[1.3] The Frozen Orb Duelist



This is an Archer (bow & arrow) build that utilizes the Duelist start point to obtain the require passive skills to maximize damage and survivability for this build.


Concept
The main part I love about PoE is making builds and my original goal was to make something similar to Frozen Orb spell from Diablo 2. I tried to make Witch caster using Ball lightning, maximizing AoE and Three Dragon's mask to convert shock to freeze. The results were mildly interesting and I eventually got bored of it due to its lack of damage as Ball Lightning is in my opinion, a terrible skill the GGG released prematurely.

The next skill I that I felt had potential to imitate the mechanics of Frozen Orb was Tornado Shot. After looking into ways to achieve a high amount of Cold Damage while maintaining good DPS, I found that Physical Damage conversion to Cold Damage along with Increased Weapon Elemental Damage from Passive Skill and Support Gems greatly increase the Cold Damage output.


Build Required Items
There are 2 cheap Unique Items that are required to make this build work:

Asphyxia's Wrath* (Quiver) & Hrimsorrow (Gloves)


*The Asphyxia's Wrath that I use has additional arrow mod which I bought for 1 exalt. This is not a must and can be swapped for the corrupted mod of "XX% Physical Damage converted to Cold Damage" for even more Cold Damage output.

These 2 uniques are very cheap as there is limited to almost no foreseeable use in high level builds. However, these items when used together converts 45% of your physical damage to cold damage which provides a large amount of cold damage to your bow attacks.

With these 2 items, you effectively turn Tornado Shot into something similar to Frozen Orb spell.

I have always dream of building a fun build that freezes and shatters almost everything it kills while maintaining a good damage output and map clear speed, without costing a your left kidney, and this build seems to have hit the spot.

Gameplay Video (Level 90)
Spoiler

I was using Tornado Shot + GMP + Added Fire + Phy Proj Dmg + Cold Damage + Weapon Ele Damage in both videos.

Video 1: level 77 map from Zana.
Map Mods are: Chilled ground, Increased Monster Cold Resist by 50%, Increased Monster Cold Damage by 87%.

This character easily breeze through the map eventhough there increased cold resist which makes my effective DPS only around 75% instead of 100%. The Chimeras and Chill Ground further slows me down but only barely.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJYabeF9Z8&feature=youtu.be


Video 2: Level 77 Shipyard with Fracture and Increased Monster Speed Mod.

Link: http://youtu.be/K8yn5PkXcrs



Pros & Cons
Spoiler

Pros:
+ Relatively cheap and easy to learn build
+ High base movement speed of +45%
+ Great map clear speed (done up to palace and shipyard with no problems)
+ Great for farming Dominus
+ Atziri viable (easily handle normal Atziri) (not tested for Uber Atziri)
+ Good single and AoE damage output
+ Monsters will almost never reach you as they will be constantly frozen and knocked back
+ Easily handle reflect aura from rare monsters as you do half physical and half elemental
+ Destroys most corpses

Cons:
- Low armor value with acceptable evasion
- No block except for Rumi's Flask
- Relies on unpredictable dodge and spell dodge from passive tree for main defences
- Total Health below 4k which some might argue is not enough


Skill tree at various levels:


Bandit Quest Reward choices
Spoiler

Normal: Help Oak for bonus HP
Cruel: Help Oak for bonus Physical Damage
Merciless: Kill all 3 bandit lords for 1 free skill point


Skills & Support Gems
Spoiler




The skill gems and support gems used are aimed at maximizing damage while providing some basic sense of defense and utility. Support gems that provide damage can easily be swapped out with IIQ, IIR and Leech gems if required.

Main: Tornado Shot linked with
+ Lesser Multiple Projectile
+ Physical Projectile Attack Damage
+ Added Cold Damage
+ Weapon Elemental Damage
+ Added Fire Damage
Damage: ~19000 DPS with LMP linked.
- This is your bread and butter skill for most situations.
- Cycle between Ice Arrow when needed to keep enemies from reaching you.
- Safely kills monsters up to 2 screens away

Secondary: Ice Shot linked with
+ Weapon Elemental Damage
+ Physical Projectile Attack Damage
+ Added Fire Damage
+ Added Cold Damage (optional)
+ Cold Penetration (optional)
Damage: ~27000 DPS with my current 4 Link.
- Ice Shot is very versatile skill that provides high single target damage as well as minor AoE damage as it explodes on hit
- Ice Shot results in a total conversion of 85% physical to cold damage
- Ice patch from exploding ice arrows stack, works great against chargers and bosses.
- Downside is that 85% physical to cold damage conversion results in a very low mana being leeched back per hit. Can be fixed by popping in a Mana Leech gem.

