[3.25] The Lazy Nova - Archmage MoM Crit Ice Nova of Frostbolts with Svalinn
Hi all! After a looong time not playing PoE I decided to league start Settlers with an old love of mine: the Ice Nova + Frostbolt combo. I love the interaction a lot (I even made an Inquisitor build guide back in the days), but a lot changed (first of all we have to use Ice Nova of Frostbolts now), so instead of starting from scratch, I've followed the Ziz/Goratha Archmage build. Everything went smooth and later I transitioned into crit, boosting my DPS a lot, but problems started to arise when I started juicing maps and doing the post pinnacle bosses endgame: I was dying a lot. The solution could've been raising my dps again or being super tanky, but either was super exensive (gg wands for dps or Mageblood for ehp)… But then Svalinn came… Pros and Cons: + Can achieve stupid levels of DPS + Good layers of defense with MoM, Leech and block + 1 button build + Most of our offensive buffs give also defense layers - The mapping pace is mid - It's an endgame build so it's expensive (around 6divs for the block transition alone) NOTE: From now onwards I'll just use "Ice Nova" to refer to "Ice Nova of Frostbolts"
The Lazy Nova
90% of the build is automated. When you cast Ice Nova you automatically trigger the spells socketed inside Kitava's Thirst, when you block you trigger the ones inside Svalinn. The Arcane Cloak setup with Arcane Surge is automatically casted on cooldown by the Automation support gem. You just need to cast Frostblink to move around and put an Arcanist Brand on bosses.
Why Svalinn?
Svalinn makes your block chance Lucky. What Lucky means is that every "roll" is doubled and only the best result is kept. For example, if you normally have 50% chance to block, the double roll of Lucky bumps it to 75%. I will try to explain the math behind it. Let's assume that our block chance is 50% Normally when something try to hit us block chance is rolled and we can expect just 2 outcomes: " We only 1 favorable result out of 2 (which is correct, since we have 50% block chance) With Svalinn every attempt is rolled twice, so the possible outcomes become 4: " Just the best result from the 2 rolls is kept, so now we have 3 favourable outcome out of 4 (75% block chance)
Damage
We use different skills/support that adds flat Lightning damage based on our mana. The Archmage support adds flat lightning damage to the supported skill based on the caster's unreserved maximum mana (19% at lvl20). The buff Arcane Cloak at lvl20 costs 64% of our current unspent mana and then gives us 14% of this spent mana as flat Lightning damage. If we have 5000 mana, a lvl 20 Archmage adds 950 (5000*0,19) flat Lightning dmg to the supported skill and Arcane Cloak adds 448 Lightning dmg. Those are summed (1398) and then scaled by the Damage Effectivness of the skill we are using (130% in the case of Ice Nova) to a grand total of 1817 of Lightning dmg. To put things in perspective, a lvl 20 Ice Nova does 590 to 885 cold damage. This means that we can ignore the base cold damage of Ice Nova and scale just lightning dmg (for example, 90% of the damage that my character does is Lightning). This is why we use things like Conductivity, Wrath, Lightning Leech and Lightning penetration. Basically we are just using the Ice Nova+Frostbolt as a vector to dish out absurd amount of Lightning damage. The downside of the Archmage support is that the spell supported became super expensive to cast, but with Kitava's Thirst we turn this in an upside. Since our ascendacy Conviction of Power gives us an headstart of +1 max power charge, it seems natural to get a little more of those to crit with our spells. also, Anathema fits perfectly in this plan, making us able to use a lot of offensive curse debuffs. We also runs a plethora of other minor buffs. We can also abuse of one of the strongest jewel interaction on the passive tree (Unnatural Instinct+The Light of Meaning)
Defense
Given that we are stacking mana for dps, going Mind Over Matter is free. The non-Svalinn versions of the build we take MoM on the tree, but we cannot path like that (more on that later), so we have to use Cloak of Defiance to get it. Svalinn makes going block super cheap. I spent something like 6divs to switch from non block to block and the difference is astronomical. I'm talking about getting exploded in wave 9 in simulacrum and by white mobs in T17 versus clearing both with basically no effort. Some of our curses are defensive (Enfeeble) or both offensive and defensive (Punishment) Most of our buffs offer also defensive layers.
