[3.9] ICE NOVA GUARDIAN. INSANE DPS. INSANE DEFENSE. BUILD OF THE LEAGUE.

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Vampz wrote:
Hey, starting this build today as my eighth build of the season. This season is just to much fun and i cant resist this one :D

One question, how do u get stun immunity? if none, how does this build deal/minimazes it?

Thanks for the great build!


Presence of Chayula Amulet; Cannot be stunned.
Ah sweet. My bad, never used it and skimmed over it. Think you.
Around level 87 with this build.
I'm missing the watchers eye (its like 30ex)
Missing the Flask (12-14ex)
But I do have tailwind boots and maybe the initial 20ex startup costs.
The build has potential but its just really expensive. I dont know where the next 50ex are going to come from and I'm not as strong as some of my other characters. Just throwing some information out there to anyone thinking of starting this with under 50ex. You CAN get to level 90 and probably do some red maps but hard content isnt really viable IMO.
I have ~7.5k ES

Don't forget a good helm enchant on Memory vault is probably another 10+ex. Awakened gems another 7-10ex.
Another question, so we get corrupted blood immunity from a jewel, how about normal bleed immunity?

Does the CB immunity take care of it? I dont see any flasks for it.

Super excited about this build, lv 20 atm and got most gear ready and waiting.
Alright so I pretty much have reached everything I can do with this build and all reasonable upgrades I can/am going to make. Below is what I did, my findings and thoughts. Overall absolutely amazing build.

TLDR since aparently I ended up writing an essay. Amazing, near perfect build. Expensive but expensive for reason.

My Gear
Spoiler


Swaps



Summary
The combination of tankyness and damage on this setup is like nothing I have ever achieved in this game in my 6 years of playing (Jesus Christ. 6 years.). 10K ES, 42k Armour, 25k vaal molten shell, 28ES gained per hit (which against packs is pretty much old vaal pact and is shockingly good against single targets. Can face tank everything I have come across single target so far including shaper beams). Damage I am at 4mill POB per ice nova so more than you would ever need. It is instaphasing awakener 8 before he can get mechanics out.

League Start/Budget Options
As for a budget or leveling option I would go heiro or inquis mom and respec into Mana Guardian as a late game upgrade. I league started corrupted soul hiero and at 95 transitioned into this build. Yes this build is expensive but going low life Guardian is the final optimization of pledge ice nova templar in my mind. With just the pledge and SSF gear you can get through 16s and do all content as MOM. In my mind transitioning to low life mana guardian is mainly for delve and pushing 95+ once you want to never die again. If I play this again (which I definitely will) as a league starter I would probably do something similar with a hiero or Inquisitor MOM build and respec once you have the basic low life gear and a pledge probably somewhere in the high 80s or 90s so you have the points.

Changes From Suggested Build

-Watchers Eye

It took effort but I managed to get to 10K ES without the clarity Eye. If you can I think ES on hit is a better option. If you are gonna get one shot by something at 10ES on this build it porbably would also one shot you at 12K and the sustain from the watchers Eye is insane. 8 hits per cast * 6.5-7 casts a second is almost the same level of sustain the old ES on hit HOWA molten strikers had (average was around the same attackes per second but with dying son had 9 balls). If you never played that build that sustain was so broken in early delves it is why they removed the ES on hit mod from rings and we can get back almost all of that sustain.

-Cast speed, Cast speed, Cast Speed
Between the watchers eye 15% and 25% from lightning golem and helm enchant I have pushed pretty much all the cast speed I can into this build. It does mean the 70% boot enchant for mana sustain in mandatory. With Cinderswallow when killing packs I can not run out of mana mapping or constantly casting in delves. On single target as well while I can run out of mana if I try to but in any practical application with numerous tests on uber elders, shapers and awakeners I don't run out of mana before I have to reposition or something is dead or onto the next phase which is usually one slower proj frost bolt. This also makes mapping incredibly smooth as my main goal was to make the mapping two cast (Frost bolt, one Ice nova then move on) as quick as possible.

-Frostbolt links
I get my curse from a ring rather than frost bolt COH. This lets me run both faster casting (as stated above mapping is smoother if the casts are as quick as possible) and faster/slower projectiles. If you have not tried mapping with faster projectiles it is amazing. My one frost bolt one ice nova clears multiple screens in a direction and you can usually get at least a second cast on one frost bolt in open maps. Slower proj in my mind in a necessity for single target, especially to take advantage of ES gained on hit. If you cannot spam ice novas for the entire 4 seconds of arcane surge off your frost bolt and have them all hit all echos on a target you are losing alot of damage especially since we are back loaded with more damage on later echos.

