[3.8] Scold's Bridle Ice Nova Hierophant || No Totems || 65/55 Dodge || Uber Elder Viable
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I. Introduction
Hello and welcome everyone to my first ever build guide for my Scold's Bridle Ice Nova Hierophant. The build allows for a single-click Frostbolt-Ice Nova playstyle thanks to Scold's Bridle, while simultaneously abusing Mana stacking and the Agnostic Keystone to provide strong defences, recovery and AoE.
3.9 Update
As far as I can see from the patchnotes, basically nothing has changed for this build, except watcher's Eyes will be rarer. That said, this build is really good at bossing, so it will probably be good this league. Pro's: -Great allround character (Fast Mapping, Safe Bossing, Delving etc.) -65/55 Dodge/Spelldodge without flasks or Vaal Skills -7.5k effective HP -50% MOM with insane recovery (~1k life/s and ~2k mana/s) -Uses mostly uniques (easy to acquire) Con's: -Requires a 6-link to work -Not much room for customization -Can't do "no regen" or "ele reflect" maps
Gameplay Videos
Full Shaper Run Uber Elder Run Various Boss Compilation T14 Blighted Map T16 Map clear (43% pack size, 4x sextant) Sorry for the shitty video quality! Path of Building Code: PoB
Changelog
Oct. 28 2019 - Guide First created Oct. 30 2019 - Added Videos for mapping, blighted map, boss compilation II. Mechanics
1. Mana Stacking
We are stacking up to 5000 (unreserved) maximum Mana to gain the full benefits from the Hierophant's Sanctuary of Thought Node aswell as from the Omeyocan Boots. We use this Mana as a tool for survivability with 50% MoM from Hierophant's Divine Guidance Node and a Cloak of Defiance while simultaneously using the The Agnostic Keystone for insane life recovery.
2. Scold's Bridle & CwDT
Scold's Bridle deals physical damage to us every time we cast a spell. We utilize this to trigger several CwDT setups allowing us to get multiple spells out at once. However, since the Hierophant's Sanctuary of Thought Node gives us 50% less Mana cost of skills, we need to increase our Mana cost to reliably trigger CwDT.
3. Ice Nova & Frostbolt
When Ice Nova is linked with Spell Echo support or supported by Greater Spell Echo from Pledge of Hands it will repeat on up to two of our Frostbolt's instead, if we happen to have one. This allows us to bypass the long casting animation of the repeats that would happen with other skills. In order to always have a Frostbolt we will trigger it with CwDT and Scold's Bridle when casting Ice Nova. III. Tree & Gear
Tree
Passive Tree This tree is lvl 95. for lower levels you can just skip a bit of damage (e.g. Arcane Potency) and the jewel socket above acrobatics (Put the jewel from there in place of intuitive leap). If you miss resists pick up Holy dominion.
Ascendancy Order
1. Conviction of Power: Gives permanent power and endurance charges (with PCoC), aswell as reduced elemental damage taken and penetration 2. Divine Guidance: Gives a lot of mana, stronger MoM and a decent amount of damage 3. Sanctuary of Thought: Gives up to 100% increased AoE (the Mana as Energy shield stat is useless thanks to The Agnostic) 4. Illuminated Devotion: Gives a bit more AoE and damage aswell as a small amount of leech Note that all the small notes give substantial amounts of mana and/or mana regen.
Gear
Weapon: Pledge of Hands
Pledge of Hands is great for us because it gives a lot of damage and mana while also giving us Greater Spell Echo which works amazingly with the Ice Nova & Frostbolt combo. Additionally, Greater Spell Echo has a mana multiplier of 150%, helping us reach our threshold mana cost required for triggering CwDT with Scold's Bridle. 6-Link required since we won't reach our mana cost threshold otherwise!
Helmet: Scold's Bridle
This Helmet allows us to utilize one spell to trigger several CwDT setups, and thus enables a fast playstyle while still taking advantage of the Frostbolt & Ice Nova combo.
Body Armour: Cloak of Defiance
Cloak of Defiance provides us with a buffed up version of MoM and gives us huge amounts of flat mana and mana regen. No 6-Link required
Boots: Omeyocan
In my opinion Omeyocan is one of the most interesting Items and I wanted to make a build around them for a long time. With a total mana pool of 5000 these boots give us Onslaught and a huge amount of dodge, almost capping us with the help of Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics, while also providing 30% MS. The mana degen is easily countered by our strong mana regen/recovery.
