[3.2] Poet's Pen MoM - Glacial Cascade/Frostbolt - T15 Elder/Shaper/Guardians/ Fast Mapper

This build initially stared off as a Volatile Dead build, which is super strong on it's own, but I found the mapping a bit clunky in the sense that you have to attack twice to destroy a pack - once to create boddies with Unearth and second to trigger Volatile Dead. Mind that the orbs from VD also have a slight travel time before they hit the target. Don't get me wrong it's a fast gameplay, however I decided that I can do better and achieve even better results with a differen skill.

After trying out few skills i settled on Glacial Cascade/Frostbolt. Combining both these skills provides a fast clear speed and very good single target capabilities.

The build still utilises the same defensive mechanics from my VD build, namely MoM and Mind of the Council enabled by Beacon of Ruin, Queen of the Forest and evasion for movement speed.



1 - ABOUT THE BUILD

Videos


Pros/Cons
+Cheap to start off (only requires 2x Poet's Pen)
+Fast mapping
+Good single target DPS
+End game content tested (Uber Elder, Uber Atziri left)
+Decent evasion + life leech
+INSANE MoM sustain with Mind of the Council
+Room for upgrades with currency
-Requires basic dodging skills in boss fights
-Not HC viable w/o more defensive approach in skill tree
-Somewhat requires decent flask management (no more than any other non-faceroll build)


How it works

Beacon of Ruin

New beacon of ruin gives us Shocks from your Hits always increase Damage taken by at least 20%, which means that we dont need to hit the damage treshold to shock enemies. As a result even single point of lightning damage on our gear will shock EVERYTHING (yes, shaper and elder included) giving us effectively a 20% damage boost on enemies, further improved by our tree.


Poet's Pen


Poet's Pen have an internal cooldown of 250ms which means that anything above 4aps on fully buffed frenzy will result in attacks lost and HUGE DPS loss. Also Poet's Pen cooldown acts a little weird around it's max, meaning that 4 APS could actually cancel some attacks. It's best to test it yourself with frenzy stacks and see if there are gaps between attacks. Poet's peen cooldown can be lowered with CDR items, giving us a BIG dps boost


MoM


Mind of the Council + constant shocks from Beacon of Ruin result in an INSTANT recovery of mana against a pack of mobs, single target recovery is also very fast. This boosts our defenses considerably. I would probably not play this build without this combo. it's just too good.




2 - GEAR
Starting gear


Poet's Pens are mandatory for this build, no alternative.

Mandatory for MoM synergy, costs 1c

Crazy good for our build. Added lightning dmg to attacks/spells means we dont have to worry about adding that on our gear in order to shock. Nice leech and decent other stats. Costs 12c

4/5 link is ALL YOU NEED at the start. Bare in mind you need 160dex for it. Our source of high movement speed, however it might slow you down with very low evasion. Always use together with


Treshold jewels - quite important, GC jewels are 13c each, FB jewels are 1c.


My current gear



Expensive pieces: belt ~2ex, amulet ~2.5ex, watcher's eye ~5ex. None of these are mandatory, they are just currency upgrades. You can kill shaper without these, it will just be slower.


Flasks


Remember to keep your cold res as the highest with Wise Oak. Atziri's promise used for bosses.


Jewels



Best Watcher's eye mods = MoM clarity stuff for defense + cold pen. Other good ones - % increased cold dmg, added cold dmg.



3 - ASCENDANCY, PANTHEON, BANDITS
Ascendancy

1 - Shaper of Desolation
2 - Beacon of Ruin
3 - Pendulum of Destruction
4 - Mastermind of Discord


Pantheon

Major - Soul of the Brine King
Minor - Soul of Shakari with poison upgrade

These are mostly personal preference. Feel free to chose your own.


Bandits

Kill All - 2 passive points do much more for us than any bandit bonus.




4 - GEM SETUP
Frenzy setup


GMP, Unbound Aliments, Culling Strike are my MVPs for this setup, especially combined together. Faster Attacks helps alot with reaching our 4aps (refer to "How it works" section). Blind is just my personal preference, worth noting that The Pandemonious provides blind aswell.


