[3.7] The CoCster, A Trickster Cospri's Malice Build (All content viable)

Hello everyone, Loate back with another build guide. Now, normally my build guides are pure memery, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a solid, fun, *powerful* build while messing around during Legion. One capable of mowing through red maps, Guardians, Shaper, and Uber Elder himself, all on a 5link.

I know, I know, I'm just as disappointed in myself as you are. Fear not, though, because there are still some fun interactions with the skill tree, and of course I do my best to melt your graphics card (though it's not nearly as awful as an Erikeiken build, I admit).

Anyways, this one doesn't take much to get started, has steady gear progression should you choose to advance it, and feels incredibly smooth to play. On to the guide!

(Obligatory plug for character backstories I wrote, this is the final one and contains links to the others in the order they should be read - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1651034)


1. OH GREAT. YOU HAVE ANOTHER BUILD. MY EYES STILL HURT FROM THE LAST ONE. WHY SHOULD I PLAY THIS?

Spoiler
Didn't you read the intro? It feels so good! With the melee rework for animation canceling and Cyclone getting changed to a channeling skill, spinning to win has never felt better. You're functionally stun, freeze, and chill immune, you pour out the DPS, and you get to make those juicy crunching sounds that everyone loves from ice crits. Plus balls!



2. OH NO. WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE?

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3. THAT'S... ACTUALLY FAIRLY TAME COMPARED TO SOME OF YOUR OTHER STUFF. HOW DOES IT WORK?

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This is a fairly standard Cospri's Malice CoC build, with some notable differences I'll get to in a second. Basically, we want to crit a lot and attack really fast to proc as many Frostbolts and Ice Novas as possible. Cyclone gives us stun immunity, as well as being able to move while attacking, which is why it's the go-to skill for these types of builds. As long as you're spinning, you're winning.



4. SO WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT THAN OTHER COSPRI'S MALICE BUILDS?

Spoiler
First off, our ascendancy. Most Cospri's Malice builds go Assassin to maximize crit, and while Assassin is a whole lotta deeps, it also (in my opinion) is squishier than a two week old banana. Instead, we go Trickster to take advantage of the Ghost Shroud line, which provides us with a significant amount of evasion, spell dodge, and energy shield. Oh, and we also get a buttload of attack speed, which means we don't have to focus on it on the tree.

Second, with the new accuracy changes allowing 100% hit chance, we're not locked into Lycosidae as our shield, which allows us to explore other options. Options like Light of Lunaris, which gives us a massive amount of crit multiplier, especially if we couple it with the new Legion Jewel keystone Glancing Blows, which doubles our block chance at the cost of taking 50% damage of blocked hits. Since we utilize primarily evasion+blind and spell dodge as our defenses, what seems like a downside is actually an upside, since hits rarely get through anyways, allowing us to mitigate the spike damage that normally kills evasion type characters.

Third, because we're stacking accuracy, using Oskarm's for our gloves is pretty much a no-brainer, due to the Assassin's Mark on hit as well as increased crit chance per 200 accuracy rating. Best of all, in the current pure-phys Impale meta, all of these items are pretty cheap! (for now)



5. THAT'S A LOT OF UNIQUES. WHAT DOES THE GEAR LOOK LIKE?

Spoiler
Mainly uniques, which is both an upside and a downside. The upside is, they'll usually be available. The downside is, if the meta shifts, Cospri's Malice and Light of Lunaris will potentially become expensive again (like, exalts level expensive), upping the price to start the build considerably.

In order to get the build started, you're going to want these three core uniques.

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Tempered Mind goes in the jewel slot immediately above Witch, because with the addition of the new Utmost Intellect cluster, that's 700 flat accuracy alone just from those three nodes, which frankly is kind of ridiculous, but hey, it's there so we're gonna use it.

For defense, we want the following, listed in the order you'll probably acquire them.

Spoiler


Dream Fragments gives us freeze and chill immunity (remember, you gotta spin to win), Perfect Form gives us a hefty chunk of ES along with 30% Spell Dodge from Phase Acrobatics, and Atziri's Step gives us another 16% Spell Dodge as well as nice life and movespeed (try to get the enchantment "Increased Spell dodge if you've been hit by a Spell recently").

Eventually you'll also want to pick up a Starkonja's Hood and an Oskarm's as well (an Ice Nova damage enchantment on the Starkonja's is nice, but not required).

