Unusual CoC Cold Snap build (now with videos)

It depends on the spells you're using and what you're using them for. As a general rule, AoE clearing is less about pure damage and more about coverage -- for this purpose, my setup is extremely effective. If you're right that the LA/CoC interaction is different than I think it is, chances are good that I'll swap in SA for LA and keep everything else the same, or also swap out the GMP for an Arc or Storm Call, but I'd probably rather have more procs than more spells most of the time.

For single target, it also depends on the spells you're using. I've been switching back and forth between Barrage + CoC + Cold Snap + Glacial Cascade + Conc. Effect and Barrage + CoC + Cold Snap + Glacial Cascade + Arc -- the former does more damage overall and I generally prefer it, though it does reduce the effective range of my Cascade so I have to get closer. The Arc setup does less damage (not least because I wear a cold Doryani's and have a few points of cold damage in my tree, but not lightning), but the shock stacks are helpful if no one else in the party is taking care of it.

Surpised that the arc setup is not doing more dmg but that is possible, as it need to effectivly stock 3 shock stacks to be more effective than the 70% more from conc. But i though the dmg from arc would kind of compensate for the difference (i guess you need a ton of crit or/and high quality on the arc for the shock to come fast enough, hard to compute actually, could be done but it also mean that it would be anyway less reliable than the always applied 70% more from conc.). In addition to that you say that you are kind of specialised in cold dmg, so i guess that makes sense. Actually if you can sustain the mana, GMP should be more efficient than conc. effect, as it multiply the dmg by two and conc only by 70%. The freeze would last less though, if it is important to you.

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AoE clearing is less about pure damage and more about coverage

yes, agree on that, coverage of you skills are super good indeed.

Yeah, I'm running Conc Effect in place of GMP for more reliable freezes against bosses. As I've mentioned elsewhere in the thread, I can reliably freezelock all rares, almost all exiles, and many of the map bosses. Switching to GMP would definitely let me kill them faster, but would be less safe for me and the party; one of the really nice things about this build is that it makes play a lot safer for everyone generally, so people who are underleveled or running glass cannon builds can still play and be useful.

Upgrading my amulet from »»»

After that and despite the new amulet looking like a better option it seems I got more freezed rare mobs with the old one. The spell/cold damage bonus from the old amulet appears to be more important then extra crits.

Old amulet: Barrage 455 dps, 62.7 Crit Chance // Cold Snap 1032.6 dps, 26.8 Crit Chance
New amulet: Barrage 490 dps, 64.3 Crit Chance // Cold Snap 950.3 dps, 27.7 Crit Chance
Chance to freeze is always 15% (Barrage) // 55% (Cold Snap), but the cold damage alone seems to be more effective/reliable.

Values with power charges up, without them crit chances are around 41/14.8 and 42.6/15.7, old and new amulet respectably.

Yeah, if you've got enough procs, it makes sense to focus on the cold damage.

I also run a q20 Cold Snap in my single-target link for more reliable freezes, and it makes a noticeable difference if you've got one.

When comparing effectiveness of critcasted spells, though, it's generally a good idea to ignore tooltip dps (since that includes the spells' native cast times) and just compare the raw averages of min/max damage.

Any tips for running two 4-links(just started the 1month race)? Barrage + CoC + Glacial cascade + cold snap?

If you've got two 4-links to work with, then yeah, I'd run
1) Barrage + CoC + Glacial Cascade + Cold Snap
2) Split Arrow + CoC + Chain + Cold Snap OR Lightning Arrow + GMP + CoC + Cold Snap

Just remember to leave your Lightning Arrow at level 5 or below to keep your costs under control.

Did a little bit of testing and I'm pretty comfortable saying that Split Arrow + CoC + Chain + Cold Snap + Arc is at least as effective as the Lightning Arrow + GMP + CoC + Chain + Cold Snap setup I was running before, with two significant benefits: 10% increased attack speed from 20q Split Arrow, and 33 mana per shot rather than 67, which means that you could probably drop Thief's Torment if you have enough mana leech/regen on gear.

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SinisterDexter wrote:

Did a little bit of testing and I'm pretty comfortable saying that Split Arrow + CoC + Chain + Cold Snap + Arc is at least as effective as the Lightning Arrow + GMP + CoC + Chain + Cold Snap setup I was running before, with two significant benefits: 10% increased attack speed from 20q Split Arrow, and 33 mana per shot rather than 67, which means that you could probably drop Thief's Torment if you have enough mana leech/regen on gear.

SA Chain > LA GMP set up. you are right about that. I have been playing with it since i fought my wind ripper

Glad to know this is still current. Cold Snap is my favorite skill; I did a self cast cold crit with with cold snap spam using voll's as one of my first serious characters. I plan on running this for the new 4 month league in August, so please keep the discussion going (: