[3.25] Ice Dancing Queen - Icestorm/Cyclone/CI - Viable For Everything

2024-07-24: Updated for 3.25. Replaced Hatred with Zealotry. Adjusted the trees in PoB.
2024-07-31: Week 1 update. Replaced synthesized rings with mirrored ones. Simplified upgrade path. Discipline is replaced by Zealotry after some cheap upgrades. Added Frost Bomb. Made a new budget mapping video.
2024-08-19: Final update for 3.25. Updated the High End Full Build PoB with the new items from 3.25. Updated the Gearing Guide. Added the Helical Ring craft and Aspect of the Spider.



This is the Trickster version of the Ice Dancing Queen. It looks like you are ice skating and doing pirouettes all over the enemies. Over the years, as the game has been changing, this build has been played as: Ascendant, Elementalist, Inquisitor, Berserker, Occultist, and now Trickster. I've been using this build to do 40/40 challenges on my own merit in many leagues, it's my go-to build to get things done.

The main idea is to be tanky and mobile enough to faceroll everything in your way. No boss is too hard, most are too easy. All maps with most any mods are a joke.

Demo video: Farming T17 on a budget
Demo video: Deleting uber bosses with high end gear

Videos

Build Theory
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This build is based on The Whispering Ice unique staff. Icestorm damage scales from Int, therefore Int is the main stat.

The build is immune to all elemental ailments, corrupted blood (optional), and all forms of chaos damage. It is extremely tanky and leechy. It can ignore most map mods and do virtually any mod combos with minimal adjustments.

Key mechanics: Int stacking, cold damage with a lot of resist penetration and crits, Chaos Inoculation, ES overleech, ES and mana recovery on kill, 2 curses, Block, Evasion.

The actual DPS of this build is hard to calculate because Icestorm mechanics are very different from other skills. It takes a couple of seconds to stack up. Without going into complex math, the DPS of Icestorm on a stationary target is about 23 * Average Hit.

Is this a good league starter?
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The answer REALLY depends on your personal play style and league goals.

Leveling with Icestorm is super easy. But it's not the fastest way to move forward, there are much faster builds. It uses cheap leveling uniques. But they don't become widely available until a few hours after the league start.

If you want to race through the Acts and into the maps as soon as the servers unlock then this is not something this build can do. But if you are in no hurry, or starting late, then sure enough, this build is a cheap and easy way to cakewalk through the storyline and start mapping. It doesn't require any expensive gear or 6L items even for the endgame content.

PoB data

Bandits
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Kill them all.

Ascendancy
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1. Heartstopper
2. Escape Artist
3. Soul Drinker
4. Polymath

Once you are decently geared, replace Heartstopper with One Step Ahead. Immunity to slowing effects is amazing for T17 and uber boss fights.

5. Forbidden Flesh/Flame:
a) Heartstopper - have both the damage reduction and the slow immunity. The jewels for Heartstopper are usually the cheapest of the Ascendancies used by this build;
b) Ambush and Assassinate - a MASSIVE damage upgrade. These jewels are expensive. This is an endgame gearing milestone.

Pantheon
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Early on go with Brine King and Ralakesh to deal with stun and bleeding.

Once you have Divine Vessels and appropriate maps, switch to Solaris and upgrade it. Use Yugul for curse and reflect maps, Ralakesh for bleed-heavy league mechanics.

Auras
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1. Clarity
2. Purity of Elements
3a. Discipline - for leveling and early mapping.
3b. Zealotry - once you have 8-9k ES without Discipline, and you've allocated Sovereignty, replace Discipline with Zealotry.
4. Aspect of the Spider Lv 30 - you can beast craft it on any item with an open suffix once you get Enlighten lv 3.

Gear
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!!! This is an Int stacking build. It scales from Int in multiple ways. Other than the build-enabling weapon and very special boots, every single piece of gear must provide a high amount of Int. Do not neglect Int on your items.

There is a detailed step-by-step gearing guide 2 posts below this one.

Anoinment

You have 2 items that can be anointed: amulet and The Stampede boots. Anoint them with:

1. Steelwood Stance (Teal, Teal, Azure) - very nice for early mapping.
2. Tranquility (Prismatic, Silver, Golden) - a huge damage boost.

As you get better gear and higher levels, replace Steelwood Stance with Whispers of Doom (3x Golden) - free up 4 skill points.

