[3.24] Devon's Frostblink Elementalist - The Hotstepper | Build of the Week! | 9M+ DoT DPS

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NoFrAg wrote:

Can you maybe give me your POB? I'm now sitting on around 4m dot DPS with Frostblink but the wisp mechanic is a pain in the arse, as the singletarget DPS is lackluster but needed for empowered rares. I've one Upgrade I can make to reach around 6mio but than I'm out of Ideas to scale damage further without losing survivability which is already bad without Lightning Coil and Bronn instead!

Here is mine: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/NoFrAg/Unlimited_Power

Should I just get rid of Firetrap and 100% focus on Frostblink? Even for singletarget?

Sorry for the delayed reply, my PoB is here: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/King_Haart/CatherineFoundling_PGtE

Note that I think I can get closer to 9M DPS by switching to a cluster with Forbidden Jewels so I can add either Frigid Wake (bit more EHP) or Shaper of Storms (bit more DPS). Note that SoS jewels are pricey so I've got Shaper of Flames ones instead, which drops a couple % of DPS but I can live with that. I'll free up the required points from Breath of Rime (will need a bit of strength elsewhere) and probably Growth and Decay or elsewhere.

What's your budget? A better weapon is probably possible, Polaric Devastation or a Charm that gives 'Cover enemies in Ash' is a big improvement, and your third charm could definitely be better. The modifier that gives an additional -7 res on exposure is a decent DPS boost, and you can also get a bunch of other handy things like mana res, culling strike, ability to curse hexproof enemies (huge for this build since we double-curse). Also the Banner reservation is great for free Dread Banner (I'm at 94% evade chance *without* Vaal Grace) and the 2% Life/ES/Mana recovery is more than enough recoup for smooth mapping.

You are also missing a lot of DPS from gems, drop ignite prolif support (get the glove implicit) and combustion in favor of Awakened Swift Affliction and Awakened Burning Damage. You'll get like 1-2M extra DPS from this and all you need is a few Tainted Jeweler's Orbs to get the right socket colours.

In terms of tankiness - my tree and build is much more evasion-based, with Spell Dodge and Replica Mistwall meaning only 1/16 spells even hits. I've died pretty rarely TBH, though juiced bosses can require a few portals sometimes - outside of that I think I've died in about 1 of the last 40 T16 ultimatums I've run, after picking poor Eldritch Altar options (too much -res), and 10/10 the rest, so hopefully that gives some idea. Of course I'm moving constantly and often Phasing but that's what this build is for, right? :)

Just to confirm, this build can still do wave 30 simulacrum no problems. :)

EDIT: This is what my build looked like before I switched over to a Wintry blast build: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/King_Haart/CatherineFoundling_PGtE?time-machine=week-9

Wintry blast: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/King_Haart/CatherineFoundling_PGtE

Ultimately I'd say the two felt roughly tied, with the hotstepper survivability edging out Wintry (even with a defensive focus), but Wintry obviously having higher damage (and likely a much higher ceiling for damage too, if you have a couple of mirrors for top-tier rings and weapon).

Looks like a (small?) buff in 3.24:

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Frostblink: Now has 250% Effectiveness of Added Damage (previously 180%).

(I assume this won't impact base damage, but any sources of Added Damage should be more effective now?)

However, the loss of Charms (and the reduced effectiveness of Tattoos) are probably still a significant net loss, unless there are some Necropolis crafts that particularly benefit this build. At least the Green Nightmare Spell Suppress tech is still reasonably viable, we just go from 20-30% suppress (depending on pathing to Wind Dancer/Intuition) down to 16-24% extra from this - it's still strong enough to be BIS I think.

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The Tattoo of the Arohongui Moonwarden now provides +6% Cold Resistance (previously +8%).

Also, the Transfigured version seems pretty much DOA, no surprises there:

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Frostblink of Wintry Blast: Now has "This Spell's Cast Time is added to its Cooldown if Triggered", and has 200% Effectiveness of Added Damage (previously 180%). It now deals 7 to 11 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 9 to 14), scaling up to 916 to 1374 at gem level 20 (previously 1144 to 1716).

I'm thinking about starting with this build in 3.24, any thoughts about this league?

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bakhaos wrote:

I'm thinking about starting with this build in 3.24, any thoughts about this league?

I am thinking about starting this build as well, seems pretty good with the updates.

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devon752 wrote:

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bakhaos wrote:

I'm thinking about starting with this build in 3.24, any thoughts about this league?

I am thinking about starting this build as well, seems pretty good with the updates.

Indeed, I saw some people commenting that in the next league there'll be a buff to the damage scalling of the frostblink, this is gonna be insane

Hey guys, i'm thinking to league start it toi but is it as bad as a starter as mentionned by OP ?
Is that because ribbons is needed ? Is it okay to start it from scratch ?

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Lhansk wrote:

Hey guys, i'm thinking to league start it toi but is it as bad as a starter as mentionned by OP ?
Is that because ribbons is needed ? Is it okay to start it from scratch ?

I rate it around 3.6 for starting out. Most likely use a different spell until you get the normal lab ascendancy for 100% ignite chance.

Thanks for the update and have fun everyone ;)

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devon752 wrote:

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Lhansk wrote:

Hey guys, i'm thinking to league start it toi but is it as bad as a starter as mentionned by OP ?
Is that because ribbons is needed ? Is it okay to start it from scratch ?

I rate it around 3.6 for starting out. Most likely use a different spell until you get the normal lab ascendancy for 100% ignite chance.

Yeah I think it takes until first lab before you can really use FB as a main skill, and getting to level 50-60 ideally to get Bronn's and some other uniques. But from there it carries hard, and you can do all normal content with relatively little (a few div maybe?) investment. To scale to more juiced stuff, 20-40 div depending on the market for things like Watcher's Eyes.

I am tempted to run this again because the QoL of just frostblinking around is insane, it's the first build I ever played twice (and 40/40 last league). With a ~38% DPS boost, I'm pretty sure Ubers are on the table too (I don't love bossing so I never ran them to see).

I might try something else just for variety since beyond the straight DPS buff, there aren't really many 'new tricks' for this build to play around with. It's worth reading some of the past forum posts for some of those tricks though!