[2.5] 2600+ Int Whispering Ice Guardian. Wonderous Wizard of Wisdom

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crystalwitch wrote:

I've been giving it some thought and I really want to try a hybrid Whispering Ice totem build with the Heirophant and use your build as a framework.

This was my original plan when I started the character but I swapped into guardian. Heirophant nodes are generally just not that good sadly but the main reason I changes was the roughly 1 second lag between placing a totem and it actually doing anything bugged the hell out of me.

Without clarity and with lower mana cost you could probably move 1 purity onto your mana but you'd still be losing a whole purity of resistances along with the 40% lightning resistances from shavs. Thats alot of resistances you would need to get from somewhere. Also you'd lose the aura effectiveness nodes within guardian so they would all be lowered by that

You wouldn't be immune to stun which is a big deal, no ES recharge rate is in my tree so without leech you are very unssafe coupled with losing the guardians armour and physical reduction.

You'd need to make a totally different build that was nothing like mine to try hybrid. You could try but I don't see it being very effective as WI naturally scales ES so well.

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Helbelinc wrote:

Is this possible on a budget version, i.e. with Solaris Lorica and without the Enlighten gems?

I'd love to do this as a starter, once the new leagues start.

Without Enlighten gems is certainly doable it just spends extra points in tree on mana reservation.

Without Shavs is a much bigger hit. The flat ES from it really really impacts the build and it also gives the lightning resistances needed to cap that out. I think I'd be farming dried lake until I could afford one and might lead to some deaths here and there if you are not careful

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WaffleT wrote:

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Helbelinc wrote:

Is this possible on a budget version, i.e. with Solaris Lorica and without the Enlighten gems?

I'd love to do this as a starter, once the new leagues start.

Without Enlighten gems is certainly doable it just spends extra points in tree on mana reservation.

Without Shavs is a much bigger hit. The flat ES from it really really impacts the build and it also gives the lightning resistances needed to cap that out. I think I'd be farming dried lake until I could afford one and might lead to some deaths here and there if you are not careful

I asked a similar question a while back and I've subsequently given it a go. I'm up to level 70 now with gems nowhere near level 20 and it's surprisingly good (though obviously inferior to Shav's).

The problem is this build has relatively little base ES, which is multiplied many times by HUGE intelligence, so losing a few hundred ES from Shav's has a massive effect on effective hitpoints. To compensate I swapped in a Vertex and some Rainbowstrides (which also fixed my resistances). I have ~4300 ES, which is goes up by about 3 for every extra point of base intelligence.

Enlightens aren't too big a problem if you take other two reduced mana reservation nodes. +1 to socketed gems on Black Sun Crest or Vertex counts support gems as well, so a level 2 enlighten is enough. Also, dropping Herald of Ice doesn't reduce damage by much.

I've found I'm somewhat susceptible to getting freeze-locked. Has anyone found a better solution than just staying well clear of those skeleton mage things?

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ScreenName wrote:

I've found I'm somewhat susceptible to getting freeze-locked. Has anyone found a better solution than just staying well clear of those skeleton mage things?

Every build needs an immune to freeze and bleed flask somewhere in their setup IMO

I generally roll "immune to freeze during flask duration" on a cold resistance flask. It doesn't need to be on a cold resistance flask but when you get frozen there is a good chance that the extra max cold resistance is useful for that situation.

The immune to bleed I generally try to roll on a Basalt or Granite flask. Again just for themeing as physical hits are what cause the large bleeds

Mobility seems really on the low side. I'd pick up the witch flask nodes and try to fit Haste in there.

I'm trying the guardian and so far it seems it will definitely be tankier (still have some ways to go to the full version).

Damage might be fine once i get Shavs and all the uniques for the int. Cast speed is slow though and witch copes much better with reflect.

Seems like the two options more or less even out in the end. Witch is the cheaper option (no shavs needed) and has the much smoother curve though (templar really only does good damage once the int goes very high, with similar int to the witch as i have right now, the damage is pitiful).

Any replacements for Shav's? How about Beast Fur Shawl?

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teharos wrote:

Any replacements for Shav's? How about Beast Fur Shawl?

I wouldn't recommend it. Guardian and the build choices really wants the lowlife bonus and auras. Running lowlife without shavs means you die every time you hit chaos damage which isn't very fun

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WaffleT wrote:

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teharos wrote:

Any replacements for Shav's? How about Beast Fur Shawl?

I wouldn't recommend it. Guardian and the build choices really wants the lowlife bonus and auras. Running lowlife without shavs means you die every time you hit chaos damage which isn't very fun

Same question here. What chest would you recommend other than shavs.

Awesome build btw.

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haxers wrote:

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Same question here. What chest would you recommend other than shavs.

Awesome build btw.

I honestly don't think the build really works without shavs, like WaffleT pointed out the entire idea revolves around
a) using all unique items to get 2300~ int
b) getting resists with all purity auras (i.e. you must reserve life AND mana)
c) being a lowlife build for the 30% more dmg multiplier