[3.29] Ice Dancing God - Icestorm/Cyclone/CI Assassin - Viable For Everything

You only care about the boots, wands and spirit shields. Can use random rares in all other slots for life and resistances. Wand + spirit shield is nice for both damage and defense.

If Tarkleigh doesn't sell 10% ms boots, make them yourself. Any white boots will do. Stats don't matter, you just want ms. You get a Quicksilver flask from the Medicine Chest quest.

Recipe: White boots + Quicksilver flask + Orb of Augmentation = 10% ms boots

Sell random magic and rare junk for Transmutation shards until you have 4 Transmutation orbs. Use them to buy an Augmentation orb for the recipe.

Further upgrade the boots at lv 15 and 24.

Recipe: N% ms magic/rare boots + Quicksilver flask + Orb of Augmentation = N+5% ms boots

Use any essences you find on wands and spirit shields. Keep the ones that roll +ele dmg to spells and increased cold/spell/ele dmg mods.

You can make resistance rings for early acts from Iron rings and gems.

Recipe: Iron Ring + red/green/blue skill gem = Ruby/Topaz/Sapphire Ring

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The first two items you should get after the beginner mapping gear are Replica Stampede and a high Int amulet.

The boots have an incredible QoL value. And they are anointable too. Farm up a few chaos orbs and get these boots ASAP. You will immediately notice how much more enjoyable the game becomes when you Cyclone at 150% movespeed.

On the amulet you want 90+ Int and enough Str/Dex for the gems. Astramentis is ideal for that (or 3x The Polymath cards). But it's often too expensive early in a new league.

Anoint Steelwood Stance on the amulet (teal, teal, azure). Path of the Savant on the boots (sepia, amber, verdant).

Get a cheap boost for your Int (damage) with a String of Servitude.

On the gloves you want 45+ Int, two good resist mods (or 1 resist and 1 empty suffix to craft the other), and 100+ ES.

Use any Eldritch currency to roll %Inc Damage per 100 Int (blue) and Unnerve on Hit (red).

What you want is 45+ Int, 800+ ES, no crafted prefixes, and an empty suffix to craft 6% Inc Attributes.

You can craft one yourself: buy a base with a T1-2 Fractured %ES or flat ES mod and use Deafening Essence of Spite.

Make it 6S and dump Fusing orbs on it until you get a 5-link. You might even get lucky and 6L it (to add an extra curse).

Craft 6% Inc Attributes. If still has open affixes - get some random mods with Exalted orb.

Use blue eldritch currency to get 1% less damage per N Int. Use red eldritch currency to get spell crit multi.

This ring lets you use all the good curses at once. Once you have it, extend your curse link in the body armour to 5L or even 6L if you can.

These must have 70%+ cooldown reduction for Frostblink.

Anoint with Charisma (golden, golden, opalescent).

Buy two 8-node Cold clusters ilvl 68+ and alt/aug spam them until you get Cold to the Core. It will be easier to hit if it's ilvl 68-74. Regal and exalt for additional random mods.


Buy two Split Personality with Int/anything. This will allow you to switch to the cluster tree for a big power spike. Armor is very useful in mapping with cheap gear.


Buy a 2-node Armour small cluster ilvl 68+ and alt/aug spam it until you get Enduring Composure. It will be easier to hit if it's ilvl 68-74. Regal and exalt for additional random mods.


Buy a Watcher's Eye with Clarity mana recoup and anything else useful for Clarity, Purity of Elements, Zealotry or Discipline.


Use rare jewels with stats, crits and damage for the middle sockets.

Cheap mirrored rings will give you a ton of Int and help you max resists. Just don't take any negative mods that would ruin the build.

Avoid mods that result in life loss/degen, they will kill a CI character.
Note: "-Max Life" mod is fine, it doesn't do anything to CI.


