[2.0] A Storm of Ice and Fire - AoF CI Whispering Ice - UBER ATZIRI VIABLE - Witch Variant

This is the Witch variant of my Avatar of Fire CI Whispering Ice build. The original Scion variant can be found at https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1386145

Map video! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-0DuR75dc Lv80 Wasteland



Uber Atziri Videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cALiYwO65q0&feature=youtu.be - Vessels of the Vaal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjIhLbsfgws&feature=youtu.be - Trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW-EHi94lyk&feature=youtu.be - Uber Atziri





There are a few whispering Ice builds out there already. Why use mine over the others? I think my icestorm tooltip will speak for itself:



I will be upfront in saying that this is not a budget build. If you want whispering ice to perform admirably, you need ~10 exalts of investment. I have invested far, far more into my personal build.

Also, this is not a build for budget PCs. There's a lot of VFX spam going on while playing and you need a good PC if you want a playable framerate.

So, why play Whispering Ice? Because its fun as hell, and it looks cool as hell. There are stronger builds out there - cyclone, poison arrow, incinerate (yawn). You don't play these because they are unoriginal and boring - that's why you're looking at this build. You want something interesting.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Fun, unique build
-Looks freaking awesome
-Staff provides a free 7-link, and no need for more than a 4-link on your armor.
-Can run most map mods, -maxres + elemental reflect combo and bloodmagic are about the only showstoppers
-Surprisingly tanky with high damage output
-Slow the everloving crap out of enemies
-Can kill Atziri with relatively low-end gear(!)
-This build gives you the Specialist achievement (woo!)

Cons:
-Highly restrictive gearing
-Not cheap if you want to tackle 77+ maps
-Graphically intensive, may be problematic for you or party members
-Highly mobile enemies can be hard to handle





To do this build you need a Whispering Ice. No way around that, and right now on Warbands they will cost you 3-4 exalts. This is the only required piece of gear for the build. The rolls on the staff don't matter hugely, with high %int being more important than cast speed.

Note that any support gem socketed into The Whispering Ice will affect your icestorm skill, regardless of whether the sockets on the staff are linked. This means that a 6-socket The Whispering Ice functions as a 7-link at a fraction of the cost of any other 6-link staff.

Stats
Spoiler

Mapping (faster casting)

Bosses (conc. effect)

Defense



Build Theory

Intelligence is the most important stat for this build - it gives us ES, base damage AND damage scaling, and mana. Stacking a lot of this stat lets us be both tanky and and offensive powerhouse. To that end, we avoid most nodes that don't provide int themselves or are not next to ones that do. Why take nodes that "only" provide damage when we can get so much more from others? Accordingly, nodes like Heart of Ice that are normally considered good are skipped in favor of nodes that benefit us in more than one way.

Unfortunately, the gear that provides us with the most intelligence is pretty lacking in the resistances department. To alleviate this, we need an absolute ton of resistances from our passive tree and on our jewels. Witch is a viable choice for this class - we get some great jewel nodes and have the highest base intelligence of any class.

Why Avatar of Fire?



Cold to Fire became a very powerful gem in 2.0. It adds a fraction of cold damage as fire damage - this directly adds to our base damage, and gets scaled by all our modifiers. Combined with Avatar of Fire, it also converts 100% of our cold damage into fire damage. This means we do a single damage type, making our penetration gem effective, and most importantly means we get to double dip on cold and fire damage increases. This makes the Snowforged node very strong, providing a full 50% increased damage. Jewels can also have both increased cold and increased fire damage, and we get the full benefit of each.



Skill Tree

Spoiler

Here's our skill tree. Note that we get the Alchemist cluster which is an incredibly strong multiplier to our defensive flasks. If you've ever played a build that takes this cluster before, you'll understand why I take it in this build.

