[3.24] Frostbolt/Ice Nova Hierophant | 100m DPS | All Content

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csfue91 wrote:

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KillerKookie wrote:

Hey, any thoughts on how this is looking for 3.10? All the mana related stuff seems pretty cool.

Really enjoyed this in Metamorph and still had a lot of upgrades to go. Not sure if I want to do this again as league start in 3.10 or if I go for Ice Shot.
Main thing holding be back is the speed. I'm sure I could play a bit more optimally to clear faster, but with Delirium it's looking like clear speed is gonna be nice.
Perhaps someone has some tips on how to be a bit faster with this build?

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear people talking about clear speed is the following:

Unless you have your stash directly next to one of the portal spawns of your map device and have enough dump tabs to always just instantly start a new map when you finished the previous, then use the 2sec animation to dump everything, and maximize the time you sepnd in maps, you shouldn't bother too much about clearspeed.
There's other ways to play more efficiently, rather than clearing your map 20sec faster.
Especially when you need those 20sec longer for bosses, which you probably will in the beginning of the league with ice shot (before you have some crucial dmg gear) - most likely you'll even lose more time, depending on how juiced the delirium map bosses will be.

General things to be faster, apart from what I mentioned above, is ofc an Alchemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline, instead of the Experimenter's affix most people use (you generally have 100% uptime anyways). That's not a negligible speed increase.
Next thing would be to get the dmg to one shot packs as early as possible (with a rather all-around-based build) in the league of course. Including rare packs.

If you manage to be super efficient on day 1-3 let's say, you'll most likely be able to accumulate enough currency to invest a lot in your gear overall (maybe even a HH, if you get a bit lucky and really know what you're doing), which boosts your speed overall as well. Mainly since most other people do not know how to get started with a high rate of efficiency.

The biggest downside of Ice Shot as a league starter in comparison with Ice Nova is tho, that you struggle with bosses, which will throw you back on early Sirius kills and thus Awakening Level Progression and possibly even deny your possibility to get your hands on Awakened Gems early. They're worth a sh**ton early on, especially if you find the right ones.

I've played a lot of bow builds, often as starters, and I really don't think the faster clear speed makes up for the early struggle for bosses. Especially if you're not experienced with the playstyle.

Also the nerf to target-farming (although they try to give us some more control over it again) specific maps early one, which gave the most benefit out of clearspeed, hurt those builds a lot.

But that's just my opinion / experience on it.

After all: play what you have fun with, else it will feel bad anyways :)

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KillerKookie wrote:

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csfue91 wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

When I was referring to clearspeed I just mean because of the Delirium mechanic you will have to be able to keep up with it as it ramps up throughout the map. I was mainly asking for possible advice as how to improve clear speed with the Ice Nova build. For instance something I know I could do better is spend less time casting Ice Nova, I probably over-cast it in most cases.
Just wondering if there are other things like that I could look into for possibly better clear speed with the build.

Hey again,

ya, that's essentially what I tried to explain, lemme try to phrase it a bit differently :)

First of all:
Opposed to their first statement, bosses will not stay "deliriumed" if you engage them, while the delirium is still active. That means you can't just clear as fast as possible and just engage the boss and then have infinite time to kill it, but you have to kill it before delirium also vanishes from it.
Therefore, pure clearing speed builds won't be as efficient as initially thought. You need a good portion of boss dps as well.
Especially as Ice Shot the ST dmg with "fresh-70-gear" is pretty lackluster.
So far on this topic.

Second thing is ofc, as you already mentioned yourself, not "overkilling" packs. You'll most likely get a feeling of how much you gotta cast if you play the build a lot.

Regarding this, it will also help you, if you get experienced regarding your dmg and also adjust to it "on the fly".
e.g. you need to get a feeling on which monsters are beefy enough to cast frost bomb on, and which are easily cleared with just FB+IN

Think about this:
Let's assume you identified that you can kill a monster XY either with:
1)1Frost Bomb + 1FB + 2IN
or
2)no Frost Bomb + 2FB + 3IN

Although IN doesn't lock you in place, the FB still has to travel, while pressing IN you also do not always move. What's more time efficient, with the outcome being the same (min-maxing time).

That's just one idea of a typical consideration you have to make :)


Also, get a feeling on how long your frenzy charges last, which determines on how often you have to cast cold snap to refresh them.
Casting it on every group makes you slower than necessary as well.


