[3.12] Mana guardian Icestorm ~ Max Block/Spellblock UPDATED FOR HEIST

If you have league start questions please just tune into my stream during league start and ask them on stream, I am not on forums a whole lot! I will be live for the entirety of my league start, so any questions can be answered there! https://www.twitch.tv/beardbrottv

With the changes in Heist to the passive tree, we are now able to get full stun immunity, 70% block, and 50% spell block (You may use rumi's to reach cap on block/spell block if you desire, just swap cinderswallow). This provides the build with a significant amount of defense that it has never had before.


Heist Changes:
Icestorm is being completely overhauled and reworked. This opens up the build to alot more players as one of the big problems with icestorm was the graphic demands of the skill on low end pc's. The skill is also going to be more well rounded, and due to the changes I believe we will have a much easier time killing Sirus in phase 3 which was always a problem for this build due to how much he moved, we couldnt stack Icestorms. With the changes to discharge, it may be a suitable 4 link to add some more power to the build as we sit with 9 charges up and they refill quickly after being expended. I will test that early in the league and see if it feels worth it (most likely not though due to the need for gems in our gear, freeing 4 slots will be rough.)

Old league start craft showcase from delirium:
Spoiler


For league start you will want to farm div cards as soon as you hit the appropriate level to get right to a Whispering Ice (act 6 western forest drops the div card)
Until then you can just go with a generic Life Based Freezing Pulse setup or something of the sort for leveling, until you're able to make the switch :)

Guardian Pros:
Spoiler
~Higher DPS than Ascendant
~Option of wearing Memory Vault for HUGE armour gain at small cost to DPS
~20% All Res, 30% heal every 5 seconds, and Ailment removal every 5 seconds
~Very nice reach for the nodes we need

Guardian Cons:
Spoiler
~Much less ES than ascendant
~Less int to scale with
~Less Access to passive tree than ascendant


The build as a whole can be played on a budget, one of the nice things about whispering ice is that there is a low floor, but a high ceiling in terms of gearing and expenses.

Path of Building Link [READ NOTES IN POB]:
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/1w1RcXd9 There are multiple trees for multiple stages of leveling, and a life based league start tree. Use them! :)

Gearing Section:
Helmet:
Spoiler
You can go with memory vault for tankiness, or an int%int ES base helm for more ES and damage. With Memory Vault, and a Granite Flask of Iron Skin, we are able to use Molten Shell / Vaal Molten Shell + Increased Duration, which is a HUGE damage mitigation skill (Remove CWDT20 + Immortal Call from your body armor for VMS + Inc Duration

Necklace:
Spoiler
Stuff like this is ideal. Astramentis is a great starter, then transition into Cold/Spell Damage, penetration and dmg per 15 int as your next tier. For your final tier, you need to sink ALOT of currency into a double influence craft, hit the Alteration + Augment, then imprint the neck, slam regals until you hit the third mod (Ideally %int, %attributes, 1% dmg per 15 int) then multimod %ES and whatever else you want from your prefixes onto the amulet. An amulet like this will run 150+ exalts, so crafting it is probably easier. I have sunk over 15k Alterations into my base before i hit the double mod. It is not ideal to even TRY to craft this necklace as it will cost you ALOT of currency.

Rings:
Spoiler
Rings are where we plug most of our resistances. Ideal ring needs +energy shield, +% energy shield, +int, and then resistances. These rings ran me around 3-5 exalts a piece, but with a lower int roll you can probably get them cheaper.

Belt:
Spoiler
Cyclopean coil is a MUST. Buy or divine one to 15%, slam it with 20 intristic catalysts for 18% all attributes, and corrupt it. Ideal mods: Crit multi during flask effect, %int hybrid, Aura effect modifiers (Zealotry or hatred implicit with either aura works perfectly, but crit multi pulls ahead and %int is just god tier)

Gloves/Boots:
Spoiler
Here we are looking for +int, resists, movementspeed, and ES. ES is the LOWEST priority, as a guardian int scales our mana and our %ES, and we gain ES from our mana pool, so for ALL gear, int is more important

