[2.5] Crit Cold Snap Inquisitor [SC/HC Viable] [Budget Friendly]

-Adding leveling tips
-Extra gearing information (including a movement skill set up)
-Linked my gear
-Added link to tooltip/cold snap stats
-Added trees for different leveling points
-Facebreakers were nerfed from 90% crit multi to 45%, hurting freeze potential quite a bit for single target.
-Opal rings were added which scales both cold and lightning, helping freeze and shock duration a bit
-Essences of Hatred were added to the main game now, making it easier to stack cold damage and help freeze tanky targets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-ayeIYDSg

Pros:
-Budget friendly
-Easy gearing (only 1 required Unique)
-Freezes majority of mobs including exiles and bosses
-Safe (As long as you have power charges)

Cons:
-If you aren't paying attention, losing your power charges can put you in danger
-Reflect can be a problem once you reach high damage (easily solved with Vaal Pact)
-Once in awhile have to press a button other than right click (oh no!!)

When it comes to leveling you can do it in almost anyway you feel suits you. If you don't want to spend any regrets/refund points I recommend leveling as Non-Crit Firestorm using whatever wands or scepters you find. If you have currency for leveling uniques I recommend dual-wielding Lifesprigs until you can get yourself a Realm Ender (From "The Beginning and the End" Prophecy).

For the Skill Tree just take the path shown and skip the crit nodes until you have the gear (Voll's + Decent crit weapon + capped resists) to make the switch. I switched at lv50 but reflect became an issue since I didn't have Vaal Pact so be careful on hardcore

Use Rares except for....

The only "required" unique is Voll's Protector. You can use a Carcass Jack, giving you more Life and Damage but you'll have to link Orb of Storms to Power Charge on Crit and/or use a Winter's Bounty Jewel to generate chargers which isn't as reliable. (Especially for boss fights)


This is a good idea of the type of weapon you should look for (unless you plan on using a unique) Cold Snap has a 120% Damage Effectiveness on it so that added lightning damage gets boosted quite abit. Using 2 daggers like this gives me almost more lightning damage than cold, which is great for shocking enemies.

One you can 1-2 packs, focus on getting life. By act 4, you should have around 4k minimum. Life/crit multi jewels will help you squeeze abit more life out of your gear since we're missing life on our body armour and possibly gloves if you have facebreakers.

If you're having trouble surviving still, check your flasks. Granite/Basalt should be used before running into any heavy physical packs. Bring an elemental resist flask that suits the map you're running.

Helpful Uniques

I recommend Facebreakers for gloves since 90% crit multi makes a big difference but it can cause reflect issues while you're still leveling or getting your gear in shape
Voidbringers also is a decent pair of unique gloves giving Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder an extra level but the extra mana cost will probably cause more mana issues in most cases

For weapons, you can use Divinarus which is a good starting dagger and gives you extra area. Using 2 will give you enough damage until you get good rare daggers (Or wands if you like having high cast speed)

Want to use a shield instead? Saffell's Frame offers abit of Spell Block and 4% Max Res which will help with any reflect issues. A Rathpith Globe will also give you Spell Block but also grants Spell Damage and Max Life.

Cold Snap > Increased Area of Effect (Concentrated Effect for bosses) > Increased Critical Strikes > Spell Echo > Hypothermia or Life Leech

Orb of Storms > Increased Critical Strikes > Faster Casting > Increased Area of Effect or Mana Leech

Vaal Haste > Vaal Clarity > Increased Duration

Herald of Ice > Herald of Thunder > Curse on Hit > Warlord's Mark

Choose whichever golem you prefer. Lightning for cast speed/added lightning, flame for flat damage, chaos for physical defense.

Whirling Blades > Faster Attacks > Fortify

This is a great defensive set up when encountering physical packs. It isn't wise you whirl into every pack since freezing from a distance is a lot safer but if you can safely whirl into 1-3 mobs to get off the fortify buff, it will greatly improve your survivability.

As stated above, I recommend leveling as firestorm.

21 Points


41 Points


62 Points


81 Points (Switching to crit and getting vaal pact)


My current character


For late game, either pick up the scion life square for 203% life (+ whatever you have on jewels) or pick up Melding + shadow elemental nodes depending on your playstyle