[3.14] Cast on Crit Ice Nova Assassin | Cospri's Malice | Low Life | Leveling Tips




Shameful Plug


Intro
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Hey Everyone!

This is my Low Life CoC Ice Nova build guide! This forum will go over the what gear you should go for. I will only be talking about single influenced items, as double influenced are a bit tricky for newer players. My gear is not perfect, so I will have an explanation section where I say what you are looking for on each piece of gear. Make sure you read that if you are stuck!

This build is made for newer players that have a bit of currency to spend on a new build, as this build is not a league start friendly build. Cospri's Malice, Shavronne's Wrappings, and Prism Guardian are all mandatory for the low life version of this build. All other gear pieces are recommended but not mandatory. If you have more questions, or feel like I did not fully explain something make sure you check out my build video on YouTube and leave a comment!

I respond faster to YouTube comments, so feel free to leave one there!

Thanks for reading! :D



Changelog
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3.14 - All the same


Videos


PoB
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Leveling Life/CI Tree: https://pastebin.com/nxtBuC2z

Low Life Final Tree: https://pastebin.com/9EKBssXZ



Gems
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Cyclone - Awakened Cast on Critical Strike - Ice Nova - Inspiration - Hypothermia - Awakened Added Cold Damage

Herald of Ice - Increased Critical Strikes - Increased Area of Effect

Ice Nova - Frost Bomb - Frostbolt

Hatred - Discipline - Zealotry

Dash - Second Wind - Arcane Surge

Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Tempest Shield

Precision

Vaal Righteous Fire

Flesh and Stone or Summon Skitterbots

Explanation:
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Vaal Ice Nova is a great addition to the 6L set up if you can afford it. But it is more important to get a lvl21 Quality: 23% for the damage boost.

Flesh and Stone vs Summon Skitterbots:
If you are using a medium cluster jewel with Cold Conduction and Chilling Presence then use Flesh and Stone.

Why Flesh and Stone?
We only use Stone Stance because we take less damage and blind nearby enemies, feel free to use other auras but Stone allows us to stay safer in this build.




Gear
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My Gear
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Explanation
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All rare gear you will want the best ES base if possible, but get what is in your budget

Sword
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Cospri's Malice is mandatory for this build. It allows us to cast a few extra spells on crit to make the most of CoC.


Shield
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Prism Guardian is mandatory for this build. It allows us to reserve our life without socketing a Blood Magic, and Prism Guardian doesn't multiply the cost of the reservation.


Body
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Shavronne's Wrappings is mandatory for this build. It allows does not allow chaos damage to bypass our ES.



Helmet
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Hubris Helmet
Redeemer Influence
Primary:
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- #% increased Energy Shield
- [REDEEMER] Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance
- +# to Accuracy Rating

Secondary:
- [REDEEMER] #% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage
- #% to Elemental Resistance
- [REDEEMER] #% chance to Freeze
#% increased Freeze Duration on Enemies
- +# to Intelligence

Helmet Enchant:
- Ice Nova has +30% chance to Freeze
- Chills from Ice Nova Hits always reduce Action Speed by at least 8%
- 24% increased Ice Nova Area of Effect
- Frostbolt has +15% chance to Freeze
- Dash has +2 Cooldown Uses
- Dash travels 100% increased distance



Gloves
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Sorcerer Gloves or Fingerless Silk Gloves
Incursion
Primary:
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- #% increased Energy Shield
- [INCURSION] +#% to Cold Resistance
#% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies
- +# to Accuracy Rating

Secondary:
- #% to Elemental Resistance
- +# to Intelligence

You will want to find Gloves with the +#% to Cold Resistance #% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies roll first, then try to craft on the rest.



Boots
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Sorcerer Boots
Hunter Influence
Primary:
- #% increased Movement Speed
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- #% increased Energy Shield
- [HUNTER] You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently

Secondary:
- #% to Elemental Resistance
- +# to Intelligence



Amulet
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Hunter or Redeemer Influence
Primary:
- #% increased Energy Shield
- [HUNTER] +1 to Level of all Intelligence Skill Gems
- [REDEEMER] +1 to Level of all Cold Skill Gems
- +#% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

Secondary:
- [REDEEMER] Damage Penetrates #% Cold Resistance
- [HUNTER] Damage Penetrates #% Elemental Resistances
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- +# to Accuracy Rating
- #% to Elemental Resistance

There are a lot of great rolls you can get on an amulet, so look through and pick what you want.