WTF are you talking about?
If any of this is confusing is probably because I'm taking for granted something. You can refer to the Ziz build guide for the basics, but feel free to write in the comments if you want me to elaborate on something.
Leveling Trees
Final
Final Passive Tree If you prefer a PoB link, you can find it below in the dedicated Path of Building section
Bandits and Pantheon
Kill all Bandits for the passive point. Major God: Soul of the Brine King - stun/freeze avoidance Minor God: Soul of Abberath - taking no damage from burning ground is super nice
Gear
Weapon
you want something with mana, spell damage, crit, crit multi and possibly mana regen. (please, ignore the Adds 12 to 177 Lightning Damage to Spells mod on the wand, is not needed in the build) Settlers of Kalguur introduced in the game the ability to enchant weapons. The most powerful enchant by far is Haunted by Tormented Spirits which grants:
The problem is that a wand with this enchant starts from 60 divine, so I'm using #% chance to Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit instead as a replacement.
Shield
Svalinn give us a lot of block thanks to its Chance to Block is Lucky (Lucky means that the chance to roll is rolled twice and only the best result is kept) the mod Trigger a Socketed Elemental Spell on Block can automate our buffs so we don't have to think about casting them
Chest
gives the Mind Over Matter keystone and a lot of mana regen. without having to take MoM on the tree we can path for block chance.
Helmet
everything in this helmet will be automatically casted (if we are spending 100+ mana for our Ice Nova) the +1 to Maximum Power Charges gives a ton of dmg, but it's not mandatory
Gloves
life, mana, res the #% of Lightning Damage Leeched as Life Eater of Worlds mod si mandatory
Boots
life, mana, res, mov speed The Searing Exarch mod #% increased Acion Speed scales every action (running, casting, being stunned, blocking a hit), so it helps a lot in feeling less "clunky"
Belt
A Stygian Vise Rare Belt with Life, Mana and Elemental Resistances. Try to squeeze some Chaos Resistance here.
Rings
Anathema has the mod Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges. we have a lot of power charges, so we get to curse a lot. the other ring is a rare with life, mana and res. you can try to squeeze some cast speed here, and also the hybrid crafted mod +# to maximum Mana / #% reduced Mana Cost of Skills
Amulet
i was not using it when it was 6div in the beginning of the league, but for a couple of chaos is an amazing piece. a rare amulet will give overall better stats, but Atziri's Foible is unmatched for mana/mana regen Anointment: Infused:
Flasks
Bottled Faith is simply broken. Rumi helps us blovking more hits.
Jewels
This is the only mandatory one, since it boosts a ton our block chance. In the section below "Jewel Interaction" I explain how to use it more in depth. This combo gives a lot of damage. In the section below "Jewel Interaction" I explain why. Timeless Jewels change is some way the portion of your passive tree included in their radii. They also change the Keystones in radius by changing it in a completely new Keystone (not obtainable normally). It seems random at first, but it's not, for example every Militant Faith Timeless Jewel with the mod Carved to glorify # new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus will change keystone in radius to Inner Conviction. Inner Conviction
we dont' care about the Frenzy Charges part since we don't use them, but we care a lot about the Power Charges part since we stack them (8 charges = 24% MORE spell damage!) Keep in mind that timeless jewels can change also Notable Nodes in radius, so before buying one check in PoB that it will not change one of the Notable that we take. Militant Faith will also add a new stat to every nodes it affects, Devotion, and will spawn with mods that give you benefits based on how much Devotion you have. I think that the best mods for the build are: 1% reduced Mana Cost of Skills per 10 Devotion, Regenerate 0.6 Mana per Second per 10 Devotion, 4% increased Elemental Damage per 10 Devotion and 4% increased Area Damage per 10 Devotion Those drops granting bonuses depending on your active auras, so you should check for the one that gives bonuses when you are affected by Wrath. Note that the bonuses when you are affected by Zealotry are super juicy, so if you find a very good Zealotry one you can start using it instead of Wrath. A note on attribute requirements The biggest DEX requirement of the build comes from Cloak of Defiance. You need to have at least 76 DEX to equip it. However this is reduced to 57 by the mod Items and Gems have 25% reduced Attribute Requirements present on Atziri's Foible. Templars starts with 14 DEX and our pathing on the tree brings us to 24 (we take just 1 little dex node). This means that we need to have at least 33 DEX somewhere to be able to wear Cloak of Defiance. STR and INT aren't a problem, we have more than we need just by pathing on the tree.
