[2.0] Cold-to-Fire Pyre Ice Nova Marauder Tank (Cheap!)
 Play this build if: - You are looking for a dynamic build that doesn't just hold down the right mouse button - You take delight in turning absolutely junk rares into pricess gold (this build doesn't need expensive gear) - You want to level with the same skill that you'll use end game - You want to impress your party members with an unusual build - You die often and are looking for a build with lots of survivability. - You love playing casters, but you've already made a Templar and Witch and need something else for your 8/8 Challenges. Don't play this build if: - You need to play the most uber max DPS build there is. This build has some serious clearspeed, but I seriously doubt it will be the new meta. You play this build for the budget, the fun, the variety, and the uniqueness. AWAKENING UPDATE: I've added a bunch of jewel sockets to the tree, plus the Cold/Fire wheel to the right of the witch area. As far as skill gems go, I haven't tested some of the new skills, but I imagine that you will want to run a Fire golem for a bit more damage. Now that we don't need reduced mana gems, that should free up a gem slot quite nicely. Also, using Flame Dash instead of Lightning Warp will be just fine, too (and free up even more gem sockets). Passive Skill Tree (108 Points)
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Skill Gems
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4-6L: Ice Nova / Spell Echo / Increased AOE / Concentrated Effect / Fire Penetration / Faster Casting 4L: Arctic Breath / Spell Echo / Fire Penetration / Concentrated Effect or 4L: Freezing Pulse / Spell Echo / Fire Penetration / Your Choice: (Added Cold, Chance to Ignite, Cold to Fire (it's similar to a more multiplier in this case)) 4L: Fire Trap / Increased Burning Damage / Increased Area of Effect / Chance to Ignite 4L: Cast When Damage Taken / Increased Duration / Immortal Call / Enfeeble Auras/Heralds: Herald of Thunder / Herald of Ice / Clarity (If you aren't running a mana flask) or Herald of Thunder / Arctic Armour / Clarity - Arctic Armour now stacks so wonderfully with our armour build, and it will add a LOT of reflect mitigation. This is a no-brainer to me now that it just reserves a portion of your mana. For the blood magic variant, it will still be worth turning this on for reflect maps or for bosses that deal a lot of physical/fire damage. Mobility (Option #1): Flame Dash (Just throw this wherever, it doesn't need links) / Fire Golem or Chaos Golem Alternatively, if you are using a scepter, you could use Leap Slam + Fortify for increased survivability Option #2 (Leech Option): 3L: Lightning Warp / Curse on Hit / Warlord's Mark Fire Golem or Chaos Golem somewhere in there (doesn't really need links, but Minion Life doesn't hurt) Bandits
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Normal: Help Oak (+40 Life) Cruel: Kill All (Skill Point) Merciless: Kill All (Skill Point) Levelling Trees
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A bit of advice on levelling this build: * You want to get a Lapis Amulet as soon as possible, or grab some of the +30 Int nodes early on. You will get lots of int once you get to the Witch section of the tree, and you can respec those points once you have enough int elsewhere in the tree. * You don't get Ice Nova until level 12 now, so I strongly recommend levelling with Flame Totem + Fire Trap until you get Ice Nova. Even after that, Flame Totem is going to be really strong and you will want to keep using it for a while. * Rallying Cry is awesome early on. It helps you out with a lot of your early game mana problems and gives a nice little DPS boost. * There are 3 Jewel Sockets in the build. Only get these if you are actually able to get some decent jewels. I'm going to go with 5% Life and at least 16% Damage or 5% Cast Speed on the Jewel. Remember, you can use %Fire Damage on jewels, but any jewel that says "Fire Skills" isnt' what you are after. We're doing fire damage, but you need it to say "Cold Skills" if it specifies a type.
26 Point Build
The build starts off by going through the top half off the Marauder armour wheel, and then heads up towards the Templar section. The 2 points heading to Heart of the Warrior and the Fire Damage Arsonist wheel are probably going to be the last things you would take in this section. I highly recommend taking the connecting nodes in the tree as early as possible when levelling any build. YOU WILL BE STARVED FOR INTELLIGENCE AT THIS POINT. The Marauder doesn't get many options for Intelligence. As soon as you can, get a Lapis Amulet. It is needed to keep levelling your skills. As soon as you are capable of wearing the Pyre unique ring, I would recommend equipping it (requires Level 11). Don't take the Fire damage nodes (Arsonist) until you get the Pyre ring.