Curse: Projectile Weakness linked with
+ Split Arrow
+ Curse on Hit
+ Chain (Optional)
- Standard setup for applying curses to multiple targets as your curse radius from manual cast will be much smaller due to Asphyxia's Wrath's curse radius penalty
- Projectile Weakness provides the most efficient damage boost as damage from the projectile itself is increased as Tornado Shot does 55% physical and 45% cold damage which would only get half its benefits from Frostbite or Vulnerability.

Defensive Triggers: Cast When Damage Taken linked with
+ Enduring Cry
+ Immortal Call
+ Enhance / Increased Duration (if you can get linked 4Red slots in your gear)

Utility:
1) Blink Arrow - Great for opening boxes, placement and mobility
2) Vaal Haste - Momentary damage boost (can be replaced with Vaal Grace for survivability)

Heralds and Aura:
+ Herald of Ash
+ Herald of Ice
+ Hatred
+ Reduced Mana


Current Gear / Item setup:
Spoiler

Items linked here are based on what I have stashed away and can be substituted with other items as needed with the goal of getting capped 75% elemental resist, bringing up total Health to minimum of 3k and above and Weapon Elemental Damage to maximize DPS.





Helm - Rat's Nest
- Critical chance means more damage and chance to freeze
- Move speed is always useful for an archer
- Overall great helm.
- Can be substituted with a helm with HP, Elemental Resist, Accuracy (if not using Lioneye's Glare), etc.

Chest - Anything with 5L or 6L
- My chest is 6L with tri resist and +Health which isn't a must and depends on the rest of your jewelry to make up for the required elemental resist and +health
- Just recently added a +10% weapon elemental damage to it which adds another 500 dps to Tornado Shot
- Chest armor of choice would be something that has Elemental Resist and +Health
- Unique Options: Tabula Rasa (for 6L) and Belly of the Beast are great options

Glove - Hrimsorrow
- This is a core item as it provides 25% physical to cold damage conversion
- Strength on it helps a lot as the passive tree barely provides sufficient strength

Belt - Anything with Increased Health & Elemental Resist
- My belt is a tri resist and +Health which isn't a must and depends on the rest of your jewelry to make up for the required elemental resist and +health
- Belts to look out for are belts that have elemental resist, +Health and % Weapon Elemental Damage
- Unique Option: Prismweave is a great belt that has all the above except for +Health

Boots - Atziri's Step
- The corrupted boots is purely an option but definitely nice to have
- Extra spell dodge helps when dealing with spells
- Can be substituted with other boots that provide +Health and Elemental Resist if required
- Unique Option: Lioneye's Paw is a good alternative if you lack strength

Bow - Lioneye's Glare
- This bow was chosen so that accuracy can be totally ignored when going about the passive skill tree and gear choice
- Additional mana helps a lot in terms of mana management
- Can be substituted with a rare bow with high accuracy mod and slotting in Additional Accuracy Gem linked to Tornado Shot and Ice Arrow

Jewelry
- The jewelry I link is far from perfect and can use a lot of improvement, but I use what I have which works for now.
- Get jewelry with Elemental Resist Mods that will get your final elemental resist to cap at 75% on Merciless
- +Health mods are also essential to get your total health above 3500
- To further increase your damage output, try to get %Weapon Elemental Damage, Crit Chance, Crit Multiplier, Cold Damage


Flask Setup
Spoiler



- Only instant heal flask are used as your leech will sustain you from minor damage
- Rumi's flask provides additional defences when required (and when dealing with reflect)
- Atziri's Favor additional damage and life leech helps when dealing with reflect and bosses
- Quicksilver with additonal % movement is not a must and used just to get around more quickly and to dodge
- Quicksilver would be replaced with Taste of Hate (if I had one) as it would provide additional damage and defences against physical as well as elemental reflect. Who doesn't like to more around faster :D



Build Playstyle
- Play this build like you would with any standard archer character
- Keep moving and don't stand still like a turret
- Be ready to kite enemies that don't die in a few hits
- Know that this build is rather squishy, don't try to tank
- Swap between a few shots of Tornado Shot and a shot of Ice Arrow to freeze/ ice patch
- Skill cycle: Split Arrow (with Curse on Hit) > Ice Arrow > Tornado Shot > repeat as required
- Use Ice Arrow when dealing with reflect physical as you will convert 85% of your physical damage to cold damage


