[3.21] Icicle Mines / Eye of Winter Deadeye - Cheap / League Starter / Fast Mapper / 1st Day T16

- This build works very well to complete the Atlas at league start and farm maps fast
- This build is a mapper, it's NOT a bosser
- I've been league starting with it about 10 times already
- It doesn't require any specific items
- It's able to progress the entire Atlas 1st day of league (if you don't sleep :D)
- It's able to farm T16 maps 1st day of league with only a few chaos invested
- No skill or flask timing needed
- Room to level other gems
- Only 1 skill setup
- 4500 life & 100% spell suppression pretty early already
- Great freeze uptime
- Doesn't really require Uber Lab! (it's only a small & situational defence bonus)

This version of the build is the cheap, league start atlas completion + mapping version. It's squishy, but freeze helps a lot :). You can make the build tanky and also increase the single target dps many, many times, if you invest into it. Some players were playing Icicle Deadeye to do "No Hit" Sanctums. It's also a good choice, if you're looking forward to make a bow build later. Then you already have a Deadeye :) and can just farm currency with it, until you have saved enough currency to craft or buy everything you need for your bow build. This works really good, because you are not required to invest into this build to be able to farm T14-16 maps.

Note: As Ranger, you can't buy Icicle Mine in Act 1 already. You have to ask someone else to buy it for you in the end of Act 1 - or get one from trade. Or you use something else till Act 3 Library Quest ("A Fixture Of Fate". It's located in The Library in The Imperial Gardens. There you can buy Icicle, EoW, Charged Mines, ...). I recorded a full Act 1 to Act 3 Library run for you, see under "Videos" further down. BUT: If you wait until Library, the gem will be level 1 and you should level it a bit, before you switch! I highly recommend to get one at level 12 or as early as possible and level it during the early acts already!

-

"

The Vendor Recipe granting flat Elemental Damage to Spells no longer exists.
...
We have also changed the implicit modifiers of many Wands. These changed wands now have a new implicit which grants specific flat Elemental Damage to Spells and Attacks. This means that it will still be feasible (through these bases as well as explicit modifiers) to obtain flat Elemental Damage early on, ...

-

"

Arcane Surge Support no longer causes Arcane Surge to grant more Spell Damage.

-

"

Power Charges now provide 50% increased Critical Strike Chance per Power Charge for players and minions (previously 40%).

-

"

Crit chance per spell suppression mastery is gone. There is a new suppression mastery "suppression is lucky". It enables us to save a few points, which can be put into something else :).

-

"

league mechanic (skill tree for weapons) = buff ...

-

"

New Elemental Mastery: Hits have 25% chance to treat Enemy Monster Elemental Resistance values as inverted.
This one will be useful in the beginning.

-

"

New Life Mastery: 15% increased maximum Life if there are no Life Modifiers on Equipped Body Armour

- 2k eva/armour hybrid chest w/o life mods (dense fossil on hybrid base)
- Hatred + Skitterbots + Determination
- Jade + Granite
- Immortal Flesh belt
- Enlighten 3 + rmr corruption (there are many other options too)
- Survivalist + Eva Mastery (100% inc eva from body armour)

Skill Tree: https://i.imgur.com/sLuKY4U.png

Atlas Tree: https://i.imgur.com/v4XwO3q.png

- I will keep using Bitterdream
- get Determination into the build too
- get Weapon Tree on Bitterdream + 2nd sceptre
- 2nd sceptre should have 100% spell crit + 100% inc. cold/spell/ele/mine dmg + open suffix for mine throwing speed + anything else useful (+1 cold, cold dmg to spells, crit multi, ...)
- I will craft a +2 cold + multi + life + mine throwing speed amulet later
- I will aslo craft a chest with 2k+ eva/arm + chaos res + X
- rare boots with action speed or 7-league-steps, enchant: 120% crit
- get double or triple crit multi jewels with anything else useful
- craft nice rings, one of them with frostbite implicit

Atlas Tree: https://i.imgur.com/NkwHobF.png

- Same Tree & Gear ...
- Only 2 gems are different!
- Icicle: feels a bit nicer and safer during mapping; slightly better clear; mobs die faster/immediately on the entire screen; better freeze uptime
- EoW: higher single target dps

- rare items with life + resists work fine
- any wands or sceptres with some of these mods: crit chance for spells, crit multi, +1cold/+1all, damage to spells, spell/cold/ele/mine damage, crafted mine throwing speed

Cheap uniques that I buy as soon as I have a few Chaos Orbs:
1. Bitterdream (for 3-link Icicle, works fine till T16!)
2. Mutewind Whispersteps
3. Heatshiver

League start / day 1-2 / viable to complete entire Atlas:
https://pobb.in/z5jIK7vK8dV7

Early League / week 1-2 / "Mid Budget":
https://pobb.in/3aZC-n-NPWpf

You can get Path of Building - Community Fork here:
https://pathofbuilding.community/

Notes:
- day 1-2 setup without frostbite/exposure: elemental mastery "25% chance to invert monster res", don't forget to REMOVE it, as soon as you get frostbite ring & exposure from gloves
- you can usually get a random +4 chest for only a few divines, often already 6-linked, about 1 week into a new league
- you can often buy a level 21 Icicle Mine gem for 10c - 20c a few days after league start

Keep in mind: As Ranger, you can't buy Icicle Mine. You have to ask someone else to buy it for you in the end of Act 1 - or get one from trade. Or you use something else till Act 3 Library. You have to do the Library quest in Act 3 ("A Fixture Of Fate". It's located in The Library in The Imperial Gardens.) to buy EoW / Charged Mines.