46 Point Build
We're moving into the Templar section. There is going to be some damage coming from the Templar Illuminati wheel at the far left of the tree, but we're going to skip that for now. Instead, grabboth Light of Divinity, Amplify, and Retribution and then head towards the Witch section of the tree.
65 Point Build
We're heading up into the Witch Area where we're going to get most of our damage. If you don't have the Pyre unique ring by this point, you really really really need to consider picking one up. If you still don't have one, skip the fire damage noteable in the Witch area for now. We're going to grab Snowforged first (This wheel gives this build 76% Damage and 30% Chance to crit. It has a few connecting nodes first though, and the impact of taking stat nodes early on is much less than grabbing them later in the game. That's why we're going here first.
82 Point Build
More survivability here as we're looking at going through Merciless. Grab Unwavering Stance and the armour and life nodes in the Marauder section of the tree. You'll want to respec the 14% armour node around this time.
102 Point Build
This is your level 80 build assuming that you went Oak, Kill, Kill with your bandit quest rewards. There is a single respec point here needed (You are removing the 14% armour node and taking the connecting strength node required to get into the Life/Armour wheel with Juggernaut. If you are only playing this build to level 82, take the 2 points to Celestial Punishment and the build is finished.
108 Point Build
This is your level 85 build assuming that you went Oak, Kill, Kill with your bandit quest rewards. As always, if you need some more survivability earlier on, you can take more of the life nodes or armour nodes at any time. A Note on the Templar Illuminati Wheel in 2.0
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Back in 1.3, the Templar Illuminati Wheel was a no brainer. You connected the rest of the Templar tree through Devotion for a bunch of awesome life and buff effect. In my opinion, this wheel has gotten significantly worse with the pathing through a jewel socket (unless you are able to roll an AMAZING jewel). Instead, I would like to offer an alternative for this build (it doesn't work for other builds because it relies on us being able to use +Cold% and +Fire% in the tree interchangeably). There are 5 connecting nodes to get you into the Templar Illuminati wheel, but there are only 2 connecting nodes to get you to Storm Weaver and Explosive Impact. Here is a comparison of the two wheels: Illuminati Wheel (adds 12 points) +24% Fire Damage +24% Cold Damage +26% Elemental Damage +5% Chance to Freeze, Shock, and Ignite +2% Fire Penetration +25% Damage against Shocked, Frozen, or Ignited Enemies Assuming you have 100% uptime on Ignite or Shock, this is going to give you a total of 99% Added damage with 2% Penetration and +5% Ignite chance. Explosive Impact and Storm Weaver (adds 9 points) +55% Fire Damage +43% Cold Damage +4% Radius of Area Skills This gives us a combined total of 98% Added damage with increased radius. Yes, the Illuminati Wheel is slightly better, but when you are trying to trim the tree from 111 or 114 points to something that you will get with a level 85 build, sacrifices need to be made. When I designed the Blood Magic variant of the build, I needed to exercise this option. It gave enough points to dip down into Blood Magic and still be achievable at level 85. How does it work?
