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

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Kelvynn wrote:

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siema87 wrote:

Thank you that's what I wanted to know :) Could you tell me if I should improve something in my gear to try end game bosses?

Spoiler

Your items are good.

But where is AA? Unless you plan on going directly after the Shaper and skipping T16, you really want AA. Instead of that Clarity there. This build does not need Clarity in any situation at all.

I assume that AoE is just there for easy trash clearing? You will want CE instead of AoE for the serious bosses.

And get the 0.6% leech enchant on the boots. There are only 15 boot enchants, it's not hard to get what you want even with bad luck. Uber Lab runs are always profitable and never wasted anyway.

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Endactam wrote:

As for moving out of the yellow circles in the minotaur fight he likes to dive underground even while in melee range of me. I think he's going after my golems, not sure. He didn't do that in your video & has not done it in about 60% of my fights with him. Other times he does it every 10 seconds or so.

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Kelvynn wrote:

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Endactam wrote:

As for moving out of the yellow circles in the minotaur fight he likes to dive underground even while in melee range of me. I think he's going after my golems, not sure. He didn't do that in your video & has not done it in about 60% of my fights with him. Other times he does it every 10 seconds or so.

I see. Try unplugging the Lightning golem. It's probably the culprit here. It likes to run away and attack from range, and all golems taunt the enemy. It may cause you trouble at the Shaper too, provoking him to use Teleport Slam.

I didn't notice any issues like that in Standard on my Witch. But her gear is pretty insane there, she can survive Teleport Slam. I'll do some tests with her in Standard and if the Lightning golems is indeed causing this then I'll recommend taking it out for those 2 fights.

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Endactam wrote:

This makes sense. I have a free blue and green socket with not using the lightning golem... maybe an ice golem would work. 40% damage and some more accuracy and a bit of crit won't hurt.
Actually... that drops 18% attack & cast speed... that may hinder more than dodging the slam.

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Kelvynn wrote:

Btw, on Minotaur, you can get 1-shot if you are not facetanking him. His most powerful attack (his version of Teleport Slam that's animated as an 'underground roll') is only used against ranged attackers. I never have to deal with it because I facetank him. He sometimes does it at the very start when I'm running towards him, but then it's easy to dodge by simply running to his initial spot.

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CheefKaigen wrote:

to have 264 unreserved mana (2 icestorm casts with a 6s whispering ice),you need ~1480 int to reach 1760 mana, which is needed with a lvl4 enlighten (3+1 from black sun).

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Kelvynn wrote:

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gibtuck wrote:

So are we dropping Auxium now?

In the Essence league it's an easy decision: a 50+ Int crystal belt looks definitely better than Auxium.

The problem with 'dropping' Auxium is that this is not possible outside of this one league. Without the essence crafted mod a crystal belt is not better than Auxium. It can help you with resists until your other gear is good enough, but Auxium is still valuable against chill/freeze.

I'm going to recommend the Int Crystal belt over Auxium but make a note about the availability. Essence crafting is getting very mixed feedback and there is absolutely no guarantee that GGG will add it to the core game in the future. It may end up like the Talismans: obscenely expensive items not really different from the discontinued legacy stuff.

Pro tip: before this league is over, make a lot of Int crystal belts. It's cheap. But you might just make a fortune later.

For those who want them in Standard right now: Essence Hardcore League.

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Kelvynn wrote:

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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.