Jewel Interaction
The Red Nightmare
This jewels takes 50% of the fire res in radius and add it as block chance. We can tattoo some of our passive tree near this jewel socket with Tattoo of the Ngamahu Firewalker (which gives +6% to Fire Resistance) in order to get a whopping +25% to block chance
Unnatural Instict & The Light of Meaning
The Light of Meaning says that every passive in radius (not just the allocated one) also grant x (in my case is 6% increased Lightning Damage). Unnatural Instinct says that it grants the bonus of all unallocated small passive in radius. if you combine them you get the bonus of The Light of Meaning for every small passive located in the overlaps from the two radii
Gem Links
Chest (6L) Ice Nova of Frostbolts + Archmage + Inspiration + Spell Echo + Intensify + Increased Critical Damage Kitava setup (2L+1S+1S) Frostbolt + GMP Assassin's Mark Enfeeble Svalinn setup (1S+1S+1S) Sigil of Power Frost Shield Wave of Conviction Arcanist Brand setup (3L) Arcanist Brand + Conductivity + Punishment Arcane Cloak setup (4L) Automation + Arcane Cloak + More Duration + Arcane Surge Other stuff (2L+2L) Wrath + Eternal Blessing Frostblink of Wintry Blast + Spell Echo
Alternatives
If you want to play a little bit more safely you can swap Punishment and Assassin's Mark, in order to trigger Punishment with Kitava's Thirst. This, however, means that we'll have to generate our Power Charges in some other way. The easiest solution is to use Power Charge on Crit in our 6-Link in place of Intesify or Increased Critical Damage. I'm not using Faster Casting but Spell Echo with Frostblink because it gives MORE cast speed. You can cancel the repetition by moving, but that can feel clunky. If this is your case feel free to use Faster Casting.
Gem Quality
There are a lot gems that are not worth getting to 20q, here's a list. Frostblink of Wintry Blast, Wave of Conviction, Arcane Surge, Frostbolt and GMP give damage, but not to our main skill, so we don't care about it. Enfeeble augment its duration, but we constantly apply it, so it's pretty useless. Arcanist Brand makes its activation more frequent, but we want to just to curse once with it. Frost Shield augmet its chilling effects. Not totally useless, but not too exciting. Wrath increases its AoE. Useful if you play in groups, useless if you mostly play solo. All the other gems have qualities that helps our dps/ehp, so try to get them. In particular Assassin's Mark at 20% quality has Cursed Enemies have a 5% chance to grant a Power Charge when Hit that is how we generate Power Charges, so get it asap.
