[2.1] Dual Apep's Chaos Crit - Stapling Chaos to a Level 1 Spell (Draft Spark Totem tree up)

1/20/2016 Note:
Short version:
I have switched to Voltaxic lvl 20 Spark Totems.
(Guide here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1570650)
Poison is still super busted.
MoM+Acro+Evasion/Dodge Gear is waaay better than expected.
Lvl 1 Dual Apep's is still a great lvl 62-80 choice as the tree is effectively identical at those levels.
See the long version in my post on page 14.

12/16/2015 Note: It is really clear at this point that Poison is Nutty McNuts. I am leveling in Talisman right now to get this up and running. The fact that projectile damage is even better for the build than even chaos damage from the way that it double-dips and even makes use of party auras on the initial hit makes me want to change the tree to incorporate it. The non-crit variant is really the only one that can do so by migrating some nodes near Witch to the Ranger start. Also in the non-crit version's favor is the revelation that the skill duration nodes in the tree work for Poison duration. This is super counter-intuitive, but makes those nodes double-dip for spark life and poison. I have updated the non-crit tree to compensate.

12/10/2015 Note: After doing some more math, I'm pretty sure that the Poison support makes dual Apep's pretty ridiculous again. The short version is if your attack or spell is chaos damage and you support with Poison, it is effectively a 20% more damage gem if your enemy lives for 2 seconds. But scaling poison with even a lvl 1 gem and the Poison cluster in the tree gives you +150%. Now consider that chaos damage increases double dip as it is a type scale rather than a source scale (like fire with burning), so it helps both initial hit and poison. If you get +150% chaos damage in tree and on gear/jewels (not hard), it makes your Poison gem deal 80% more damage over 2 seconds. That for 3 nodes you path right by and scaling you were going to do anyway. This is going to be totally stupid. Now I'm glad they did not buff Apep's.

12/9/2015 Note: We're back, baby. Spark totems and Magma orb, as well as some old mainstays are clearly great with the new tree. Easy to scale chaos damage in the right places on the tree, the Poison support, Controlled Destruction and Void Manipulation gems, and we still have all the unique jewel support from 2.0 that had previously not been enough to get going again all add up to an exciting time for stapling Chaos. I will begin updating this thread again soon, but post ideas if this is your thing.

Previous doom and gloom notes
6/21/2015 Note: Apep's Rage does not have a planned buff according to the announced unique changes. This is pretty bad for Apep's, as the new flat elemental damage for spells is making it pretty hard to justify the drawbacks and the opportunity cost of not using a great crafted rare, even if the damage and speed of Apep's is a bit more. Chaos damage is very hard to scale and is now reflected (I've heard) in all but the map mod; it has enough working against it to justify its use when it does not provide a significant advantage over a rare weapon. If this is also a concern to you, leave feedback in the announcement thread. Apep's either needs to lose its drawback or get a buff if they are going to keep the (in my opinion, ill-advised) flat elemental mods for spells on weapons.

Very exciting stuff in the 2.0 beta. FP may be in jeopardy as the spell I use, but GMP actually got better for non-shotgun spells and some of the jewels are crazy for this lvl 1 gem concept. Non-EB variants were already in the works and both an Acrobatics and a Shav's low-life version have worked in testing, so the EB change may not have much effect.

This is HUGE:






This build is all about leveraging these awesome wands dual-wielded:

