[1.3] The Crit Philosopher - CI Crit Cold Witch - Freezing Pulse, PCoC & Echo
" Thank you, Tempest Shield is now linked :) As for the low life version, I'd say it's totally viable. CI is the easy but costly way against chaos damage which is abundant in late game. If you're careful with chaos damage, then you're good to go with a low life version. The only requirement would be having a Shavronne's Wrappings. Of course the tree would need some adjustments, investing some points in Aura nodes and such. Also some points in ES delay would be useful, but I'm not sure if they're worth it. Now onto Eldritch Battery build. I think EB is pretty much for Mind over Matter chars, and also if you need some extra mana for auras. The issue here is the life pool, which is pretty limited near the Witch area. For an EB build to work you would need to invest some points in HP nodes, going through the Templar area and even reaching Marauder's starting point, and thus losing most of the Intelligence nodes which are essential if you're a self-caster. Of course you can always look for godlike gear with +stats if needed, but being gear dependent makes you vulnerable against gameplay changes. I also prefer my mana regen to be slightly greater than my mana consumption ratio, than having tons of mana for reserve. Less auras means less defenses, but most of the gameplay of this char focuses on evading damage rather than face-tanking it. IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 | |
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I've been making a cold based caster too, very fun character, and I learned a few things from this post so thank you. The dps seems a little low, especially vs. cold resistant mobs, but you really control the battlefield.
I'm using glacial cascade instead of freezing pulse. It seems to do better damage, am I missing something on that? I picked up the 2 aoe nodes. I use Ice Spear as a secondary attack. It's great to freeze lock a pack from long distance before you move in. I linked it with elemental proliferation and power charge on critical and faster cast (ran out of spell echos). Might also be good in a totem. I also am using a 4L spell totem with cold snap, seems to work pretty well, not sure on that one. | |
" I'm glad this guide is useful! Cold spells have inherent low damage (compared to the damage output with fire and lightning spells), that's why we rely on crits. Glacial cascade is good, but it's harder to scale because of its hybrid physical/cold damage; you'll need both physical and cold/elemental damage nodes (or equipment) to efficiently improve your DPS. In this case, Frostbite will only affect the 50% of your DPS. Ice Spear is great for crowd control. I've seen a few builds using it with GMP, Power Charge on Crit and Cast when Damage Taken for extra safety. I tried Ice Spear to get Power Charges before, it's nice but I prefer to include it in my main spell so I can have a free 4L and run a little bit faster. Cold Snap is extremely good for freezing at long range. Cold Snap with Added Cold Dmg, Elemental Proliferation and Increased Area of Effect is godlike. Trap is another good choice to go. Have in mind that we should focus on a single damage dealing ability, and use the rest to support it. I'd choose between Ice Spear and Cold Snap if you're using both as crowd control, that way you can invest in a defensive or a movement skill if needed :) IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 | |
" I tried out some physical damage nodes but they didn't appear to do anything for the spell. I thought for sure the Elder Power nodes would work, but nope. Gear that adds %physical damage does seem to work. But I couldn't notice gear that added #-## physical damage doing much, probably because there's no multiplier to bump it up. Anyway, don't mean to sidetrack your post on a skill that's not in your build. | |
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Patch is coming out soon, and because of a confirmed re-built Witch tree, I'm certain we should adjust some things. Stay tuned, as all indicates that Freezing Pulse is getting a buff! :D
IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 | |
" Looking forward to what you come up with. | |
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Forsaken Masters is here! A lot of things have changed, let's take a look at them.
PoE 1.2 changes affecting this guide
- Mana cost of many skills has been reduced!
