[2.5] CI Witch Scorching Ray CWC Whispering Ice - Version 2.0 Released - Now with more damage!

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Dreschau wrote:

I haven't personally had an issue with stuns and have zero qualms about recommending this build to anyone. Hell after seeing it in action 2 other guys from my guild bought whispering ice's yesterday and started down this path of win.

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SasoriOtoko wrote:

Just wanted to say this is a very awesome build! I get so frustrated seeing builds that require Shavs, Skyforths and 3,000 exalts worth of gear so I usually create my own. But this is pure genius...definitely a working man's build and I really like the fact that it takes advantage of new and old skills.

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Just hit act 4 merc. This is hands down one of the most fun I've ever had with any build. I was playing this morning and my girl walked by while I was doing a breach and she says "you're like a spinning laser raining destruction" and she is exactly correct.

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stoudtlr wrote:

Respecced a level 70 witch to this to try it out and love it. Will definitely be looking to this to try from scratch as my next league starter. Just did a yellow level 74 twinned catacombs map at level 72 and never dropped below about 75% ES. The leach in this build is really awesome. Thanks so much OP! I think I've found a new favorite.

How do you deal with stuns?
Read tab about stuns.

What is our main damage?
Icestorm

Is icestorm casted on Scorching ray or Cursor?
Icestorm is casted where you hold your cursor, this is why cast speed is not a priority in this build, since the turn speed on scorching ray is not a factor in our clear speed

How is your build compared to "The Curse Whisperer - Tri-Curse CI Whispering Ice" or any other build
Getting tired of comparing builds tbh, this is not a competition on who is best, but about playing what you find fun and entertaining, what suits your playstyle, I am not gonna answer more comparison questions than I already did.

Is this build hc viable?
Yes, just swap the CwDT curse in chest to temporal chains or enfeeble.

Did you level without health notes?
Yes I did. Without any trouble.
Low level ES gear with health on is really cheap, if you want you can spec into health notes as another commenter did and respec freely from quest points.

When did you spec into CI?
Around 60-70'ish, I recommend 4k ES before swapping

Do you have mana troubles?
No. Scorching ray is only a 3 link with a 18 mana cost (level 19 gem), it's really cheap to sustain.

Are there any map mods you can't run?
So far no.

Can this build clear end game?
99.99% that this build can clear everything (Currently only took down 1 of the guardians, I dont have the map for the others). Still omw to shaper/uber atziri, but I will update you and post video when I get there.

Is this build expensive?
Far from. Our core items costs around 10c (that's what I paid atleast), then you have to jewel your whispering ice, which is probably the most expensive thing in this build.
You need no 6 link (or even 5 link) to run this build, no shav, skyforth or a million ex.

Is your question not on this list, feel free to comment, I love your feedback and I love to hear how it goes with your version or changes on my build <3

Why Not Firestorm?
Why is Icestorm better than firestorm you ask?
Firestorm has a cast speed on 0.9 seconds as base, where as icestorm has a base speed on 1 second.
This was my first factor, since CWC doesn't regard the spells cast speed, and just cast it every 0.35 seconds, we get an extra 0.1 seconds freely from picking icestorm.
Icestorm also outscales firestorm in duration and we get a free gem slot (since icestorm is in the staff itself and not as a socketed gem)
We can also scale on both frost and fire damage notes/jewels since we are using pyre.
The Great thing about whispering ice is also that we don't have to 6 link the weapon, only 3 link.

WI vs CWC (pros and cons)
CWC replaces spell echo, Scorching ray replaces controlled destruction.