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Apep%27s_Rage

2.1 (Slightly less) Rough Tree
Updated the tre a little. Removed the Frenzy charges and two power charges for points. Added Heart and Soul to boost life. Still working on cutting points. If you have any brilliant suggestions, let me know. FYI, the jewel at Witch is 45% Chaos Eldritch Knowledge, which is why Dark Arts is worth taking. Running CI does not work, as you lose both Acro and MoM and you don't have a shield to stack ES. Belly seems like the best chest right now, but more life in the tree might get me to Hyrri's Ire. The best part of this build for the new league is that I can run a crit physical spell like EK until I can get Apep's with almost the exact same tree. Slight changes to the Shadow start area and Master of Force instead of Atrophy lets me be effective until I can swap over in my 60's.
http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYAAx4EBwW1BnAHHgj0DkgRDxEvEZYWbxa_HRQfAh9BI_Yk_SaVKgsqEypbKwotHzBxMHw2PTbFN9Q6QjpYOw0740GWQzZE-0WdSVFLeEwtTLNNkk6fTq5QMFFHUuxTUlVLVcZY5VorXEBd8l8qYeJirGQJZp5qQ2qMaxdsjHBSdZ559np_f8aD24PzhTKHy4nTiiiMNo19jb-OZI9Gj_qVIJUumuCdqqKjotmj8qcIp5uuEq6zsNixNrTFtUi2-rmTvOrAVMHzwuzDCcgUzxXQH9D11CPYJNte3ajjaudU62Pr5Ovu6_XtP-_r8NXyHfVv96b60v_e

Non-crit tree
I think that crit is the way to go, but a non-crit tree might look like this. So much chaos and projectile damage double-dipping in this version. I have to run the damage numbers, but this also gets the duration nodes, which is a huge plus, as they function for poison duration! Life is also much easier to access with this one. Update: the non-crit tree benefits from GGG's revelations. I have altered the tree, which is now a much more attractive option.
http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYBAdEDHgPuBbUGcAagD6sRLxZvFr8ZihzcHRQdvh9BIuIkiySqJpUo-ioTKk0qWzBxM4c1kjY9OkI64T8nQYdDNkWdRwZH4kkTSVFKyEt4TeNOn1FMUuxTUlVLWOVZbVorWlJcQF-YX7Bh4mKsZIRmnmqMbAhsjG1sbqp1nnn2en97w31bgseExYUyh8uJ4I2_jxqPRo_6kx-XBprgm7WdqqEiokCi2aPypDmmV6cIp5uomqxHr-uw2LTFtUi18rc-uJPC7MM6xKLIFMpKzxXPMtDQ1CPYvdvn3ajjauZY62Pr7vDV8YryRfT49W_5vfno-tL-Cv6P

Outdated 1.3 Freezing Pulse Build

Might as well keep the original build info.
ALL OF THIS IS OUTDATED. It no longer works due to shotgun removal.

I've got two different variants of the Chaos Crit Freezepulser:
Lvl 1 Freezing Pulse - This variant is effectively immune to reflect as almost all of the damage comes in the form of chaos from the wands and the Added Chaos gem multiplied through crit. Arctic Armour and Mind over Matter turn the mana pool into a huge defensive buffer as the active attack spell is very, very cheap. Grace and Iron Reflexes round out the defensive plan.
Lvl 20 Freezing Pulse - This variant gives up MoM, a cheap cost, and its reflect immunity for about double the damage. A high level Arctic Armour, Grace/IR, and a powerful freezing attack are the defense.

Lvl 1 variant
Pros and Cons
Pros:
-Damage: I'm doing 112,500 shotgun dps. Clear speed is pretty fantastic even in high maps.
-Mana Cost: My main spell has a base cost of 4. Even in a 6L with +80% cost from items, it is no problem. This leaves me free to devote my mana pool and regen to defense.
-Gear versatility: Other than the two Apep's and some unique gloves, the gear is pretty open. I can see how either an ES chest or a hybrid chest could get there. The level of AA can be tailored to the gear's capacity. I ran one in the high teens and did great.
-Skill Versatility: I use Freezing Pulse, but small changes to this build make completely different skills work. You can use Ice Spear instead. Switch Sniper to Blast Radius in the tree and do Flame Surge, Storm Call or Glacial Cascade. I think FP is the tip of the iceberg for lvl 1 chaos crit spells. I've played around a bit, but I like Freezing Pulse best.
Easy to level: The tree works fine as a regular FP crit Witch until you swap over to chaos and a mana-based defense instead of offense.
No tree swap at high levels: You change your gear rather than the tree in your 60s to swap over. No regrets or respec points required.
-Map versatility: Blood Magic, 50% Regen, and No Regen are the only ones I'd suggest avoiding and I think that 50% Regen is doable sans AA. Both reflects are fine, but I like to turn off Herald of Thunder during Elemental reflect maps.