Ratcheting rings are also very good, since all mods we need from rings are suffixes. You can craft these with Deafening Essence of Spite + exalt to get multiple good mods. Remember that you can switch resistances with Harvest crafting.

You need an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet base. It must not have any influences or be fractured.

Hunter's Exalted Orb does not guarantee an %Int mod on helmets above ilvl 79. Lich's Circlet doesn't drop below ilvl 84. But you can manufacture it using the Recombinator. When you combine 2 items, it chooses one of their 2 bases randomly, and the item level of the result is the average of their item levels plus 2.

To get an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet (with a 50% chance of success), combine:
a) ilvl 84 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 62 helmet;
b) ilvl 85 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 61 helmet;
c) ilvl 86 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 60 helmet.

Ilvl 60-62 helmets are sold by Act 8 town vendor or can be easily found in Act 9 areas with those monster levels.

Important: Switch the Recombinator to the Unpredictable mode (old style). The new mode (where you select mods) does not work this way.

Scour both bases and use transmutation and alteration orbs to make sure they have only low tier mods (T5 or lower). The cost of recombination can vary massively depending on the mod tiers. Low tier mods cost less than 10k dust, high tier ones can cost 100k+.

Once you have an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet, craft it with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get at least one high tier ES prefix, and an open prefix to craft more ES. You want 300+ ES total. And an empty suffix for the Hunter mod. If all suffixes are taken but the stats are really good, you can try annulling an unwanted suffix.

Before using the Hunter's Exalt, re-check that:
- ilvl is 75-79
- it's not influenced or fractured
- all prefixes are taken
- there is an empty suffix
If these conditions are met, a Hunter's Exalted orb will guarantee the %Int mod.

You need an ilvl 75-77 Stygian Vise that's not influenced or fractured. If you can't get one for cheap, use the Recombinator to make one, just like the Helmet above.

Remember that the item level of the result is the average of the 2 source item levels plus 2. For example, ilvl 80 + ilvl 67 = ilvl 75.

Use a Deafening Essence of Spite to get the top Int suffix. Then you need to make sure that all prefixes are taken and there is an empty suffix. Craft prefixes, annul suffixes, redo the Essence if you annul the Int mod.

Use a Hunter's Exalted Orb. You may get lucky and hit 10-12% Attr mod right away (the chance is 1/7).

If you don't get lucky with the Hunter slam, or you manage to buy an ilvl 75-77 Hunter-influenced Stygian Vise (and skip all previous steps):

Use Deafening Essences of Spite until you hit the 10-12% All Attr mod.

Craft of Exile shows 1/76 chance for both tiers of this mod. But that doesn't seem to be accurate. T2 rolls a lot more often than T1. I would expect the real chance of T1 somewhere around 1/150.

Use Intrinsic catalysts to add 20 quality. Insert an Abyssal jewel (look for Int, ES, resists).

There is a cheaper alternative crafting method in the Allflame league. Check out > this post about belt crafting <

%Int and Damage per Int are the two key mods. With some stats on top. This is a big damage spike, but you lose some of Str and Dex. You can use lower level red and green gems to require less Str and Dex. You can also get Str on the belt and Dex on rings.

Depending on the current price of the Awakener's orb, you can choose to craft it yourself or just buy it.


Buy a Great Maw Talisman ilvl 80+ that's not corrupted, fractured or influenced. Use a Crusader's Exalted Orb to add Crusader influence. Scour it and alt spam the T1 %Int suffix (9-12%). Make sure there is no "Crusader's" prefix.

Buy a Shaper-influenced ilvl 80+ amulet. Alt spam the prefix "1% Inc Damage per 15 Int" (or just buy the amulet that already has it; it's not very rare). Make sure there is no suffix "of Shaping".

Very important: each amulet must have only the desired influenced mod and no other Shaper/Crusader mods!


