[3.25] Frostblade Tincture Warden 62+ mil DPS 🥶 Ice Queen

Last Dance
Frost Blades has always been my favorite starter build, but pushing it to the endgame was always a struggle, and I would eventually switch to AFK builds, which became boring. Not this time. The playstyle of Frost Blades is incredibly rewarding and satisfying—it feels like driving a sports car. Compared to AFK builds, you need some skill because you have to avoid attacks, stay close to enemies, and deal damage simultaneously, but that’s what makes it so engaging. However, in many cases, it is also quite safe because we essentially freeze everything. Waves of enemies that appear, like Beyond monsters or creatures in Harvest, don't even require us to move. We can also freeze few bosses simultaneously (for example during The Feared challenge) and keep pounding them until the very end, which brings great satisfaction.

Anyway: I present to you my 62+ million DPS Ice Queen, build without sacrificing defense layers. Grace, Determination, Molten Shell and Arctic Armor + all caps. You will like it as I do.

Link to PoB: https://pobb.in/w6rpG7p9jDqE

Pros
+Insane Clear Speed: This build excels at clearing maps quickly, allowing you to farm efficiently.
+Excellent Single-Target Melting Ability: Frostblade's damage output makes it capable of annihilating bosses in seconds.
+Good Survivability and Defense Layers: Multiple defense mechanics ensure you can withstand incoming damage effectively.
+Freeze or Slow Everything: Control the battlefield by freezing or slowing enemies, making it easier to navigate tricky encounters.
+Safe Play with Freezing Ability: The freezing mechanics provide a safe playstyle, allowing you to dictate the pace of combat.
+No Need for Mirror-Tier Items: The build is effective without requiring the most expensive gear, making it accessible.
+Extremely Fun and Satisfying: The fast-paced gameplay and visuals are highly enjoyable, keeping you engaged.

Cons
-Not a Face Tank: While survivable, this build is not designed for absorbing massive hits head-on.
-Risk of Death When Not Hitting/Leeching: If you fail to deal damage or leech health, you may quickly find yourself in trouble.
-Buffs Require Several Hits on Enemies: You need to hit enemies a few times to maintain your buffs; without this, you may struggle to keep them active.
-Charges Require Hitting Enemies: Maintaining charges can be challenging against bosses with multiple phases, as you may not always have opportunities to hit them.
-Balance Between Damage and Survivability: You must carefully manage your gear and skill points to maintain a good balance.
-Requires Skill to Hit and Avoid: Success relies on your ability to dodge attacks and position yourself effectively.
-A Few Keys to Press:Managing your abilities requires pressing multiple keys (two tinctures, life flask, Avatar of the Wild, Blood Rage, Vaal Lightning Strike and two movement skills). While it takes a bit of practice, it's not that difficult. As soon as you spot a boss, activate Vaal Lightning Strike, turn on Avatar of the Wilds, use the two tinctures, and jump through the boss with Frost Blink utilizing Bonechill support and Brittle, dealing damage until they fall. Avoid hits by blinking/whirling behind the boss and attacking when not frozen.
-Not Suitable for Complete Newbies: This build demands some understanding of game mechanics, making it less ideal for new players.


Gems



Equipment

Pure Physical Claws - BiS (Best in Slot)
Frost Blades scale best with physical damage. Don’t believe anything else. This is because physical damage is converted to cold, but only after it’s multiplied by the skill modifier and can be boosted by other physical modifiers before conversion. At level 20, this multiplier is 400%. In this build Frost Blades at level 24 multiplies the base damage by 500%. Of course, you can also add cold damage as a prefix on claws or any other elemental damage, and it will work, but in the end, scaling the physical damage is the best option for many reasons—one of them being that the Hatred aura scales with your physical damage or strongest supports are physical. Some of players choose more elemental damage prefixes oriented claws or even full elemental but it's less efficient way of scaling damage on endgame and I highly recommend scaling pure physical base damage rather than add elemental.