Cons:
-Upper limit on base damage: The base chaos damage of your spells is limited to the best Apep's wands you can buy and a lvl 21 corrupted Added Chaos gem. You can scale it to your heart's content, but it puts a pretty hard limit on this variant's base damage before that. Any more damage you add (and I do a bit with Herald of Thunder) must be elemental, which opens you up to relevant reflect numbers. Ths build deals well with the low base damage ceiling (112K shotgun dps!), but you need to be aware of it.
-Positioning: FP makes you want to stand close. Lightning Warp helps a ton, but at the end of the day, you're doing your best damage at close range.
-High link dependent: This build really wants a 6L and due to the mana-based defense, using Tabula Rasa doesn't really work. You can do this in a 5L, but won't be able to leech as effectively using only curses and Atziri's Promise without losing a huge pile of damage. Removing a dps gem cuts about 1/3 of the damage I deal.
-Weak to Elemental Spikes: Repeated hits from elemental sources (that get around Immortal Call) are the most dangerous thing. Especially when opening a box or fighting dischargers or caster Exiles, you have to be careful not to get overtaxed by elemental damage.
-Weak to Corrupting Blood: You can easily pick up 20 stacks of off-screen Corrupting Blood from GMP Freezing Pulse. MoM/AA does not do a thing to fight degen. Your reaction time to it if you stop leeching needs to be very quick. (The 1.3 flask changes help a ton here. A Surgeon's Divine Flask of Staunching does a lot of work now that it grants immunity during the effect. Having a non-instant flask largely solves this problem if your reaction time is okay.)

Summary - Great offensive and defensive capabilities and low costs, but there are specific weaknesses to look out for.

Tree
I needed to build a tree that would focus on generic spell damage, chaos damage, projectile damage, and crit while still getting as much life as I could. I also needed a way to defend myself while dual-wielding wands. I took a page out of the staff caster book and grabbed Mind over Matter (in the tree), Arctic Armor and Eldritch Battery. I don't need to worry about spending too much of my mana on casting spells, so I have a bit more leeway here than most do. As long as I was going right past it, I picked up Iron Reflexes for use with Grace to give myself some armor that did not rely on my gear. Going to this part of the tree gave me access to some great life nodes as well as Profane Chemistry, a node that I have huge respect for. I rounded out my tree with as much mana and mana regen that I could get my hands on efficiently.

Tree:
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMABUIHHg5ID8QRlha_JpUppSycO3xBlkSrSVFMs04qUDBVS1WuVcZd8l8qYeJjQ2-ecFJw1XcHf8aCEIIegwmD24cTidOPpo_6lS6cpKKjrrO4ysHz0PXbC9te37Dr9fDV8h3DCbmTAx4fQQQH6-QRD0wtiig740T7ZAnqYs2YjX62QXXLvTZlTb6n1fjfirVIBiMqC_PqykpRTKxHfVsqTaQ50IFH4iLiFSAs6W5pwzqbtVM1D6uTH-ZYieBJE90NW6-VIC0faxdqQ8BUvOoI9IUydPEY20p945-Hdmeg_MXA40tX8bM=

Builder:
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMABUIHHg5ID8QRlha_JpUppSycO3xBlkSrSVFMs04qUDBVS1WuVcZd8l8qYeJjQ2-ecFJw1XcHf8aCEIIegwmD24cTidOPpo_6lS6cpKKjrrO4ysHz0PXbC9te37Dr9fDV8h3DCbmTAx4fQQQH6-QRD0wtiig740T7ZAnqYs2YjX62QXXLvTZlTb6n1fjfirVIBiMqC_PqykpRTKxHfVsqTaQ50IFH4iLiFSAs6W5pwzqbtVM1D6uTH-ZYieBJE90NW6-VIC0faxdqQ8BUvOoI9IUydPEY20p945-Hdmeg_MXA40tX8bM=

Bandits: [Oak/Kill] - Kill - Alira
You can get 4% cast speed in the tree very easily, so no on Cruel Alira. I wouldn't respec it, but I think it's a little better without.

