[3.0] Crit Frostbolt MoM Berserker | 1 M + Boss DPS | 9.5K+ HP

INTRODUCTION

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The goal of this build was a almost unkillable frostbolt spellcaster making the best use of the berserker leech + the 'Mind over Matter' keystone with a large pool of hitpoints and good mitigation.


So far the character is lvl 95 in Harbinger league and cleared maps up to guardians and surprisingly even the Hall of Grandmasters very easy. Even on a minotaur map with 3 damage mods it was just rightclick, standing in all overlapping AOE (Rocks) and no problem. We'll see how long GGG alows that nonsense. :D

VIDEO

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Dunes Map: https://youtu.be/tOYfx7rPIKE
Some random map for showing the aoe coverage and general mapping.

2 damage mods Minotaur Map: https://youtu.be/SeuJyO4SoIg
Didnt use controlled destruction gem, vaal haste and power charges for the most part against the boss for showcasing how long and how much damage this build can endure.
But don't stay on spot until the very end like i perfectly demonstrated here. :D

Be aware that depending on the map mods you will still have to dodge some attacks/spells versus some of the guardians. The worst encounter is the chimera guardian with his cloud phases. Get some more life flasks for that one and hurry.


OVERVIEW

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Pros:

+ big hp and instant leech
+ overall good additional defenses with up to 10k armour and 50% block
+ very good aoe while mapping with 9-11 projectiles
+ good boss dps, can get to above 1 million dps buffed on guardians with very good gear
+ no issues with reflect rares while mapping, reflect map mod see cons
+ can facetank many high tier bosses
+ flexible skill tree and bandit choices depending on your preferences
+ can take on all bosses even Hall of Grandmasters if you swap in i.e. Scorching Ray for the few 'Heal on Block' Grandmasters
+ gearing is cheap to get going until mid tier maps

Cons:

- average mobility
- has to swap gem for bosses (gmp for i.e. hypothermia)
- elemental reflect and no leech map mods not recommended
- can get a bit pricy to gear for lategame


SKILL TREE

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Marauder - Berserker Ascendancy

Passives at lvl 95

Ascendancy Points: I picked pain reaver first, then crave the slaughter, aspect of carnage and finally in the endgame lab cloaked in savagery.

Bandits: Alira for resists and crit multi, but depending on your gear you can make good use out of Kraityn or the 2 extra skill points, too.


LEVELING TREE

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SKILL TREE EXPLANATION

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The skill tree pathing i made is still quiet similar to many crit spell caster builds with the keystones 'Vaal Pact' and 'Mind over Matter' being essential.

If you want to go for the block left of the templar tree ('Whirling Barrier') like i did is up to you. With a perfect rumis concoction flask you get 50% block and up to 9000+ armour which helps the build a lot.

You still have plenty of room to choose between damage and increasing your life or mana pool. I went for a good mix between both adapting to map bosses like i.e. the guardian maps with up to 3 or more damage mods. If you really want to you can pump up your hp to around 12000 and i.e. lower your damage and block quiet a bit (left of templar tree).

Vaal Pact and Atziris Acuity Gloves:
The Gloves provide leech on crit but you still dont want to drop Vaal Pact once you have the gloves because the few extra points for more consistant leech and the jewel slot you get there are well worth it.
Also reflect damage works in a way that would put you in bad situations every now and then without Vaal Pact and only the Atziri Gloves. Leech and reflect get applied in that order: Damage dealt - Leech - Reflect damage taken. What might happen is Crit Damage - Leech - Reflect - Non Crit - No (instant) Leech - Reflect .. You get the point ;).


JEWELS

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My current jewels:


2 Frozen Trail jewels for 4 extra projectiles.

Look out for following stats on rare jewels:

%increased maximum life
resists

critical strike multiplier (with elemental skills, cold skills, spells)
increased cast speed, cold damage, spell damage, projectile damage, damage,
increased cast speed / spell damage while wiedling a staff

Path of Building Code

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https://pastebin.com/xGNhLiUZ


PATH OF BUILDING SCREENSHOT

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CURRENT LATEGAMEGEAR

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SOME CHEAP GEAR ALTERNATIVES

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Besides from rare items there are many uniques too that are helpfull until you can afford or loot the lategame gear, here are a few:


I recommend getting the Pledge of Hands Staff as soon as possible, next upgrade in the line would be the Kaoms Heart body armour.