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Well, the core of the build is as follows: We convert all of our Cold damage into Fire damage with the Unique Ring, Pyre. This allows us to take only the most efficient damage nodes in the passive skill tree. We're converting our damage, which means we can benefit from both Cold Damage and Fire Damage nodes. In the Templar section of the tree, we're able to take the outer path of the Illuminati wheel, getting 24% Fire damage and 24% Cold damage. We're not wasting skill points on 8% or 10% elemental/spell damage nodes. We're comparing 48% effective spell damage from only 4 nodes. If we compare that to the 10% nodes coming out of the Witch or Templar starting areas, we're getting almost an entirely free skill point just from this one section of the wheel. In the Witch area, we're also able to benefit from both the Fire Walker and Frost Walker +18% spell damage nodes. In addition to giving some really good resists, we're again maximizing the amount of damage we're getting from our passive tree by being able to dip into either cold or fire nodes. This effect continues to our weapon selection. Consider this wand that I've been using: Most elemental builds are only able to use up to 4 sources of damage% on the wand: Spell Damage % Implicit Spell Damage % Prefix Spell Damage %/Mana Hybrid Prefix Fire Damage % Suffix With our build, we're able to utilize a 2nd Suffix for Cold Damage %. Throw some cast speed in there, and you are set. This wand cost me 2C and I mastercrafted some more spell damage onto it. I did another search on poe.trade and as of this post, the only wands with 115% Fire Damage and 15% cast speed are going to cost you upwards of 6 exalts. Now imagine I didn't have an ultra crappy 5% cold damage roll, what if that was another 20%+ roll? That would start pushing the spell damage on these wands into astronomically high values. People will often see a wand with both a Fire% and Cold% roll on it, and immediately dismiss the weapon and sell it for cheap. Nobody wants this junk. Except for us. We also get a lot of bonus damage against enemies who are ignited. We have 25% from the passive tree, and I recommend using the Unique Boots, Gang's Momentum for an extra 15% damage vs Ignited Enemies. It also gives us 7% more chance to ignite, which is really useful. Now to do damage, we're using 2 skills. Ice Nova and Arctic Breath. Ice Nova is the primary skill for clearing large packs, and we use Arctic Breath to deal with single target monsters, hitting them with 3-5 Projectiles based upon your personal preference of LMP vs GMP. When you really want to get the monsters ignited to take advantage of all our bonus damage vs ignited enemies, I recommend using a Fire Trap linked with Chance to Ignite. This super powerful combo lets you explode huge packs of monsters at once. What about reflect? Reflect can be a big problem, and if you aren't careful you will one-shot yourself because Ice Nova can hit so many monsters at once. I often run a Ruby flask for the extra +10% Max Fire resistance, and combined with an Atziri's Promise flask I resist/leech enough that I can power through most anything. In general, just take it slow when you see a reflect pack and swap your granite or quicksilver out for a ruby flask when running reflect maps. With the extremely efficient use of damage skill points, where does that leave us now? With lots of leftover skill points to spend on survivability!!! This build runs a fairly standard 150%+ Life and comes with the extra bonus fun of 220% increased Armour. In my opinion, Armour got a huge buff in Patch 1.3. The new Soul of Steel cluster below the Marauder gives a tonne of armour and what is effectively a free endurance charge that can never go away. We can benefit from Unwavering Stance and a lot of Shield effectiveness too. Take a look at your current caster build. Are they running a granite flask? Mine is. I've got a level 87 Templar running RaizQT's Incinerate build, and I use a Granite Flask all the time. When I pop it, my Armour value goes up to 10,000 and I get about 50% physical damage mitigation. This build walks around with 14,000 armour and over 60% physical damage mitigation. Pop a granite flask, and the value goes over 30,000. That's 80% physical damage mitigation. Tentacle Miscreations do almost nothing to you. When you take a huge hit from a giant skeleton, charging rhoa, or colossal vaal soldier, your hit points barely move. You can stand in the middle of huge packs and never once worry that you are about to die. How do we get so much armour? We can afford to run quality armour pieces on almost all of our gear. We need a few blue gems, so I'd recommend using a hybrid Armor/Energy Shield chest for your main Ice Nova skill (get a 5L, they really aren't that expensive. I bought a white 5L for 1 chaos and then threw an alchemy orb on it at first. When I got some money, I mastercrafted a better one, but it is *NOT* required to make this build work!). Chest - Armour/ES Rare Chest Boots - Armour/ES Gang's Momentum Unique Gloves - Pure Armour Helmet - Pure Armour Shield - Pure Armour (I'm using Lioneye's Remorse, it cost me 1c) Ring #1 - Pyre Unique Ring Ring #2 - Anything with +Mana and Mana Regeneration over 50% Amulet - Anything with +Mana and Mana Regeneration over 50% Mana and Mana Regeneration is one of the weakest parts of the build, and something you'll need to work at until you manage to get just the right amount. I found that with a combined 100% mana regen from my amulet and one ring, along with about +60 mana on those same pieces gave me enough mana to cast my spells. Current Gear: I hope you enjoy the build and want to give it a shot. It's a lot of fun, extremely cheap, and tanky as hell. This is the first build guide I've written, so if you have any feedback or suggestions for the build please let me know in the comments. Thanks! Kesselya Last edited by Kesselya on Jul 22, 2015, 1:41:38 PM
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With POE Jeweller out now for customizing your links, here is a link to POE Jeweller for this build:
POE Jeweller Link Last edited by Kesselya on Mar 29, 2015, 12:39:48 PM
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Hi! Currently leveling this build. What do u think about using Determination, AA, HoI in your build? Post please your mana reservation and mana regen numbers. Did u consider picking +1 max fire res nodes? What about life/reduced mana cost wheel (in between of mara and templar)?
