[3.13] CREEPING FROST Trickster Build. (4+ Million DoT DPS). UBER ELDER done EZ! FORGET VORTEX!

Hello everyone!
In 3.5 we've got a massive rework of Cold Skills, giving as a lot of new ways to scale cold damage. While everyone were playing Cold Snap and Vortex, i was pretty thrilled with the Arctic Breath rework. The damage was not there yet in 3.5, but surprisingly, in 3.6 the damage HAS ARRIVED and skill is more viable than before now! Look no further if you want to play something off-meta and not a meme build as well :)
In 3.11 Arctic Breath has been renamed to CREEPING FROST!

Big props to Invalesco's Cold Snap/Vortex build here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2288726 . If you are looking for one: look no further. Some ideas (like proper Bonechill calculations) are inspired by his build.
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VIDEO BUILD GUIDE:
https://youtu.be/xRKjq2QXGYk
V 1.8 UPDATE (15/01/2021)
-POB updated for 3.13
-less damage now thanx to Trickster nerfs, but nothing crazy
V 1.7 UPDATE (26/06/2020)
-Skill has been renamed to Creeping Frost! lol
-POB updated for 3.11
-switched Empower for Energy Leech as a cheaper option
V 1.6 UPDATE (12/03/2020)
-POB updated for 3.10
V 1.5 UPDATE (25/01/2020)
-POB updated with some current gen +1 wand and shield as well as sick +1 int amulet that i discovered were possible now.
The damage is over 4 million now, but keep in mind this gear is expensive to get, but absolutely possible.
V 1.4 UPDATE (12/12/2019)
-POB updated for 3.9 (added Pantheons so make sure you use FORK for POB)
V 1.3 UPDATE (06/09/2019)
-POB updated for 3.8
V 1.2 UPDATE (06/06/2019)
-POB updated for 3.7
-Ascendancy have been gutted for less cast speed as well as longer Ghost Shroud generation. Still not bad at all.
-Light Eater has relocated closer to cold nodes and now cannot be used, because he's being touched by the Might of the Meek AOE. A little less leech now and no damage on Full Life.
-dropped starting ES nodes in Witch Area (they are SHIT now!)
-took Insightfulness instead
-Wicked Ward is now on the tree and is optional
V 1.1 Update (21/04/2019):
-Pob updated with minor fixes
-Added Synthesis League fresh Uber Elder / Guardians videos
-Added Synthesis gear to END-GAME section
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http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/arctic-breath-trickster-build-for-path-of-exile/
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How does Creeping Frost (Arctic Breath) / Cold Snap combo works?
Arctic Breath is a projectile cold spell which explodes on impact creating CHILLING area which does cold damage over time and crawls towards enemies. Up to 10 areas at once (do NOT stack!). So it's like you shoot your Cold Snaps. At the same time we actually have Cold Snap on top of it, which gives Frenzy Charges as well as provides massive cold buff to Creeping Frost (Arctic Breath) via Bonechill support gem. With Frost Bomb, Elemental Weakness and Cinderswallow Urn procced by Armageddon Brand for both Elemental Overload and EE at once, all on top of everything else we achieve massive 3.5 MILLION dps.
Moreover, i decided to go Trickster route to help with cast speed as well as utilize ENERGY SHIELD LEECH nodes more effectively! Yes, we will be leeching hard here! So more potential sustain. 3K/hit actually. And yeah, it helps
Where damage comes from?
1) Damage Over Time
2) Cold Damage Over Time Multiplier (tree, crafted mods, etc)
3) Cold Damage
4) +1-2 to Gem / Duration gems Levels (chest)
5) Curses (Elemental Weakness / Frostbite)
6) In the very last end-game form we will be reserving a part of our life with Blood Magic and some auras (Disipline + Clarity) and allocating Pain Attunement passive to give as 30% MORE Spell Damage while on Low Life (Low Life is <35% life)
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1) PROS
Spoiler

+pretty safe safe (defensive Curse, 9-10K+ ES, 3000 ES/leech on hit)
+easy to league start (can run on Uniques with good sustain), if you are familiar with the game in general
+requires only 1 6-Link for end-game
+all mods, even no mana regen is possible

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2) CONS
Spoiler

-not a super fast caster, even with Trickster (base cast time on AB is high)
-End-Game bossing takes a while (DoTs)
-Not super newbie friendly as you need some knowledge on playing life/hybrid builds and then transition to CI and eventually to Low-Life.
-Low-Life Chest (Shavronne's Wrappings) is usually very expensive at the start of the league, so you will playing CI for a while.

