[3.0] [HC] Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build [VIDEO]

I've made some significant updates to the Skill Gem section today. The short version is that I brought up two new skills gems as options: Increased Area of Effect and Fork.

I also changed the skill gem priority. GMP or Fork is now recommended as your 4th link. Controlled Destruction has been demoted to an optional (5th or 6th link) gem.
My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build
Last edited by Eustacio on Sep 14, 2016, 2:12:27 PM
Post updated with new variant build I made over in the Marauder section. Check it out if you like this build!
My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build
I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd go inquisitor. You've got no crit on gear, and almost no crit in tree (just the one witch circle).

Why not go elementalist instead?
The fact is that there aren't a lot of great Ascendancy options for this build. I talked about Elementalist on Page 2, and I'll use most of that here. It is a viable option, but I don't think it's particularly great for the build. I do believe the Templar start is better (Life + Mana Regen + Life Regen vs. Spell Damage or Cast Speed) for this build, putting a point in Templar's favor over Witch.

Elementalist Breakdown

Pendulum of Destruction (2 nodes): I want to like this node. Timed DPS boosts though aren't thrilling to me. Still, if I started as a Witch, I would certainly consider this path. 10% Elemental Damage and 4% Cast speed from the travel node is solid.

Mastermind of Discord (4 nodes - includes Pendulum of Destruction): Nothing here for us at all. Stop at Pendulum of Destruction.

Paragon of Calamity (2 nodes): An interesting node. A little too situational for my tastes though. The offensive part only helps us 1/3 of the time. The defensive part is interesting and probably decent for bosses with single element attacks. Other than that, there isn't anything exciting here.

Shaper of Desolation (2 nodes): We already freeze most enemies solid. Useless for us.

Beacon of Ruin (4 nodes - includes Shaper of Desolation): That's a lot of points to spend to get a weaker version of Elemental Proliferation on the build. It isn't terrible, but it's not 4 Ascendancy points good, not with Shaper of Desolation being useless to us. The travel node is just 10% increased elemental damage and 3% Freeze.

Liege of the Primordial (2 nodes): Two nodes to have better golem damage potential by using a low level ice golem instead of a flame golem. This might also justify high level golems and self casting them. The travel node gives us 6% Elemental Resistances and 10% increased elemental damage.

My recommendations for Elementalist: Liege of the Primordial (2 nodes), Paragon of Calamity (2 nodes), Pendulum of Destruction (2 nodes) and the two remaining travel nodes (2 points)


For comparison, here is why I think Inquisitor is better.

Inquisitor Breakdown


Instruments of Virtue (2 nodes): You get actual nothing from this node. We aren't casting a spell (totems aren't spells) and we aren't attacking. We get 10% Increased Elemental Damage and 4% Cast speed from the travel node. It is a literal waste of 2 points for us.

Righteous Providence (2 nodes): Remember that our first hit on enemies will often have them unaffected by any status ailments. That first hit will get a nice boost to crit, which makes it easier to freeze them on the first hit. It balances out Controlled Destruction for that first hit. The second part isn't great. The travel node is 10% Increased Elemental Damage and 15% Crit Multi. Half of that is good for us. That's OK from a travel node.

Inevitable Judgement (4 nodes - includes Righteous Providence): We're going for this node because of 10% Elemental Resistance penetration. This is a node that most builds will go for to get one or the other but not both, and we're no exception. The travel node is another 10% Increased Elemental Damage.

Augury of Penitence: This is a nice defensive/offensive path. Including the pathing, you get 6% to all Elemental Resists, 20% Increased Elemental Damage, and reduce incoming elemental damage by 8%.

Sanctify (2 nodes): Not great, but servicable. We create Consecrated Ground when hit 25% of the time. Consecrated Ground provides us and our allies 4% Life Regen per second. The travel node is good for us too (0.5% Life Regen and 10% Increased Elemental Damage).

Pious Path (4 nodes - Includes Sanctify): Provides us some boosts for Sanctify, basically. 40% Increased Damage and 50% Reduced Mana Cost while on Consecrated Ground is kinda nice. The travel node is another great 0.5% Life Regen and 10% Increased Elemental Damage node.

