[1.3 Video Guide] Tanky Beginners End-Game Viable Crit Ice-Shot-Puncture Build! [HC/SC Viable]

DPS:
Vanilla: Ice Shot: 8350 Puncture: 7259
+HoA: Ice Shot: 9849 Puncture: 8351
+Hatred: Ice Shot: 13,345 Puncture: 10,896
+Flask: Ice Shot: 16,018 Puncture: 13,044
EV: Vanilla 5565 +Grace: 11163
Life: 3393

My EV is laughably low. This is intentional as I prioritized DPS, and will return to defense as I save up currency. The build is really tanky in general and with the CWDT set-up I don't have that much issue staying alive.

No, most of what I have is self found. I bought the chest, helm, and belt all for under 25 chaos. The bow was found, and is alright, but not crazy expensive. Once you get to maps you can easily farm the currency tagging along higher level groups in a few days.

Yes, once you get a decent item level bow with a good physical damage role mana management will not be an issue. You should always prioritize bows with good physical damage roles over ele damage both for mana and Puncture.

As long as you are cautious and aware of reflect mobs you will be okay. As the build gets stronger and you start stacking cric, reflect can obviously kill. However, I've yet to one-shot myself. It is a numbers game though, sooner or later if you are not careful you'll hit yourself, and you just need to be aware of it so you can react to it.

You really really need to keep your target moving for Puncture to really have an impact with the DoT. This is even more true now that the bleed DoT is a flat 10%. Also remember to hit the boss until you crit with puncture (you can notice this with sound or if you knock them back). Every bleed DoT has a timer, but only the strongest one will tick on the boss, so don't be afraid of "covering" the strongest bleed on the boss.

While I see the appeal, it really is not necessary and the lost DPS is not worth it. Ice Shot already has a great AoE mechanic, and with Pierce there is no need to add more AoE. Open a strongbox with this build and you will see what I mean.

I'd start with Pierce for sure. It will save you a couple passive points, and you only need a 12% quality to cap yourself with the one node you will pick up on the tree. After that I'd go with Physical Attack Damage because increased physical impacts every other offensive skill/attack that you use.

So much yes, more yes for new players. While it probably isn't required at all times, it is such a nice thing to have. This is especially true if you are doing group clears, and then I'd probably call it mandatory. Only comment here is that some people do run a lower level set up, but that I like a higher level set-up for high EV builds.

One criticism pointed out was how for Ice Shot+HoA/ele prolif to be effective the mobs have to be a certain way. While it is true for the build to be 100% optimal then it is advantageous to have the mobs lined up so Pierce hits them all, it isn't required for a ton of DPS. Look, this build isn't going to set world record clears, and yes it requires some skill when positioning yourself around mobs for max damage, but it is a GREAT build for the amount of currency you have to invest in it. Where this build really excels is that you can build a great build for pretty cheap, but also can expand with the build once you get to the end game. The cap is very high because you can start spending a lot of currency on crit related gear (which gets pricey). Moreover, the build really can be helped by other high value items like Drillneck.

I had noticed a lot of people were complaining about not being able to use a "real belt" so I wanted to play around with the idea of using something else. Wurm's Molt serves two purposes. 1) It provides increased Intel and Strength so that we can level HoA/crit gems. 2) It provides us with mana management by adding mana leech to our attacks. It obviously becomes tricky as you have to probably split intel and strength up onto two of the three pieces of jewelry you will use in order to level up the necessary skill gems as far as possible. I would prioritize intel as that will allow you to go further with crit gems, and that will be much more important than the modest increase in extra burning damage you will get from HoA.

This is my current jewl/belt set up which left me with a small increase in DPS, but also left me well over res capped which means I can start swapping in different jewelry to bump up DPS more. The only downside to this is that you have to search for jewelry that has intel/strength or other pieces of armor with a decreased req cost mod. Also it is required that you have mana leech somewhere else on your gear. I think dropping Wurm's Molt is a good idea if you can find suitable replacement gear for your attribute requirements and also find something with mana leach. Finding a belt with good resistance stats like I did will allow me to go find some good DPS rings that aren't super high in resist and thus not as expensive.

So I snagged a pair of these for two reasons. 1) You still take a decent amount of spell damage with this build, and while your survivability is good without these, these make you even more tanky. 2) the 30%speed mod. I've ran with these on about a dozen maps so far and I really like having them. Obviously the cost is that because they are a Dex base item rolling a 3r1b is really really hard. Using the 2r1b recipe (100 chromes) only gives you a 10% chance. So until I come up with 1,000 chromes I just decided to stop with 2r1b and drop Increased Burning Damage. I don't notice a huge difference to be honest, maybe a couple extra arrows per map to clear a couple leftover mobs, but in my opinion it is worth it for the spell dodge and MS mods.