[3.25] Ice Dancing Queen - Icestorm/Cyclone/CI - Viable For Everything

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easily_amused wrote:

With the change to mines (no longer able to bind detonate to LMB) I'm thinking of doing something other than icicle mines from lvl 12. Just wondering what other people have been using to level up from here? Also, what do people progress with if they're not dropping any chaos to pick up an early WI?

I never had Detonate mapped to LMB anyway. It's not hard at all to bind it to Space and tap it. And it's only a short period of time between lv 12 and 33.

I'm more curious about the buff to Archmage Support. Maybe other skills will be more efficient for those early levels.

Also, Frostblink got a buff to its Added damage. I wonder how good it will be: Frostblink - Archmage - Added Lightning - Added Cold?

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Kelvynn wrote:

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Automation Support works only with instant skills. Icestorm is not instant. Vortex used to be but got nerfed, sadly.

Thanks for all the answers!

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WinterHiko wrote:

@Kelvynn : Have you considered the "frenzy charge every 15 seconds" implicit on body armour? The current mod is +effect of auras or +crit multi, both of which give less than a frenzy charge in DPS (+effect of auras while boss is 3%).

If we can get the charge duration over 15 seconds, even the lowest tier guarantees permanent maximum charges. For bosses, it's a net gain, because we have no reliable way to generate Frenzy charges. During mapping, it makes it more consistent.

If we remove One Step Ahead and add Swift Killer, plus put one point into the extra max Frenzy charge on the right of the tree. Average hit goes from 1.682M to 2.016M, or 25% more DPS. We lose the benefits from One Step Ahead and need to find one passive point to remove.

We can also not even take the +max charge on right of tree and change nothing and DPS is 1.949M, so 20-22% more damage at the only cost of One Step Ahead's benefit.

Seems super worth it.

That's an interesting idea. Let's see...

+ You gain 6 frenzy charges, that's 24% MORE damage. Slightly less than that because you have to drop one of the final nodes taken at the highest levels. But that's not too important.

- You lose immunity to slow that's awesome vs Uber Sirus/Maven.

- You lose increased effect of auras. Let's say 21-22% vs boss, that you can realistically roll with Grand red currency.

Hatred lv 21 gives you 19% MORE damage. You have +10% aura effect on the Reservation mastery, i.e. you get 19 * 1.1 = 20.9% MORE damage from Hatred. I'm not sure if that gets rounded down to 20%, I think it does. You get a 1.20 damage multiplier from it.

With the aura effect implicit Hatred gives you 19 * 1.32 = 25% MORE damage, or 1.25 damage multiplier.

If you replace it with 6 frenzy charges, your damage multiplier is 1.20 * 1.24 = 1.49.

So technically you do 1.49 / 1.25 = 1.19, or 19% MORE damage. Which is great for most cases.

Drawbacks:

1. It takes about 1.5 min to get those charges. Some targets will die faster than that. If you die to some uber boss and come back, waiting 1.5 min will be painful.

2. You are no longer immune to the slowing effects. Uber Sirus X-beam followed by DIE = RIP. Not gonna be great for Uber Maven and UUE either. Or Simulacrum. Or anything else that uses slowing effects.

So it's not always great. Depending on the content you intend to farm. You can re-spec to One Step Ahead to farm some Uber Sirus and then switch back.

Swift Killer can also be used as a cheap alternative to Ambush & Assassinate until you can afford those jewels.

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WinterHiko wrote:

I usually go cold dot. I do a rotation of creeping frost, cold snap, frost bomb and frostbite. I rush the top cold nodes for nice damage, then go left towards reservation efficiency. It works very well, even with the loss of Vortex on left click.

Would you mind sharing what support gems you are typically linking to any of those?

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WetOttersPocket wrote:

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WinterHiko wrote:

I usually go cold dot. I do a rotation of creeping frost, cold snap, frost bomb and frostbite. I rush the top cold nodes for nice damage, then go left towards reservation efficiency. It works very well, even with the loss of Vortex on left click.

Would you mind sharing what support gems you are typically linking to any of those?

Probably something like:

level 16:
creeping frost | controlled destr. | efficacy
coldsnap | controlled destr. | efficacy (both BBB)

level 4:
frost bomb | arcane surge(L1) | added cold (BBG)

use freezing pulse until act 2:
freezing pulse | added poison -> freezing pulse | added cold | added lightning at level 8

(Ice nova and frostbolt | LMP is a possibility but requires Siosa to get the ice nova gem.)

Hi everyone, wanted to say that I really loved this build. It's been my first league back in years, but even back then I played quite casually and each time i came back i felt more and more intimidated to not just learn a build properly to reach endgame, but to learn what mechanics were added or changed along the way. I felt entirely different about learning how this build functions and the basis of it's gameplay; so much so that i felt like at least half of the pressure was off my shoulders in picking up the game again, even when i missed the first week of league start. From just reading this guide, I felt like as long as i could follow the guide correctly in understanding it's mechanics, then the actual in game mechanics would be much more forgiving.

