[3.11 Viable] Freezing Pulse MoM Trickster / Late-Game 15mil+ Shaper DPS / League-Start Viable

Build Showcase: https://youtu.be/aLZ2UjC-W8w

**This guide was written in 3.10 but based on the 3.11 patch notes, looks like there aren't going to be much changes to it in Harvest League**

Build Overview
This is a viable league starter since we are using only 2 Unique items, Cloak of Defiance and First Snow Cobalt Jewels.

Both of these are pretty affordable at league start, and Cloak of Defiance isn't even mandatory for the build (you can always spend a few skill points to pick up Mind Over Matter on the skill tree before swapping out for this).

I never really liked playing self-casters as they always felt very clunky to me. For this, I wanted to try and pour my remaining currency into building a self-caster that could play smoothly and take some decent damage.
It's a really solid build that does a crazy amount of damage and AoE while mapping, but falls off a bit during the Sirus fight with no mob spawns to recharge your flasks (all other bosses are fine).

This is also one of the more tanky builds I've done.
We are running with 4.5k HP + 2k ES + 2k Mana, giving us a total health pool of ~8.5k with Mind Over Matter.
On top of that, we have permanent Fortify as well as 25%/27% attack/spell block chance.
Getting a % Mana as ES Watcher's Eye would boost your total health pool to ~9.5k, but I really didn't feel like it was necessary.

With all flasks and buffs up while mapping, we are able to deal out ~15mil dps, which is more than enough to clear all end-game content.

Because of Herald Stacking this league, Awakened Spell Echo and well-rolled Hatred Watcher's Eyes are extremely expensive. The cost might go down next league.
The build took 160-200ex to gear to this point (current league prices).

Late-Game POB (LocalIdentity Fork): https://pastebin.com/81s3KqhE
League-start Friendly PoB: https://pastebin.com/Y7UTKvGm (more info on this in my reply)

Important Notes for PoB:
An additional "Whispers of Doom" passive is allocated on the amulet just so that PoB recognises both curses. If you have an Awakened Curse on Hit Support Gem at Lvl5, you don't need this.

Also, in the PoB config, I assumed that we have no kills recently. This means no buff from the Boot Enchant, no Power / Frenzy charges, no Shatters and no Blocks recently. This is just to be more conservative with the damage numbers.
While mapping, your dps is MUCH higher than what is currently enabled in PoB.

Pros:
- Fun skill to use, big big AoE damage
- Quite tanky, with 8k+ health pool + Fortify + additional Block/Evade chance
- Very strong mapper, able to melt map bosses and guardians at the end of maps
- Shield Charge + Dash combo clears distance extremely fast
- Empty and less laggy maps because you are clearing shit off-screen
- Can run Phys Reflect maps

Cons:
- Damage falls off a lot on Sirus because of how long the fight is and the fact that he spawns no additional mobs during the fight
- Can still feel a little clunky to play if you are used to the other fast attack-based builds out there
- Interruptions when casting are annoying, have to make sure you don't get surrounded
- Shield charge is extremely fast on more open maps, but can feel very awkward on others where you can keep getting caught in the terrain
- Can't run Ele Reflect maps

Gameplay Tips:
Spoiler
- Don't get surrounded, it is easy to get stunned and have your casts interrupted by melee hits
- Shield Charge > Dash > Shield Charge combo gets you around pretty quickly
- Spell Totem is not required for Map bosses, just use Vaal Righteous Fire and Frost Bomb
- For Sirus fight, suggest you keep your Flask charges till Phase 3 so you can burst him down more quickly

Skills:
Spoiler
Freezing Pulse:
- Really not much to say here, basically we're just trying to stack as many multiplicative damage buffs as we can for Freezing Pulse
- Awakened Spell Echo is expensive, but provides a ~8-10% damage boost above the normal Spell Echo Gem
- If you're playing this in 3.11, hopefully the price of Awakened Spell Echo has dropped with Herald Stacking (hopefully) gone
- Would suggest you to only make this upgrade if you have a ton of currency to spare
- Click closer to your character if you want the 5 projectiles to spread out more and cover more of the screen
- Monsters can't get hit by multiple projectiles from the same cast, so it's a generally a good idea to spread out the projectiles to get more AoE

Frostbomb Curse on Hit:
- Frostbomb is a huge damage boost for most cold-damage based builds, and hence we are using this to proc our curses as well
- Awakened Curse on Hit at Level 5 allows us to have 2 curses, and we are cursing enemies with Projectile Weakness and Frostbite
- If you can't afford it, just lose the Frostbite curse and just run with Projectile Weakness
- Or, you can also choose to Anoint Whispers of Doom on your Amulet
- The curses only apply when the Frostbomb explodes, so for conqueror's / other bosses with spawn animations, just get used to casting this ~2 seconds before you can start dpsing them so that the curses can take effect immediately

