Cold Chronomancer Megathread. All content cleared. Leveling guide added. Low-budget build added.

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Casia#1093 wrote:

Scepter/foci seems like the obvious correct choice.

I can't believe I skipped over that when reconsidering foci versus scepters.

Whats a good wand?
using moniks..

gain 25% of damage as extra lightning.
28% inc spell damage.
+56 mana

+4 to cold spells.
94% crit hit chance.
29% cast speed.

ALL the wand base skills suck. Manadrain/power siphon could be something, but actually using them is horrible. if we could cast on x them, that would be something.. but we can't.

whats the best version of a wand?

+179mana.
+45 mana/49% spell damage.
gain 30% of damage as extra lightning or +119% to spell damage.

+4 to all spells or +5% to cold spells.
+109% spell crit
+39% crit damage or +35% cast speed, or 33 int, or 69% mana regen.

some of those, I'm not certain which is completely the best stat..
I do think ALL is better then cold spells, especially for us with time freeze, temp rift, and time snap potentially.

224 base max mana potentially.


what can a sceptre get?
first, rattling minions, and malice aura ARE both useful.

inc spirit 65%.
inc spirit 38%/max mana +44
+179 max mana

+33 int.
69% mana regen
+5 to minion, or +33 str, or +22% mana regen/15% light, or 30% presence aoe.


103% spirit, for 244 with quality.
224 max mana.
+5 to minion buffs soul offering, and rattling minions. str would be good for stat reqs, and just be 66 life as it is. presence aoe for slow aura.

What can a foci get?
63 base ES implicit.

+90 Es.
+100% es
+42% Es/39mana, or +119% spell damage, or +179 mana. not sure which is best atm.

+2 to all spells.
99% spell crit
34% crit damage, or 32% cast speed, or 69% mana regen, or 33 int, or resists all 4..

1 rune, or corrupted for 2.
either 40% increased es, or 4% max mana..

63 base es+90= 153 20% quality = 184.
100% increased for 367 ES.
if we took 2 20% runes, and es/mana, instead of mana, that would be 518 ES on shield.

but lets run with +179 mana, and 4% max mana instead.

so, we need scepters for op spirit. and thus the comparison should be WANDS versus foci. not foci versus sceptres.
And foci can get +2 to all spells, which ain't not bad, compared to +4 wands.
Huge amount of ES.
1 or 2 runeslots.
similar spell crit/damage/cast speed, regen etc.
loses the gain damage as x, and the spell damage for the ES.

how much mana would that be for monik?
367 base es, and 4% max mana. he has 56% increased, so 60%? 587 mana from the shield es alone? +104 from the 4% max mana?

691 itself isn't enough to hit 7, but it should with his 4031, hit 4722.
so archmage 9x7=63% damage gained as lightning.

so, the defensive value is high without EB. and with eb/archmage the raw mana/damage gain also ends up winning.

added benefits: not swapping for soul offering is much faster. doesn't require 2 hits. minions adding a small bit of distraction/tanking.
killing your own minions to fill up grim feast on call is nice too.

Thanks for the comparisons, Casia.
My progression has stopped, I'm having a bit of trouble improving my ES and putting more than 3k mana. I'm using morior, snakepit and maligaro. I don't have CI yet and I need to migrate, but I have too little ES to make the upgrade worthwhile. My jewels are aoe curse and 2% mana on kill.

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monik390#5560 wrote:

Decent take, Casia.

Here are some CoC-Comets:

1. Wand+Sceptre: 4k mana, Snakepit, 493k.



2.Wand+Sceptre: 4,6k mana, No Snakepit, 540k.



3. Sceptre+Focus (380 ES, 170 mana, 90% crit chance, no +lvl to all gems): 5.5k mana, 375k.



24-31% less damage, but I got that focus for 100ex, which is pretty cheap.

Decent +2 foci are extremely expensive. Way more than a decent wand.

My comets are only77k, how i can do this? k

High-end map run (992% WC, 60% deli/beyond, lvl 80): https://youtu.be/qx8cJGwrw8Q

I forgot what non-deli maps look like.

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valqor#0701 wrote:

After further testing, Spark is 100% better for me compared to Frostbolt. It clears just as fast but offers these additional benefits, which feel subjectively better.

I honestly think it's more about personal preferences on the gameplay, and budget.

Like, if I play with Frostbolt I cast more walls. If I play with Spark - I just want to spam Spark.

The only real downside of the Frostbolt is being locked to Snakepit.
I found Spark to be more demanding in terms of currency too.
All spells wand alone is more expensive than equal Cold spells. Decent ring ofc too, even if it offers more benefits.

I do think Spark is better when it's scaled better, but I question its superiority on a lower investment. Esp in terms of energy generation and breaking walls, it's just not as good.

