Glacial Cascade Build Help

I tried to look for a guide to use as a guide line but they are all outdated and don't help towards the new passive tree I was hoping someone could give me an example or theory on a build to work towards. I'm not sure if I should focus on Crit or if the spell would benefit from AoE. I don't know if this is the best spell to focus on but I enjoy using it so any help would be appreciated.

I see two builds and they are both updated to 1.2 so I'm not sure which guide you a looking at. Both builds have their pros and cons so you need to decide on your play style.

Would you mind linking them I can't seem to find them, I searched Glacial Cascade and the Passive Skill trees from the threads I can see aren't updated.

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VayneAtrius wrote:

Would you mind linking them I can't seem to find them, I searched Glacial Cascade and the Passive Skill trees from the threads I can see aren't updated.

Page 2 of this forum. The other one is on page 3.

Okay I have another question I was wondering why all Glacial Cascade builds seem to revolve around Crit. I see Cold dmg nodes nearby and I kinda wanna go into them. I'm currently playing in beyond level 31 and I'm sitting on 8 Skill points. My skill tree currently looks like this


Based on what I've seen in other Glacial Cascade builds I would go to the right and get a bunch of Crit. But I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of this

Now I'm just looking for advice because I don't see any other Glacial Builds going this route so there might be a reason why they spec towards crit and ignore this route.

Edit: Made URL clickable

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VayneAtrius wrote:

Okay I have another question I was wondering why all Glacial Cascade builds seem to revolve around Crit. I see Cold dmg nodes nearby and I kinda wanna go into them. I'm currently playing in beyond level 31 and I'm sitting on 8 Skill points. My skill tree currently looks like this

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA37CCEN-Kj6ZEq1WuLJwFQkGWrrPQ9Uyzl5VSU5f0PV9tGQj0wFS86mpDBAeD21XGOlg=

Based on what I've seen in other Glacial Cascade builds I would go to the right and get a bunch of Crit. But I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of this

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA37CCEI-mRKtVriycBUJBlq6z0PVMs5eVUlM9X5f0bRkI9MBUvOpqQwQHg9tVxjpYEFivm5UEMjSsmBEPTC0XVI48VkqeoSKB

Now I'm just looking for advice because I don't see any other Glacial Builds going this route so there might be a reason why they spec towards crit and ignore this route.

Edit: Made URL clickable

I think that is because crit scales better for later game as glacial cascade have 6% basic critical chance.

When u have already 300% increased spell damage(or elemental or cold, they are equivalent for glacial cascade), a 10% damage node only provides 2.5% dps augmentation.

I suggest u to do the calculation yourself for a wise choice. Don't forget that crit provide u freezing chance without spending point on freezing node

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VayneAtrius wrote:

Now I'm just looking for advice because I don't see any other Glacial Builds going this route so there might be a reason why they spec towards crit and ignore this route.

I am currently playing glacial cascade (Level 76). The reason I'm going crit is two fold:

(1) As Lelouchzqy points out it provides freezes. This isn't enough alone of course as cold snap can help on hard packs but it is very convenient and helps compensate for lower defenses.

(2) The damage is quite low without it. By going crit and getting some on gear I'm able to sit at 455% multiplier with a 37.5% chance to crit without power charges up. This helps out the damage a ton as you could imagine since it amplifies all the spell damage nodes we've picked up. Crit also does really well with assassin's mark providing more damage from crits rather than increased damage from crits. I am not sure how the old crit weakness works so it may have done this as well.

In addition don't forget that it does physical too and that your cold nodes don't help with that or any chaos/lightning you add through gems. In my current set up glacial cascade has about 25% of its damage from non cold sources and once I decide to 5 link my chest it will increase to 40% of its damage being non cold.

I would actually like to pick up those nodes you took but they are likely one of the last things I'll pick up. Early on they slow you down a lot in terms of getting to either shadow or templar.

The one thing that is pretty noticeable with crit while leveling though is it takes a few of the node sets before it starts to help. The first cluster or two don't add near as much as the others so it can feel a little less exciting at first but as you get more it gets really nice since crit chance and multiplier function to increase the value of the other one as you get them.

