[2.6] CI Vaal Ice Nova Inquisitor, Great clear speed and insane fun!
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Hi guys, I would like to share my Vaal Ice Nova character. After playing it for a while I think this is the most undervalued skill in the game. It clears very fast and you are very safe in most circumstances thanks to high ES pool and freezing all screen. Please note this is fast clearing build so don't expect to destroy guardians and shaper with it (You can kill them tho - check videos and Endgame Bosses section).
 2.6 changes
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Video showcase - 2.6 Tropical Island Here I have Templar and Witch area clusters, 20% quality gems, Lvl 20 Area gem on Vaal Ice Nova, Dying Sun As you can see build is still playable but now requires bigger investment. Damage has been buffed which makes it a little bit easier to overcome. How to deal with 2.6 Area changes: -Dying Sun flask -20% quality on gems -Ice Nova area of effect helm enchant -Grab both AoE clusters on tree (you may also consider Scion AoE) I also recommend using 3 sacrificial harvest now. Since our AoE is a bit smaller we will need to cast vaal ice nova more frequently. Videos (Outdated AoE)
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Pros and Cons
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Cons: • laggy • not very good single target • can be expensive Pros: • insanely fun! • top tier clear speed • freezing everything (including your PC :D) • very good survivability Ascendency
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Inquisitor in my opinion outclass other ascendency choices. Inevitable Judgment is huge boost to your DPS and also it helps with freezing map bosses. Build benefits a lot from Instruments of Virtue (3 of 4). Attack speed gives you faster shield charge, spell damage and cast speed increase your Ice Nova DPS. You should have it active for most of the time. Augury of Penitence gives a little bit of damage and quite a bit of safety. Ascending order: 1.Inevitable Judgment 2.Instruments of Virtue 3.Augury of Penitence Gear
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Gloves: Sorcerer gloves with +3.5 critical strike chance to socketed gems (can be obtained with essence of Horror). Try to grab pair with some resists and energy shield. Such gloves allow dropping increased critical strike gem and your gloves become 5-link.
Chest: six linked High ES Vaal Regalia with good resistances and intelligence is your best bet. Belt: Crystal Belt with high ES roll one resist and two flask rolls will be best in slot. You can also have even more fun and lag with headhunter. Boots: Skyforth are your endgame choice but they are not required by any mean. If you cannot afford them use high ES and resist boots with at least 25% movement speed on them. Shield: You're looking for good ES and some resist. Spell damage and Spell critical strike chance are luxury. Helmet: Similar as rest of the gear. As much ES as possible and some resists too. I recommend buy/craft one with good enchant. Rings: Opal rings with cold damage, energy shield and resists would be the best but they're really hard to obtain. You can look for some without cold damage and be more than fine. You can also use diamond rings. Amulet: Spell damage, critical strike multiplier and as always energy shield and resist. Weapon: Dagger with attack speed (try to get as much as possible), spell crit, lightning damage added to spells, critical strike multiplier and spell damage (written in priority order). Jewels
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You're looking for critical strike multiplier, spell damage, attack and cast speed and %ES
Here is my PoE trade search you can change count number to 3 for more budget options. You also need one Chill of Corruption and two Sacrificial Harvests with at least 26% roll. Enchantments
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Gloves: It doesn't really matter to be honest. If you really want to have one go for Word of Reflection or Word of Spite (names can vary bases on enchantment tier).