Expensive option: The Pandemonius Jade Amulet
- It gives us great damage but it is expensive and I personally think a great rare amulet will be better for the build. If you choose to use this, then take off Flesh and Stone and replace with another aura because The Pandemonius will blind enemies for us.


Ring 1
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Circle of Fear
- #% increased Cold Damage while affected by Herald of Ice
- Herald of Ice has #% increased Buff Effect

Obtaining both rolls is a bit pricey, so going for either roll then another roll like max resistance or mana reservation is a fine option.



Ring 2
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Shaper Influence
Primary:
- [SHAPER] Curse Enemies with Level # Assassin's Mark on Hit
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- +# to Accuracy Rating
- [CRAFT] Non-Channelling Skills have # to Total Mana Cost

Secondary:
- [SHAPER] #% chance to Freeze
Adds # to # Cold Damage against Chilled or Frozen Enemies
- [SHAPER] Adds # to # Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks
- [SHAPER] #% increased Global Critical Strike Chance
- #% to Elemental Resistance



Belt
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Crystal Belt or Stygian Vise
Redeemer Influence
Primary:
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- [REDEEMER] #% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies

Secondary:
- [REDEEMER] Remove Chill and Freeze when you use a Flask
- [REDEEMER] #% increased Cold Damage
- #% to Elemental Resistance
- +# to Attributes



Flasks
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Cinderswallow Urn - Allows for great ES recovery, crit craft is the best but expensive

Wise Oak - Make sure all uncapped resistance is the same. We want all the same so we take 10% reduced damage form all elements. If you cannot get them all the same, then get the cold to be highest so you get the cold penetration.

Rumi's Concoction - Great block

Quicksilver - Speedy boi

Diamond Flask - Big crits

On Magic flasks, get bleed immune and freeze immune. If you have freeze immune belt, then get curse immune instead.

Bottled Faith - If you have the money, then replace with Rumi's



Jewels
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With Harvest, getting the implicit 10% chance to Avoid being Stunned is super great to have, since we can now be stunned while cycloning in patch 3.11.

Medium Cluster Jewel:
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Adds 4-5 passive Skills
Added Small Passive Skills grant: 10% increased Area Damage
1 Jewel Socket
Magnifier
Vast Power

Adds 4-5 passive Skills
Added Small Passive Skills grant: 10% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments
1 Jewel Socket
Chilling Presence
Cold Conduction



Large Cluster Jewel:
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Added Small Passive Skills grant: 12% increased Cold Damage
Adds 8 passive Skills
2 Jewel Sockets
Blanketed Snow
Widespread Destruction
Prismatic Heart



Unique Jewels:
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Frozen Trail Cobalt Jewel - So Frostbolt has 2 additional Projectiles

Thread of Hope Crimson Jewel - Very Large Ring allows us to spec Glancing Blows, Precision, Sanctity, and Retribution

Watcher's Eye - +#% to Critical Strike Chance while affected by Hatred (Expensive, so ignore until you have a lot of other good gear)



Rare Jewels:
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Here is a generic list of mods to look for:

- #% increased maximum Energy Shield
- #% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate
- #% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge
- #% increased Cold Damage
- #% to Critical Strike Multiplier
- #% increased Critical Strike Chance
- #% increased Area Damage
- # to Attributes
- #% to Resistance
- #% chance to gain Onslaught for # seconds on Kill [Searching Eye]







Bandits
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Kill All!



Leveling
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Cast on Crit Ice Nova will not be a good leveling tool until level 68, where you can use Cospri's Malice. You will level as a life character, then go to CI. Once you can afford a Shavronne's Wrappings you will go Low Life.