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These provide a solid mix of offense and defense, and as a bonus continue to give us more evasion, which is our primary defensive mechanism.

Of the final three spots, your ring and belt are going to have to cover resists, so they'll probably cost 5-15 chaos each depending on rolls (my current belt cost an exalt, but that's because I've made enough to upgrade from the starter one I was using). Try to pick up a flat mana roll on your ring to run a higher level Precision.

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Your neck is where things get pricey.

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Pandemonius is, hands down, best in slot for this build, but it's also priced accordingly (usually at least 2-3ex depending on how early in the league you want it). Since you're unlikely to get one right off the bat, go for a rare neck with life, crit multi, and some resist help to make up if your ring and belt are lacking.

You'll also want to grab a Frozen Trail when you hit Act 5 for free LMP on your Frostbolts.

Spoiler


For my Watcher's Eye, I currently have one that prevents Blind from affecting me while I have Precision (because those Maraketh Legion mobs sure do love to blind), and elemental penetration with crits while I have Zealotry. Honestly, this is entirely up to your personal preferences and what you're willing to spend. For full DPS, a Hatred +crit and penetration plus an offensive Zealotry or Precision mod is likely the best (and priciest choice), but there's no real wrong answer here. Just try to find two mods that fit the auras you're running to start out, and then upgrade when you get the funds.

For your Timeless Jewel you want a Lethal Pride of Kiloava. Socket that to the left of the Shadow start and Pain Attunement turns into Glancing Blows, along with giving you enough Strength to run max Life Leech. It also gives you a fun interaction between Glancing Blows and Light of Lunaris - yes, doubling your block from 35% to 70% also adds 35% crit multi to Light of Lunaris, as well as 35% spell damage from the Arcane Swiftness shield block notable between Witch and Shadow. Seems ok.



6. OKAY, WHAT ABOUT THE TREE? IS IT AWFUL?

Spoiler
Nah, it's pretty tame. If you've played the Divine Ire "Can't Touch This" build by KooperT (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2459778) you'll note that it's very similar to the tree there. That's because it's a good tree, bront.

Site skill tree (shows Timeless Jewel) -
PoB - https://pastebin.com/RCF1NRHR

When leveling you want to build out the skeleton of the tree first, then pick up damage nodes if you feel your damage is low, life nodes if you feel you're too squishy. I generally grab a Poet's Pen to level with, or you can just go Divine Ire/Storm Brand/your favorite leveling skill etc.

For Bandits help Alira for the resists and crit multi.



7. SKILL GEMS?

Spoiler
Cospri's Malice will socket Frostbolt/Ice Nova/Life Leech. Make sure Frostbolt is socketed above Ice Nova so it triggers first (though generally you'll be attacking so fast it doesn't make much difference).

In your chest you'll socket Cyclone/Increased Crits/Cast on Crit/Ice Nova/Hypothermia. Since I don't have a 6l I haven't tested the optimal sixth gem yet but it'll probably be Cold Penetration for Shaper/Uber Elder, and Increased AoE for general map clearing. As you can see from the videos, I'm clearing everything on a 5l anyways, so getting that sixth spot is more of a luxury than anything.

If you don't have Pandemonius yet, use Hatred/Blood and Sand/Flesh and Stone/Precision as your auras. The blind from Flesh and Stone in Sand stance is incredibly good when combined with evasion, and the other two give you damage.

Once you do get Pandemonius, you'll want to acquire an Enlighten gem so you can run Hatred/Zealotry/Precision. With a level 2 Enlighten you can run a level 1 or 2 Precision, depending on your +mana on ring, with a level 3 Enlighten you can run an 11 or 12 Precision, and a level 4 Enlighten will allow you to run a level 20/21 Precision. I got incredibly lucky and had a level 4 Enlighten drop from a Legion mob, but a level 3 is fine as well.

With the Perfect Form, we get Arctic Armor for free, so go ahead and link Bonechill to that for added damage when you spin over the top of bosses. I use Whirling Blades/Faster Attacks/Fortify in my Light of Lunaris, but you can use Leap Slam if you want - it's just a matter of preference. I also like having Dash somewhere in my build as a gap closer/quick reposition.



8. ASCENDANCIES?

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Ghost Dance -> Escape Artist -> Swift Killer

For uberlab, I chose Weave the Arcane for increased attack speed along with no mana cost for my Cyclone, but since we use EB you could probably take Harness the Void instead if you wanted. Just note that this might make your mana pool too small to run a higher rank Precision since it's based on flat cost. Totally up to you.