Last edited by NoRestForTheWicked on Mar 30, 2015, 11:10:33 AM
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Thanks for giving this build a try :) To answer one part of your question, Herald of Ice would be awesome. If you can afford to run it, do it. I'm running Herald of Thunder because it gives me the ability to shock the enemies with my spells, and the bonus damage on shocked enemies is just too good to pass up. If you can afford both of them, you will be in heaven.
With respect to the other 2 "auras", Determination and AA are some pretty mana intensive sources of armour/damage mitigation, and I didn't find them particularly effective when paired with this build.
Long Winded Explanation
Armour, unlike something like Energy Shield, doesn't scale linearly. At level 85, if you have around 10,000 Armour, your character sheet might say something like 65% Damage reduced. If you go all the way up to 30,000 Armour, the number doesn't triple, it goes to more like 80 or 85%. In the Torment league when I played this build the first time, I turned on Determination and I didn't see an astronomical increase in my armour. For the mana reservation, it was particularly underwhelming to say the least. But I already had a pile of armour, so I was just stacking more armour onto an already big number. There are 2 ways you can go with this build in my opinion: METHOD #1 - Stick to almost entirely Armour gear. Get a chestplate and shield with both over 1000 Armour on them. Get a solid helmet or gloves with around 500 Armour and some life and resists on it. Then you will probably want something hybrid to put your spell in. I'm running Ice Nova and Arctic Breath because I think they are fun. This build doesn't care what spell you use really. They rely heavily on blue gems, so you'll find it hard to chrome a pure Armour item to get the links you need. I use the Gang's Momentum unique boots (Armour/Evasion) and have chromed those to be 3 blue 1 green and put my arctic breath in it. With every other piece of gear you have being pure Armour, you'll find it pretty easy to get a high number for your Armour, and enough defences to withstand a lot of physical damage without even needing to bring a granite flask (I oftentimes ran with just a Ruby flask for going up against reflect packs). The downside to this is that you can't get +Mana on most of your gear, so your mana pool will be a lot smaller. In the Torment/Bloodlines league, the Templar I have running this build has around 300 unreserved mana at level 70. I've got a level 4 Clarity and Herald of Thunder running on reduced mana. For me, level 4 was important. I have an Ample (+20 Flask Charges) on a Sanctified Mana flask of Grounding. This gives me 4 uses of the Mana Flask, and has a 14 second duration. If I hold my Ice Nova button down and activate the mana flask when I'm low mana, it never fully refills my mana bar, and I get mana regen for a full 14 seconds, along with uninterrupted immunity to Shock. This means I can stand right next to a Storm Herald pack or Piety and not worry about getting obliterated to her spell damage. I'm not worried about mana, because I've crafted the perfect flask and tailored my mana regen on gear and clarity to provide uninterrupted casting for a long duration. METHOD #2 - Go Hybrid Armour/Evasion on most of your gear. This is going to make gemming everything probably a lot easier and you can get +mana everywhere. Your mana pool will be a lot larger, as will your mana regen. You can probably afford to run a much higher level of Clarity and you can use Determination here. That'll make up for the lack of running pure armour. With that said, I'd probably skip everything below Unwavering Stance in the Marauder section of the tree. Don't bother with getting Bloodless or the new Armour circle with the permanent endurance charge. Instead, you could tweak the tree and get the Life/Chaos Resistance wheel above the Templar section and then get some mana reduction nodes to be able to run Herald + Determination + Clarity and still have a sizeable mana pool. You could even consider moving up into Eldritch Battery and converting your energy shield into mana to run a high level of Arctic Armour. At that point though, you might be better off switching to a more classic Witch build. I haven't played this variant of the build, but if you try something like it and want to run the Determination aura, let me know what your results are. I'm sure collaboration would definitely help the build grow and become more potent. Last edited by Kesselya on Mar 30, 2015, 7:32:07 PM
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I looked at the Life/Mana Cost reduction wheel in between Templar and Marauder and found the Life/Mana nodes in the witch to be far more effective, because adding more mana just increases your base regeneration which then scales nicely with the rest of your gear. That's why I didn't pick that node.
