[3.17] Wallach's Hierophant Freezing Pulse Totems (No Further Updates)

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Mentalmike wrote:

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NoImagination wrote:

I'm 45.9% in hideout, aura on, nothing else. I'd worry more about DPS than crit alone though (249k under the same conditions).

Ok, then having crit chance at around 40% is ok. I was expecting people to have it like 60%.

My DPS is 124k in hideout with only aura on.

Weapon upgrade with +1 and soul mantle with +1 will probably push it to 150k dps. Level 5 awaken cold damage should push it to 170k dps.

Crit multi jewel instead of clear mind should push it to 175k.

Does helmet enchant really add that much tooltip DPS? (using tooltip as any hidden benefits like cold pen as an example is pure bonus).

I guess my Watcher's eye isnt a damage one as its damage pen when affected by Hatred. I could eventually swap that out but trouble is I am really struggling with survivability end game and cant figure out why.

Bosses are ok. Can do Sirus A8 and Guardians. Not unlocked Shaper, Elder or Maven.

Ultimatums are the real problem. Almost always die. No idea how to survive them. Lack of damage will be the main factor.

Using Haste (with Watcher's Eye jewel for phasing really does help but makes it more glass cannon - if I make a mistake or the game rigs itself, it is an instant death.

Got 3.5k life and 2.6k mana - Lacking life (need 1 more level) and need better rolls on Gloves. with Haste on, Mana becomes 1k which isnt too bad but does ultimately weaken the character.

try to have phase run and up as much das possible in ultimatums, made a big difference for me personally, dying normally once each 5 only ( t14-t16, not doing them on extreme dps mods or vulnerability of course ).

3.7k life, 3k mana, 900 es to say so, your numbers are rather on the lower end for endgame and high red maps i´d say.

Hey, I'm new to PoE and have been loving the guide. I had a quick question I was wondering if you could help out with regards to priority

I used the Locus of Corruption on my Viridi's Veil and got +2 to AoE spells and +2 to Projectile Spells. Based on it being 4L I was wondering what priority I should give my spells for higher gem level (Frost Bomb or Frostbite)

Frostbite probably better, I don't think frost bomb is really worth it anymore. Eventually, you can get frostbite + elemental weakness + awakened hextouch + hydrosphere in there, and you'll be doing even better cursing.

Good news! Triple Hex confirmed to work on bosses too.



Bad news! I checked the numbers on POB just to see the impact of this on bosses (33% less Hex effect) and Shaper/Sirus (66% less Hex effect).

Our DPS modifiers for cold damage should be nearly the same, so I'll use mine for example.
On a normal monster, we (the player) get the following resistance penetration:
1. Pandemonius (24%)
2. Blanketed Snow (10%)
3. Wise Oak (15%)
4. Cold Penetration support (42%)
5. Passive tree (2%)
Total: 93%

On the other hand, the monster loses the following resistance:
1. Frostbite (55%)
2. Elemental Weakness (51%)
3. Cold Exposure (10%, or 15% if you're using Frost Bomb)
Total: 116%

Together, our resistance penetration and the monster's resistance loss come up to a 209% resistance reduction.

This resistance reduction is then modified by sources of increased damage taken.
1. Shocked (19%; from base of 15%, together with Astonishing Affliction's 30% increase to this base, finally rounded down)
2. Bottled Faith (7%; low roll)
3. Bonechill (21%)
4. Purifying Flame (5%)
5. Sniper's Mark (42%)
Total: 94%

Let's put this together. The enemy starts with 0 resistance. We penetrate 93% of its resistance. We further cause it to lose 116% resistance. This amount is multiplied by an additional 94% from our sources of increased damage. Our effective DPS modifier comes up to 5.995 (from 3.09 x 1.94). This means any increased or more cold/spell damage is eventually multiplied by 5.995.

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What if we looked at our Shaper dps? Firstly (and thankfully), our penetration is unaffected, and stays at 93%.

Then comes the bloodbath. Our Hexes lose 66% effectiveness, so the numbers for resistance loss become:
1. Frostbite (55% >> 18%)
2. Elemental Weakness (51% >> 17%)
3. Cold Exposure (10%, or 15% if you're using Frost Bomb)
Total: 116% >> 45%

If you recall, Shaper and Sirus both gain 50% elemental resistance, so both our hexes AND cold exposure don't even cancel that out. The resistance reduction comes up to only 88% (from 93% + 45% - 50%).

Because our sources of increased damage are unaffected, the effective DPS modifier on Shaper drops to 3.647 (from 1.88 x 1.94). In essence, we are doing only 60% damage to Shaper as compared to normal mobs, mainly because of Hexes becoming way less effective.

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What's the takeaway from this? A triple Hex setup against normal bosses will work fine, but when it comes to Shaper/Sirus, a third Hex like Elemental Weakness contributes only 12% to the overall resistance reduction (17% of 138%). Without this third Hex, our effective DPS modifier drops from 3.647 to 3.317, which is (only?) a 9% overall loss.

A few options moving forward. Keep double Hexes with Awakened Hextouch5, since it works well on all bosses apart from Shaper and Sirus. Drop Whispers of Doom anoint. When fighting Shaper, unsocket the weaker Hex, so Hextouch applies 1 Hex and leaves room for Sniper's Mark. This is good for clearing most tough mobs and bosses, since the combination of Elemental Weakness and Frostbite is still strong against them. [Just tested: Running without Whispers of Doom but with Awakened Hextouch5 allows both Frostbite and Sniper's Mark to be on the same target. Sniper's Mark can be applied manually or through an Arcanist Brand.]