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3) Skill Tree Progression / Path of Building / Ascendancy / Bandits
For the levelling tree please watch the video guide and check POB!
Spoiler

Spoiler
Path of building:: https://pastebin.com/2XVEmTbv
IF YOU GET AN ERROR WHILE IMPORTING OR ANY OTHE ERRORS, IT MEANS YOUR POB IS OUTDATED ORIGINAL VERSION THAT IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED. YOU NEED A "COMMUNITY FORK" ONE TO MAKE IT WORK:
https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding
For Ascendancy: Patient Reaper, Ghost Dance, Escape Artist, Prolonged Pain.
Bandits: Kill All

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4) Early Levelling Gear / Skills
Spoiler

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing crazy here. Double Lifesprigs, Wanderlust, Lochtonial Caress




Arctic Breath 4L: Arctic Breath-Added.Cold-Arcane.Surge-Lesser.Multiple.Projectiles
If you have tabula:
Arctic Breath 6L: Arctic Breath-Added.Cold-Arcane.Surge-Lesser.Multiple.Projectiles-Pierce-Unbound.Ailments
Arctic Breath 6L (later): Arctic Breath-Added.Cold-Arcane.Surge-Lesser.Multiple.Projectiles-Pierce-Controlled.Destruction
Start using Cold Snap early on too!
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Overall it's up to you to decide if you wanna play as LIFE or just go ES from the very beginning. If you can't find / buy ES gear while levelling, then play life and spec into ES when you reach maps.
Zig has a nice video on how to transition to CI:

Plenty of decent /cheap ES / uniques can be used while levelling:
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Heartbreaker (great!)
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Doedre%27s_Malevolence
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Steppan_Eard
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rainbowstride
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Beast_Fur_Shawl
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sin_Trek
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rathpith_Globe
For helms:
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/List_of_unique_helmets#Energy_Shield_Helmets_.28Intelligence.29
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/List_of_unique_helmets#Energy_Shield.2FEvasion_Helmets_.28Dexterity.2FIntelligence.29
Rime Gaze is pretty mandatory for top DPS, with second bests being Vertex, Doedre Skorn and Heretic Veil.
Belts: Bated Breath, Stygian Wise with Fossil crafted %Cold Damage, or Crystal Belt. Also https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ascent_From_Flesh is a good starter.

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5) My Actual Gear / End-Game Skills
Spoiler


Aegis Aurora is the BEST unique shield for the build.

Creeping Frost 5L: Creeping Frost-Hypothermia-Controlled.Destruction-Swift.Affliction-Efficacy
Creeping Frost 6L single target: Creeping Frost-Hypothermia-Controlled.Destruction-Swift.Affliction-Efficacy-Energy.Leech
Creeping Frost 6L Mapping: Creeping Frost-Hypothermia-Controlled.Destruction-Greater.Multiple.Projectiles-Efficacy-Energy.Leech

Cold Snap 4L (Helm): Vaal.Cold.Snap-Efficacy-Bonechill-Empower.lvl.4 (Controlled.Destruction if no Empower)
Few good things to know:
1) Play as CI / Hybrid / Life before you get Shavronne's and then you can switch to Low Life. Check levelling trees in the first link for guidance.
2) Discipline Watcher's Eye is a cheap QoL early on:

3)
with Discipline + Discipline / Malevolence Aul's Uprising is not a bad combo-wombo.
4) Rori's Lantern is another cool QoL to cheese mapping (enemies hitting you are UNLUCKY):

5) Energy from Within is usable in multiple places.

6) Mark of the Shaper + some Elder ES ring are a good cheap DPS option
7) Helm enchant is 40% Creeping Frost Damage or some reduced Aura reservation
8) Get Vixen's Entrapment gloves for +1 curse and Elemental Weakness

======================================================================================
Currently there are 2 best ways to play Creeping Frost:
1) Multimodded Void / Opal Sceptre with cold DoT (expensive).
In order to make this you need a lot of unveiled mods available.
At the same time the Cold DoT can be acquired by 2 ways:
a) alt spam on a Item lvl.78+ Sceptre base, can take from HUNDEREDS to THOUSANDS of alts
b) buy a FRACTURED/Synthesized Sceptre base (either clean or regal/annul) and multimid straight (1c to 2ex for BASE depending on your luck). There is a 50%/50% chance though, since you can annul the cold DoT as well.
2) Mark of the First Claiment(cheap)

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6) Flasks
Spoiler

Witchfire Brew if you don't have Vixen's with Elemental Weakness
The rest are mostly defense/offence
Cinderswallow Urn with regeneration / Crit Chance is also great!


Bottled Faith is an expensive end-game flask that can replace a normal Sulphur
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Bottled_Faith . I had to manually add a mod to it in PoB to reflect actual DPS.