Gems
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Ball Lightning lv 1
Bonechill Support lv 20
Cast When Damage Taken Support lv 1, x2
Cast When Damage Taken Support lv 20, ideally lv 21
Cast While Channelling Support lv 15-16 (do not level it past 16; because math)
Clarity lv 20, ideally lv 21
Cold Penetration 20/20, ideally Awakened
Cold Snap lv 1, ideally 1/20
Concentrated Effect Support 20/20
Cyclone any lv
Discipline lv 20
Energy Leech Support 20/20
Frost Bomb lv 1, ideally 1/20
Frostbite lv 20, ideally lv 21
Frostblink lv 20
Hextouch Support lv 20, ideally Awakened
Immortal Call lv 6
Increased Critical Damage Support 20/20, x2
Inspiration Support 20/20, x2
Intensify Support 20/20
More Duration Support lv up to your Str, 20q
Power Charge on Critical Support 20/20, x2
Punishment 20/20, ideally 21/20
Purity of Elements 20/20
Unbound Ailments Support lv 20, ideally Awakened
Zealotry lv 20, ideally lv 21

Optional:
Frost Shield
Culling Strike
Portal
Vaal Righteous Fire
Enlighten

Sockets and Links
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Weapon
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Carrying two staves and swapping between them with X is the best setup.

For map clearing: Cyclone - CwC lv 15, Inspiration, Power Charge on Critical, Increased Critical Damage (5S), Energy Leech (6S). Cyclone must be linked to CwC. You don't need to link anything else. Icestorm automatically uses all support gems in the staff. Keep CwC at lv 15-16 for math reasons.

For single target: Intensify, Inspiration, Power Charge on Critical, Concentrated Effect, Increased Critical Damage (5S), Cold Penetration (6S). No links required.

You can kill most bosses even with your map clearing staff. But they die a lot faster with a dedicated single target setup.

Chest
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This build does not need 6L.

5L: CWDT lv 1 - Ball Lightning lv 1 - Hextouch (20/20) - Frostbite (lv 20) - Punishment (lv 20)

Important: CWDT and BL need to be lv 1, do not level these gems! Hextouch can be any level, 20/20 is highly recommended. The curses must be lv 6 or higher, level them up. This setup will not work with low level curse gems or high level CWDT/BL. You want this link to trigger as often as possible, so CWDT must stay at lv 1. Curses lower than lv 6 will get triggered by CWDT directly, apply to a small area and eat all your mana.

If you don't have a 5L chest or Whispers of Doom yet, drop Punishment.

If you do get a 6L, can add Culling Strike.

Gloves, boots, helmet
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4L: CWDT lv 1 - Cold Snap lv 1 - Bonechill - Unbound Ailments

Optionally, use Culling Strike for bosses until you get it elsewhere (instead of Unbound Ailments).

4L: CWDT - Immortal Call lv 6 - More Duration - Frost Bomb lv 1

Place in any free sockets: Frostblink, aura gems, etc. Make sure not to link the aura gems to any supports that can increase their mana cost.


Flasks
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I highly recommend these flasks (or similar):

If you get your resists right, The Wise Oak provides a solid damage bonus (and a bit of defense). Atziri's Promise is good for damage too. Rumi's is great for block and phys mitigation - important defenses.

Yugul Pantheon mitigates 30% curse effect on you. A flask with high enough curse mitigation takes care of the other 70% and lets you ignore curses.

Corundum base gives you additional protection from stun while mapping. Diamond base is always good for a crit build.

Triggering automatically (with Instilling orbs) lets you clear maps without ever worrying about flasks.

Play Style
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Cyclone and Frostblink through the map.

For the boss, switch to the single target staff and melt it. Use Frostblink to move without interrupting your casting and losing Intensify stacks.

Important: make sure to check the option "Always Attack without Moving" for Frostblink and Icestorm on your skill bar (for both weapons).

Bind Cyclone to the right mouse button. This will make you a one-button auto-bomber. You can clear the entire map with one hand by holding that button if you feel too lazy to hit Frostblink. Bind Icestorm to that button on the boss staff.

Name Locking: if you target a boss, press the Icestorm button and hold it - it will keep targeting that boss and casting Icestorm on it no matter where it moves (or you move). The boss can be completely off screen but you will keep casting Icestorm on it as long as it stays namelocked (example: video).

Frostblink is an instant skill that doesn't interrupt channelling. Use it to dash while cycloning, or to move around the boss arena while namelocking the boss.

