[3.6] SHC Hybrid Winter Orb Trickster!

Hello, this is my first time creating a guide, and I'm totally open to opinions and criticism to help me improve it!

About the build

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I played quite a bit with Winter Orb elementalist during Betrayal league, and really liked the skill, but the damage wasn't so good for late game content.
I tried some Occultist/Scion versions with CwC Ice Spear but they felt kinda clunky to me, and with the new Trickster changes on 3.6 I decided to give it a shot.
I managed to clear all the content up to Shaper, but eventually died at 94 due to a Intervention lag. Currently trying the build again with few improvements.

Update: Currently at lvl 95 on new char, managed to upgrade DPS to 387k from 273k from first char


Pros

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- Fast mapping (Winter Orb + Herald of Ice clear is amazing)
- Decent enough bossing (Currently at 387k Shaper DPS per proj, 495k with Vaal RF, but a lot of room for improvement on my gear)
- Very tanky (7.5k eHP, 84% evade chance, 66% spell dodge, ghost shrouds, and more)
- 'Clean' Winter-orbing, with ~12 casts/second


Cons

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- Corrupting blood is a pain to play against (A corrupted jewel can solve it tho)
- Can work on a 5L, but really needs a 6L to shine
- Not much else really


Videos

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Adding as I play on my second character! It's currently on 190k Shaper DPS and without a 'The Perfect Form' body armour, so the final version is considerably stronger and tankier than what is shown in these videos. POB of my character during these videos: https://pastebin.com/a7YuaBXv

Pit of the Chimera w/ -%max res, extra lightning, boss dmg+atspd, frenzy on hit + incursion: https://youtu.be/AGVoxuorCMI

Maze of the Minotaur w/ extra lightning, reduced dmg from crits, ailment on hit, increased accuracy/dodge unlucky + betrayal: https://youtu.be/oarTfBJ1goM

Lair of the Hydra w/ 100% AoE, extra cold, less recovery: https://youtu.be/U66eFySbMgw

Forge of the Phoenix w/ monster speed, extra lightning, chain: https://youtu.be/-5J4QLwehK8

Shaper Kill: https://youtu.be/NDKL1u7qffo



POB

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https://pastebin.com/kQ0uv4be
Worth mentioning that POB still doesn't take into consideration the Ghost Shrouds buffs, so you pretty much have up to 36% atk/cast speed, 20% spell dodge, up to 9% reduced dmg taken that aren't being shown there.


Gear

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For gear examples, I'll be showing the gear from my old character which ripped @ 94 and a new character I'm building right now. Most of them have lot of room for improvement.

Helmet
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For the helmet I recommend looking for a ES hubris with the "Nearby enemies have -9% to cold resistance" mod from the delve. To craft one, you'd spam dense + frigid fossils on a hubris circlet base. +2 stages enchant is really good, but expensive atm.

Body Armour
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Here you have a few options, but the best imo is The Perfect Form. For alternatives, Carcass Jack is really good for clearing, or you can also just go for a hybrid ES/Eva rare.

Gloves
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Rare with as much HP/ES/Evasion/Resists as you can find. Gloves with the "40-60% increased damage against Chilled Enemies" from incursion are really good, but harder to find.

Boots
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Atziri's Step is a good option here, since it has life, high evasion and spell dodge. Alternatively, look for a rare with 30+% movespeed, life/es/eva/resists and maybe %dodge spell hits from elder bases or incursion mod.

Weapon
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Look for a rare sceptre/dagger with dmg to spells/crit multi/crit chance for spells/spell damage/cast speed/ele dmg as extra chaos/ non-chaos as extra chaos.

Shield
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Another rare here. Look for good stats overall, either offensive or defensive. I suggest prioritizing offensive stats because the defenses are really solid already.

Amulet
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The Pandemonius is BiS here, and probably the most important unique in the build. 20% cold pen + perma blind everything is just too strong. If you can't afford one, look for a rare amulet with life/resists/ES/dmg stats.