I felt that the Life and +Fire Resistance wheel in the Marauder section just wasn't powerful enough for the points that I was spending. The build already has a lot of life, so I didn't feel that it needed more. If you find that your armour values are high enough, you might consider swapping out the Life/Armour nodes (and the 1 connecting +str node those require) and take the Life/Fire Resistance nodes instead. That's going to be a personal preference call, but I did look at both of these when trying the build out the first time. -Kess | |
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Here is my 85 Marauder from Torment:
Life: 4378 Mana: 1059 Unreserved Mana: 524 (Level 18 Clarity, Herald of Thunder, Level 18 Reduced Mana) Mana Regen/Sec: 110.7 Armour: 15115 / 63% Armour with 93% Iron Skin Granite Flask: 31789 / 79%
Gear
Here is my level 70 Templar from Torment/Bloodlines: Life: 3347 Mana: 423 Unreserved Mana: 244 (Level 16 Reduced Mana, Level 4 Clarity, Herald of Thunder - I'm using a Mana flask atm) Mana Regen/Sec: 27.2 Armour: 7273 / 57% Armour with 63% Iron Skin Granite Flask: 19304 / 79%
Gear
The Level 70 Build is: http://poeurl.com/ziCOZlU Last edited by Kesselya on Mar 30, 2015, 7:34:54 PM
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Hello this looks like a really fun build and i have always wanted to make a ice nova build. Im thinking of making this build in the 1 month league but could you make a leveling guide to the talent tree on what path to take first? maby one for level 20,40,60,80.
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I'm not sure exactly what 20,40,60,80 would be as far as levels go, but I'll give some guidance of how I would level through the tree.
24 Point Build
The build starts off by going through the top half off the Marauder armour wheel, and then heads up towards the Templar section. The 2 points heading to Heart of the Warrior and the Fire Damage Arsonist wheel are probably going to be the last things you would take in this section. I highly recommend taking the connecting nodes in the tree as early as possible when levelling any build. YOU WILL BE STARVED FOR INTELLIGENCE AT THIS POINT. The Marauder doesn't get many options for Intelligence. As soon as you can, get a Lapis Amulet. It is needed to keep levelling your skills. As soon as you are capable of wearing the Pyre unique ring, I would recommend equipping it (requires Level 11). Don't take the Fire damage nodes (Arsonist) until you get the Pyre ring.
47 Point Build
We're moving into the Templar section. A lot of our damage is going to come from the Templar Illuminati wheel at the far left of the tree. Go for that next, and then grab both Light of Divinity and Retribution.
65 Point Build
We're heading up into the Witch Area where we're going to get lots more damage. If you don't have the Pyre unique ring by this point, you really really really need to consider picking one up. If you still don't have one, skip the fire damage noteable in the Witch area fore now.
86 Point Build
More survivability here as we're looking at going through Merciless. Grab Unwavering Stance and the Witch survivability nodes and the head down the Templar starting tree. There is a good chance you'll need the +Dex and +Int nodes by this point, but grab them only if you don't have enough of those stats on your gear.
99 Point Build
This is your level 80 build assuming that you went Oak, Kill, Kill with your bandit quest rewards. There is a single respec point here needed (You are removing the 14% armour node and taking the connecting strength node required to get into the Life/Armour wheel with Juggernaut.
106 Point Build
This is your level 85 build assuming that you went Oak, Kill, Kill with your bandit quest rewards. | |
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thanks alot for answering will try it out today :)
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I got my Catarina to level 6 today in the 1-Month Race, which means I was now able to craft 1% Fire Leech onto my wand. I've dropped my Clarity altogether now, so in my shield I've got Reduced Mana - Herald of Thunder - Herald of Ice.
I'm relying heavily on the Sanctified Mana Flask that I'm using, but the only time I ever run out of mana with it is if I'm up against something tragic that would slow me down like Phylacteral Link. In the odd case when I do run out of mana, my backup life flask is now a Hybrid flask so that I can get just a bit more mana regen to get the charges flowing on my mana flask. I highly recommend rolling an Ample or Saturated mana flask! It's wonderful! 14+ seconds of Shock Immunity is really hard to beat. For Flasks I'm now using: For my 5th flask, I run a Granite of Iron Skin and swap it out for a Ruby flask of Adrenaline when I'm up against reflect maps. Last edited by Kesselya on Apr 1, 2015, 2:55:19 PM
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