[1.0.2] Freezing Pulse/Life Based Shadow (Noob friendly/HC viable)
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[1.0.2] Freezing Pulse/Life Based Shadow
1. Introduction/Pros and cons 2. Talent Tree/Bandits 3. Gems, Mechanics and Playstyle 4. Itemization 5. Leveling 6. Credits/Change Log ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction First of all, and I want to make it clear, a lot of content here was ripped from other resources, mainly @Bada_bing Cold Witch Guide for Beginners. Freezing Pulses skill trees don't differ too much, they normally are CI based, few guys go for Power Charges, but they are all basically the same thing. I decided to make another guide to bring some points I felt important, Freezing Pulse Life Based Shadow is a good build to start playing POE (this guide is noob friendly), it's viable in Hardcore leagues if you already have experience, it's viable end game and not heavy gear dependent. You can use this build not only as a Shadow, but as either a Templar or a Witch. I avoid power charges at all, in my point of view power charges make the build Unique Item dependent and costly, you will need Void Battery, and probably 5/6L Voll's Protector. I'm not favorable at linking Power Charges on Critical on any skill, since the setup time is a loss of DPS, fun, survivability, that don't make the game play appeling at all. I also favor mana regeneration in despite of mana leech, since with it I can afford to spam any spell, even against few targets, and get a gem slot. As consequence, it can viabilize Arctic Armor, but also make me avoid "cast speed" nodes at lower levels, and make me Flask dependent at low/no regen maps, having to switch to mana leech gem. Pros * By avoiding CI, you are also avoiding overpriced ES gear. * By going Life you are grabbing gear no one want, low ES gear with Life, which is also cheaper. * Not an Unique Item centred build. * Since status ailments are based on your health poll, they won't be a problem, you won't need Dream Fragments, Eye of Chayula, or any crap like that. * Good survivability and party play, since you are freezing and chilling the entire screen. Cons * By being a life based character you will take chaos damage, and need chaos resistence from your gear. ES = Energy Shield CI = Chaos Innoculation Bandits = Deal with the Bandits Quest dps = damage per second L = linked ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Talent Tree/Bandits
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86 Points Passive Skill Tree
You are in the late 60 levels with 86 points, with is a reasonable goal. You would probably need an extra 30 Dex node to run your gems. It will work at any level, so even if you don't aim a high level you are cool with it. You are essenciatily grabbing spell/elemental/cold damage nodes, life nodes, critical chance nodes, mana regeneration nodes, in the most effective way. You can progress more at it, in the leveling section I will cover a more complete tree. Bandits normal - help Kraityn for 8 Resists or Oak for 40 base Life cruel - kill all merciless - kill all ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Gems, Mechanics and Playstyle
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3.1 Main Attack Spell - Freezing Pulse
4-6 Links: Freezing Pulse + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Life Leech + Faster Projectiles + Cold Penetration + Faster Casting + Increased Critical Damage
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Yeah, 7 linked gems, they are on priority order. I highly suggest that you afford a high quality Freezing Pulse if you can. It's important to note that Lesser Multiple Projectiles allow Freezing Pulse to deal MORE damage, actually 3x the tooltip DPS at short range, since the 3 projectiles can and will overlap. Note also that Freezing Pulse projectiles pierce through targets. Which gems get linked to Freezing Pulse is a controverse point, that's not the most common setup. The mechanics in Frezzing Pulse make projectile speed and important thing to consider, quoting Path of Exile wiki about how it works: "Projectile Speed: The Faster Projectiles support and x% increased Projectile Speed mods will affect Freezing Pulse, causing it to travel farther before it dissipates, effectively increasing its range. Freezing Pulse modified by projectile speed will cause more damage and have a better chance to freeze at every point along its trajectory than a slower Freezing Pulse projectile would, because it has had less time to dissipate." This means that by raising the projectile speed you will also raise the range of the skill, but most importantly, the damage it deals at higher ranges. That is not taken into account in by skill tooltip, that will show only a small damage gain from Faster Projectiles, which is a lie. There 3 ways to get Projectile Speed, with Projectile Speed gem, from Freezing Pulse quality, and from Wand modifiers. I highly advocate that you should not drop Faster Projectiles gem, even if you get a high quality Freezing Pulse gem. Also about mechanics, Cold Penetration gives you MORE damage, in a MULTIPLICATIVE away (not aditive, as any "increase damage" effect), that also is neglected by skill tooltip. You can lower monsters resistences above 0%, and do MORE damage. It's really important against "cold resistence" and "elemental resistences" mods, especially if the monster is also curse immune or you can't afford to curse it in a party, making you even deal more damage with Freezing Pulse then with your single target spell against resistence monsters. I'm actually with a 5L chest, by going with this setup the tooltip shows me 2,2k dps, swaping Faster Projectiles+Cold Penetration for Faster Casting+Increased Critical Damage I have 4k dps, but lower range Freezing Pulse, and struggling a lot against monsters with resistence. For last, it's important that you level up a Mana Leech gem, so you can run no regeneration maps. 3.2 Single Target Spell - Ice Spear 4 Links: Ice Lance+Increased Critical Strikes+Increased Critical Damage+Faster Casting
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Main single target nuke, note that at short range or against monsters with resistence (in case you got Cold Penetration) you are better with Freezing Pulse, even against single targets. On the mechanic side is important to notice that Ice Spear second form (solid) has 600% increased chance to crit, and also that first form it pierce through monsters. 3.3 Auras 3 Links: Reduced Mana + Clarity + Purity/Haste
