[On Hold] Glacial Cascade Totems [ALL Content in the Game]

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

Ok for anyone that actually knows anything after clearing atlas on this build. I see a bunch of people using the same gems for 6 link except some people use Cold Penetration and others Elemental Focus.
What is better here? Important question before I finally buy my 6 link.

You don’t need to clear the atlas to have knowledge on that. Curse effectiveness is reduced on high tier bosses. Elder has 40% all resists, curse effectiveness reduced by 80%. Level 20 cold pen is at 37% penetration and level 20 frostbite reduces by 44%. With effectiveness reduced, you’d only reduce about 9% resists. So that’ll be 40-9-37= -6 which means you’d have your damage anplified by the -6%. There are item mods with element penetration e.g. sambar sceptre’s implicit and the likes. It’ll all boil down to what your total element penetration is without cold pen. Elemental focus is the way to go if you feel that you won’t be needing to chill/freeze mobs which is what most people feel or at least me.

Cold pen’s a green gem so if you wanna swap gems for boss/thrash, hypothermia’s about the next best green gem for the setup. Either way you won’t see any damage spike in tooltip.

There really is no better option here as you’d have to weigh the pros and cons of having no chill/freeze with insane amounts of damage vs chill/freeze. My pob’s Right above if you’re interested taking a look at a semi min maxed build with elemental focus. 400k ish per totem atm.

Hope this helps:)

Onuraydin: important bonus of Soul Mantle is the +50% totem life!

Everyone in general:

This is where I am at right now with my build: https://pastebin.com/ZM0P4xDL

I can do low red maps quite comfortably.

For those who are at about the same place as me: perhaps you might get some ideas looking at my build? However, there might also be some mistakes!

Some things I learned (actually, many of these points are already in thi3n's write up, and I learned some of the points just by reading the guide more closely):

* Hillock in Syndicate is quite useful, because he can help put a high quality on your Soul Mantle, which can make it easier to 6-link

* Divinarius is a decent and cheap weapon which works well with this build

* Trolltimber Spire is a great shield early on (I used mine until low red maps!), the leech is good for survivability

* Decoy totems are awesome for diverting attention away from you when you are under pressure! also, they take away attention from the GC totems; in my current set up, i use it with multiple totems support, and I don't care about the "less damage" modifier about that support because Decoy totems don't do any damage anyway

* stone golem "feels" helpful (not sure actually HOW helpful it is --- maybe it is a teddy bear that just makes me feel better, without doing much?)

* somewhere in this thread, some person mentioned that kikazuru/self-flagellation is unnecessary with Soul Mantle, because Soul Mantle will force you to learn how to manage your flasks well --- I agree with this very much! I had some really dumb deaths, because I panic flasked totally wrong, but with some trial and error I am becoming better with flasks

* a really big benefit of Soul Mantle is the 50% totem life! this also works well with Decoy totems, for making them a lot more irritating :p

* Atziri's Promise flask is nice for damage, and very easy/cheap to get; same with Diamond flask

* life flask with "of warding" suffix (anti-curse) with Ryslatha pantheon is truly quite nice for long fights

* life flask with "panicked" prefix (instant recovery on low-life) is a LIFE SAVER

* Elemental Focus is a really nice gem, because for bosses your freeze chance is already super low (their HP is too high, so a hit cannot do enough damage to reliably freeze them), and it also works well with trash mobs, because they die extremely fast; however you might have to be more careful about corpse detonation (freeze destroys corpses), or porcupine needles (but this issue is solved using a basic immortal call support)


For those who are much farther ahead than me: any tips on damage+survivability improvements I can make?

Finally got some good feedback, so that is always nice.

I think I would go with the damage rather than the freeze for end bossing.
I'm a little worried that Soulguy over here has the defense nodes done already with way more life than me and is still having issues with survivability.

Wanted to show off my version of this exciting build: https://pastebin.com/JRUnYxi2

Running good with a shield in off-hand. Survivability with this is awesome & you'd loose like 5-10% DPS with a perfectly crafted statstick.

Ultimately want to use Atziri's Reflection Shield with Arcane Blessing node, but that's 20ex+

Dropped out a Silver Flask with

and Vaal Grace & Clarity.

One question: Does crafting Lightning Damage to Spells (even 6-112) cause the 91% shock chance to apply CONSTANTLY? Cause that's a great DPS improvement. Maybe the "20% of Phys as Extra Lightning" Mod will work better with minimum shock threshold...

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Wiki wrote:

The base duration of shock is 2 seconds and the damage increase scales relative to the amount of Lightning damage dealt to the enemy's maximum life. Increased damage from shock is capped at 50% at 10% of the target's maximum life dealt by Lightning damage, scaling down to 0% at no damage. Hits below the minimum threshold of 1% effect are discarded, effectively requiring a hit of 0.2% enemy maximum life. As an example, The Shaper has approximately 20 000 000 life. Minimally shocking The Shaper requires a single hit of 40 000 lightning damage.

Thank you for sharing this amazing build full of possibilities!

I am not having survivability problems :)

This isn't a face tank build, and when I have died, I have either not been geared properly (in terms of damage output), or I took really big fits because I wasn't dodging properly.

In order to make up for my sometimes poor dodging, decoy totems help a lot.

Finally someone other than Choco puts down something to see so we can learn and get new ideas. Thanks!

I have to say I have no clue how people get rid of their self flag jewel. That bonus is just insane especially against bosses I'll stack like 7-8 curses before the fight starts.

Also Choco...I see you have one kika ring and other ring is Essence worm. Are you still able to withstand the curses with the one ring fairly easy? If so, I'm going to drop one ring for Essence wurm, but I would think it's not worth it?

