[3.3] Craiceann's Bleed Block Sunder Gladiator (Expensive)

Introduction:

Since finding out about the Craiceann's armour set in Bestiary I really wanted to make a build with it. Because it links decent physical damage reduction with block I decided to go Gladiator and ended up trying to make a character that pretty much couldn't die.


Videos:

T13 Gorge with crit chance and 40% elemental resistance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGkI4oxFJE4&feature=youtu.be

T15 Elder fight(sry about the video quality):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz-bT8Sw_dU

T16 Chimera fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLfUnvFeyY


Pros/Cons:

+Very tanky - hard to die even if you try to
+Bleed explosions are fun
+Fairly decent clear speed
+Can do all map mods though things like block reduction and anti-bleed are annoying
+Can easily maim and blind bosses giving even more defence
+Immune to bleed and stun
+Decent at pvp if anyone cares about that (will try HoG soon and see if i can do it)
+CRABS
+Can impress noobs by spamming the crab aura in their hideouts :)

-Expensive gear; needs a few ex to get going
-DoT can be dangerous if you ignore your health bar but is otherwise irrelevant
-Very slow vs bosses
-Fairly low max life compared to typical builds (not that it matters)


Items:

Spoiler

Required:

Whispering Ice build needs Whispering Ice...



Strongly Recommended:

Astramentis gives so much intelligence (and all the strength and dexterity you will need) that pretty much nothing can beat it. If you really want to use a rare amulet instead, you would probably have to spend a lot more currency for something with high Attributes and ES, which could make it slightly easier to get max resists but still not really worth it.

Black Sun Crest gives some really nice % increased Int and the +1 to gem level is also great for the auras, especially Discipline.

Cyclopean Coil gives up to 15% increased Attributes which easily beats anything else in terms of Intelligence which gives a huge boots to damage and ES.


Rares:

This build does not use Perandus rings. I know that such builds can reach over 2k Int, but this build needs more ES due to not having leech. You can also cap your resistances more easily with rares.

you want:

Chest, Gloves and Rings: intelligence, ES and resistances

Boots: Movement speed (at least 25%), intelligence, ES, resistances


Alternatives:

Sin Trek are a great alternative if you want to save some currency, but they only have up to 30 Intelligence and don't have any resistances.

This is a bit of a hard one and can cost a lot because you usually can't get intelligence on a belt but thanks to the Essence of Spite you can. Get a blank crystal belt and gl. In comparison to the Cyclopean Coil, The Crystal Belt loses a lot of damage (around 1k per hit) only to gain a few hundred ES (with a max ES roll) and maybe some resistances.

Shavraonne's Wrappings:


Flasks:

I'm lazy and don't really care about flasks most of the time. As long as you have something against bleed and freeze you are pretty much good to go. If you aren't a complete noob like me though then you probably also want something to counter ignite, maybe also shock and curses.


Jewels:

(Optional) Brute Force Solution for the socket under the Templar starting area. Need to get one with at least 20 Int. Can also put one at the Ancestral Bond socket if you want.

(Optional) Legacy Energy from Within can be really nice at the Melding cluster. I happen to have a 12% legacy one from before the nerf. If you play on standard and you can afford a legacy one then great but if not then it might just be better to get a jewel with Int and spend the 4 skill points on other passives instead.

Other than that, you just want intelligence with any of the following: increased ES, ES recharge rate, faster start of ES recharge, any of the damage mods that affect aoe cold spell damage, cast speed. If you are unable to max your resists on your gear then you can get some on your Jewels.


My Current Gear:


Note: the chest does not need to be a 6l (see below in gem links)


Gem Links:

Spoiler



Icestorm: Spell Totem, Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus, Cotrolled Destruction, Cold Penetration, Faster Casting.

Extra info:
Spoiler
Spell echo does not work with totems. I always leave Conc. Effect in the setup. Having 4 totems covers a large enough area even with this.


Auras (helmet): Discipline, Enlighten, any 2 Purity auras.

Extra info:
Spoiler
I personally use Purity of Ice and Fire because you get the +1 to maximum lightning resistance from the tree. If theres specific content you want to run then you could even have multiple different setups for this. Arctic armour is also nice if you want.


Curses: 5l: Orb of Storms, Curse on Hit, Frostbite, Temporal Chains, Increased Critical Strikes

6l: either Elemental Weakness/Enfeeble if you can get a +1 curse amulet or just something like Increased Duration or Blind Support.

Extra info:
Spoiler
I prefer Frostbite and Temp Chains to Ele Weakness and Enfeeble because I like a bit of damage and temp chains not only slows enemies providing some nice defence, but also lets you do more damage before they move out of your spells.


In Gloves/Boots: 2l: Flame Dash, Faster Casting. 2l: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1), Phase Run (lvl 3).
Summon Flame/Stone Golem, Minion and Totem Elemental Resistances, Minion Life + Portal or whatever you want.

Extra info:
Spoiler
You could put the golem on a CWDT setup if you want. Phase run is great for totem builds because the primary buff only gets cancelled when you use a skill. When you get the buff you get 80% reduced visibility and you can often see enemies stop and target your totems or golem instead.