Anyway, we all have to move to Spark when we get decent things, bc Snakepit is a massive limiting factor at the endgame. But before that - probably not.

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thedoldivic#174 wrote:

My progression has stopped, I'm having a bit of trouble improving my ES and putting more than 3k mana. I'm using morior, snakepit and maligaro. I don't have CI yet and I need to migrate, but I have too little ES to make the upgrade worthwhile. My jewels are aoe curse and 2% mana on kill.

Aw, you rushed those upgrades (maligaro/morior). Honestly, take another look at the low-budget build. I swapped to CI at lvl 75, having 800 ES and 3.3k mana, and it's fine.

About the Comet, 77k. Is it under buffs or not? Did you put Concentrated effect instead of impetus? You should swap it for bosses.

I had 129k Comet under all buffs at lvl 85 with that gear on 5-link with Concentrated Effect instead of Impetus (this post: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3592843/page/85#p25892315)

Check this too:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3592843/page/81#p25881847

It's all about skill gems, passive tree, and the gear.

Can you suggest me at what point and what should be done, to replace frostbolt with EOW? Frostbolt is OK, basically, but melts my PC sometimes

Has anyone tried sceptre + threaded light? With a 15% threaded light corrupt, my current setup would get 459% spell damage from it. The downside is a 15% corrupt threaded light is kinda expensive, and we would lose crit chance, + spell skills, cast speed, and mana from the wand.

Here's the wand I'm currently using:



edit: bought the legendary mana flask two days ago, and it's an absolute banger. It essentially makes you immortal, you never run out of mana and don't even need to use temporal rift on bosses if that's not your thing. Highly recommend if you can afford it!

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maccabeus_#5355 wrote:

Has anyone tried sceptre + threaded light?

Might be a viable option on a top roll, with some tinkering.

12% on 300 spirit:



Need a lot of crit chance to hit 60% Comet tho. And some cast speed.

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Sairef#3190 wrote:

Can you suggest me at what point and what should be done, to replace frostbolt with EOW? Frostbolt is OK, basically, but melts my PC sometimes

Not sure. I didn't have great times with EoW w/o Mana Flare support. It's kinda risky to use tho. Good single target on Unleash burst.

The problem is the Wall breaking. Even Ice Nova is better by miles.

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monik390#5560 wrote:

Might be a viable option on a top roll, with some tinkering.

Yep, I've been thinking about it. We could take some points out of elemental damage and spell damage nodes since they’d have low value with threaded light, and instead, invest in crit chance. Maybe double crit chance jewels? I think it might be worth trying. Wild Storm node could go crazy with this setup.

edit: guys if the damage is the same, wouldn't a threaded light always be better than a wand, even if the crit chance is a little bit lower? Threaded light doesn't have + skills, which means it saves more mana, allowing for more comet casts on bosses before using temporal rift. Or am I missing something?

I’m not sure if someone has mentioned this already, but I’ll say it anyway:

You can break your Ice Nova + Frost Wall combo if your cast speed is too high (combined cast time is less than 1.1 seconds).

What happens is that you end up casting Ice Nova faster than the Frost Wall fully materializes on the screen. As a result, only part of the wall gets detonated, and the rest of it appears afterward.

"

maccabeus_#5355 wrote:

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

Might be a viable option on a top roll, with some tinkering.

Yep, I've been thinking about it. We could take some points out of elemental damage and spell damage nodes since they’d have low value with threaded light, and instead, invest in crit chance. Maybe double crit chance jewels? I think it might be worth trying. Wild Storm node could go crazy with this setup.

edit: guys if the damage is the same, wouldn't a threaded light always be better than a wand, even if the crit chance is a little bit lower? Threaded light doesn't have + skills, which means it saves more mana, allowing for more comet casts on bosses before using temporal rift. Or am I missing something?

Possibly. It is true I personally tend to overlook "increased damage", its so reliably available, I do far too easily overlook it, give it away, or ignore potential huge amounts like threaded light.

+skills has several factors yes.
Frost wall
level 18-70 mana. 152, 228(190) damage, 8032 life
level 20-90 mana. 193, 289(241) damage,12714
level 21-102 mana 217, 325(271) damage, 13254
level 25-168 mana 342, 513(427) damage,21933

+4 to spells is a 58% base damage increase at 21-25.
its a 65% mana cost increase from 21-25.

archmage actually screws with this ratio. did you say what your mana was? lets use 4k. 9x40. 360% damage gain. added 5% of max mana. a flat 200.

With archmage.
level 21-302 mana average(271cold,976lit) damage, 13254
level 25-368 mana average(427cold,1537lit) damage,21933

damage is scaling as a % so is still 58% increase.
however, archmage mana cost is a flat added.
so, 368 mana is only 22% increased mana cost over 302.

this flat added element also effects fast casting spells. eow archmage is way more mana/second.
That archmage gets MORE mana efficient as it gains +levels is one of the most busted things about it.