Notes:
Life - This tree has 143% life. Two points can be added near Bravery and Cruel Preparation to make it 153%, but anything more requires a sizable change. If you want more, I recommend adding the previously mentioned points, removing Heart and Soul, Hired Killer, and Thick Skin for the wheel of life, and then add more from those that were removed. Heart and Soul is great for this build, but super inefficient, as connecting up over the top near EB is so much better. Keep in mind that this variant uses MoM, which sends 30% of the damage to mana.
Cast Speed - I imagine that you've noticed that there are tons of great cast speed nodes RIGHT THERE. There are, and you should take them if you can afford to cut defensive nodes or if your gear makes them better than the Method to the Madness nodes, for example. I discovered that they were worse for me and the gear I wanted to use, but that will not always be the case. Remember that more speed = worse regen while attacking. We want the regen to be awesome even while attacking to account for MoM. Try it as is and add speed to taste. Dark Arts is a bit suspect now that the pathing is not running through there, so it may be better to take Nimbleness and the Shadow cast speed nodes through Trickery instead.
Crit - Don't cut any crit. Seriously. The crit ties it all together and is the main damage factor. It's much better to skimp elsewhere.
Damage - Avoid the temptation to take any damage nodes that do not help the chaos portion of the damage, as it is basically all of it. Elemental Dominion and to some extent Trickery get a pass due to the other bonuses and the fact they are pathing nodes for us. (Trickery is not in this version, but you should take it if you can. It was the last cut.) The last node in Fury bolts and the Scion starting Spell damage nodes are reasonable too if you need more increased damage. Pathing to Ballistic Mastery gives another 20% projectile speed and opens some more projectile damage, but I have no earthly idea what to cut for it and I think cast speed would be better anyway.
Mana Regen - This tree has an absolutely insane amount. You can get even more, but I'd suggest just using Goldwyrm and/or jewelry. Most of this regen will go toward keeping you alive, so don't skimp.
Mana/ES - If you ditch Method to the madness, consider repathing near Conduit instead of down from Coordination to get Foresight for 2 points. If you choose not to take Heart and Soul, or just need more raw mana, take Soul Siphon.
Mind over Matter - You could go without this keystone for this variant and hugely cut down on mana and mana regen, but the defensive benefits seem worth it. Alternatively, you could cut MoM, keep the regen, and take all the cast speed in the tree that you can get your hands on. This would skyrocket your damage, but I don't think that you'd be able to survive very well at high level maps.
Eldritch Battery - Someday I'll make a non-EB, non-AA version of this build that uses a regular-sized mana pool and a dual Apep's lvl 1 6L with other defensive benefits like Acrobatics/Evasion/Ondar's. Today is not that day. You need EB.
Shock Duration - If you are having trouble shocking enemies, take the 30% shock duration node near EB. Getting your enemies over the .3 second threshold is imperative to getting Herald of Thunder going and getting that 50% more bonus. Also, shocks beget more shocks as your next hit will deal more damage. There is another 30% shock duration node in the Breath of Lightning wheel for two points if you want even more. if your shocks are stuttering, this is maybe the most effective damage investment of 1-3 points you can make in the tree.

Summary - Spell Damage, Projectile damage, Crit, MoM, EB, IR, and Mana Regen from the tree

Offensive Skills
These offense numbers are with 6 power charges and Level 20 Herald of Thunder active. I also use Assassin's Mark, so the effective crit chance is more like 70% against most enemies. Most enemies are also not very resistant to Chaos, so penetration is only missed rarely.