Gloves: Voidbringer
Voidbringer allow us to increase our mana cost to trigger CwDT while also providing a lot of spellcrit. Look for a High increased mana cost of skills value! Alternatively Doedre's Malevolence provide similar results (although the reduced cast speed makes them less appealing to me). The last option is to use a Fevered Mind jewel and a good pair of rare gloves, however the build is VERY starved for jewel sockets already.
Amulet: Atziri's Foible
This Amulet gives us huge amounts of mana, mana regen and eases our attribute requirements. As the Anointment I chose Counterweight since it is realtively cheap (silver & amber & clear) and provides the largest DPS boost.
Ring 1: Essence Worm
Allows us to use a 50% aura without compromising our mana pool.
Ring 2
We don't have many slots for capping our resistances and getting flat life, so look for those on the ring. Bonus points if you can craft the "damage gained as mana" mod but this is not necessary.
Belt
Same as for the ring, high life and resists are a must. A stygian vise allows us to fill out missing resists/life/stats. Another great option would be an elder Leather belt with "increased life recovery" rate.
Jewels
These grant us a lot of mana, allowing us to reach a total of over 5000. Grants us the The Agnostic Keystone (when using the one with High Templar Venarius) which single handedly takes care of our life sustain. Look for one with +2% to all elemental resistances per 10 devotion and socket it next to MoM or Pain attunement. Grants additional Frostbolt projectiles and speed. Relatively easy to get a good corruption on. The most important stat here is the Increased mana recovery rate while affected by clarity. Other good Mods to look for:
Spoiler
-Damage taken gained as mana over 4s (Clarity) -Damage taken from mana before life (Clarity) -Crit Multi (Precision) -Flat cold damage (Hatred) -Flat Crit chance (Hatred) -Cold Pen (Hatred) -Consecrated ground causes enemies to take inc. damage (Zealotry) -Crits penetrate % elemental resistances (Zealotry) Note: We can't use Hatred and Zealotry at the same time Intuitive Leap Can be used above the Witch's starting location to grab Golem Commander, Mystic Bulwark and Prodigial Perfection.
Flasks
These are not fixed and can be customized to your needs. I decided to not use a life flask, since the recovery from The Agnostic is incredibly fast and reliable. The "Enduring" Mod allows us to have the flask up almost permanently, helping a lot with our mana sustain and making it almost impossible to run out of mana . A very strong flask granting penetration and elemental damage reduction. If you manage to double or tripple cap your resists, this is one of the strongest options available. Just make sure your cold res is at least as high as the other two. Since walking is our primary way of getting around this speeds us up a lot. A good damage boost while also providing some chaos resist. This can easily be replaced. Your crit chance is lucky is a really strong dps mod, making a diamond flaks almost mandatory. Other strong options: -Cinderswallow Urn: If you manage to get a bit of fire damage this flaks is a really solid choice, sadly the onslaught is wasted since we get permanent onslaught from our boots. -Bottled Faith: Probably the strongest flask for any crit build but also insanely expensive -Quartz Flask: (or Forbidden Taste) Allows us to get even more dodge, providing another huge defensive boost. Chose this if you feel like you are dying too much. IV. Gem Links
7L Ice Nova (Staff)
Use this in your Pledge of Hands for the 7th link! (Vaal) Ice Nova - Arcane Surge - Spell Echo - Intensify - Cold Penetration - Concentrated Effect - Greater Spell Echo (from Staff) -The Vaal Version of Ice Nova is not required since we don't actually need the clear and it's only supported by 3 of our support gems anyway. A lvl 21. gem on the other hand is a huge damage boost. -Arcane Surge is used to provide mana regen aswell as decent damage (we level this to lvl 20 since our skill costs enough mana to reliably trigger it) -Cold Penetration is used over Hypothermia because the higher mana multiplier of Cold Penetration is needed to reach the required mana cost -Intensify and Concentrated Effect are for damage, and our AoE is still really good thanks to Hierophant -Spell Echo and Greater Spell Echo have really strong Synergies with the Frostbolt & Ice Nova combo
Main CwDT Setup (Body Armour)
Here a 6-link is not required. CwDT (lvl. 1) - Frostbolt (lvl. 11) - GMP/Slower Projectiles - Frost Bomb - PCoC(5L) - Purifying Flame (lvl. 11)(6L) -We trigger Frostbolt to allow Ice Nova to reapeat on it instead of locking us in place for 3 casts -Swap GMP for slower projectiles when taking on the absolute endgame -Power Charge on crit for permanent Power and Endurance charges during Bossfights (Thanks to Hierophant's Conviction of Power) -Frostbomb for Cold Exposure and Purifying Flame for Consecrated Ground
Remaining Setups
CwDT (lvl. 20) - Summon Lightning Golem - Summon Flame Golem (if you have Golem commander) Zealotry OR Hatred in our Essence Worm -Hatred is stronger but since I got a Zealotry Watcher's Eye I went with that CwDT (lvl. 20) - Steelskin (lvl. depending on str) - blood rage (lvl. 1) - Assassins Mark (lvl. 20) -Steelskin prevent's some of the damage we deal to ourselves making us more durable -Bloodrage grants frenzy charges and Assasins mark is a good damage curse Precision (lvl. 1) -Free crit chance Clarity (lvl. 20) -Mana regen Flame Dash - Faster Casting -Movemnt and Utility V. Pantheon & Anointment & Bandits
Major God
Soul of Lunaris (Fully Upgraded) for the dodge and damage reduction.