Rings
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Look for at least one rare ring with an open prefix so you can craft the -X mana cost of skills on it. It really helps when channeling for charges on boss fights. For the other ring, you can go for a rare or look for a Circle of Fear with HoI effect + cold damage for a big damage boost. Mark of the Shaper + elder ring is also worth considering.


Belt
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Again, a rare with defensive stats. ES/life/resists are all good here. %increased Cold/Elemental damage from delve is a plus here.

Flasks
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- Life flask of staunching, quicksilver of adrenaline, jade of warding, diamond of heat, dying sun (if you can't afford one, I suggest a stibnite of grounding).



Defenses

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This build has many layers of defense, making it very tanky:
- Around 8k eHP
- Perma-blind enemies (with Pandemonius), which combined with Ghost Dance ascendancy and 24k+ evasion rounds up to more than 80% evade chance.
- 66% chance to dodge spell hits (30% from perfect form's phase acro, 20% from ascendancy, 16% from atziri's step).
- Stun immunity.
- When your evasion/dodge fails, there is high mitigation from: 3% per ghost shroud up, 20% from fortify, 13%/12% against phys/fire from arctic armour. Also, each Ghost Shroud will recover over 1k ES when spent.
- Fast flame dashing/shield charging due to high cast/atspd, making it easier to dodge stuff. Since WO has auto-target, you can pretty much just focus on dodging during boss fights.


Gems

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6-link: Winter Orb - Infused Channeling - Increased Critical Strikes - GMP - Cold Pen - Hypothermia (drop cold pen on a 5L)

Shield Charge - Fortify - Faster Attacks

Zealotry (or hatred) - Discipline (or vaal discipline if you prefer) - Herald of Ice - Enlighten (isn't really necessary, but helps)

Frost Bomb - Vaal RF - Inc Duration - Arcane surge (lvl 1)

CWDT - Immortal Call - Enfeeble

Arctic Armour (if you have Perfect Form)


Bandit and Ascendancies

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Help Alira.

1, Swift Killer
2, Weave The Arcane
3, Ghost Dance
4, Escape Artist


Pantheons
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Major: Solaris > Lunaris > Others
Solaris is the best option because it helps on preventing one-shots.
Lunaris is second best due to movespeed while mapping.

Minor: Aberrath = Shakari > Others
Aberrath helps against burning ground and ignite, both being pretty noticeable since preventing ES recharge hurts.
Shakari helps against chaos damage, which is bad for the build since we're hybrid

Map Mods

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- Elemental reflect is the only no-go mod, all the rest is manageable.

- Avoid ailments/less aoe hurt a bit on the clear speed, but are doable without problems

- For no regen maps turn off one of the auras (I usually turn off discipline). With that, your mana pool is good enough to be sustained by Weave the Arcane. If you eventually run out of mana just spam shield charges and it'll come back.

Leveling

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I suggest leveling with Storm Brand + Lightning Spire Trap until you complete the second lab and grab Weave the Arcane.

Gem links for leveling:
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Storm Brand > Faster Casting > Onslaught > Conc Effect > Added Cold > Increased Crits should be the best for leveling (cold for shatters)

Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Warlord's Mark

Herald of Ice (if you can manage the mana with MoM)

Lightning Spire Trap - Ele Focus - Trap and Mine Dmg - Controlled Destruction

If you swap earlier to Winter Orb, I suggest you to use Faster Casting + Increased Duration with it to help you keep the charges up since you won't have enough cast speed yet.

Winter orb leveling links:
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WO - Infused Channeling - Inc Duration - Faster Casting - Onslaught - GMP

Drop Inc Duration for Hypothermia after 2nd lab.
Drop Onslaught for Increased Crits after blood acqueducts.
Drop Faster Casting for Cold Pen after 4th lab.

