Alpha's Frostfire Witch Build - Critique welcomed.
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Frostfire Witch
So, I can't attest to its full potential but I wanted to share my version of the frostfire witch build. Currently using it at level 47 and mowing down mobs without issue. Its a blast to play with lots of active skills and only one aura. So many buttons to push! Without further adieu [here] is the passive tree. As you can see, this is a 72 point build. You need to go a little past 60, but with bonus attributes from the quests you should be able to achieve this build. And now for a quick explanation of how it plays. For 82 point luxury you can creep across the top of the tree and pick up the increased chill duration and freeze duration talents, seen [here]. But this is like I say luxury and comes down to choice. I chose not to get elemental equilibrium and I will explain this further down. Other notable choices include plenty of hp and mana shield talents around (certainly helps, the build is fairly low on personal survivability, only skills). There is also more crit to the right hand side of doom cast, but I am unsure if CSC is the same as CSC for spells, so I chose not to take the risk. Core skills: - Fireball - Supported with Greater multi projectile, and Concetrate Effect. - Cold Snap - Supported with increased critical strike chance. - Frost Wall - Supported with increased duration. (Great skill! Real lifesaver) - Totem - Attached to Frost Nova, supported with increased critical strike chance. - Fire Trap - Supports optional (I use increased crit strike chance, and increased crit damage). - Curse Elemental Weakness - Clarity Aura Build explanation: Essentially I have gone for maximum fire damage that you can. To supplement this I have picked up the easy to reach mana regen talents (you'll need 'em) and the big chunk of hp/energy shield from the start area of witches. I have reached across to get doom cast because crit with frost = frozen mobs. Frost spells in this build are not for damage, they are for crowd control. Your nuke spells are fire. The 30 points in both str and dex are for cross class skills and gear. Build while levelling: I personally picked up all of the damage talents first, except doom cast. I then picked up the hp & energy shield talents. However you can do this is whatever order you please, I just like pew pew and don't mind the occasional death. Playstyle: The build is normally played by turning on clarity aura (you need it, your spells cost a bomb!), positioning a totem in the middle of the area to attract mobs, and then showering the area with fireballs. For tougher stuff elemental weakness is very useful. For dealing with ranged units (they hurt a lot) you want to just throw a fire trap at them, and curse them. Retreat back a bit and let the trap do its work. Frost Wall and Cold Snap are both situational, cold snap is a very useful "oh shit I need to stop this mob" button, while frost wall will break apart the mobs and seal off rooms entirely. Projectiles cannot pass through it so it can be used to screen off archers/mages. Be warned though, traps can be thrown over it, and mobs with flicker strike can teleport past it. The only weak point to the build is total HP, you have a couple of hp nodes but not many, so you really should be careful. Let the totem pick up some hate, and then rain death upon everyone. Notable Uniques: - Find them [here]. - Dream Fragments Sapphire Ring - Doedre's Tenure Velvet Gloves - Heatshiver Leather Hood - The Searing Touch, Long Staff Closing Points: Elemental Equlibrium... Elemental equilibrium is something I considered. I don't care much for when the frost nova pulse get 25% resist because its a totem so it does 50% less damage anyway, I'm purely using it for cc. However, in a lot of situation I find myself face to face with a mob and I just unload fireballs (5 at a time) into his face pretty much annihilating him. This in itself would be fine, except I don't have an easily spammable frost skill in the build. If they are not in the totem, the only option is cold snap, which has a cooldown. I haven't tested it, but in theory elemental equilibrium would destroy the mobs hitting the totem no problem, but if they're not standing in the totem aoe it would actually hurt me due to having no frost spammable. You could equip one, but for the difference in damage between fire and frost in your build it may not be worth it. I find the ones in the totem aoe are not the problem, its the ones that ignore it :D Last edited by DeviousAlpha on Jul 27, 2012, 7:15:53 AM
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bump for critique!
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Sounds like fun. I'm going to try the multiple projectiles on my fireball. I guess I didn't think fireball was considered a projectile; but apparently it is ;)
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" Its also considered area effect damage, so all pasives and gems which buff this work on fireball. |
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Why are you picking a few life nodes over CI? At only 2 points away, it's invaluable if you aren't taking Pain Attunement.
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" I've never used CI before is simply the reason. In my mind it sounds much better to use hp as you can use potions to restore than on the fly. There are not potions to restore your energy shield... |
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thanks for the build. this build looks fun im gonna try it out
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" You underestimate the importance of Chaos damage immunity. | |
" Whatever I'll take your word for it and try it out :D |
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Don't take CI.
You only have 4 nodes working for your shield it's not going to be worthwhile. |
