[2.6]ShatterChain crit claw Frostblades from A-Z. Starter to endgame. All Guardians and Shaper down.




Greetings!

With all the double dipping shennanigan going on right now, you may have wondered why cold damage even exist in this game (most cold skills like to convert to fire anyway). However, thanks to patch 2.6, many cold skills have been buffed in interesting ways and cold damage is getting new powers it deserves. I want to share with you my take on Frost Blades.



I will try to answer questions and updates frequently.

To do list(mostly for me):
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- Deathless Shaper.


Change Log:

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07/04:
- New claws and rings. Gear is pretty much done.

29/03:
- Update tree and gear link. Some change here and there. Respec Point Blank n took life.

24/03:
- Lvl up to 96. No death since 95.
- Gear change. Life is at 6k7 now. Check out my profile. Character name: YonderBullWander
- Add 1 video.


20/03:
- Add T16 guardian and Shaper footage.

19/03
- Got to lvl 95. Respec life and got Aspect of the Panther.
- Got life leech boots enchantment.
- Changed from Added Cold 20/20 to Melee Phys 20/20. Comparison in Tooltip screenshot section.
- Added Tooltip screenshot section.
- Added some FAQs


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gameplay Footage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mechanics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Version history

Spoiler

  • 2.6: Added Threshold Jewel for Frost Blades
  • 2.4: 15% more damage at gem level 20.
  • 2.1: Attack skills that have their damage based on the wielded weapon have their mana costs fixed in place from level 1 onwards. Frost Blades has been improved from 2 additional projectiles at all levels to 4 additional projectiles at level 1 and 7 additional projectiles at level 20. It has also been increased from +14 weapon range at all levels to +18 weapon range at level 1 and +21 weapon range at level 20. It now gains 1% projectile speed per level after the first (19% at Level 20) and its base projectile speed has been increased by 25%.
  • 2.0: Introduced to the game.



Mechanics

Frost Blades is a cold melee skill that can use ANY melee weapon. Wiki info

It has two components:

1st: An initial melee hit with the keywords: Cold, Attack, Melee
2nd: A projectile attack with the keywords: Cold, Attack, Projectile

This means that support gem for melee only such as Melee Physical Damage
Spoiler
only scale the 1st part of the skill and not the 2nd part. We want support gems that have either Cold or Attack tag to scale the damage efficiently.

For the tree, passive points that grant Increased damage with one-handed melee weapons for example will in fact affect the projectile attack as well if one is using a one-handed weapon, since it is still an attack that is dealt with a melee weapon (though the damage you're dealing is not actually melee damage). However, Increased melee damage with one-handed weapons would only apply to the melee portion of the attack, as it increases melee damage.

One can compare Frost Blades with its lightning counterpart Lightning Strike
Spoiler
since both are conversion skill and they have two part in one attack. However, there are big mechanic difference between these two:

  • Lightning Strike have much higher base damage and the two components of the skill can hit the same target for a whooping maximum damage of 307% base damage (175,6% for the melee part and 131,7% for the projectile part). LS strength is high damage base and high range. LS drawbacks: the projectile is ground bound and thus get stopped by any object on the ground.
  • Frost Blades has base damage of 141,8% at level 20 and without any modifier to the projectile, only 1 part of the skill can hit 1 target at the same time. There are currently 2 ways to give projectiles chance to come back and hit the original target, thus at least effectively double the damage (FB has 7 projectiles so potentially 7 chain back to the original target):

    - Deadeye's Ascendancy node Powerful Precision: Attack projectiles Return to you after hitting target. Need a target behind to work. Deadeye also offer +1 chain. However, the whole Deadeye ascendancy tree focus solely on projectile.

    - Chain: There is chain gem and chain from certain uniques [spoiler]Edwar's Mirage, Mjölner and Touch of Anguish[/spoiler] For an attack build focus on cold damage, Touch of Anguish is obviously the best choice. Chain is also very beneficial for on hit effects such as Life gain on Hit from claws and in this build, blind and chill from


The problem with chain though is that eventually you will run out of target to chain to. I have a few solution for this problem:


1.
Spoiler
+
We get 2 more target to chain off. This solution however needs us to use Elemental Focus in the main setup so we don't freeze and kill the worms. You can still kill if you poison or ignite.

2.
Each attack on the target will spill worms out and give us more target to chain off. This is simplier to use than the 1st method.


