[2.6] Frostbolt Self-cast budget to Expensive

*This thread will be updated once the league begins*

The point of this build is to utilize the new unique jewel Frozen Trail:
http://imgur.com/a/5XpDv
This gives us GMP for free, without losing any damage.


Note: this build can be done with witch(elementalist/occultist), templar(inquisitor), and Scion(ascendant) however the DPS will be considerably less.
Bandits: Kill, alira, alira






Gem setup:
5L pledge of hands: Frostbolt, inc. crit strikes, faster casting, controlled destruction, cold pen.
6L pledge of hands: +inc crit damage

CI 2x voidbattery, The beast/shavs: Frostbolt, spell echo, faster casting, controlled destruction, cold pen, inc crit damage.

Auras: Clarity, discipline.
Low-Life aura: Blood magic - herald of ice - herald of thunder.

Golem: Lightning golem

Curse: orb of storms, curse on hit, frostbite


Progression of uniques from budget to expensive:
Start with a Pledge of Hands 5L minimum.
Links: Frostbolt, faster casting, cold pen, controlled destruction, inc. crit strikes, inc. crit damage

Next move on to first snakepit. (eventually you will want 2 of these if your gear allows it)
Grab a The Beast Fur Shawl or a high ES rare chest.

You have 2 options here:
You can either farm a shavs and transition into Low-Life now, or farm 2 void batteries first, it's really personal preferance. When you get 1 void battery you can opt to use a high ES spirit shield until you get the second, the DPS change between 1 void battery and 6l PoH isn't that big.

Once you have made the transition into LL I would then begin optimizing the rest of your gear in order to use a second snakepit.

The DPS values at the following levels with the following unique's:
NOTE THIS DOES NOT YET INCLUDE THE 2 NEW JEWELS AS I CAN NOT TEST THEM YET! EXPECT DPS TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER!


Low-Life 2x Void Battery + shavs + 2x snakepit level 91 with max power charges (all points) = 748k DPS, 95% crit chance, 574% crit multi.

CI 2x void battery + The beast Fur shawl + 2x snakepit level 91 with max power charges = 599k dps, 95% crit, 574% crit multi.

Same setup as above but with only 1 snake pit and 1 average diamond ring: 573k dps, 95% crit, 574% crit multi

CI 6L Pledge of Hands, the beast fur shawl + 1x snakepit level 91 with max power charges: 366k DPS, 95% crit, 558% crit multi.

CI 5L pledge of hands, the beast fur shawl, no snake pit level 91 with max power charges: 273k Dps, 95% crit, 440% crit multi.

Again remember these numbers do not include the new unique jewels, which will scale this even higher.

OPTIONAL UNIQUES: Winds of change, roughly 20k dps increase, marginal but if your gear can afford it why not.

As you can see, with around 1 ex you'll start around 250kish dps early on, which is more than enough to farm maps until you can double void battery when you can start doing t16s with ease. In max gear you should have the DPS to clear virtually everything in the game.


Again this guide will be updated as I progress through the league. Any comments or criticism is welcome!

Neat. Had a similar idea for frostbolt/shock nova with doryani's+vaal pact/ghost reaver.

Quick question,

I'm not 68 yet (Sitting at level 63), but with the passive respec we got for free I would like to try this (Standard), any advice on how to gear up for now until 68 when I can use a Pledge?

I have a rather limited budget (5ish Ex), that will probably go towards getting Pledge and some other items

Thank you!

how do you maintain power charges during a map? the 10% on non crit from assassin is hardly enough if you have 95% crit. I tried orb of storms + pcoc, but with the nature of frost bolt being a very long range spell, hardly anything is ever in range where this could proc off of except at bosses maybe.

I have been using this build for my starter on the new league.

I have found some troubling issues with your build, It does not appear to be 100% thought out.

Problems
1. all the information you provide is for offense, where is the defense in this build?