Boots: 0.X% of Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if you've Killed Recently and this is mandatory. Helmet: If you have Dying Sun go for 40% increased Ice Nova damage, if you don't have it grab 12% increased Ice Nova radius. Tree,Bandits and Leveling
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Bandits: Point - Attack Speed - Power Charge
Level 95 Tree Level 90 Tree Level 80 Tree Level up as a Firestorm or Totem character (Flameblast Totem/Flame totem/Bladefall Totem) until level 69. At this point wear your ES gear and grab Chaos Inoculation. You're ready to spec into your Vaal Ice nova setup. Stay in Dried lake up to level 80 and then start mapping. Important! Level your Ice Nova gems on the way or buy already leveld ones to be ready for the swap. Gem Links
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Chest: Vaal Ice Nova - Increased Area of Effect - Increased Critical Strikes - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Added Cold Damage
Gloves: Ice Nova - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Empower (you can swap Controlled Destruction with Increased Area of Effect if you don't have Dying Sun) Boots: CWDT level 1- immortal Call - Warlord's Mark - Increased Duration (it can be hard to roll 4 reds on ES boots so you can swap duration for Vortex or Tempest shield) Weapon: Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify Helmet: Heral of Thunder - Discipline - Enlighten (lvl 3 will do) and lightning golem which doesn't need to be linked Shield: Herald of Ice - Curse on Hit - Poacher's Mark (If you don't have Skyforth or Blue dream use Assassin Mark for power charge generation) Power Charge Generation
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1. Skyroth boots
2. Blue dream jewel, put it near Faith and steel and Elementalist. It will gran you 20% to gain Power charge on kill. 3.Herald of Ice - Curse on Hit - Assasin's Mark Sorted from the best to the worst. Map Mods
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What you shouldn't be running:
• elemental reflect • -max all resist • cannot leech life and mana What feels bad: • less area of effect • 90% status avoidance • hexproof • temporal chains Flasks
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Endgame Bosses
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If you want to kill guardians or shaper you will need swap your sacrificial harvest and chill of corruption for DPS jewels, buy pyre ring(couple chaos) and swap Vaal Ice Nova in your 6 - link for 20(21)/20 Vortex/Ice Nova. Add concentrated Effect instead of Increased Area of Effect and you're ready to go. I also recommend Mana and Atziri flasks instead of Quicksilver and Dying Sun. Phoenix - due to his ignite immunity pyre ring is useless in that scenario. You can keep your standard jewlwery for this fight. Hideout Stats
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Ice Nova  Vall Ice Nova  Defence  If you want to see some more Vaal Ice Nova action catch me live at twitch.tv/emjotte Last edited by Emjotte#4820 on Mar 28, 2017, 9:33:36 AM Last bumped on May 31, 2018, 10:27:12 PM
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Reserved
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Man I fucking love ice nova and really wish it could do more end-game bosses. I want to do this but I like to occasionally stop farming strands and a do boss or two (guardian). Seems tanky enough though..
Nice build man if you can upload more videos t13+ that be great thanks "Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym
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I added videos from Xoph and two more maps.
As you can see in Xoph video 6 link Ice Nova you can do pretty decent damage. If you swap sacrificial harvest and chill of corruption to damage jewels and grab mana flask you will be able to do end game bosses. I will try record some guardians action later this week. |
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" Oh lord. I love it. I am definitely doing this. I love Vaal Ice Nova over Spark don't know why. I actually don't like the Ice Nova MTX and prefer the old one (like your videos). It's so satisfying when they chain :P I wonder how long the Vaal Ice Nova chain can last? Just 1 or 2 screens away? Does it depend on your movement speed for it to "spread" if you will? Thanks again, going to have a farmer now and then a boss killer character. Although, might be able to do some bosses on this one, but clearspeed is so nice keep to farming I guess :D "Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym Last edited by monkuar#2123 on Jan 17, 2017, 12:12:47 PM
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" You can do 3-4 screens on open maps like Dunes or Topical Island. How for you chain depends on your AoE so you don't have to run as fast as Vaal Sparker. That is why you can afford dropping insanity gloves for horror ones. I'm sure you will have great time with it! |
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" Haha thanks! Got another question though about those gloves with the socket chance mod. I know we can only get those through an essence craft but holy shit they are rare? I cannot find any :( I have all the flasks needed, etc I am ready to go except the gloves and dagger. What to do w/o one, will it be fine for clearing atleast a shape strand?! :) "Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym Last edited by monkuar#2123 on Jan 17, 2017, 12:29:57 PM
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Are you sure you're looking correctly?
http://poe.trade/search/ahakomonitosit You can also buy item level 84 gloves and try your luck with Essence of Horror (currently around 20c) So you don't have to worry about not having them :) Last edited by Emjotte#4820 on Jan 17, 2017, 12:34:57 PM
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" Oh yep, my bad. I fucked my search setting form up. Thanks! Yeah, cannot wait I'm getting this guy geared now and will have my Ngahamu guy as a boss killer. Although I really think this build has huge potential from the videos I've seen to do some epic end-game bosses fine. I'll wait for more videos :) Thanks again "Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym
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Seems interesting! Why not swap ice nova with Vortex for single target or generating souls for vaal ice novas?
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