Summary - 22,500 dps GMP Freezing Pulse (112,500 shotgun dps). Damage is almost entirely Chaos.


Lvl 20 variant (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
Pros and Cons
Pros:
-Damage: I'm doing over 200,000 shotgun dps with Atziri's Promise and power charges up. Clear speed is stellar.
-Freeze and Shock: The extreme damage while critcasting will leave your enemies frozen and shocked, if not stunned or dead.
Easy to level: Leveling as a FP crit Witch is very easy.
No tree swap at high levels: You change your gear rather than the tree in your 60s to swap over. No regrets or respec points required.
-Map versatility: Blood Magic, 50% Regen, and No Regen are the only ones I'd suggest avoiding and I think that 50% Regen is doable sans AA. Elemental reflect is reasonable with Vaal Pact if you use the Life Leech gem and Berek's Grip; in testing, I've run dangerous Elereflect maps without much trouble, and I don't run elemental flasks.
High Level Arctic Armor: You can run lvl 23+ AA with this build. Ironically, the AA cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the regen/leech you need for the spell, so you can crank it up to extreme levels.
Atziri's Promise: This flask is tailor made for this build. Adding 15% extra elemental damage as chaos and 10% chaos leech makes you leech about 4,000 EXTRA life per second instantly in addition to whatever you were getting before.

Cons:
-Insane Mana costs: This build takes an expensive 6L spell and make it cost 80% more. It runs the highest level Arctic Armour on top of it.
-Positioning: FP makes you want to stand close. Lightning Warp helps a ton, but at the end of the day, you're doing your best damage at close range.
-Link hungry: This build really wants a 6L and due to the crazy mana costs, using Tabula Rasa is basically impossible. You can do this in a 5L, but you lose the Added Chaos gem, which adds huge amounts of damage (and leech through the flask). Running this version without the Life Leech gem I have discovered is inadvisable.
-Gear cost: This build handles a 5L better than the lvl 1 variant, but the rest of the gear can be very expensive. It's possible to run this build without Berek's Grip, but you have to work a lot harder for it; these are not readily available in the temp leagues and are expensive even in Standard. The build wants mana regen and crit on jewelry, resists crammed onto a very few items, and a high ES armor 5L. None of this is cheap.
-Wary of Elemental Spikes: Repeated hits from elemental sources (that get around Immortal Call) are the most dangerous thing. Especially when opening a box or fighting dischargers or caster Exiles, you have to be careful not to get overtaxed by elemental damage. Both the lvl 1 and lvl 20 variants have considerably more life than my original build did, so I am far less concerned about this issue than I used to be.
-Weak to Corrupting Blood: You can easily pick up 20 stacks of off-screen Corrupting Blood from GMP Freezing Pulse. MoM and AA do not do a thing to fight degen. Your reaction time to it if you stop leeching needs to be very quick. Note: The 1.3 flask changes help a ton here. A Surgeon's Divine Flask of Staunching does a lot of work now that it grants immunity during the effect. Having a non-instant flask largely solves this problem if your reaction time is okay.

Summary - The insane power comes with the insane cost. Less defense than the lvl 1 variant, but way more offense.

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAAdwDHgQHBUIGIwceDXwOSA_EEQ8RlhSwFr8c3B9BJpUo-imlKgsqOCycNZI6WDrhO3w740GHQZZEq0T7RZ1GcUd-SVFMLUyzTeNOKlAwU1JVS1WuVcZXyV3yXyph4mQJZU1vnnBScNV1y3cHeA1_xoIQgh6Cx4MJg9uE2YcTidOKKIw2jX6Ppo_6kyeVLprgnKSio6ZXqW6us7QMtUi18rZBtz63trjKuZO9Nr6KvqfB88MJxLjNmND11fjYvdsL217fit-w6mLquuvk6-7r9fDV8h3yRfPq-ej-Cv6PY0NewKBCiFo=


Gear and Gems
My Gear with Comments

The key to the build. Getting good chaos rolls is pretty important, as this constitutes the bulk of your base damage. Make sure to bless for the full 20% spell damage. The lack of a shield hurts your defense and puts some pressure on the rest of your gear to get resists elsewhere, as well as making you miss a good life mod.

