[3.5] Occultist Cold DoT Caster (Cold Snap + Vortex) WIP

Been playing something like this for the past two days - level 85 currently and I must say it's incredibly fast and fun to play. Vortex is my main skill and Cold Snap gets used for tougher bosses. Vaal Cold Snap for super hard ones and Vaal Discipline as a panic button.

I atempted uber atziri for the first time yesterday (I did the regular one a bunch of times but on Apex you just oneshot bosses) and it was doable (I was level 81 I believe and sitting at around 8k ES) but my lack of experience got the better of me and I lost my last portal on flameblast. I'm doing it today.

Current items:


I was using malachai's artifice with lightning golem but it was clunky and the golem keeps dying forcing you to keep recasting it. It didn't do that much given that he was dead most of the time and he actually has to hit for EE to work.

What to do about the helmet? Rime is pretty good but you could do a lot better with a defensive one - I would lose a decent chunk of damage though. If I swapped out the helmet I could also swap out the belt which is there only to counter shield recharge. All in all I should get quite a lot of ES.

I was also wondering how much better is cold multiplier than cold damage. Gonna have to run some tests on that.


Also - use a Quartz flask. Just do it. It feels so good to phase into a group and blow them up from the inside.

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werchiel wrote:

I was using malachai's artifice with lightning golem but it was clunky and the golem keeps dying forcing you to keep recasting it. It didn't do that much given that he was dead most of the time and he actually has to hit for EE to work.

What to do about the helmet? Rime is pretty good but you could do a lot better with a defensive one - I would lose a decent chunk of damage though. If I swapped out the helmet I could also swap out the belt which is there only to counter shield recharge. All in all I should get quite a lot of ES.

I was also wondering how much better is cold multiplier than cold damage. Gonna have to run some tests on that.


Also - use a Quartz flask. Just do it. It feels so good to phase into a group and blow them up from the inside.

Well, don't use golem, use Orb of Storms in Malachai's Artifice. You don't need EE on regular mobs, just on bosses, Syndicate, etc. And OoS also is a great way to proc Ele overload.

Rime Gaze has 50% less ES Recharge Rate, so it is terrible defensively, and build already has enough damage to melt things in seconds.

Cold Multiplier is a multiplier) So it is much much better then regular increases. Cause you cant craft/get Cold Multi on bows I've been thinking about going with Staff, but really do not want to lose that sweet bonus to ES recharge start from Soul Strike. Again - we have more then enough damage and survivability is key.

Using Oos is an option but it still requires me to run in and stop into place to cast it. Might not take much but standing and casting while standing in the face of a guy may also be risky. I'm doing just fine without EE anyways. I'll think about it when I get to higher level maps.
Rime and Bated Breath more or less cancel each other out. And I don't really have a problem with survi - I only died once or twice since level 75 (that is when I went CI) not counting the uber atziri run of course where I got squashed but that is because of me not knowing the encounter (or rather the differences between the regular and uber) and I can just easily run into any packs and blow them up with vortex - my current ES sits at almost 9100.
Regular packs will die on their own to CWDT arctic breath which of course you don't really want since it's slower but you can just go AFK in the middle of the run and come back to find corpes around you.

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Cold Multiplier is a multiplier) So it is much much better then regular increases..

I was actually thinking about something more concrete. A calculator or a formula. Is it better for me to get 20% multiplier or 60% cold damage? Given that it is a multiplier it works in conjuction with base damage. So you need both - and both have a point where it's better so stack the other. Now where is that point.

Pantheon Choices?

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werchiel wrote:

I was actually thinking about something more concrete. A calculator or a formula. Is it better for me to get 20% multiplier or 60% cold damage? Given that it is a multiplier it works in conjuction with base damage. So you need both - and both have a point where it's better so stack the other. Now where is that point.

Path of Building might help you with that)

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RaPsKa wrote:

Pantheon Choices?

Solaris/Gruthkul. Can change to Lunaris when you are fighting just 1 boss.

Cruising through content so far, still early in maps though. Got lucky with the helm enchant on my first uber lab.

For those of use using vortex over cold snap: does the cooldown not feel awful while mapping / clearing trash?

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boomersoonr wrote:

For those of use using vortex over cold snap: does the cooldown not feel awful while mapping / clearing trash?

I'm using both, but Vortex is much better. Lvl 20 Vortex has less then a second CD and 0 cast time. Cold Snap has about 0.7 cast time so I'd rather drop an instant Vortex while running)

Hello new player here, confused by why this build takes a few minion nodes? Like Lord of the Dead, and all the way to Spiritual Aid?