[2.6] Flash Freeze Ice Shot Ranger

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Zodr wrote:

Consider the following question: which one would help the most when dealing with an unexpected strong mob? Nothing or X% bonus critical chance? I think the answer is fairly obvious :p

The main ice shot chain is not meant for the single strong mob like in your scenario. That is why there is the secondary single target focused skill, blast rain in this case, although I'm sure you can find another skill that would work just as well if you really wanted to. Ice shot is meant for clearing the packs, which is why the AOE blasts are so good.

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Zodr wrote:

One of the main diffences here is that you seem to consider AoE as a dps increase, whereas I don't. A 100 dmg hit on 10 mobs is still a 100 dmg hit, not a 1000 dmg hit. You will not, realistically, hit the same mob more than once with chain very often, so it really doesn't provide any additional dmg.

I agree where you will probably not hit the same mob twice with a chain and a single projectile. However, ice shot has a backblast in a cone whenever you hit a mob, so even hitting the mob next to the first will still likely hit the first one, so getting multiple hits. Also, since you have GMP, you have multiple projectiles as well, so while your first one may not hit the same mob twice, you still have 4 projectiles that can still chain to the first one, instead of only one hit with pierce.

I wasn´t talking about bosses but about an unexpected strong pack or rare monster.

The other points you mention make sense but I still find it both a bit of a win-more and a
circumstantial advantage.

"Also, since you have GMP, you have multiple projectiles as well, so while your first one may not hit the same mob twice, you still have 4 projectiles that can still chain to the first one, instead of only one hit with pierce."

Yes, I know that we have more than 1 projectile =)
The point is that while the situation you describe looks pretty good, it is only one out of many possible situations. What about several lines of mobs? While this scenario would clean the first rows quite handily, it would not hit those behind them. As I said earlier, both chain and pierce have their ups and downs, depending on the situation so none of them is a clear winner when it comes to pack clearing.

And again, I come to the same point, why "waste" a rare ascendancy point in something that offers advantages ONLY in the easy situations? My point is that powerful precision helps in the exact same kind of situation but at least adds something else. Although, to be honest, I find both of them lackluster (assuming powerful precision doesn´t buff blast rain, of which I´m not entirely sure); I think I´d rather take endless munitions over either of them; it increases both of our skills' AoEs, provides a pretty rare effect (+1 projectile) which might help us skip GMP leading to more damage and some extra accuracy never hurt anyonee.

I have one more question - someone who using Reach Of The Council Spine Bow - i have 5 links - ad have no idea what kind of support gems i should use with Ice SHot... I have Cold damage, Ice Bit, Faster Atack and Elemental damage .... i remove GMP and fork - some idea ??

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Orbit84 wrote:

I have one more question - someone who using Reach Of The Council Spine Bow - i have 5 links - ad have no idea what kind of support gems i should use with Ice SHot... I have Cold damage, Ice Bit, Faster Atack and Elemental damage .... i remove GMP and fork - some idea ??

With Reach I would use
- Ice Shot
- Chain
- Faster Attacks
- Added Cold (or Physical Proj Attack damage if Added Cold has no quality)
- Ice Bite (This can be another damage gem if you are a Raider)
- Weapon Elemental damage or Physical Proj Attack damage

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Zodr wrote:

I wasn´t talking about bosses but about an unexpected strong pack or rare monster.

The other points you mention make sense but I still find it both a bit of a win-more and a
circumstantial advantage.

Even against a Rare or a small pack of Magic monsters (3 or less) that survive the Ice Shot shower I would use Blast Rain if I didn't think I could kill them within the next two shots.

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Zodr wrote:

And again, I come to the same point, why "waste" a rare ascendancy point in something that offers advantages ONLY in the easy situations? My point is that powerful precision helps in the exact same kind of situation but at least adds something else. Although, to be honest, I find both of them lackluster (assuming powerful precision doesn´t buff blast rain, of which I´m not entirely sure); I think I´d rather take endless munitions over either of them; it increases both of our skills' AoEs, provides a pretty rare effect (+1 projectile) which might help us skip GMP leading to more damage and some extra accuracy never hurt anyonee.

You are correct neither Ricochet nor Powerful Precision affect Blast Rain. Endless munitions is already an option for the build in place of Rupture, but assuming you keep Rupture and take Endless Munitions I doubt dropping GMP you will see a clear speed increase (More than likely I expect a drop in clear speed). The tooltip will go up because a non-quality GMP does reduce damage but you are only getting that over two arrows instead of the normal 5 (or 6 with Endless Munitions).


I don't discourage people to change things to try them out and report findings, in fact I've enjoyed the amount of people who have changed the tree to get more life, or gear to try new uniques, and take it to HC. If you would like to make it a pierce build and test it against a chain version and it happens to be better then great. As it stands though, the build functions great the way it's set up currently and through the few tests I've done changing to pierce hasn't improved it.

