[3.5] Scold Snap™ - a low-life league starter Cold Snap Occultist

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cha_siu_bao wrote:

Any thoughts on what you'd throw in that 4L instead of Vortex? Maybe support gems for Phase Run or Flame Dash?

First: I do not know if Vortex DoT stacks with Cold Snap DoT. Despite that there are plenty of options:
1.) Decoy Totem (do not know how good it is in boss fights)
- Boss will stay in Cold Snap DoT longer
2.) Freny Charge Spectre Ape (with Minion Life and Blood Magic (after summoning)
- Yeah more frenzy charges
3.) Animate Guardian, Stone Golem, Zombies
- More decoys
4.) Arctic Armor
- fire and physical damage reduction

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cha_siu_bao wrote:

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knivil wrote:

2.) In the skill tree you selected Increasd Skill Effect Duration, but after 5 seconds you can just recast Cold Snap. Does Increased Skill Effect Duration has other purposes?

In order of descending awesomeness:
- ...

Ok, I buy it. :)

And for the other stuff: Yeah you are right. I will try it as CI, because I cannot find a way to acquire enough chaos resist.

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knivil wrote:

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cha_siu_bao wrote:

Any thoughts on what you'd throw in that 4L instead of Vortex? Maybe support gems for Phase Run or Flame Dash?

First: I do not know if Vortex DoT stacks with Cold Snap DoT.

They do stack, due to being from two different sources. This is similar to stacking DoT from Fire Trap's burning ground, RF, Searing Bond, and Scorching Ray.

Regarding the skill duration wheel in the passive tree... While theorycrafting, my friends and I spent quite a while debating its value for the build. I think we went through 3 different skill tree candidates in the course of that lengthy discussion.

Your use of Scold's reminds me of something I did in incursion.

That said, have you thought about the interaction with Apep's Supremacy + Scold's?

Scold's will self poison for perma +3% max Res, also as it is a continuous source of damage it makes the faster start of ES recharge that much more powerful.

You would lose a chunk of ES and want to swap weapons but... food for thought I suppose.

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Gryphenprey wrote:

Your use of Scold's reminds me of something I did in incursion.

That said, have you thought about the interaction with Apep's Supremacy + Scold's?

Absolutely. It's just really expensive, and -60% chaos resist makes any chaos damage really painful. I just don't like this shield on a low-life build, unless we have a shit ton of chaos resist.

But as CI? Hell yeah! Great shield.

Assuming I can't afford an empower level 4 should I just use a level 3? Or is there another gem I should use unless I have a level 4?

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cha_siu_bao wrote:

Absolutely. It's just really expensive, and -60% chaos resist makes any chaos damage really painful. I just don't like this shield on a low-life build, unless we have a shit ton of chaos resist.

But as CI? Hell yeah! Great shield.

Yeah you're right. I totally forgot this was LL when I wrote this post. XD

Yeah, Apep's not worth it for that. haha

hi, what do you think about using malachai's artifice ring for EE proc?

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vutuan372 wrote:

hi, what do you think about using malachai's artifice ring for EE proc?

While I appreciate that ZiggyD created an interesting and thought-provoking item, I will never use or recommend Malachai's Artifice for any build ever.

Why I hate that ring for any build, in order of descending importance:
-no life, no energy shield
-applies EE at only 75% effectiveness, and only with one skill
-makes achieving capped ele resistances a pain in the ass
-no direct damage scaling
-no attributes
-no mana, no mana regen

Why I hate that ring for Scold Snap: (all of the above points included)
-"20% faster start of ES recharge" is huge for an Occultist that doesn't leech from hits.
-it would force me to self-cast my EE skill, making the build feel significantly more clunky
-there are very few skill gems that feel efficient without support gems. This is even more noticeable when a build has 30% reduced cast speed (from helm and gloves)
-the Scold Snap passive tree already paths right past EE. Equipping Malachai's Artifice would save me one passive point.

TLDR: To say "the drawbacks outweigh the benefits" would be a massive understatement. That ring is a noob trap and tends to make builds worse, not better - doubly so for Scold Snap in particular.

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soultari wrote:

Assuming I can't afford an empower level 4 should I just use a level 3? Or is there another gem I should use unless I have a level 4?

I believe Empower 3 will be best in the meantime. I used Path of Building as a guide here, specifically focusing on support gems that would best scale the DoT without sacrificing utility/AoE.

I highly recommend you import the build into PoB and start fiddling around with the support gems, if you're ever curious/skeptical about support gem choices. This is sound advice for looking in-depth at any build guide.

Highest DPS gem combination:
Cold Snap - Empower - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Efficacy - Concentrated Effect

If Empower is not an option, for whatever reason:
Cold Snap - Hypothermia - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Efficacy - Concentrated Effect

Nice build buddy ope I like it, would play but i play diablo 3