[3.14] Indigon Cast on Crit Ice Nova/Spark Pathfinder - Very tanky, fast, very high DPS
 Hello. Welcome to my Indigon Cast on Critical Strike build guide. There are many variations of Cast on Crit builds but at least at the moment I think mana CoC on Pathfinder is the most well rounded and highest DPS one. The build is very flexible and I enjoy playing it a lot so I decided to make build guide for it. Just be warned, this build is not a league starter and also not a budget build. To get it going to you will need at least 15 to 20 exalts. So, why Indigon, why Pathfinder, why Cast on Crit? So in order: I really like mana builds and especially Indigon. This item is so underrated and every league it just keeps becoming stronger and stronger (either relatively to other builds that get nerfed or it getting indirect buffs like it got in Delirium). I try to at least PoB if not play Indigon build every league. The thing about Indigon is that it requires a lot of planning, a lot of mana recovery and also good plan on how to ramp it and use it and also plan to avoid getting punished if you ramp too high (or simply trying to avoid ramping too high). Lately I saw some Indigon builds that do not utilize even 40% of this item's full power. So I decided to finally make guide for proper Indigon setup after playing the build and really really enjoying it. In this setup I scale mana flasks to absolute maximum together with grabbing a lot of flask effect to scale both mana flasks and my other flasks even further. I think a lot of people do not think about mana recovery actually being their damage on Indigon builds and that is why their setups are not as strong as they could be. But in this setup I am outsustaining fully ramped Indigon with my mana flask alone and also getting bunch of extra mana recovery from leech to cover everything else. Now, why Pathfinder? Pathfinder is my favorite ascendancy in PoE. She is basically just big box of qol. You get speed, you get damage, you get defense, ailment immunity, scalability. Also, of course, flasks, flasks, flasks, flasks. Flasks are one of the most powerful things in PoE and Pathfinder can take full advantage of this. Do I need defense? Wise Oak, Taste of Hate. Do I need avoidance? Quartz flask. Do I need damage? Cinderswallow, Bottled Faith, Lions Roar, you name it. Specifically for this setup I am grabbing over 100% increased flask effect what gives me +4% base critical strike chance from Bottled Faith, 30% all pen from Wise Oak, 20% reduced elemental damage taken from Wise Oak, a lot of movement speed and as already mentioned my mana flask is huge. Why cast on crit? Well as I said before, with Indigon you want to use something that can utilize it nicely and in controlled manner. Cyclone Cast on Crit (and channeling skills in general) is perfect for this. Due to low base mana cost the mana cost do not gets out of hand as easily as it can get on normal spells with sometimes 5 to 10 times higher base mana costs. Cyclone is also good tool for ramping Indigon by itself, even though its base mana cost is low I can boost it via other means (like Arcane Cloak, Vortex + Archmage) and then keep the mana spending with cyclone without it getting out of hand. Also because we are Pathfinder we get really high base crit from Bottled Faith and also a lot of increased generic crit from the Catarina mod 80% increased critical strike chance during flask effect what in this case becomes 160%. So getting 100% crit is easy. Also because we use so many clusters we dont really have a room on tree for other stuff, and CoC already both clears and bosses well without requiring specific stuff (compared to for example brands what are also very very good for Indigon but they require pathing to Runebinder, brand clusters etc etc). Of course Bottled Faith is not requirement for the build to work but it makes the build a lot stronger. There is also version that uses Diamond Flask instead of bottled. If you have any questions about the build or just want to talk you can always @ me in PoE Discord (my username is deathbeam#0001) (also make sure to read F.A.Q. first). Changelog Click here to view Pro's & Con's + Really good single target (60M+ DPS achievable, can scale even higher) + Really good clear speed (because of our high mobility, movement speed and Freezing Pulse + Ice Nova coverage) + 290%+ increased movement speed + 81% attack avoid chance, 45% spell avoid chance + 50% Mind Over Matter + 20% less damage taken if not hit recently (Wind Dancer) + 20% less damage taken (Sigil Of Power) + 20% reduced elemental damage taken (Wise Oak) + 18% physical damage reduction + 20% reduced damage taken (when using Immortal Will shield) + Permanent flask uptime (Nature's Boon) + More than 100% life and mana recovered per second (thanks to flask effect scaling and Indigon) + Immunity to ailments + Can do all content + Highly scalable - High entry fee even for budget version (15+ exalts) - Balancing everything together can be sometimes annoying (balancing your proc rate for CoC, balancing resists for Wise Oak) - No explosions like other CoC Nova variations have - Takes some time to get used to the playstyle, keeping up buffs etc - Sometimes we can kill ourselves while trying to activate all buffs (Vaal Righteous Fire I am looking at you) Content Done - All guardians - All conquerors - Atziri - Uber Atziri - Mastermind - Shaper - Elder - Uber Elder - Sirus - Simulacrum - 5 way battle - All Maven Invitations - Maven My characters using this build - Ultimatum character Path of Building Path of Building is tool for PoE to plan gear, skill tree and calculate effective damage. It also contains Bandits and Pantheon choice. You can download it here. Important! Make sure you are on Path of Building Comminity version, the guide requires it. After that simply import below Pastebin URL into PoB: Pastebin
Navigating through PoB (important, read carefully)
To switch between different gem sets navigate to Skills section and then simply enable/disable groups you do not want (e.g groups for different build variation, see Build Variations)  To switch between item sets navigate to Items sectio and then simply choose item set based on your chose build variation. 
How to configure PoB for your own character
After importing your character to PoB, follow these steps to properly configure it to show your actual stats: 0. Add these workarounds on one of your gear pieces (just double click item in All items: section and then click Edit..., also make sure you are not editing flask!): " 1. Switch to your Cyclone setup and select Ice Nova in dropdown under skill set 2. Enable all flasks in items section and switch to configuration section 3. Set Is enemy boss? to Sirus 3. Check Do you use Power Charges? 5. Check Do you use Frenzy Charges? (if you have Anomalous Blood Rage) 6. Check Do you use Endurance Charges? (if you have Enduring Focus) 7. Check Do you have Fortify? 8. Check Do you have Alchemists' Genius? 9. Check Are you Elusive? 10. Check Are you leeching Energy Shield? (if using Energy Leech support) 11. Check Are you on Consecrated Ground? (if using Bottled Faith) 12. Check Have you Crit Recently? 13. Check Are you Channeling? 14. Set # of Mana spent Recently: to 16000 15. Check Do you have Manastorm's Lightning Buff? 16. Set Sigil of Power Stages: to 4 17. Check Is the enemy Blinded? 18. Check Is the enemy Ignited? 19. Check Is the enemy Chilled by your Hits? 20. Check Is the enemy Frozen? 21. Check Is the enemy on Consecrated Ground? (if using Bottled Faith) Build Variations
Ice Nova
This is default/high investment version of the build utilizing Awakened Cast on Critical Strike, Bottled Faith and corrupted base crit Kalisa's Grace gloves. With Awakened Cast on Critical Strike you want to have your Effective Trigger Rate at around 7.57 triggers/second. You can slowly transition to this setup from Budget setup by starting with Bottled Faith and Kalisa's Grace and dropping Increased Critical Strikes support then slowly start working on getting Woke CoC and increasing your attack speed for new breakpoint. There is special item set and gem set for Ice Nova version.
Ice Nova (Budget)
This is budget version of the build utilizing normal Cast on Crtitical Strike, Diamond Flask instead of Bottled Faith and Increased Critical Strikes support in main link. This version does around 1/3rd of damage of default version. For regular Cast on Critical Strike you are looking at 6.06 ideal effective triggers per second. If you want to save money also use only life or only mana rare jewels together with crit multi as mana + life + crit multi jewels are expensive. There is special item set and gem set for Ice Nova (Budget) version.