Not only were they forgiving, but in so many ways was I able to recognize what was still the same, what was new, and the appropriate questions I could ask that would lead me to learning new fundamentals. Just doing maps was incredibly intimidating for me, but when I started after finishing the campaign, I didn't feel exhausted in the slightest; the entire leveling process was both nostalgic and genuinely enjoyable. With a consistency and motivation I've never had playing PoE before, I learned what it means to really progress in the game; from unlocking the Atlas (in a way that i was able to sustain map drops), to following tips about doing Kirac missions, to completing invitations (maven and eater/exarch). Each time I found myself wondering what something was, I was able to remind myself that my insecurity probably won't be so bad if i took a break, then went back to the wiki or youtube with a mindset to make a real effort towards understanding what happened and how the event (like seeing maven for the first time) points to a mechanic. Getting over that anxiety and feeling powerful in accomplishing what the mechanic asks of me was so cathartic. Eventually when it came time to do bosses and unlock favored maps and eventually voidstones, I felt like not only could I beat them myself (in a non cheese way); Nor with a mindset that I can hyper focus on what things are very dangerous not to dodge and how to dodge them. I felt like when I did these bosses, I really read up on what each boss action and phase does instead of waiting to see when I'd die and brute forcing, through trial and error what probably killed me.

Something I wanted to also bring praise to, while I wasn't concerned with min maxing damage on this guild, I was concerned with being tanky against guardians when i probably didnt need to be. Frost blinking around and then towards the boss while "Name Locking" and "on Heartstopper" was a great confidence booster to face tanking when I could and having that hands on experience to see "oh that is the choreographed animation/voiceline for a big attack/slam" and how to time that. It was also the same experience with really understanding the give and take of Leech as an element to tankyness and that foolishly following POENinja dps numbers (initially for how people did Affliction Charms and Anathema) and people who allocated Ghost Reaver and Shavrone's Revelation wasn't so good if I wanted run corrupted "can't leech maps" and more importantly maven and Sirus' Leech negation debuffs.

That leads me into my last point, the real enjoyment i got from accomplishing all these atlas goals carried with me as I really hunkered down into learning the various league mechanics at an endgame level, some farming and atlas strats (and how to really read it for myself), and from watching guides i learned how sextants, scarabs, and things like map iiq vs player iiq affects different league content (or not at all + how MF actually works with affliction). Sure I still don't know every league mechanic and why their meta farming strat is good, but I knew enough to do something I never thought I'd accomplish. I found out it was Mid League when I hit the gear I'm ending on and that I really did have so much more game in me than to just push ubers and invitation farming.

I did Challenge after Challenge until I hit 40/40. Learning enough about the mechanics I didn't want to touch with a 10 foot pole. I ran a number of Alva missions until i realized i could just buy the pyramid (bench craft), I made a cheat sheet of what Members are good on what HQ until i realized why some where missing and i should just (bench craft) as is. And most importantly, I learned how big TFT was for completing every other challenge and for other endgame things like selling services... and how really really awesome it is that most of that is at least optional for most players now.

I want to say thank you again for all the discussions I've ended up reading through over and over again on here, for how this cult following has resonated with me about what makes gaming communities a real community, and that I wouldn't be playing any ARPG if it weren't for Yall. As a final thank you, I'll be contributing my own tip that I'm sure you veterans are familiar with and want to spark some healthy discussion.

Have a great League everyone.

https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/1412/ZealousAffliction?i=3&search=uniqueitems%3DThe%2BWhispering%2BIce%26sort%3Ddps

A quick retrospective on how my build ended: I wish I didn't get bummed out on self crafting and I spent real time focusing on my Large cluster jewels; I'm realizing that Blanketed Snow is far more than what i assumed it was. I'm super curious how this build would've felt with these clusters and a simplex. But I was more than happy with the damage affliction charm culling strike afforded me very very early on a huge Anathema and Assassin's Mark setup. I also wished i knew how to calculate my crit strike chance cap, maybe that would've helped me make some more informed PoB decisions.

The tip I wanted to highlight specifically about my build: Replica Rumi's Concoction. I read the wiki and found out that One Step Ahead on Trickster not only reduces the action speed of bosses, but it makes us Chill, Freeze, and Petrify immune. While we have ailment immunity already, I think Replica Rumi's Concoction is just the thing we need to justify One Step Ahead as more than just QoL for my skill issues (especially in not taking heartstopper or Spell Breaker + other spell suppression passives/gear crafts).

As a btw, I used enkindling orbs on both Replica Rumi for perfect Inc duration (to negate the reduced duration) and Bottled faith, for perfect Maximum charges. I don't mind manually casting them (with mouse 4 and 5 keybinds) since their durations are so similar this way, and i get to squeeze out a 3rd use of bottled faith. About bottled Faith, I think it is good enough to use for builds with Enlightened and Charisma; since I'm running Zealotry (Righteous Path on the Small cluster jewel also has a Consecrated Ground upside). When Zealotry Procs while Bottled Faith is active, those new Zealotry CGs also debuffs enemies.

Hello,

Can we do delve with this build? Till what depths would it be comfortable? I wanted to delve for till like 300-350 for my farming needs.

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ultra_super_hyper wrote:

Hello,

Can we do delve with this build? Till what depths would it be comfortable? I wanted to delve for till like 300-350 for my farming needs.

Per Kelvynn: yes.

At 600 or so just go horizontally. There's no need to go deeper if you are farming for loot.

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Graiaule wrote:

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ultra_super_hyper wrote:

Hello,

Can we do delve with this build? Till what depths would it be comfortable? I wanted to delve for till like 300-350 for my farming needs.

Per Kelvynn: yes.

At 600 or so just go horizontally. There's no need to go deeper if you are farming for loot.

Can confirm that you can easily do 300-350 and even 600 (the max for city biomes) pretty easily once the build gets going. It's super tanky and deals a truckload of damage.