Before Level 68:
Recommended Leveling Items:
- Bitterdream Shadow Sceptre or Tabula Rasa Simple Robe
- Lifesprig Driftwood Wand
- Tulborn Spiraled Wand
- Wanderlust Wool Shoes
- Karui Ward Jade Amulet

Level with any skill, but hang onto skills you see in the build so you can level them up. I leveled with self cast frostbolt with 2 Frozen Trail jewels.

Your tree will be a life tree, there are multiple PoBs. One will be a life tree for leveling. You will unspec all of the life nodes when you convert to CI, which will be around level 70.

If you do not know when to convert to CI, then watch the build video. But to sum it up, post your build into PoB and respec in the PoB and see what your ES will be at, try to be close to or above 4000 ES (is my rule).

After Level 68:
Required Items:
- Cospri's Malice Jewelled Foil

Recommended Items:
- Lycosidae Rawhide Tower Shield
- Carcass Jack Varnished Coat or Loreweave Elegant Ringmail

Links for leveling:
Cyclone - Cast on Critical Strike - Ice Nova - Increased Critical Strikes - Inspiration - Hypothermia

Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Tempest Shield - Summon Ice Golem

The Lycosidae will allow for 100% hit chance, so you do not need to worry about accuracy. You will take this off once you get enough accuracy (around 3500) to have a good chance to hit. You want your chance to hit to be 100%, but you will need accuracy rolls on most items.

When you drop Lycosidae, you will use Prism Guardian for the Low Life. But if you decide to drop Lycosidae when you are still CI, then use a Titanium Spirit Shield with +1 to cold spell skill gems and ES rolls. You may also use an Ice Golem and take off Vaal Righteous Fire in order to get more accuracy and crit.

You can now use gear like Sorcerer Boots, Sorcerer Gloves, Fingerless Silk Gloves, and a Hubris Circlet. You will want to start preparing to go CI, so get those item bases without the influence crafts, just good ES rolls. If you have a lot of currency then you can go for the influences as well, but I recommend getting some decent CI gear to use ASAP. That way you save currency to buy a Shavronne's Wrappings sooner.

Once you buy a Shavronne's Wrappings, get a Prism Guardian Shield, unspec the CI node from the tree and spec into Pain Attunement.



Ascendancy
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Assassin

1. Unstable Infusion
2. Deadly Infusion
3. Opportunistic
4. Ambush and Assassinate or Mistwalker

The last choice is up to you, I like ambush and assassinate better because we get a much better chance to crit as well as culling strike. If you feel that your crit is good, then go for mistwalker and you do not need to annoint No Witnesses anymore.



Annointment
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No Witnesses - if you did not annoint Mistwalker and your accuracy is 100%

Depth Perception - if you need more accuracy and crit

Heart of Ice - Big damage and leech

Heartseeker - cheap annoint, if you do not like other choices or use as a temporary choice


Pantheon
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Major: Soul of the Brine King

Minor: Soul of Garukhan

P.S. This is players choice and not mandatory. If you like something else, then go for it!



Pros/Cons
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+ Fun playstyle
+ Speedy Mapping
+ Big pops
- Stuggles on big bosses (lvl 8 Sirus, Uber Elder)
- Not league start friendly
- Leveling with non endgame skill
- Cannot do Physical Reflect and Elemental Reflect maps




Last edited by ShamefulPenguin on May 5, 2021, 3:03:41 PM
Last bumped on Nov 25, 2020, 4:23:35 PM
Hi, im interested in this build, why this build struggles on sirus or u-elder? and what about defensive layer of the build?)
Last edited by Satana66 on Jul 31, 2020, 9:41:36 PM
"
Satana66 wrote:
Hi, im interested in this build, why this build struggles on sirus or u-elder? and what about defensive layer of the build?)


This build struggles with uber elder and lvl 8 sirus because we are cycloning, so we must be on top of the enemy. Our leech is not super high and my current ES pool is about 5500. I can complete those bosses with a few deaths, but it is by no means an easy bossing build. What this build excels in is fast mapping, and killing map bosses very fast. Our dps is not the issue, it is that we can get one shot by big damage.

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