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

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soujiro707 wrote:

just curious what kind of stats/setup i'd need to face tank merc lab. His leap slam seems to 1 shot me at 5.9K ES with a granite flask

5.9K is definitely on the low side, unless he has no buffs. I had 6.5k when I started farming it, I barely had enough to survive him buffed with charges. Use basalt instead of granite btw, armor is useless against such big hits. Or use both if you have space. It also helps to put orb into the curse setup so he gets enfeebled before the first hit.

ya I know 5.9K ES is low. I'm having problems finding high ES/int boots and gloves that also give resists. I'm sitting at 48% Fire 43% Cold 93% light in Merc. I have no idea how i'm going to cap off my resists and still get decent ES without spending a crazy amount

Am I missing something? Maybe I need ES % increase on the skill tree

What level are you? You can get the diamond skin cluster by 85 which provides some nice resists, and there are some more options afterwards such as getting the last point in the cluster, or going for Faith and Steel/Nullification for a bit of ES and resists if you really need them.

I suppose you could also use a resist belt instead of Auxium until you can get more on your other slots, but you have to be quick on that Heat flask or you'll be in trouble against any cold damage mobs (including Izaro with elemental buffs).

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Rivx wrote:

Watched the Chimera video, how do you take no damage when he disappears? I was doing fine until that point, but then he just 3-shot me before I could make it to the first cloud, 9.1k ES. The map had added lightning and crit, should I only do it with no damage mods?

The moment he goes into fog mode, use basalt + granite. And personally, I would also use quicksilver flask (with adrenaline would be best) to dash through the fogs quickly to clear the "fog of war" ASAP. Worked like a charm for me.
If it's your first attempt, best to do the guardians without any extra damage mods. Especially if you do not even have 8k ES yet.

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meyogi wrote:

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Rivx wrote:

Watched the Chimera video, how do you take no damage when he disappears? I was doing fine until that point, but then he just 3-shot me before I could make it to the first cloud, 9.1k ES. The map had added lightning and crit, should I only do it with no damage mods?

The moment he goes into fog mode, use basalt + granite. And personally, I would also use quicksilver flask (with adrenaline would be best) to dash through the fogs quickly to clear the "fog of war" ASAP. Worked like a charm for me.
If it's your first attempt, best to do the guardians without any extra damage mods. Especially if you do not even have 8k ES yet.

I did use basalt and quicksilver, he still hit for like 3k, very quickly :( It would also help if I had fortify up before he disappears I guess.
I'll definitely do them without damage mods next time, that 1% bonus isn't worth the pain.

Edit: nvm I'm too greedy. Died twice before I realized I need to bring more anti-freeze flasks (added cold and minmax GG), then twice more because he was camping the entrance. Worf it. Phoenix had no damage mods and was super easy.

Just woundering, i have not seen them mentiond, but are not and good for this build? they raised my int by a lot.
Also the essence for seems realy strong.

Atm my gear looks like this:
and the brute force soulition and dex convert to int jewels. What wuld be my next uppgrade? im looking for a +1 curse astramentis but seen none so far in ESC? Guess geting the good corruption on gems is also a good next step, and 9 more levs :P
So far build seems realy strong, when i got the two emperors jewels it realy just upped my QoL a lot, dont know exactly why, but for me everything went mutch smoother.

Yea those jewels seem to be amazing, not sure why they weren't mentioned at all. How much did you buy them for? I'm building a second character to try to get one myself but idk how that would work out.

Crystal belt with int is nice but only available in Essence, otherwise its only useful if your resists are lacking. Anti freeze is still very important so its hard to give up.

The jewels where not cheap :P i spent 9 ex total for them, yea i agree anti freeze is realy important, i use anti freeze flask and that belt atm. So far its good, will see when i hit higher levs tho, just 50+ int and 120+ es + resists thats hard to fit in to many other slots, seems like a good trade for some flask whit anti freeze :)

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meyogi wrote:

Nice! Congrats man! I just had my first try, it went miserably sadly.. Got 1 hit by his Teleport slams. Couldn't stand in zana's bubble as there were some of those vortex things below her, there was once even, when I died and came back, zana died by the mobs shaper spawns, and he went into that chaos mode and I had no zana's bubble to survive in. And my personal favorite death was when I thought I was inside the bubble (had to stand at the edge since had vortexes inside), turns out I wasn't inside the bubble and got 1 hit. haha!

