[2.1] Sire of Shards non-crit Freeze Pulse nova
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Welcome exiles,
this is my first build guide, don't hestitate to post your questions, tips and any other remarks in the posts below. Concept: This build makes use of a unique staff – Sire Of Shards – to create a nova that covers nearly the whole screen. This is a non-crit, evasion-based character relying on chance to freeze. This is one of the builds where things are not exactly as they seem on paper. For the required investment, the tooltip DPS is mediocre at best. And how can this character survive with only 4,7k life at level 89?! Do not be alarmed. All those issues disappear when you take a closer look. Freezing Pulse and its mechanichs It's worth noting that the gaps between FP's projectiles get larger as they travel further. This, and the fact that FP deals more damage to enemies which are closer to you, means that engaging enemies from close range is much more effective. This leaves the character in harm's way. Do not worry though - your enemies A quick word about Freezing Pulse before I continue: This skill fires a projectile. As the projectile travels further, it loses its chance to freeze and deals less damage. It has 25% chance to freeze at the start, and drops to 0% at the quarter of projectile's lifetime. This is why projectile speed modifier is so important - it not only increases the range of the skill, but also the damage and chance to freeze. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a video of how this build works at this time.
Skill Tree and bandit rewards
Defensive stats:
Offensive stats:
 Gear:
The whole set
A bit more in-depth into gear:
Weapon:
Sire of Shards is the weapon of choice for this build. Its unique property combined with the use of Greater Multiple Projectiles gem allows Freeze Pulse to create a nova that covers nearly the whole screen. Sire of Shards is, possibly, the most expensive component of our gear. A 5-l costs 12 exalts in Standard (but considerably less in Warbands). And... that's not all. You'll need to get 3 green sockets in your 5-l. I used the "at least 2 green sockets" option in Vorici's bench and got it in ~10 attempts, but I imagine it might take considerably longer, should you get unlucky.
Body Armour:
I really wish I didn't have have to use The Belly. It provides a huge boost to this character's life pool (around 400 more life than a +90 Life armour). However, the armour it gives is redundant, and the evasion rating is really low.
Gloves:
Look for: Evasion, life, resistances.
Boots:
Look for: Evasion, life, resistances, movement speed
Helmet:
I chose Alpha's Howl for this build. It currently costs ~2 exalts in Tempest and Warbands, and a couple of chaos in Standard. It provides 8% reduced mana reserved necessary for running Clarity, Herald of Ice and Grace. I has high evasion rating, decent cold res and, most importantly, immunity to freezes. I mean, this character is supposed to freeze stuff, not get frozen. :). The biggest downside of Alpha's is that it does not provide any additional life.
Jewellery:
Mods to look for on jewellery: Life, resistances, mana regeneration, cast speed, spell damage, cold damage, evasion, mana. Note that you don't need all those mods on your accessories, most importantly – cap your resistances, get as much life as possible and enough mana regen for you not to run out of mana. Rallying cry helps a lot with sustaining mana, but I'll get to that later.
Belt:
Look for a Leather Belt with a high life affix and resistances. Movement speed from Tora's bench and flask mods are also useful. My belt has energy shield crafted, because I use it on my hybrid character as well. I don't recommend using Doryani's Invitation, since this character does not have a big life pool as is.
Flasks:
I find 2 life flasks to be enough. One removes bleeding, the second - shock. Burning isn't that dangerous, the character is immune to freezes, and I very rarely find curses to be lethal. Quicksilver for movements speed. Jade for additional survivability. Ideally, it would have the "Ample" prefix, which would give it extra maximum charges. If you can afford it, use Taste of Hate. If you can't, a regular Sapphire Flask will do just fine. I use it mainly for killing ele reflect monsters.
Jewels:
Look for: Increased maximum life, projectile damage, cold damage, damage with staves, cast speed, projectile speed, mana regen, resistances, evasion Skills in use: Main Skill: Freezing Pulse+Greater Multiple Projectiles+Faster Projectiles+Cold Penetration+Spell echo Auras: Vall Grace/Vaal haste+Increased Duration; (remember to use Rallying Cry before swtiching Vaal Haste on, otherwise you'll quickly run out of mana.) Grace/Clarity/Herald of Ice + Enlighten Rallying Cry: A useful skill that helps alleviate mana problems and provides some additional damage. I still have a lot of mana regen on my gear and tree, because I don't want to rely solely on RC. 20 Quality RC linked with 20/20 Increased Duration and lvl 3 Enhance can last for as long as 19 seconds! Curse: Frostbite + Increased Duration Golem: Chaos Golem + Empower + Culling Strike + Faster Attacks Note: A lvl 22 Chaos Golem grants 5% physical damage reduction. This can be achieved by linking a lvl 20 Chaos Golem with lvl 3+ Empower. Alternatively, use a Flame Golem for increased damage. Movement skill: Flame Dash Some unique items that might help. None of these are necessary. Atziri's Foible Dream Fragments Berek's Grip Shavronne's Revelation Atziri's Step Taste of Hate Map mods this character heavily struggles against: Reduced/no life and mana regeneration Elemental Reflect 60/80% extra monster cold resistance I don't recommend running maps with increased monster critical strike chance. Spike damage is very dangerous for evasion based characters. I'm not sure about Hardcore-viability of this build. Its life pool is mediocre, at best, but it slows everything down, which helps it survive. Most likely some tweaking could be made to increase this character's survivability. If you have any suggestions regarding this, please let me know. I'm sorry I cannot provide any videos at this time. My computer barely handles the game itself :) It's not a super-uber-mega fast-clearing build. I'm just having a lot of fun playing it, that's why I decided to post this guide. Hope you have fun as well! I'm not a native English speaker. Should you spot a mistake in my post, feel free to point it out. Thanks! Standard IGN: Aerandair Divination Card results: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1591823 Last edited by Anseth on Jan 19, 2016, 6:32:47 PM
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