[3.9] Ice Nova Hierophant | All Content | Millions+ DPS | Much QoL | Such 11k+ ES and Armor

Welcome Exile!



This is the Freezing Santa, ;)

3.9 Update: Buff via Ivory Tower unique Armor and woke Gems (unsurprisingly).

Updated PoB: (pretty expensive and ideal Gear)

https://pastebin.com/vNpdur6E

If you are uncomfortable with the Ivory Tower and want more Chaos Resistance you can look for more on rare items or allocate 'Cleansed Thoughts' which doubles Chaos Resistance.

Another possibility would be to fit in a Purity of Elements instead of Haste or Zealotry which A) would free up resistance suffixs on rare items to get chaos res and B) enables you to benefit from a Watchers Eye Mod which gives up to 50% Chaos Resistance while affected by Purity of Elements and C) leaves more Mana unreserved to soak more chaos damage.

I found nothing like that was needed as long as I got chaos res on 2 or 3 of my rares. (Dual resist crafts tend to be really good for getting some Chaos res going.)

Please be considerate that it will propably take quite long to update all Videos etc to 3.9.




It is an ES-based Crit-Caster which is highly viable despite the current melee focused phys-meta! (Cyclone anyone?)

At it's core this is an Low-Life Pledge of Hands Hierophant useing the very strong IceNova - Frostbolt interaction to deal damage while stacking Mana as the defensive stat.

10K+ES are easily doable while having 10k Armor to (ab)use the new and improved (vaal) Molten Shell - Immunity to all Elemental Ailments are included as is effective Stun Immunity. For sustain this build uses Leech powered by Ghost Reaver.

This build can be somewhat expensive to push into high tier maps, but since the current prices for ES gear are generaly low it is quite affordable overall. (Watcher's Eye excluded since 3.9 since it got stupid expensive with UElder being haggard to do.)

Disclaimer: I am not a big league player - I find playing league and leveling boring and to be a chore. I do enjoy making builds though - that's why I give people I know and trust builds of mine -on request- to play during league. I gotta do what I like in the game - making builds - and others enjoy cheap builds (since they tend to be slightly off-meta - at least till I post a guide ^^'). Anyhow! The reason I say this is because the Videos and ItemLinks in this thread will be provided by YT_HB and not me.

A big shoutout to the people who have found my guides helpful and enjoyable and donated anything from a couple chaos to a headhunter to me in standard, where I mostly reside. Even though this gear doesn't mean much for those peeps since they are not playing standard, it ment a lot to me and enables me to churn out guides and builds. Thank you guys so much! You know who you are! :)

Special mention to YT_HB and TheGagis who endure my constant babbeling about the latest builds.

In short: A 10k+ Life, Ghost Reaving, Immune to all Elemental Ailments, ES Caster who shatters/freezes all enemies, paired up with a couple Million DPS.

If you absolutly feel like you have to contact me you can do so ingame @Zirinae

Without further lamentation lets take a look at how the build performs:

Videos:

All recorded Videos are deathless:



Gear:

Disclaimer: As always with my Build-Guides do take a look at the PoBs/GemLink sections instead of blindly copying items and gem-links from here.

I will go over the Build Mechanics and its links as I post the items - I found this to be the better way to go about builds and explain the mechanics then to make a seperate sections that noone really reads - and this way most people can put the mechanics I am talking about into relation to the gear used in this build.

Also please note that the gear linked here is good - but by no means at all maxed out. I explain and elaborate on each gearpiece what is important and what could be improved with it if you want to spend more currency.
Even like this though this build does some casual couple million DPS - the actual DPS is not reflected in the PoB however - see the explanation for that at Pledge of Hands in the Gear Section. I am not talking some random nonsense here - you can clearly see the build push Shaper or UElder in seconds towards their next phase in the Videos. :)




Talent Tree:




GemLinks:



Flasks:



Bandits:



Pantheon:




POB:

-reserved-

Reserved for gear and things.



Done

I'm not really familiar with spell echo but does the support gem stack with the spell echo granted by the staff?

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ReapTheKnightmare wrote:

I'm not really familiar with spell echo but does the support gem stack with the spell echo granted by the staff?

Yes, and that's why it's so crazy. It's basically a 52% more multiplier (if the math in the wiki is correct).

"

wiki wrote:

Mechanics
Greater Spell Echo causes supported spells to repeat twice (instead of once), but has no cast speed modifier (instead of 51-70% more cast speed). Repeats deal more Spell Damage and have increased Area of Effect per Repeat. Can combine with Spell Echo Support, that adds 3rd repeat with 105% more Damage. The effective DPS multiplier (including the more cast speed) of a 20/0 Spell Echo Support is 1.53, of Greater Spell Echo Support is 1.35, and of both together is 2.33.[1] The spell damage multiplier of a 20/0 Spell Echo Support is .9, of Greater Spell Echo Support is 1.35, and of both together is 1.525

Path of Building does not currently (v1.4.140) implement Greater Spell Echo Support. In order to simulate DPS with the staff the "Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 30 Greater Spell Echo" mod must be replaced with "Socketed Gems deal 52% more Spell Damage" when using Spell Echo Support, or with "Socketed Gems deal 35% more Spell Damage" when not using that support.[1]

This support does not appear to affect skills such as Blade Vortex which don't hit directly from the cast.

"

ReapTheKnightmare wrote:

I'm not really familiar with spell echo but does the support gem stack with the spell echo granted by the staff?

It not only stacks as YT_HB mentioned (which is good on its own) but it also has a unique interaction with Ice Nova - as described in the Guide. :)

It makes the staff competetive for hierophants that use icenova - like this build here. For almost all other classes/skills you would propably want a rare staff, but for this specific combination Pledge of Hands is Best in Slot.