SpArc
This is variation of high budget setup but its using rare dagger with Hits Can't Be Evaded instead of Cospri's Malice. It is also using Second Sight keystone from Brutal Restraint with Nasima on it. This setup is primarily focused on clearing the maps and not on bossing even though it can still boss it does around 1/3 of the damage of default setup. There is special tree, item set and gem set for this build variation. Leveling and gearing I would recommend leveling with Toxic Rain, see Leveling and Gearing section in my Scourge Arrow guide
Crafting your own gear
For crafting we will be using either fossils and resonators or Awakener's Orb. Fossils are a currency introduced in Delve league that can be obtained most commonly from Delve as well. Based on the fossil type, they improve odds of certain mods to be rolled and also add their own special mods. Awakener's Orb is used for combining 2 item bases together, picking 1 random influenced mod from selected item and transfering it together with influence to second item, while keeping 1 random influenced mod from other item as well. Because of this you need to make sure each of items you are combining has exactly 1 influenced mod (you can easily check if its influenced mod or not by holding ALT and checking if the mod name matches with any of the influence names, for example Shaper's, Hunter's etc). Mods with * before are important, if you do not hit them, just reroll. When possible I tried to include links also to craftofexile.com. This site simulates the odds and cost of making the respective items. Crafting liquid/distilled flask medium jewels Craft of Exile Item base: Max iLvl 83 Medium Cluster Jewel with Added Small Passive Skills grant: 6% increased Flask Effect Duration Materials: Lucent Fossil, Mod priority: 1. * Liquid Inspiration 2. * Distilled Perfection Crafting Spiked concontion medium jewel Item base: Max iLvl 83 Medium Cluster Jewel with Added Small Passive Skills grant: 6% increased Flask Effect Duration Materials: Reforge Attack Mod priority: 1. * Spiked Concontion 2. * Liquid Inspiration
Trade links for buying own gear
Alternative gear choices
If you prefer survivability over damage Immortal Will is amazing shield choice. Even without Manastorm you can still pump out a lot of damage so at least on higher budget imo Immortal Will is preferred option: If you want to optimize your clear consider using Dying Sun for mapping, it gives us 50% increased area of effect and +4 projectiles what is amazing for both Ice Nova and Spark: Another mapping optimization (especially after getting enough Intelligence from your gear) is Inspired Learning here:  Frequently asked questions (F.A.Q)
Why am I not doing damage?
Make sure your effective trigger rate in PoB is as close to 7.57 (for Awakened Cast on Critical Strike) or 6.06 (for regular Cast on Critical Strike) as possible. You can view your maximum and effective trigger rate in Calcs section. Sometimes you have too much attack speed, sometimes too little (for Awakened Cast on Critical Strike ideal attack speed is 1 / 0.13 * 2 e.g 15.18, for regular it is 1 / 0.17 * 2 e.g 11.76. Never go over these values. Then make sure to fix your crit and hit chance, you want to be as close to 100% as possible on both. 
Why am I dying?
Are you casting your buffs too often? If yes, stop. Manastorm eats your whole mana pool every time you cast any spell what means Blood Rage, Sigil etc. Try to cast all these buff before you start killing bosses or in middle of packs (in case of blood rage). Vaal Righteous Fire can also easily kill you so be careful with it. Also make sure you have your Vortex + Archmage on left click/autocast. Do not forget to keep your defensive buffs up, e.g flasks, Sigil of Power, Fortify, Arcane Cloak. Make sure your resistances are balanced for Wise Oak. Make sure you have stun avoidance enchant or boots or are using Bringe King patheon.
How are you ramping up Indigon and sustaining it? 16k mana/4s is crazy
I use Vortex + Archmage and Arcane Cloak for rapidly increasing our mana spent recently and then I keep casting Blood Rage or Sigil of Power in between of using Cyclone (what at this point already spends a lot of mana too) to keep Indigon ramped up. And I sustain the mana with heavy mana flask investment, mana recovery investment and mana leech with Cyclone and Essence Sap.
Why Pathfinder and not Ascendant?
Pathfinder is tankier, faster and does more damage than Ascendant. I do not need the extra points what Ascendant gives me, what I need is the extra flask effect from Pathfinder to get 100%+ increased flask effect. I also get 6% reduced Elemental Damage taken, all res penetration, movement speed, attack speed, Ailment Immunity.
Why not Ice Spear?