9. SO WHAT DOES MY PLAYSTYLE LOOK LIKE? CAN I FACETANK EVERYTHING?

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Ehhhh, kind of but not really. Your primary defense is killing everything that gets close to you before it can hit you, but you don't really have the life pool to take multiple big hits. Thankfully, as long as you follow the best rule of defense in PoE (don't stand in one place), you shouldn't take more than a hit every two-three seconds, which is plenty of time to leech back to full. I wouldn't really recommend this build for hardcore though, as there's always the chance a oneshot will sneak through, particularly some of the Legion rares in t16s with nasty auras/mods. That being said, I'm level 95 and would comfortably be 96 if I didn't have a habit of doing incredibly stupid things just to see if they can be done (spoiler: they generally can't).

Basically, don't stop spinning if there are enemies nearby, and don't directly backtrack into projectiles/slams.



10. I'M NOT SURE IF I'M PREPARED FOR AN ACTUAL BUILD GUIDE FROM YOU.

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You and me both, friend. You and me both. Maybe my next one will be Frostblink Totems!
Last bumped on Oct 8, 2019, 7:05:40 PM
Sounds like a fun build, Will try it out the coming days. I got a couple of questions:
- What Pantheons are you using?
- What Jewels can you recommend (if one does not have a Watcher's Eye or Timeless Jewel yet)?
Last edited by rainmeadow#3553 on Jun 30, 2019, 2:32:00 AM
Pantheons are Arakaali and Shakari. Chaos damage is one of our big weaknesses so any way we can mitigate it is useful (and going immune to poison is really nice). The recovery from Arakaali is also helpful since there tend to be a lot of damage over time effects that pop up here and there.

For jewels, look for something with life and crit multiplier until you can get your Watcher's Eye and Timeless Jewel.
VERY Good build and the OP is easy to talk to, I messaged him in game ( Funny human this one is ).

My Experience leveling it; GO With Poet's and Frostbolt till 68 :)
Was looking for some coc builds for inspiration, so this looked like a bit different than an assassin and as far, fun...
Had farmed all the jewels and got a good deal on the chest.
feels solid
Last edited by skjutengris#6643 on Jun 30, 2019, 5:19:45 PM
Ok when I use Lethal Pride I get something different what am I doing wrong?
"
shahmat1972 wrote:
Ok when I use Lethal Pride I get something different what am I doing wrong?


May need to divine it.
timeless jewels have different outcomes, so either divine or find one that has the mod.
"
shahmat1972 wrote:
Ok when I use Lethal Pride I get something different what am I doing wrong?


are you sure you have the kiloava version of lethal pride ?

Great build ! I originally made a trickster for ED/Contagion but did not like it at all, converted it to this build and it's a blast.

It's slow compared to fullscreencyclone slayer, but freezing and shattering feels so good. I killed uber elder at lvl 88 with bad gems lvl. (got lucky on a 6L tho)

Last edited by Vwk#1402 on Jul 1, 2019, 7:32:56 AM
My PoB:https://pastebin.com/UvMgBRFQ
Budget: Already had most of the stuff but with the market price of items around 11ex
(in standard softcore that's very little)

Short Backstory

Alright so I just came back to the game and I was looking for some form of discharge/CoC to have fun with, found this and it's been a blast quite literally

All bosses down

I didn't get a fitting watcher's eye yet but I quite easily killed shaper and uber elder and uber atziri with a lv 89 without maxed gems (died once to uber elder due to not knowing the mechanics very well and once to atziri cuz I didn't pay attention to the mirror one but that's on me)

Conclusion
If you're looking for a Cospri build this is the one to go, tanky due to insane evasion and dodge/Block mechanics,the damage feels awesome and the overall feel is amazing so to sum it up:

Insane Leech/DPS/Survivability 10/10 would recommend to anyone
The World is but an illusion, exile
Last edited by Raf949#0123 on Jul 22, 2019, 4:25:33 AM
Very underrated build.
Killed my very first Uber Elder with it with only 1 death. When ur looking for a cheap solid CoC build, thats the one ur looking for.

Ty Loate
Last edited by L1ghtn1ng1987#0801 on Jul 20, 2019, 5:15:02 AM

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