Leveling Guide
This build is an "evolution" of the Goratha/Ziz build and, in fact, levels and plays in the exact same way for a long time. It's just in the late endgame (lvl90+) that we switch to crit and block. I've written a brief leveling guide below, but you can watch the Ziz's Video Guide if you prefer. In the section Passive Tree there's a PoB with the tree progression to follow. How to Level you can proceed through the game with the super classic Rolling Magma + Combustion + Elemental Proliferation link in tandem with an Holy Flame Totem (you can buff it with things like the Added Lighnting Damage support gem). Use Flame Dash as a movement skill. At this stage of the game you can use Herald of thunder and Herald of Fire to pump your damage. After level 31 you can start to use Archmage (Siosa will sell it after the Fixture of Faith quest in the Library of Act 3). Your main link should be something like: Firestorm + Archmage + Inspiration + Unleash If you don't like Firestorm, Ball Lightning is another great choice. Link Wrath or Grace to Eternal Blessing to have a free (no reservation) aura. At this time you can also start to use Arcane Cloak linked with Arcane Surge and More Duration. You can try to add Automation if you have a 4-link, but probably at this stage it will be problematic to sustain it constantly. Speaking of mana regen, keep in mind that you'll need a mana flask for a very long time (there's no rule saying when you can drop it, but having at least a mana regen in the 900/1000 range is a good starting point). You can also link Clarity to Arrogance if you feel the need of it. After level 38 you can pick up Arcanist Brand in Act 4 and link it with Sigil of Power and curse of your choice (i was using Punishment) to automate some of your buffs. From there feel free to switch to Ice Nova of Frostbolts as soon as you have the currency to buy the gem itself and a Kitava's Thirst (you can play without it, but automated Frostbolts are sooooo much nicer). The links I used from that point onward were something like this:
Leveling Gem Links
Chest (6L) (in order of importance) Ice Nova of Frostbolts + Archmage + Inspiration + Spell Echo + Intensify + Lightning Penetration Kitava setup (2L+1S+1S) Frostbolt + GMP Wave of Conviction Punishment Arcane Cloak setup (4L) Automation + Arcane Cloak + More Duration + Arcane Surge Auras (2L+2L) Wrath + Eternal Blessing Clarity + Arrogance Movement (3L) Flamedash/Frostblink of Wintry Blast + Faster Casting + Archmage (Archmage is there because if your travel skill costs more than 100 mana it will trigger your Kitava's Thirst setup, which is very nice in the beginning) Buffs (3L) If you want to automate them: Arcanist Brand + Sigil of Power + Frost Shield If you don't mind casting them yourself: More Duration + Sigil of Power + Frost Shield Then is just a matter of leveling a little bit more and get some currency, then you can transition into this version. In the meanwhile you can start to incorporate in the build some of the Unique gear that is good no matter what. Those are Anathema, Atziri's Foible, Unnatural Instinct and The Light of Meaning. When you are ready to switch, if you can, it's probably better to pass directly from non-crit/non-block to crit/block, but that requires a lot of currency, so in the PoB mentioned at the start of this guide I've added a "stepping stone" tree if you want to begin transitioning into crit alone. I've chosen crit as a stepping stone because you basically just need a good crit wand, Assassin's Mark and a Diamon Flask to do it. This is because a lot of things that we are already using (Power Charges, Frost Shield, Inspiration), happens to also buffs our crit chance. We were simply ignoring the crit aspect of them before. The transition into block requires at least Cloak of Defiance, Svalin and The Red Nightmare, so it will cost at least 6divs.