Pros:
Can run temp chains without cast speed reduction
Close to no mana cost
You get a flame laz0r
You dont have to get any cast speed
You can prefire on bosses forever without running oom
No mana regen maps + hex proof are a joke
Higher elemental overload uptime due to no controlled destruction (currently at 10.4 % crit, 16ish% with boot enchant)

Cons:
Slower clear speed
Uptime start on the first cast
Slower upscaling in damage (2.8 seconds to get full SR stacks)

Cast Speed
Icestorm has a normal cast speed on 1 second, but when you add in the cwc that casts every 0.35 second you get 2.86 casts per second from the CWC alone.
This is a 186 % Cast speed increase from CWC.
Not only that, but CWC also adds a 10 % more damage modifier to the supported skill (icestorm) at level 21 (Whispering ice gives +1 to socketed support gems)
So cwc = 186 % cast speed + 10 % more damage
Spell echo = 70 % more cast speed + 10 % LESS damage


Scorching Ray
Why did I choose scorching ray as the channeling ability?
Scorching Ray in it self has a really high base damage when charged up, but it is also a pure fire ability and since we are converting our cold damage 100 % to fire with pyre, we can scale the same damage on it.
Scorching Ray also has the amazing mechanic that is reduced the targets fire resistance with 3 % per stack (24 % max stacked), which is amazing for our icestorm (it's like having a minor fire penetration freely)
Scorching ray is also not an on hit effect, and does therefore not reflect any damage, and it can penetrate annoying enemies with proximity shields.

Damage Calculations
I currently have a spread sheet in excel, but it is not finished, and I will upload it when it is.

Defenses
This build is pretty tanky and can tank close to everything.
We utilize the channeling ability by using arctic armour, since we will be stationary vs a lot of bosses. This gives us 13 % less physical damage taken and 12 % less fire damage taken.
We also use 3 endurance charges we get from warlords marks which gives us an additional 12 % physical damage reduction and 12 % all resistance, and provide a nice boost to our immortal call (mine is currently on 2.8 seconds or so when it pops.
Besides are mitigation we have a huge energy shield (I am currently on 10.2 k at level 84).
I also utilize ghost reaver since we have a Life leech support gem + warlords mark, and vaal pact later on, which gives me immense life leech.
The good thing about icestorm is that even tho we are moving, our icestorm will still be ongoing for 4 seconds'ish, after the cast, and will leech for us on bosses and whatever it can hit even we are moving/taking a small stun or something else.

Ascendancy

Bandits

No Unwavering stance skill tree (currently using)

Unwavering Stance - (Beta)

1-12 I started my levelling by picking up blight at level 1, I then added a flame totem.

12-33 I picked up scorching ray and a spell totem with scorching ray and used this untill level 33 (Other commenters have said they uses SRS to level, which also worked great)

33-38 equip whispering ice and use icestorm to level

38-100 get CWC after defeating kaom and daresso and then start using your main setup! :)

BIS Item list

My Gear level 90 17-12-16

My Gear level 81 11-12-16

My Gear level 72 09-12-16

Enchants

Flasks & Boss Flasks

Uniques

Elemental Reflect

Avoid elemental reflect untill you clear uber lab and get the 50 % reduction ascendancy, after that you can play elemental reflect easily (this is tested, you will take 0 damage and leech more than you take).
BEWARE Playing elemental reflect with -max resists or cursed with elemental weakness can provide issues if you are not overcapped in resists.

Low regen/No regen (mana,life,es)

I have played low regen maps and 0% regen maps without problems.
When playing 0 regen maps, swap out one of your quicksilvers for mana flask, so if you dont get the leech of your warlords mark, you pop the potion and you are good to go.
If you are scared about running out of mana and your potion because of your small mana pool, remove arctic armour for the map and you should have absoloutly no problems.

Hexproof/curse immune maps

Not a problem

I havn't experienced any problems with any map mods so far except ele weakness + reflect, feel free to ask questions about other map mods that you might find troublesome

This seems to be a really popular questions, so let me just answer everyone at once here.

How do you avoid stuns?
Our build consists of a lot of different defenses for stuns that all in all adds up to a 99,99 % solid proof defense against stuns.

Aslong as you have 1 ES (and since you are CI, you will always have 1 ES, otherwise you will be dead) you will have 50 % chance to avoid stuns. This is our core defense.

In the talent tree we spec into practical application and the two side notes, which gives us a 55 % chance to avoid stuns while casting, this is a seperate roll from the ES stun avoidance. This is our middle defense.

Besides these items we have enchants on boots.
This enchant gives us 50/65/80 % if we've killed recently (which is close to always, even bosses have mob spawn almost always). This is our extra defense to our middle layer.