Our two brute force solution jewels go in the sockets in the templar and marauder areas.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMBBAcNfA5IDlwQWBEtEVARlhXXGS4abBslHNwc5x0UHU8fAiftKPopTyycLKYsvy0fNbk2xTeDOtg9D0VHRX5HBkuuTLNQQlF0UilV4FZjVw1XyVhaXfJfKl9qZlRoZWoeavpsCG0Zd-V8u3_GgpuD94V7hq6HZYw2jHaO6Y8aj0aP-pDWkyeVIJ2unjyezZ_LoS-iLqKjppmm66cIpyunMK-Nr5uvp7UEuJO-isBmwcXB88QVxPbQH9DQ0iHVptgk2VvZYdvn34rkIukC6-Tr7uwY7Djv6_GK8i_zmw==


Bandits
Spoiler

Normal - Kraityn +10% all resistances - we need those resists!
Cruel - Alira +5% cast speed - it's better than a skill point, though only just.
Merciless - Kill them all, we don't use charges.


Gear

Here's what I use. It was very expensive. You do not need gear as good as mine to kick ass with this build! Below, I'll talk about what else you can use.


My Gear:
Spoiler





Jewels:
Spoiler




Gear Options:
Spoiler

Weapon: The Whispering Ice. Duh.

Chest armor:
Most of your ES comes from here. Priorities - 1. As much ES as possible. 2. As much int as possible. 3. Resists

Helmet: Black Sun Crest works well here if you're using Perandus Signets as it provides a whopping 19% increased intelligence. I would not suggest wearing one unless you can manage more than 8k energy shield without it though. A rare helmet with high ES/ high INT and resists works well too.

Boots: Move speed! Following that, high ES, INT, and resists. Good boots are very expensive. Sin trek is an acceptable cheap option since they provide decent ES, move speed, and intelligence.

Gloves: Rare - High ES, INT, resists.

Amulet: Good: Rare amulet with +int, +allstats, resists. Better: Astramentis. A rare amulet can rival Astramentis for +intelligence, but Astramentis has the added benefit of being unique which works well with Perandus Signet.

Rings:
Rare rings with +intelligence, +all stats, +energy shield, resists
OR
Perandus Signet

Perandus signet is the top choice here in terms of more intelligence. 2% increased intelligence per equipped unique becomes 10% or more with enough uniques, meaning each ring slot is providing you with 100 intelligence. This alone wouldn't be competitive with certain rare rings, but Perandus Signet also gives us an absolute ton of mana regeneration, which we direly need. Its expensive however, and you NEED very good resists to be able to use them.

Belt:
Bated Breath
OR
Auxium
OR
Perandus Blazon
OR
Rare chain belt - +ES/resists

Bated Breath and Perandus Blazon have the benefit of being unique (comboing with Perandus Signet) and providing intelligence of their own. I personally use Perandus Blazon because of the increased flask effect duration. Bated Breath provides more ES and a lot more regeneration when using Vaal Discipline, Auxium provides a ton of ES and alleviates the need for an anti-freeze flask. A rare belt works well too, this is a great gear slot to patch up your resists.

Flasks:
Our flasks are very important for preventing damage and making us highly tanky. Since we have Alchemist, our flasks have 28% more effect and last 14% longer - this is a big deal! Elemental resistance flasks give +13% maximum resistance and last a bit longer, granite flasks provide immense armor, quicksilver flasks make us immensely fast. This empowerment applies to unique flasks too! Rumi's concoction gives more block chance (I have 51% block when rumi's is active) and Taste of Hate nullifies nearly 40% of incoming physical damage.

What you NEED:
One Bleed Immune Flask
One Freeze Immune Flask
One Curse Immune Flask
One Ruby Flask (for reflect). This can also fill one of the above rolls.
What you want:
Granite Flask
Quicksilver flask
Topaz/Sapphire Flask
Taste of Hate/Rumi's Concoction/Divination Distillate

Jewels
Of the seven jewel slots we grab, two require Brute Force Solution and the other five are free for rare jewels. These jewel slots let us patch our weaknessess and increase our strengths. Resistances are great here, as its hard to get resists from our gear. Intelligence, damage, and energy shield are perfect. Its relatively easy to find jewels with bold increased cold and fire damage modifiers, and we get to benefit from both!