Auras:
- We are running Hatred linked to Enlightened to reduce Mana reservation (and effectively increase our health pool)
- If you want to run a Clarity Watcher's Eye for %Mana as additional ES, then swap the Enlightened gem for a Lvl1 Clarity
- You will lose some unreserved Mana, but gain a crap ton of additional ES

Wave of Conviction:
- Linked to Spell Totem so that it can be auto-cast while you are doing damage
- Elemental Proliferation helps to increase the uptime of ignites / chills on bosses
- This helps to proc the debuff from Cinderswallow's Urn as well as other damage boosts against chilled enemies
- This is important for bossing because our Freezing Pulse is linked to Elemental Focus and is not able to inflict these Elemental Ailments by itself

Others:
- Movement: Shield Charge + Fortify + Faster Attacks + additional Dash included to cross gaps/ledges (I kind of alternate between Dash and Shield Charge, depending on the terrain of the map)
- Vaal Righteous Fire + Increased Duration for additional Spell Damage on bosses (we are only using the Vaal version of the skill)
- Cast When Damage Taken + Steelskin and Summon Lightning Golem just for some small added offence and defence


Skill Tree:
Spoiler
- Nothing really noteworthy here, just focusing heavily on Crit Multi, Cold Damage and Cast Speed
- For Cluster Jewels, went for standard Cold Damage, but decided to stack a little bit of Projectile Speed with the Medium Cluster Jewels to get that full screen insta-clear effect
- This effectively increases your range for Freezing Pulse as well


Gear Overview:
Spoiler


Gear Explanation:
Spoiler
Weapon: Rare Wand
- Prioritize "+1 Level to all Cold Spell Skill Gems"
- Try to find additional Crit Chance / Crit Multi / Spell Damage / Cold Damage if possible
- Additional Mana on here is a bonus as well

Off-Hand: Rare Shield
- Look for a lot of Crit Chance for Spells / Spell Damage / Cold Damage / Life + whatever resists you can find
- Additional Spell Block Chance / Mana are good bonus mods here

Helmet: Rare
- As usual, most of the helmets for my builds are self-crafted
- Just find at least an iLvl85 non-influenced base with the enchant you are looking for, slam a Redeemer's Orb and spam with Frigid and Pristine fossils until you get a decent roll
- You're looking for Life / Nearby Enemies have -X% to Cold Resistance / Whatever additional Resists you need
- If you are running this as a league starter, don't worry about any of this yet and just focus on Life + Resists on your helm
- For enchants, both the Damage and Cast Speed enchants for Freezing Pulse are good, but I would recommend the Cast Speed one just to make the gameplay feel smoother

Body Armor: Cloak of Defiance
- Gives us Mind Over Matter + additional 10% damage taken from Mana before Life, which is very good for keeping us alive
- We have a pretty big mana pool so even with 50% reserved for Hatred, this boosts our survivability by quite a bit
- It also synergises very well with Trickster's Weave the Arcane Ascendancy node, which helps to replenish our Mana very quickly after taking some damage

Amulet: Rare / Aul's Uprising
- For the highest dps, look for a well-rolled Amulet with "+1 to all Intelligence skill gems" and "+1 to all Cold Skill Gems"
- This gives +2 to the level of Freezing Pulse which is a big dps boost
- Other than that, Life / Crit Multi / Spell Damage / Cold Damage are good stats here
- For more survivability, you can also use Aul's Uprising with "Hatred reserves no Mana"
- This clears up our entire Mana pool for damage mitigation, bringing our effective health pool to ~10k
- This is great option if you are still trying to level up your character (I usually level to 94-96 and then switch to more dps)
- This is also likely the cheaper "Mid-Game" option, depending on the league and how far into the league you are in

Rings: Rare
- Not much to say here, look for Life / Resists / Crit Multi / Spell Damage / Cold Damage
- The ring slots are really flexible here because we do not need any "Curse on hit" mods
- I usually get them as the last slots in case I need to top up any stats / resistances

Others:
- Belt: Life / Resists / Elemental Damage / Damage / Damage against Chilled Enemies - Stygian Vise recommended
- Gloves: Life / Spell Damage / Cast Speed + Additional Resists if you need them

