[Ice Shot Templar] Eldritch Battery, Arctic Armor, and 5 Aura's.

[Work in progress]

They call me Ice Berg, heh...

Tired of the same old cookie cutter elemental archer or LA template? Try this!

I absolutely love this template. Lately, I have been rushing and testing multiple templates trying to find something original and fun that can solo, benefit a group, and playable on HC. I found LA to be less interesting to me and wanted to do something with a skill I really liked, as well as make a template on my own.

I will be building this post over the next week with very detailed info.

Pros:

*Great solo and grouping. Your crowd control is an incredible benefit to the entire group.
*Cheap. This will not cost you an arm and a leg.
*I see no reason it can't be run on hardcore.
*High damage.
*Fantastic crowd control.
*You don't need any quality gems, but I can imagine they would help a ton.
*FUN! I have an absolute blast with this character and it will 99.9% most likely be the character I take to 90+. Right now I have 3 or 4 more templates I want to blaze to 70 and experiment with because you learn so much from experimenting and learning varied builds.

Cons:

*Max life on all gear, but this is pretty much every character in my opinion.I had no max life on any gear until level 70~ and mapping with 2400 hp SUCKS. You want 2800 minimum and preferably 3600. I do fine right now on 66-67 maps solo with 2800.
*Need a great amount of mana regen to run chain and Arctic Armor.
*Some computers you may need to turn down graphics settings. I have the worst cheapest vaio laptop sony made 3 years ago from bestbuy and I have 0 problems. I had one person the entire time I have played the character complain about me using Ice Shot and I use chain with 5 projectiles. My laptop was bought to run MS office only. I see no reason not to play this template from a graphics standpoint despite what I read all over the forums when googling Ice Shot. My laptop cost me 400$ 3 years ago....I have 0 fps problems soloing it only gets somewhat bad when in large groups with so much stuff going on and loot on the ground you can't even see where monsters are.

My graphics settings to run the game with very little FPS issues:

1. I turn off shadows.
2. I use low texture.

I know some people will immediately say not to run it, because of graphics issues with Ice Shot so I went more in-depth than I wanted to let you guys know this should not be a problem for many.

Things I have learned not to believe in anymore after studying the forums and making my own templates:

1. Ice Shot FPS is no big deal at all.
2. Critical templates done right are awesome and Resolute Technique being a must is a bunch of BS. I have no desire for accuracy or RT but you would think reading the forums all critical templates are massive failures and impossible.


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I personally think LA damage is a bit over-hyped compared to Ice Shot. The instant kill from freezing is insane on this character. Maybe I am wrong here but when I used LA testing for many hours on different zones it seemed very lack luster and much less damage in comparison. I ran it with the gems the LA cookie cutter uses. When I solo a map the whole thing is a bunch of icebergs laying on the ground. I have spent many hours testing LA and Ice Shot with this guy and hands down Ice Shot clears very noticeably quicker and adds awesome livability.

Here is the build:

Level 75 (my current level):

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUAAP0EswVbDH0OSBB_EZYUTRSwFm8WvxdQGYUaOBpsJDwkqiaVJ6kpTzKJNuk6MEbXSTtJUUwtTrpQQlVLVcZX4lptXcZgbWHiY0NmT2e9bXtwUnDVcn535X5Zf8aBSYIegpuFfYfbiEKLjIw2j0aQVZuhnaOdrqIAoi6nCKdcp4SsmLI4tQS1SLiTwFHBxcaez2XQ0Nrd2wvd8-Fz41bjauOE5CLk6-w47SDub_Af8Nnz6vfX_Ks=

End Game:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUAAP0CcQSzBVsMfQ5IEH8RlhRNFLAWbxa_F1AZhRo4GmwkPCSqJpUnqSlPMok26TowPAVG10k7SVFMLU3YTrpQQlVLVcZX4lptXcZfKmBtYeJjQ2ZPZ71te3BScNVyfnRVd-V8zn5Zf8aBSYFvgh6Cm4V9h9uIQouMjDaMdo9GkFWboZ2AnaOdrp48n9-iAKIupwinXKeErJiyOLUEtUi4k8BRwcXGns9l0NDa3dsL3QXd8-Fz41bjauOE5CLk6-vk7DjtIO5v73zwH_DZ8-r31_yr

Stats:

(Give me few days to put this in I don't want to make this thread a second job)

Gear (my gear was terrible until last week it is now decent imo I had zero 4 links and wore the rare boots with +str and +dex that slow you -40% run speed when low life, this resulted as I knew it would in many deaths, lol, it was just the best I had):



Ideally I believe I want a 6 Link high AR + ES chest with max life and dual resist. For rings you want high mana regen and max life on everything, but what I have now works extremely well.

