Cold sorc, im having an awful time scaling my dps, need help

Also facing major issues with a good cold/frost build, keen to get some tips, I'm trying to avoid switching to lightning as all others Sorcerers in our guild are using this already... hoping for some buffs in the next patch (fingers crossed!)

Had a similar issue with my frost build. I decided to abandon my focus and went for a freezing shards build. Still working on the dps but I can already tell it's a faster playstyle, inferior but similar to Spark. However, freezing shards being locked to Gelid staff is making the dps scaling way harder since you can't get +levels from your focus. Neither can I get it from my unique amulet so it's looking rough atm. I still believe freezing shards is the key, though.

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xXkoverasXx#7880 wrote:

Hi! Im a long veteran from the first beta of poe1, was a long time since the last time i played path of exile, with the launch of poe2 i was very exited, i tried to do a cold sorceress in a blind playthrough, not following any guides, im currently level 90 doing t16, and the character seems really underwelming, all my friends are playing deadeye lighting arrow, bloodmage detonate dead, a couple of them playing the infernalist with the raging spirits, no matter the changes i tried, i feel so left behind, they are facerolling content like its nothing, and im feeling like im struggling.

I tried to search on youtube any build of cold sorceress but there isnt anything really out there, as far as i know, is just ice really slow and sluggish? There is any build interesting with cold spells for endgame content? (Pinacle bosses and stuff)

If you play Cold you have to go for Crits too , especially "+Crits against Full Life" as it will help tremendously to chain Herald explosions .
Regarding Cold Spells , Wall of Ice is really good once you understand you got to spam as many crystals as possible ( Fortress Support for example ) and make them pop .

Update on the Gelid staff build: I got it working really well. I'm at around 5k Energy shield and mana with archmage+amulet so it still has room to fly but so far it's melting things left and right. This is Chronomancer-specific, though. I get 50% cast speed for 4 seconds every 12 seconds and Rewind to instantly recoup my ES when taking damage (big boost for dps when at full ES). I also put points into Arcane surge and crit chance nodes. Instilled my amulet with 40% projectile damage, fat stacks of mana, cold dmg and cast speed on my rings and got a mid Ingenuity. It did the trick and furthermost: it feels good to play while being fast-paced.

At the end of the day most problems can be solved by just throwing enough divs at it. I started a sorceress in trade today (usually only play SSF) just so I can see if I can make cold work.

There are quite a few skillsetups that theoretically should work. Archmage is pretty mandatory for all of them. I'd also argue that everlasting gaze holds us back as an extra 10% mana and +3 spell skills is quite the damage factor. With enough mana (prolly 6k+) and mana regen just MoM or a bunch of damage taken from mana before life jewels should be enough in terms of defense as that opens quite a lot of the tree by not having to invest into %ES. Two good breach rings plus ingenuity are probably required to achieve this.

I've read a lot of other cold threads as well and I think these could all be viable ways to clear maps fast:

Frostbolt with projectile speed and snakepit ring. Kind of a waste for ingenuity though.

Frostbomb with aoe nodes. Prolly needs temporalis.

Frost nova with astral projection support and aoe nodes. Should play similar to detonate dead builds without the need for minions.

Freezing shards. Might need a really good gelid staff with +7 cold spells, ideally iLvL 84 so freezing shards is level 19.


Best way to do bosses for us is shotgunning frost walls, prolly combined with cast on crit meteors.