[3.6] The Blizz Sorc - Icestorm/Winter Orb CI Occultist - Viable For Everything

i fear also the wispering ice dmg will lowered. lets hope the other sources of dmg compensate this.

If not. It was a really nice time with the build the last leagues. And nothing stay forever.

but i will miss it hard

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AnubixcZ wrote:

In Standard doesn't matter, but in HC this build isn't league starter. You have problems with stats capp, cause there is no astramentis (or very expansive) and rare amulets with all atributes are not on market, or very expansive (again). ES gloves helmet, boots and armour are so expansive if u dont want crap - and u dont want, cause u need at least 6k ES for solid yellow maps mapping.

In HC league u should rare play something easy and then switch or start new char as WI CI with at least 5-10exalts.

And here i am, playing the last several leagues this build as hc starter while going Ci with lvl39...
For me it is one of the safest builds to rock hc early on.

Im eager to see the patchnotes how the support gems changed and what happend to the skill tree...
the reduced lifeleech is a bummer but at least we can see if there a better skill tree options now.

pray for great patchnotes !

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ichbinwerichbi wrote:

i fear also the wispering ice dmg will lowered. lets hope the other sources of dmg compensate this.

That will be probably covered by ability to drop life leech support.

"

Yuzlol wrote:

And here i am, playing the last several leagues this build as hc starter while going Ci with lvl39...
For me it is one of the safest builds to rock hc early on.

Depends how fast u want to progress. If u want to hit kitava 10 within 15 hours from league start or faster, you have problems with:
Fertile Mind (you can farm a3 but you lost quite lot a of time)
Whispering Ice (you play without WI until act 6 to farm it on your own, and there u lost quite big amount of time before u drop 4x incanation.)
Astramentis or Rare amuler with int and all atributes at least.

Then on Kitava 10 you should have at least 4k ES if u are not player who don't get a single hit on this fight. So u have to find some big ES items on helm, boots, gloves and armour (which is tough on league start, always). Occultist is better than Scion in this, cause u can get 250 ES + some cool % from Vile Bastion that is huge buff, but u lose quite lot dmg.

So for me, if u want to contest on top positions, this is definitelly not a league starter (that's what league starter means for me + its cheap). Of course u can gen some sweet drops until 70 lvl like exalted, but u cant count with it. On the other hands there is a lost of league starter builds where u don't need any uniques, you just cap your resists and keep your life pool up and u can finish kitava 10 within 8 hours without trading.

Personally, I highly doubt we'll see a Ice Storm damage nerf. It seems a lot more likely that they would want to lower the cast time of the spell (like they did to others) and try to improve the self-casting version of it, OR improving the performance issues. Checking poe.ninja, the Whispering Ice staff was used by 0.2% of the population, and it wins no awards in clear speed. It is a slow-n-steady-wins-the-race kind of skill, and does not have the power nor the visibility to warrant a nerf.

I always loved Kelvynn´s Whispering Ice builds but gave up on them in Incursion when my kill speed was so slow that I had a very hard time finishing Incursions in time.
Nevertheless I would like to give this build a try. But I am afraid that my killing speed will be to slow to do Breaches, Incursions or Sindycate labs fast enough.
Any opinions or advice?

"

Lorkhan wrote:

I always loved Kelvynn´s Whispering Ice builds but gave up on them in Incursion when my kill speed was so slow that I had a very hard time finishing Incursions in time.
Nevertheless I would like to give this build a try. But I am afraid that my killing speed will be to slow to do Breaches, Incursions or Sindycate labs fast enough.
Any opinions or advice?

It is definitly fast enough to finish those contents!
You just need enough dmg so u dont need to remain stationary all time.
Usually a steady swipe across the mobs is enough cause the duration of your icestorm is long enough to kill all mobs except rares etc.
Dont target those mobs until they are dead!

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Yuzlol wrote:

Dont target those mobs until they are dead!

Yep. This is probably the key to my problem. Thank you.

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adambog wrote:

Seems like there isnt any reason now to travel for the VP.

Edit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/axcd00/how_do_you_calculate_the_cap_for_es_leech_with/eht7xpe/
Seems like 0 reasons.

this could be a huge blow, as i understand it, previously we've got 20% base life leech, doubled by vaal pact to 40% and converted to ES leech by ghost reaver, now we got base ES leech at 10% ("Energy Shield has a lower cap on maximum restored per second than Life Leech (10% of maximum energy shield per second)" - from manifesto) doubled by Ghost reaver ("Ghost Reaver now doubles your maximum energy shield per second"), they do mention additional nodes to increase that cap, but still sounds like bad news

Yeah, The one node that was teased had 3% increased leech rate on it... So I'm thinking that with investment (and Ghost Reaver) you will be looking at around 30% leech rate. (10% less than old Vaal Pact) That's a nerf for sure, but not an impossible one to work around. ES Recovery Rate watcher's eye, or a Soul of Arakaali setup might be mandatory to hit the same type of recovery as before. Of course, you also don't lose regen now, so Zealot's Oath may be a thing.

Without needing Vaal Pact, we have a lot more passive tree nodes to play with.... of course the flip side of "that" is that those travel nodes were actually pretty efficient for maxing out Int. We'll see what happens when the patch nodes and the new passive tree drops.

Good point on ZO. When I first started this build in Betrayal league (having skipped Delve league) I actually removed VP and added ZO when I was learning how to delve since the Consecrated Ground regen from Sulphur Flasks helped with the damage from the darkness. Once I got better at delving and bought a Watcher's Eye with ES gain on hit I switched back but 6% regen is nothing to sneeze at especially when tanking.

Years ago the only CI builds I did where regen tanks...not very strong offensively but dropping them in a map while you put back a few pints can be pretty fun. :)