You can facetank and outleech anything that does not 1-shot you.

Polymath and Soul Drinker allow you to do pretty much any maps with any mods. The only one that needs something special is Elemental Reflect. You can use a cheap Watcher's Eye jewel with anti-reflect Purity of Elements mod (in addition to Yugul pantheon) if you really have to do an ele reflect map.

If you follow this guide, don't neglect to gear properly and don't replace key mechanics with things that "look better" to you, then you will be virtually unkillable in maps.

Conversely, if you are dying a lot in maps - then you are either not using the correct items, links, skills or auras, or you are making custom modifications to the tree without understanding the consequences. Re-read the guide and follow it. Or un-private your profile and ask what you are doing wrong in this thread.

Mana Sustain
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Trickster has unlimited mana for mapping thanks to the Polymath node. However, tanking a hard hitting boss may drain all your mana if you have a wrong CWDT setup or no mana recoup.

When you take damage, CWDT links triggers Immortal Call, Frost Bomb, and Cold Snap. They have a decent mana cost. Depending on the boss and map mods, your mana regen may not be enough to counter this, and your Icestorm casting may stutter or stop completely.

You must have some form of mana recoup! Initially you get it from Mana Mastery. Later you can get it on the Watcher's Eye jewel or craft it on the rings (if not mirrored).
Last edited by Kelvynn on Aug 21, 2024, 2:56:40 PM
Last bumped on Nov 9, 2024, 4:48:53 PM
Leveling Guide (3.25)

PoB Leveling trees
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Remember to complete side quests that give +skill points.
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A1: Dweller of the Deep ('the Granddaddy crab')
A1: The Marooned Mariner (Fairgraves)
A1-2: The Way Forward (the seal in Western Forest)
A2: Through the Sacred Ground (the Golden Hand).
A3: Victario's Secrets (platinum busts)
A4: An Indomitable Spirit (Deshret)
A5: In Service to Science (the Miasmeter)
A5: Kitava's Torments (the Reliquary)
A6: The Cloven One (Aberrath)
A6: The Puppet Mistress (Ryslatha)
A7: Queen of Despair (Gruthkul)
A7: Kishara's Star (the Causeway)
A8: Love is Dead (Tolman)
A8: The Gemling Legion (the Grain Gate)
A8: Reflection of Terror (Yugul)
A9: Queen of the Sands (Shakari)
A9: The Ruler of Highgate (Garukhan)
A10: Vilenta's Vengeance (Vilenta)


You can level to lv 33-38 any way you like. There are many good ways.

I typically start with Stormblast Mine and switch to Icicle Mine at lv 12. Support it with Added Lightning Damage, Added Cold Damage, Increased Critical Strikes.

Get Frost Bomb and Frostblink early in Act 1. Support Frostblink with Arcane Surge (keep the level low to trigger from 1 cast) and Added Lightning or Cold (depending on the socket color you find).

Grab Clarity in Act 1, Herald of Ice on Act 2.

Frostblink on cooldown. Frost Bomb on packs. Don't bother stopping to kill everything. What dies along the way is good enough. Kill rares and bosses with mines.

Use any essences you find to make wands and spirit shields. Keep the ones that get +ele dmg to spells or increased cold/spell/ele dmg mods.

If you still don't have The Whispering Ice at lv 38 (like on day 1 of a new league) you can proceed with Eye of Winter - Unleash until you get it.

As soon as you obtain The Whispering Ice (and lv 33) - start using Icestorm.

Self-casting setup (lv 33+):
Inspiration, Arcane Surge (stay at lv 4), Concentrated Effect, Cold Penetration (4S), Power Charge on Critical (5S). No links required.

Auras: Clarity, Purity of Elements. Drop Herald of Ice. Around lv 45-50 as you get more mana, add Discipline.

At lv 38 you can start channelling Icestorm via Cyclone while moving.

Cycloning setup (lv 38+):
Cyclone - Cast while Channelling, Inspiration, Concentrated Effect, Power Charge on Critical (5S). Cyclone needs to be linked with CwC.

Other useful skills:
CWDT lv 1 - Frostbite lv 5 - Frost Bomb lv 1.
CWDT lv 1 - Cold Snap - Bonechill.

In Act 6-7 take the Brine King and Ralakesh pantheon powers.

Switch to CI in Act 7.

Get another staff if you can and make a single target setup for deleting bosses as you take crit nodes and power charges on the tree:
Inspiration, Intensify, Concentrated Effect, Power Charge on Critical, Cold Penetration (5S).