- Freezing Pulse now has a greater projectile speed. This means FP will reach farther! - Freezing Pulse damage was increased by 40% at level 20! YAY! - All curses were nerfed, this includes the ones mentioned below. - Frostbite was nerfed. Cold resistance lowered at lvl 20 is now 39, down from 49 in 1.1. - Clarity reserves more mana. Hm. - Clarity regenerates less mana than before. We'll need to adjust our skills, remember most of them have now a lower cost. - Elemental Weakness was nerfed. Elemental resistance lowered at 20 quality is now 8% instead of 10%. - Enfeeble duration was reduced (in addition to the general curse nerf). Hm. - Both Added Cold Damage and Added Lightning Damage mana multipliers were reduced, yay! - Both Greater and Lesser Multiple Projectiles mana multipliers were reduced, yaaaay! - Witches have a completely different (not that much) tree now. We'll need to adjust it to our needs! - There are two new tiers of Flasks! Although I don't think they would be useful for us, we'll see. Those were the changes that applied to this guide. Throughout the week I'll be updating the OP with more detailed information. In the meantime, I'll use this post instead. I came up with a tree using the 100 points (lvl 82) I currently have, it looks like this:
1.2 Skill Tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAW8C_gQHBUINjQ5IEZYVUBXXFkAXLxslHNwdFB8CIvQksCepKU8qCyycLL82xTrYQZZCw0NjRKtG10cGS65Ms03YUDBVrlZjWPVca13GXfJfKl9qYG1jQ2SdZp5sC20ZcFJwu3DVcU1-WX_GgKSCEIKbhEiFfYauhtGJ04t6jDaMdo5kj0aPpo_6ms-dxKcIrrO1BLb6tzHBxcNt0PXYJNlb2t3bXtvn3fPfhN-K37Di9-Qi6QLr5Ov17BjsOPId8uHz6vem-tI=
It is pretty similar to what I had pre-patch. Some things changed, of course, but it's not a big deal. Let's take a look at what changed:
What changed in the Tree?
▲ Higher than before.
▼ Lower than before. ► New Feature. ▲ +10 Dexterity ▲ +14% Spell Damage ▼ -20% Mana Regeneration Rate ▼ -16% Maximum Mana ▼ -6% Cast Speed ▲ +12% increased Energy Shield ▼ -10% Energy Shield Cooldown Recovery ▼ -4% Spell Elemental Damag ▼ -100% Global Critical Chance ▲ +150% Critical Chance for Spells ▲ +6% Power Charge Duration increase ▲ +3% more Energy Shield ▼ -10% Critical Multiplier for Spells ▲ +5% Critical Multiplier ▼ -4% Increased Cold Damage ▲ +2% reduced Mana Reservation ▲ +20% increased Elemental Damage ▼ -6% effect of Auras ▲ +20 Accuracy ▲ +2 Evasion ► +34 Maximum Energy Shield ► +1% Maximum Lightning Resistance If you want to see a comparison between this tree and the previous one, click here for a fancy document. Notice there are some stats omitted because they were unaffected by the 1.2 patch. Now, I know what you're thinking. NO WAY! LOSING %100 CRITICAL CHANCE?! LESS MANA?!?!?!?! Well, yes, and no. At first glance, there is 100% reduced Critical Chance, but notice there is plus 150% Crit Chance for Spells, that means we have 50% MORE critical chance than before. Apparently, our cold damage was greater in the 1.1 version, but we have higher spell damage with this tree and also more elemental damage overall. There's more Energy Shield now, but not that much. We use less mana, and that's great because we had to sacrifice a little bit of Mana in order to get more ES and Crit chance. In general terms, this tree is more powerful than before! If you're the mathematical type, then maybe you want to have a look at the DPS calculation below.