High Level Mapping & Map Mods
- Most Maps up to level 78 aren't a problem for this character and can run them rather quickly
- Thrives on doing increased pack size and fracture (swap LMP to GMP for total destruction)
- Swap out Added Fire for Life Leech when doing reflect maps
- Swap out Added Cold for Mana Leech when doing 50% or no mana/hp regen maps
- Elemental Weakness Curse & Minus Max Elemental Resist maps shouldn't be a problem as long as you play carefully


Atziri Viability: YES!
- Stand in a line with the 2 Vaal Construct Bosses (not between) and spam Tornado Shot until 1 dies leaving the other with low HP
- Kill the Melee Cleaver followed by Cycloner by kiting them in a box around the boss area and lastly the Ranged guy which is easy
- Use Tornado Shot in her normal and invulnerable phase. Use Ice Arrow to burst down one of her images in her split phase
- Died once to Vaal Constructs on my first try but I got a Mortal Hope drop after dropping Atziri XD


I don't usually record while PoE, but if there is a request, I can add one showing what this build can do.

I am currently almost reaching level 90 and this build makes it a breeze to run maps. Will add more to this build as I work my way around the passive skill tree. Target is to reach level 95.

Feel free to leave a question or suggestion on ideas to improve this build, I am all ears.

Please be gentle, its my first time sharing a build idea :)
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
Last edited by 174nana on Apr 13, 2015, 10:04:49 AM
Added a couple of images and made some minor changes.
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
I'd like to see the build in action, just to know what it looks like.
I tried to do something similar a while ago, but got bored pretty quick, hope your build is much better than the crap I made back in the day. :D
[2.4] Riff Raff - under 1ex Reave RT DoT Gladiator: http://poeurl.com/C6q
Ya, it took me a while to figure a way to make a fun build that emphasizes on dealing cold damage while maintaining a respectable DPS and survivability.


As requested, I have made and uploaded a video.

The video shows this character running a level 77 map from Zana.
Map Mods are:
- Chilled ground
- Increased Monster Cold Resist by 50%
- Increased Monster Cold Damage by 87%.


This character easily breeze through the map eventhough there increased cold resist which makes my effective DPS only around 75% instead of 100%. The Chimeras and Chill Ground further slows me down but only barely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJYabeF9Z8&feature=youtu.be


Cheers :)
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
What advantages does this have that would make me want to use this build over a regular tornado shot one?
"
Sammun wrote:
What advantages does this have that would make me want to use this build over a regular tornado shot one?


I am not too sure about regular tornado shot builds as I never tried one.

My guess that it would be the fun of freezing or chilling all the monsters you run into and also barely leaving any unshattered corpses.

Main goal was to build something like Frozen Orb which is a projectile leaving the player, while releasing more projectiles and to use cheap and totally underused uniques like Hrimsorrow and Asphyxia's Wrath.

and you don't need to buy a Drillneck which I think most Tornado Shot builds are made around. A Drillneck probably cost my entire built with change to spare haha.


Uploaded another video of this build running a Level 77 Shipyard with Fracture and Increased Monster Speed Mods.

Link: http://youtu.be/K8yn5PkXcrs



[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
Thanks for the person who mentioned that I didn't put up the bandit quest choices, totally slipped me.

Bandit quest reward choices:

Normal: Help Oak for bonus HP
Cruel: Help Oak for bonus Physical Damage
Merciless: Kill all 3 bandit lords for 1 free skill point


Also added to original post above.
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
This build is fun so far.

Started a new character in Standard, was getting bored of Torment. I had some of the items needed, but bought seven quivers and corrupted plus 1 arrow on, ofcourse the worst one ;) ..

I'm having a blast so far and can't wait to see how it scales later. Having a few mana issues early on, but I figure it will be corrected as I move on in the tree. I really enjoy the Frost experience, always seen it as lacking in the "mage" department, now I'm getting that feel, albeit with a bow, but never the less it feels caster like.

big thumps up so far, will follow the thread, and hope more pick up on it. I'll comment as I get further.
just stopped reading and i really wanted to say that ball lightning is actually one of if not the best lightning skill and i find this general hate train about really misleading for a lot of people , if you think ball lightning sucks then you probably don`t know how to build around it , sorry but had to say it.No need to mislead people..
Last edited by MadBro_ on Mar 3, 2015, 4:29:08 PM

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