GC/FB setup


GC -

Biggest damage boosts in Path of Building

FB -

Change between GMP for map clear and Hypothermia for bosses.

We can allow ourselves to use Controlled Destruction Support in both setups, because we are proccing Elemental Overload through Frenzy crits.


Utility Setups


Golem - Flame Golem provides the most raw dmg, Lightning Golem can be used to reach desired APS


Standard Immortal Call/CWDT setup. Flame Golem thrown in.


Flame Dash/Arcane Surge setup for terrain jumping and dodging boss mechanics. Arcane Surge buff provides lots of dps so try to keep it up all the time during boss fights. Makse sure it's not overleveled. Pro tip - hold down shift when casting Flame Dash for QoL usage. Test it yourself


Herald of Ice is a huge DPS boost, especially with Mastermind of Discord. Frost Bomb used for boss fights, reduces boss cold res. Clarity only used with the Watcher's Eye MoM mod ((6-10)% of Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity).

Hatred provides a big dps boost, used with Essence Worm ring to cancel out it's mana reservation.




5 - PATH OF BUILDING LINK
PoB link

https://pastebin.com/EJfZEgTN




6 - UBER ELDER?
Viable?

I have not managed to get my 15th fragment yet in over 20 red tier Elder runs (godbless RNG), however i strongly believe this build is capable of doing it with some tweaks of course.

Add Kaoms Heart, move Frenzy to a 4 link/5 link shaped gloves with Faster Attacks. Cut the CWDT setup with golem ( it will be perma dead anyway). Possibly cut Heart of Ice arc in the tree for life nodes. I would maybe consider fitting in somehow Purity of Ice. And there you go. Definitely gonna test it myself when RNG finally decides to bless me.


Thanks for reading the guide! Feel free to post questions, I will make sure to answer all of them. All feedback towards the build as well as the guide itself is HIGHLY appreciated. Have a nice loot :)






Last edited by emagie1ka on Mar 24, 2018, 10:19:42 AM
Last bumped on Apr 28, 2018, 5:58:17 PM
What stats should I look for in a amulet replacing the pandemonious jade?
Nice build, btw.
Thanks! I should probably add some info with gear replacements. Anyway, since we are not crit offensive wise it would be increased cold dmg/spell dmg. However values of these are not rly high so I would go all for defense with life/mana/res/dex to meet QotF requirements.
Great build!
Really smooth gameplay, super good leveling and early mapping is a blast.

I will start bossing when I am around level 88-90. (2-4 level to go)

As for amulet replacements, I would go with any T1 life + T1 %ES + "whatever you want" rare.
I went with Rashkaldor's Patience until I got a lucky Tul drop.


The one critique I have is the fact that QoF is really bad without flasks. So I might switch it for something else.
Last edited by EulenNatzer on Mar 31, 2018, 7:30:08 AM
Hey man, seems like a nice build! Testing it right now.

Do you have played this spec also at league start? Currently I'm looking for a league start build for the next league and wonder how we can play early on without a poet's pen? Some alternatives for the beginning? Or should I rather play it after I earned some currency with an other build?

And sorry for my bad english ;)
Last edited by 13eqki37 on Apr 1, 2018, 3:56:17 AM
not really imo, you need some core items to get the build working.

@op. ez guardians so far. gear below, any tips are appreciated.

Just wanted to say I absolutely love this build, just hit act 9 on my witch but playing it has been a huge joy. Can't wait to hit mapping.

For people reading this and possibly on the edge. For the last 2 leagues I've exclusively played melee builds and this RF Jugg because of the hype. This build is so different and fun to play give it a chance.
want to try this build. but cant find the character in ur profile. dont use pastepin so cant find the passive tree. can u do the passsive tree with planner?
Hey OP,

i just want to say that this build is very funny! :-)

Thanks for the guide!

Hi there. Loving this guide. May I have your consent to translate your guide and post it on local community forum in my country?(I'm from Asia.)
I'll note your copyright and include link to this post for sure.

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