Hi! I'm trying to build iceshot build with scion right now, could you leave a couple comments on that?
That's link to my future passive tree: www.poeurl.com/1Y4

That's gear what i collecting for that build

Bow


Helm with enchant


Amulet


Armor


Gloves


Boots


I need thoughts and advises for passive tree and other gear that i could use for that build.

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Fewwy wrote:

Hi! I'm trying to build iceshot build with scion-

I'm going to stop it right after that word. As of the moment there are very few if any good Scion builds because Scion ascendancy is very bad at the moment (compared to the other ascendancies). GGG has said they want to rebalance it in the near future in a Q&A video with ZiggyD but I'm not going to hold my breath. As you have already started the build I would say best option is to pass the gear off to another character and wait until they do change the Ascendant nodes.

However I did read over your whole post and I do like the concept of a Scion Ice Shot but I don't see it working in the current build of the game.

Hello guys,

I'm playing a level 87 ranger in Breach with this build and while trash mobs and elite are a joke up to T12 maps, I have a really hard time with some bosses.

For example I can't even finish the merciless lab : I get hit by Izaro once, but my life goes down so fast that I try to run away and get hit by a spike or whatever and boom already dead… I only play the game for one month so clearly I don't know much yet but I'm sure I'm doing something wrong as merciless lab shouldn't be so hard to complete.
I know I'm not very skillful but I think I have quite decent stuff so can you guys look at my gear and tree below and tell me if there are some obvious changes to make ? Or any advice on how to deal with Izaro easily ?

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Angeman7/characters

Thanks a lot !

Hi Guys,

Sooo, I've seen this guide and instantly got interested, as way way back I had an ice shot ranger but done in a completely different way.
Anyway I was thinking to build it around raider ascendancy, with max frenzy charges. I've modified the tree a bit to grap a bit more life and all the frenzy nodes.

The weapon of my choice would be either Lioneye's glare, chinsol or nuro harp (yes i know its kinda shit, but its all cold and could be interesting to go full retard mode on elemental - this would require to swap 4 ascendancy points from avatar of chase to avatar of veil).

anyway here is the tree:


let me know if you think this would work too.

cheers

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Xenovenom wrote:

"

Zodr wrote:

I wasn´t talking about bosses but about an unexpected strong pack or rare monster.

The other points you mention make sense but I still find it both a bit of a win-more and a
circumstantial advantage.

Even against a Rare or a small pack of Magic monsters (3 or less) that survive the Ice Shot shower I would use Blast Rain if I didn't think I could kill them within the next two shots.

"

Zodr wrote:

And again, I come to the same point, why "waste" a rare ascendancy point in something that offers advantages ONLY in the easy situations? My point is that powerful precision helps in the exact same kind of situation but at least adds something else. Although, to be honest, I find both of them lackluster (assuming powerful precision doesn´t buff blast rain, of which I´m not entirely sure); I think I´d rather take endless munitions over either of them; it increases both of our skills' AoEs, provides a pretty rare effect (+1 projectile) which might help us skip GMP leading to more damage and some extra accuracy never hurt anyonee.

You are correct neither Ricochet nor Powerful Precision affect Blast Rain. Endless munitions is already an option for the build in place of Rupture, but assuming you keep Rupture and take Endless Munitions I doubt dropping GMP you will see a clear speed increase (More than likely I expect a drop in clear speed). The tooltip will go up because a non-quality GMP does reduce damage but you are only getting that over two arrows instead of the normal 5 (or 6 with Endless Munitions).


I don't discourage people to change things to try them out and report findings, in fact I've enjoyed the amount of people who have changed the tree to get more life, or gear to try new uniques, and take it to HC. If you would like to make it a pierce build and test it against a chain version and it happens to be better then great. As it stands though, the build functions great the way it's set up currently and through the few tests I've done changing to pierce hasn't improved it.

Ok, this has gone back and forth long enough. Xenovenom explained it correctly. Using pierce over chain greatly lowers clear speed. Can't even argue with that. Self targeting arrows that go around corners, hitting everything, every time? How is pierce better than that?
The setup fires 5 projectiles, they all chain 2 times and each time they hit, they form an Ice Cone that deals dmg as well. That's 30 guaranteed hits in 1 shot. If there are less than 15 monsters around, monsters get hit more than ones, increasing the chance you destroy the whole pack in 1 shot.
Also, more arrow's = more hits = more Ice cones = more crit hits that freeze monsters, acting as a defensive layer to the build.
Another upside to chain, is that you don't have to aim as much, chain will act like heat seeking missiles and aim for you = faster clearing. With chain you only hit in a straight line.
Now, for the rare and tough enemies, Xenovenom already explained multiple times how to handle them: Blast Rain. No further explanation needed, that setup destroys rares easily.

Xenovenom: Thanks for keeping my build alive bro :) Keep it up!