MF Possibility:

Weapon Swap: It is possible to have a second 6s Whispering ice with Spell Totem, Culling Strike, Increased Item Rarity and Increased Item Quantity and two damage Gems.

Extra info:
Spoiler
When the weapon swap is between the same skill, the totems don't despawn and will continue to use Icestorm. I have not yet tested this properly so I'm not sure whether this will really be viable but this could be a nice and easy way to cull bosses and get some extra drops


Skill Tree:

Spoiler
Here's the lvl 90 skill tree in both PoB and poeplanner:

https://pastebin.com/VyvUg2gL

https://poeplanner.com/AAwAAPkADCUAAHn53TdHa6xFR8BmtQTkItWmKU-ePIx2GmydrqcIj0YdFPrSZp5Y5SoTWiuj8nIPlG9mVNgkVkg2xR8CBAfr5F8q6-58g6eUXl3R_RzcjxoRLSychEhca8NtTLPQH-_rLR-VIMHzgh6IQh3ZQ1T0cR1PNbmnKxFQbRnZWxslS67pAsHF7Bgsv4_60NBHBtvnbAjxin_GkyfviPk3189Jsb6KoS-4kyj6V8kNfDeDpussppDWEZYOSF3yKwoRL6IuUEKMNjy9LEZFfILH-ehBh7c-g8w8LYNf98GboffXGGo5UlgHKyYDmnUqcWJoWgRROhaGggAAAAAA

Last 10 points if you ever get them can be used to get any cmbinations of the following:
Heart of Ice
Storm Weaver
Frost Walker
Jewel Sockets with weak passives leading to them
Sanctity and the 30Int node on the way to it
Growth and decay/Combat Stamina

Not sure if I missed any but if you get this far you will know what else you want.

LL Version:

https://pastebin.com/uk41GvA6

You can get about 20% more damage with this than the other version but you also lose about 1/3 of your ES if using legacy ES gear.

Though I have not tried this version, this is the better version to use in temporary leagues as the ES you can get on rares will not be that much better that a Shavs anyway, making the damage increase of LL easily worth it.


Damage Calculation:

Spoiler
Tl;dr
-Maximum possible is about 1.8M Shaper and 3M regualr DPS
-Realistically going to be about 1/10 of that depending on enemy size and movement

The actual DPS of icestorm is impossible to calculate

This is because you can not know how many projectiles actually hit an enemy. An approximation can be made by calculating the maximum possible DPS, which is achieved if every single projectile hits the enemy, and then estimating a percentage of actual hits.

The nature of this build further complicates this though as it first takes time to place each totem and each totem will then require a certain amount of time to cast the skill. Additionally, each skill will last for, in my case, 3.9s which means that multiple instances of the skill are active simultaneously. It will of course take some time for this to wind up to the maximum number of instances of the skill active at the same time.

Damage calculations are vs Shaper if not stated otherwise which means that for other content damage will be higher.

Totem placement speed is 0.25s
Cast time is 0.69s
Duration is 3.9s

from these we can see that it will take about 5s to place all totems and for them to reach max DPS which in may case will come to about 1.8M Shaper, or about 3M regular DPS. During the first 5s, or 4s if the totems are already active but need to start over because the enemy moves, there will be far fewer instances of the skill active and the DPS will go down to about 350k.

So already the probable actual DPS is way lower. On top of that if about half of the projectiles don't even hit the enemy ~ 180k DPS. This also does not take totem deaths into consideration which can further reduce the DPS.


Leveling Tips:

Spoiler
Start with Frostbolt, then get 2x Firestorm gems, one linked to spell totem, one self cast until level 33. By then you should have Ancestral bond and can then go dual Icestorm totems. From there just spend the rest of the passives in just about any order you want. Get CI once you reach the point where your life gets risky low and you start noticing chaos damage. Also probably best to get the nodes past Shaper last and get Zealot's Oath once you have life regen.


Ascendancy:

Spoiler
Of course you need to go Hierophant so you can get 4 totems. I went Sanctuary of Thought first and then got my 2 extra totems after because the mana cost of the totems can get quite high.


Enchantments:

Spoiler
Icestorm doesn't have an enchantment so that kind of sucks. The only ones that are useful are either Flame/Stone Golem Effect or Frostibte Effect. Phase Run Duration is slightly better than nothing too.

Pretty much all glove enchantments suck because they won't do damage so the only ones that will do anything are ones with some kind of utility purpose like chill/distraction.

Boot enchantments are pretty nice though. Best one is: Resistance penetration if you haven't killed recently. Life regen if hit and movement speed if you havent been hit are also okish.


Bandits:

Spoiler
The passive skill points are the best. The cast and movement speed one could be good too but you could pretty much get similar stats from the Harrier notable if you want and that only costs one point so whether its worth it is up to you.



Let me know if I missed anything in the comments. Thanks



Last bumped on Jun 15, 2018, 11:49:09 AM

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