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

"

lilianmarius wrote:

So i may say that a Shaper amulet with int and %damage per int is always better than an Astramentis (even % int corrupted one) as long as you manage to reach your needed Str and Dex values from that Shaper amulet and other sources

That last bit can be... more annoying than expected... ;)

Also, love my 1% / 15 Int amulet too, but I went for balancing for a relatively mediocre one largely because I'm also heavily invested into using Winter's Orb... but bear in mind that the raw damage number in PoB doesn't tell the whole story for Icestorm. Unless you get 9-12% increased Attributes on the amulet too (or some other combination of 90+ int), you're going to lose some Icestorm duration too, which drops your total stacked Icestorm count during a full burn.

"

Mantux31 wrote:

What should I upgrade?

I'd say look for boots first... but then I'm a fiend for run speed. ;)

Also getting leech on boots should make things easier while you touch up other gear... that extra gem socket in clear setups really helps imo.

"

vector84 wrote:

"

lilianmarius wrote:

So i may say that a Shaper amulet with int and %damage per int is always better than an Astramentis (even % int corrupted one) as long as you manage to reach your needed Str and Dex values from that Shaper amulet and other sources

That last bit can be... more annoying than expected... ;)

Also, love my 1% / 15 Int amulet too, but I went for balancing for a relatively mediocre one largely because I'm also heavily invested into using Winter's Orb... but bear in mind that the raw damage number in PoB doesn't tell the whole story for Icestorm. Unless you get 9-12% increased Attributes on the amulet too, you're going to lose some Icestorm duration too, which drops your total stacked Icestorm count during a full burn.

Yes you are right the duration lost was about 0.4 seconds (drop from 6.94 seconds to 6.54 seconds) which is a drop but in my opinion an unsignifiant one

"

lilianmarius wrote:

Yes you are right the duration lost was about 0.4 seconds (drop from 6.94 seconds to 6.54 seconds) which is a drop but in my opinion an unsignifiant one

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call losing a full stack of Icestorm insignificant - that's 6% lost DPS on a full burn, aka about the same amount you gain on your hit damage.

So unless you get a really good 1% / 15 amulet, a mediocre one is going to frontload better, but not change your DPS all that much when you can stand and burn.

(Still more cost efficient than a Corrupted Astramentis though, I think?)

Inspired by this conversation, I picked up this for 1 ex.



to replace



It did drop my Int around 150 total when factoring in a couple skill tree changes needed. That dropped me two breakpoints on Ice Storm. (from 2100, to 1958) Lost around 600 ES as well, (now have exactly 12000). PoB damage went up across the board.

I'm going to test it out. I didn't really have much of an issue with end-game sustained DPS. Even going so far as to use my clear speed staff on some of the mobile guardians as I found it safer... but I was struggling a bit on t15 and t16 incursions. It's only around 2 regrets and a few chaos to switch back if I change my mind back. Of course, if I could find the holy grail of amulets (+damage per int and Increased Attributes) that would be great.

Edit: Managed to get creative with a few crafting options, and I took a hit of around 100 int by switching amulets. Leaving me with .15 seconds less base duration, and only a drop of around 450 ES.

Final numbers between those two amulets for me
Shaper amulet:
15% More Winter Orb damage
8% more Ice Storm damage, at the expense of around .25 seconds total duration.
Loss of 441 total Energy Shield.

For sure a DPS increase at the expense of bit of defense, at least for me.

Found the recipe for 2/3 sockets, if anybody still needs it. It was in Depths on 2nd level :D

Also, still havig fun with this build, but looking at others and seeing myself only with 1890ish int makes me a bit sad :(

"

Breken wrote:

but I was struggling a bit on t15 and t16 incursions.

If you feel like experimenting, might be worth trying WO + CWC + GMP + CD + CP + Hypo (6L) ... with that setup I've been managing to actually walk out of Incursions with time on the clock, rather than getting kicked out, though I'm also running Malediction for even more clear speed so... YMMV?

Also, if you switch your CWC and WO gems in your boss staff, you'll keep your Winter's Orb stacks when weapon swapping, which is pretty nice.

"

Also, if you switch your CWC and WO gems in your boss staff, you'll keep your Winter's Orb stacks when weapon swapping, which is pretty nice.

Holy Crap, you're a genius. How did I not know that? Thanks!!!!

I'll play around with this setup to see if I'm still struggling with the high level incursions, if so I may swap some things around as you said. If I'm willing to take another 600 or so ES hit, I could also craft +1 curse onto my chest for some Frostbite action if I get desperate.

Huh, so basically if winter orb is in the exact same slot in weapon swap staff, you don't lose stacks. That's so useful! Thanks a lot.

Also as side note, damn winter orb increased our clear speed by so much.

What do you guys think of using a Loreweave? Would the higher max resistances be worth losing some ES and Int?

Also, advantages/disadvantages to using Malediction instead of Frigid Wake? Malediction seems like it would give more DPS, especially if using Frostbite to make up for the loss of Void Beacon, while also reducing enemy damage with the Malediction debuff (10%) and increasing the effect of Enfeeble. Profane Bloom is nice too.