(3.7) [Theorycraft] Vaal Ice Nova Assassin

Hello all!

This is my attempt to make a nice build for 3.7. The main goal is to be able activate as many mobs as possible and the best way I can think of is Vaal Ice Nova (VIN).
How good the build will be depends on two things:
1) will the new Pledge of Hands be good? It should be better than the 3.6 version, but we can't know for sure.
2) Will Vaal Ice Nova be able to activate all mobs?

Pledge of Hands might not synergize well with VIN, but it allows us to wear Kaom's Heart and has a nice mana bonus for Mind over Matter.
I prefer tankiness, but you might want to try using a rare staff and carcass jack if you want more damage. There are also two crit and crit multi clusters above shadow left for levels 80+ if you want. Be sure to cCheck Mathil's Ice Nova version for Betrayal to get an idea of what to look for in a staff.


Skills&Links

6L:
Vaal Ice Nova + Hypothermia + Cold Penetration + Increased Area of Effect + (Controlled Destrucion)* + (Intensify)*

4L:
Frostbolt + Faster Casting + Greater Multiple Projectiles** + Arcane Surge***

4L [BB G B]:
Flame Dash + Faster Casting, Herald of Ice, Clarity

4L [RB ? ?]:
Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 1) + Frost Bomb (lvl 10) + ??? + ???****

* might be replaced, needs testing
** Can be replaced with Slower Projectiles for bosses. I prefer to use Slower Projectiles in indoor maps too.
*** For fast farming low levels it can be replaced it with Faster Projectiles, but you'll have to recolor the item each time you change setups.
**** immortal call + increased duration or some other defensive skill or curse. Any ideas?

Items:

Besides Pledge of Hands and Kaom's Heart you can use Frozen Trail jewel near Witch start for the +2 extra projectiles to frostbolt and The Pandemonius amulet for a very nice endgame damage/survivability boost.

Assendancy: Opportunistic > Ambush and Assassinate > Unstable Infusion > Deadly Infusion
Bandits: help Allira

Pastebin link

Lvl 100 passives for 3.7 Tree

Any suggestions, ideas, thoughts?

Hey, looks good, but how do you sustain Mana/Life with Warlord's Mark gone for casters?

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amasokin wrote:

Hey, looks good, but how do you sustain Mana/Life with Warlord's Mark gone for casters?

I would go mana leech on your FB since that's not your main damage. Keeping an eye on this since I liked when Mathil did it and I might convert my Cospri CoC to it at some point.

I still use the VIN, but it doesn't spread like it could if that were your main skill.

Im playing the build atm and tried 5l pledge and honestly i dig survivability ,but dmg is really lacking and cast speed also is absolute cancer dual wielding is still best option imo. Also assasin is way too squishy for legion and i feel like i have to chance ascendancy to trickster once i start digging into red maps no idea how mathil made it do lvl 99 playing ass

I went Trickster and Dual wield for now, but I'm thinking about trying Pledge of Hands. Isn't it possible to simulate Greater Spell Echo in PoB? I have no idea if I would be gaining damage / clearing speed compared to dual wielding.

I don't see why assassin would be better than trickster. With trickster you can already push 10m shaper dps, and trickster would be faster overall.
Pledge of hands is busted: ice nova repeats 4 times(with normal spell echo for that 100% more damage on 4th repeat), gives you carcass jack aoe for each repeat, and it doesn't animation lock you.
I still haven't decided between MoM and MoM+EB, though with warlords leech gone I'm leaning more towards the latter.

I think that crit would be super important so I haven't decided if Assassin or Inquisitor is better.

Also if you're going to the Templar area you should grab the juicy staff nodes to the far left.

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kemiz4 wrote:

I don't see why assassin would be better than trickster. With trickster you can already push 10m shaper dps, and trickster would be faster overall.
Pledge of hands is busted: ice nova repeats 4 times(with normal spell echo for that 100% more damage on 4th repeat), gives you carcass jack aoe for each repeat, and it doesn't animation lock you.
I still haven't decided between MoM and MoM+EB, though with warlords leech gone I'm leaning more towards the latter.

care to share a pob where you reach 10m shaper dps? :)

How's the build going? I'm looking for a currency dumping build. I like the playstyle but not sure on what ascendancy to pick. Occultist vs Trickster Vs Assassin vs Inquisitor.