Getting efficient early in the league, and thus being able to purchase early upgrades, as mentioned in my last post, helps a looooot as well.

Getting a day 1 Pledge of Hands, maybe even a Pandemonius, being lucky with the new cluster jewels, etc.

Especially for the first days (depending on the actual density maybe even longer) I would definitely go for Vaal Ice Nova as well.
The "chaining" effect of it is huge.
Position urself in the middle of a big pack, tick it and watch them all die in a second :)
This also helps for levling imho btw, so maybe use some vaal orbs while leveling on Ice Nova gems :)


There's no "secret trick" on this build, it's just experience. Meaning you do maps, re-think about the maps after you finish, identify what took the most time, and then finding ideas on how you can improve that.
That's a very personal thing tho, everybody plays a bit differently.

A general typical thing I would never do btw is backtracking for ~10monsters or sth. That costs a lot of time. Even if a solo-rare survives, consider if it's really worth it, or if you skip it and e.g. just frost bomb them next time before going FB->IN.

Those are lots of small things, but they all sum up and eventually make the difference between a 2min or a 3min clear.

Hope some ideas help or inspire you :)

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Arcinde wrote:

Hi, OP here. I do plan on playing this build & updating the guide for 3.10.

3.10 Notables from Cluster Jewels were released here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2783927. Here's my thoughts on the most powerful offensive notables for this build. DPS increase calculated with Premium PoB.

Cold Conduction
Enemies Chilled by your Hits are Shocked
Enemies Shocked by your Hits are Chilled
8-15%?? DPS increase. This would make Shocking Conflux helmet unnecessary.

Intensity
10% increased Area Damage
Skills supported by Intensify have +1 to maximum Intensity
11% DPS increase but reduces our area.

Blanketed Snow
Damage Penetrates 10% Cold Resistance against Chilled Enemies
8% DPS increase.

Master of Fear
Enemies you Curse are Intimidated
Enemies you Curse are Unnerved
8% DPS increase. This would make Unnerve on Hit gloves unnecessary.

Pressure Points
Your Critical Strikes have a 5% chance to deal Double Damage
40% increased Critical Strike Chance
6% DPS increase.

Force Multiplier
5% chance to deal Double Damage
25% increased Physical Damage
5% DPS increase.

Spiked Concoction
Flasks applied to you have 10% increased Effect
5% increased Attack and Cast Speed during any Flask Effect
4.8% DPS increase (with Bottled Faith/Diamond/Cinderswallow).

Practiced Caster
20% increased Spell Damage
5% increased Cast Speed
35% chance to Avoid interruption from Stuns while Casting
4.2% DPS increase + helps against stuns.

Evil Eye
Enemies you Curse take 5% increased Damage
5% chance to Dodge Attack Hits from Cursed Enemies
4.1% DPS increase + attack dodge.

Astonishing Affliction
20% increased Duration of Elemental Ailments on Enemies
20% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies affected by Ailments
20% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments
3.5% DPS increase (more if using Cold Conduction / Shocking Conflux).

Burden Projection
30% increased Spell Damage
8% chance to Knock Enemies Back on Hit with Spell Damage
3.1% DPS increase + knockback.

Blast-Freeze
20% increased Cold Damage
Freezes you inflict spread to other Enemies within a Radius of 12
2.1% DPS increase + freeze proliferation.

Corrosive Elements
15% increased Elemental Damage
Cold Skills have a 25% chance to apply Cold Exposure on Hit
Fire Skills have a 25% chance to apply Fire Exposure on Hit
Lightning Skills have a 25% chance to apply Lightning Exposure on Hit
1.6% DPS increase + frees you from having to use Frost Bomb.

Wish for Death
You have Culling Strike against Cursed Enemies
Curse Skills have 20% increased Skill Effect Duration
0% DPS increase but grants Culling Strike.

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Fixed a bug which caused skills with damaging effects that were disconnected from the initial skill use (such as Molten Strike, Fire Storm, Wild Strike, and a number of others) which were supported by effects that triggered multiple successive uses of the skill (Multistrike, Greater Spell Echo and Unleash) to not apply the support gem's damage penalty or enhancement to those delayed effects, or even to the successive skill uses. This resulted in less damage being dealt by several skills when supported by Multistrike than they were intended to deal, and more damage by skills supported by Greater Spell Echo and Unleash.