Gem setup (I currently run almost no quality gems):

Attacks:

AoE:

Ice Shot > LMP > Elemental Weapon Damage > Power Charge on Crit > Chain > Concentrated Effect OR

/Faster Attacks/Ele Prolif/ or Added Lightning Damage for the 6th (testing is needed). The sixth gem will most likely be Concentrated Effect for a huge dmg bonus I just don't have a 6L yet and need to increase mana regen abit. I can't imagine my DPS with CE...

Single Target:

Elemental Hit > Faster Attacks > Power Charge On Critical > Elemental Weapon Damage > Added Lightning Damage/Increased Critical OR ? really depends on my end game bow and if I can afford a 6 socket AR + ES bp.

Use lightning Arrow or Burning Arrow if you can't afford E. hit. I used LA because I got the shock stacking nodes. E. Hit blows away any other gem for single target DPS though. You will one hit or two hit most whites, yellows and blues. Regen mobs are absolutely no problem.

Aura's:

Defense:

Determination/Purity depending on gear > Discipline > Clarity > Reduced Mana

Offense:

Anger > Wrath > Reduced Mana

Totem:

Decoy Totem is incredible leveled properly. I got really lucky and found a 17% quality and it stays up n/p and rarely needs to be recast on any boss or whole screen mob group. It casts extremely fast.

Spell Defense:

Arctic Armor! Absolutely amazing when you get your regen up high enough. On docks when you are grinding to 68-70 for maps you can stand in a whole pack of dogs with 2 bosses and on you can take almost 0 damage. Add in Decoy Totem and it is a very strong defense for phys dmg and fire. Casts almost instantly.

*DO NOT level AA past lvl 8 until you have 125% mana regen and level 17+ clarity. It will still make a huge difference. After that level it to 15+ and aim for 220%~ regen and a level 20 clarity gem.

Curses:

Temporal Chains = permanent decoy totem and an incredible livability addition. I use it 9/10 times. It also increases duration of cold effects 40%!

Elemental Weakness. For the ele resist, life regen, and additional life mobs. You will mow these down n/p and really don't even need it but it has it's utility when mapping.

Critical Weakness. I use this more than Elemental Weakness. Massive damage! If I don't need to worry about crowd control or high damage mobs I use this. You will crit a ton when you can maintain the mana for chain and will run around with 5 power charges most every group.

Bandit Rewards:

Up to you, but my suggestion is take the skill points every time on softcore. You never know what will be nerfed or what will be buffed. One day you may want more AR or more <insert whatever here> depending on game changes, it is beta after all and skill points are forever useful in case you ever want to change templates et cetera.

Do not take anything else other than the HP boost. I would only take the HP boost on hardcore.

Leveling tips:

[When I get time]

I used silverbranch and PA until I could use my bow at level 32. My bow came as a 5 link and cost 2 gcp and a 5 socket of the same type of bow. I do consider a 5 link to be extremely important for ice shot post 60. Chain adds an insane amount of damage and covers the entire floor with ground ice...

On Maps (remember I have much to add to this thread):

I just now have a few gear upgrades but my equipment is still terrible and I map solo just fine. The only maps the give me a bit of trouble in the 66 group (around level 70) when you first start mapping are the ones everyone complains about being hard. The Dungeon and the massive groups of Roas in dried lake. Something suffix sucks for any regen build just the way it is you can do it in groups but don't bother solo.

I do fine mapping 68 and 70 maps (non rares)in groups but duoing or soloing I have not tried and would probably be rough until my hp is higher. Duoing 68 maps with 2400 hp I died 1-4 times a map, but I also had on those boots of death, crummy gear, and no 4 links...

Just to give you an idea of how I do on maps right now: Last night I ran Grotto solo rolled maze and -25 max resists. Did not run purity and murdered the map never even coming close to death in a very fast time. I should time it sometime to see what it is, but it seems very fast.

Map to avoid solo: Smothering and probably high Elemental reflect maps although I am not sure because you don;t shoot as fast as LA builds or do as much direct damage. You freeze a ton of the monsters and break them vs. doing massive, quick, single attack damage.

I can't imagine this template with a Lioneye's....wow