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

So why ancestral call w/ vigilant strike?

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Brian9824 wrote:

So why ancestral call w/ vigilant strike?

Ancestral Call makes Vigilant Strike MUCH easier to land. You no longer have to namelock a foe.

I'm back to PoE, yay! Thanks everybody for answering the questions in my absence. I'm going to resume my leveling and mapping soon.

So, what new and exciting things did y'all discover? Is WO in a swap weapon really better for trash clearing? Did anybody try AA + Bonechill yet? Any new cool crafts?

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Med1umentor wrote:

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dark_nebula wrote:

Is there much difference between the witch and scion versions of the occultist build?

Quite.

Scion have more leisure on a tree cause it have numerous starting points due to ascendancy and position of scion. Also have more int and passive skillpoints for the same reason.

Generally, just think about it that way : Scion have more damage and ele reflect immunity. Occultist have about 20% less damage, but instead have more ES, stun/chill/freeze complete immunity, and have an option to use arakaali pantheon, which makes our leech much more powerful. Tankiness of occultist on a whole new level.

Ahh thanks, So the occultist build is witch only then?

I managed to 6-link my 550 es chest, any idea what to use with it? I currently use a buffed up cold snap with blind and curse on hit on that slot.

Also, mastermind down at first try. I want to farm shaper but my map collection is insanely bad,I literally cant stay on t10+. (Yeah, I know..)

I will delve a lot instead, I think.

1880 int, ~9k es, I was at one point 9.5k es, but opted to get rid of some excess in favor of more damage/quality of life. I think just staying at 9k es will be more than enough.

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Kelvynn wrote:

I'm back to PoE, yay! Thanks everybody for answering the questions in my absence. I'm going to resume my leveling and mapping soon.

So, what new and exciting things did y'all discover? Is WO in a swap weapon really better for trash clearing? Did anybody try AA + Bonechill yet? Any new cool crafts?

Nice to see you back.

You should give the WO thing a try. My swap weapen is also a WI staff but with GMP and incrased duration for winter Orb linked. Trash will be cleared by winter orb very solid. And the cwc will also trigger icestorm for some Harder rare mobs. For Single Target like map bosses i swap back to a Single target setup. Downside: i think you Need a 6 link staff to Support Winter orb and Icestorm. I made a Short Video of a map clear - the link should be on Page 39 (but on Scion)

Currently i try a setup with the malediction path and temp chains as Aura as a Second curse. Clear speed is insane wirh profane bloom - incursions feel so easy. But i had to drop n buff (currently arctic Armour) and you lose the freeze/ chill Immunity. So if you want to keep arskaali you have to rely on flasks for freeze/chill immunity. For regular Mapping no problem. I think your way is better for bosses. Maybe i will make a video with this setup today evening if you are Interested.

found this thing, wonder if we can use it for our build for example with fenumus' spinnerets for cheap es gain on hit

I wanted to share a bit on my experience with this build this league.

Levelling as a hybrid is painful, but life was mostly good after switching to CI, except I continued to struggle with Incursions, and it didn't really feel like a problem that would be best solved with more Icestorm damage.

My gear isn't great (8.5k ES, 1600 int) but it's not terrible either...

Anyhow, first I picked up a decent Warlord's Mark on Hit ring to cover leech, but even with a sixth damage gem, the clear speed still felt stressed for Incursions. Losing Enfeeble also felt noticeable, so I'm currently specced into +1 curse nodes to keep it, but not sure how I feel about that...

I wanted to get my clear speed up though, so I started tinkering with improving Winter's Orb.
5L - WO + CWC + GMP + Controlled Destruction + Cold Pen, (unlinked) Spell Cascade feels great.

GMP doesn't effect Icestorm, and Spell Cascade doesn't effect Winter's Orb, but each is pretty vital to its respective skill for good clear speed, and combining them feels great imo. Winter's Orb spins up damage much faster than Icestorm, and lets you carry some of your damage with you in between packs, while Ice Storm continues to do it's thing. I don't feel like I make any particular effort to focus on Winter's Orb over Icestorm, but rather everything just feels like it flows much faster since Winter's Orb has already chipped away a decent amount of mob health by the time Ice Storm kicks in, and it picks up stragglers.


Also since I'm using Warlord's Mark to cover my leech needs, I decided to mess with a 6L setup.
WO + CWC + GMP + Cont Dest + Cold Pen + Conc Effect feels like it does similar damage to an unlinked 6S using Hypothermia, with slightly better QoL because some of the damage is transferred to Winter's Orb. Poking through stuff about Winter's Orb, I've seen LMP suggested for single target setups, might have to try that later, but honestly not sure the cost of a 6L is particularly worth it.


I like my Warlord's Mark ring, but I'm not entirely sure that's worth it either. Losing Enfeeble felt squishy, but keeping it costs 5 skill points (or an absurdly expensive amulet). If it's enough leech for high end bosses, it might be worth it, but I haven't gotten there yet.

I am however very much enjoying the 5L Winter's Orb setup for clearing, and unless I'm missing something a leech boot enchant would probably be fine for that with a regular 6S setup on swap for single target.

Hi there!

I want to post my personal take on this WI build iteration.

SPOILER: some options are very expensive and don't have to be considered in a "league starting" point of view.


1. Running vitality aura is essential to do very good damage. You just use controlled destruction in place of life leech, gaining 45% MORE damage + 10% increased. Herald of ice is sacrificed, and for a good reason. The Watcher's eye with Discipline recovery (or ESGOH) + Vitality leech can be pricey, sadly.

2. With the upcoming patch, we can run two curses by crafting the new +1 prefix on a body armour. This is a damage option because we have to sacrifice some ES (1 less prefix on the body armour) to run Frostbite, and this is VERY expensive because it requires a six link (CWDT + Ball Lightning + COH + Enfeeble + Frostbite + Blind) and one extra exalted orb for the craft.

3. Running two different setups on Whispering ice staves is the way to go.

The clearspeed setup is WO | CWC | GMP | Hypo | Cold pen | Spell cascade (to be fully optimized it requires a 5L with only Spell cascade out of the linked gems). To go for it, btw, you need some ring crafting to reduce the mana cost of skills, or it becomes difficult / near to impossible to sustain.

In the single target setup you just replace GMP with Controlled destruction and Spell cascade with Conc effect.

4. Bonechill support on AA is very good. However, to run it smoothly, linking Discipline and Vitality to Enlighten is essential.

5. Atziri's Promise and a resistance-optimized Wise Oak bring about 19.7% MORE shaper damage to the build when combined. Wise oak brings also some good defensive potential if elemental resistances are balanced. A good final flask setup for bossing could be:

- Chemist's Basalt of Staunching
- Chemist's Quicksilver of Adrenaline
- Chemist's Sulphur of Warding
- Wise Oak
- Atziri's Promise

6. Might of the Meek unique jewel smashes the competition with ALL jewels in the witch slot.

7. With proper crafting on both rings, WO mana cost can be brought to zero. This makes running no regen maps a cakewalk.

8. Storm Weaver > Snowforged.


Cheers!

Pretty hard to get good ES+int stuff in HC... very small number of offers... not even mentioning there is ZERO ES/hit watcher's eye in poe.trade (but well I wouldn't be able to buy one anyway)

Currently lvl 77 with 5.6k ES and something like 1200 int, it's fine in T3-4 maps and I hope I'll reach T10 or above before next week-end (can't play a lot). I'll have to farm Delve in order to craft my stuff.