Sum up:

- Pros: Potential much higher damage than the base 141,8% if you can get enough target to chain. Tier 1 clear speed thanks to auto target, auto chain. Freeze even bosses. Deeeep penetration (potentially over 100%).

- Cons: Lower single target if you run out of target to chain. This is not a big concern though as you will see from video footage. Can't do atziri comfortably since the projectiles cover too much aoe and we eventually kill ourself to her mirror image.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Frost Blades setup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Link is listed from the most important to the least so if you have a 5L for example, remove the last gem in the list.

Mapping


OR



I used to use Cold Pen instead of Increased Crit Strikes but I recently switched back so I have a more consistant crit chance and kill packs faster.


Hall of The Grandmaster setup



AND
for grandmaster Guben since he will blind you (discovered after many deaths to him. WP).


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other skills ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information of where to place this skill, check out my Path of Building link in the skill tree part.










Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
Last edited by F4F_Lucifer on Apr 7, 2017, 4:30:45 AM
Last bumped on Apr 17, 2017, 5:43:53 AM


Explanation

CwDT - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Vaal Lighting Trap: Auto IC is absolutely necessary for maps that monster can avoid getting frozen or party play. Vaal Lightning Trap for 50% more damage in boss fights

CwDT - Frost Bomb - Temporal Chain: Frost Bomb significantly lower enemy resistance and regeneration. Temporal Chain increase effect duration of every debuffs we put on our target (chill, freeze, blind, frost bomb) and slow enemies significantly

Enlighten 3 - Herald of Ice - Hatred - Artic Armour: Herald of Ice significantly boost our clear speed and give us damage. Hatred nuff said. Artic Armour gives defense against fire and physical damage + chill against bosses that we cannot chill just by whirling blades through.

Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic - Fortify: Our movement skill. Gotta move fast.

Summon Lightning Golem - Ancestral Warchief: Ice Golem is better but I got the enchant for Lightning Golem so I just wing with it. Golem can finish off targets that we didn't freeze so it's very helpful. Ancestral Warchief gives 18% More damage.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gear Discussion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My gear in LSC

Spoiler

Since I am changing gear often, it is best to check out my gear @ https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/F4F_Lucifer/characters

My character name: YonderBullWander



Discussion

- Helm: I chose Abyssus to get maximum potential damage for endgame t16+ bosses but there are many other options for casual mappers or HC players. Rare helm with high life accuracy or even Essence of Horror to boost Herald of Ice damage is one option. Starkonja's Head is also a viable choice, offering high life, attack speed and evasion. The dexterity helps with accuracy as well.

- Chest: Belly of the Beast. 2nd biggest life source after Kaom's Heart. With superb leech from our attacks, a high life pool is the best defense against all kind of damage. The all resistance makes it easier to balance resist for our flask too (read Flasks below).

- Touch of Anguish: nuff said. Dual wield for easier crit scale, more attack speed, damage and most importantly more chain.

- Belt: Rustic Sash with Life, Resist and reduced flask charge used. Wed can be crafted by tora (8-22%)

- Gloves: Southbound. Huge amount of cold damage, life and cold resistance. 50% increased Herald of Ice damage is a nice touch for clear speed. The downside "Your Hits can only kill frozen enemies" is negated even if we cannot freeze thanks to the fact that we can poison (just a weak poison to finish off enemies. More info on poison on next part).

- Amulet: I used
for a long time but then switched to

The Pandemonius is a well balance offense/defense amulet for cold builds. It gives us ability to blind and penetrate 20% cold resistance against chilled enemies, which synergize well with a pure cold attack build. We can chill any boss except T16 Guardians and Shaper with arctic armour chill ground. Blind is a strong mechanics to significantly lower enemies chance to hit and not often mentioned, light radius. Blinded enemies that are far enough from us won't even see our character and won't aggro.

- Boots: life, resists. Movement speed is not needed for whirling blades. I recommend to find boots that has same amount of resistance to balance later for the Wise Oak flask.

- Ring: Life, WED, resist. Try to squeeze in accuracy if you can. If you don't use Abyssus, you will need INT on at least one of them.

- Flasks: This is a big chunk of our defense/offense.

This flask gives us two more target every use for Frost Blades to bounce, leech, gain life, gain frenzy charge. No other life flasks can help recover life that much since we can leech, let alone other benefits. I guess this is another testimony that worms are indeed exile's best friends and drink.

