2.0 Staying Alive - Caster

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask you guys what you think some good skill gem combos will be for staying alive as a caster (In my case an Ice Nova Witch) now that Cast When Damage Taken, Enduring Cry, Immortal Call wont work together like before. I know you could still self cast but fack that so many extra clicks.

Im not quite experienced enough with this game yet and all the builds you find from before include that combination hah.


CwDT - molten shell - decoy totem?

In my case, it looks like my Incinerate ZO-CI caster tank is going to be using Vitality, Discipline, and Arctic Armour, with maxlevel CwDT Molten Shell, Tempest Shield, and Frost Wall as primary defenses, probably while employing a Chaos Golem when fighting tough stuff.

But I'm not sure how helpful that sort of tank build protection is for your Ice Nova witch.

EB + MoM + ZO might be a good option. You can basically reserve your entire mana pool and still be able to make the full profit from MoM. Only downside is that running AA in this particular setup seems to be nearly impossible. You'd need shitloads of mana regen nodes I guess.

Arctic armor is no longer mana drain, it's now a 25% reserve buff.

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Mannoth wrote:

Arctic armor is no longer mana drain, it's now a 25% reserve buff.

That certainly helps alot. What's the change to tempest shield?

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kahzin wrote:

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Mannoth wrote:

Arctic armor is no longer mana drain, it's now a 25% reserve buff.

That certainly helps alot. What's the change to tempest shield?

Tempest Shield is now a duration buff rather than a mana reserved buff. The buff refreshes itself when you block.

This obviously makes it ideal in a CwDT setup; something hits you hard enough to trigger it and it will stay up until things stop hitting you and getting blocked on a regular basis.

The energy backlash of Tempest Shield also chains now.


Note that Arctic Armour is that it has been completely redesigned:
* It is now mana reserved (as said earlier)
* It provides a percentage-wise LESS modifier to physical and fire damage taken when standing still, that is around 12-13% at level 20. If you are moving, the damage reduction doesn't help you.
* It provides a chilling trail like moving (same as always).
* Its quality bonus now increases the duration of the chilling trail rather than providing movement speed.

It is an awesome buff, but it is awesome for different reasons than the old AA.

Totems and cwdt do not work together also.

As a nova character u can use leap slam or whirling blades linked to fortify and faster atks instead of warp. Since u will be getting in the pack, can profit from melee defense.

Self cast endu cry + high lvl cwdt and ic is also a good idea. I was using it even when it was all working with cwdt.

Hm maybe I can use lightning warp - assassins mark - warlords mark - curse on hit and forget about enduring cry and have CwDT and Immortal Call?

As an ice Nova witch who wont be getting hit TOO much I think i'd have enough time to build up endurance charges?

The new AA sucks. Tempest shield would be good if you had 50% block, which casters won't get, or if you were reliably in melee range every 12 seconds, which casters aren't.

Self-casting decoy totem every 5-8 seconds will keep you alive, but is super annoying.

MoM is in the caster side of the tree now, so it's good. I wouldn't bother with EB and ZO, you'd basically be moving 100% of your ES to where it's only 30% effective to allow for 1 more herald, which isn't worth it.

Ultimately, the best caster defense this patch will be freezing everything before it can hit you.

Don't underestimate how hard it is to sustain MoM, even more since casters won't stack up absurd amounts of mana regen to run AA. You want at least a pool of 500 mana unreserved that quickly fills up again after taking a hard hit.