Ice Spear is valid option if you want more damage. This build already does way too much damage so I prefer Nova for way better clear speed. Also Ice Spear requires running Dying Sun what means no Wise Oak.
Can I use this setup with other skills?
Absolutely. I tested this with CoC VD, CoC Spark, CoC Ice Spear, CoC FP, CoC Reap, a lot of stuff works. We have a lot of generic damage increase, all resists pen, a lot of flat lightning to spells, so it really does not matter what type of skill you use as long as it is elemental skill (or converted skill). Media Mapping Crystal Ore (No Freezing Pulse) Juiced Harbinger Map Caldera Juiced Canyon Delirium Mirror Simulacrum Waste Pool (Spark) Desert (Spark + Arc = SpArc) Caldera (Spark + Arc = SpArc) Juiced Canyon 10aps setup Bossing Maze of the Minotaur Drox (Undergeared setup) Drox (Proper setup) Veritania The Hidden (Old setup, shows danger of VRF as I literally killed myself with it there) The Formed Fun with Shaper Full Shaper Uber Elder Maze of the Minotaur + Forge of the Phoenix (Spark) Maze of the Minotaur (Spark + Anomalous Faster Projectiles) Misc Maximum AoE investment Herald of Ice Immortal Will CoC Portal CoC Volatile Dead CoC Magma Orb CoC Blazing Salvo CoC Ethereal Knives My builds: Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2551841 My site: https://mapsofexile.com/ Last edited by thedeathbeam on Jul 19, 2021, 12:00:41 PM Last bumped on Aug 20, 2021, 8:46:39 PM
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Reserving first comment just in case I run out of space on main post
My builds:
Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2551841 My site: https://mapsofexile.com/ |
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Thanks for the guide is there any upgrades for a higher budget you could recommend
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" Depends on how high budget but there is multiple stuff you can do: - 3 or 5 passive voices - Corrupted Cloak of Defiance - Double crit multi jewels - 3rd breakpoint (with CDR on both belt and boots) - Crit multi on rings - Crit multi on abyss jewel - Cospri reduced attribut requirements enchant (mostly fixes int issues what means more flexible rares and no need for Fertile Mind) My builds:
Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2551841 My site: https://mapsofexile.com/ |
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Great build, just want to know is it WIP? Haven’t seen detailed gears and jewelry/gems section
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" Other than maybe end game optimization section and level 80, 90, 100 (maybe 85 and 95) trees I dont think I missed anything. For gems they dont really change and are self explanatory, for items every item in the PoB has stats you want on it written in PoB and the stats are also listed in priority order. I might also add more stuff to crafting section later but I think the guide is perfectly usable as is atm unless I missed something important. And if yes please tell me so I can either explain it or include it in guide if necessary :d My builds:
Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2551841 My site: https://mapsofexile.com/ |
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man i really wanted to try this build, but the 15ex entry fee is a little misleading
the only change in your budget version is the bottled faith, but even without it, its a lot more than 15ex 6L defiance = 4.5-5ex cospri = 100c tailwind elusive boots - 2ex+ ass mark ring - 8-12ex crit/mana/life jewel x6 - 1-2ex each (6-12ex) i didn't even look at the medium flask cluster jewels, watcher's eye, and other items (gems, etc). unless im missing something here and all those items are actually not necessary, seems like the budget is a lot higher. |
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" The budget setup is not using tailwind/elusive boots, you can get basic ass mark ring with some resistances with like 30c. Budget setup is also not suing crit + mana + life jewels, you just go with life + crit or mana + crit (what are like 5 to 10c max each) Biggest cost of the budget setup is 6l defiance and medium clusters, as med clusers are 155c each. You dont need watchers eye either, but 1 mod watchers are also relatively cheap. At least 2 people I know made the budget setup work at around 15 to 20ex budget so that is from where I know it can be done. I personally started at 35ex budget with Bottled. Also important thing for medium clusters is to not buy them but to craft them. My builds: Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2551841 My site: https://mapsofexile.com/ Last edited by thedeathbeam on May 21, 2021, 11:28:30 AM
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Very good very strong. Make me prefer to do bosses,lab you name it.
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How important is Focus Skill? Can I play this build without it?
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