One of the most potent flasks and it happens to synergize well with our build. Damage taken as cold will not chill or freeze us thanks to Master Alchemist ascendancy node and help effectively mitigate big physical hits. Extra Phys damage as Cold? Hell yeah. A legacy one would be even better. All effects of flask are also amplified by pathfinder ascendancy.

Best defense against physical damage. With flask effectiveness, we basically take 24% less physical damage. If you don't use Abyssus, you can use Lion's Roar but it provides much less defense against phys damage due to Acrobatic.

Very good for a crit build. Try to roll "Chemist" prefix and "of Warding" suffix to get curse immune and more use.

Introduced in 2.6, this flask helps us cap resist in ele weakness maps, gives 24% extra cold penetration and 13% reduced fire and lightning damage taken when used. You should balance your resist so that they will be at least like this: Cold>Fire=Lightning resist. Ideal scenario is 3 resist at the same level but it can be hard to archive. Read more about Tips and Tricks below

Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
Last edited by F4F_Lucifer on Mar 29, 2017, 4:11:26 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Passive Skill Tree and Bandit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bandit: Oak - Point - Point (There are many efficient passive cluster in ranger area now that the bonus hardly worth taking anymore)

Skill Tree

Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIDAFb6fXWNv__eFHWNuf8QwBrjn-8O_gqGs2Sv73q18heWDY0s6d9vN9T9bjWS74_-j2Ksj8HuDmyMFf3D5ngZ7YPtP7IZd-NjcOjW51QILsLsnrd_lpu1RfQV9v66sXz2o18_idPYvYGs035NktQjFCB_gJVmVUvWB4o4GY5QRyP2YeKly8Ggwzq-p702FSAM8kd-8W1iec96MHzpmGJanaoZtId2hNlvV6l5A4ci6i2DqW6bjeRqwQR5aCo4n22NgX8rJItwUm87jX2MNoTF5FE64Q-rJpUFtXgNAAYk_VFHd9cknRa_tMUB3KZXTeMAXmBByMwyAWegSn1lTQ==



Path of Building tree

Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/qTpxE9Ya


Shout out to Path of Building creator Openarl. Download the lastest release here

Note
- Point Blank works with the projectile part of the skill. The distance is counted from the target where the chained projectile originated from.
"
It is important to note that damage scaling is done with respect to the total distance the projectile has traveled, not its current distance from the point of origin.


- Vaal Pact is not recommended until you use Abyssus or have decent damage. Claw life leech wield and life gain on hit is good enough to keep us alive most of the time. Besides, life regen is helpful.

- Born to Fight only scale the melee part of Frost Blades so Aspect of the Panther is more efficient if u get the point to spare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How to level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my first character in Legacy (haven't made a new one yet). I chose to level with bow and scale with elemental aura and then buy a phys bow and use a damage conversion skill before respec back to claw. That said, my leveling was not the best experience since Touch of Anguish was expensive at first. If I have to do it again from the start, I would go dual wield ele claw cleave until I can afford Touch of Anguish.

However, if you have leveling gear, you can lvl as lightning bow using Storm Cloud/The Tempest to Edwar's Mirage Frost Blades until you can use Touch of Anguish. Use Wrath, Herald of Thunder.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ascendancy Choice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raider

Spoiler

Fastest playstyle thanks to Onslaught bonus. Mediocre defense relying on Dodge and evade that are chance based and can be shat on because of map mods. I would not even take Avatar of Slaughter at all since frenzy charge generation is not hard.

Ascendancy Points:

Quartz Infusion - Avatar of the Veil
Rapid Assault - Avatar of the Chase



Pathfinder

Spoiler

Not much slower than Raider and get less trouble from map mods. Higher freeze chance means more HoI proc, more flasks charge gain. Extra bonuses from flasks are sweet too. Most solid defense out of all ascendancy class IMO.

Ascendancy Points:

Nature's Boon - Master Alchemist
Veteran's Bowyer
Master Herbalist


Deadeye

Spoiler

A very budgety choice for frost blades builds if you think about it. Free chain, attack projectile return to you means that you can use a much higher rare claws (or anything really) and guarantee the original target with get hit twice as long as there is another target around.

Ascendancy Points:

Fast and Deadly - Ricochet
Powerful Precision (debatable)
Far Shot



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FAQ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to you kill with Southbound on?

A: Golem, freeze, poison from using flask and having some chaos damage. In this case, I use
to get chaos damage so I can still kill monsters in maps that I cannot freeze.

Why Master Herbalist and not Nature's Adrenaline Ascendancy node?