-Utmost Intellect
Test out your tree. For me and for several others in this thread as I spot check Utmost intellect is more efficient than the ES and mana nodes people are taking. Int/% Int is huge.

-The Vigil can be swapped in for Tempered Flesh for 38 second fortify. Probably wholly unnecessary for anything other than pushing deep delves. You can put the vigilant strike and ancestral call gems in your offhand and you keep fortify when you swap back.

-Frost bomb
Not going 6 link frostbolt also buys me the gem slot for frost bomb. With increased duration it is effectively a 12 second frost bomb which is plenty to kill any boss or phase (for awakener/shaper/elder) I have come across and you can precast it so its not bad to have.

Mapping tips
-As I mentioned ridiculous cast speed and faster proj are huge. Also vaal ice nova is amazing for mapping. Another thing I do that makes mapping faster is I run 2 30% ias fidelitas spikes on my weapon swap so I can swap over and whirling blades between packs or while back tracking.

Gem/Flask Swaps
I swap in a mana flask pretty much only for no regen maps. During regular mapping the only gem swap I ever make is faster for slower proj. For awakener, shaper, uber elder I swap conc effect in for awakened controlled destruction. I also like to swap GMP with greater volley for those fights. That lets me not have to worry about how close I am or mouse positioning and still get my frost bolts not spread out.

What is left
-Levels and xp on my last awakend gems is mainly it. Ill move into the mana/curse wheel most likely.
-If the ideal frostbite on hit ring ever exists maybe I can drop resists on jewels.
-Maybe with 99 I can move to elusive/tailwind boots and stay over 10K es but so far Elusive is not worth dropping the mana roll if I need to then drop cast speed to maintain my mana.
-28% quality helm and boots / 26% quality flasks once I finally get to running my backlog of Jun missions.

Silly expensive projects that are probably not worth it
-Buying 20% quality 21 vaal ice nova (Done. No way 1 radius was worth the 4 ex)
-Level 6 awakened added cold damage (Done. Hit it on my second one)
-Level 21 ancillary gems (have most the big ones so far. HOI, Golem, Zealotry. Will continue to round out others)
-Double corrupt Coils (Unfortunately corrupting the staff and chest in our setup are not worth it so I have been spamming my double corruptions here. I've hit Crit multi but probably wont move off 40 life until I hit a good double with one being % int.)
-Awakened curse on hit - I would not drop faster casting for mapping but maybe for delve. you don't need more damage so I don't know maybe throwing in enfeeble as a second curse deep in delve.

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Musketoon wrote:
Around level 87 with this build.
I'm missing the watchers eye (its like 30ex)
Missing the Flask (12-14ex)
But I do have tailwind boots and maybe the initial 20ex startup costs.
The build has potential but its just really expensive. I dont know where the next 50ex are going to come from and I'm not as strong as some of my other characters. Just throwing some information out there to anyone thinking of starting this with under 50ex. You CAN get to level 90 and probably do some red maps but hard content isnt really viable IMO.
I have ~7.5k ES

Don't forget a good helm enchant on Memory vault is probably another 10+ex. Awakened gems another 7-10ex.

i started this build 4 days ago with just 6l shavs and 6l pledge.



and i can do any content i want with 8.5k ES it gets expensive if you wanna max it out yeah, but ur fine without those 30 ex jewels or 12ex flasks.
If someone want i'm selling my gear, this build is really good but i want to try something new, i want to sell it all not at pieces

Hello,
Anyone have any experience buying a 40% Ice Nova Memory Vault?

Seems even the base enchant is really expensive, and items with it like Devoto's or Starkonja's are asking 12-15ex. How much do you expect we would pay for one?
Just did my First lvl 8 Sirius fight deathless today with this build, awsome build congrats, didnt play such a solid build for a loooong time.
I ve to admit my jaw dropped.

I made this build recently as my seventh one this league.. i bought about 80ex of gear, including woke spelll echo, tailwind/elusive boots, Es on hit watchers eye, all the relevent unique jewels and items.

At level 72 when i coudl equip everything and get the key nodes/ascendency I went into several tier 14 lv 81 mobs and it was a breeze.. 9 levels diference and the damage is immense and above all the survivability is insane.

Im not a veteran or anything but I do have about 900 hours in Poe and i have never felt this combination of damage, tankiness and croud control.

With 20 more passives things gona get crazy.

Thank you so much for the build.

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