[0.9.11] Ice Witch CI crit build

Here's my build that I've come up with:



I'm new to this so I would appreciate any advice. Is this viable? Is it worth travelling over for Breath of Rime or would it be better to get more of the +ES nodes? Does this build have enough defense?

Thank you for any advice!

Edit:

Didn't notice the ES nodes near the shadow start point, and after thinking about it I don't think Breath of Rime is worth traveling over there for, so I switched to this to have more ES to compliment the CI.

That's very similar to one I am trying out now - a little more crit than mine and a little less energy shield and I didn't go for Path of Rime. But again I am pretty new so I'm not sure how good mine is either, only level 30 at the moment so I don't know how well it will work later on!

Cold witch build

Can any of you guys confirm that regular critical strike nodes give critical strike to spells as well?

I've read somewhere in other threads that if it doesn't specify weapon or spell then it's both, but I don't have any source for that.

I read the same thing.

Could you post what weapons/shield and all skillgems this build use?

Im starting a Witch and want to know please!

I'm also just starting, so my armor and weapon are all low level stuff. Armor and shield will all be focused on ES, weapon on % spell damage. For skills I will be using discipline, either critical weakness or elemental weakness, freezing pulse with faster projectiles and probably crit chance, ice spear with multiple projectiles and totem, and frost wall. The plan is to use the frost wall and totem with ice spear to deal with peskier mobs like archers.

Pretty similar to my current build. A couple of notes (SP=Skill Point);

Consider the the Shield Mastery group to the south-east of Bloodthirst (7 SP for 9% block) instead of the shield nodes near Frost Walker (5 SP for 4% block). Higher total cost but a lot more efficient*

Travelling west from Mental Acuity and picking up the Elemental Damage & Spell damage nodes works out at 6.8% damage per SP. Picking up the Project bonuses as well results in an average of 6.5% per SP spent. This actually works out to be quite an efficient method of increasing damage compared to other clusters (for example the similar nodes in the centre).

An alternate route for getting to Nullification from Assassination would be to grab the +30 Dexterity and the +4% MS node. This depends on your setup but the extra dexterity will allow green gems to be levelled higher which can sometimes offset the extra SP cost. That and you get +4% MS which whilst small always helps (bearing in mind that combined Shields/Body Armour give -7% MS).


My main problem is where to head next. I so far have about 3 general ideas of where to go. a) to the centre for more crit & damage. b) to the mid-west for more damage and utility (Elementalist, Prestidigitation; Celestial Walker). c) head anti-clockwise around the outside to pick up the shield mods & more crit (Arcane Potency; Shield Mastery (West); Shield Mastery (East)). I guess it depends on what the build is lacking later in the game (damage vs. survivability).

And on that note:

"

Necrogenesis wrote:

Can any of you guys confirm that regular critical strike nodes give critical strike to spells as well?

It does! Same for Critical Dmg Multiplier ... I tried it out today.

"

Zagharos wrote:

"

Necrogenesis wrote:

Can any of you guys confirm that regular critical strike nodes give critical strike to spells as well?

It does! Same for Critical Dmg Multiplier ... I tried it out today.

No it doesnt, a node increases spell critical rate/damage ONLY if it specifies that does so, like the one near Chaos Innoculation. If you still believe it works, just test this by looking at a spell critical hit rate at the character panel, then taking a normal critical hit node and check if the critical rate of the spell increased.