[3.5] Make self-cast great again- Vortex Coldsnap Occultist-League starter

Update 2:

-I prefer the look of Unearth-GMP-LMP instead Desecrate-Spell cascade so I changed to that. It doesn't change anything actually.

- I take Elemental Equilibrium and swap in Storm brand - Blind - Increased critical strike for more damage. (not sure if it works, experimenting)

- Got my 6 link so I respec 4 life nodes to get to the dodge on the ranger tree after being shotgun to death offscreen by a mob on a tier 14 map.

-Crafted chaos res on all my gear because fuck Syndicate.

Update 1:

I changed the build significantly, because I have found a new unique in Betrayal, that fits perfectly for this build:



This helps with one problem with the build: there is no currently no form of life recovery outside of flask. With this unique, combined with the fact that we trigger descecrate instead of frostbomb every 5 seconds (we move Frostbomb to offhand wand to trigger), we recover full life and mana every 5 seconds. This also enables us to do no regen map more easily save 3 points pathing to Eldricht Battery. The downside is that we lose a bit of AoE for cold snap (not important) and damage for cold snap (somewhat annoying but cold snap only contributes to 1/3 of our damage).

I also swap out Bonechill from the vortex main setup and replace it with Elemental focus, because Chill with Cold snap is enough. Big mistake there, sorry! An exile I met in game pointed that out, many thanks to him.

Updates on gear section. Some gears are cheaper than expected, so I edited the guide to notice that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqYPet4HLR0&feature=youtu.be

My computer can't record better. Not deathless, sorry, my skill is limited :D I changed my setup a bit though

- What makes this build different from other cold snap build? 3.5 introduced a new way to scale the cold spell - cold damge overtime multiplier, coupled with the new Occultist nodes, it basically doubles the damage of cold damage over time skills.

- 3.5 also introduces this awesome and greate quality of life veiled mod:
We can craft this mod on any one handed weapon or 2 handed staff, for only 3 chaos (as a suffix). I use this to trigger Desecrate + Spell Cascade for Feast of Flesh to consume corpses for bosses. And then on the other wand I trigger frostbolt so that when I cast vortex every bolts trigger for clearspeed boost. It also helps with triggering Elemental Overload. I can weapon swap this to another wand to trigger frostbomb to help with Single target.

- It is life based because it is a league starter, and so that we can buy cap resistance and at the the time find more damage on gear more easily. Because we need a shaper helmet with hypothermia + increased area of effect to 6 link cold snap, and another 6 link for vortex.

- We use dual curse temporal chain - enfeeble defensively, coupled with scaling chill effect for bonechill support gem-> Chill effect is basically another damage multiplier for us in 3.5. Later we can craft Aspect of the spider for another defensive aura -> very many layers of defense. But don't be overconfident though, because the Betrayal league mobs are very rippy, but at least you will die less compared to other builds.

- Stay tuned, this is not final form. I might update my guide.

https://pastebin.com/ZuGQ4JNz
320k Cold Dot, with 100k Vaal Cold Snap, 6k life with Tabula

- Weapons: we dual wield wands/scepter/mace, because shields can't use the trigger mod, which I find is one of the most interesting mod in this 3.5 expansion: it basically improves our quality of life massively and acts as another damage multiplier.

I have:


What you need on weapon at the minimum: high spell damage/cold damage/elemental damage, open suffix to craft, and cold damage multiplier. The end, very cheap right now. Of course, if you can afford any other beneficial mods, then it's even more good, but this is a leage starter build so I will stay true to the spirit.

-Helmet:



This helm saves us 3 points pathing to Eldricht battery, which is equivalent to tier 2 life mod on a rare helm because we can spend the points else where on the tree to increase life. In addition, Fease of Fleash is a trigger skill that consumes all corpses round you (maximum 10 corpses) for 400 life + mana + ES for each corpse. Basically combined with our trigger spell, we recover full life + mana + es every 5 seconds. The +1 socketed gems are very good for curses.

You could roll trigger a socketed gem everytime you focus as a veiled mod. We can use it to trigger frostbomb, but unfortunately, I can't link curses in there because that means everytime I focus it just also casts my aura, making me have to cast my curse auras again. I think this is a bug and am waiting for the fix. Until then, just socket your curses there and use frostbomb in your weapon swap.

-Body amour: a Tabula rasa for the league starter ( I'm still using it). And then later in the league, when the 6 links are cheaper, buy a white 6 link for 50-60 chaos ( Remember you need blue and green gems, so buy the bases of items accordingly: Energy shield and Evasion base, or pure Energy shield, Energy shield is useful for Eldricht battery, so that we can reserve all of our mana later), then buy as high tier Essence of greed as possible, then try to craft it on gear. If the craft rolls another good 2 res on it, then you are good to go.