Maligaro's is very strong for this build and should probably just be the choice. However, if you've ever been given an opportunity to use Voidbringer productively, the lvl 1 variant for this build is it. I think the drawback is just not worth it, but my original version of this character ran it just fine.

Originally, I used a life/resist/speed rare in this slot, but I think that Goldwyrm is just better for this build. 60% regen is just unreal. Movement with this build is very good even with only 10% here due to the random move speed in the tree, the removal of armor penalties with Art of the Gladiator, and a very fast Lightning Warp.

The armor is something that I have as a holdover from another era. I've not finished crafting it and that cold resist will someday be something better. Ideally, I'd be using hybrid armor/evasion chest and helm with some better numbers and top tier life, but this has been fine for now. These are the floater pieces that you devote to getting life, resists, ES/mana, and armor (if you can). I would suggest you house as much of your resists in these slots as you can so you can spend your jewelry suffixes on dps. My pieces have some pretty good numbers on them, but this works without a 700+ ES Vaal Regalia. I also think that a Geofri's Crest would not be out of line; my helm has pretty low ES for endgame, but the +1 level to gems for the auras might be worth the hit. Alpha's Howl is another option that gives you a stack of armor and aura levels for Grace and Clarity and some of your reserved mana back instead of giving you more flat mana. This will put a larger resist burden on other pieces of gear, though, which is why I have not chosen to use it.

Good crit jewelry is really helpful. I discovered I had the legacy amulet after spending a week trying to buy one. Derp. Putting it on jumped my dps by about 3K per GMP projectile as compared to a solid spell damage/crit chance amulet. It is totally worth it to have a legacy item like this if you are playing in Standard even with poor mods otherwise. Get what you can afford, but get one. If you are not playing in Standard, crit damage is still the most important roll followed by spell damage. I would also recommend as much mana regen as possible; this may be difficult to fit or expensive, but it is worth it when you can get it. I'd be much happier with a second high mana regen piece.

Berek's Grip is most useful to the lvl 20 build. It massively increases your mana capacity through leeching from shocked enemies. I do not regen enough to keep up with the insane costs of a dual Apep's 6L without it with the current tree. It can be done, but it is much cleaner to use this item to add a sizable leech. My intent is to try to eventually cut the life leech gem in the 6L using this to bridge part of the gap, but I'm not there yet.

The flasks I use are to combat my nemesis, Corrupting Blood. I cannot stress enough how easy it is to demolish yourself with bleed stacks. The Surgeon's Quicksilver Flask of Staunching is your friend; 6 seconds of immunity is just great. Atziri's Promise is ridiculous for the lvl 20 variant. With Vaal Pact giving uncapped leech and the large amount of both converted elemental damage and chaos damage you start with, you are basically invincible while attacking. The damage bump is solid too. You might even consider having more than one, but I've found it unnecessary. It's okay for the lvl 1 variant, but not essential; you only benefit from the leech and the resist. I am pretty bad with flask management, so I don't run elemental flasks, but Surgeon's elemental flasks of Stanching or Warding would also be pretty useful for those more adept.

Summary - Dual Apep's, Maligaro's, Goldwyrm, Crit jewelry, Berek's Grip, and ES gear with life and resists.

