[2.4] The Frozen Hipster: Crit Ice Spear Inquisitor!

Motivation:
I've always loved cold casters in general. With the 70% (this is a buff) to ice spear damage in 2.4, I just had to make a build around this skill.
To my disappointment, there wasn't anything in the build list for Templar, which is too bad because it's a great fit with Inquisitor. So here it goes... my first build guide.

Pros and Cons
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Pros
- Crit and freeze everything! Good Ele DPS with a 5L
- Alternative single target / reflect 4L setup
- ~10k EHP with MoM as a hybrid build
- Dual curses with easy application to packs
- Easy standalone power charge generation for boss fights
- SHOULD be viable for most endgame content (currently level 78 in ESC)

Cons
- not a facetanking build
- not a FoTM CI build (but possible with minor changes)
- Not a leveling build. You won't want to use ice spear as your main skill until level 50-60 in a 4L
- Requires many gems that templar does not get. You'll have to trade! (Which is easy thanks to poe.trade)


Gameplay / Skills overview:
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Ice spear's second form is where it's at! 600% increased crit chance means it's easy to get crit cap so you can focus your gear and/or tree towards crit multiplier and defense. Keeping your distance from mobs is critical to get the most out of the skill. Linked with GMP we're spraying ice spears all over the place, annihilating mobs.

For elemental reflect, we use a trap setup. Sticking to the cold theme, vortex is a solid choice with good initial hit damage and DoT, along with slowing and chilling the affected enemies.

A good movement skill is critical. Whirling blades is so meta right now, but we don't need the crit change implicit on a dagger. Flame dash is ok, but the limited charges and range put a damper on it. It's a great skill to use while leveling. At high levels, I prefer lightning warp. It has no limit, great range, and becomes super fast.

For AoE damage and cursing, herald of ice does the trick. This aids in pack clearing and allows us to apply two curses of choice. I tend to use Assassin's mark for power charges and increased crit chance and damage, and enfeeble for mitigation. Due to the cold damage most mobs are also frozen or chilled after HoI procs, so temporal chains is of marginal benefit. Warlord's mark is another good choice for leech.

For defense, arctic armor is used for physical and fire mitigation, as well as creating more chilled ground. A mid level cast when damage taken setup to trigger ice wall and frost bomb is also used. Ice wall does an excellent job of blocking the incoming damage, and frost bomb debuffs life regen and cold resistance.

For power charge generation that doesn't activate 'on kill' like assassin's mark, I'm using orb of storms linked with power charge on critical. This quickly gets us up to max power charges against bosses or when entering a new area. It can also shock, further increasing our damage.

I also like to slot a lightning golem for cast speed and shocks. Defensively you can level a chaos golem for the same slot if you wish.


Skill gems:
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4-6L Main Skill: Ice spear - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Increased Critical Strikes - Pierce

Tooltip
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Offense in Menu
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Links explained:
GMP is only marginally less damage than LMP, and covers much more area with the two additional projectiles. A projectile that doesn't hit does no damage.
I've found Spell Echo generally outclasses faster casting, although faster casting will provide more damage per hit and longer freeze durations.
Controlled destruction is great - a nice MORE multiplier while reducing our crit chance. We can still cap crit with this gem =)
Increased critical strikes - This offsets controlled destruction. If your crit chance is high enough, swap with Increased critical damage.
Pierce - another MORE multiplier and with our tree makes projectiles pierce 100% of the time. Speeds up clear speed and increases damage output. Great!

4L Reflect/Utility: Vortex - Trap - Controlled Destruction - Mine and Trap Damage
Tooltip
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Offense in Menu
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Trap - provides reflect immunity and a MORE damage multiplier
Controlled destruction - MORE damage to the initial hit and DoT, and less crit chance
Mine and trap damage - MORE damage

4L Curse Setup: Herald of Ice - Curse on Hit - Assassin's Mark - Enfeeble
Good applicator of curses to anything that doesn't die in one HoI explosion.
Assassin's mark is exactly what we need: more crit chance, crit damage, power charges, and life/mana on kill for sustain.
Enfeeble is great for mitigation, as we don't stack armor or evasion/dodge.

