The Icebound Seer, Eye of Winter, Low Life, Hierophant, Searing Purity, Pinnacle Boss Viable, Totems

The Icebound Seer

Introduction

Hi, welcome to my Eye of Winter Low Life Totem Hierophant Build. This build takes advantage of the Templar's Searing Purity Forbidden Jewels that allow 45% of chaos damage to be taken as fire damage, and 45% of chaos damage to be taken as lightning damage. This works for damage over time as well. This allows for Low Life Energy Shield based Hierophant with Pain Attunement that can still make use of Soul Mantle. It can handle all the pinnacle bosses I have tried with ease. I doubt it could do Uber Ubers though. The reason I made this build is because I always hated having to use Shavronne's Wrappings to play low life. With this build Presence of Chayula isn't needed either, due to chaos resistance being a lot less important, and by using a Mageblood you can get Stun avoidance on a flask suffix. I am unaware of the builds that are available, as I have never looked at them. So I am unsure, if this is similar to any other builds, I have no idea.


The Icebound Seer



Important Information

Please note, I play standard, and this build uses a legacy Melding of the Flesh (though resistance can be made up on Eldritch Mods, for example) in addition to a legacy Soul Mantle and legacy aura Medium Cluster Jewel. However, in the grand scheme of things, one less totem will not make the build unviable. Also, the wand needs upgrading. I don't know if this is viable in the league, due to the potential difficulty of acquiring Searing Purity Forbidden Jewels, or other reasons I am unaware of.

I have only used this build from level 93-100, so I cannot give advice on the leveling process. However, while leveling to 100 by means such as mapping, I found it necessary to be mindful of chaos damage in-spite of Searing Purity jewels because I had -60% chaos resist and had reserved too much life. Caustic ground was quite nasty. Since I unreserved Vitality from Arrogance support I have had no issues. My advice would be to have high chaos resistance and not reserve too much life. Have a life flask handy. Maybe life recoup would be worth it in relation to hit based chaos damage. I doubt it would be an issue following this advice to reach level 100. Outside of this, I found it very smooth for leveling.

Also, I don't actually know the dps of this build, I don't know how to calculate it. However, it kills Pinnacle bosses very quickly. I have added YouTube video links below to showcase Conqueror Bosses, in addition to providing the build through Path of Building.

Equipment



Passive Tree



Path of Building



Video Showcase

Here are YouTube Video links that showcase fighting the Conquerors. I forgot to change from Grace to Zealotry while fighting Veritania, the Redeemer, and Baran, the Crusader.



Pros and Cons

+ The build uses Temporal Chains as an Aura and cold damage Crit meaning it feels very safe to play.
+ Quite good movement speed, at 110%.
+ Easy to play, will need to occasionally use Bane for curse application.
+ In my opinion the dps is good, with the potential for a 100% crit chance and 450% crit multi.
+ The Phasing on the Watcher's Eye is very useful, and it also helps with VoidWalker boots.
+ Good elemental damage mitigation is due to Mageblood flasks and 83% maximum resists.
+ Elemental ailments, bleeding/ corrupted blood and Poison immunity.
+ It has 70% reduced extra crit damage taken,curse effectiveness on Player reduced to 0%. 
+ It has 69% spell block.
+ Can sustain Righteous Fire for more spell damage.
+ Over 50% evasion with grace, I switch to Zealotry for bosses.
+ 7 totems, 6 without the legacy Soul Mantle.
+ Culling Strike, and punishment can affect hexproof enemies.
+ No need to use Presence of Chayula.
+ 100% Stun avoidance due to flask suffix.
+ It feels good to play, in my opinion.

- Potentially risky due to chaos damage if mitigation mentioned previously is not applied.
- Lower physical damage reduction than I would like.
- No leech due to using Ancestral bond, in addition to using Totems that can't leech.
   
Skill Gems

Eye of Winter - Empower Support Level 4 - Awakened Added Cold Damage Support - Multiple Totem Support - Spell Totem Support - Increased Critical Strikes Support - Increased Critical Damage Support

Temporal Chains - Blasphemy Support - Hatred - Enlighten Support Lvl 4

Haste - Discipline - Purity of Lightning - Enlighten Support Lvl 4

Divergent Righteous Fire - Dash - Tempest Shield

Grace - Zealotry - Arrogance Support

Bane - Punishment - Frostbite - Elemental Weakness

Playstyle and Build Opinions

I find this build a lot of fun to play, Temporal Chains as an Aura is very helpful, as it slows down melee attackers enough to get the totems out, due to the delay. Once the totems are placed, Eye of Winter should freeze most enemies.

I have a strong three curse setup attached to Bane to apply Frostbite, Punishment, and Elemental Weakness together at the same time. I used the Anathema Unique ring to allow for an additional curse per maximum power charge. The curses add a ton of dps, and only need to be used on bosses, really.

I use a Watcher's eye with the mod "you have phasing while effected by Haste". The VoidWalker Unique boots provide Phasing on kill, but I don't find it reliable. The boots also provide the mod "Projectiles pierce five additional targets while you have phasing", which is good for Eye of Winter. I also feel that permanent phasing is a very good defensive tool.

I would like to have more physical damage reduction. Hierophant has four endurance charges built in, I have physical damage taken as lightning on the helm, and I have a crafted suffix on the shield that has a 3% physical damage reduction. It is also possible to get this mod on a Watcher's eye. However, most of the time, it's not an issue.

This build has very active defenses; once the totems are down, just move around, dealing with mechanics and applying curses when needed. The 110% movement speed helps a lot with this. This build uses Zealot's Oath and the more regen the better, as you are unable to use leech because of Ancestral Bond.

Final Words

Thank you for checking out my build guide. I can understand if it isn't great, or if it is potentially similar to another. However, I had a lot of fun making it. I find it end game viable for all the content that I engage in.