Do the labs as soon as you can. Trickster Ascendancy: Heartstopper -> Escape Artist -> Soul Drinker. Do the 3rd lab before killing Kitava.

Keep leveling in maps and adding more useful nodes until you are ready to switch to the cluster tree. Follow the gearing guide.
Last edited by Kelvynn on Jul 24, 2024, 1:48:32 PM
Gearing Guide (3.25)

Note: disregard any gems shown in the sockets of the linked items. Gems and links can change depending on the league.
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Lv 1-32
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Day 1 Gear
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You only care about the boots, wands and spirit shields. Can use random rares in all other slots for life and resistances. Wand + spirit shield is nice for both damage and defense.

If Tarkleigh doesn't sell 10% ms boots, make them yourself. Any white boots will do. Stats don't matter, you just want ms. You get a Quicksilver flask from the Medicine Chest quest.

Recipe: White boots + Quicksilver flask + Orb of Augmentation = 10% ms boots

Sell random magic and rare junk for Transmutation shards until you have 4 Transmutation orbs. Use them to buy an Augmentation orb for the recipe.

Further upgrade the boots at lv 15 and 24.

Recipe: N% ms magic/rare boots + Quicksilver flask + Orb of Augmentation = N+5% ms boots

Use any essences you find on wands and spirit shields. Keep the ones that roll +ele dmg to spells and increased cold/spell/ele dmg mods.

Twink Gear
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Lv 33-70
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At lv 33 you switch to Icestorm.

Self-cast until lv 38, then Cyclone-CwC. Or just keep self-casting it until the end of the campaign for higher damage (but less smooth play style). Any %Int is fine. 4S is fine. More sockets make it all trivial.

Switch to these uniques by lv 37-39:

Use rings and amulet to cap resists (on top of Purity of Elements), preferably with additional Int on them. If you already have Astramentis, use it too.

Beginner Mapping Gear
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Keep the belt, boots and amulet from leveling. Get the rares for body armour, helmet, gloves and rings. They all MUST have 40+ Int.

Body armour is your biggest source of ES. Remember that Trickster gets 1 ES per 6 Evasion on the body armour, so 300 ES + 1200 Evasion is actually 500 ES (and still 1200 Evasion).

Try to get a decent amount of ES on the helmet too.

Gloves and rings are just there to give you Int and resistances.

Upgrading the Staves
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You need 2 staves for mapping: one with Cyclone-CwC for clearing and one with self-cast for bosses. The end goal is to have them both 6S and 18% Int. Cast speed doesn't matter.

Upgrade your staves one step at a time. Don't ruin the ones you have. Buy another one and roll it until it's better than what you have. Remember that the item needs to be ilvl 50+ to be able to roll 6 sockets with Jeweller obrs.

Omen of the Jeweller is usually cheap enough for a quick 6S.

Main Upgrade Path
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1. Boots and Amulet
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The first two items you should get after the beginner mapping gear are Astramentis and The Stampede. The amulet solves all your stat issues and gives you a ton of damage. The boots have an incredible QoL value. And they are both anointable. Steelwood Stance on the amulet (teal, teal, azure). Path of the Savant on the boots (sepia, amber, verdant).

It is often cheaper to buy 3 The Polymath cards than the amulet itself. Check the current prices.

In some leagues Astramentis is too expensive early because it's used in some meta/streamer builds. You'll do just fine with a rare amulet or talisman that gives 90+ Int and enough Str/Dex for the gems.

If you manage to get a decently high (70%+) CDR on the boots, you won't have to upgrade them ever again. When you can afford the oils, anoint them with Tranquility (prismatic, golden, silver). Get 3 red sockets using Jeweller orbs. Start with 2R craft, then keep adding and removing the 3rd socket until you get another R.

2. Belt
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Buy a synthesized %Int belt. It should be ilvl 74+ to have a chance of decent Str or resist mods, and a 13-15% Int implicit without quality. Scour it. If the implicit is not 15% use a Blessing orb. Use Intrinsic catalysts for 20q (and 18% Int). Use a Deafening Essence of Spite to get the top Int suffix. Craft anything useful depending on the empty affixes.

It's worth buying two bases and re-crafting one when you need different resists or Str later on without ruining the one you are using.

3. Gloves
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On the gloves you want 45+ Int, two good resist mods (or 1 resist and 1 empty suffix to craft the other), and 100+ ES.

