[2.5] CI Witch Scorching Ray CWC Whispering Ice - Version 2.0 Released - Now with more damage!

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falagar112 wrote:

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Mathoddie wrote:

**UPDATE**
Did theory a little bit prettier.
Updated my stats at level 90.
I know I have a lot of questions yet to answer, but I am very short on time currently :)

Let me answer my own question, maybe some others, and give you a little better write down now that I've played around with it long enough to write something proper.

I'm more of a lurker, I saw this build when you posted it, I have always loved whispering ice, tried many variations from traps to self cast, but all of them had the same issue: they were slow map clearers. Great boss damage, no real surviveability issues, but slow clear speed.

So when I saw your build, I had to try it out. My character before that on league, was actually almost the same idea, chieftain, perma righteous fire, scorching ray+cwc+firestorm, and I really liked it - so I knew I would love your build as well.

Fast forward to today, got to 91 with your build, and more importantly - I only die from my own stupidity, or my lack of SSD. It just is that crazy on the leech that as long as you keep attacking stuff, it is almost impossible to die.

Now the interesting stuff...
I sold all the good gear on my other char to fund some silly stuff for this one just to try stuff out, so here goes.

VS

Not counting the enchant, that is amazing - Black Sun Crest is definitely BiS - but ONLY if you have all your other slots fixed with proper int rolls. But it is also overkill, and we can only do one fancy thing with the +1 gem without changing the build (lvl 3 enlighten+lvl 3 empower+discipline) - all other gems don't get anything useful at level 21.

I noticed that dps is a non issue (partially because of a change, more on that later) - and that the ES difference is quite a bit - I lost around 90 int swapping back to the ES helmet, but I also went up to 11k ES which puts me in range to survive the harder content oneshots (shaper smash) - and gives me a little more freedom with resists on other gear.

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Enchants/Gear:

I've tried to drop warlords mark, grab ele weakness/enfeeble (didnt have a good lvl temp chains to try) - drop the gemlevels on cwdt/ic to 1/1 and roll with that because I enchanted .6% leech on boots. It is definitely viable, but I did have to drop the 2nd quicksilver and run a basalt permanently. If you are looking for more dps and got the enchant, feel free to give it a try, it is quite the dps boost. I preferred double quicksilvers, so I swapped it back in, however, after seeing the dps difference...... I bring you to:

INT vs actual dps improvements:

Now here is where the big differences are that you can make. Your tree is pretty solid, there is very little you can swap around that would be actually better. I had to pick up a 30 dex node but apart from that we're very similar. However I did not go as crazy on the INT stacking as you did on the gear.

This + adding elemental weakness to the mix skyrocketed my dps. And when I say skyrocketed, I mean, if you think this build was crazy before, you haven't seen anything yet ;)

I got lucky and bought the best int +1 curse for a half decent price, but shopping around, there are a few others that you can pick up for the same price as an astramentis, and there is NO WAY that astramentis beats adding elemental weakness when it comes to raw dps. (I did try astramentis, as well as a good 97 int rare with es)

The only "downside" is that you will need to 5 link your chest to add the extra curse, or 6 link if you want to also run ice nova on top of ball lightning.

I just temporary removed my ice nova and can add it back if I ever manage to 6 link my chest.

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Lowlife setup:
Did some testing and maths, this build has the same problem as every build that uses shavs+2 hander: you will lack enough ES for the truly hard content in this game - and the dps difference does nothing when you will get oneshot by hard bosses.

However, you can make it work:
Pickup melding nodes, use an energy from within below, pickup the scion wheel to savant (as in, earlier then we'd take them now), possibly a 2nd EfW if needed - you will not have as much of a ES difference.

Pros:
- extra auras+30% more damage, duh :)

Cons:
- no int on shavs.
- lose out on at least 1 jewel and 4 nodes, minimum.
- cannot use black sun crest (no way to roll without an ES headpiece, simple)

I don't think it is worth it, but feel free to give it a try yourself and see what you come up with :)

Enough rambling, I hope I answered some questions I saw other people ask in this thread, let the OP enjoy his holidays, and Mathoddie, interested in what you think about the curse setup. Enjoy your holidays everyone!

my

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Mathoddie wrote:

Conclusion
With Vaal lightning trap we are now able to shock EVERYTHING (even bosses), unless they are immune to status alignments, and proc Celestial Punishment.
What we gain:
- 5 % more damage from Elemental focus swap with Controlled destruction.
- Double the uptime on Elemental overload (5.1 % crit to 10.2 %)
- Shock on all bosses! 3 traps with 8.84 second duration (perfect for 3 atziri split phases)
- 25 % fire penetration from Mastermind of Discord (without losing shock + celestial punishment, we lose a little damage from burn)
- We can proc mastermind of discord with vaal lightning trap and orb of storms