[1.3] The Winter Knight, arctic armor and glacial hammer CoC guide

Hi, this is the character i'm playing at the moment in rampage, and it is my very first guide so i'll take every advices you can give me to improve it. By the way, english is not my native language so i'll take advices for this too.

This character is still ongoing (actually act 3 merciless) and mostly self-found (something like 90%, a friend gave me a good weapon and armor when i really touch the bottom after 20 level without nothing interesting at act 2 merciless, i still use them)


So what is this guy ?

The winter knight is a templar relying on ice (no kidding)
One scepter for the damage and one shield in the other hand, he uses eldritch battery to be able to use arctic armor. Not only that but when he is doing critical strikes with his glacial hammer, glacial cascade is cast


passive tree and gems

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABLMGOREPE8wUIBSwFm8YXRo4Gj4abCSLJKonLykuKU8x-zbpOlg8LTzvPQ9DyEwtTwRP81AwUEdRYFXGV-JboF8qXz9gZWebaPJp_nKpdFV343fleTl8Dny4fLt-x37if-OCHoKbg9uFfYx2j0aQVZJ9lnSYb5tYm6Gdrp48ogCnCKdVrJit8a4-toa3PsBmxPbGrtWm2L3a3dsL217cI-Fz42rkIuRR5Yvlz-w47MvtIO8O8B_x_vIv8wb3MvfX-dv7qv4K


Glacial hammer + cast on critical strike + glacial cascade + multistrike + power charge on critical

This with what you will do your damage, the power charge on critical is not necessary, i choose it because my armor has 5L and the 5th slot is blue, according to this, i choose the power charge in the skill tree. You can replace this gem with multistrike or faster attack if you want or even nothing if you don't have a 5L, the choice is yours.


Herald of ice + determination + reduced mana

Herald of ice give you a little more damage on your attacks and spells and an explosive icy bonus, determination give your more armor, if you want more damage instead i suggest hatred, if you want more mana use discipline. Oh and don't be greedy !


arctic armour

When it hit hard or if it's hot, use this one, you don't have to support it all the map, just for these monsters, of course if your mana regen is high enough do not hesitate.


Clarity + reduced mana + blood magic

To support arctic armour, i made the choice to use it on life to spare my mana, but again it depends of your gear. Yet, be careful while leveling, i suggest to desactivate it on boss who move a lot like piety (except her melee form) or dominus (first form, keep it for the second you'll need arctic armour)


Frostbite

The curse i choose, you freeze more often, it had to your survavibility. For more damage maybe use assassin's mark for the critical damages and the power charges.


Cast when damage taken + enduring cry + immortal call + increase duration

Everyone know it, no comment. I didn't take the endurance charge in the passive because i can't take everything and with arcitc armour there is no necessity but if you want more survivability again do not hesitate.

There still room for more gems if you want, i personaly use ice nova + increased critical strikes + iron will + cast when stunned, but it is not necessary


Gear

As i said earlier, i play almost self found so i do with what i have
You will need mods like increased critical chance on your weapon and if you can, use diamond rings or any other thing wich can improve your critical strike chances.
You will also need dexterity on gear to support herald of ice and arctic armour because the passives won't be enough, but it shouldn't be a problem.
If unlike me you don't play self found you should be fine (well maybe not merveil...)


Do not hesitate to share your opinions on this build (and on my english) or to give advice to improve it.

edit : skill tree is what i have right now
edit 2 : charcater now lv73 and doing map with no probleme, updated the skill tree, i stil have the same gear i had in a1m and it piss me off.
edit 3 : changed melee splash for multistrike
edit 4 : updated passive tree to 1.3 version

bump
please still waiting for review

Maces have 5% crit. Not worth going crit for what you're aiming.
Also EB is to far to be worth the points to get it.
In theory looks ok, but you will not have a lot of crits. Low crit chance - CoC is not 100%.
You could go Scepters for higher base crit - but it's hard to get a crit phys scepter.

Instead try this:
Replace CoC with Cast on Melee Kill.
Take RT.
Remove EB, and craft a Elreon rings with "-8 mana cost of skills".

I think it would work a lot better.

Melee characters, especially if not using daggers wands, where meant to use CoMK to proc spells. I believe this what GGG intended.

If you want CoC, make a shadow with a dagger/wand use ST/Barrage, but that's a totally different build. It's to hard to make a CoC build on the Mara side of the tree IMO, you would spread too thin.

Hi

nebunelux has it right.

And points you save by not going crit and taking RT can be used example in very good mana nodes near Templar starting point and elemental damage, resistance, area damage etc.

@nebunelux
In fact it is sceptre (same kind of mace) i'm using and i have about 40% crit chance without power charge (6 charges max). Even if glacial cascade isn't cast each hit (i don't think it is possible anyway) it is really often enough


The reason i'm not taking RT is because i've already done a templar with it so time to change a little, and a character with CoMK is planned for the next league.
As i told you i'm playing mostly self-found so my damages won't tell you anything but for the record i'm killing monsters with 2-3 hits (3 for the most...tanky of them)

no comment on my english? it should be good then.

Character now doing map without probleme, skill tree have been updated
I'm still waiting for review of more players

Haven't looked over everything, just read a bit. like the idea, been leveling as glacial b/c no one uses it any more so wanted to make a build :P neat concept i hadn't thought of doing coc. have you tried cold snap instead of glacial? the extra freeze might be handy w/glacials culling like ability. Also, can probably save some accuracy nodes if you have high enough vagan to craft the hits can't be evaded mod.

@kinglokken
I didn't try cold snap but it should be interesting
For the Vagan mod on weapon, i would like to have it because, despite of the accuracy nodes, i only have 84% to hit but it need to be on scepter with good damage, crit, etc... and i can't craft everything yet

I recently found a multistrike gem and tried it instead of melee splash : my dps just bounce forward and thanks to herald of ice, i still do AoE damage.
Map were not very difficult with melee splash but now they are easy. Bad point : i still have the same gear as a1m, nothing changed except the shield. Well, that's life...

Do you think a staff version of this build would work?I recently got a thinking a coc with it might be v fun.