[3.16] Coldslinger | Vortex | Creeping Frost | League Start | SSF | CI/LL

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cmh wrote:

great guide, absolutely enjoing this build.

one quick question on the EE proc:
since hatred adds cold dmg to the power sihpon attack, doesn't this impact our EE procs of the trigger skills? or is this overridden by storm brand?
maybe I missed something.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

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Reconican wrote:

The more I think about EE, the more confused I am now.

White and rare mobs die instantly, so those dont matter with EE

But Unique mobs and Bosses, they don't die right away. So we get them with the Brand and they get cold Debuffed.

But dont they get +50% cold resist the isntant they get hit by any of our 10 cold skills?

I have frostbolts flying everywhere, vortex all over the screen. Isnt that cold damage going to constantly overwrite my brand?

TLDR: Your brand hits frequently enough that most of the damage the boss takes will be while it is weak to cold.

EE increases enemy's resistance for any types of elemental damages they take from a hit. All types of elemental damage on a given hit are applied at the same time, so multiple types (e.g. fire and cold) will increase both resistances. Note damage over time does not proc EE, so after the initial vortex hit an enemy's resistance is not affected by vortex.

To your earlier post, even if you have lightning or fire damage added to a skill that hits (like power siphon), your Hatred Aura converts a % of physical damage to cold. So any time you hit an enemy they will take cold damage and get increased cold resistance.

This means that you shouldn't be attacking bosses constantly. Our spellslinger build aims to have all of the skill hits occur together (making the enemy resistant to cold), then the brand will continuously hit (making the enemy weak to cold) while the rest of the skills do damage over time (not affecting enemy resistances).

So an efficient play style is what you'll see elsewhere in the forum referred to as a stutter-step. You'll want to attack, then run, then attack, then run, keeping your distance from the boss. The goal is to keep your skills (brand, frost bomb, creeping frost, cold snap, vortex) all applied consistently without spamming them.

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AWizard69 wrote:

I think I am nearing the upper limit of this build. Build is really smooth and shreds all the late game content, even killing Maven. I know I could get some more levels to get some more ES but I'm already sitting around 7.5K which has been survivable enough with softcore. Any suggestions on what else to improve?

Pob: https://pastebin.com/jN18rK28

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pra-lima87 wrote:

How good is it Phantasmal Vortex really? I asked constantly about it when it first appear on 3.12.
But most people said that it was not worth it.

Also the author does not mention it:
"No noteworthy alternate quality gems except maybe Divergent Determination + Grace. Everything is up to date."

Anon Frostbold get the exposure which sounds nice, but also totally ignored by the build author.

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kevinbrightblade wrote:

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AWizard69 wrote:

I think I am nearing the upper limit of this build. Build is really smooth and shreds all the late game content, even killing Maven. I know I could get some more levels to get some more ES but I'm already sitting around 7.5K which has been survivable enough with softcore. Any suggestions on what else to improve?

Pob: https://pastebin.com/jN18rK28

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Lololol you're nowhere close to the upper limits of this build. You've yet to even start min-maxing.

First off you don't have all your gems up to 20/20 yet including a main support gem (Inspiration) and both curse gems (Frostbite and Enfeeble) which are pretty mandatory. You're missing all the Awakened Gems in your Vortex setup. Most of your gems aren't corrupted to either level 21 or 23 quality. And you haven't gotten any of the alternatives quality gems (like Phantasmal Vortex).

Secondly you're missing some basic upgrades to your gear. Your wand isn't +1 cold/+1 spells. Your Prism Guardian isn't +1 or +2 corrupted. Your Rime Gaze doesn't have an enchant; there are several options here that are better than a +2 corruption. Personally I like the 15% Spellslinger reduced mana reservation since it opens up a medium cluster jewel to be whatever you want. Your Presence of Chayula should be defense catalysts for the extra 4% life converted to ES. Your unset ring needs an upgrade to either redeemer or crusader for better prefixes. Your two-stone ring has life on it, which could be replaced with any number of bench crafts (like % damage). And both rings are missing catalysts and annoints. True min-maxing would get Frostbite curse on hit as a redeemer ring suffix, which allows you to get an Awakened Hextouch to run triple curses. Your belt is ok but when min-maxing you'll want to switch to a crusader or shaper crystal belt. Your boots are fine but again talking about hitting upper limits of the build would mean replacing the projectiles mod with tailwind. Your gloves are the best item you own and I'd consider them endgame. Your flasks are fine, but Bottled Faith would be better.

Lastly I like your tree, not much to improve here. I'd suggest pathing from Deep Wisdom through the AoE small nodes to Mystic Bulwark, drop Prodigal Perfection and pick up the top half of Arcane Swiftness for additional spell block. Then drop some combination of the small aura node in Sovereignty, Arcane Vision and Light Eater for the points needed to pick up the jewel slot next to Essence Surge. This will allow you to move your Watcher's Eye here and put an Energy From Within where the WE currently is. Also I would drop Fingers of Frost for Unnatural Calm. You also have some empty mods on your cluster jewels for things like chaos resistance, etc.