Use any Eldritch currency to roll %Inc Damage per 100 Int (blue) and Unnerve on Hit (red).

4. Body Armour
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What you want is 45+ Int, 300+ ES and 1200+ Evasion. The more the better. But no crafted prefixes. And an empty suffix to craft 6% Inc Attributes (unlocked by unveiling body armours with a Hillock veiled mod).

You can craft one yourself: buy a base with a T1-2 Fractured ES or ES/Evasion mod and use Deafening Essence of Spite.

Make it 6S and dump Fusing orbs on it until you get a 5-link. You might even get lucky and 6L it (to add Culling Strike to the curse link).

Use blue eldritch currency to get 1% less damage per N Int. Use red eldritch currency to get spell crit multi.

5. Budget Jewels
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Buy two 8-node Cold clusters ilvl 68+ and alt/aug spam them until you get Cold to the Core. It will be easier to hit if it's ilvl 68-74 (but the prices may vary). Regal them for another random mod.


Buy two Split Personality with Int/anything. This will allow you to switch to the cluster tree for a big power spike.


Buy and vaal Natural Affinity. The chance of getting Corrupted Blood immunity is low. You will want that eventually. But you can start using the jewel anyway. Buy a corrupted rare jewel with that mod and some Int and use it until you get lucky with Natural Affinity.


Buy a Watcher's Eye with Clarity mana recoup and anything else useful for Clarity, Purity of Elements, Zealotry or Discipline.

6. Rings
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Kalandra (mirrored) rings will give you the most Int and help you max resists. Just don't take any negative mods that would ruin the build.

Avoid mods that result in life loss/degen, they will kill a CI character.
Note: "-Max Life" mod is fine, it doesn't do anything to CI.

7. Helmet
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You need an ilvl 75-79 Sunfire Circlet base. It must not have any influences or be fractured or synthesized.

Craft it with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get a decent resist mod, at least one high tier ES prefix, and an open prefix to craft more ES. You want 300+ ES total. And an empty suffix for the Hunter mod. If all suffixes are taken but the stats are really good, you can try annulling an unwanted suffix.

Before using the Hunter's Exalt, re-check that:
- ilvl is 75-79
- it's not influenced, fractured or synthesized
- all prefixes are taken
- there is an empty suffix
If these conditions are met, a Hunter's Exalted orb will guarantee the %Int mod.

8. Amulet
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%Int and Damage per Int are the two key mods. With some stats on top. This is a big damage spike, but you lose a lot of Str and Dex from Astramentis. You can use lower level red and green skill gems to require less Str and Dex. You can also craft Str on the belt and Dex on rings.

Depending on the current price of the Awakener's orb, you can choose to craft it yourself or just buy it.


For crafting, you need two ilvl 80+ amulets: one Shaper and one Crusader. The damage/Int mod on the Shaper one is pretty common, you can just buy one that already has it. Or you can alt spam it. The Crusader amulet will be your main base. Choose one with an implicit that gives you the stats you will need after replacing Astramentis. Scour the base, make it 20q, then alt spam the T1 %Int mod.

Very important: each amulet must have only the desired influenced mod and no other Shaper/Crusader mods! The Shaper one must have "The Shaper's" dmg/int prefix and no "of Shaping" suffixes. The Crusader one must have the T1 %Int suffix "of the Crusade" and no "Crusader's" prefixes.


Right-click the Awakener's orb, left-click on the Shaper amulet first, then left-click on the Crusader amulet. You will get a dual influenced amulet with the two desired mods plus random others. You may get lucky and roll a good stat suffix. Or an empty suffix to craft more stats. Finish crafting it with whatever makes sense depending on the empty affixes. Anoint Whispers of Doom and free up 4 skill points.

At this point you can farm uber pinnacle bosses. Depending on the knowledge of the fights, experience and skill, of course.

9. Good Clusters
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Cold to the Core + Blanketed Snow, preferably with some stats. Crafting these requires too much luck or currency. It's cheaper to just buy them.


Split Personality with Int+ES.

10. Good Gloves
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On the final gloves, you want T1 Int, high ES and some Dex (for a good body armour). You can craft a Warlock Gloves base that has a fractured Dex or ES mod with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get a good enough result.

When you have the gloves that won't need further upgrading, craft the high end boss damage/Int Eldritch implicit (5% instead of the cheap 3% one).