Another factor to consider when comparing. Not all sources of damage boosts are shown in the tooltip.

hindered cap, 30% increased damage? adds into "increased damage", is not shown.
stormcharged, crit overload, echoing nodes, only show if the condition is met.
anything that says "increased damage with hits" doesn't show.
thin ice
and this all just adds into "increased damage"

other sources, such as exposure, etc, which would apply equally to spell damage/spell levels, etc, also don't show, but aren't relevant to the conversation.
I.. don't think we have any sources of damage that aren't spells? do keep in mind that can also be a thing though. iirc mana flare is not a spell. Decaying hex is not a spell.


Other factors.
frost bomb gains AoE size with spell level as well.
level 21 frost bomb is 2.4m.
level 25 is 2.6m base.

(with my 325% increased aoe, that is a 4.9m bomb at level 21. 5.3m at level 25.)

edit: I realize in hindsight this clip might be a bit deceptive, as the screens aren't equal sized. open this up and look at the blue line.

Blink, time snap, temporal rift all have reduced cooldowns with level.


With my wand/scepter setup, I have +180% increased spell damage with hits, +24% increased lightning damage, +78% increased cold damage. when hitting hindered and recently crit.
and 313 spirit. or, only 286 with my rattling. (malice is 313). and 12% since a 15% corrupt is going to be hard to find. 336% increased spell damage.

pob says I got from 18k frost bomb to 28k. swapping out my wand for threaded light.
a 55% damage increase.
this was just an ok wand. (gain 16% of damage as cold, 40% increased spell, +2 to all spells,162 mana, 13 int, 51% mana regen.)

comparing my rattling sceptre/focus to rattling/threaded is 12.5k hit, to 28k hit. 124% increase, but loss of 2 k ehp. 4.1k es, to 3.6k.
60% crit chance

mana costs with my gear, with archmage, no EB.:
scepter/threaded. frost bomb. (level 20. 19+1)
355 mana/cast
396 regen with surge
scepter/crit/es focus. frost bomb. (level 20. 19+1)
361 mana/cast
382 regen with surge.
wand/crit/sceptre. frost bomb. (level 22. 19+3)
438 mana/cast
462 regen with surge.



Edit: actually, one of the things this revealed, is with that 93% crit chance ES shield I'm using, I don't need as many crit passives anymore. those are dps losses. Stormed charged is way more damage then crit exploit for me.
if I swap out some of that crit chance in my tree.
my bomb goes from 12.5 to 19k average. with scepter/ crit/es focus.
33k with threaded. a 73% increase.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

High-end map run (992% WC, 60% deli/beyond, lvl 80): https://youtu.be/qx8cJGwrw8Q

I forgot what non-deli maps look like.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"

valqor#0701 wrote:

After further testing, Spark is 100% better for me compared to Frostbolt. It clears just as fast but offers these additional benefits, which feel subjectively better.

I honestly think it's more about personal preferences on the gameplay, and budget.

Like, if I play with Frostbolt I cast more walls. If I play with Spark - I just want to spam Spark.

The only real downside of the Frostbolt is being locked to Snakepit.
I found Spark to be more demanding in terms of currency too.
All spells wand alone is more expensive than equal Cold spells. Decent ring ofc too, even if it offers more benefits.

I do think Spark is better when it's scaled better, but I question its superiority on a lower investment. Esp in terms of energy generation and breaking walls, it's just not as good.

Anyway, we all have to move to Spark when we get decent things, bc Snakepit is a massive limiting factor at the endgame. But before that - probably not.

~~~~~~~~~

"

thedoldivic#174 wrote:

My progression has stopped, I'm having a bit of trouble improving my ES and putting more than 3k mana. I'm using morior, snakepit and maligaro. I don't have CI yet and I need to migrate, but I have too little ES to make the upgrade worthwhile. My jewels are aoe curse and 2% mana on kill.

Aw, you rushed those upgrades (maligaro/morior). Honestly, take another look at the low-budget build. I swapped to CI at lvl 75, having 800 ES and 3.3k mana, and it's fine.

About the Comet, 77k. Is it under buffs or not? Did you put Concentrated effect instead of impetus? You should swap it for bosses.

I had 129k Comet under all buffs at lvl 85 with that gear on 5-link with Concentrated Effect instead of Impetus (this post: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3592843/page/85#p25892315)

Check this too:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3592843/page/81#p25881847

It's all about skill gems, passive tree, and the gear.

If I tried do that many frost bolts on my screen, I think my computer would catch fire HAHA. Look good though I like it.