any workaround for the mana sustain?

2. Whats the vaal pact for? You have no life leech nodes/mods at all. Is life sustain purely using the single bubbling divine life flask?

3. For single boss. PCOC in the cold snap link is not reliable enough to start generating the first power charge. Spell echo will only give 1 charge with pcoc when it crits, meaning it only gives 1 charge which will immediately be used up for casting the next cold snap. Theres no accumulation, but rather, just generating one charge to be consumed immediately, which is risky with or without voll's protector. The moment you dont crit means you are on cooldown for cold snap. Of course theres the classic orb of storms + inc crit + pcoc, with questionable reliability when you have to generate enough charges to spend them at a rate of 3.71 casts per second.

4. Any other ways for reliable power charge generation without voll's protector? Sacrificing an armour slot for a crappy armour just to allow the build to work sucks. GGG should really come up with more power charge generation options that dont require killing.

5. Good job trying to get cold snap to work. i have always been curious on how cold snap can be made to work.

A good way to start off with power charges is to use jaws of agony in your offhand. Once you have several pcharges up it is very easy to sustain using Voll's protector. If using kitava's thirst helmet, you could also socket a skill such as firestorm to reliably accumulate power charges.

When it comes to problems on paper such as mana regen, exploring the build in-game often is the best way to find a workaround. That means possibly tweaking the damage, experimenting with curse setups, and even trying different uniques / jewels.

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crab~shit wrote:

1. 114 mana cost, 3.71 cast speed, 404 unreserved mana. this means in less than a second, im out of mana. Even the 367.3 mana regen isnt enough to cover for that 422.94mana per second use when holding cold snap down. Any workaround for the mana sustain?

Remember about spell echo.
The formula would be 114 * 3.71 /2 = 211.47
Mana regen is 219.9 with only clarity.
Also forgot about warlord's mark... my bad.
Actually, with warlord's we do even without rallying cry.

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crab~shit wrote:

2. Whats the vaal pact for? You have no life leech nodes/mods at all. Is life sustain purely using the single bubbling divine life flask?

True enough, forgot to put warlord's mark instead of frostbite.
That's what happens when you do new build fast :)

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crab~shit wrote:

3. For single boss. PCOC in the cold snap link is not reliable enough to start generating the first power charge. Spell echo will only give 1 charge with pcoc when it crits, meaning it only gives 1 charge which will immediately be used up for casting the next cold snap. Theres no accumulation, but rather, just generating one charge to be consumed immediately, which is risky with or without voll's protector. The moment you dont crit means you are on cooldown for cold snap. Of course theres the classic orb of storms + inc crit + pcoc, with questionable reliability when you have to generate enough charges to spend them at a rate of 3.71 casts per second.

True, didn't think aobut additional charges for single boss...
I do think that once you get the charges you are good with 72% crit and something like ice spear gmp, but what do you think?

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crab~shit wrote:

4. Any other ways for reliable power charge generation without voll's protector? Sacrificing an armour slot for a crappy armour just to allow the build to work sucks. GGG should really come up with more power charge generation options that dont require killing.

without it... really don't see any way to play it unfortunately :/

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crab~shit wrote:

5. Good job trying to get cold snap to work. i have always been curious on how cold snap can be made to work.

Thanks for the help, here is the new link to PoB
https://pastebin.com/n9AZBu8j
What do you think about it now?

1. With voll's protector, does it give 2 charges or 1 charge when you crit with spell echo?

Maybe a low level blade vortex on cwdt with pcoc in that frost bomb cwdt link group might be good.

Assassin and inqusitor can be viable classes to use. Ive listed some major points below.
Did a quick check, terms of dps, elementalist wins hands down in, inquisitor does better than assassin. Elementalist have higher dps even without paragon and mastermind active.
In terms of reflect mitigation, elementalist still wins, followed by inquisitor.
In terms of defence, Inquisitor wins with augury of penitence and increased effect of chill, followed by elementalist with paragon of calamity. assassin has nothing to offer for defence.

2. What do you think about these 2 alternate classes?

Assassin


inquisitor


3. The node "Spell Damage per Power Charge" is just 1 point away, and seems important enough for this build. Worth taking over one 5% life node? 88 life for 3k average hit (or 11289dps).


4. What about the writhing jar? It provides 4 to 6 worms for instant power charges.

GGG needs to give cold snap more love. So much smaller aoe than ice nova, yet the damage vs ice nova isnt that much better. just do a quick swap of cold snap and ice nova on your tree and you will understand.

The difference between ice nova and cold snap is that, one is fixed on your location and the other can be targeted anywhere.
Tried to play shock nova once, and that was the biggest issue. Ultimately switched to storm call.
About spell echo, yes it can give 2 charges per 1 cast and with over 70% crit without flask it probably will, still ice spear with gmp is a good countermeasure for rng.
As for other classes, I'm afraid that without proper reflect mitigation we are just dead...
And the worms, you would have to again target yourself or facetank the boss.
Lastly spell damage per power charge, would prefer to lose a jewel socked, but nice idea with so many power charges :)
thx for trying to upgrade the build

I have not tried this yet, but according to the wiki ice nova cast while a frostbolt is traveling will be centered over there instead of where you are.

yes, but that is 2-skill gameplay and like lazy as **** builds :)

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SmoczyArchaniol wrote:

without it... really don't see any way to play it unfortunately :/

The other way is taking Resolute Technique and using Romira's Banquet, but unfortunately, it's still cold snap and as such is lacklustre while also preventing crit scaling.

I tried to theorycraft a cold snap build before. I love cold spells. However, my major caveats with the skill are as follows:

At level 20, the gem only has 462 to 693 damage range. Compare this to Frostbolt at 752 to 1129. Scaling Cold Snap is inherently terrible by comparison.

It has no interesting mechanic. Freeze chance is not interesting anymore without critical damage because of defender_max_life being a component.

Still only has a base crit of 5%. Nothing fun there, lets look elsewhere...

Cannot be triggered or automated in any intelligent way / systems are not in place for it to be interesting.

Power Charge consumption to make it run means you have to make your builds from a point of deficit initially. Why when you can start builds with more instead of less?

And finally, because of the Area nerfs.

--
Your approach specifically has 400 unreserved mana, and then went MoM. Had 3% physical damage reduction and 15% evasion chance. 181% life on tree and VP, but nothing particularly helpful in terms of actually avoiding stunlock. 15% block. voll's chest piece + mom makes my face scrunch up.

>_>

Investment into additional area to even get close to your 32 mark. It's still tremendously small. AoE screenclearing days are over.

only 356% crit multi. Even in the hypothetical universe where you have your frost bomb on targets, rallying cry up, arcane surged, full charges, silver flask running, they aren't ele resist, they didn't walk out of your AoE, and you have perfect crit chance, your ceiling of damage is still 221k average damage.

So much more is out there, with such less investment. By the time they heavily invest, their numbers get close to 2-3 million.

--
Again, I'm not saying your build couldn't be fun. I tried to make a cold snap build this league too. It's just not in a good place right now, it hasn't been in a while, and no one at GGG is giving it much love. Saying it's still just as pretty as any of the other girls is not doing it any ego favors.

I don't even think a Tempest's Binding helps it...

But I do appreciate your work to making a new build with a forgotten skill. I just wish it had more potential (The skill, not your approach).

Cheers

What about using double void batteries? I also dont think elementalist is the best option. Assassin would sadly struggle with reflect, but what about scion with assassin/elementalist ascendancy?