Jewels:
- Watcher's Eye: Definitely get Cold Penetration while affected by Hatred as one of the mods
- For the second mod, you can opt for %Mana gained as ES while affected by Clarity, % Cold damage while affected by Hatred or Increased Crit Strike Chance while affected by Hatred
- All three options are incredibly expensive, and totally not required (I didn't use it in my build showcase video)
- But it does show that with even more currency, this build could be pushed even further
- For your other Jewels, pick up Life / Crit Multi / Cast Speed / Mana wherever possible
- Phasing does help a lot during mapping to prevent you from getting trapped in a big group of mobs, so getting Phasing on your Abyss Jewel for your Stygian Vise would be great as well

Flasks:
- Diamond Flask for more Crit
- Bottled Faith because why the fk not
- Cinderswallow with + Crit Chance for a big damage boost against ignited enemies
- Wise Oak for additional damage (if Cold Resist is your highest)
- If Cold Resistance isn't your highest, I would go for Atziri's Promise
- If you are mainly looking at normal speed mapping, then I would recommend Rumi's Concoction instead of Wise Oak
- It gives a huge boost to survivability and allows you to basically map completely care free
- Your damage would already be more than enough to melt map bosses so you don't really need the Wise Oak at all


End-Game Upgrades:
Spoiler
- Level up Awakened Gems to Level 5 (Showcase was done with Awakened Controlled Destruction and Awakened Elemental Focus @ Lvl 1)
- Triple Mod Watcher's Eye - Cold Penetration (Hatred) + Crit Strike Chance (Hatred) + %Mana as ES (Clarity) - Probably 4-5 Mirrors at this point
- Double Crit Multi + Life / Mana / Cast Speed Jewels
- Better rolled Amulet with +1 Cold / +1 Int Spell Skill Gems
- Double-Corrupted Cloak of Defiance with +2 Proj Gems / +1 Socketed Gems
- 28% Quality everything

Last edited by Bannehners on Jun 19, 2020, 2:47:06 AM
Last bumped on Sep 17, 2020, 12:07:27 AM
How does this build work on a budget? Because last time I tried to follow a guide for freezing pulse self cast the damage felt very weak early on and the guide I checked, it was inquisitor not trickster if I remember correctly, and advertising league start on a 5 link, was just showing mapping without even killing a map boss...

I see your video shows boss kills but I dunno how much investment is needed to get there.
Hi There!

I chose Trickster for the build because I wanted to run MoM (need a bunch of Mana and Mana regen) with as high a cast speed as possible to make the build run more smoothly.

Freezing Pulse isn't really a skill designed for Single Target, but if you get all your debuffs up on the bosses, they should go down reasonably quickly.

Phase 3 of the Sirus fight is going to be pretty slow unless you die and refill your Flask Charges halfway. However, you are pretty beefy so if you know the fight well you can afford to make some mistakes there without dying (I walked right into the triple beams by accident in the video).

Elder/Shaper/Uber Elder all spawn mobs during the fight so they go down pretty easily because you can constantly replenish your Flask Charges and keep your Frenzy / Power charges up.

In the video I also tried to do many of the bosses with the Delirium fog active, but it was just to test the damage and there is really no big benefit in farming the bigger bosses (Conquerors/Guardians) with the Delirium fog on. If you are planning on trying this next league, the Delirium fog probably won't even be something to worry about.

If you're talking about league-starting, obviously you're not going to be shitting on T16 Delirium bosses with a 5-link, but a Tabula should get you to mid-to-high yellow maps with some decent rares.

Just to test it out, I modified the PoB to adjust to how I think a Lvl80 Trickster at league-start would look like. I removed the Watcher's Eye / Cluster Jewel / Intuitive Leap / Bottled Faith / all Awakened Gems / dropped Cinderswallow's crit mod. I also switched to a Tabula, spent some skill points to get MoM, and unequipped the Amulet, Shield and 1 ring just to simulate having generally shittier gear.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/Y7UTKvGm

The dps is still around 1.5mil without having any Frenzy/Power charges up, which I believe should be enough to carry you to mid-to-high yellow maps.

If you are talking about end-game, there are of course more cost-efficient builds out there, but I think those are pretty well covered by everyone else already. Thanks for reading!
Last edited by Bannehners on May 17, 2020, 12:57:09 AM
Hello! I am a fairly new PoE player, and my favorite skill since I know the game is FP. I was reading the 3.11 Patch Notes and saw a buff in Damage Effectiveness, and a lot of nerfs in crit multipliers. how do you think that these changes will affect your build?
Hi, I've been playing mostly Freezing Pulse Totem past few leagues and have been wanting to make a self cast variant for the next one. I was looking up Assassin builds when I came across your video and would like to get your thoughts on Assassin vs. Trickster.