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We rely heavily on Clarity since we are not using Mana Leech in any skill, and we can run it at higher levels with no problem at all. The second aura is purity, since capping resist is our main form of defense (despite Freezing everything). If you can cap your resistences with your gear, go for Haste, for more mobility and DPS. 3.4 Curses Frostbite
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It's the way to go, hands down, no other curse is better, lowering resistences and giving you chance to freeze even without criticals. For party play you should have a Elemental Weakness to switch. 3.5 Totem - Summon Skeletons 3-4 Links: Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem + Faster Casting + Blind/Culling Strike
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Awesome defense, this is your meat all, faster casting really improves YOUR survivability, cause you will urge to cast it in bad moments, you can add Blind or even Culling Strike if you got a 4th link to spare. 3.6 Control - Coldsnap 2-4 Links: Coldsnap + Elemental Proliferation + Cast on Damage Taken + Increased Critical Strikes
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Coldsnap + Elemental Proliferation is an amazing combo, you cast it and the screen freezes, add Cast on Damage Taken and the entire screen will freeze on critical moments, add Increased Critical Strikes for more reliability. Note that you should keep leveling Cast on Damage taken and all other gems involved in the setup. 3.7 Movement Lightining Warp
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Great to use when trapped in a corner, or even to take shortcuts. 3.8 My setup 5L BGGGR Chest - Freezing Pulse/Faster Projectiles/Lesser Multiple Projectiles/Life Leech/Cold Penetration 3L BRG Wand - Reduced Mana/Haste/Clarity 3L BBB Wand - Frostbite/Faster Casting/Lightining Warp 4L BBBB Helmet - Ice Spear/Increased Critical Strikes/Increased Critical Damage/Faster Casting 4L RBBB Gloves - Cast on Damage Taken/Cold Snap/Elemental Proliferation/Increased Critical Strikes 4L RBBG Boots - Spell Totem/Summon Skeletons/Faster Casting/Culling Strike ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Itemization
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You need life, that and resistences, they are the main goal on your gear. Any life you grab from gear will scale with the insane amount of increased life nodes from passive tree. Also note that you will be needing Blue sockets, so you are better with ES/Armor hybrids, but again, your main focus should be LIFE. As you will be needing 3 green sockets for Freezing Pulse you will probably need a evasion/armor or evasion/ES chest.
As I'm actually at softcore I've been running with double Wands, but would change to Wand+Shield or Dagger+Shield for more survivability at Hardcore. Double Daggers are also ok. When you came to the min-max game, the important stats you should be aiming (despite LIFE and resistances) are Spell Damage, Cold Damage, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Multiplier, Cast Speed, Mana Regeneration, also some Dexterity. My Gear
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Leveling
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23 points
First health nodes, some mana regeneration, and crit. 38 points All the way to Elemental Dominion, grabing health and Dex in the way 70 points The rest of Witch nodes and more health 86 points A bit more of health, also going for the Templar nodes. 96 points Easy crit nodes. Note that you could go to Clear Mind and the Elemental Resistece node near it. If you ever face mana regeneration problems, you can try to reach the 40% no in the start of Templar tree, 4 points far only, grabbing elemental damage nodes in the way. You could also grab Eldritch Battery sonner, depending on your gear, and to keep Clarity at a higher level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Credits/Change Log
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Credits goes to,
- Bada_Bing for the ripped content, Cold Witch Guide for Beginners. - Path of Exile Wiki Change Log. 1* 29/11/2013 posting the guide IGN - Peonsius my characters/739743 - standard shop/511367 Last edited by peonso#6262 on Nov 30, 2013, 12:45:29 AM
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huge thanks for putting this all together :) I'm very excited to try this in Nemesis and I am relatively new to the game, I have always wanted to play a FP build non-witch or scion.
also, your first link under ( 5. Leveling ) is broken http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYAAv4OSBa_JpVCw1VLXfJirG17cFJw1Yw2naq0OMBR1U_Wnd5334TjhOUZ8-r79Q== Chris plz
Gimme good RNG |
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sorry for noob question, i'm newbie. What is CI mean ? :D
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Chaos Inoculation, keystone on passive skil tree.
" Going for Shadow at nemesis right now, Merveil was a pain because of resistances ;/ I actually went with this build as a Witch, worked pretty well, giving hardcore a try. Fixed the link, thx. IGN - Peonsius my characters/739743 - standard shop/511367 Last edited by peonso#6262 on Nov 30, 2013, 12:34:43 AM
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One of the best FP builds I have ever tried. Kudos :) No need for expensive CI gear, not even any ES gear for that matter.
Last edited by startingova#2352 on Nov 30, 2013, 7:50:13 PM
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liking how your gear is not that HOLY EXPENSIVE ones. not even 6L unique like most other builds.
will give this a try when i am done with my trapper character :) |
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You post HC Viable, yet you post gear that is standard league.... I would warn anyone running this build for HC/Nemesis. It has ~200% increased life which is WAYYYYYYY too low. You also do not run determination OR grace(with iron reflexes).... Where do you get your damage reduc? You do not even use an enduring cry.
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I am playing a Freez Pulser in Nemesis atm.
I think your build has to low life and way to low Armor. You have no Armour notes and are not even running Determination. You'll die in HC with that. |
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nvm, demands good gear or party play early and u have to spec more in life then the build u got
Last edited by bluppen#1278 on Dec 4, 2013, 5:15:39 AM
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to people shitting on this build for it's survivability, any suggestions on what to do differently? i want to try a build like this, but i dont want to lvl it up and find out i die very easily.
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