Shall come back to try again once I've got my leech enchant on boots and level 3 enlighten!

The Shaper fight requires some practice. If you lose control over the arena, it can become unwinnable very quickly.

Flasks:

This is what I use. Chemist's Sulphur flasks of Heat provide 2x4x5 sec of chill immunity (40% inc dmg doesn't hurt either). Sapphire flasks provide 3x2x6 sec of extra cold resists plus side benefits. At least one should be Staunching because you can randomly get Rigwald as one of the 4 minis, and bleed/corrupt trash between the main Shaper fights, and you really don't want that to cost you any portals.

You have two free sockets from switching to the Purity setup: blue and green, or even 2 blues (depending on what you do with AA). Bring Vaal Discipline (or two; I use one) as your 'oh shit' button. You don't need it for the first Shaper fight, and it will charge from the trash after that.

The vortexes: they spawn as the floating balls on the outer edges of the arena and trigger by proximity. When you get within some distance of them (about 1/3 of the arena radius) they notice you and start chasing you. When they touch you they turn into the vortex on the ground. So the main thing there is to prevent them from turning into vortexes in the center, where Zana does her protective bubble thing. If a ball is chasing you, touch it and turn it into the vortex somewhere on the outer edges of the arena. If you are facetanking the Shaper somewhere not in the middle, you can ignore the balls/vortexes landing on you and just outleech them. But be aware that they chill you (use flasks).

Teleport Slam: DO try to run away. I think it hits much harder in the epicenter. A direct hit will 1-shot you (unless you are really well geared or pop Vaal Disc), but getting hit by its outer edge is very survivable with moderately decent gear (I have 8.5k ES in the league).

Portal: Protect Zana!!! The adds can't really hurt you, but they go after Zana, and if you let them get her down then she can't protect you against the next 'total chaos' phase. If you are not on top of the portal yet, the first thing you do is cast Icestorm on Zana, run to her and keep casting on her to kill the adds that rush her. Then slowly move your target towards the portal and move there yourself. You want to be standing on top of the Shaper by the time Zana closes the portal.

Facetanking vs Dodging: try to facetank as much as you can. Shaper has a very small melee radius, but when you are in it (i.e. standing right next to him) he will melee you instead of firing the ball barrages or using teleport slam. He will use the laser beam regardless of where you are, but that's the weakest of his attacks and you can outleech it easily with PoI, or adjust your position slightly to move out of it. HOWEVER: do not facetank without preparation! You must always have Orb placed near the Shaper and at least 1 Icestorm cast on him before leaping onto him to facetank. At the start of each fight you can go stand on his toes while he's busy talking. But after he breaks contact ('total chaos' phase, or he gets taunted by a golem and goes to teleport-slam on it) you must dodge his next attack, get near him again, pop the Orb, cast Icestorm and then leap and facetank him again. Repop the Orb often.

Pure dodging approach is less safe because he uses more dangerous attacks against range attackers (teleport slam, ball barrage) and because you lose precious time not DPSing him while dodging, as the arena gets trashed by the vortexes.

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Rivx wrote:

Watched the Chimera video, how do you take no damage when he disappears? I was doing fine until that point, but then he just 3-shot me before I could make it to the first cloud, 9.1k ES. The map had added lightning and crit, should I only do it with no damage mods?

I take damage from the fog phase, but little enough to find him within 6 sec. Use Granite, Basalt and Quicksilver:

Don't do Chimera with Vulnerability, Hexproof or extra cold/lightning damage (fire is ok).

Crit mods are Ok but might cost you an occassional death. Chimera himself doesn't hurt too much with or without crits since you always have solid Icestorm coverage on him and he is always Enfeebled. But I got killed by leap slamming crit goats once.

Yay first try. Thanks for the great build. I haven't switched my setup at all since I don't have a spare green socket.

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Don't do Chimera with Vulnerability, Hexproof or extra cold/lightning damage (fire is ok).

Yeah I did it again with no damage mods, was way easier.