Need some pro tips from the Master Casters

Hi everyone!

First off, i'd just like to disclaim that I'm very familiar with PoE in general, and I've been playing regularly since Open Beta.

However, I've pretty much stuck to a variety of melee and mainly physical focused characters, having an especially soft spot for reave. I'm currently mapping hard and trying to get those sweet masters leveld with a sexy reaving scion :)

I've decided it's time to widen my horizons, and thus, I want to start leveling a pure caster. What I have in mind is a crit cold shadow something somwthing.

So I'm calling on all the big caster pros here. :) Help a friend out. I have no idea what I'm doing haha..

* I wan't to try chaos inoculate... How much ES is enough ES?
* How much spell damage is enough?
* Is life steal as important with a caster?
* What items are good to look for? I know Shavs is good for low life, might try that if I can get one, instead of going CI..
* Daggers or wands?
* Dual wield or shield?
* Best cold skills? I'm so going herald of cold, but Ice javeline? Cold snap? Freezing pulse? Whut whut?
* ANYTHING that will help.

I understand that my questions cover a vast spectrum, and it really depends from build to build. I don't like mimicking other builds found online, and pride myself (cheesy, i know) in trying to wing it myself.

That's why I'm asking here. What I need is general tips, that any kind of caster should keep in mind. Basicaly anything that does not apply to phys damage melee, like I'm used to.


Thanks in advance :)

Crit Icespear with 100% pierce. 1h/shield with max block. I think you would enjoy a build like that. I'll leave you with that tho, experiment!

I think you will want to use a life leech gem. Unfortunately with spells you can't get leech from the tree and equipment (a little bit with Doriyan unique belt). My caster is much tankier using the 20/20 life leech gem.

I currently am a lvl 89 witch in the rampage league, dual wielding wands and using ice spear as main spell. life & es for defence. To answer some of your questions:

When it comes to cold spells: the top two are for sure ice spear & freezing pulse, imo ice spear better because of its range but some would disagree

The basic idea, as with any other build is to have enough survivability to not get killed almost ever and then just invest as much as u can into dps (& perhaps some movement speed as it speeds up the clearing process). Atm, it seems that there's a lot of options for survivability, it's fine to be life based, es based, even life&es. You can even do EB if u want. I currently have 3500 life & 2800 and I solo all maps, well haven't tried palace with this spec. And that's with mostly mediocre gear & around 200 IIR, 18K tooltip dps.

If you were CI you could (should get) 6500-700 es, if life based I'm guessing around 4500-5000 (not too sure).

If you go CI, you need life leech gem linked with your main skill. If you're life based or life&es you may be able to skip it and rely on flasks. It's what I do actually (I also have passive nodes for faster es regen).

If you can achieve good enough survivability without a shield, dual wield, otherwise use a shield. Both options good imo.

Imo wands > daggers.

If I were you I'd go for CI crit icea spear with life leech gem. This advise may seem weird to you cuz I myself am not CI but it's only because I am planning to soon respec into low life. Just gathering currency for shavronnes.

Thanks so much guys, I'm taking some serious notes here :)

The other option I considered was EK build.

How much different is it, other than the ability to leech life via passives?

Also, There are some new good plain %phys damage nodes near the shadow, added with Forsaken masters, which I believe boosts EK.

any 2 cents on that? Also, does hatred work with EK? Not sure if it only converts weapon damage..

EDIT: No wait, just read on the wiki EK can't leech life.

I also really would have like to try a lightning caster, but I really like herald of cold, and it's a shame that there is no herald of thunder.

With that being said, how does lightning currently compare to cold?

Arc and ball lightning are good now, and if you go crit you can use ice herald too, it won't be like dedicated permafreeze build though, just enough for white and blue mobs. Thats exactly what I am doing now.

On the leech and life leech gem, the gem is nice of course but not exactly needed, you may try to find a sweet spot between your defences and offence where you wouldn't need it. I do not use it and my only leech items are these



For defences I am only running purities and occasional flasks to counter elemental damage and AA plus incresed duration immortal call to counter physical. Thats not even some outstanding defences.

I recently made a video that pretty much shows it's efficiency, Howto: outleech Palace Dom with 2% leech

CI below 5K ES is a hassle i will never again go through again.

Leech is always a problem with spells, and when CI, Ghost Reaver is nearly a must.
or you run cybills paw, which i have no experience with TBH.

I like playing with EB and a life leech gem

You asked about EK, so...
My guide is here, it's hilariously fun to play, and I explain how it works: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1006876

Life Leech is NOT a must on a caster. It's just as viable to have other ways to avoid damage or heal fast. I use Flasks for Leech (and didn't even have those for a long time). Might use Warlord's Mark on CwDT later, since I'm lazy. I made it to level 85 so far, and I haven't died once the last 20 levels or so, without Leech.

Wow such great responses so far.

Thanks guys. The only problem now, is after reading CantripN's EK guide, I'm even more uncertain as to what kind of caster I want to roll... :P

It's not really possible to build a full chaos damage character, is it? For lack of chaos spells..

I'm leveling a hybrid cold Shadow atm. I use Ice Nova, Glacial Cascade and Infernal Blow. He's mainly a caster but with IB also has a melee attack available. IB also is good for curse proliferation without the need for a skill slot for a curse only. I buffed the nova with cold to fire, increased critical chance and added lightning dmg, which works pretty good so far. The GC I mainly use for magic, rare and boss monsters, because I linked it with an ir gem, faster casting and mana leech. I don't have a clarity gem available, so from time to time a mana/hybrid flask is necessary. I use Herald of Ice and Tempest Shield and neither wand nor dagger but a quartz sceptre (for IB). Though I level the purity gems, I didn't feel the need to use them yet.

In some cases I also use a SB totem (good when opening strongboxes, defending relics, fighting unique monsters) that benefits from the +20% elemental damage on the sceptre. First I thought about dual wielding, but without taking the dw nodes a shield is much better, especially with heralded TS, this might change in future. Yet I don't have any 5L or 6L items available on this char, so the gem setup might change in future too.