[3.16] Freeze Battlemage: Permanently Freeze (almost) Everything

Here's the skill tree: https://pastebin.com/WRCu1hru



Here's the skill tree AGAIN just in case you didn't see it the first time: https://pastebin.com/WRCu1hru

2 minutes of gameplay: https://youtu.be/VJVXV1xaTqI
Video of the build: https://youtu.be/OQ88kmRWu2U

Levelling Section: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3193479/page/1#p24364799


Pros:
Permanently freeze even T16 Map Bosses
Satisfying clearspeed on packs
Budget friendly (less than 2 exalt for core items)

Cons:
Die to stuff that can't be frozen
Bad single target DPS

I would recommend sticking to areas where AOE clear is strong and avoiding content where high single target damage is required (unless you have a boss killer in your party).

There are 2 unique items that are core to this build:

Expedition's End, Sentinel Jacket has a modifier that multiplies your freeze duration by 50-100%. It also enables you to freeze with any damage type, chaos damage, fire damage, it doesn't matter - so you could potentially make a Forbidden Rite Totems build that scales crit chance/crit damage and freeze enemies. Feel free to go wild theorycrafting with this.

This unique chest piece drops from Grand Heists with Enchanted armaments as a reward. This is a rare item but it's not popular. I just checked the trade website and saw them on sale for as little as 70 chaos.

The hard part is getting the correct colors on the sockets. I got mine colored correctly by running maps and whenever I saw a harvest, I chose "change 2 sockets, 1 red 1 green" until I got 4 red 2 green. You'll probably get 3 red 3 green first, and that's fine, just substitute a green support gem like faster attacks or ice bite until you get 4 red 2 green.



Painseeker gloves are cheap. There's one for sale right now for 2 alchemy orbs. These have a modifier of 100-200% more freeze duration. These are in the core drop table and can drop anywhere.



For skillgem I use Glacial hammer because at gem level 21, it's a 400% more multiplier to freeze duration. When you multiply everything together, you can reach potentially 30x more freeze duration (please correct me if I'm wrong).

These are really the only core components to the build. From here you can branch out in a lot of different directions. In 3.14 I ascended into the inquisitor and champion to build a character more focused on tanking with taunts, endurance charges, block chance, etc. In 3.16 I've decided to rework the character. This current version ascends into the raider and saboteur ascendancies for more AOE and faster clearspeed.

The items in my POB are a little more expensive, so just use it as an example for what you might aim for as you gain more currency. You can definitely get better jewels and cluster jewels than what I'm using, I'm just using the best with what I've got for now until I get better jewels.

Okay let's talk about the secondary active/support gems. In the gloves I'm using hydrosphere. This sets up a 1-2 punch where you cast hydrosphere to get a pack frozen and cursed with frostbite, then finish them off which a whack of your glacial hammer for ice explosions. I've linked increase AOE, Ice Bite (for frenzy charge generation), and inspiration for reduced mana cost. You can play around with this setup; for example, I previously used hextouch+frostbite+temporal chains and wore a doedre's damning paula ring to enable 2x curses.

Rather than use Doedre's Damning ring, I'm using this:

This is like turning our 4 linked hydrosphere into a 6 link (hextouch+frostbite).

In the helmet I'm running this:

This is kind of expensive, currently at 5.5 exalts on trade website. You don't need this to make the build work, but it helps.

For the weapon I'm using this:

This is super cheap. You can buy this for like 1 alchemy orb. I've tried finding an upgrade and it's hard to find a better weapon than this for the build (let me know if you find something better).

For the shield I'm using this:


It's whatever. I'm just using this because it was affordable and had decent stats on it. It's currently 3 chaos in league trade.

For the boots I'm running this:

The most important thing here is the hatred aura. You can try out different reservation skills or active skills instead, this is just how I chose to set mine up.

The rest of the gear is rare items to get resistances up. The only noteworthy thing is the Fingers of Frost anointment on the amulet:


There ya go. I had asked around in the POE community months ago, seeking advice on how to make a support character that can permanently freeze even T16 map bosses and there wasn't much out there (that I could find anyways). So I blazed my own trail and came up with this build, and now I'm here sharing it with you. This is my first time ever sharing a build on here, so please keep that in mind.

Nice build and guide! Good job!

"

Strained wrote:

Nice build and guide! Good job!