1.Base Version
https://pobb.in/JTRPzE_sJcQT You can watch the simulacrum video if you want to see the build in action with this exact setup
PRICE BREADOWN
THIS PRICES ARE BASED ON TODAY'S MARKET (20 AUG 2024) //price breakdown of BASE VERSION /EQUIP ~20div crit wand - starting from 2div svalinn (14 spell block) - 1.5div kitava (+1 pCharge) - 5div cloak 6L - 2div gloves (chaos res) - 3div boots (dex) - 2div ring - 1div anathema - 45c atziri's foible - 20c belt - 3div /FLASKS 10div bottled faith (mid roll) - 8.5div rumi (perfect roll) - 1.5div /JEWELS ~13div unnatural instinct - 1.3div the light of meaning (+ lightning damage) - 6.4div the red nightmare - 2.6div militant faith (reduced cost/mana regen) - 2div abyssal - 1div /RUNES - 1div 64c 44 sun - 20c 44 bound - 44c 44 river - 1div /OILS - 60c 1 crimson - 2c 2 silver - 58c /TATTOOS - 120c 5 tattoo of ngamahu firewalker - 50c 1 tattoo of the valako shieldbreaker - 70c /TOTAL ~45div Keep in mind that: 1) a lot of things can be cheaper. for example non corrupted kitava costs around 3c, if you remove chaos res the gloves became basically free etc. you don't need every mod right away. 2) you don't even need every item right away. the light of meaning and bottled faith give a lot of damage, but aren't required to make the build work
2.Cluster Jewel Version
If you really like the build and you have a bunch of currency this version attempts to bring it a step further. We start by cutting some node on the tree to be able to allocate a Large Cluster Jewel with Doryani's Lesson, a notbale that grants us life leech. In this way we can change the Eater of Worlds implicit in our gloves from #% of Lightning Damage Leeched as Life to Inflict Lightning Exposure on Hit, applying -#% to Lightning Resistance. Given the fact that now we apply exposure with our gloves, we no longer need Wave of Conviction in the Svalinn. In its place we can put the Conductivity gem that used to be in our Arcanist Brand. We can now start to use a proper lvl20 Elemental Weakness in the Arcanist Brand. This makes the #% chance to Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit mod on our wand obsolete, so we can now remove it to use the much more stronger Haunted by Tormented Spirits. We got so much cast speed that now the caster mastery 6% increased Cast Speed for each different Non-Instant Spell you've Cast Recently can be dropped and replaced with Spells which can gain Intensity have +1 to maximum Intensity. In the process we gained 2 jewel socket (from the Large Cluster Jewel), so we can use jewels that give us +#% Chance to Block Spell Damage while holding a Shield to reach the cap of 88% spell block chance. On those we can also have the corrupted implicit Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you and a bunch of other mods that give us damage (increased mana, cast speed, crit multi). It's a big step forward both in term of dps gain and ehp gain. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/r0MEPgKMk4As
3.Mageblood general setup
you got a mageblood and now what? there are maaaaaaaaaany things that you could do with a mageblood, but if you can't decide (or if you are broke now that you bought the belt) you can just change your flasks to get some immunities while you contiune your grind. flasks like these will make you immune to stun, curses and ailments (in combo with stormshroud), so they will be a significant boost in ehp. you should also change your major pantheon in solaris/lunaris now that brine king is obsolete. here's the pob for reference https://pobb.in/_9rtuJYMyKd- Last edited by tufferugli#7301 on Sep 8, 2024, 11:01:14 AM Last bumped on Dec 5, 2024, 2:25:32 PM
|
|
Is Awakened Spell Echo worth the price?
" from the wiki: " basically only 1 of our 8 novas will have a 20% chance to deal double damage. let's say that a single nova does 100 dmg and we cast ice nova 10 times. every single nova will do 1000 dmg. we create 8 novas every cast so 8 * 1000 = 8000 let's swap awakened spell echo in. 1 of our novas has now 20% chance do deal double damage, basically meaning that, if we cast ice nova 10 times again, this nova will do the usual 100 dmg 8 times, but 2 times it will do 200 dmg. so this nova has done 1200 dmg after 10 casts, but the other 7 the usual 1000 so 7 * 1000 = 7000 + 1200 = 8200 this is a 2.5% damage increase. other than that, the awakened version gives 5% more cast speed compared to a lvl20 regular spell echo. factoring the added cast speed it's probably a grand total of ~5% of dmg increase. unless this is one of the last pieces that you are missing I don't think that this is worth the 53+div that people are asking for awakened spell echo. TL;DR no
Timeless jewels are confusing
" all of the timeless jewel will change the keystones (BIG passive point on tree) to something else (Inner Conviction in the case of Militant Faith) certain timeless jewel (glorious vanity) will also ALWAYS change your small and medium passive points. other timeless jewel (like the militant faith that we are using) have a chance to do it. the catch is that we really like our tree, so we want to avoid militant faiths that change the points that we have allocated, like this one: all the medium nodes (highlighted in red) are still what they were before, so we still have their bonuses plus the ability to allocate Inner Conviction (higlighted in green). this one still gives us the access to Inner Conviction, but it also overrides the lightning notable, and we don't like that the militant faith that you have overrides the power charge node, so you will not receive an additional power charge, so it's not good. you should seek a militant faith that doesn't override any of the nodes that we use, like the one in the first pic
Why a 3 notables cluster jewel if we only take 2 of those notables?