Body Armour:
Spoiler
Body armor 1 is much more damage, at a cost of energy shield, as to where option 2 is around 1300 more energy shield at the cost of 8% damage. While 8% may not sound like alot, it really is. I paid 2 exalts for the first body armor, and socketed and linked it myself. Armor 2 is fossil crafted and worth around 40 exalts. Ideally you want an armor somewhere in the middle, with your suffixes being +Int, +%Int, and Crafted %Attributes, and around 550+ Energy shield. Best way to do this is to slam perfect fossils onto a vaal regalia until it is 28-30% Quality, then slam Dense fossils on said regalia until you get the desired rolls

Flasks:
Spoiler
Granite flask replaces atziri flask if you run memory vault. If you cannot afford a bottled faith, it can be replaced with a Cinderswallow with crit on it, for a fairly large DPS loss, but not enough to kill the build


Jewels:
Spoiler
the 1% Reserved mana is needed on all 4 jewels. If you can't afford a level 4 enlighten and run a level 3, you may need to grab more mana reservation on your tree. Watcher's eye is an expensive upgrade (30ex+), but can be replaced with ES Gain on hit while affected by discipline, or ES Regen while affected by discipline. You can also go with a more offensive option such as a hatred or zealotry jewel since you can run hatred or zealotry



Gem Links:
Spoiler

Staff: Cyclone, [Awakened] Cast While Channeling,[Awakened] Cold Penetration, Energy Leech, Controlled Destruction, and [Awakened] Spell Cascade or Concentrated Effect (Only use Conc for bossing, Spell cascade for mapping ONLY CYCLONE AND CAST WHILE CHANNELING NEED TO BE LINKED
4L: Vortex, Arcane Surge Lv6, Bonechill, Flame Dash
4L: CWDT Lv1, Ball Lightning Lv1, Curse on Hit, Frostbite
4L: Hatred, Vaal Discipline, Summon Skitterbots, Enlighten Lv3/4
3L: CWDT Lv4, Immortal Call Lv6, Wave of Conviction (If using hatred)
3 Sockets (leftover on 6 socket body): Vaal Righteous Fire, Frost Bomb, Flame Golem


Leveling: I generally use Freezing Pulse all the way until I can use Icestorm. I grab life nodes along the path of my POB Tree, and refund them later when I switch to CI. Up until like level 60 I play Life Based Freezing Pulse and transition to life based icestorm, then switch to CI once i have the appropriate gear.
Bandits: Kill All
Pantheons: Brine King + Gruthkul

Videos
A8 Redeemer Facetank:
https://youtu.be/PaMN_1xDAow
A8 Baran 8 Second Kill: https://youtu.be/pD4q9h9iXrI
A8 Sirus 2.5 Minute Deathless Kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WITjjGmyeMA


Last edited by H4RM4G3DD0N on Sep 18, 2020, 10:10:12 AM
Last bumped on Oct 7, 2020, 8:53:58 AM
Looks promising! Will be waiting on videos to make up my mind tho, gj bud!
"
Looks promising! Will be waiting on videos to make up my mind tho, gj bud!

I can post some, its just hard to capture mapping footage bc Awakened Spell Cascade puts my FPS down the shitter lmao
"
Looks promising! Will be waiting on videos to make up my mind tho, gj bud!

1 video posted, will get more up. will only be able to show boss content as Awakened Spell cascade puts my FPS to 10-15, and would make for some choppy videos, but i assure you the clear speed is there.
Added 2 a8 guardian kills and a deathless 2.5minute sirus kill.
Is that watcher's eye absolutely necessary?
Hi,

Thanks for the build. I am having a blast !

I cannot afford the watcher's eye nor the bottled faith, but I would like to run 3 auras. Currently I cannot run skitterbots due to mana reservation issue.

I don't get it. I checked my pob. Even with enlighten at level 4, I cannot seem to have enough mana left.

What is different from my build and yours ? Ok I am missing one brute force with 1% mana reserved, but that's not it.

https://pastebin.com/6WgQT1Pm

Could you let me know what I am doing wrong please ? SHould I annoint charisma or Sovereignity to compensate ?

Don't mention the annointment. I purchased the amulet with it and have not found the time to change it.

Thanks a lot !
Last edited by edessiex on Feb 3, 2020, 7:15:53 PM
How viable is this for HC?
What ascendancy order do I go for this?
Any Skill Tree per level?
@edessiex, It's because you are wearing memory vault as your helm which INCREASES your reserved mana
Silly me !
Thanks. I like having the extra energy shield, but I will gain a ton of damage with an extra aura...

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info