I must say this build is a huge pain in the ass to push end game. I have put like 5ex into this and just went up against Chimera after beating Red Tier Elder....that move where he disappears and gets through the clouds I can't even heal fast enough to get live through 2 hits before I find the cloud. I guess I can switch to like 3 basalt flasks, but never had to deal with being so squishy.

This build should say, "can do all content, if you want either dump 10ex minimum or want to get drug through the mud like boot camp."

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I must say this build is a huge pain in the ass to push end game. I have put like 5ex into this and just went up against Chimera after beating Red Tier Elder....that move where he disappears and gets through the clouds I can't even heal fast enough to get live through 2 hits before I find the cloud. I guess I can switch to like 3 basalt flasks, but never had to deal with being so squishy.

This build should say, "can do all content, if you want either dump 10ex minimum or want to get drug through the mud like boot camp."

This might sound harsh now... Get better at the game!

The Chimera fight can be hectic if you don't respond to his moves correctly. Bosses at T16 and past that need some practice to beat comfortably. I highly recommend EE's boss guide for a great overview of late game bosses and their mechanics.

The build is strong enough to get through the game on a way smaller budget than most. If you don't follow the recommended gear setup, don't be surprised if you spend possibly way more than expected. If you make sub-optimal purchases, you will never get to have a budget build.

In my opinion you should change a few things in your build:
- Either go all the way for Phase Acro or don't go for Acro at all. Only going for half of it is a waste of points.
- You have 3 different curses in your gear. You can only apply 1 curse at a time. Chose 1 and stick with it to clean up your hotkeys.
- You are have 2 Controlled Destrctions in your 6-link. I really hope that's not on purpose. GEMS DON'T STACK!
- While Elemental Focus looks great on paper, you lose the ability to apply ailments. Cold Penetration or Increased Critical Damage are very similar in damage. Your choice, but freezing and shattering is great for defenses.
- If you want to stick with shields get a better one, preferably with high crit chance for spells.
- Get a different amulet or invest way more into crit chance. At the moment you aren't even hitting 55% crit chance while fully buffed.
- Your gloves and your belt could be better too.
- Your flasks are all over the place. Drop the Hybrid flask and try a Silver or even a Quicksilver. You have neither an anti-freeze flask nor an instant life flask? No wonder you think this is hard!

Please don't be offended, but honestly your setup is a hot mess. You should not blame the build because you can't beat guardians, you should praise it for even getting you there! You are the prime example of how you can use almost anything you want with this build and still reach guardians.

greetings everyone! I am currently following this build and needed help on what to upgrade and improve aside from gem levels, like what main hand and what stats to get. I will appreciate all the advise I could get from you guys thanks

here is my current pob https://pastebin.com/j3mckEBY

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Monti_Jones wrote:

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I must say this build is a huge pain in the ass to push end game. I have put like 5ex into this and just went up against Chimera after beating Red Tier Elder....that move where he disappears and gets through the clouds I can't even heal fast enough to get live through 2 hits before I find the cloud. I guess I can switch to like 3 basalt flasks, but never had to deal with being so squishy.

This build should say, "can do all content, if you want either dump 10ex minimum or want to get drug through the mud like boot camp."

This might sound harsh now... Get better at the game!

The Chimera fight can be hectic if you don't respond to his moves correctly. Bosses at T16 and past that need some practice to beat comfortably. I highly recommend EE's boss guide for a great overview of late game bosses and their mechanics.

The build is strong enough to get through the game on a way smaller budget than most. If you don't follow the recommended gear setup, don't be surprised if you spend possibly way more than expected. If you make sub-optimal purchases, you will never get to have a budget build.

In my opinion you should change a few things in your build:
- Either go all the way for Phase Acro or don't go for Acro at all. Only going for half of it is a waste of points.
- You have 3 different curses in your gear. You can only apply 1 curse at a time. Chose 1 and stick with it to clean up your hotkeys.
- You are have 2 Controlled Destrctions in your 6-link. I really hope that's not on purpose. GEMS DON'T STACK!
- While Elemental Focus looks great on paper, you lose the ability to apply ailments. Cold Penetration or Increased Critical Damage are very similar in damage. Your choice, but freezing and shattering is great for defenses.
- If you want to stick with shields get a better one, preferably with high crit chance for spells.
- Get a different amulet or invest way more into crit chance. At the moment you aren't even hitting 55% crit chance while fully buffed.
- Your gloves and your belt could be better too.
- Your flasks are all over the place. Drop the Hybrid flask and try a Silver or even a Quicksilver. You have neither an anti-freeze flask nor an instant life flask? No wonder you think this is hard!

Please don't be offended, but honestly your setup is a hot mess. You should not blame the build because you can't beat guardians, you should praise it for even getting you there! You are the prime example of how you can use almost anything you want with this build and still reach guardians.

I appreciate your response and don't take offense to it at all. I will say though, that although there are small tweakings you and good suggestions that you give, my stuff is kind of a mess because I spent a good amount of times changing things around for trial and error, but although I have many options for damage boosts and freezing/flasks..it's hard to do those things when you melt like a cellophane.
ESPECIALLY with syndicate or if you accidentally dash too close to a group and get stunned or stuck.
Don't get me wrong, I am no pro at this game, but I have played several builds sometimes not even having to spend an exalt and I don't have as much of a hard time pushing end game without dying.

I used every penny getting the 6 link and all 20% gems for the 6 link. So now after work I can farm a little see what my next gear change will be to try. I'm a little sadistic so I will push this shit to at least kill shaper, but damn ha.