Is it worth getting Inner Force for my EB-CoD-AA Glacial Cascade build?

My planned passive tree at lvl 90~


My gear:


Right now I'm wondering:
1) if Inner Force is worth getting since it will be a 21% boost to both Heralds, AA and my auras (using clarity and discipline, swapping into purity of lightning when needed vs dominus/piety).
2) if it is, what should I sacrifice for it?

Note that I picked up harrier because I needed another 25 dex (that line gets me 30 dex).

One thing I could consider is getting a replacement boots with +25 dex, or perhaps replacing the romiras with a hp/dex/res ring, although that lowers my crit rate. (47.64% with Romiras, 34% without)

Thoughts?

You get tons of Int from your tree. Why not remove the Int on your amulet, and add Dex instead? Then you could remove Harrier + small dex nodes and invest into Inner Force.

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SponTen wrote:

You get tons of Int from your tree. Why not remove the Int on your amulet, and add Dex instead? Then you could remove Harrier + small dex nodes and invest into Inner Force.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention.

I plan to get a pair of boots with +movespeed, and the ones I can afford are only double-res (which are around 1ex, triple res boots with movespeed are at minimum 10ex) so I need to remove the int from my amulet for +lightning res instead.

Looks like you're pretty tied-down. Inner Force is 8 points away anyway - so something else would have to give too.

Maybe try redesigning your whole tree, if it's not already too late :P. Or wait til skill reset in next patch.

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SponTen wrote:

Looks like you're pretty tied-down. Inner Force is 8 points away anyway - so something else would have to give too.

Maybe try redesigning your whole tree, if it's not already too late :P. Or wait til skill reset in next patch.

Well its not that bad since I'm rerolling my character.

Managed to do a revised version.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA34rpAv6zVyu9gm0Zl_QI9FJTwFSXlT1fakNMs66zUDBBltteBULQ9REPLJxMLayYES0XVBSwOlh8g448gh5Vxs36VkqIQtsLuJOeocHF6-4y0SKB7Bgo-prgRUeP-nC7gsdFncBm8NX56Ax9U1IEs5_fSVGVLhB_ogA8Be98Bx7Gnpo7EZbtPIKbDkjVpuw4XfInL3DVkFWJ0xo4cFLAGioLZp5xhfPq-tJXKbVIFy8Wb0bXbWxk5-NqD6tV1lM1Fr-ApJu1JpUZimHi-wlVS_bajDYajySqNuk=

Any thoughts on improving the tree?

I'm not sold on the aura passives + Alpha's. All you use your aura nodes for is mana regen, but you have so much mana regen near your tree you didn't take.

So I would drop all aura nodes (not Inner Force) and pick up mana regen.
I would replace Alpha's with The Vertex (if you can afford it). Use a freeze immune flask instead. Move your AA+Empower into the helmet and auras into the shield.
Replace your +2 cold shield with more ES version.
These item changes will give you more base ES than Discipline - without reserving your mana.

Tree.
I expect with these changes you will have more open mana, similar mana regen, more life, more life regen, more chaos res, more cold damage, and more crit, with same evasion and dex. You lose the freeze immunity. The question is, how much do you value that freeze immunity.

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Zed_ wrote:

I'm not sold on the aura passives + Alpha's. All you use your aura nodes for is mana regen, but you have so much mana regen near your tree you didn't take.

So I would drop all aura nodes (not Inner Force) and pick up mana regen.
I would replace Alpha's with The Vertex (if you can afford it). Use a freeze immune flask instead. Move your AA+Empower into the helmet and auras into the shield.
Replace your +2 cold shield with more ES version.
These item changes will give you more base ES than Discipline - without reserving your mana.

Tree.
I expect with these changes you will have more open mana, similar mana regen, more life, more life regen, more chaos res, more cold damage, and more crit, with same evasion and dex. You lose the freeze immunity. The question is, how much do you value that freeze immunity.

Not sure if you saw my latest version directly above yours, but I already dropped the pure aura-effect nodes (influence on the top right).

I want to be able to swap in purities when I need them (purity of lightning for dominus/piety for example). Losing all the reduced mana reserved nodes+alphas means each purity would cost me 28% reserved mana (w/ lvl 20 reduced mana), which will be way too much even with 4k~ total mana.

Also, if I were to move the Empower/AA combo onto the vertex, I would miss out on having +1 on both heralds (or herald + clarity) which seems like a waste. I think keeping the shield is a good idea.

Still, interesting suggestion, I actually think that the vertex would be better alpha's for the build if I keep the mana reserved passives. I'll try to get one, although it now brings me the new headache of making up for the cold resists (then again, I could just get that on the ring).

Good suggestions though Zed_, thanks.

Heralds are not auras. They are only buffs. So the only thing you'd lose is levels on Clarity. Which is, once again, just mana regen that's made up by the extra ES. In fact if you keep the current shield you'd gain 2 levels of Herald of Ice.

I agree swapping to the Alpha's is good to have as an option. Especially if you have a level 21 Purity of Lightning. But you could still swap vs Herald of Thunder. You'd be a bit weaker when you swap but much stronger in general. Up to you.

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Zed_ wrote:

Heralds are not auras. They are only buffs. So the only thing you'd lose is levels on Clarity. Which is, once again, just mana regen that's made up by the extra ES. In fact if you keep the current shield you'd gain 2 levels of Herald of Ice.

I agree swapping to the Alpha's is good to have as an option. Especially if you have a level 21 Purity of Lightning. But you could still swap vs Herald of Thunder. You'd be a bit weaker when you swap but much stronger in general. Up to you.

I was talking about vertex, which affects all gems, not just aura gems (alpha's is aura-only).

Your suggestion to put Reduced Mana - Empower - Herald of Ice - AA in vertex means
1) HoT/Clarity loses out on the +1
2) HoI reserves additional mana (22% vs 18% on if I have 0 reduced mana passives)

I do see your point on Clarity though.

And nah, I'm not saying that I will keep Alpha's for swapping, I mean being able to swap in things like Purity of Fire/Purity of Ice/Purity of Lightning when I am facing an enemy that more or less requires it (map piety/dominus). Without any reduced mana passive, each purity would reserve 28% mana (20% with 30% reduced reservation passives), which is way too hefty on top of the Heralds. With the passives I can still put on a purity and have a decent amount of mana even with both heralds on.

This is why I will swap to a Vertex but still keep the passives.

I agree that Vertex is probably better than Alphas since it more or less has a built-in amount of ES close to that of Discipline, which makes it better overall.