Right-click the Awakener's orb, left-click on the Shaper amulet first, then left-click on the Crusader talisman. You will get a dual influenced talisman with the two desired mods plus random others. You may get lucky and roll a good attr suffix. Or an empty suffix to craft more attributes. Finish crafting it with whatever makes sense depending on the empty affixes.

Use Intrinsic catalysts to add 20 quality.

At this point you can farm uber pinnacle bosses. Depending on the knowledge of the fights, experience and skill, of course.

Cold to the Core + Blanketed Snow, preferably with some attr and res. Crafting these requires too much luck or currency. It's cheaper to just buy them.


One Split Personality with Int+ES, and one with Int/Armour. While this gives you less ES than two Int/ES ones, having some Armour will really help against physical damage hits.


Bound by Destiny will boost your Int but it requires 2 items with Crusader influence. At this point you should have it on the amulet. And you can put it on a ring. This upgrade will give you about 10% MORE damage.

These jewels give you the single biggest damage spike of all possible upgrades: about 50% MORE damage.

You need one of these Shadow notables:
- For the Jugular
- Mystical Infusion
- Deathmarked

Buy whichever one happens to be the cheapest. Adjust your Ascendancy points to have all 3 of them.

On the final gloves, you want T1 Int, high ES and some resists or attributes (depending on your other items). You can craft a Warlock Gloves base that has a fractured ES, Dex or resist mod with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get a good enough result.

Use Greater Eldritch Ichor to get the mod "While a Unique Enemy is in your Presence, 4% Increased Damage per 100 Int". Use any red currency to get the Unnerve on Hit mod.

Upgrade to a body armour with high ES and MRE. Once you get a really good one, get an Exquisite blue eldritch mod using Orbs of Conflict. I recommend "1% Less Damage Taken per 190 Int" that's going to work in all situations and stack with all other defenses. And some crit multi for damage vs bosses.


Crafting a really good body armour can be hard. It's often easier to just buy one. However, if want to try your luck at crafting, here's how it's done:

You can upgrade your body armour in several steps, especially if you started with a cheap self-crafted one.

Get a Great Maw Talisman with %Int, %Attr and Dmg/Int mods. And maybe some other useful mods on top of those three. Whether it's better to buy it or to craft it depends on the current market.

How to craft this:

If your helmet has T2 (6-8%) Inc Int mod, craft or buy one with the T1 mod (9-10%).

Get the base ES close to max values on the chest, helmet and gloves with Sacred orbs.

Divine all %Int mods to the max value.

Buy a Watcher's Eye with Zealotry resist penetration and Clarity mana recoup.

Buy Enlighten (lv 3 is enough) and add the 5th aura.

Buy Rational Doctrine (value: ~10% MORE damage).

Get a corrupted Anathema ring with %Int.

Once you have a decent budget, you can make a ring with a lot of Int which will also take care of your resistances.

There was a big nerf on these rings in 3.29! The average roll is now about 140 Int and 34% All Res.

The bases are usually cheap (as in only a few Divines) early in a new league. You may want to spend some of your first Divines to buy these bases even before you can afford crafting them.


Such items are created with Reflecting Mist. When it's applied to an item, that item is destroyed (and you cannot restore it from an imprint). Two mirrored copies of that item are created. Each mod from the original item has its value multiplied by a random number between 1.25 and 1.6. One copy receives that new value as a positive number, the other copy gets a negative version of it.

Buy a Helical Ring base that is not corrupted, mirrored or influenced. Fractured is OK if the mod is harmless. Any item level, the lower the better (fewer possible unwanted mods).

Craft with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get 22-24% All Res. Helical Ring multiplies the mod value by 1.5 but you can hold Alt to see the base value (15-16% in this case).

Once you have the All Res mod (plus the Int guaranteed by the essence), you need to annul any mods that can be bad if turned negative by Reflecting Mist.

KEEP HARMLESS MODS! Any mods than don't matter for this build are actually good to have. It is unknown how the system decides which mirrored copy of the item receives the positive or negative version of the mod. But it seems that getting all positives on the same copy is almost impossible. The system favors an even split. Your chances of getting the positive values for Int and All Res on the same ring are much higher when there are extra mods.