My goal has always been attempting to kill all bosses within the first week and figured Assassin would be better for that.
"
Polkageistt wrote:
Hello! I am a fairly new PoE player, and my favorite skill since I know the game is FP. I was reading the 3.11 Patch Notes and saw a buff in Damage Effectiveness, and a lot of nerfs in crit multipliers. how do you think that these changes will affect your build?


Based on the updated PoB, the Crit Multi nerfs only dropped our dps by about 1-2% (this is only based on the skill tree nerfs so far), so it was very minimal! With that said, the way our character was built, we didn't stack a lot of flat cold damage to spells, so we don't get any benefit from the Added Damage Effectiveness as well (I chose to stack gem levels instead of stacking flat cold damage). So basically, the build is pretty much unchanged.

You might see more value in getting more +flat cold damage to spells on your gear after this patch, but I can't really see that making that big of a difference overall unless you can really stack a lot of it. Upgrading gem levels still seems to grant more flat damage than what you can realistically stack on your gear.

"
hazorcrux wrote:
Hi, I've been playing mostly Freezing Pulse Totem past few leagues and have been wanting to make a self cast variant for the next one. I was looking up Assassin builds when I came across your video and would like to get your thoughts on Assassin vs. Trickster.

My goal has always been attempting to kill all bosses within the first week and figured Assassin would be better for that.


If you're looking at bossing, I wouldn't really recommend self casting Freezing Pulse as you're going to lack some single target damage. However, if you're deadset on doing this, Assassin WOULD give a higher single target dps, but mainly because you can keep up your power charges on bosses without needing to get any kills.

Just FYI, though, you would lose a bunch of energy shield and a bunch of mana / mana sustain which would make you less tanky. Your cast speed would also drop quite a bit, and based on my gear it dropped from 8.5casts/s to 6.9casts/s which would make the build feel a little less fluid.
Last edited by Bannehners on Jun 18, 2020, 10:46:50 PM
Hi. Thanks for the guide!

I'm trying to make a similar build as a league starter.
What's your though on using inquisitor instead of trickster? And EB?
Mostly using pious path and energy leech to sustain shield, and the crit branch of course.

I'm trying something like this https://pastebin.com/mZAYQCpm most of the gear is to get an idea on what seems good to aim to, not necessarily as endgame gear.

Any tip? I want to do all content with it, but i'm not worried about being the fastest ever, mostly i want a build i can start the game with, be viable and scale reasonably well with currency.
"
Scires wrote:
Hi. Thanks for the guide!

I'm trying to make a similar build as a league starter.
What's your though on using inquisitor instead of trickster? And EB?
Mostly using pious path and energy leech to sustain shield, and the crit branch of course.

I'm trying something like this https://pastebin.com/mZAYQCpm most of the gear is to get an idea on what seems good to aim to, not necessarily as endgame gear.

Any tip? I want to do all content with it, but i'm not worried about being the fastest ever, mostly i want a build i can start the game with, be viable and scale reasonably well with currency.


Personally, I started testing this build with the Inquisitor, but the cast speed ended up being too slow for my liking. However, I do feel that Inquisitor would be able to get higher damage vs Trickster.

I've got no experience with EB as I've never really seen a proper reason to run it for any of the builds I wanted to try, so I don't really feel right commenting too much on it.

However, based on your PoB you are reserving 100% of Mana and then using EB to continue casting. In this case you might not even want to run MoM anyways because ES is going to cover for your health already.

P.S. Also seems like you are wasting 2 skill points on your tree to pick up EB when Devouring Diadem already gives it for free. It was probably intentional and you're probably already aware of this but just thought I'd put it out there.
EB was mostly because i didn't see a way to sustain MoM with low investment and since it allows me to get an extra aura (and a herald with the diadem) i didn't see a reason not to get it.

I might try dropping EB/devouring and use essence worm if i find it too squishy. Though i never played an hybrid like that it clearly works in the build.

"
However, based on your PoB you are reserving 100% of Mana and then using EB to continue casting. In this case you might not even want to run MoM anyways because ES is going to cover for your health already.


I don't fully get that. If i lose MoM and use EB my EHP should drop. Or i'm not seeing something?

Regarding cast speed i might try to do something about it. I think there are a few cluster jewels that could be useful and weren't touched in the patch. Though i might have to drop something in the tree for that. I already feel very stretched skillpoint wise. Essence rush, practiced caster and repeater could all help with that.

Thanks!
I'm gonna try this as leaguestart, thanks!

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