======================================================================================
7) Pantheon Gods
Spoiler

Major: Arakaali / Brine King (you are immune to stuna while you have Ghost Shrouds, but as soom as you lose them you can be machingunned)
Minor: Gruthkul / Garukhan

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8) Hardcore Viable or not?
Spoiler

Very HC viable, but not as HC as Occultist

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9) FOR THE RICH GUYS
Spoiler

+1-2 Shavronne, +1 Curse amulet with something useful, like strength/dex and ES.
500+ ES shields
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Apep%27s_Supremacy shield.
Absolute GG Watcher's Eyes with Cold DoT Malevolence and Discipline (recovery rate is prefect):
Spoiler

or Malevolence / ES Clarity

======================================================================================
MORE VIDEOS:
Spoiler
(all these recoreded without EE or Frost bomb/Frostbite/Ele.Weakness, very generic footage to showcase the basics of how things work)
Shaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8m0bt8zPHc
T16 Elder Iceberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-T0gcgGnos
Fresh Synthesis videos:
Phoenix, Chimera, Minotaur all deathless: https://youtu.be/c78c8zCrmnw
Uber Elder Kill: https://youtu.be/PY0svZYixUQ
Uber Elder Kill #2: https://youtu.be/e9vzPn63uRM

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FAQ
1) Can i do it as Occultist?
Spoiler

Yes, much slower cast speed though, and ES leech will be wasted. But potentially more DPS (due to less reservation as you can fit HATRED) and more ES/regen with bigger ES pool (10k easily)

2) What is the best unique shield for the build?
Spoiler

Aegis Aurora

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https://www.twitch.tv/angry_roleplayer
All builds: http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2143469
Last edited by Angry_Roleplayer on Jan 18, 2021, 5:00:53 AM
Last bumped on Mar 28, 2021, 10:01:49 AM
https://www.twitch.tv/angry_roleplayer
All builds: http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2143469
Great Guide, i am trying this build, lets see if i can make it work.
Keep it up with the good work.
Thanks
Good guide, I did a similar but tanky version with occulist and it was pretty fun! I went for more faster es recharge because occulist has so much es survival

My synthesis gear:
Spoiler



I have a arctic breath 12% aoe enchant on a rime gaze but went for a discipline one instead so I could use aspect of the spider









"
Inox84 wrote:
Great Guide, i am trying this build, lets see if i can make it work.
Keep it up with the good work.
Thanks

Thanx! Almost relevelled in synthesis so will be updating gear section soon!
https://www.twitch.tv/angry_roleplayer
All builds: http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2143469
"
Ken wrote:
Good guide, I did a similar but tanky version with occulist and it was pretty fun! I went for more faster es recharge because occulist has so much es survival

My synthesis gear:
Spoiler



I have a arctic breath 12% aoe enchant on a rime gaze but went for a discipline one instead so I could use aspect of the spider










Sweet gear! Yeah a good enchant on Rime Gaze is incredibly hard to find :) But they are quite popular anyway, since a lot of people play vortex
https://www.twitch.tv/angry_roleplayer
All builds: http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2143469
Nice build.
How Arctic Breath is better than Vortex?
"
Chocodisco wrote:
Nice build.
How Arctic Breath is better than Vortex?

Vortex is cooldown based, so if you don't have dat helm enchant it will take a while before you can leave another single swirling poopie. With AB however you can leave 10 crawling puddles of cold poo in 1 second with GMP.
https://www.twitch.tv/angry_roleplayer
All builds: http://www.angryroleplayer.com/path-of-exile-builds/
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2143469
Last edited by Angry_Roleplayer on Apr 19, 2019, 12:04:06 PM
Sorry about double posting but I think I have figured out how to use the forum
Last edited by Mattigator on Apr 19, 2019, 2:32:28 PM
Coool.. I am a noob on ps4 and I made a Shadow to try out cold & poison skills, thinking I would be melee & crit assassin type but not following any build guides because I'm still having fun making everything up. But I discovered Trickster + Cold DOTs and kinda went crazy for Arctic Breath. It's like having minions that crawl slowly into rooms and clear them out. I am using a lot of Cold Snap and Vortex as well. I dont fear any yellow tier maps, that's where I'm at so far , which is more than I can say about my attempted melee+shield+armor+fire+lightning+life+ES inquisitor 1st char XD

I started off thinking I wanted energy shield& life hybrid, just a lot of shield and bulk because my inquisitor was dying a lot. But I heard someone talk about Mind over Matter , sounded a little like Quick Thinking (one of my favorite Warframe mods, use your mana as extra life) so I knew I needed to get that. I am going for the same ascendancies as you, just need Escape Artist. I took Phase Acrobatics and happened to get some good 30% move speed +12% Dodge boots, and some other nice starter mapping gear I have found and affixed, and it's a really good time!
Last edited by Mattigator on Apr 19, 2019, 5:50:57 PM

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