[3.6] The Blizz Sorc - Icestorm/Winter Orb CI Occultist - Viable For Everything

I just checked out Flesh and Stone. Wow! And it's not getting nerfed? That's crazy. Yeah, we can safely replace AA with it. The radius of the effect is very nicely calibrated to blind the mob(s) you are facetanking while taking 10% LESS damage from everything else. You don't really need to stand still in that scenario, Cycloning around the boss is fine. Blinding the other enemies would be nice too, but not really necessary, can get by without it until you get a 6L chest.

Question: since with the IC nerf in 3.7, the old way to trigger Arakaali 50% bonus doesn't work anymore, is there another way to trigger it?

Tested and confirmed: cycloning in the same spot without moving (i.e. when facetanking a boss) works with Tukohama and AA. It makes a noticeable difference on the Shaper.

On the other hand, the bonus from HoI seems pretty small. Therefore, I kept AA and swapped HoI for F&S.

It looks like Aspect of the Spider isn't really hard to get on a ring these days. So then there is a high lv option to take Sovereignty for 4 points and add Aspect.

VS speed has been nerfed in 3.7, so it requires Faster Attacks now. OK.

Two duration clusters, with 2400 Int on my test char (1 cluster -> 2 clusters):
Icestorm: 7.39s -> 9.69s
CWDT IC+ID: 2.19s -> 2.64s
Frost Bomb debuff: 7.25s -> 9.50s
That's not bad at all. I love the new IC, having it on for an extra 0.45s can come very handy in tough fights. And more pre-stacked Icestorms has its uses. For example, you don't need 3k Int to skip the smoke phase on Chimera, I did that with 2.4k and more duration/stacking. Of course, there is Atziri where you don't want that, but does anybody care about Atziri anymore? It's only 3 regrets to get rid of it if needed. But the biggest reason why I wanted to try it is the Tower Defense mechanic in 3.8 - that's where it should really shine.

Overall, my damage looks quite a bit higher than I ever remember seeing it. And that's without the new 3.8 stuff that may end up being huge.

The HoI shatter does seem to help.

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Graiaule wrote:

The HoI shatter does seem to help.

I've cleared several T16 maps and haven't noticed any difference. Without WO mobs don't get frozen. And Icestorm last so long (even with 1 duration cluster) that it doesn't matter if they get shattered or not - they all die from Icestorm 1 sec later than they would from HoI explosion.

It's basically back to the pre-WO times. But I like Cyclone too much to use the nerfed WO. Not having to stop is pretty cool. And Cyclone doesn't have that weird target lock that WO had, when you can't see the changing target under your cursor while channeling - it always irked me and made me miss SR that didn't have that issue.

Welcome back Kelvynn! We really missed your presence on these forums in the previous league!

I even was on the point of creating a character named "WhereIsKelvynn" for this league lol!

So do you think that Cyclone will be the support skill to go for this league? I stick to Winter Orb last league but to be honest the nerf of it was kinda visible compared to 3.6 when it came to clear speed, even more in those Legion encounters where mobs were spread in large areas and you had to kill them all fast before the counter went down.

So if Cyclone is the way to go have you thought of some gem setup for it when it comes to maps clearing?

Do you guys think it's worth pathing over to Singular Focus for the damage reduction while channeling?

"

lilianmarius wrote:

Welcome back Kelvynn! We really missed your presence on these forums in the previous league!

I even was on the point of creating a character named "WhereIsKelvynn" for this league lol!

So do you think that Cyclone will be the support skill to go for this league? I stick to Winter Orb last league but to be honest the nerf of it was kinda visible compared to 3.6 when it came to clear speed, even more in those Legion encounters where mobs were spread in large areas and you had to kill them all fast before the counter went down.

So if Cyclone is the way to go have you thought of some gem setup for it when it comes to maps clearing?

Thanks! Seeing you hit 3k Int definitely helped to convince me that we can progress :)

Cyclone took a few minutes to get used to, but now I love it. Lawnmower mode! :)

The only thing I need more practice with is the bosses that I'm used to range casting on, such as Minotaur. And Uber Elder. I just did him, but definitely need to practice doing it with Cyclone, namely not cycloning straight into his beam or balls! :) I also had to trade the 2nd duration cluster for some ES nodes. Everything else was trivial with 9k ES, but UE seems to be a lot safer with 10k. The damage, on the other hand, is awesome. If I don't cyclone into the bad stuff, it goes fast.

BTW, a good alternative replacement for Blind in the 6L - Culling Strike.

Also, I'm considering dropping VS. I haven't felt a need for Fortify anywhere. On UE it's too clunky even with FA and The Vigil. Everywhere else - it looks insignificant compared to Flesh & Stone and the new IC (which is totally awesome!)

Chill is pretty annoying too, and Scion is no longer immune to it, so I had to use the good ole Brine King + Yugul just for UE. On everything else Tukohama and Solaris rock. Chaos golem seems irrelevant too, I swapped it out for high lv Blood Rage for clearspeed. With Quicksilver, Silver and frenzy charges you can actually move decently fast with Cyclone.

Will need to think if can still take advantage of Bonechill, I haven't used it on my test char yet.

"

Sachiru wrote:

Do you guys think it's worth pathing over to Singular Focus for the damage reduction while channeling?

4% reduced phys dmg taken while channelling? Totally not worth it. I'm considering dropping the chaos golem. Flesh & Stone makes all that stuff irrelevant.

quoting from 3.8 Patch Notes:

"Flesh and Stone
Now has 20 gem levels (from 6).
No longer reduces all Damage from non-Blind enemies, and instead reduces Damage from Attacks from non-Blind enemies.
You now take 9% less Damage from Attacks from non-Blind enemies at gem level 1 (from 10%), up to 11% at gem level 20 (same as previous maximum gem level).
Enemies Maimed by this skill now take 13% increased Physical Damage at gem level 1 (from 14%), up to 16% at gem level 20 (same as previous maximum gem level).
Now gains more cool down recovery speed as the gem levels up, up to 50% at gem level 20 (previously 13% at the maximum gem level)."

So Flesh and Stone is nerfed in this league, %less damage is only applied to Attacks rather than to all damage sources.
I didn't used it in Legion League, i cant say how good it was but now it seems is worse than AA.

Not sure if to go Cyclone this league or to stick with Winter Orb setup. In Legion i managed to get to such high damage output (~82K Shaper Average Hit, no Frenzy charges , Vaal Rigthouse Fire or flasks taken in consideration) that in over 50 Uber Elder killed i didn't even used Purity of Ice anymore and with Inquisitor mini-ascendancy that creates Consecrated Ground when hitting Rare and Unique enemies i didn't get chilled or frozen in almost any encounter so all the time i used Soul of Solaris instead Soul of Brine King.

Indeed, there is a partial nerf to F&S. But it's still an amazing defensive aura. Vast majority of monster skills are attacks. And there is also a small buff to the blind aura radius.

Damage on WO after the nerf doesn't matter much. The main advantage of Cyclone is that it's a movement skill. You don't need to stop to cast. That's great for both clear speed and boss fights. It's a massive DPS boost in boss fights where you have to move (such as Uber Elder). Takes some adjustment to get used to that play style, but it's worth it.