A: So I can poison. Originally I want to only poison when I use Atziri's Promise and use Elemental Focus on Frost Blades so I can get use The Writhing Jar to get worm and bounce Frost Blades around without killing the worms. In the end, I just drop the idea and choose to poison all the time and use death hand talisman instead.

What can this build do?

A: I was able to do all 4 guardians deathless (even with some damage mods). I can clear Hall of the Grand Master deathless. Haven't been able to do shaper yet. Mapping is very fast and enjoyable. One thing I don't recommend to do with this build is Atziri. Frost blade covers so much and you will kill yourself to reflect mirror.

Is this build expensive?

A: I start this league with Frost Blade from 0 and you can do it too. Core poor man items would be: Touch of Anguish (~20c for both decent roll), 5L chest (~10c), Starkonja (~3c for good roll), 2 jewels (2c total) , other items (~ 50c). I did all lab myself when I have 5L no Abyssus.

How do you get enough stats for Fight for Survival Jewels? There is not enough 40 Dex around them.

A: In patch 2.6, threshold jewels mechanic is changed so that we don't need to actually allocate enough stat to get the bonus. If there is 40 dex around the jewels, it will work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tip and Tricks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. How to be effective with Frost Blades?

Always try to attack a pack from outside and not in the middle. That way, the projectiles can chain and clear more efficiently.

2. How to balance resistance for The Wise Oak Bismuth Flask?

Cap cold resistance first. With unique gears in the build you only need 1 piece of cold resistance to cap. Cold resistance is now your target all resistance. Get Fire and Lightning resistance on other pieces and craft the missing resistance on ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tooltip Screenshots ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defense no flasks

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Defense with flasks

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Offense in HO with Added Cold 20/20

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Offense in HO with Melee Physical Damage 20/20

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Offense in HO without Melee Physical Damage (5L) to simulate projectile damage

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Full buff damage with Melee Phys inc. Taste of Hate, Warchief Totem, 4 frenzy charges

Spoiler


The Verdict:

- In Added Cold setup, we get ~150k tooltip for melee hit and ~150k for projectiles since Added Cold affect both part of the attacks. If the target is hit by both part of the attack, we will get around 300k dps, assuming only 1 projectile out of 8 chain back to the original target.

- In Melee Phys setup, we get ~ 171k tooltip for melee hit and ~ 110k for projectiles since Melee Physical Damage DO NOT affect both part of the attacks. If the target is hit by both part of the attack, we will get around 281k dps, assuming only 1 projectile out of 8 chain back to the original target.

In conclusion, we get less damage with Melee Phys setup if both part the Frost Blades hit. However, there are many cases where you don't have another target to chain to and thus only the melee part hit. In this case, Melee Phys setup will beat Added Cold setup by ~21k dps.

Note that the number is only used for comparison purpose. You may have different tooltip.

Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
Last edited by F4F_Lucifer on Mar 29, 2017, 4:09:58 AM
Reserved
Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
I still don't follow how the Southbound + Writhing Jar interaction works.
"
I still don't follow how the Southbound + Writhing Jar interaction works.


At first my idea was to use Elemental Focus with Frost Blades so I cannot freeze and kill worms due to Southbound "Your hits can only kill frozen enemies". That way I can always have some target for my Frost Blades to bounce back and forth. I have abandoned that idea tho and now Writhing Jar is just a niche flask where I can use from time to time to get more target, heal, get frenzy charge and leech from.

I may comeback to use Writhing Jar and Elemental Focus Frost Blades in the future or make a video about its interaction but for now I like the freeze much more. Besides, I can always get more target using a Deadhand Talisman.
Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
Also are you keeping up frenzy and power charges?
"
Also are you keeping up frenzy and power charges?


Frenzy charges aye. Even in maps with monsters have 90% chance to avoid ailment. Gonna make a vid.

Power charges no. Too much of a hassle and not worth the effort.
Bull's PoE Build compilation: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1639201
One of the best builds you made. Good job, impressive thread detail!
Greengroove's Loot Filter Scripts: poeurl.com/OMs
Very well written!

I went ahead and copied this one on my salvaged ranger. Holy cow awesomeness :-)
One question, why added cold damage over cold penetration? Path of Building gives me around 15k more dps with cold penetration.
Also, what do you think about using a linked warchief totem instead of the 2nd cwdt setup with frostbomb?
Last edited by shukolade on Mar 19, 2017, 6:58:17 AM

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