(Due to demand) My Hardcore Cold Snap Witch

Hardcore Cold Snap Witch
IGN: Plastic_Cup

Introduction:
This build was created to utilize a skill that is underused and in some cases not used at all, let alone as a main damage source. This build revolves around critical strikes to provide your damage and fuel for your main ability, this provides sometimes unpredictable and dynamic game play while maintaining extremely fast clear speeds.

The Build:


This build utilizes a Unique item called Voll's Protector to accommodate your use of Cold Snap. Cold Snap has a cool down that can be completely bypassed by consuming a Power Charge.

Beginning the build is very easy, you start with a slightly weaker Freeze Pulse HP Based Build and transition later to Cold Snap when you have your support gems and build at a comfortable level of Crit and acquire a Voll's Protector (with at least 3 linked Sockets).

Once you make your transition you will start by using Ice Spear at range to collect 5-7 Power Charges via Crits. You can begin to spam Cold Snap at this point and the very first time it crits you will see the beauty of this build.
NOTE: This IS a Hardcore character and I have encountered Elemental reflect packs, although they can be scary if it is en masse', it will not outright kill you in most cases even without a Life Leech Gem.

Gems and Gear:
The Gems you NEED for this build to work are very limited and almost all of them benefit directly from Quality.

You will need:
1-3 Cold Snap gems (Preference I use 2, one for single targets and one for AOE, you can use a third as a Power Charge Generator to avoid Ice Spear)
Ice Spear
Clarity
Discipline
Purity
Critical/Elemental Weakness (Solo/Team Respectively)
Increased Critical Strikes
Increased Critical Damage

Added Support:
Concentrated Effect
Increased AOE
Added Cold
Added Chaos
Added Lightning
Cold Penetration
Elemental Proliferation
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FAQ:

What happens when you don't crit for a while?
The simple answer to this is that you always have Ice Spear as your fallback spell, in an instance that your Cold Snap does not crit within the (roughly) 11 casts you get to expend per cycle a few Ice Spears will get you back rolling again. ****

Is this end-game viable?
ABSOLUTELY and your map team will love you for it. This build has the passive benefit of freezing almost everything on screen full time and a Quality Cold Snap makes it even better.

Pros:
Incredible AOE and Single Target Crowd Control
Shocks with Added Lightning
Great damage
Good solo clear speed
No max range on Cold Snap
Synergy with a Wander is amazing

Cons:
Some crit dry streaks that have to be made up for with Ice Spear
No ES buffer for Incoming damage
Damage will suck mid-game
Charge Management


**** This build has been made a lot easier with the new Voll's buff. Charge management is very easy now and you experience dry steaks very seldom.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask on this thread.

I do have a question, do you go to the shadow side or the templar side first? or what are the passives I should prioritize?

Seems interesting

Whats the diff with this build and a FP build? fun factor? or does FP still kills faster than cold snap?

Does the added lightning support gem provide enough lightning damage to shock?

Very interesting. I have been trying to build a similar build, never read your build until now, yet my passive tree is almost identical to yours. The only major difference is that I plan to take Static Blow and use Spark as the spell to collect Power Charges.

I'm only lvl 69, have been using Freezing Pulse to level and just started my transition to Cold Snap.

There are a few problems that I want to ask you.

- How do you overcome low survivability?
From what I have experienced so far, this build is very weak against physical attacks because the lack of ES and has very low armor. Not only that, compare to other popular top builds, this build has less effective life, less life regen, and the need to use Voll's Protector makes it worse.

- How much mana regen do u have?
This sort of ties to the first question. I'm thinking about using Arctic Armor to up my survivability but it will require around 250 mana regen/sec to sustain 100% up-time of a lvl20 gem. I started as Shadow and haven't got the the mana regen passive near witch starting point. Right now I only have 58.8 mana regen, and even if I reach witch mana regem passive it seems impossible to reach 250/sec. I need more than 4 times of my current regen, which is around 400% increased mana regen (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not an expert at mechanics). The only solution I can think of is to have massive mana regen from gear, use regen amulet, and two mana rings (but further reduces my life), even so, is it possible?

I was inspired by this build to try my hand at making a cold snap voll's build. I took the blood magic route to negate the voll's mana halving.

Here's my build:


I generate the initial and subsidiary power charges with FP + GMP + LL + Increased Crits. One crit usually generates five power charges against just one mob, and this combo allows me to facetank at least most rares.

Main AOE is Cold Snap + Increased AOE + Added Lightning dmg + Elemental Proliferation. This is amazing for crowd control, and I use the same link with my more purebred (though still a mutt) freeze pulsar cold crit power charge caster.

Single target is Cold Snap + Concentrated Effect + Added Lightning dmg + Increased Crit dmg. I find it kind of ass for damage though for just one mob. The AoE with my passives is larger than vanilla cold snap's though, and a second cold snap is quite important for the build anyway.


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I've got pretty shitty gear. Solid resists, 3k health. +215% crits from weapons which is looking to be more important than +30% cast speed I'd otherwise get. Unique windscream boots to double curse with critical and elemental weakness.

I'm looking into switching one weapon for a beefy shield along with some nodes to maybe get enough health to run the build with Malachai's Simula for its blood magic instead of the node to save ~8 passives.


Permafreezing and shockstacking thirty mobs at once is fun.

Do you think this build is possible without using Volls?

I have a 5l Carcass Jack that I'd like to try with a cold snap setup.

"

ragnarok911 wrote:

Do you think this build is possible without using Volls?

I have a 5l Carcass Jack that I'd like to try with a cold snap setup.

PCoC is a very poor replacement for voll's unfortunately but you could try it.



By the way, New BiS for this build


2x of the new void battery wands
+
new spell crit gloves replace maligaros




I can't belive I respec'd away from this build just when these were released... Maybe once I get enough exalts to afford those items i'll respec back :(

Sorry for my absence, I will answer questions very soon. I am very excited about the new unique wand!

"

ragnarok911 wrote:

Do you think this build is possible without using Volls?

I have a 5l Carcass Jack that I'd like to try with a cold snap setup.

I have tried Power Charge on Crit gem before, but it didn't work well. It kinda of work but there will be times that you dry your charges, because it doesn't guarantee gaining a charge when you crit, where Voll's does.

Besides that, Power Charge on Crit gems will occupy at least 2 gem slots, one for your charge collecting skill, another for Cold Snap. 3 if you use 2 Cold Snap gems. You miss out of lot when you lose 2, or even 3 support gems.

When I switched to Voll's, I found it works so much better. They don't compare.