Use Grand or Greater Eldritch Ichor to get the 4% dmg/Int mod "While a Unique Enemy is in your Presence" (not the generic 4% dmg/int one). Use Exceptional Eldritch Ember to get a random high tier red implicit.

Now you need to upgrade your blue implicit to Exquisite (5%) using Orb of Conflict. Every time you use one, it randomly upgrades the tier of either the red or the blue mod and downgrades the tier of the other one. It's weighted towards upgrading the one that's lower - this is why you need the Exceptional red one.

With a good roll: your blue mod gets upgraded and the red one gets downgraded. Use another Exceptional Eldritch Ember to get a new random high tier red mod.

With a bad roll: your blue mod gets downgraded and the red one gets upgraded. Use another Orb of Conflict to fix that and get back to the previous step.

There are multiple tiers of eldritch mods with the same value. For this one, Greater, Grand and Exceptional tiers all show as 4%. Hold the Alt key to see the actual tier.

Eventually you will get the Exquisite (5%) blue mod. Use cheap red currency to roll the Unnerve mod, any tier will do.

11. Good Body Armour
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Upgrade to a body armour with better stats. Once you get a really good one, get an Exquisite blue eldritch mod the same way as on the gloves. And a good red mod.

Crafting a really good body armour can be hard. I cannot recommend a reliable method that couldn't get very expensive. It's often cheaper to just buy one.

Note that the new top Int/Dex bases require a lot of Dex to use. Also note that it cannot have a crafted mod because you want to craft the 6% All Attr mod on it (unless that's what it already has).

Finally, you can use Tailoring Orbs to add an enchantment that increases the magnitude of Defence mods. There are several different enchantments like that, including one that also reduces attribute requirements (if you are struggling to get your Dex high enough).

You can upgrade your body armour in several steps, especially if you started with a cheap self-crafted one. Remember that your total ES from it is ES + Evasion/6.

12. Better Helmet
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The new top ES helmet base is Lich's Circlet. However, it doesn't drop below ilvl 84. Hunter's Exalted Orb does not guarantee an %Int mod on helmets above ilvl 79. There are 3 extra Hunter suffixes at ilvl 80. If you want to go for max possible ES: that requires ilvl 84, and the chance of rolling the 9-10% Int mod will be 1/5. If you have the currency for it, that's a viable option.

But there is also a 'budget shortcut': use an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet. It cannot drop naturally, but it can be manufactured using the Recombinator. When you combine 2 items, it chooses one of their 2 bases randomly, and the item level of the result is the average of their item levels plus 2.

To get an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet (with a 50% chance of success), combine:
a) ilvl 84 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 62 helmet;
b) ilvl 85 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 61 helmet;
c) ilvl 86 Lich's Circlet + any ilvl 60 helmet.

Ilvl 60-62 helmets are sold by Act 8 town vendor or can be easily found in Act 9 areas with those monster levels.

Once you have an ilvl 75 Lich's Circlet, craft it the same way as your previous helmet (#7 above).

13. Other High End Stuff
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Balance your resists for The Wise Oak (remember that you can switch them around with the Harvest currency).

Get the base ES close to max values on the chest, helmet and gloves with Sacred orbs.

Divine all %Int mods to the max value.

Buy Forbidden Flesh/Flame jewels for Ambush and Assassinate.

Buy a Watcher's Eye with Zealotry resist penetration and Clarity mana recoup.

Buy Enlighten (lv 3 is enough) and craft Aspect of the Spider Lv 30 (Fenumus + Black Morrigan) on any item with an open suffix.

Buy Rational Doctrine.

14. Helical Ring
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Once you have a decent budget, you can make a ring with an absurd amount of Int which will also cap your resistances.

Such items are created with Reflecting Mist. When it's applied to an item, that item is destroyed (and you cannot restore it from an imprint). Two mirrored copies of that item are created. Each mod from the original item has its value multiplied by a random number between 1.5 and 2.1. One copy receives that new value as a positive number, the other copy gets a negative version of it.

Buy a Helical Ring base that is not corrupted, mirrored, synthesized or influenced. Split is fine. Fractured is OK if the mod is harmless. Any item level, the lower the better (fewer possible unwanted mods).

Craft with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get 22-24% All Res. Helical Ring multiplies the mod value by 1.5 but you can hold Alt to see the base value (15-16% in this case).

Once you have the All Res mod (plus the Int guaranteed by the essence), you need to annul any mods that can be bad if turned negative by Reflecting Mist.