Gems Breakdown
6L
Freezing Pulse (lvl 1 OR 20)-Added Chaos-GMP-Life Leech-Crit Damage-Spell Echo

Using a lvl 1 Freezing Pulse makes the base mana cost 4. Even with 6+ casts per second, you are never going to have mana problems. The lvl 20 varaint is extremely expensive, especially with the Apep's penalties. Either way, the links are the same.
A 20 quality FP is very important. I only get 20% projectile speed in the tree, so quality is key for the 60% you get there. Added Chaos quality is also better than it is for other builds. A corrupted lvl 21 Added Chaos is an additional 23.5 average base chaos damage over a lvl 20. This is huge for the lvl 1 variant when you are only looking at about 380some with good Apep's and a lvl 20 gem. I have not been able to acquire one yet.
I would very much like to get PCoC into the link instead of life leech for the lvl 1 variant. In a 5L, I'd say that Life Leech is probably the most dispensable, but if your crit chance is not solid yet in mid levels, perhaps Crit Damage would be better to go without. CantripN's idea to bridge the gap with Atziri's Promise and Warlord's Mark might work better than removing a dps gem, as the damage drops a ton. I've had good success with using Warlord's Mark as my only leech on other builds, but those were melee builds that used Leap Slam and Herald of Thunder to apply the curse automatically. Being a bit at range goofs up Herald and I think that manual cursing would be the better choice if your survivability depends on it. However, at that point, maybe it is just best to stick with leech in the link to save curse time and get your charges from an automated Assassin's Mark. I think party makeup and average number of players in your party should factor into your decision, as solo play or an all-crit party will make getting charges from the curse easier. In a larger party with the lvl 20 variant, you can safely replace Added Chaos with PCoC to ensure you maintain charges. you lose a huge chunk of non-reflectable damage, but your charges are even more important.
While leveling, a leveled FP is better to use until your crit comes online and you can equip Apep's.
4L
Vaal Storm Call-Increased Duration-Spell Echo-[Added Chaos/Empower]

Initially, I ran a single-target Ice Spear here with PCoC-Added Chaos-Spell Echo. However, Vaal Storm Call is a more effective weapon to use on both single targets and groups. You can get a +2 Vaal Skills mod on a corrupted helm, boots, or gloves (especially good in a Geofri's Crest or Vertex); coloring Maligaro's or Goldwyrm once corrupted would be too much of a pain, I think, but Voidbringer or pretty much any helm you want for this build will work well.
4L
Herald of Thunder-Reduced Mana-Curse on Hit-Assassin's Mark

You spend most of your time shooting enemies at close range. The curse gets applied to most of your enemies. I have had no trouble shocking enemies with Herald of Thunder's added damage on either build variant. I could see going to a manual curse without this setup to get more unreserved mana for MoM, but once you go auto-curse, you just don't want to go back.
4L/3L
Reduced Mana-Clarity-[Grace/Discipline]-[Herald of Ice in non-MoM build only]

The auras for this build are straightforward. Clarity is vital to the AA/MoM plan. Grace and IR give a solid amount of armor. The lvl 20 variant might be better off ditching Grace/IR entirely for Discipline, but I have not tried it yet. Herald of Ice is not necessary for the build, but adds some solid damage and reduces stragglers. If you use Geofri's Crest or Vertex, putting the auras in it is pretty solid.
4L/3L
Lightning Warp-Reduced Duration-Arctic Armour

Technically, 2 and 1 is better, as the Reduced Duration lowers the ground ice time on AA. You don't need Faster Cast for Lightning Warp, as the cast speed for the build is really high. If you have foregone Herald of Thunder and have great mana regen, adding Empower in a 4L (especially in a Geofri's Crest) for 21+ AA may be warranted here. In that case, I'd swap things around to make this Arctic Armour-Assassin's Mark-Empower-Enhance and put Lightning warp on the remaining 3L. If you use Geofri's Crest or Vertex, putting this in it is even better than the auras.
3L
CwDT (lvl 1)-Enduring Cry (lvl 5)-Immortal Call (lvl 3)

Standard array of CwDT abilities. This is pretty important for this build.

Summary - Main: lvl 1 OR 20 Freezing Pulse-Added Chaos-GMP-Spell Echo-Crit Damage-Life Leech


I will likely not be making any videos, as my potato is showing its age. However, I'd be happy to answer questions or give advice regarding this build and things I've tried.