Flasks

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You can add more offensive flasks like Atziris Promise or Wise Oak to your build if you like to drop i.e. Rumis Concoction.

GEAR EXPLANATION

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LINKS AND GEMS

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Main DPS Setup

Until you can afford or level Empower you can use the increased critical damage gem instead. Another option i.e. instead of hypothermia is the added cold damage gem.

Setup for high hp boss fights:


Not recommended for mapping because of reflect damage, to counter you need Sybils Lament and replace i.e. controlled destruction for faster casting.

Setup for mapping:



Greater multiple projectiles will give you a total of 9 projectiles for mapping and faster casting also will lower your damage per hit and allow for quicker reactions to monster packs while at the same time reducing reflect damage by a lot. I can map with that setup even in -max maps and with the help of the Yugul pantheon power (25% reduced reflect damage taken) you can afford to drop the sybils lament ring.

CWDT Setup

cwdt - immortal call - enfeeble (or assassins mark/frostbite for endgame bosses) - vortex (or frostbomb for endgame bosses)

Instead of vortex you can experiment with many more spells for extra healing or crowd control effects, i.e. firestorm would work fine for some extra healing too.

The level of your cwdt setup is up to you, each comes with pros and cons. I am playing right now with max lvl cwdt because my hp pool allows it.

Mobility Setup

Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration

or Flame Dash

Orb of Storms Charge Generation and Arcane Surge

Orb of Storms - Power Charge on Crit - Arcane Surge - Increased Duration

With increased duration you can get the mana cost up to 47 and that way the level of arcane surge to 8 and at the same time you increase the duration for arcane surge from 4 to 7 seconds. My favourite setup. The power charge generation is also pretty quick, depending on your cast speed on gear and skill tree.

Vaal Haste

Right now i only use it for short bursts on bosses etc. but it is best used with increased duration. Will probably try to fit that in.

Projectile Weakness

By far the best dps curse for the build. Even with the 80% reduction on guardians it is still significant. 20% quality is mandatory.

Golem

Lightning Golem for extra cast speed and i like him because he's trying to tank for you and that way often acts as a pretty good decoy totem.


Tyvm @ MoarPizza for the very nice build guide template.

THE END

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Updated the gear section, the introduction and a few descriptions.

Hey thanks for the build! I was looking for a better crit build than I had made and this looks like it fits the build. I didn't know that pandemonious amulet existed, I think its a super powerful item for a build like this. Blind, Chill, and tons of extra damage, yes please!

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icelockon wrote:

Hey thanks for the build! I was looking for a better crit build than I had made and this looks like it fits the build.

Hi, with small changes the build might work for a couple of crit spell builds. Nice to hear you liked it. Cheers!

I see you don't any mana reserve on the build. Wouldnt it be good to use clear mind jewel?

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binkyboy wrote:

I see you don't any mana reserve on the build. Wouldnt it be good to use clear mind jewel?

Yes, that would be a good and affordable alternative to rare jewels if you want to go for more damage per frostball. But i think with the amount of uniques there are in the build it is really important to get i.e. resists on jewels. I wanted to cap them out for ele weakness in case i run out of flasks versus guardian bosses and not to rely too much on warding flasks in general.

Thanks for the build, I took it a bit of a different way and used duskdawn + tabula for most of the game, a good alternative if you can't 6L the pledge (I haven't even been able to 6S it yet in mayhem). Currently running a skin of lords with a lvl 3 empower, it is more dps than your build, I think - but much less HP without the kaoms.

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AlexF wrote:

a good alternative if you can't 6L the pledge (I haven't even been able to 6S it yet in mayhem).

Yeah what i learned from a bunch of my chars is that you usually get your endgame gear going in between lvl 90-95 in a new league. By lvl 95 with a little help of farming + trading all the currency needed is there, before lvl 90 i had next to nothing most of the time. But i would add that i stopped trying to 6l items myselves a long time ago.

could u upload some videos? like map clearing and guardians ?

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guggelhupf wrote:

could u upload some videos? like map clearing and guardians ?

I'll try to figure that out how that works when i find some time. :)