Alternatively, keep Whispers of Doom, and skip Hextouch altogether. Curse manually and combine Frostbite with Sniper's Mark on Shaper/Sirus.

Heck, the most economical option is likely to skip both Whispers of Doom and Awakened Hextouch5. Curse manually, and like Wallach said, apply Sniper's Mark on Shaper/Sirus without either Hex. The loss in damage can be made up for with better anoints, and a lot more currency from not buying Awakened Hextouch5 or 3 Golden Oils.

Sorry for the long post. I decided to take some time looking at the mods on POB and it got a little deeper than I wanted. There're loads more that I wanted to talk about, like the importance of scaling increased damage taken whenever possible. There's probably a better place to do that.

(NB: I forgot to check "Unnerved" from Blade Blast in POB. This is another source of 10% "increased damage taken". In my setup, the Arcanist Brand is in charge of 57% [42% + 10% + 5%] increased damage taken, so it's going to be a huge deal if I mis-cast it.)

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limevan wrote:

A few options moving forward. Keep double Hexes with Awakened Hextouch5, since it works well on all bosses apart from Shaper and Sirus. Drop Whispers of Doom anoint. When fighting Shaper, unsocket the weaker Hex, so Hextouch applies 1 Hex and leaves room for Sniper's Mark. This is good for clearing most tough mobs and bosses, since the combination of Elemental Weakness and Frostbite is still strong against them.

Thanks for the information. Or plan c: keep AH5, frostbite, elemental weakness, don't bother swapping in sniper's mark. Less clicking is good! Plus lets you get e.g. Doom Cast.

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NoImagination wrote:

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limevan wrote:

A few options moving forward. Keep double Hexes with Awakened Hextouch5, since it works well on all bosses apart from Shaper and Sirus. Drop Whispers of Doom anoint. When fighting Shaper, unsocket the weaker Hex, so Hextouch applies 1 Hex and leaves room for Sniper's Mark. This is good for clearing most tough mobs and bosses, since the combination of Elemental Weakness and Frostbite is still strong against them.

Thanks for the information. Or plan c: keep AH5, frostbite, elemental weakness, don't bother swapping in sniper's mark. Less clicking is good! Plus lets you get e.g. Doom Cast.

Sniper's Mark accounts for 40% (42% of 104%) of the pool of increased damage taken. In other words, dropping it robs us of a fifth of our DPS. It's worse if we're not running Unnerve, Bottled Faith, Purifying Flame, or just leaving the active skill linked to Bonechill to CWDT.

Doom Cast is nice, but we're nearly Crit Chance capped at 94.8% Effective Crit Chance. Running this anoint raises our Effective Crit Chance to 97.11%. The 15% Crit Multiplier is nice.

It also seems to me that Ultimatums are the limiting factor for the build, rather than killing Sirus slightly faster.

Speak for yourself that you're crit capped, I'm not :)

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NoImagination wrote:

It also seems to me that Ultimatums are the limiting factor for the build, rather than killing Sirus slightly faster.

Speak for yourself that you're crit capped, I'm not :)

True! Sorry got tunnel visioned there.

I just plonked Atziri's Promise into POB to see how much it can help. The Elemental Damage as Extra Chaos Damage translates to about (5 - 6)% overall increase for us and is a possibly good step for more DPS and chaos resistance, before working up to a BF.

Looking at the builds from several players, I see different interesting variations:

1) movement skill: most people seem to prefer flame dash (vs dash), and for many players this is used to trigger arcane surge. I personally link it to frostbomb (selfcast).
I tried "divergent Dash" as suggested by someone and I most say I really like it, both for mapping and for boss fights. I think I'm going to stick with it.

2) Cold snap: the guide suggests using it in a CWDT setup, but it seems that many player prefer to cast it by hand. Some people use the Vaal version. I have used the CWDT setup, but I'm wondering if it is that useful (perhaps it is triggering more often than I notice). Same with steelskin...I do see it triggering from time to time, but not that much. I have been experimenting with Frost shield also...but since we move all the time it's probably only useful for map with little space (e.g. reef boss or one of the conquerer, during heist)

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limevan wrote:

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NoImagination wrote:

Speak for yourself that you're crit capped, I'm not :)

True! Sorry got tunnel visioned there.

OK, you shamed me into it.

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Pacificator77 wrote:

I tried "divergent Dash" as suggested by someone and I most say I really like it, both for mapping and for boss fights. I think I'm going to stick with it.

Limevan was the first I saw who suggested it. And yeh, it's great.

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Pacificator77 wrote:

2) Cold snap: the guide suggests using it in a CWDT setup, but it seems that many player prefer to cast it by hand. Some people use the Vaal version. I have used the CWDT setup, but I'm wondering if it is that useful (perhaps it is triggering more often than I notice). Same with steelskin...I do see it triggering from time to time, but not that much. I have been experimenting with Frost shield also...but since we move all the time it's probably only useful for map with little space (e.g. reef boss or one of the conquerer, during heist)

If you look at the bar of active auras, or at your character too, you'll often see frenzy charges. That's the most visible evidence of cold snap activating.

I use the vaal version because I can pop it for defence and damage alongside vaal grace when I need it. As I'm not using frost bomb, it's still a similar APM playstyle.