[2.6] The Curse Whisperer - Tri-Curse CI Whispering Ice Elementalist - Viable for Everything

"

frenchlion wrote:

hi

interesting build, trying it.

however i don't get something.

you say tri-curse, but you're not using any item or other to have both of these curses on a mob at the same time.

once warlord's mark is applied, only 1 other curse can be applied, unless we switch 1 items to get a +1 curse, which will make 3 (doedre or other).

am i missing something ?

He used Doedre's ring for +1 curse, and take +1 curse node in the tree.

Hi, great build, first time leveled as CI and definitely the strongest build I've played so far.

A question though, even with ~8k ES I keep dying to Uberlab traps, have any survival tips?

Aside that, I notice that you neglect cast speed a lot in the tree and jewels. Now, Icestorm damage formula is complicated but boils down to 2 aspects: Hit damage (tooltip) and Casts per second, multiply by duration and enemy cover fraction* to get peak dps.

I ran some numbers and from a dps standpoint, a 3% cast speed node adds as much as 30 INT. There's a similar neglect of %ES nodes, there are quite a few effective 10%/point nodes within reach, so trading some base damage for DPS and ES is possible. Precision nodes in Templar area have cast/attack speed plus some movespeed which is always nice. Other than that, 9-11% cast speed jewels are like a chaos on poetrade...

*for a small enemy (radius = 2), lowest cover fraction is 16%, with CE and on big bosses it's gonna be a lot higher.

I have about 5k es right now with Discipline. I still get frozen for a while even with Auxium.

I have these gloves and boots right now:



Should I upgrade them to:

A) I found boots with half the int, but triple the ES
B) I found gloves with half the int, but again, triple the ES

Resists are the same.

"

schattenwulf wrote:

Because leap slam feels slow to me as a mobility skill, even with faster attacks, I instead use flame dash for mobility and if I have to deal with high phys damage, get fortify through vigilant strike (single target melee skill that gives long fortify duration, can't miss). Does feel a bit awkward to run (or flamedash) into melee to hit with stick once for getting the buff, but the slow leap slams felt worse to me.

Again, Leap Slam is not used as a full time mobility skill. It's used to get Fortify and to jump over lab traps. You can use it as a mobility skill with Silver flasks too. But I found running with Quicksilver better.

I tried Vigilant Strike, it was terrible. Yes, it can miss, and it misses a LOT. It can't be evaded. But first you have to produce a hit. This build has no accuracy whatsoever. I was missing about half of the hits with it even in Dried Lake, forget high level bosses. Having to target something, as opposed to just leaping to an area, is bad too. And you cannot do this with Vigilant Strike: cast Icestorm on a pack ahead of you and leap into that pack instantly gaining Fortify. With VS you have to run to a particular target and hit it. That is probably why you find the CWDT curse not working well too.

"

meyogi wrote:

I am thinking of going for Thief Craft/Foresight for more Int/ES instead of the last jewel slot which you suggested for the 2nd fertile mind. ES is currently 7.3k, damage is 6.6k with CE currently.

Both your ES and your DPS scale with Int. A jewel gives you over 40 Int. It's always worth it more than the +ES% nodes. 1500 Int = 300% increased ES. All the small % inc ES nodes are nothing compared to what you gain from just having high Int.

"

Rivx wrote:

I actually had a lot of trouble with yesterday's Izaro. He didn't oneshot, but he took sooo little damage so I couldn't instantly leech back, so half of my runs ended badly.

You are either not using Fire Pen or not popping Orb of Storms for extra penetration, or both. With certain buffs Izaro can reach close to 100% fire resistance. It's not a problem at all for this build (63% penetration) when used properly.

"

Rivx wrote:

Also, is Grandmasters still doable with this? I don't want to waste 20c on a map if I can't complete it, I heard people are having a lot of trouble with Qbot/Dyness (the CI max block regen tank).

I've done HoGM for the Atlas bonus and didn't notice anything different, except that some of the Witches there are now Elementalists with golems unkillable by ele damage that stay up after you kill their owners (just ignore them, or waste a minute killing them with Leap Slam). Either I haven't met that 'Qbot' (the 6 wings are chosen at random from a pool of 8? 10?) or it died the same as before. Inc AoE gem trivializes that zone. IF you are not neglecting penetration.

"

Esurah wrote:

Can this be done with assassin ???
I have a lvl 80 Assassin and i have been looking for a whispering ice build .

I see absolutely nothing useful for this build in the Assassin Ascendancy nodes, so I'm going to go with 'No'. The only Shadow subclass with remotely useful Asc skills for us is Saboteur but his nodes are way too weak and generic compared to other classes. I see no way to make a good WI Shadow. Unless somebody finds a good way to build a crit WI without losing half of Int to get the crits. I haven't found one yet.

"

Jax_ wrote:

If you look under the "Gear" section then look at his gear for Standard you'll see he uses a +1 curse Astramentis

+1 Astra is a luxury upgrade that frees up a ring slot (for Perandus Signet). It's extremely expensive and won't happen for most players, so it's not included in the build guide. I got mine in the Perandus league where most uniques were dirt cheap and you could buy tons of Astramentises for 5-10c to vaal them. It takes a lot of luck to roll the +1 curse mod too.

This build does not rely on this upgrade. You can do just fine without it (as seen in my Prophecy league videos where I didn't have it).

"

VnValkyrie wrote:

Hi Kel pls tell me how to kill chimera??? Everytime he get in the smoke i fk up.........

There is a video in the top post and more info on page 49 (holy crap, this thread grew by 30 pages in 2 weeks).