Minor God
Here you can pick whatever option suits you best, I recommend: -Soul of Yugul (Fully Upgraded) for the reduced cold damage taken (especially against Shaper and Uber Elder). -Soul of Shakari for the Poison immunity and reduced Chaos DoT Avoid getting too much physical damage reduction since it can mess with your CwDT. (e.g. Soul of Gruthkul)
Anointment
Counterweight gives the most damage
Bandit
Help Alira Last edited by LordofWar619#4022 on Dec 12, 2019, 12:37:40 PM Last bumped on Apr 26, 2020, 4:01:22 AM
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Reserved
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Interesting build, thanks. I'll give it a try.
May I ask: you say that 6L body armour isn't necessary, and then proceed to list the gems for the body armour as linked. Please help me understand how the gems in the body armour should be linked. Thanks. Last edited by MorgueFLB#4242 on Oct 29, 2019, 6:26:15 AM
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" I think the more links you have, the better, but really necessary are cwdt-gmp-frostbolt to use the ice nova-frostbold mechanic. If you look at the remaining links: The 4-link with pcoc is for charge generation. 5-link frostbomb to apply cold exposure. 6-link pflames for consecrated ground. Very nice build btw :) Last edited by Murzl#5303 on Oct 29, 2019, 10:51:24 AM
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" Murzl was exactly right with his answer, Frost Bomb, PCoC and purifying flame give only minor bonuses and are by no means necessary. Additionally, you can also put one of the gems (purifying flame or frost bomb) in a 4L setup with the golems if you don't have the 6l chest (since my build actually has a spare socket). |
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Just got done getting this to maps, and got my full setup going. Questioning why take yugul pantheon for anything other than UE? Wouldn't you wanna take shakari for poison immunity/less chaos damage taken while doing most content?
Last edited by Microdia#2393 on Oct 31, 2019, 4:17:56 AM
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" Great to hear that, how do you like it so far? Yugul is by no means a fixed choice, and you are right that it mostly shines in the endgame fights. Shakari is a solid choice aswell, although i never had the feeling I had problems with poison/Chaos dot. But with the minor god you can really chose whatever you like (as long as you don't get too much phys reduction). I'll edit my post to make this more clear. Last edited by LordofWar619#4022 on Oct 31, 2019, 10:32:23 AM
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Hi. I'm just starting this build but i have trouble finding the good militant faith.
" I try 2 (both with 2 to all ers) and i don't get The Agnostic. Is there a trick or something i don't understand ? Thx for the build edit: I use my divine to finally get the Agnostic passif :D Last edited by Doumi#2196 on Nov 2, 2019, 5:18:40 PM
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" The key is, to get one that say's "Carved to glorify xxxx new faithful converted by High Templar Venarius" - The person (High templar venarius) is what determines the keystone you get. I'll edit my guide to make this more clear. Hope you enjoy it :) Last edited by LordofWar619#4022 on Nov 4, 2019, 9:57:47 AM
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Hey man, congratulation on the build, was pretty bored and not even playing, trying your build was a blast, damage is really good and extremly tanky, only thing I notice is that sometimes I got "stuck" casting and can't cancel it, not sure if it is a spell echo mechanic or a bug.
A question I have is, why do you take the Zealot/Quick Recovery notable keystone if we don't have 150 devotion and it don't provide any Devotion and we already have Arcane Surge, is there any mechanic I'm missing ? Another question is the Purifing Flame is for the Consecrate Ground right, it is just for the regen ? Thanks for the build! |