Heathshiver - BiS
At first, I was hesitant about this helmet and considered crafting a Blizzard Crown, which has some very interesting implicits for cold skills and influenced may have cold penetration. However, since our critical hits cause enemies to freeze, Heathshiver provides an irresistible 30% extra fire damage boost. The more frequently we land critical strikes, the more enemies we freeze, making this bonus extremely powerful. There's also another interesting interaction—Ruthless turns out to be one of the strongest support gems for this build. It gives not only physical DPS boost but every third attack is able to proc freez on bosses with high freez threshold. You need it to proc heatshiver bonus damage.


Amulet +2, better than Yoke
This is the item I am most proud of because it’s my first serious crafting attempt, starting from the base item, and it turned out to be a huge success. The +2 to skills scales the base damage modifier on Frost Blades before it converts to cold, making it an excellent combination of damage scaling and bonus life on last prefix. Additionally, the open suffix provides flexibility, which is very helpful for fine-tuning the character in the endgame. The amulet is 1.9% better in terms of DPS than the widely considered BiS Yoke of Suffering, and it also has mentioned before, T1 life. The increased DPS also comes from two anointments: +30% to cold damage, 6% cold penetration, and 50% elemental damage, which all make a significant difference. Auras are also skills so the amulet affects their level.




Rings. Onslaught is OP
The popular Taming ring provides a significant damage boost from various elemental ailments. My second ring focuses on chaos resistance and features a very important synthesis mod—Onslaught on hit. This is a very powerful and enjoyable mod that you definitely want to have in your build. Remember to have somewhere even small amount of ⚡ and 🔥 damage, not only ❄️ to proc increased elemental bonuses from ailments.


Armor
The rest of the gear carries the burden of capping resistances, chaos resistance, spell suppression, and immunity to elemental ailments.There are, however, some small but significant details. Fortify on the armor, non-Vaal skills target 2 enemies on the gloves, and Brittle on the boots. It's good to keep these bonuses in mind. I don't have Mageblood since I’ve never had a lucky (expensive drop), but I use some bypass this issue described below. The build itself is strong enough to enjoy with a more modest budget.




Tinctures BiS, OP
One of the biggest DPS boosts comes from the two BiS Tinctures. Warden has a passive that allows the use of two Tinctures simultaneously, further boosting the build’s effectiveness. Increased elemental damage, critical strike chance, incredible attack speed, and massive elemental penetration—together with Avatar of the Wilds—turn us into a machine that melts anything that gets within range of our Frost Blades.




Defensive flasks
It would be great to see the last two flasks incorporated into Mageblood, but it's good to have them regardless. Currently, the skill tree includes Watcher's Eye, which grants Precision a flask charge on critical hits. [Edit] However, after testing, it turns out this doesn't work at all. It seems like a restriction that can't be bypassed for Mageblood. The only reliable method is to use crafted 'Charge on Crit' on flasks, but with a high critical chance, they stay active most of the time. As for Watcher's Eye, cold penetration is what you should be looking for


Other significant things
Jewels also provide a significant DPS boost. For example, Brutal Restraint 11552 combined with this claw gives 22% chance for double damage, generates Rage, and provides Endurance Charges. Cluster jewels, on the other hand, offer an incredible DPS increase, cold penetration and help activate 5 mana-reserving skills. For more details, make sure to check the PoB link provided above.



To consider
One more Rage generator passive from Brutal Restraint would be nice, as Rage stacks slower than I expected. Rage is a significant DPS booster. An armor that offers a higher life pool and a hybrid of armor/evasion is something worth considering. It also solves dexterity high amount demand. Building around Svallin shield would make this character godlike probably. Choosing the Barkskin ascendancy skill (this defensive layer is not bad at all after the patch) instead of the two Tinctures is a trade-off between damage and survivability but is worth considering. Barkskin also has a low mana reservation. If you're considering swapping out Arctic Armour for damage-focused Herald, Herald of Purity scales physical damage and provides more benefit than Herald of Ice.