Drop Herald of Thunder+MoM for Herald of Ice+Discipline+Zealotry after getting reduced mana nodes (Sovereignty on top-left tree)

Storm brand leveling trees:
20 point-tree: https://pastebin.com/VjNh5mLH
40 point-tree: https://pastebin.com/t5cV3XS6
60 point-tree: https://pastebin.com/7S9ziQTq

Change to winter orb:
75 point-tree: https://pastebin.com/Chxg3nEQ
90 point-tree: https://pastebin.com/g0GbUt6L
Final tree: https://pastebin.com/ydfKPgL3

Good leveling uniques:

Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Skullhead, Karui Ward, Sacrificial Heart, Atziri's Foible, Lifesprig, Axiom Perpetuum, Zeel's Amplifier (rly good until you swap into a late game shield)




Last edited by rypdamyst on Apr 5, 2019, 10:07:11 AM
Last bumped on May 31, 2019, 8:00:23 AM
Reserved.

Added a few videos, will add more as I clear content!
Why are you using MoM when you reserve most of your mana?

Is that really worth it?
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H_Espenhein wrote:
Why are you using MoM when you reserve most of your mana?

Is that really worth it?


Oh sorry, I just use MoM while leveling, but ended up forgetting to take off from final tree! Fixing it now
Are the two single "increased area of effect" nodes by Amplify and Deep Wisdom meant to be allocated? Seems like a waste of 2 points but I've never played Winter Orb before.

Also you link Arcane surge to flame dash and frost bomb even though flame dash can't proc it due to Weave the Arcane. Do we really cast frost bomb enough to make use of the arcane surge there?
"
Pattywacks wrote:
Are the two single "increased area of effect" nodes by Amplify and Deep Wisdom meant to be allocated? Seems like a waste of 2 points but I've never played Winter Orb before.

Also you link Arcane surge to flame dash and frost bomb even though flame dash can't proc it due to Weave the Arcane. Do we really cast frost bomb enough to make use of the arcane surge there?


Frost Bomb linked with faster casting can proc arcane surge with one cast. Flame dash is just there to get the faster casting link aswell.

The AoE nodes both increase AoE radius of Winter Orb by 1, but I'm not so sure how impactful it is. AFAIK it's good to have AoE in Winter Orb so that the projectiles overlap, and AoE is also good for HoI clearing, so I think it's worth it.
Really happy with this build, looks really good and really happy there is a HC guide I can follow. Thanks a bunch.

What percentage is your mana unreserved? I checked the POB and discipline wasn't checked, only Vaal discipline was. I'm assuming having discipline active is very important right? With it checked it looks like 8% unreserved mana, is this good enough or does it feel bad on mana?
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Redman2112 wrote:
Really happy with this build, looks really good and really happy there is a HC guide I can follow. Thanks a bunch.

What percentage is your mana unreserved? I checked the POB and discipline wasn't checked, only Vaal discipline was. I'm assuming having discipline active is very important right? With it checked it looks like 8% unreserved mana, is this good enough or does it feel bad on mana?


Oh yea, discipline should've been checked, it helps a lot. 8% unreserved mana is more than enough, since Weave the Arcane removes mana cost from movement skills, you basically just need mana to cast winter orb and frost bomb from time to time. Also, whenever you're channeling WO and run out of mana, you will be 'recasting' the skill as soon as you get enough mana back, which constantly procs Weave the Arcane's chance to recover max mana on cast

Check out 1:33 of this video to understand it better: https://youtu.be/NDKL1u7qffo?t=92
Last edited by rypdamyst on Apr 2, 2019, 8:34:58 AM
Moved into maps and it’s so smooth. Really nice clear speed, just need some currency to get my 6link going. What would you suggest for Pantheon?
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Redman2112 wrote:
Moved into maps and it’s so smooth. Really nice clear speed, just need some currency to get my 6link going. What would you suggest for Pantheon?


Sorry, forgot do add pantheons to main post, will do it asap.

For major, I prefer Solaris because it's the best to prevent random one-shots. Lunaris is second best.

For minor, I'm currently using Aberrath for immunity against burning ground and reduced ignite duration. The other option would be Shakari, since chaos damage is also a big problem for hybrid builds in general. These two are quite better than the rest imo.

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