Best synergy with Freezing Pulse: Power Syphon or Ice Spear?

Hi,

I'm levelling a second Templar and I'm using a q15 Freezing Pulse plus a q13 Ice Nova.
My play style is rather tanky, and regarding my build I'm slowly aiming at EB in order to run 6 auras.

What's the best synergy with my FP? I have a lv.5 q11 Power Syphon and could get an Ice Spear (is quality that important too?).

Should I use FP for aoe and one of the other two in single target?
Or is FP better in single target and I could turn Power Syphon in my AoE bread-and-butter spell?

Moreover, should I grab a +20 Dex node in order to use green projectile enhancement gems? Or should I get some dex/accuracy via gear only? That seems more difficult to me, as I'd have to skip other stats.


Any help is appreciated,
cheers

* Power Siphon is viable only as a main attack skill. You won't be able to maintain power charges otherwise.

* Freeze pulse, preferably with GMP over LMP, is good for both AoE and single target as you can hit with all 5 projectiles at point blank range.

* Ice spear is a good support spell for a totem, or even as your main attack, as in it's 2nd form it has +600% crit chance (snap, crackle, pop!)

* You want a couple +30 dex nodes to level up your green gems

* Spells always hit, so accuracy is irrelevant

"

guzacon wrote:

Hi,

I'm levelling a second Templar and I'm using a q15 Freezing Pulse plus a q13 Ice Nova.
My play style is rather tanky, and regarding my build I'm slowly aiming at EB in order to run 6 auras.

What's the best synergy with my FP? I have a lv.5 q11 Power Syphon and could get an Ice Spear (is quality that important too?).

Should I use FP for aoe and one of the other two in single target?
Or is FP better in single target and I could turn Power Syphon in my AoE bread-and-butter spell?

Moreover, should I grab a +20 Dex node in order to use green projectile enhancement gems? Or should I get some dex/accuracy via gear only? That seems more difficult to me, as I'd have to skip other stats.


Any help is appreciated,
cheers

First of all, Power Siphon is not a spell, which means it doesn't synergize with Freezing Pulse at all. Freezing Pulse is a spell and scales with spell damage, Power Siphon on the other hand is an attack and scales with flat elemental damage (1-3 lightning damage etc) or physical damage.

Personally, I would use Freezing Pulse for both aoe and single target, simply because its damage is incredibly good if you can shotgun it with LMP or GMP.

It is probably a good idea to keep your Ice Spear handy and leveled though, in case you need to kill something off screen or at longer range. A good way to keep it handy and leveled is to use it on a totem (as mentioned by FriarJon above).

Thanks both, I know Power Syphon is not a spell, I was referring at accuracy due all the "misses" I get while wanding around.

Basically you mean I shouldn't use power charges at all? I thought that was a nice chunk of dps I'm missing.

"

guzacon wrote:

Thanks both, I know Power Syphon is not a spell, I was referring at accuracy due all the "misses" I get while wanding around.

Basically you mean I shouldn't use power charges at all? I thought that was a nice chunk of dps I'm missing.

Power charges are great. But what we're getting at is they're an all-or-nothing affair. If you want to use Power Siphon you'll need pretty different gear and passives to optimize an elemental attack skill versus an elemental spell. With power siphon you don't need or want an offensive support spell. What you do is have 2 power siphon gems. One supported for groups (LMP + chain or fork or pierce), one for single target (with crit damage gem). Then you stack damage auras with the Inner Force passive.

If you go spells, flat elemental damage on gear, elem/phys damage wands, attack speed, weapon elemental dmg, and elemental auras are useless. Stacking spell damage and crit is where it's at. You can also take advantage of spell crit, which is useless for power siphon since it's an attack.

So the recommendation is to either keep wanding with power siphon, or ditch it and go all spells.