"

Orirane wrote:

So, I still play as witch in essence, should I wear auxium instead of new crystal belt, or crystal belt with 1-2 anti-freeze flasks?

That's up to your personal preference. If you are good with flasks you can increase your DPS significantly and solve your resist issues much easier by using a Crystal Belt in this league. I am totally enjoying my


I just can't put it into the main guide because it's only possible in this one league.

"

meyogi wrote:

I am thinking of going for Thief Craft/Foresight for more Int/ES instead of the last jewel slot which you suggested for the 2nd fertile mind. ES is currently 7.3k, damage is 6.6k with CE currently.
Both your ES and your DPS scale with Int. A jewel gives you over 40 Int. It's always worth it more than the +ES% nodes. 1500 Int = 300% increased ES. All the small % inc ES nodes are nothing compared to what you gain from just having high Int.

Thank you for replying. Understood and agreed with the Int vs foresight, personally tested with some gears with Ints vs without. But correct me if i am wrong here, wouldn't the jewel socket at scion's only give me a max of 34Int. Whilst if i head towards the theif craft, I gain +10dex as int + Thief craft's 30 int?

Starting to realize that maybe that 12% spell damage towards the jewel socket might make it better than the extra 6 Int..

P.s got my ES to 8.2k today! Upgraded to a +51 Int with 779 chest armor.

"

Kelvynn wrote:

I just can't put it into the main guide because it's only possible in this one league.

The belt is part of the game now, not just the league. It's just the int roll you can't get which you don't get on the Auxium anyway?

I see absolutely no reason to recommend Auxium over a crystal belt besides currency.

"

Thefatpunk wrote:

"

Kelvynn wrote:

I just can't put it into the main guide because it's only possible in this one league.

The belt is part of the game now, not just the league. It's just the int roll you can't get which you don't get on the Auxium anyway?

I see absolutely no reason to recommend Auxium over a crystal belt besides currency.

Would it be the freeze/chill benefit?

I just used one Deafening Intelligence Essence on an itemlevel 84 Belt and created this:



Sure, I need to Bless it and stuff, but I am really impressed with the lucky result and can even craft Movementspeed on it. I will be very happy when this Belt will arrive on my main in standard.

Essences on a Crystal Belt are SO worth it for this build.

"

Dulaku wrote:

Hi, great build, first time leveled as CI and definitely the strongest build I've played so far.

A question though, even with ~8k ES I keep dying to Uberlab traps, have any survival tips?

Aside that, I notice that you neglect cast speed a lot in the tree and jewels. Now, Icestorm damage formula is complicated but boils down to 2 aspects: Hit damage (tooltip) and Casts per second, multiply by duration and enemy cover fraction* to get peak dps.

I ran some numbers and from a dps standpoint, a 3% cast speed node adds as much as 30 INT. There's a similar neglect of %ES nodes, there are quite a few effective 10%/point nodes within reach, so trading some base damage for DPS and ES is possible. Precision nodes in Templar area have cast/attack speed plus some movespeed which is always nice. Other than that, 9-11% cast speed jewels are like a chaos on poetrade...

*for a small enemy (radius = 2), lowest cover fraction is 16%, with CE and on big bosses it's gonna be a lot higher.

Quicksilver flasks > lab. It doesn't matter how much ES you have since the traps do percentage damage. But running very fast helps a ton. And leaping directly onto the sentries, most of them are in safe spots.

Cast speed doesn't matter all that much because we almost never just stand in 1 spot and spam cast. Most of the time you cast, move, cast, move, etc. And on the bosses that you facetank it doesn't make any noticeable difference since you outleech them, who cares if they die in 10 or 11 sec. Sure, if there was a way to increase cast speed by a significant percentage without sacrificing more DPS than you gain (e.g. Faster Casting) then it would be worth it. But I can't think of a situation for that other than an easy trash clear. For the top bosses you need DPS more than cast speed.

%ES nodes may give you slightly more ES than just Int nodes, but Int nodes give you ES AND DPS. You only need as much ES as you can lose in 1-2 sec before you leech it all back.

"

TeaAddict wrote:

I have about 5k es right now with Discipline. I still get frozen for a while even with Auxium.

I have these gloves and boots right now:

Should I upgrade them to:

A) I found boots with half the int, but triple the ES
B) I found gloves with half the int, but again, triple the ES

Resists are the same.

Auxium doesn't stop you from getting chilled/frozen, it just reduces their duration by a lot.

Gloves: no, find something with high Int and just more ES. Don't lower your Int in half.
Boots: no, and you need movespeed too. Find something with 40+ Int, movespeed and ES.

"

meyogi wrote:

But correct me if i am wrong here, wouldn't the jewel socket at scion's only give me a max of 34Int.

It gives 44 Int. The same node (between the 2 jewels) is converted twice.

Didn't I add that to the Q&A already? This question keeps popping up every other day...

"

Thefatpunk wrote:

"

Kelvynn wrote:

I just can't put it into the main guide because it's only possible in this one league.

The belt is part of the game now, not just the league. It's just the int roll you can't get which you don't get on the Auxium anyway?

I see absolutely no reason to recommend Auxium over a crystal belt besides currency.

You can't get ANY Int roll on belts outside of this league. Without Int a belt with just some ES and resists is only a temporary crutch until you find resists elsewhere, not worth trading the chill/freeze protection of Auxium for. The other Int belts (Perandus Blazon and Bated Breath) are not good enough either IMO (although Perandus is Ok for flask enthusiasts).

I just got these all.

I know they all have low int (I will upgrade them soon).

It's just hard trying to find something with the right colors, high int, es, and resists without having to craft the sockets myself which is also expensive.