KEEP HARMLESS MODS! Any mods than don't matter for this build are actually good to have. It is unknown how the system decides which mirrored copy of the item receives the positive or negative version of the mod. But it seems that getting all positives on the same copy is almost impossible. The system favors an even split. Your chances of getting the positive values for Int and All Res on the same ring are much higher when there are extra mods. You can add a mod with an Exalted Orb and hope that it's harmless. You can beast craft any Aspect - they don't have negative values and stay unchanged when Reflected. You can craft a low tier of something completely irrelevant at the crafting bench.

Use Intrinsic Catalyst to get some extra Int at 20% quality.

Apply Reflecting Mist and hope that you get the positive Int and All Res on the same ring. The chance of success is 33% with 3 or 4 mods, and 40% with 5 mods.

Reflecting Mist's multiplier seems to be weighted towards lower values. The lowest roll (1.5) is the most common. The high rolls (2.0+) can take a few attempts.

Kalandra's Touch is usually less expensive than crafting another ring, it's a great choice for the other ring slot.

Failed crafts can be vendored 5:1 for a brand new Helical Ring that is not mirrored or split. You effectively get 2 Helical bases back (after splitting) from 2 failures and 1 success. Sell them for a nice 'cash back' or try crafting again for a higher Reflecting Mist multiplier.

One catch: you cannot vendor both rings from the same failed attempt together. They have the same name and the vendor will give you a Chance Orb for them! Swap them with friends (or ask for a swap in this thread) to get ones with different names. Or just do some more crafting until you have 5 failed rings with different names.


The Ultimate Upgrade
Spoiler


The Simplex Amulet is the final upgrade for this build. It will cost more than the rest of the gear combined and add about 30% more damage.

This is completely optional. You can farm all endgame content and uber bosses without it. This is a luxury "OP" item.

The base itself can be very expensive (100+ div depending on the league). You can craft the 2-mod version of the amulet (without +19% Attr) for a few more divines and keep the imprint created in the process. This is already a very nice upgrade.

Later on, you can finish the craft and unlock its full power when you have the bugdet for it.

> How to craft the Simplex Amulet < using meta crafting with about 100 div
> How to craft the Simplex Amulet < using beast crafting using about 30x Black Morrigans + Craicic Chimerals

Last edited by Kelvynn on Aug 27, 2024, 4:57:41 PM
Great Job! I waited for this "live"))!!
I really wanted to try new Trickster, but didn't want to let go of Icestorm.

Thank you for making this decision the easiest I've ever had in any league.
Is overleech really going to be that helpful? You only get to overleech for approximately 5 seconds which is too low to make it thru invulnerability phases?
Interesting, Was going to do the usual scion whispering for 2nd char but if this goes well might give it a roll for variety :)
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Larloch1821 wrote:
Is overleech really going to be that helpful? You only get to overleech for approximately 5 seconds which is too low to make it thru invulnerability phases?


There withering jar is one of possibilities
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Larloch1821 wrote:
Is overleech really going to be that helpful? You only get to overleech for approximately 5 seconds which is too low to make it thru invulnerability phases?

Some bosses like to do a few more hits before switching phases while already invulnerable (e.g. Izaro, Aul). And 5 sec should make a difference at Uber Eater or Uber Sirus too, even though that won't cover the whole phase.

Mobile/teleporting bosses also make your leech very uneven. You are vulnerable when chasing them. Overleech will help.

But the bosses are only a part of it. In regular mapping, when moving from pack to pack, you will be covered for the brief period when you are no longer leeching from the previous pack but Icestorm hasn't landed on the next pack yet.

It should also help with lab traps and burning ground.

I remember playing a Slayer back in the day. Overleech felt really good. It should be great on a Trickster now too.
Last edited by Kelvynn on Aug 18, 2022, 7:38:28 PM
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Larloch1821 wrote:
Is overleech really going to be that helpful? You only get to overleech for approximately 5 seconds which is too low to make it thru invulnerability phases?


There withering jar is one of possibilities

Right. I used that for Uber Sirus on the Occultist. It heals about 25% of max ES.

While not solving the whole issue, another defense mechanic should definitely help. Trickster should be the best boss killer of the 3 versions, in theory. With overleech, evasion and the rotating 40% less damage. And he can afford a socket for Frost Shield too.
Last edited by Kelvynn on Aug 18, 2022, 7:42:48 PM

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