[2.3] HC Non crit Frostbolt/Vortex – Dual Cursing – 75% slow stacking – Reflect viable - Cheap

Disclaimer: Won't be continuing this guide, though am leaving it up for the discussion surrounding the skills as well as to provide inspiration to others. I'll be making a new, refined guide using the same skills in the near future.


My verison of the frostbolt/vortex skill combo!

Inspiration for this build was wanting to run elemental reflect maps with elemental damage, stack slows, and do all the stuff I wanted to play in one build. I've yet to play with Temporal Chains, Singularity, Frostbolt/Vortex and I'm HYPED for the Grand Spectrum Elemental Jewels and the Beast Fur Shawl.
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Necessary uniques:

Singularity --- After testing, turns out this sceptre kind of really sucks. The AoE effect is very small and cannot be increased with "increased aura radius" nodes. You would have to be standing very close to make use of the slow and the added damage. I'd have to recommend a good rare sceptre instead, with Doryani's Catalyst being the luxury weapon. Although, if you plan on being right next to mobs, it's the best option.

Asenath's Gentle Touch

Sibyl's Lament



Optional uniques:

Grand Spectrum Viridian Jewel (Elemental version)

The Beast Fur Shawl (new vaal regalia unique)
- This thing gives spell damage, increased AoE, increased energy shield recovery rate (which applies to leech and regen) and a solid amount of ES. Perfect for the CI version.

Pyre - Damage conversion, blows up corpses for you

Doryani's Catalyst


What's going on here?

I chose Elementalist to take advantage of reflect mitigation allowing this build to run reflect maps. This node coupled with a sibyl's ring, some life leech and vaal pact makes us very safe against reflect. The pendulum AoE node is a sweet bonus for vortex and as always, conflux + beacon of ruin is never a bad thing.

Went with non crit because the elemental damage modifiers double dip on the vortex AoE DoT and the burn from conflux.

Am running a dual curse set up using asenath's gentle touch to apply temporal chains on hit and enfeeble on blasphemy for safety.

I chose to stack slows to keep the enemy bogged down in the vortex DoT for longer, with the added bonus of being a lil bit safer for me! The 75% slow comes from the chill on vortex (30%), asenath's touch (lvl 1 temp chains = 20%) and my main hand weapon Singularity (25%). I chose Singularity for the hinder AoE slow debuff, cast speed and pretty aura it offers over a Doryani's Catalyst. If you're comfortable with a 50% slow, a Doryani's Catalyst is just as good if not better, offering a higher damage multiplier as well as .2% leech on elemental damage. For myself, I gotta keep it hipster with the Singularity.

All in all build is pretty cheap. "Required" uniques don't get too expensive unless you aim for the The Beast Fur Shawl and the 12 Grand Spectrum Jewels but even then it's not too bad. The rest of the gear are rares or whatever makes you hot.
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Links and explanations:


[6] Vortex - Added Cold Damage - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Life Leech - [last]Concentrated Effect

- Last slot is flexible, Concentrated Effect, Increased Area of Effect, Cold Pen and Increased Duration come to mind.

[4] Frostbolt - Life Leech - GMP/LMP - Faster Projectiles/Controlled Destruction

- Once more, Life leech could be replaced as stated above. It's a toss up between Faster Projectiles and Controlled Destruction. Due to Frostbolt's high damage cap, the proliferating ignite from conflux is likely capable of killing most packs making Controlled Destruction the best damage option, but the projectiles are slow.

[4] CWDT - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Frostwall/Arctic Breath/Golem of choice

- I like frostwall, but Arctic Breath is another good option. CWDT + Immortal call is just nice to have for any build.

[4] Blasphemy - Enfeeble - Clarity - Discipline

- Enfeeble on blasphemy keeps us very safe. Other options are Warlord's Mark for leech and Elemental weakness/Frostbite if you want some damage. Discipline for that sweet ES, and clarity for mana.

[3] Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Reduced Duration

- Movement skill set up

[3] Vaal Haste - Vaal Discipline - Increased Duration

- Pretty much the left over slots. Put whatever you like in here. I chose Vaal discipline as my "oh shit" button and Vaal Haste because sometimes you gotta go fast.
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Playstyle

Either lob Vortex's from afar using Frostbolt or Lightning Warp on top of the enemy and hit them with Vortex. Keep in mind the Spell Echo link on Vortex won't create 2 Vortex's off of one Frostbolt, but it will create a 2nd Vortex if there are 2 Frostbolts near each other. There must be a Frostbolt per Vortex if performing the combo.
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Life/Hybrid/CI?

Since we're up in the witch area, I think it'd be a waste not to incorporate ES into the build somehow. It's easy to pick up a ton of int and ES multipliers off of hybrid nodes.


