[2.1/2.2] JUGGERNAUT COLD SNAP TANK - HUGE BUFF INCOMING!

VIDEO AT BOTTOM

Introduction
Hi everyone! I've been playing POE since 2013 but have never really played (well) enough to get to the end game. After thinking long and hard about the playstyles that I enjoy, I came up with this build. I like AoE, I like freezing/shattering and I like *NOT DYING*. That last bit has been the hardest because I usually tend to build glass cannon. Fun as that is, farming merciless docks is not what I had in mind for the rest of my life.

This character uses a combination of skills, gear and endurance charges to gain *somewhat* permanent physical immunity and caps resistances to protect against elemental damage. Chaos is the only thing I haven't figured out yet but it's rare enough to not give me too much trouble.

If you like jumping into a large pack and then shattering them, you'll like this build.

NOTE/Full Disclosure: This build is not anywhere near finished. I respec'd from an old Righteous Fire character and there are still many points to be shifted around and improved. I haven't tested this build out on Atziri, Uber or maps higher than t8. Most of my gems aren't even level 20 so full potential remains to be seen. I have other things I need to work out, namely mana cost and mana reserved.

Pros/Cons
Pros:
*Tankable for even newbs who don't have too much game-sense like me
*Freezing and shattering is such an incredible sound
*AoE pack clearing is pretty good

Cons:
*Bosses and single target are a challenge for many reasons. Usually not freezable (not with my current level 86 - could be different at higher levels) can run out of pots and our frenzy charges go away :(
*Mana is still a huge problem. I haven't decided on how to tackle it yet which is why I haven't been able to turn on purity of lightning and purity of fire yet. Will also be able to free up the mana flask spots for a rumis which will help.
*No idea on how it will run atziri/uber/tier8+(due to lack of testing)


Why Juggernaut? And other 2.2 Changes
Juggernaut is the clear choice for this build - the +1 maximum endurance charges from unflinching coupled with unrelenting gives us damage, resistances, physical AND elemental damage reduction. We'll have 8 endurance charges (9 if you have +1 on belt, possibly 10 if you go with a kaom's sign although it seems a waste of a slot). This gives us a huge damage and defense boost!

Not only that, since we use leap slam to grant fortify, the unyielding path will give us a great dps increase and give us even more life regen. Although I am not able to test yet, we should be able to work righteous fire in with 2.2. There will be several new sources of regen and with our +4 max from saffel's (+5 for legendary) we should be able to cope without a Rise of the Phoenix shield. This will give us a massive dps boost and stack with all of our other AoE and life increases! It's a win win situation really.

Other exciting things to look forward to in 2.2 - HELM ENCHANTS! I'm not exactly sure what cold snap enchants are available so this is TBD but there are supposedly 3 per skill. This could drastically improve or change the build depending on the options.

Skill Explanation

Our main skill is Cold Snap ofcourse! We use this to generate our endurance charges by consuming power charges. We use also use it to kill things.

For 4L: Cold Snap + Faster Casting + Spell Echo + Cold Pen
For 5L: Cold Snap + Faster Casting + Spell Echo + Cold Pen + Hypothermia
For 6L: Cold Snap + Faster Casting + Spell Echo + Cold Pen + Hypothermia + Added Cold

Our movement skill also helps reduce damage by applying fortify!

We use Leap + Faster attacks + Fortify.

Our defense / partial immunity to physical damage comes from CWDT Immortal Call. I'm still testing the ideal levels as most of the duration comes from the endurance charges themselves, so we might not need a high level CWDT/IC. We use increased duration as our 3rd gem slot.

For Auras we would ideally take the three purities, clarity on blood magic, and herald of ice. Right now I can run herald of ice and purity of ice. I can fit another purity in but it squeezes my mana too thin. Working on how to fit in the 2nd and 3rd comfortably.

Right now we're using herald of ice to curse, but it's not as efficient as this only applies after an enemy has been killed while frozen. This makes it pretty hard to curse single targets. Need to work on a better way to curse but I'd like to avoid manual.