regarding cluster jewel "so we want a large cluster jewel with 8 passive nodes and 3 notables, but we are just taking 2 of those. why?" the 8 passive nodes part should be fairly obvious (less passive points spent to get what we are interested in), the notable number part is very easy to understand as soon as you know how cluster jewel works. large cluster jewels can roll with 1, 2 or 3 notable nodes added, but they aren't added randomly: there's a pattern. now that we know that this is the pattern we can observe that the 3 notable pattern is the most efficient point-wise. the 1 notable variant gives us 2 jewel sockets and 1 notable for 7 points the 2 notable variant gives us 2 jewel sockets and 2 notables for 7 points the 3 notable variant gives us 2 jewel sockets and 2 notables for 5 points (we can just ignore the third notable) now is clear why we want a 3notable cluster, but how can we know that the 2 notables that we want are in the right spots? well, the notables aren't placed randomly, every combo of 3 notables has its pattern for example, a cluster with
will have ALWAYS the Doryani's Lesson and Scintillating Idea on the right spots and Snowstorm in the "bad" spot a cluster with
has ALWAYS the Doryani's Lesson in the "bad" spot So now it's just a matter of identifying the 2 notables that we want and then found a third "waste" notable that makes them appear in the right spots. You can do it in pob by testing the combo that you like. I did it for Doryani's Lesson and Scintillating Idea (%mana, light pen), here's the trade link. This should return every jewel with
(this should be 100% correct, but please check in pob to be sure before spending a lot of divs 😅)
Spoiler
Update #3 (16 Aug, 2024): Added more info on jewels, pantheon and bandits Update #2 (13 Aug, 2024): Added more info, gemlinks and explanations of some jewel mechanics Update #1 (13 Aug, 2024): Post created, need to add some info Last edited by tufferugli#7301 on Aug 26, 2024, 10:16:22 PM
|
|
Why do you have lightning mastery instead of cold mastery? You aren't converting damage... or is it only for the shock effect and mana?
|
|
" hi! basically 90% of our damage is lightning (from Archmage and Arcane Cloak), so we scale just that, ignoring the base cold from Ice Nova. I've added an explanation under Details>Damage to elaborate on this Last edited by tufferugli#7301 on Aug 13, 2024, 5:36:46 PM
|
|
What progression of the skill tree do you recommend while leveling?
...
|
|
Tutorial How to craft a similar Wand? Please
|
|
How do you deal with ailment immunity without Stormshroud Viridian Jewel? I've never played a block build, is it just not needed?
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
|
|
.
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” Last edited by Piousqd#0073 on Aug 14, 2024, 4:24:14 PM
|
|
" spicy sushi just recently did a video on crafting his "mid-game" archmage wand. Keep in mind he is a mirror crafter so his idea of "mid tier" is still an 20+ divine craft “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
|
|
" i intended this as an "evolution" of a normal Ice Nova build, so i didn' plan a progression guide, but i'll try to come up with one asap. " my wand is pretty garbo... i think i paid 3 divs for it. if you are on a budget search for something with cast speed, mana, and crit chance. craft sometihng useful on it (like the hybrid cast dmg/mana regen) " umh i don't feel the need to have it Last edited by tufferugli#7301 on Aug 14, 2024, 4:56:29 PM
|
|