Mechanics of temporal chains on freeze threshold

Ooooh.... I hadn't realized Icestorm was a special unique skill. I just saw 'level 1 icestorm' and thought 'meh'. Actually looking at the skill, I can see the point of it. Huh. Getting 500 Int seems a bit of a chore though. 1000...? O_O

Definitely a more interesting staff than I thought at first blush, but probably not the direction I'll take things. In the interest of freezelocking, I want to do as much damage as possible with a -single- cold damage instance. For the concept of the build, single hit damage is more important than dps.

Another thought on staves though being the value of dual 5-6Ls(single/pack).

For freezelocking, generally your best bet is a skill that a lot of people seem to forget exists:

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Freeze_Mine

Pair it with Elemental Proliferation and target some white mobs near your target, and your target will be frozen in place for quite some time. Add Temp Chains to the mix, and you're golden.

That being said, status effects like freeze are often weird to invest into because it's generally more efficient to just invest into enough damage to kill the target more quickly. If your goal is simply to freezelock things though, this will get the job done. :)


EDIT: The gem does do damage now, so it's not as good as it used to be at freezelocking things. I say this because you can't infinitely proliferate off a white mob anymore, because it will take damage from each mine and eventually die. However, you might can actually use it without proliferation to freeze some bosses, but I am not sure how consistent/reliable that will be. Back in the day before Freeze Mine actually did any damage (it used to have a damage value attached used only for calculating the freeze duration), I was able to freeze-lock act bosses and nearby mobs while a fellow party member cleaned them up. Likely can't be done quite as easily these days.


If you go the physical route through Glacial Hammer or some such, Hrimsorrow/Hrimburn can be used. Also keep in mind the Hatred aura and Taste of Hate unique flask. Likely not as good, but another option (for ranged) would be Asphyxia's Wrath with Ice Shot.

Hmm.

Freeze mine does -effectively- more damage than freezing pulse for calculating freeze, but significantly less real damage. Worth thinking about, but pulse is likely the better route.

I'm aware that more damage is also good, of course, but since I have to build a lot of damage and crit to freeze with pulse anyway, I doubt I'll lose out too much in terms of dps, and I'm willing to sacrifice some if I can manage to get to a point where I'm freezelocking bosses.

And Hatred was definitely on my mind when I was thinking about Glacial Hammer, along with melee weapon damage and weapon elemental damage supports. Not to mention how fun it'd be to GH freeze-cull bosses at 30% life.

Poking at things though, I think I would end up needing a really amazingly overtooled staff and a kit directed toward melee to out-damage a kit directed toward spells and freezing pulse(with maybe the trap thrown in for added cold), and splitting between the 2 would just end up undermining both, while pulse is going to be better at dealing with everything other than bosses anyway so I'll probably stick with spells. Melee cold pack clearing is doable with Ice Crash, but it's not the feel I was going for.

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Saleet wrote:

Poking at things though, I think I would end up needing a really amazingly overtooled staff and a kit directed toward melee to out-damage a kit directed toward spells and freezing pulse(with maybe the trap thrown in for added cold), and splitting between the 2 would just end up undermining both, while pulse is going to be better at dealing with everything other than bosses anyway so I'll probably stick with spells. Melee cold pack clearing is doable with Ice Crash, but it's not the feel I was going for.

You can always use [insert aoe cold spell of choice here] for "trash" mobs (white/blue packs). Freeze pulse as your single target setup for bosses and such. Just keep in mind, with Freeze Pulse you'll probably want to be pretty tanky. You have to get up close and personal to do full damage with it. ;)

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Saleet wrote:

Not to mention how fun it'd be to GH freeze-cull bosses at 30% life.

I am 45% sure this is not possible due to Unique monsters not being Shatter-able

AWWWWWW!!!!

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

That breaks my heart a lil.

For my money, you want to go Inquisitor crit Freeze Pulse for highest possible ability to freeze stuff. You could think about using the Faster Projectiles gem, especially if you can't get a 20q Freeze Pulse gem.

Be sure to get some jewels with "increased freeze duration" if that's what you're really going for. Increased freeze duration multiplies the duration of the status effect before it's applied (unlike temp chains) so it will allow you to freeze stuff you otherwise couldn't.
With 100% increased freeze duration, which is tough but doable, that's double your base freeze duration. So your damage only has to do 1.5% of the target's life to be able to freeze. So, anything you kill in less than 66 hits can be frozen. With Inquisitor negating all resists, that should be just about everything.


The BIG caution I will tell you is that, if you're taking this build into maps, some maps will have mods that make monsters resistant or immune to status effects. However, with enough damage, these maps are still doable, albeit less safe.

edit: btw Temp Chains is still good, it helps making sure things don't get unfrozen. It's also just a great defensive curse for any build.

every build starts weak and grows stronger.
we can boost everything a bit at a time until the dps gets crazy.

21/20 gems for example.

when brought to a very high level, a 6l FP can permafreeze
map bosses. I've chosen to not get every bonus to freezing
chance in favor of more dps / life / whatever. but without
everything available I freeze almost everyone totally solid.
(edit: also replaced frostbite curse with assasins mark...
I _DO NOT_ need the extra freeze chance... I want dps.)

some of the stronger map bosses get to move a little bit
in between freezing. sometimes I even have to dodge their attacks
a few times. oh well right? mostly they don't get to move much.

if your serious about a build, you add quality to its gems...

when you get serious about fp? same thing.

and when you do... 60% boost to range.

I have a 20/20 faster projectile from earlier... not interested
in it. kills my dps. totally unnessicery. I kill offscreen.

some items can increase projectile speed. I use a wand with boosted
speed. I also use the passives section of ranger/ shadow that boosts projectile
speed.