Would you mind posting your skill tree I just wanna compare to see what sorta path you took out of curiosity. I'm playing on Beyond so I spec'ing into HP more so than dmg currently. I'm currently at 354 DPS around the start of Act 3. So I'm just trying to get info since I would like to try and make it fairly far :p a lot of witches that I see seem to run Arc and I've seen some videos of BOL. I just hope my Glacial Cascade is able to clear maps when I reach them.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMB37DfioIQB6UC40myLJwFQkGW0PWus0yzBAeD21XGOljr5F8qHwKXlVJTPV8tH5Ugaxe86sBUCPRqQzbF2CSnCLiT6-6a4EWdU1KdrhpsFm8kqjbp42rkIo5k96a2-ilP7DgaOKeEkFW1BF3GRtfd82BtnYCDOO98FE2iAASz8B_B84Ie2wuio3_GJ6kRlg5IXfJCw9-EAv6MNlVLYeImlRa_c7PwaxXncNWJ03BSBx6VLvDVSVGP-uv1ZJ3yHQ_EO3y4yg==

is the build I am currently using. Well technically it is a little different because I leveled up shadow because I have played so many witches and already have a witch this league but that is the version I would run if I was a witch (for shadow I can't get that one 40% node and have to take the two elemental nodes at the start of shadow).

I find the mana regen is very helpful as it lets me run a mid tier arctic armor and helps with glacial cascades huge mana cost.

edit: I've been able to clear level 72 maps fine so far. One thing I've found really helpful is ball lightning with curse on hit. I used it with assassin's mark and then when I found a +1 curse ring I combined it with ele weakness (and I use enfeeble instead for maps if I roll something dangerous). I was doing that with a 4 link using glacial cascade, spell echo, cold pen, faster casting (while cold pen doesn't effect all the damage it seemed to be a reasonable choice still to help me freeze things). Once I got my area nodes I switched it to concentrated effect. Also with the way our tree is set up most of our stuff effects ball lightning too and I find it can shock sometimes when it crits (for non-bosses). I have found the new potions let me get away without running life leech as a gem even for reflect packs, although I haven't been doing high level reflect maps where it might be necessary. If that turns out to be an issue I'll change the curse to warlord's mark for my second one over ele weakness (or maybe poachers mark so I can turn it into a more useful temp chains when I don't need the leech).

I don't often post but I felt the need to provide some love for GC which is a skill I've come to love this league having just reached 72 with a GC templar!

Personally, hybrid Life/ES for defence and have the following tree thus far http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUAAnEEBwSzBUIFWwj0FE0WbxhdGjgabB8CJIskqiftKU8snDQxNsU26TrYPAU9Dz1fQZZEq0bXSi5Ms03YUlNVrlXGWK5bWV8qYG1sFm0ZfLt9U331ghCDOIPbhxmLjIx2jmSPRo-mkFWTB5eVl_SdgJ2un7Sf36IApwinhKelqWius69ztoa2-rdywFTEFcT2xYrQ9dWL2CTZotrd3fPfsOFz42rkIuvk7DjtIO988B_zcfem_Es=

I'm using a 5L at the moment with GC - Cold to Fire - Added Lightning - Conc Effect/Inc AoE - Spell Echo (will add Crit multi if I get a 6L), where I'm swapping the Conc Effect/Inc AoE as required (usually sticking with the former but sometimes switching if I feel more AoE is needed). I've been using Herald of Ice and Herald of Fire as well. I've found it quite effective so far, though I do have some crit (about 25% chance, 320% multi). At the moment, my damage split is about 25% cold, 50% fire, 10% lightning, 15% physical.

If you wanted to avoid crit, might I suggest the following (if not Hybrid Life/ES then remove the ES nodes in the witch area and substitute for travel to and starting the Scion Life Wheel): http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA37CCEI-mRKtVriycBUJBltD1UlM9X5f0bRkI9MBUvOpqQwQHg9tVxjpYEFivm5UEMjSsmBEPTC0XVI48VkqeoSKB6-RfKh8CnwHR5I2CU9QreB_HLYs2xdgkpwidrhpsFm8kqjbp42rkIkbX3fNgbZ2AgzjvfLaGfVMUTQSz8B8CcaIAjmT3prb6FVDa3TmKEGkwl4KbKU_sOBo4p4SQVe0g4XOLjAVbn988BRFQNbmnKx1P2VsbJUuu6QLfig==

It's handy to have the Breath of Rime extra freeze chance at the top there since you won't get too many crits (though there is a bit of crit there to help with freezing mostly, rather than damage). I'd suggest perhaps trying GC - Added Cold - Cold Pen - Conc Effect/Inc AoE - Spell Echo ( + Faster Casting if you get a 6L) might be worth trying if you want to focus on cold damage. In particular, it's important to have a Quality Added Cold in the above to ensure some extra chance to freeze.

Hope that provides something to think about!