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

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s0mosh wrote:

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heehaw2002 wrote:

1) What is the reason we 6L snap instead of vortex? When it seems like vortex is being used more often?

2) Is storm brand better than Orb at applying curses?

I agree with you, I also beefed up vortex for clear and use vaal cold snap only for bosses.

Storm Brand should work nice for cursing, I personaly use it for spreading Elemental Equilibrium, which works also perfectly smooth.
But since you can keep this build running smoothly on low mana whith flask charges I would just use blasphemy for your curse.

For the most part, I agree on both points. Vortex is currently one of the most ridiculously overtuned skills in PoE. If you take a look at my current character, she's also got Vortex in a 6L now.

Drawbacks to running 6L Vortex instead of Cold Snap:
-less AoE, so a bit more of a hassle to fully clear a large room.
-doesn't generate frenzy charges
-cooldown is nice and short, but still can't be bypassed
-one spell to apply Bonechill, one spell to apply DPS and benefit from that Bonechill... I think it feels awkward to put Bonechill on Cold Snap instead of Vortex. I know that means less DPS for Vortex, but it's the support gem combo that applies Bonechill the fastest without slowing me down.

Storm Brand for applying curses:
It seems to work very well most of the time, with occasional moments where I have to spam the spell to ensure a pack is fully cursed. It's frustrating at times, but worth the extra convenience of being able to curse monsters on the edge of my screen.

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cha_siu_bao wrote:

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s0mosh wrote:

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heehaw2002 wrote:

1) What is the reason we 6L snap instead of vortex? When it seems like vortex is being used more often?

2) Is storm brand better than Orb at applying curses?

I agree with you, I also beefed up vortex for clear and use vaal cold snap only for bosses.

Storm Brand should work nice for cursing, I personaly use it for spreading Elemental Equilibrium, which works also perfectly smooth.
But since you can keep this build running smoothly on low mana whith flask charges I would just use blasphemy for your curse.

For the most part, I agree on both points. Vortex is currently one of the most ridiculously overtuned skills in PoE. If you take a look at my current character, she's also got Vortex in a 6L now.

Drawbacks to running 6L Vortex instead of Cold Snap:
-less AoE, so a bit more of a hassle to fully clear a large room.
-doesn't generate frenzy charges
-cooldown is nice and short, but still can't be bypassed
-one spell to apply Bonechill, one spell to apply DPS and benefit from that Bonechill... I think it feels awkward to put Bonechill on Cold Snap instead of Vortex. I know that means less DPS for Vortex, but it's the support gem combo that applies Bonechill the fastest without slowing me down.

Storm Brand for applying curses:
It seems to work very well most of the time, with occasional moments where I have to spam the spell to ensure a pack is fully cursed. It's frustrating at times, but worth the extra convenience of being able to curse monsters on the edge of my screen.

It still can work I think, with some tweaking in gems. If you are playing Scold, you can link a Frostbolt to your CWDT + GMP + Ball Lightning combo. With that you can have Vortexes covering your screen.

You can also opt to use it in the Trigger Socketed Spell on Skill weapon. Might wanna remove the Frostbolt on some bosses like Izaro though as it might be bit clunky.

Depending on your setup you don't need to choose between Cold Snap or Vortex for your 6L. You can clear all the maps with Cold Snap as your main skill then just swap it for Vortex for really scary end-game content. I don't even swap on Conc Effect on my 5L Cold Snap most of the time and absolutely smash everything in red maps. The damage is more than enough.

Rime Gaze: Vortex + Controlled Destruction + Efficacy + Elemental Focus

6L Chest: Cold Snap + Controlled Destruction + Efficacy + Elemental Focus + Spell Cascade + Hypothermia

Currently I swap Spell Cascade for Conc Effect if I really need more damage (almost never). But I could also swap Vortex into my chest (if it were a 6L) and put Cold Snap in the Rime Gaze before going into something like Shaper or Uber Elder. It only takes a couple seconds to do the swap and then you have the best of both worlds.

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Dmillz wrote:

Depending on your setup you don't need to choose between Cold Snap or Vortex for your 6L. You can clear all the maps with Cold Snap as your main skill then just swap it for Vortex for really scary end-game content. I don't even swap on Conc Effect on my 5L Cold Snap most of the time and absolutely smash everything in red maps. The damage is more than enough.

Rime Gaze: Vortex + Controlled Destruction + Efficacy + Elemental Focus

6L Chest: Cold Snap + Controlled Destruction + Efficacy + Elemental Focus + Spell Cascade + Hypothermia

Currently I swap Spell Cascade for Conc Effect if I really need more damage (almost never). But I could also swap Vortex into my chest (if it were a 6L) and put Cold Snap in the Rime Gaze before going into something like Shaper or Uber Elder. It only takes a couple seconds to do the swap and then you have the best of both worlds.

my internal dialogue after reading this comment:
nice_guy_cha: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

normal_cha: "Yeah, but I don't think he's using the most optimal support gems..."

nice_guy_cha: "I SAID IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT, PORK BUN."