Thank you! :)

Can you please post more clear detail about what skills/gems you use at what levels and other stuff?

I wanna try your build and am sort a beginner but am not too sure how to follow it. thank you.

"

KaneVast wrote:

Can you please post more clear detail about what skills/gems you use at what levels and other stuff?

I wanna try your build and am sort a beginner but am not too sure how to follow it. thank you.

Sure. I started off by creating a Templar and got the character into Lioneye's watch. Then I put my weapon and glacial hammer into the stash, went back to the character creation screen and started a Scion.

For skill points, that's hard for me to say because I re-worked an existing character from 3.14 to fit the new 3.16 skill tree, but I'll give the following advice:
I would try to quickly hit flat strength/dex/intelligence nodes to meet stat requirements for gear/gems, and I would path towards the Shadow area of the skill tree, since we'll be ascending into "Path of the Shadow" asap.

Here's a snapshot of what I'd aim for at level 12:



Heres's a snapshot of what I might aim for at level 22:



Here's a snapshot of what I might aim for at level 35:



Here's a snapshot of what I'd aim for at level 45:



Final thoughts:

I haven't actually levelled the character up as I just wrote in this tutorial. So let me know if you have problems while levelling. I'm expecting that the AOE damage might not feel good until you have both Winter's Burial and Herald of Ice. Prior to that point things might feel a little slow. Keep in mind that this build has low single target DPS, so you'll want to team up in multiplayer when taking down bosses. It's possible to kill bosses solo with the build, but it's going to be slow. You'll probably permanently freeze a lot of bosses while you play. Good luck, and have fun :)

As well as the previous player, I am also not a seasoned veteran of POE lol. I found your build a few days ago, and Im really digging it so far. Thank you so much for the incredibly detailed information. - I do have a few questions though, if I may. You mention that Winter Burial is quite important, and even that we should get two of them... Where do I find this gem? According to your guide, its something I should aiming for around lvl 35. I just hit 27 and havent seen a single one yet. - I have also noticed that some of the gear mentioned requires Chaos Orbs to buy, yet even at 27, I have not come across a single one. Is there a magic farming technique Im not aware of? haha - Last question. Would you happen to know HOW I post items for sale on the Trade Market while playing on PS4? I know you're on PC, but I figured I would give it a shot, I cant figure it out for the life of me and have only been able to learn how to buy them.

Thank you so much!!

I don't know how stuff works in Playstation. I did a quick google search "POE TRADE PLAYSTATION" and here was the top result: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexileps4/wiki/trade#wiki_chapter_5.3A_buying_on_the_trade_market


Winter burial is just a random drop. It's expected that you'll buy it from other players rather than get lucky and find it. At the time of this writing, people are selling winter burial for only 1 alchemy orb (which I'm confident you can acquire by level 35). Later on you'll need chaos orbs, which are the primary currency that players use to trade. The fastest way to get chaos orbs is to sell stuff to other players, but you can also get chaos orbs from NPC by selling rare items to them in a special combination. It's called the "Chaos Recipe":

To use the chaos recipe, you need to collect items that are at least item level 60. To simplify, any zone in "Part 2" of the campaign an onward, will drop item level 60+. You pick up rare items for every slot on the character: helmet, gloves, boots, chestpiece, amulet, rings, belt, and a 2handed weapon - and you DON'T identify them. Then you sell all these items to any NPC vendor to get 2 chaos orbs. It's slow, but it's something almost anyone can do (once they reach Part 2 of the campaign).

Do a Paradoxica vaal rapier could be a better upgrade if u have enought curency than a frostbreath. It also make double damage, only what we lose is a chill enemy duration and fire rez think

Nevermind i forgot that glacial Hammer work only with mace/staff/sceptre

First off, thank you for the info so far, I figured out how to sell items on the PS4 with the reddit link you provided! I am LOVING the build, man, it is so much fun, and Hydrosphere is JUST as much fun as you described.

I do have another big question, if you dont mind. I just hit Lvl 47, and according to the path you have on POB that is uploaded, it looks like you refunding everything on the original start point from the right side, and somehow managed to begin pathing all the way over on the side of the tree... Even though the skills in the middle do not connect to those...? How exactly is that accomplished? I would like to continue down this build, it's working GREAT, even for solo leveling, I am having no problems at all, but I definitely dont know how you went to the other side of the tree without connecting all the dots.

Thanks so much for the help so far, hope all is well!