Ice Shot support gems

Hello, I would really like to start a new character and I would like to use Ice Shot (IS) as my primary attack skill. However, I found few builds for it and they all use different support skills. The problem is that I do not know how these support gems affect the skill itself. After doing some research I came up with an idea of a skill setup but I am quite worried about some of the game mechanics known as "shotgun".

Let me explain it a bit: when I hit an enemy with IS, it creates a cone of area damage behind the enemy. The cone can then hit another enemies. BUT if I manage to hit more enemies with the IS (by using supports like Pierce or Lesser/Greater Multiple Projectiles), does it create multiple AoE cones?

And if it creates multiple cones, do these deal more damage in the area where they overlap?

Also, how does Point blank support/keystone work with IS? When I hit an enemy in close range, does the increased damage apply to whole AoE cone based off the distance to the first enemy only? Or does the damage of cone decrease with distance as well?

My setup would look like IS-Pierce-GMP-IncreasedAoE-something for more damage.
(also Frost Wall could be useful to create more cones by piercing)

I would really appreciate anyone who could answer my questions, thanks in advance!

TLDR: Does IS-Pierce-GMP-IAoE setup work?

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Vipermagi wrote:

Ice Shot creates a cone on every Hit. The cones can overlap and thus inflict multiple Hits.
The cone uses the Point Blank damage of the arrow - you can spread the maximum PB Damage bonus over a notably large area with Ice Shot.

Thanks for the reply, it sounds great. I will give this setup a try for sure!

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Artju wrote:

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Vipermagi wrote:

Ice Shot creates a cone on every Hit. The cones can overlap and thus inflict multiple Hits.
The cone uses the Point Blank damage of the arrow - you can spread the maximum PB Damage bonus over a notably large area with Ice Shot.

Thanks for the reply, it sounds great. I will give this setup a try for sure!

Ice Shot probably have the nicest graphical effect in the whole game unfortunately its one of the suckiest bow skills.

The reason for this being:

1) The first enemy you hit will only get hit by the weak arrow and get close to zero damage it feels like a lightning skill rolled on minimum damage. Therefore its cruel bad single target dps.

2) The second disturbing effect of ice shot is that those multiple cones could lead to an instant one hit K.O due to off screen reflect. It happend a lot to me a few leagues ago when i tried ice shot.

My suggestion: Go Tornadoshot or Lightning Arrow they are just better in every way except graphical effect.

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zzang wrote:

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Artju wrote:

"

Vipermagi wrote:

Ice Shot creates a cone on every Hit. The cones can overlap and thus inflict multiple Hits.
The cone uses the Point Blank damage of the arrow - you can spread the maximum PB Damage bonus over a notably large area with Ice Shot.

Thanks for the reply, it sounds great. I will give this setup a try for sure!

Ice Shot probably have the nicest graphical effect in the whole game unfortunately its one of the suckiest bow skills.

The reason for this being:

1) The first enemy you hit will only get hit by the weak arrow and get close to zero damage it feels like a lightning skill rolled on minimum damage. Therefore its cruel bad single target dps.

2) The second disturbing effect of ice shot is that those multiple cones could lead to an instant one hit K.O due to off screen reflect. It happend a lot to me a few leagues ago when i tried ice shot.

My suggestion: Go Tornadoshot or Lightning Arrow they are just better in every way except graphical effect.

I am in love with the skill, I will gladly trade DPS decrease for using it.
But I think I can somehow solve the problems it has got. I plan to use Frost Wall and Point Blank. Therefore It should deal a good damage even to the first target and offscreen reflect is not so problematic with Point Blank mechanics.

So i wish you good luck with point blank then

I am currently playing an Ice Shot Deadeye. At level 81 (Up to tier 6 maps and Level 7 master missions) I am finding her a lot of fun. She has decent damage, pretty good clear speed and decent survivability. You can check out Daughter_of_Hail for my links and tree. If you have any specific questions, I am happy to answer them. I will say this though, The Deadeye Ricochet node really makes Ice Shot shine. I realized this when I started using



during leveling. The chain mod works really well. For single target I fall back to the good Ol' puncture trap.

If you like the skill, play the skill.


wolf

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zzang wrote:

1) The first enemy you hit will only get hit by the weak arrow and get close to zero damage it feels like a lightning skill rolled on minimum damage. Therefore its cruel bad single target dps.

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Vipermagi wrote:

Yyyyeah Ice Shot's single-target isn't any worse than, for example, Lightning Arrow. They have the same issues with the same solution. *shrug*

This is slightly misleading. Ice Shot's initial arrow damage is actually considerably better than lightning arrow's. Level 1 ice Shot deals 120% of base damage, compared with Lightning Arrow's 100%.

If you want a funny build then you could go for point blank passive, IS-pierce-physical projectile attack damage-increased aoe in a chin sol. Hit one enemy in melee range or shoot a frost wall in melee range and you're gonna have fun.