Our outer defense against stuns consists of flasks.
The flasks we run are granite and jade, and in some situations basalt rolled with stun recovery (55 %).
Granite reduces all phys damage we take, making stun durations less.
Jade flasks makes us able to avoid (30 % at level 84)
Basalt flask gives us 20 % physical damage reduction making stun durations less, and gives us 55 % recovery speed if crafted for, for even faster recovery.

So let's sum that up:

Are we killing stuff and shooting? You can't be stunned.
Are we running and not shooting, then we pop flasks, which gives us 30 % chance to evade the hit, then we have 50 % chance to avoid the stun, then the flasks will negate some of the damage, making small hits not stun us, and big ones stun for a lot less duration.
Now if we do get stunned, we pop immortal call (our inner defense), for 3 seconds making us immune to all physical damage.

If all of this is not enough for you I can recommend you the following items:

Flask : Kiara's Determination - Onslaught and stun, freeze, chill, curse, immunity for 2.5 seconds
Ring : Valyrium Moonstone - makes your stun threshold scale on ES instead of life
Change the build to go towards unwavering stance (link to my UW build under Skill trees)

But let me say, I have had no problems at all with stuns during my levelling or mapping. (and I am currently lvl 90, with uberlab down at 75, atziri at 72, clearing guardians T16 atm).
Let me quote another comment to back up my statement:

18-12-16 level 90 (Before my 2.0 Update! My dps is now a little bit higher)

09-12-16 level 72

Xoph's Breachstone downed 09-12-16 as level 71
Atziri downed 09-12-16 as level 72
Uber Lab 3 keys downed 09-12-16 as level 75
Tul's Breachstone downed 10-12-16 as level 79
Esh's Breach stone downed 13-12-16 as level 87

I will upload uber atziri, shaper etc later on

Atziri and 2 breaches as level 74 - Deathless

Uber lab with full mods (3keys) as level 75 - Deathless
I messed this one up badly, I didn't use any defensive pots, and I ran into traps and such. Too sleepy, but I survived!

Xoph's Domain as level 80. Easily facetanking boss - Deathless

Esh's Domain as level 89 - Deathless

T15 Rigwald as level 89 - Deathless
First time I meet Rigwald, so I had no idea what stuff he could do, went easy as expected tho'.

Tul's Domain as level 90 - Deathless

T16 Guardian of the Minotaur as level 90 - Rare UNID Corrupted - Deathless

Weapon 6 Socket 3 Link BBBBRR

[Scorching Ray + Cast when Channeling + Controlled Destruction] + Life Leech + Conc Effect + Fire Penetration

Only SR, CWC and EF has to be linked, since Scorching ray doesn't get any effect of the 3 ladder support gems.

Body Armour 4(6) Link BBRG + BB

Cast when Damage Taken + Ball lightning + Curse on Hit + Flammability or Enfeeble/Temp chains + Orb of Storms on 5 link + Increased AOE/Crit chance on 6 link OR if you have a +1 curse corrupted neck/running doedre ring, swap the 6th gem with flammabiltiy, temp or enfeeble.

Helmet 4 socket 2 link BBRG

Blasphemy + Warlords Mark - Arctic armour + Discipline

Gloves 4 Socket 4 Link RRRB

Cast when Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Increased Duration + Vaal lightning trap

Boots 4 socket 2 link BBRG

Summon Flame Golem + Summon Ice Golem + Flame Dash + Faster Casting

Get jewels with
Int > Spell Damage/spell damage while wielding a staff/fire damage > damage > cold damage > str/dex > cast speed
My current jewels:


The brute force is placed near the templar area and the fertile mind is placed near vaal pact.

My next guide will be about my Elemental Volleyfire Barrage Ranger!

1.1 Update

1.2 Update

1.3 Update

1.4 Update

1.5 Update

1.6 Update

1.7 Update

1.8 Update

2.0 Update (Major!)

I wont be making any vids/stream before January since I am in the middle of moving and studying up to the holidays. But you can follow me on:
https://www.twitch.tv/awesatura
and
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo2-ObhV0hXKuvh6hipySvg