[3.5] Scold Snap Reloaded. But I use Vortex more often so... Scovortex? Vort's Bridle?
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We can now officially take the build anywhere. I've completed all of the game content deathless, and I'm confident that a more skilled player could farm Uber Elder consistently in hardcore with this specific build variant.
The most surprising part of this build was that this is the lowest Path of Building DPS I've ever had on any of my Cold Snap / Vortex variants, and yet this is the Scold Snap variant I would recommend for Uber Elder farming in HC. Vortex is simply that smooth to play; it made all the difference. Cold DoT Occultists are now popular, so I'm sure you can find plenty of other guides for very similar builds. Dsfarblarwaggle, among many others, has run a CI Occultist in HC Betrayal to great success. You will probably find more success using his build than using mine. PoB Pastebin link level 95 Occultist.
Things I learned in Vortex school:
1. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. 2. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. You can go easy on the damage nodes and still get the damage necessary to beat everything in the game. 3. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. You don't need damage curses. Elemental Equilibrium and Frost Bomb are all the resistance reduction you need. Temp Chains + Enfeeble for life, even in a SC league. 4. Aegis Aurora equates to a ton of energy shield in 3.5. Spell damage on a rare archon kite shield is nice, but the max cold resist from Aegis Aurora is more valuable to me. Between unstable wetas in deep delves and Uber Elder shenanigans, I need more cold res to make up for all the bad decisions I make. 5. Run into a pack of monsters, then cast Storm Brand and Vortex at the same time. You can do this because Vortex has no cast time. Every monster died and you barely missed a step. 6. The new "cast when you use a skill" crafted mod has a 5 second cooldown. That's not cool. You do things faster than that. Expect more from your build. 7. Find ways to do multiple things at once. In the time it takes you to cast Storm Brand once, you can cast a different spell (Vortex) and proc two others (Frost Bomb and Orb of Storms). 8. If you can manage to do two things at once, now try to do it faster. Faster Casting in Storm Brand links? Sure, why not. 9. If you cast Cold Snap followed by Phase Run, you can hide in plain sight and generate frenzy charges at the same time.
Current Gear
Gem Links
1. Vortex Efficacy Controlled Destruction Bonechill Hypothermia Elemental Focus 2. Storm Brand Faster Casting Curse on Hit Enfeeble 3. Cold Snap (in +2 to AoE gems helm) Efficacy Controlled Destruction Elemental Focus 4. Blasphemy Blood Magic Temporal Chains -----------------------------------------------
Betrayal league Scold Snap build diary
Excerpt from a comment from the original Scold Snap thread. Sadly I hit the maximum character limit, and didn't plan ahead by reserving the first comment spot for future expansion. I have no plans to update the guide until I've actually done some science. I see no point in misleading people with my predictions and conjecture. Sadly I also have final exams coming next week, so I won't be able to get serious until Dec 16th. But I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're still interested in my plans for Betrayal league, so here you go... First few days: life + MoM 90-point starting tree (poeurl link) High priority items: Carcass Jack, Doedre's Tenure, Rime Gaze, Spine of the First Claimant Low priority items: Rathpith Globe, Cerberus Limb Endgame plan: low-life with slightly modified tree and gems 116-point endgame tree (poeurl link) Item possibilities: Aegis Aurora, Rime Gaze, Scold's Bridle, Doedre's Malevolence Cold Snap gem setup will remain the same. Supporting skills gem links will assuredly change, but I can't currently predict what they will be. I could not have been more wrong about my gem links. Everything changed when I discovered the joy of mapping with an instant-cast DPS spell. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I leveled to 87 in a cozy little private league, and was still life + MoM wearing group-found gear. All the good rare pieces, other than the boots, were self-found. level 87 "Cold Snapper." Let's be real - it's a budget Vortexer in disguise. still no uber lab completion still no respec still no shavs PoB pastebin link Build Update: 19/12/2018 level 93. PoB pastebin link
Current gear, as of 19/12/2018
The weapon/shield dilemma
Option 1: Option 2: Option 1: 10100 ES. No potential for damage, but ideal in terms of defense and efficiency. Option 2: 9300 ES. Potential for higher ES and higher damage (this sceptre provides more DPS than Cerberus). But without a ridiculously good shield this combination is objectively worse. Build Update: 13/1/2019 We can now officially take the build anywhere. Two consecutive deathless Uber Elder runs, one of which included a party member who died several times. I have completed deathless Uber Elder runs four times in Betrayal league, and am confident that a more skilled player could farm Uber Elder consistently in hardcore with this specific build variant. Cold DoT Occultists are now popular, so I'm sure you can find plenty of other guides for very similar builds. Dsfarblarwaggle, among many others, has run a CI Occultist in HC Betrayal to great success.