For utility slots I'm using chaos golem (not really needed but I don't want to rechrom my helmet for flame golem atm) and we're using blood rage. The upside of blood rage is that the damage doesn't affect us with our huge regen and basic phys reduction/immunity status. We get 3 frenzy charges which is a nice dps boost. Again this doesn't help against single target fights when there are no adds to kill to generate the charges. Both slots are optional.


Gear
The build requires a few key, expensive pieces of gear to work effectively.

is the bread and butter of any cold snap build nowadays. We use this + Resolute Technique to guarantee power charges every time we hit with cold snap / any other skill. Absolute must for the build.

I played the build for awhile before saving up and buying my 8 brittle emperor cards (yes flipping was involved sadly). While the damage was fine, I was much, much more squishy without Volls. It changed everything! You don't need a leech corruption, I just got super lucky with my div card turn in. Good alternative corruptions would include +1 curse, +1 max rest etc etc but those are all super expensive. In total I spent around 20 exalt after flipping for cards.

After this point the choices are really up to you.

is a great belt for obvious reasons but I love the flat chance to freeze. Since we're 0% crit we need all the flat freeze chance we can get. The cold leech is decent matched with my amulet but not sure if it's a game changer. A +1 endurance charge would be ideal here, but increased AoE would be an OK alternative.

Carcass Jack is a decent chest for the build. It's the only 6L non-tabula I own. Life res and aoe all help plus it's very easy to color and pretty cheap compared to most chests.

I keep going back and forth between Rise of the Phoenix and Righteous Fire or Saffell's. Until 2.2 is introduced with new sources of regen, I'm going to stick with non-RF and Saffell's. I definitely feel a difference in my defences with the +max res and spell block. Since phys damage is a non concern my focus was on minimizing ele damage. This shield is a great help.

Not really sure what else to put in this slot. The spell block helps but it is pretty minimal and no life is a bummer especially if I do go RF in 2.2. I was using and may go back to that for the +1 curse which helps with clear speed. I use Rainbow for the easy coloring.

Okay so weapons are extremely versatile for this build. Especially while leveling. Right now I'm running which is okay for the time being. I feel there are many stronger alternatives out there depending on how you want to build.

Some thoughts are:
*Doon Cuebiyari (Would be good for a strength stacking RF route)
*Doryani's Catalyst (More leech and a little bump in attack speed for Leap Slam)
*Taryn's Shiver is a good alternative if you are okay with more damage and less defense. Could have 2 Cold Snaps - 1 for AoE and 1 for single target. I have the staff but not a 5/6l to test it out.
*Bitterdream is decent for leveling but that's about it

So now you're saying...but that basically leaves you with ~3 slots to cap resistances and stack life? Yup. But remember we get 4% resistances per endurance charge and we have the 3 purities (once I get the mana sorted out) so we can sacrifice res on gear and still be overcapped. This plus the 5% reduced ele damage at max endurance charges will help soften the blows.


Passive Tree
My current tree is pretty shotty at the moment. Like I said this is a high level respec from an old RF character so the pathing isn't optimal at the moment. With Ascendancy coming in 5 days and a respec right behind, I'm going to way to post the Passive Tree until I have a chance to look at the new tree and think it out. I'll also try my best to post a leveling guide although I didn't level as this build and don't have any intention to do so.

Bandits

Normal: Oak if you want to go RF later, Kill All if udgaf
Cruel: Kill All
Merci: Oak for the endurance charge

Stats

Still need to take more stat pictures for what dps is with frenzy and what defense is with endurance charges. Hang tight!

Offense before Frenzy charge:
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/AngelofSapphire/Path%20of%20Exile/Offense%20States_zpsvijtnbf7.jpg
Defense before Endurance charge:
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/AngelofSapphire/Path%20of%20Exile/Defense%20Stats_zpsw78kt3ce.jpg



Videos

Also: Just noticed this was a curse immune map. Clearspeed would normally be a bit faster :D
Tier 5 mappin' because I don't have anything higher at the moment ;_; I've run t7/t8 with this build so far.https://youtu.be/yZTJGxaL0As