My Recommendations:

Inevitable Judgement + Righteous Providence (4 nodes) and Augury of Penitence + Sanctify


The short version is that Elementalist gets more damage in it's Ascendancy and a bunch of situational buffs that may or may not apply at any given time. The Inquisitor gets less damage, but also gets free Cold Penetration, Life Regen, and Consecrated Ground. You can make the character as an Elementalist. But that build would be one that is focused on milking more damage out of the tree and getting that tooltip bigger, since the spell damage/cast speed start + Elementalist easily outdamages the Templar start + Inquisitor. I value the defenses and regeneration more, as I do plenty of damage to kill most things in the game pretty easily.
My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build
Great guide!

I came up with a similar build but for some reason the curse durations didn't seem to be reduced by kikazarus at all... is there a bug or something that I'm missing?
Good question! The duration of the curses isn't impacted. The effect of the curses is. For example, a Level 20 Flammability grants a -44% Fire Resistance modifier normally. If you have two Kikazaru rings, that modifier is reduced by 40%, or 17.6%. That takes it down to 26.4%, or 26% by PoE's rounding system. The duration of the curse stays the same though.
My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build
Last edited by Eustacio on Sep 28, 2016, 4:10:36 PM
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Eustacio wrote:
Good question! The duration of the curses isn't impacted. The effect of the curses is. For example, a Level 20 Flammability grants a -44% Fire Resistance modifier normally. If you have two Kikazaru rings, that modifier is reduced by 40%, or 17.6%. That takes it down to 26.4%, or 26% by PoE's rounding system. The duration of the curse stays the same though.


Ahhhh.. thanks so much for the quick reply! Then with Temporal Chain, I can lower the effect by another 40% for a total of 80%. :)
Just to pick your brain a little if you don mind. I'm running Ritual of Awakening with Soul Mantle for a total of 4 totems (no ancestral bond). But instead of Arctic Breath I'm going with Arc and using Orb of Storm to proc Elemental Overload and Innervate's Onslaught.

Do you think that with Onslaught's 20% increased cast speed (which occurs majority of times), it would break the 300% tri-totem damage you mentioned without Ritual of Awakening? We're looking at 272% quad-totem with 20% increased cast speed, and generously assuming our cast speed is already at 100% increase before onslaught.
Last edited by kyuuichi on Sep 28, 2016, 4:43:09 PM
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kyuuichi wrote:
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Eustacio wrote:
Good question! The duration of the curses isn't impacted. The effect of the curses is. For example, a Level 20 Flammability grants a -44% Fire Resistance modifier normally. If you have two Kikazaru rings, that modifier is reduced by 40%, or 17.6%. That takes it down to 26.4%, or 26% by PoE's rounding system. The duration of the curse stays the same though.


Ahhhh.. thanks so much for the quick reply! Then with Temporal Chain, I can lower the effect by another 40% for a total of 80%. :)


I'm not quite sure where you're getting 80% from. Each Kikazaru grants you 20% curse reduction effect, for a total of 40%. Where are you getting the other 40%?
My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build
"
kyuuichi wrote:
Just to pick your brain a little if you don mind. I'm running Ritual of Awakening with Soul Mantle for a total of 4 totems (no ancestral bond). But instead of Arctic Breath I'm going with Arc and using Orb of Storm to proc Elemental Overload and Innervate's Onslaught.

Do you think that with Onslaught's 20% increased cast speed (which occurs majority of times), it would break the 300% tri-totem damage you mentioned without Ritual of Awakening? We're looking at 272% quad-totem with 20% increased cast speed, and generously assuming our cast speed is already at 100% increase before onslaught.


I'm assuming you're going with the Self-Flagellation idea from this build but not doing a Sire of Shards build here, given neither of those spells have the projectile key word. :)

To answer the question, it almost certainly will. Of course, three totems (Ancestral Bond + Soul Mantle) plus Elemental Overload and Innervate would outdamage the 4 totems with the same setup. It'll probably work out pretty alright damage-wise, but you'd get more damage from Ancestral Bond + Soul Mantle using the same gear setup.

My Builds:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1739942 - Flee the Fire! Fireball / Flameblast Sire of Shards Chieftain
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1572176 - Chill and Breathe: An Arctic Breath Totem Build

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