Seriously, I'd rather understand your perspective than try to talk you into changing up your gems. What was the thought process behind not using Bonechill for either of your two cold spells?

It's on other links.

Arctic Breath + Bonechill + Vigilant Strike + Frost Bomb. Since all our damage is DoT in fairly large areas I find it very easy to keep high uptime on Bonechill while casting it separately and don't mind the little bit of extra micro. I only use it for map bosses and Syndicate fights basically, everything else dies before I can cast it.

This is obviously personal preference and if someone wants to use it as a main link and not bother with Arctic Breath that makes sense to me too.

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Dmillz wrote:

It's on other links.

Arctic Breath + Bonechill + Vigilant Strike + Frost Bomb. Since all our damage is DoT in fairly large areas I find it very easy to keep high uptime on Bonechill while casting it separately and don't mind the little bit of extra micro. I only use it for map bosses and Syndicate fights basically, everything else dies before I can cast it.

This is obviously personal preference and if someone wants to use it as a main link and not bother with Arctic Breath that makes sense to me too.

Absolutely. There are a variety of ways to make a strong build here.

The extra micro really doesn't bug you at all? Do you have more cast speed to compensate, or is this just a matter of slowing your tempo?

I don't use Doedres gloves so that helps a little. Mostly I just don't have to use it very often. Outside of map bosses and Syndicate fights I basically never cast Arctic Breath. Also the AOE is fairly large, spreads, and lasts almost 8 seconds.

Usually for a scary encounter I'll make sure I have Fortify up with Vigilant strike (31s duration, not even max level yet). Then if I can setup without aggro from range I'll cast AB + Storm Brand (Malachai ring), Flame Dash in, cast Vortex + Cold Snap + Frost Bomb, watch everything die in the next 1-3 seconds.

If I can't precast then I make sure I get my Vortex down first, then cycle through Storm Brand, AB, Frostbomb, Cold Snap. Once I've casted them all once I just make sure my Vortex is always hitting them. Most fights I never have to cast Storm Brand/Frost Bomb/AB more than once at the start.

Basically I sacrifice a little bit of damage in the first 1-2 seconds of the fight (having to cast an extra spell) for more overall damage in longer fights.

At the moment I'm running a trigger socketed gems on weap. with Frostbomb+Bonechill to get this effects going...

I trigger EE with Malachai's ring and Storm Brand..

I'm still lvl 70, but clearspeed is great... I just dash around popping vortex (Scold with Vortex+Controlled Destruc+Elemental Focus+Efficacy)

Also still wearing a 4-link armor with Cold Snap and same supp gems from Vortex.

Most of the time I don't even waste time using Storm Brand to trigger EE, only for stronger bosses... for this reason I'm currently using Blasphemy + Enfeeble and CWDT+Temporal chains

I felt like having Enfeeble mitigating damage constantly would be better than constantly slowing monsters, so I put it on CWDT.. I was thinking of maybe changing Temporal Chains to Frostbite, for more dmg, any thoughts on this?

I am currently playing on a Potato PC, so its a bit laggy at times.. so I can't make the most of Temporal chains + Blasphemy, thus I'm using Enfeeble.

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kennoba wrote:

At the moment I'm running a trigger socketed gems on weap. with Frostbomb+Bonechill to get this effects going...

I trigger EE with Malachai's ring and Storm Brand..

I'm still lvl 70, but clearspeed is great... I just dash around popping vortex (Scold with Vortex+Controlled Destruc+Elemental Focus+Efficacy)

Also still wearing a 4-link armor with Cold Snap and same supp gems from Vortex.

Most of the time I don't even waste time using Storm Brand to trigger EE, only for stronger bosses... for this reason I'm currently using Blasphemy + Enfeeble and CWDT+Temporal chains

I felt like having Enfeeble mitigating damage constantly would be better than constantly slowing monsters, so I put it on CWDT.. I was thinking of maybe changing Temporal Chains to Frostbite, for more dmg, any thoughts on this?

I am currently playing on a Potato PC, so its a bit laggy at times.. so I can't make the most of Temporal chains + Blasphemy, thus I'm using Enfeeble.

Frostbomb is really bad for Bonechill as it only does damage and can chill with the explosion at the end.

No reason you can use both Temp Chains + Blasphemy, that's what I'm doing.

First of all, thank you Cha, i decided to use your build on betrayal sc and it carried me all the way to lvl90.

awesome build, easy leveling, its very fun to play.



Now that i approach end game, i try to qual and vaal all my gems, i feel a little bit confused.

i know vortex got a big buff, and stuff changed for 3.5.
should i just continue like in your guide ?

sorry iam a rather stupid person, and figuring stuff out is not my forte..

iam considering if i should 6 link cold snap like you posted, or change to 6 link vortex, iam allso not sure how to handle chill effect, hypthermia, bonechill, ellemental focus (ellemental focus prevents chill, right ? )

anyway. thank you again for this guide! super fun!