Try to get 5 mods. You can add a mod with an Exalted Orb and hope that it's harmless. You can craft any Aspect - they don't have negative values and stay unchanged when Reflected. Or craft +1 Min Frenzy Charges for a random chance of getting some extra damage with no downside for failure.

Use Intrinsic Catalyst to get 20% quality.

Apply Reflecting Mist and hope that you get the positive Int and All Res on the same ring. The chance of success is 33% with 3 or 4 mods, and 40% with 5 mods.

Reflecting Mist's multiplier can randomly roll in a large range. The lowest roll (1.25) is not much better than good mirrored or Cogwork rings. The high rolls (1.5+) are very good. It may take a few attempts to get a decent multiplier.

Kalandra's Touch is usually less expensive than crafting another ring, it's a great choice for the other ring slot.

Failed crafts can be vendored 5:1 for a brand new Helical Ring. You get a fresh Helical base back from 2 failures and 1 success. Sell it for a nice 'cash back' or try crafting again for a higher Reflecting Mist multiplier.

One catch: you cannot vendor both rings from the same failed attempt together. They have the same name and the vendor will give you a Chance Orb for them! Swap them with friends (or ask for a swap in this thread) to get ones with different names. Or just do some more crafting until you have 5 failed rings with different names. Also, beware of the mod "Sells for more to vendors" - it overrides the 5:1.

Once you craft a Helical ring, you lose your 2nd Crusader item for the Bound by Destiny %Int bonus. To get another Crusader item, make The Whispering Ice on a Crusader base: buy an ilvl 68+ Vile Staff base, use a Crusader's Exalted Orb to add influence, and scour/chance spam it.

Depending on your budget and omen prices, you may also use an Orb of Chance with an Omen of Fortune in your inventory.

This is the only unique outcome on the Vile Staff base.

Divine the Increased Int mod to 18% and use it as your single target staff.

Optionally, you can make a second Crusader staff for Cyclone-CwC too.

Upgrading from a good Shaper/Crusader talisman to the Simplex gives you about 15% MORE damage. But it can cost more than all your other gear combined. I would only recommend doing this when the base price is not higher than 50-60 div.

Buy a Simplex Amulet, ilvl 80+ with either no influence or only one influence. Dual-influenced ones are bricked and cannot be used for this craft.

No influence: hit it with Shaper's Exalted Orb. If it says there is no space for more mods: scour it, use a Transmutation orb, and then a Regal orb.

Shaper influence: good enough.

Some other influence: Harvest craft Randomize influence (1000 Blue lifeforce) until it's Shaper.

Scour it and use an Orb of Transmutation. You get a magic amulet with no mods.

Imprint it (Craicic Croaker).

Use a Regal orb to make it rare. If it says there is no space for more mods: scour, transmutation, regal.

Chaos or essence spam it until you get the Shaper's prefix "2% Increased Damage Per 15 Intelligence" and no suffixes "of Shaping".

Buy an ilvl 80+ Crusader amulet. If Crusader is too expensive, buy the cheapest influenced ilvl 80+ amulet and harvest craft Randomize Influence until it's Crusader. Alt spam it until you get the suffix "9-12% Increased Intelligence" and no Crusader's prefixes.

Right-click Awakener's Orb, left-click on the non-Simplex amulet, left-click on the Simplex.

You get a dual-influenced Simplex with Increased Int, Damage per Int, and some random suffix.

If the 3rd mod is anything other than high tier Int or All Attr - annul it. If you annul one of the two main mods - restore from the imprint, re-imprint it and start over from the chaos/essence spam.

Use Intrinsic Catalyst for 20% quality and divine the Increased Int mod to 26%.

Craft flat Int or Str/Int or Dex/Int, depending on what you need more.