The Tree:

I'll be using this tree while leveling - Hybrid http://poeurl.com/FwH 109 points 178% HP + 165% ES - until eventually transitioning into CI with jewel sockets for the new Grand Spectrum jewels using this tree http://poeurl.com/Fni 112 points 284%ES, 309% w/ Energy from Within 12 jewel sockets for Grand Spectrum for 720% ELE damage.


Variations:

CI set up without the jewels http://poeurl.com/Fq5 113 points 318% ES, 343% w/ Energy from Within. Compared to the jewel tree were trading a lot more damage for increased aoe and multiplier nodes, as well as a fair chunk of ES.

Hybrid with Zealot's Oath, Eldritch Battery and Mind over Matter http://poeurl.com/Fnp 112 points for 194% HP and 140% ES. Something like this would be fine if you don't intend to run reflect maps. You would drop the Sibyl's, Vaal pact and possibly all of the leech with this tree.
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Reserved for reasons

U cant leech from damage over time, so why the vaal pact? U think its worth it for the initial burst? I dont think i would sacrifice a gem/aura just to get a small amount of leech. But im considering if its worth going Ci or not at all and stay hybrid. I can just ignore the leech (gem+passives for VP) cos with so many slows/freezes I dont expect getting hit often and use it to get more dmg, surv or go MoM.

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U cant leech from damage over time, so why the vaal pact? U think its worth it for the initial burst? I dont think i would sacrifice a gem/aura just to get a small amount of leech. But im considering if its worth going Ci or not at all and stay hybrid. I can just ignore the leech (gem+passives for VP) cos with so many slows/freezes I dont expect getting hit often and use it to get more dmg, surv or go MoM.

Yeah that could work. I considered taking ZO EB and MoM but I really want to run reflect maps with the build. Personally, going the regen/MoM route I also wasn't able to find a nice path for picking up the new unique Grand Spectrum jewels either (another thing I want to try) while still keeping up defensive nodes, but it's not a horrible looking tree. http://poeurl.com/FmD my attempt at ZO EB MoM, 112 points for 198% HP, 144% ES. I do think a tree like this would be better suited to vortex and frostbolt, but it doesn't allow for stacking grand spectrum jewels or near reflect immunity which are my personal goals for the build.

Ok Ive never been a fan of EB,ZO and MoM combinations nor the new jewels, so I cant rly help u, but theres definitelly a flaw in ur pathing. Take 1 intel point at Snowforged and save 3 points on ur way to EB. Another 2 passives above trickery vs 1 passive above Coldhearted calculation. Second thing is that Im not sure if Beacon of the ruin is worth it. I think Ill go for Pendulum instead and ele dmg+cast speed will also be better than ele dmg+ailment from the small nodes. And if u want to go for regen and vortex, u should consider Growth and Decay instead of e.g. shadow ele nodes.

Edit: Also at elementalist node wheel, u can save 1 more passive point if u need. Connect jewel above witch and cruel preparation through lower path, not above and save 1 more point.
At Whispers of doom, consider curse effect instad of cast which is dead passive for bastphemy.

Wow lol thanks for catching the points by snowforged. I've never done a regen tree before. Fixed the tree and added Growth and Decay.

Oh I see what you mean, yeah that works out a lot better though I'm not sure just how much regen is needed for EB and ZO. Could be a little bit overkill, but this sort of tree isn't what my build is for, I'll let someone else figure that out :P. 10% curse effectiveness is definitely appreciated though, I'll have to squeeze that in on the other trees as well.

Np, Ive edited my post to save more passives in case u didnt notice. Its hard to know dmg of vortex before it goes live, but ur defence is ok now. I think u should invest more into dmg later. E.G. go through Light of Divinity and remove 2 +10 nodes above Retribution. U could definitelly use some cast speed or go into celestial wheel to improve clear speed, but it will all depend on the dmg of vortex I guess.

Yeah I'm a little concerned about cast speed. Judging just from the base tool tip numbers on Vortex I'm hoping it will be strong enough to one shot packs but we'll see. I'm anxious to see how the DoT on Vortex behaves as well.

And damn dude I'm going to run my next tree through you first. You've been a big help.

Sure glad to help. I did a lot of testing last days, but still its more guessing cos we dont have the gem in game yet. Im gonna try a bit more dmg oriented and a bit less surv build with vortex. Still considering double curse vs 1 curse + AA + HoI and life vs hybrid, cos of the huge intel waste if I go pure life, but on the other hand I can go for Belly.
Feel free to leave a forum msg with how ur version worked.

Ditto! Curious to see what you decide on.

Someone found the skill info http://imgur.com/a/Sp5bX doesn't say anything about stacking the DoT's but I'm hopeful!