If you try out chaos crit shenanigans with non-Incinerate spells, I'd love to hear about your exploits. Leave a comment and link your build and gear. Tell us about it.
Doomed for Life
Last edited by SirDragos on Jan 25, 2016, 5:25:08 PM
Anyone else dabble with Apep's and lvl 1 gems? It's solid.

Gems updated.

I'm evaluating whether I'll be able to get more regen and use Geofri's Crest and Empower to amp up Arctic Armor to higher levels. Jewelry is getting very expensive.

Also, I really need to get a high level Vaal Grace and try it out in place of Vaal Haste.
Doomed for Life
I really want to see offensive stats, seems a nice idea btw
Never thought a build could be carried by Apep's chaos damage alone.

BTW linked it under Misc-Generic Builds as i think the main focus is Apep's not FP.
"
Bada_Bing wrote:
Never thought a build could be carried by Apep's chaos damage alone.

BTW linked it under Misc-Generic Builds as i think the main focus is Apep's not FP.


We're fast approaching the point Chaos Damage deserves it's own category :).

So far, we have Incinerate, FP, Firestorm, and all Lightning Spells.

@OP, you should consider removing Life Leech gem. On a build that's immune to Reflect, you can afford to get another DPS gem easily, and rely on Warlord's Mark / Atziri's Promise for Leech. Faster Casting, perhaps? Although, if you feel your DPS is more than enough anyway, no real loss, I guess.
[3.22] 💀The Grim Reaper💀 - Hexblast Poison Mines Assassin
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3347191

[3.22] ❄️⚡CantripN's Hadoken! - Lightning Conduit / Crackling Lance / Arc Permafreeze⚡❄️
www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229590
Last edited by CantripN on Nov 20, 2014, 11:24:26 AM
Nice. Nicesssss.
"
CantripN wrote:
"
Bada_Bing wrote:
Never thought a build could be carried by Apep's chaos damage alone.

BTW linked it under Misc-Generic Builds as i think the main focus is Apep's not FP.


We're fast approaching the point Chaos Damage deserves it's own category :).

So far, we have Incinerate, FP, Firestorm, and all Lightning Spells.

@OP, you should consider removing Life Leech gem. On a build that's immune to Reflect, you can afford to get another DPS gem easily, and rely on Warlord's Mark / Atziri's Promise for Leech. Faster Casting, perhaps? Although, if you feel your DPS is more than enough anyway, no real loss, I guess.


Agreed, Chaos builds have been proliferating lately. It is possible that categorizing them differently might be reasonable, but something like Chaos Incinerate is not really that different from a more traditional Incinerate, so I can see a good reason to group them together too.

As for the life leech situation, I'd already set aside Atziri's Promise as it did not leech a ton better than just the gem, but it had not occurred to me to ditch the gem altogether and use AP as a replacement. I'll play around with it, but my suspicion is that it will weaken the build overall. I have not been having trouble killing most enemies; a 110K+ shotgun dps makes short work of those I can stand close to. The build is just a little squishier than I'd like, but I assume that expanding my regen gear and adding AA levels will help. So maybe once I gear up farther, this will be a better option.
Doomed for Life
Its the unique i designed btw!


I have to say i am very please to see the high amount of theorycrafting that went into this build congrats!
IGN : FatJanitor
"
LazyJanitor wrote:
Its the unique i designed btw!


I have to say i am very please to see the high amount of theorycrafting that went into this build congrats!


Absolutely fantastic item. It's considerably more complicated than it looks. It grabbed me right away and it's been very fun. I love to do high level theorycrafting with the menagerie of Standard characters after each reset and this was the one I most wanted to play around with.

I've been a bit surprised that it mostly jumped with both feet into a niche Incinerate role. I think there are tons of things to do with it that have not yet been unearthed.
Doomed for Life
nice guide and build.how much life r u at now?can u tell ur dps at 5l and without cast speed rings on ur jewels so that i can see raw dmg power of this build
Last edited by gokulnath on Nov 22, 2014, 3:14:00 PM

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