Which is neat! Unique items that are BiS tend to be a cheaper then Mirrored Rares which are BiS otherwise, usually.

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LegendaryOne wrote:

elemental reflect?
Are you able to run the those maps with reflect reduction and sapphire flask?

No Idea! I usually just reroll those maps as is normal. But this is something to test out for sure! :)

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Cyrix1337 wrote:

"

LegendaryOne wrote:

elemental reflect?
Are you able to run the those maps with reflect reduction and sapphire flask?

No Idea! I usually just reroll those maps as is normal. But this is something to test out for sure! :)

I didn't try to get to a point to handle the ele reflect. I just rerolled like usual.

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LegendaryOne wrote:

I currently don't have character to test but here's what I would do if it was a map I wanted to run.

Attempt to get the sextant mod that negates reflect first as its the best option


1. Run a sapphire flask
2. Soul of Yugul
3. Ash Frost & storm notable
4. Sibyl's Lament Left ring slot

25%+20%+40%=85%

so 15% of the damage from reflect less 20% and reduced by resistances...

Anyone wants to try any/all of these please provide feedback.

Yeah, if you run purity of elements with an watchers eye mod for even less reflected damage taken you can be immune to this mapmod on basically any character.

Practically though I think everyone just rerolls a map with it - or sells the maps if its corrupted if you do not have some other build/friend to run it. Or you keep it in a pile for when you eventually hit the sextant mod you mentioned. :)

Don't get me wrong - its nice to have a character thats totally reflect immune - but I feel like it is generally a bit overstated and a really outdated mechanic that GGG ought to remove. I personally find the difficulty scaling in Delve much more satisfying then the one from haggard mapmods that sometimes disable a build. But it is what it is. :)

On the Build and 3.8 - its actually going to get buffed. xD Which is hilarious. Apparently GGG wants to make Mana more imporant for casters in general - which I find is a good idea - but they (once again) overcompensate and buff this build archetype with new crazy talenttree choices and annoitments. Which is super dumb. After the Occultist and general ES wreckage the Manaphant was the only viable ES caster anyhow - as this build (made in played in 3.7 proofs). And now they go ahead and further buff this - while nerfing trickster and leaving the Occultist almost unviable. x)
But oh-well. GGG gotta do what they gotta do.

When I know the exact patchnotes for 3.8 I will update the build accordingly; but its going to be some buffs overall! :)

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LegendaryOne wrote:

Enjoy Shavs builds especially ones with good amount armor.

I am kinda torn between Assassin BladeVortex/Vaal Icenova staff devastation (was lots of fun for monoliths), Something with the new poison skills, THIS build (since Pledge is OP and I hate crafting)
or my old boring low-life guardian either ED/Contagion or SR/RF

GAME BALANCE

We have to wonder how GGG figures out how and when they balance...
Maybe a dart board?

ALL US KNEW Tornado shot was problem 4 years ago and so they nerfed barrage but left TS alone. Then they keep adding more projectiles/bonus damage/jewels etc and watched as bows trivialized the game until finally do something and it is negligible. Headhunter/Inspired learning are the real problem but they are afraid to upset the player base.

There is just too much change for skills/items.
Characters broken changed/nerfed so frequently.
That's why this format of leagues and path of nerf is wearing thin for me.

Well, this build uses Vaal Ice Nova as well - I mean - its an Ice Nova Build. And it has that IceNova as its primary skill in a sixlink. So yeah - the screenwide clear of that in legion encounters is something you have in this build as well. :)

I can't really comment on the new poison skills - they will propably be very strong, since they are the most recently buffed ones. I personally do not like characters tooooo much that rely on dodge. That new defensive mechanic Assassin gets feels like such a hit-or miss thing that it will either be abused as heckers if its spamable or it will be total crap. (it gives a high dodge chance when you do something and then ticks down and becomes less effective)
It might be crap it if isnt spamable because it isn't like you can activly activate anything against the truely dangerous oneshots - which are not boss mechanics but random - offscreen projectiles from some super juiced Delve/Legion stuff that snipe you from cap-horn in frikken africa. ^^'

Tornado shot - eh. I think the problem is more that it is so dang efficient to farm lowlevel white maps all day long that is the problem. Neither contagion-area (which basically got only nerfed due to legion encounter design which is just so haggard xD) nor Tornadoshot are especially relevant when it comes to doing stuff like deep delves, uber elder etc.

I would have no problem with skills that are good at clearing maps - if the rewards in terms of currency drops would be better in high level maps and thus force players to stop looking at their damage/survivability once they can clear a lowtier map in the fastest possible way.

Headhunter and co only play into that by trivializing whatever build you play. Since a headhunter gives you infinite damage anyhow you literally just look for whatever skill autotargets, chains and ideally is fired from a mirage archer anyhow.


Dont get me wrong - a headhunter *is* fun. But it is poison for the game from a design-pov.
Why ever try any kind of other build if going tornadoshot + headhunter is for years by now the 'best way' to play the game.
Not the most fun - but the 'best' in terms of efficieny. And thats a problem because it leaks towards other players - HH tornadoshot farmers dominate the market, have currency without end, manipulate prices etc pp and overall are an not unsignificant part of the stuff that makes PoE a bit less fun for new/average players.

But alas - I am sure GGG is not totally unaware of those issues. That they made the HH more expensive/rare was imo their attempt to make it clear that getting this item is more of a 'reward' for those that play a lot then a legitimate way to build a character. The market/trading argument still stands though. But eh.

Overall not quite that bad I think.

Anyhow! Long post. Tl;DR: This build got buffed even further with 3.8! For no reason at all but hey - we take it. :P