Current Gear
Gem Links
1. Vortex Efficacy Controlled Destruction Bonechill Hypothermia Elemental Focus 2. Storm Brand Faster Casting Curse on Hit Enfeeble
Things I learned in Vortex school:
1. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. 2. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. You can go easy on the damage nodes and still get the damage necessary to beat everything in the game. 3. Vortex does a LOT of damage in 3.5. You don't need damage curses. Elemental Equilibrium and Frost Bomb are all the resistance reduction you need. Temp Chains + Enfeeble for life, even in a SC league. 4. Aegis Aurora equates to a ton of energy shield in 3.5. Spell damage on a rare archon kite shield is nice, but the max cold resist from Aegis Aurora is more valuable to me. Between unstable wetas in deep delves and Uber Elder shenanigans, I need more cold res to make up for all the bad decisions I make. 5. Run into a pack of monsters, then cast Storm Brand and Vortex at the same time. You can do this because Vortex has no cast time. Every monster died and you barely missed a step. 6. The new "cast when you use a skill" crafted mod has a 5 second cooldown. That's not cool. You do things faster than that. Expect more from your build. Last edited by cha_siu_bao#5819 on Jan 14, 2019, 11:03:11 AM Last bumped on Jan 18, 2019, 6:48:38 PM
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would you say aegis Aurora shield outperforms an archon kite shield ? or is it just cause you didnt find something to your liking yet in betrayal ?
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" Defensively, it will be near impossible to do better than Aegis. A rare shield can do pretty much everything Aegis can do, but to actually craft a rare archon kite shield with all the mods we want... best of luck with that, lol. Things Aegis can get, that a rare shield can't: (1118 armor, 218 ES) 1. 5% max cold resistance 2. That goofy ES-on-block mechanic (not useful for this build at all) Things a rare shield can get, that Aegis can't: (1050 armor, 300 ES) 1. DAMAGES! Spell damage, elemental damage, cold damage. It's worth noting that all of these mods are prefixes that will get in the way of armor/ES mods. More damage = less defense. 2. Resistances. Aegis may have 10% all res, but it's peanuts compared to what we can achieve on a rare shield. 3. Attributes. Aegis gives us nothing, while a rare shield can get 50+ intelligence, which gives global % increased ES. 4. Shaped/Elder mods. Max resists are a possibility, but they're also prefixes (same issue as spell damage mods) |
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i followed your original cold snap guide and made my first witch, i managed to get to endgame and i love it so much, however i have strayed alot from the guide and i myself have switched to vortex for main dps
i have many dillemas and things to work on but my biggest one yet is the shield, should i get a titanium or not? is the es outweighing the dps? im currently at 12k es i hope you can have a look and let me know what you think about the shield option |
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Level 93 Is there anything i can get better ? (some gems sock only for leveling) |
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New thread, new updates!
Current PoB (10.5k ES, 2.5m shaper DPS): https://pastebin.com/cYAJq5Fp Upgrades since last update (which was posted on the old thread):
Spoiler
At this point we're not really changing stuff substantially, we're just making minor upgrades on our gear choices. A person suggested to try Chayula and a rare belt over Bated Breath and a rare amulet. It loses damage and recharge to gain max ES and chaos resistance, which I don't deem particularly important at this point in time, but it's another path someone might want to go down to. Next upgrade would be a clarity + disci watcher's eye, but we're talking about a 45ex jewel here and I'll probably start another build instead. " Doedre's Malevolence are fairly underwhelming if you're not using the Scold combo, I suggest you to try and find some rare gloves and shift some resistances on other pieces of your gear to more damage. After that, I'd try to get some damage on your shield possibly, since that's the main advantage of going for a rare shield over Aegis Aurora. Last edited by Maxpoggi#7500 on Dec 27, 2018, 2:59:07 PM
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Hey, you're playing a similiar build- More uniques.
Its nice to see the variation and combos to make on this kind of build! Question, why Bonechill instead of Swift affliction? Wouldnt it be better to use Cold Snap with Bonechill(get the debuffs on) and then pop Vortex ontop ? You'll lose some Cold Snap damage, but gain much more damage with Vortex. ~ Raz
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" Yeah I would put Bonechill in your Cold Snap link and either Swift Affliction or Inc AoE/Conc in the Vortex. There is little point in putting Bonechill in your main link, as it applies a global debuff and is not at all necessary on trash, especially for a 6l. I think you should use Cold Snap primarily as a support skill - especially since you have so much reduced cast speed and vortex is instant cast. My links for reference: Rime Gaze purely for the cold DoT multi, which is more damage than a fossil helm with -9%. Though I have enough damage and landed a vortex damage enchant on a hubris so will probably try fossil craft that at some point. Last edited by Yllib#0263 on Jan 14, 2019, 4:24:21 PM
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" "Wouldnt it be better to use Cold Snap with Bonechill and then pop Vortex on top?" For total DPS? Definitely. For playstyle and overall build comfort? Hell no. Swapping Bonechill out for Swift Affliction is a great idea for clearing maps. But in boss fights, particularly Uber Elder, trying to execute that spell rotation is an unnecessary risk that I prefer to avoid. I very much enjoy the feeling of not needing to cast Cold Snap to boost my Vortex damage. I want to be able to whoosh by my target and cast one fast spell (other than the instant-cast Vortex). Cold Snap is NOT a fast spell. In fact, it has one of the slowest cast times of any spell in the game. Why not Rime Gaze though? The drawback takes away from my survivability in boss fights. It's great damage, but the one thing that keeps me in the fight is my ES recharge and you want me to reduce it by 50%? Hard pass. If you look closely, you'll see a recurring theme of choosing build comfort and sustain over DPS. The damage would be higher, but not by a large margin, if I went with your suggestions. They are indeed good suggestions, if DPS is our number 1 priority. I tried them around Christmas time and decided I didn't enjoy the effects they had on my playstyle. Last edited by cha_siu_bao#5819 on Jan 14, 2019, 9:09:46 PM
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Do you have any videos of this build in action?
livejamie
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