Stylish Ice Queen look



I have recrafted another perfectly suited full phys Tier 1 claw for Frost Blades. If you consider to play this build pm me, I will sell this beauty for a lower price.

Question for you - how important is the life per enemy hit on the weapon? I have a chance to get a claw like yours only more damage that is synthesized with % chance to deal double damage. Just didn't know how important the life granted per hit was?
Thanks!

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Stewie 240 wrote:

Question for you - how important is the life per enemy hit on the weapon? I have a chance to get a claw like yours only more damage that is synthesized with % chance to deal double damage. Just didn't know how important the life granted per hit was?
Thanks!

Life per hit isn’t important in the endgame. If your character hits 10 times per second, healing 4500 life would still take around 10 seconds, which is far too slow. What’s much more important are passive nodes that grant instant leech. I’d definitely prioritize the synthesized mod with a chance for double damage. However, be cautious when running maps with mods that prevent leeching from monsters—those can be dangerous for your sustain.

If you manage to get that claw, make sure to link it here—I’d love to see it!

I did manage to get the claw. But im not sure how to link it? (Im on xbox not pc). If you could tell me how to link it, id be glad to show you. (And not a link for a website because i dont have a site i can upload images to and link them).
Thanks!

Note: You must be logged in to the forum.

Open the reply box or create a new post.
Set your cursor: Place your cursor in the spot in to the textbox where you want to insert the item link.

Open your inventory: Scroll up - At the top left corner of the page, you’ll see your character’s name and level. Click on your character’s name (not your login name) to open your in-game inventory of this character.

Click on the item: Find the item you want to link (e.g., a claw) in your inventory and click on it once. A link to the item will automatically be added to your post.

Close the inventory: Close the inventory window to return to the post editor.
Check the link and submit your post: Ensure the item link appears in the text, then submit your post. On the forum, the item will display with its full stats and details.

Thank you for the info. Hopefully this works! Just got it and im on vacation so not at home, but ill have to spend some divines rerolling the stats on it. 🙂

Perfect claw :) I would like to have this one.

sorry for the odd question but i was wondering if there were any sword bases that could work for this/how hard it would be to retool around one? big fan of swords so wanted to try using one in a build but feels like a lot of builds use claws

"

Edalune wrote:

sorry for the odd question but i was wondering if there were any sword bases that could work for this/how hard it would be to retool around one? big fan of swords so wanted to try using one in a build but feels like a lot of builds use claws

Sure, you can use a one-handed sword instead of claws, as Frost Blades also works with one-handed swords. The change is quite simple because swords may have the same affixes as claws, so the build essentially remains the same. However, you'll need to do three things:

Get a sword - The best option here is a Jewelled Foil base or any other sword with high physical damage. On PoE Trade, select "one-handed sword" and hit search. Under each sword that appears, you'll see two small numbers: DPS and Physical DPS. Click on Physical DPS to sort the swords by their physical damage. The ones at the top will be very expensive, but as you scroll down, the prices will decrease. Anyway, look for the same physical prefixes on swords as you would on claws for this build. This will ensure you keep the same synergies and benefits without changing the build's overall effectiveness.

Make a simple change in the skill tree - Instead of putting 10 points into the Claw Mastery node at the top right, simply allocate those 10 points into the Sword Mastery node, located at the bottom right of the entire tree. If you can't find this node, just type "Sword Mastery" in the skill tree search window. This will help you locate the node quickly.

Swap one support gem - Nightblade Support doesn’t work with one-handed swords, so you'll need to replace it. There are multiple options depending on your needs, but I’d recommend using Inspiration Support, as it reduces mana cost and boosts your critical strike chance. If your have enough mana for hits and skills, my advice would be Hypothermia or Melee Physical Damage Support. In case of generating a high amount of additional elemental damage, such as fire damage, Trinity Support becomes an interesting option. This is the only downsize of this change, because Nightblade is powerful support fot this build, but you can live with that.

Here are some swords you'd want to use:
Not sure what platform youre on, but im sure theres a lot better ones out there