-Belt: at first just buy a belt with high life and resist : find a belt with >110 life (Leather belt), with one good res and open suffix. Then you craft another res on it, and you are done. Later in the league try to find cool down reduction on the belt, it helps proc spell more often (not needed though)


-Glove: Same story, high life (>75) and another res with open suffix, and craft another res on it. Later in the league upgrade it with cold damage over time multiplier glove mod.


-2 Rings: High life 2 stone rings / Coral rings, with another resist mod, and open suffix. Same story.


- Boots: Find a boot with the mod : Grant level 20 aspect of the spider skill. You need high life, movement speed, and res as the other mods. Find any boot with 3 of the above mods ( must include Grant level 20 Aspect of the spider), with open affix to craft the other. It is the cheapest variant.



-Amulet: We fill our dexterity here. You need life + dexterity, then craft res on it. Later find amulet with cold damage over time multiplier ( you see a pattern here?, that's basically how we scale)



-Jewels: Life and increased effect of chill / Cold damge multiplier jewels.

-Flask: Look at my gear to see the flasks, and craft exactly like that. I like hp flasks and ms flask for easier Uber lab/ trials, instant recovery helps me in many situation, it really helps. Flask this league is so easy to craft with bestiary craft, so go for it. ( You can buy bauble at the Oriath )
One more thing, since incursion is prevalent this league, you need a chaos mod resistance somewhere on the gear. Basically, always try to find an item with open suffix / prefix to craft life/res on it, that way you will find much cheaper item. It's very easy to hear.



With this setup I'm able to reach 200k DoT dps, which is very respectable considering it is a damage over time build and there is much room for improvement.

On Weapons:

Frostbolt - Greater multiple projectiles - Increased Critical Strike chance (To proc EO)

Desecrate- Increassed Duration (Corpse lasts longer that trigger spell cooldown -> good for the Helmet) - Spell cascasade OR equivalent setup:

Unearth - GMP - LMP ( I think it looks nicer, less lag on my machine)

Movement:
Lightning warp - Reduced duration - Faster casting - fourth link can be Arcange surge / Swift affliction.

Cold snap setup:
Vaal Coldsnap - Bonechill- Efficacy-Hypothermia

Vortex setup on body armour:
Vortex- Elemetal focus- Efficacy-Swift affliction-Hypothermia-Controlled destruction

Why Elemental focus? Because Bonechill with the coldsnap is enough (It affects both skills) and we use instead Elemental focus for another large modifier.

Curse setup:
Blasphemy-Enfeeble-Temporal chain on helmet

Kill all ( best for damage and survivability) / Alira (For feels good factor and movement speed, I like it so I chose Alira ).

Soul of Lunaris : Try to upgrade it as soon as possible, projectiles in incursion are very rippy, it really helps.

Minor god: the one with life flask to do trial /uber (help massively). Otherwise choose the one with attack speed slow (Because we stacks so much slow). (Overall not important to upgrade this)

Every ascendency node has a major impact on our build.
Take Frigid wake as soon as possible.
Then Profane bloom -> Feels good factor
Then Melediction.
You can delay the last node until you have 5k hp (around level 80). Until then to run 2 curses you take the additional curse on the tree for me. Respec later.

Overall: the most important nodes on the tree: All cold damage multiplier nodes, Elemental Overload (use Cast on damage taken + Ice spear while leveling to trigger this, until u have this setup, dont take this node, because cold DoT casts are really slow with slow crit chance), Increased area nodes.
You don't have mana issues until much later. So don't take Eldricht Battery while leveling.

1. The gems we need are all level 28 required gem. Arctic breath / Cold snap is dog shit clear without some increased AoE (Well Arctic breath is still dogshit with AoE). So I recommend you go with Arc till you have done your first Ascendency, and respec to get Area nodes and cold multiplier nodes. That means around act 4 -5.
2. Dexterity can be a bit lackey -> Take the dexterity node near Elemental overload. Respec later.
3. Level Blasphemy and curses gems to use them later when you have enough mana regen.
4. League starter is especially hard on resistance: use elemental resistance aura to mitigate this, because our build doesn't any need early auras.
5. To get the triggered spell mod, you need to find an veiled item and unveil it. If you see that mod, choose it immediately and it will appear on your crafting table (price 3 chaos).
If you can't find it yet, find someone to craft it for you. Or Pm me in game with crafting material. I would gladly help.
That's it, thanks for reading my guide. Hope I will hear from your feedback )).