[3.21] Cold Conversion Summoner | Build guides for all budgets | (Ghazzy Zoomancer)

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Deadandlivin wrote:

Some minor ranting: Personally, I don't like how GGG is handling the Carrion Golem nerfs. The problem with this skill gem isn't the skill itself but everything surrounding it which makes it broken. The skill in itself is basically the best melee golem option(There's 2 in total) which is a skill gem with good single target, medicore clear and a leapslam ability.
The problem with Carrion Golem builds were the scaling surrounding them, specifically Aura Stacking and to some degree maybe Hatred aura scaling too. It doesn't matter how much they nerf Carrion Golems, the minion meta will still be aura stacking. If they destroy Carrion Golems enough people will just swap minions. They'll go with Crushclaw spectres, Zombies or maybe even Ice Golems instead and keep aura stacking. If we look at other builds based on Carrion Golems... they simply weren't that strong.
The Carrion Golem elementalist is nowhere near as busted as aura stacking versions are. When watching and playing Elementalist versions Carrion Golems look fine. My build does ridiculous damage but that's because we're literally sacrificing all defenses and running 2 skill gems at once.
The problem with Aura stacking was that you could easily reach 20+ million damage on a pretty modest budget and still be completely immortal. With more investment it could reach +100 million dps and afk in Maven memory games. You can literally replace Carrion Golems with Zombies and build around them instead reaching similar numbers.

The same thing goes for how they nerfed spectres after Heist. Back then, GGG decided to reduce the level of all spectres by 4, this essentially meant they removed 4 skill levels from all spectre builds. This was to nerf the common meta spectres back then, Crushclaws and Syndicate Operatives. A blanket nerf to all spectres however, is probably the most incompetent way of fixing the problem they could've gone through with. If they wanted to nerf those spectres, then nerf them. All they managed to do was keep them in the meta as all other offmeta spectres were completely obliterated. Remember Slave Drivers and Solar Guards? Yeah...
This nerf was the equivalent of seeing Carrion Golems as too strong and blanket nerf all Golem skills by 40%. It's asinine.

That being said, Aura stacking is getting nerfed too, but I don't think it will have an effect. Most probably, the jewels will go from 3% aura effect to like, 2% or 1%. Aura stacking Carrion Golems will still be immortal.
What they need to hit is how easy it is for the build to reach ~85% max res, 90% phys damage mitigation, 3k ES regen with both evasion and block cap. This is the heart of the problem, specifically the maximum resistance stacking. With high investment these builds reach 90% ele resistance and become completely unkillable. Purity stacking is a problem.

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Multiple flasks instead only one and easier access to items is unbalanced compared to console. I'm personally struggling to get 5M dps.

And if they reduce aura effect again, physical will be dead and only cold will be viable.

And I disagree about auras. The high dps peak is due to temporary buffs, not aurastacking.

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silentxthreat wrote:

so reading the changes you think this build will still work in 1.14?

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Trebien75 wrote:

With this items the build looks pretty solid, but it can work with more accessible gear?

After another nerfhammer, physical looks really bad... but elemental looks possible... The problem is the gear — looks too fancy for console... (and no harvest)

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FNRTJ wrote:

The nerfs didn't hit the build too hard, it's still playable and the dps drops a bit. The only problem I'm having is what skill to replace bv with. It seems difficult to slot in a different skill, and now that trigger wand has an 8 second cd, it's going to be difficult to keep frost bomb exposure up as well.

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Deadandlivin wrote:

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FNRTJ wrote:

The nerfs didn't hit the build too hard, it's still playable and the dps drops a bit. The only problem I'm having is what skill to replace bv with. It seems difficult to slot in a different skill, and now that trigger wand has an 8 second cd, it's going to be difficult to keep frost bomb exposure up as well.

Yeah, the trigger nerf and BV nerfs left a sour after taste in my mouth too be honest as it directly targets the QoL of this build and its playstyle.

But I think I have some solutions involving Weapon Swapping and Increased Durations support. I will have to test it out during the league though.
Last resort simply is to not play with trigger at all and just run with Stormbrand - Awakened Hextouch - Frostbite and run tripple curse instead. This hurts the playstyle though which is a big downside for me.

Currently I'm thinking of this strategy for high budget:
Trigger Wand: Blade Vortex - Flesh Offering - Increased Duration
Shield: Skitterbots - Convocation - Bonechill

Might even skip Flesh Offering for Awakened Hextouch to get +1 curse if it proves to be really hard to craft +1 curse on spectre chests this league.
With Frost Bomb nerfed to 15% and the spell already having a very bad uptime for clear we'll exclusively use it for single target instead.

Offhand setup:
Trigger Wand: Frost Bomb - Desecrate - Flesh Offering
Shield: Skitterbots - Convocation - X

Basically, the increased duration should allow us to have near 100% uptime on BV still, but we lose Frost Bomb which is a highly situational skill eitherway. When we want frost bomb, which primarily is for single target on bosses: You do a weapon swap, trigger all your spells with one dash and one phase run, then swap back.

Having skitterbots in both weapon setups is to make sure that the aura isn't turned off. Both Flesh Offering and Frost Bomb will still work during weapon swaps.