3L CwDT Setup: Cast When Damage Taken - Frost Wall - Frost Bomb
I've been using this setup this league and have been impressed with it's ability to get me out of tricky situations. Allows an ES based piece instead of the popular armor boot slot that many other builds use.

3L Movement: Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Reduced Duration
An old but effective setup. Can shock, is fast, what more to say?

2L Utility: Orb of storms - Power Charge on Critical
Generate charges against a single boss mob without having to clear packs of adds.

Remaining two gem slots (in CwDT and 2L Utility)
Arctic Armor
Nice physical and fire mitigation, and chilled ground effect.
Lightning Golem
More cast speed and shocks. Minor distraction for mobs. Love it!


Ascendancy:
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Inquisitor for Inevitable Judgement. Critical strikes ignore elemental resistances. Most monsters have a base amount of elemental resistance which you can bypass with this skill, which doubles or triples your damage output and removes the need to slot a penetration gem.

Pious path is the other good choice for this build, granting 4% mana and 4% ES regen per second on consecrated ground.

Along the way to those notables are Righteous Providence, which grants 100% increased crit chance to mobs with no status ailments, and 45% crit multiplier to mobs affected by elemental status ailments, and Sanctify, which generates consecrated ground when you're hit and on kill (which grants 4% life regen per second).

Instruments of virtue is good if using a dagger, mainly for cast speed after using whirling blades. This is not a guide for that build =)
Augury of Penitence is wasted because of 'nearby'. We want to be 1/2+ screen away from enemies, so the effects won't benefit us.

Spend ascendancy points in this order:
1. Righteous Providence
2. Inevitable Judgement
3. Sanctify
4. Pious Path



Leveling Trees
:
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20
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUBAPndi4zAmgmq2fzAZgSzogDwH-FzmjuCm-w4OtgnL5BVgDDtPNWmfEuWdGjy34YCltJ8km68VimLm24=
Start off picking up the elemental damage and life nodes near the templar start
Pick up flame totem, freezing pulse and/or lightning tendrils. FP is a decent leveling skill and can take you all the way to merciless.

40
60
80
100


Current progress:
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Making progress on the atlas and exploring T4-T6 maps. Making good progress at about 10h/wk playtime.



Level 100 Tree:


Bandits:
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Oak - Skill point - Skill point


Full tree stats:
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Base stats
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+163 to Strength
+134 to Dexterity
+313 to Intelligence
+714.5 to maximum Mana
+1109.5 to maximum Life


Offense from tree:
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+6 to Maximum Power Charges
50% Critical Strike Chance Increase per Power Charge
112% increased Elemental Damage
97% increased Spell Damage
5% increased Attack and Cast Speed
5% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite
25% increased Attack and Cast Speed while on Consecrated Ground
20% increased Cast Speed
245% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
+105% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells
46% increased Projectile Damage
10% increased Projectile Speed
90% increased Critical Strike Chance
+129% to Critical Strike Multiplier
50% chance of Projectiles Piercing
20% increased Chaos Damage
100% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies that are affected
by no Elemental Status Ailments
+45% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Enemies that are affected
by Elemental Status Ailments
Critical Strikes ignore Enemy Monster Elemental Resistances
Non-Critical Strikes Penetrate 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances
25% chance to create Consecrated Ground when Hit, lasting 8 seconds
Consecrated Ground you create grants 40% increased Damage to you and Allies
25% chance to create Consecrated Ground on Kill, lasting 8 seconds
54% increased Power Charge Duration
300% Critical Strike Chance Increase with all Power Charges