3-L (~ Act 2-4) Lightning Trap: Lightning Trap + Pierce + Added Cold Damage
(but you should already level Icicle)

3-L Icicle: Icicle + Pierce + Added Cold Damage (or Trap and Mine Damage, if you have crafted flat fire damage to spells (recipe @ A3 Solaris 2) or a similar amount of flat damage to spells on your wands)

4-L Icicle: Icicle + Pierce + Trap and Mine Damage + Minefield

If you have pierce or chain:
4-L Icicle: Icicle + Trap and Mine Damage + Minefield + Charged Mines

3-L Icicle in Bitterdream: Icicle Mine + Minefield + Charged Mines

6-L Icicle: Icicle + Charged Mines + Trap and Mine Damage + Minefield + Increased Critical Strikes + Inspiration

6-L Eye of Winter: EoW + Blastchain Mine + Charged Mines + Minefield + Trap and Mine Damage + Increased Critical Strikes

Other:
- Hatred
- Summon Skitterbots (+ Bonechill, not needed in Bitterdream setup)
- Flame Dash + Faster Casting or any movement skill you like
- Cast on Death + Portal (saves so much time!)
- cwdt lvl 2 + Steelskin lvl 11
- Arcanist Brand + Assassin's Mark + Frost Bomb (vs. bosses)

You can use Determination and/or Grace, if you want to get more tanky. In order to be able to use different/more auras, you may get a matching reservation enchant on your helm or even use a rare helm with Essence RMR + RMR implicit. Another option is the RMR corruption (socketed gems get reservation multiplier). More options: Enlighten Gem, Annoint on amulet and new Reservation Mastery.

My favorite flask setup I've been running for many leagues now:

I'm not using the Silver (Onslaught) flask in the beginning of the league. I usually start with a Diamond/Granite/Jade (depending on what I benefit most from).
Even later, you may use Granite (instead of Silver) or Granite+Jade (instead of Silver+Quartz), if you want to get more tanky.

31 Points (Pierce support gem*): https://i.imgur.com/igX5lPr.png
42 Points (Pierce support gem*): https://i.imgur.com/jMopsb0.png
53 Points (Pierce support gem*): https://i.imgur.com/wZbOLmQ.png
65 Points (with pierce*): https://i.imgur.com/ToyqWxp.png
Level 82 (Chain*): https://i.imgur.com/U7WAOKd.png
Level 94 (with med. cluster j.): https://i.imgur.com/cpf7kTj.png

*link Icicle Mine with Pierce Support until you have pierce skilled in your tree; as soon as you have chain (2nd lab), you can remove any pierce and skill chain range instead!

Deadeye:
1. Gathering Winds (Tailwind)
2. Ricochet (Chain)
3. Endless Munitions (+2 Proj)
4. Wind Ward

Help Alira

My favorite setup: Soul of Arakaali + Soul of Abberath
Also unlock their bonuses!

I'm usually doing a "Alch n go" T14+ strategy and always have currency to buy a HH or MB after about 3 days (but I do play a lot!). My strategy is quite simple and doesn't need any upfront investment! As soon as I reach T14 maps, I focus on farming T14+ only. I complete the rest of my Atlas with Kirac missions and maps from Kirac, while farming T14+ maps. When I unlock favorite map drop slots, I select any good layout maps. It doesn't matter if the maps are T14, 15 or 16. I'm not using Voidstones that early! Just Chisel + Alch, nothing on the map device.

1. As soon as I have 2 chaos: Portal (link with Cast on Death, it will save you a lot of time!)
2. When I start mapping: Bitterdream, Mutewind Whispersteps, Heatshiver (about 4 chaos each)
3. just identify rare items and replace your rares with better ones (life, resists)
4. fix your flask setup (doesn't need to be perfect yet...)
5. As soon as you start to accumulate chaos/divines:
- frostbite ring (implicit, spam some crit multi essences on it till you get life/res)
- level 21 Icicle Mine gem
- +2 or +4 chest and decent wands or sceptres

- it's fine to run your first white maps magic
- buy maps from Kirac
- use your Kirac missions
- buy Chance Orbs if you don't have any to buy more maps from Kirac
- skill map drop chance passives in your Atlas Tree first

When I reach T14+, I start farming T14+, Chisel + Alch. I use my favourite map slots on any T14-16 maps with a really good layout. In Sanctum League I took Ashen Wood, Canyon, Dunes. I try to run them as fast as possible, under 2 minutes, because this increases your Altars per hour, Map Boss kills per hour, league mechanics per hour, ...! This is an important aspect of this strategy!

My Atlas Tree / Progression:
1. map drop nodes
2. shrine and strongbox nodes
3. eldritch currency drop nodes (Word of the Exarch & Wrath of the Cosmos)
4. shaper / elder guardian map drops (Remnants of the Past)
5. I took Delirium, but you can take anything else you like! Block whatever you don't like!

The vast majority of my currency / profit is split among:
1. Currency tab
2. Eldritch Currency
3. Scarabs (random drop + Operative's Strongbox)
4. Shaper, Elder, Conqueror map drops
5. Eldritch Invitations (guaranteed drop every 14(28) maps)
6. whatever league mechanic you skill in your tree, deli = deli orbs + simulacrums...
7. New League mechanic

Every day I take ONE short break to convert this to chaos/divines.