I'm playing a cold witch. I think it could be way better. What can I do ?

Currently playing in PSC as a witch Occultist.
I want to play a selfcast crit cold witch. I'm just at the start of merciless and i'm using glacial cascade atm. Is Ice spear/frost breath any good ?
I'm planning on going CI. My 5th link will be leech to really make use of my ghost reaver / Vaal pact nodes, but from what I could see when socketing it into a Tabula, it's not that great.

Any ideas for good uniques ? If whispering Ice is good, could I still make the swap for it ?

If I keep going like that, I don't think I will get far, so any advice is welcome.


My tree



Current leveling Gear :

Usually one levels as a life build even if CI is the goal. Taking some life nodes and wearing gear with life on it while leveling is much easier than focussing on ES gear. The reason: Wider range of available gear and better survivability.
Once one wants to make the transition (many do that in act2 merciless), enough respec points should be available to spec out of the life nodes.

If you want to use whispering ice (icestorm) you need a different tree than with other cold skills as icestorm scales with intelligence. There are some whispering ice builds in the witch, shadow and scion builds list that can give you an idea on what tree and jewels you need.

I don't recommend switching to ice spear. It is the weakest of the cold skills atm. If you want to go crit, freezing pulse is a good option with 6% base crit. Arctic breath and glacial cascade only have 5% base crit making a crit build less effective.

You should have your main spell at least in a 4 link (or supported by 4 gems in case you use icestorm with whispering ice; they don't need to be linked in that special case). Cold penetration and spell echo being mandatory for any cold spell.

cur tree :


cur gear :