Defense from tree:
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81% increased maximum Mana
9% reduced Mana Cost of Skills
143% increased maximum Life
91% increased maximum Energy Shield
63% increased maximum Energy Shield from Intelligence
20% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate
+25% to all Elemental Resistances
Cannot be affected by Elemental Status Ailments while on Consecrated Ground
4% of maximum Mana and Energy Shield Regenerated per second while on Consecrated Ground
60% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
2.8% of Life Regenerated per second
70% chance to Avoid interruption from Stuns while Casting
+20 to maximum Energy Shield
25% increased Evasion Rating
+5 Life gained on Kill
0.4% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life
9% increased Movement Speed
15% increased Curse Duration
15% increased Cast Speed for Curses
Enemies can have 1 additional Curse
+5 Mana gained on Kill
When Hit, 30% of Damage is taken from Mana before Life


Other:
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3% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras you Cast
20% increased Light Radius
+3 Jewel Socket



Gear
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For weapons:
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Weapons ideal affixes: Spell Dmg Spell Dmg Cold to spells Cast speed Cold dmg Crit Multi. I tend to favor dual wielding Doryani's Catalysts for the elemental damage, cast speed and leech. Leech can alternatively be on boots, Doryani's invitation, or Warlord's mark. Otherwise a rare will do.


Defensively, what we need on gear, in order of importance:
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Life, ES, Resists, Mana, Crit Multi, Mana Regen, Cast speed

Ideal rare affixes for each slot:
Body Life ES ES Res Res Res
Helm Life ES ES Res Res Res
Gloves Life ES ES Res Res Res
Boots Life ES Movespeed Res Res Res
Rings Life Mana ES Cold Dmg Mana Regen Cast Speed
Amulet Life Spell Dmg ES% Crit Multi Cast Speed Cold Dmg
Belt Life ES Open or Move Res Res Res

Perfect rares are going to be very very expensive and the sky is the limit. With the exception of the Body armor, for a budget of 1-8c a piece, you can get the majority of the required affixes to cap resists and have a sizable Life/ES pool. Gear at about 1-2c is fine at level 60, and as you approach 70, 80 you'll want to upgrade to gear with more of the ideal affixes, at T1 and T2 instead of T4-5-6.

For a body armor you want a 5L first, and settle on getting as much life/es/resist as you can for your budget. I am currently using a 500 ES, 101 life, 0 resist 5L piece I bought for ~20c.

For a budget of <1 Ex, I have 1k ES, 529 Life, 205 mana, 100% mana regen, and capped resists on gear in essence league.

Current Gear:
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Jewels
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Any with life, crit multi, spell dmg, cold crit, cold dmg, cast speed, cast speed dual weilding


Flasks
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Don't undeestimate the importance of well rolled flasks!
3x Life Flask. One for Freeze, one for Bleed, one your choice. Surgeon's for refill on crit is great for us.
1x Hybrid Flask. MoM causes us to run out of mana when taking heavy damage. This is for that edge case to keep our offense going after we've escaped. Surgeon's again is good.
1x Atziri's Promise with 15% elemental->chaos conversion. Great offensive flask with added leech, great for bosses and rares.

Other good choices:
Basalt Flask: 20% physical damage reduction
Sapphire Flask: if you prefer to keep ice spearing vs reflect



Thank you for reading my build guide!

-Arc


Edit: Removed power charges from the tree & reworked leveling trees. With no crit on gear we're overcapped during ice spear's second form with more than 3 power charges, so we can use those skill points elsewhere.
Last edited by arcandor on Sep 20, 2016, 1:03:08 PM
Last bumped on Dec 18, 2016, 12:58:39 AM
Just wanted to let you know that I've been working on a Templar using this build. I have a lot of fun with it, great clear speed and good gameplay. Generally the build feels fast and powerful.

Solo I have problems with some bosses, especially Izaro. I can handle the rest of the labyrinth without breaking a sweat, but Izaro on Merciless, even at level 75, hands me my pants-less ass. I also took a trip to Caer Blaidd and discovered the 'joys' of puncture/bleed on a squishy character. Gotta re-roll some flasks now!

Of note I'm also using Bitterdream (http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Bitterdream) with my Ice Spear, at least until I get 5L or 6L on a chest piece.

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