2. Pledge of hands requires 113 strength to use, but your tree grabs no strength.

3. Lightning golem, frostbite, cold penetration require dex but you grab no where near enough on the tree. The golem is useless because it hard to get past level 10.

4. orb of storms for procing curse, orb of storms only goes where you stand, which means you need to run into packs of monsters to drop a curse then run back to kill them, also if you have to CLICK ONCE to put the curse down, why not just flipping cast the curse manually. you get more duration and you can curse selectively from a distance.

5. gain power charge at 10% chance on non crit, with 95% chance to crit, damage fluctuates up and down, so far seems to be working, but i am skeptical.

6. single target DPS is terrible, ZiggyD tried a similar build but he knew it was going to be bad so he planned for a single target skill, not the case on this build.

7. passive tree has not been optimized, there is wasted points in locations, tree also seems incomplete, like you just stopped half way though, or just spent 5 minutes making the tree. Some examples of this is Zelot's oath, this character has 0 hp regen thats a waste of a skill point. also why 3 jewel slots when only 2 are needed? Did you have an idea for the 3rd one? You also went ear mind over matter but did not take it. did you plan on taking it?

### Here is the tree I am using currently level 72 with a 4L pledge of hands. ###
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAQFvAx4FQgceDXwN0Q5ID8QQkhEPES8RUBGWFdcV5xZAF1QXsBslG8gdFB1PH0EgbiKBIzYqCysKLJwsvy0fMjI1uTt8QZZFfElRSotLrkwtTLNQMFF0UxBWSlZjXGtd8mNDZp5tGXBSc7N_xoRIhX2GronTi3qMNox2jjyOZI7pj0aP-pMnlSCVLpeXm6GeoaEvoqOmmacrrJius7QMtvq3MbjKuZO8b76KwfPDCcNtytPP3dAf0PXZW9mG217fiuL344TpAuq66_XsGO_r8Gvw1fGK8h33pvfX-tI=

Solutions
1. for defense, I have a granite and basalt flask to mitigate phys dmg, seems to help a lot. i'm not sure of what else can be done to get better defense, but there is lots of gem slots available.

2. I spent lots of money on gear that adds enough strength to use the pledge of hands, but this is terrible because you also need to replace this expensive gear when you replace the pledge with a void battery. you need 100+ str on gear, high ES for CI/LL, and need to max your resists. getting good gear is not cheap or easy.

3. the only purpose of the golem is cast speed and its dead more then its alive. because you need more gear requirements to add dex. making gearing this character even harder. also no setup was provided to make the golem survive, so far I added minion resists and minion life in hopes of it staying alive a bit longer.

4. just self cast, give it an increased AOE gem, and while using pledge of hands you could get some increased duration on it. Maybe, maybe when you go LL you can put it on hearald of lightning.

5. you are not always at max DPS because crit ramps up as you get power charges, at most you might have 15 or so seconds of max dps before you lose it again. A possible solution would be ice spear with increased crit chance gmp and power charge on crit, just shoot one of those out before the time is up, maybe. Another solution would be to grab overcharged, behind conduit, which would allow 10% chance for a power charge on kill.

6. Maybe you could convert all cold damage to fire using Avatar of fire and cold to fire support. and single target could be flame blast, you could even use the ignite damage. This would require a big rework on the tree however.

From my experience with this build so far I would not recommend anyone else do it. It is quick at killing trash mobs and clearing maps fairly quick, but you are very squishy, and cant kill bosses very fast, which is very dangerous, also it is not cheap.

I supose that build is dead...

This skill tree has... awful pathing. Be advised to people looking at this -- this is horribly inefficient. Also no sustain for ES -- not occulist, not regen, no Essence Reaver/Vaal Pact.

Playing the build in legacy atm. Chose different tree tho. Vaal Pact n dual curse owns.

Build does not work well w/o leech and vaal pact. ES nodes are also needed.

Under 8k ES you are too much of a glass cannon.