DPS calculation
► Each Pulse now deals 318.5 average cold damage (255-382) at level 20 with 20% quality* ▲ LMP increases damage per pulse by 36% at level 19 with 0% quality. ▲ We have a 28% increased cold damage from the tree. ▲ We have a 74% increased spell damage from the tree. ▲ We have a 44% increased spell damage from the tree. ▲ We have an additional 16% increased damage also from the tree. ▲ My Wand (the one linked in OP) gives 26% increased cold damage.* ▲ The same wand gives 105% increased spell damage.* ▲ Rathpith Globe (the shield in OP) gives us 50% increased spell damage ▲ Doryani's Invitation (belt linked in OP) grants 25% increased cold damage. ▲ 7 Power Charges give 28% increased spell damage (4% each). ▼ LMP does 30% LESS damage. ▼ Spell Echo does 10% LESS damage. So this is how it looks in numbers assuming cold resistance is 0%: DmgPerPulse = BaseDmg + BaseDmg(increases) - BaseDmg(LESS) DmgPerPulse = 318.5 + 318.5(0.36+0.28+0.74+0.44+0.16+0.26+1.05+0.5+0.25+0.28) - 318.5(0.3+0.1) DmgPerPulse = 1,567.02 That's the damage dealt for each Pulse. If it crits, then it's a different story: ► We have 50% Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells from tree. ► We have 35% Global Critical Strike Multiplier also from the tree. ► We have 50% increased Critical Strike Multiplier from our Perfect Legacy Maligaro's Virtuosity (linked in OP)* ► Base Critical Strike Multiplier is 150%. This is how crit looks in numbers with 0% cold resist: DmgPerCritPulse = DmgPerPulse*(BaseCritMulti + BaseCritMulti(increases)) DmgPerCritPulse = 1,567.02*(1.5+(1.5(0.5+0.35+0.5)) DmgPerCritPulse = 5,523.75 Now this sounds better, but remember it's only the damage of ONE PULSE. We are using Lesser Multiple Projectiles, so there are THREE PULSES. Not one, BUT THREE. So the damage it's multiplied by 3 ASSUMING you hit the 0% cold resistant monster with all your 3 pulses, and that's around 16,571.24 damage. Now, that's only 1 cast. How many times is Freezing Pulse casted in 1 second? According to it's tooltip, the Cast Time of Freezing Pulse is 0.65 seconds. That means that 1/0.65 is the answer, and that's 1.538461... To complete the DPS calculation we need the cast speed modifiers too. Let's take a look at them: ▲ 12% increased cast speed from the tree ▲ 11% increased cast speed from the Wand* ▲ 5% increased cast speed from ANY Maligaro's Virtuosity* ▲ 15% increased cast speed from Frenzy Charges (5% per charge, up to 3 charges) using Blood Rage. ▲ 67% MORE cast speed from Spell Echo at level 18, 0% quality. DPS then looks like this when there's no cold resistance and you're fully charged and critting 24/7: DPS = 3ProjCritdmg(BaseCastsPerSecond + BaseCastsPerSecond(increases) + BaseCastsPerSecond(MORE)) DPS = 16,571(1.538461 + 1.538461(0.12+0.11+0.05+0.15) + 1.538461(0.67)) DPS = 53,537.84 That's it, 53,537 damage each second assuming you're fully power and frenzy charged, the mob is 0% cold resistant, you stroke critically and all three pulses are hitting the mob. Pretty Cool! Like Freezing Pulse! HA! Anyway, in the calculations above, there's a * mark at some items or gems which are kinda expensive. I know that they're not easy to get, but look how well they scale in the dps calculation! Please do your best to get a decent setup :) And I'm not sure I'm not forgetting something, but that's more or less the dps calculation. There's also an Excel Sheet here if you're interested, along with some other calculations for mobs at 30% cold res and 50% cold res respectively. TLDR; this build is stronger. The DPS in the tooltip, however, does not consider crits, charges and curses or debuffs (like shock), but it rose greatly from 6.5K (fully power and frenzy charged) to a whole 9.35K. Now, the mana issue. Clarity has been 'nerfed' and we had to pick an extra reduced mana reservation node, but you're good to go with what we have at the moment to maintain Clarity, Discipline and Tempest Shield. I'm sitting at 1081 Mana, with 917 mana reserved and 164 free mana for my spells. Isn't that too low? No, it's not. It's great. Remember the second cast (the one provided by Echo) doesn't consume mana, so we're good. Regrettably, I had to reduce the level of my Arctic Armour so it could stay active while running :( But other than that, there are no mana issues with this setup. Overall, the patch was a great buff to Pulsers. It's the Flavor of the Month, I tell you. Look at all those FP guides! :P Anyway, I'll update the original post soon. I'm also thinking about getting Herald of Ice and give it a try. Stay tuned! IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 | |
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You might want to look into the Cold to Fire gem. It looks like it is going to act as a More item starting at 10% at level 1(so you will have 50%cold and 60%Fire). I don't know what quality will do to it. But if it ups your dps by 29% at level 20 it will need to be seriously considered.
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Why are you going for spell damage early in the witch tree instead of casting speed, out of curiosity?
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" Spell Echo gives lots of casting speed, enough to drop the three nodes at the beginning. Of course, early the cast speed is more useful since mobs are not that hard to kill. Respeccing when going CI could be considered. Cold to Fire is another thing I'd like to try, since it was useless in the previous patch. Let's see what the future I'm also thinking about creating a foundation for new Freezing Pulse players, but I need to get my hands on some equipment and gems first. What would you guys think? IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 |