Links
Spoiler

We use a RRRBBG Staff for this build.
R - Fire Penetration
R - Life Leech
R - Cold to Fire
B - Spell Echo
B - Flex Slot 1 - Faster casting (mapping)/Concentrated effect (bosses)/Item Rarity (easy content)
G - Flex Slot 2 - Hypothermia / Added Cold damage (chill immune foes)


Helmet
Enlighten - Discipline - Herald of Ice - Purity of Fire

Since our helmet provides +1 to all gems inside, even a level1 enlighten which can be had quite cheaply is effective here. Slotting our discipline and herald of ice gives us a little extra oomph from the +1 level.

Purity of fire is used for reflect maps and Atziri primarily. For most other purposes we run Herald of Ice.

Gloves
Cast When Damage Taken - Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Frost Wall

Immortal Call lasts 0.7 seconds with no endurance charges, enough to mitigate physical spike damage nicely. Frost wall keeps melee attacks and projectiles alike out of our way, though party members will find this highly annoying! Use with care.

Chest
Cast When Damage Taken - Curse on Hit - Firestorm - Temporal Chains
(Separately) Arctic Armor - Clarity

By using a low level spell (firestorm) and curse on hit we can apply a 20/20 Temporal chains with CWDT! When stacked with our chilled ground, the slowdown to enemies is immense. Any spell will do, but I use firestorm because it looks amazing when fire and ice both rain from the sky.

AA provides excellent physical and fire mitigation, clarity is needed to sustain mana costs.

Boots
Increased Duration - Rallying Cry - Vaal Discipline (x2)

Rallying cry provides additional mana regen and damage. Vaal Discipline is an excellent panic button, bringing us over 15k energy shield while regenerating it massively.

[Build Guide] - Whispering Ice CI Avatar of Fire
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1386145
Last edited by Baalorlord on Aug 16, 2015, 8:16:32 PM
Nice build! 0L build opieop
Last edited by keta on Aug 17, 2015, 7:17:12 AM
hey :)

how do u handle the duration nerf? any ideas?

Thx!
is this build still viable ? after 2.02 nerf? ??
"Path of Exile's engine is currently modern, lean and fast." - Chris Wilson, September 19th, 2019
yes
Just curious when would be a good time to switch to CI on this build and to bring Arctic Armor in as well? Oh and why 2 vaal discipline, do they stack on each other so you can use it twice seperately?
Last edited by Bexcuno on Aug 26, 2015, 7:01:35 PM
Does the CoH off of Firestorm/CwDT actually work? it doesn't seem to work for me
"
XxLabanxX wrote:
Does the CoH off of Firestorm/CwDT actually work? it doesn't seem to work for me


For me too, i doubt it will work for anyone. CoH works only on active skill gems + Herald of Thunder for e.g.

Baalorlord, thanks for sharing very good build. Could you confirm that your CWDT with Firestorm + CoH actually works?

EDIT: LOL just watched ur map wideo, where it actually works - any ideas?
Last edited by Shadilinn_Vondead on Aug 28, 2015, 6:37:17 PM
The trick with cwdt firestorm coh is to use a low lvl firestorm so cwdt triggers it, then you can use a high lvl curse and coh. I run some curse on hit gloves personally. Asenath's Gentle Touch work really well for this, but you sacrifice some ES obviously and its only a lvl 1 temp chains. But you gain some gem slots and it curses everything as soon as you hit it.
Ciao!
At what level should I take CI ?
Can you add a little info on when to take what ? Or where to shoot for first?

And what should I skip until very late game ?
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Last edited by AkumaNoTsubasa on Aug 29, 2015, 2:13:51 PM

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