Cold Chronomancer Megathread. T16 (+2) video added.

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Casia#1093 wrote:

Also, I've not joined the cult of Comet.

But, did swap to cast on freeze Coldsnap. greatly speeds up clear speed.
I originally wasn't thinking you could run two actives of the same.

so have cast on freeze-Coldsnap, and self cast coldsnap.

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Bubz#5858 wrote:

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Casia#1093 wrote:

Also, I've not joined the cult of Comet.

But, did swap to cast on freeze Coldsnap. greatly speeds up clear speed.
I originally wasn't thinking you could run two actives of the same.

so have cast on freeze-Coldsnap, and self cast coldsnap.

How does one set this up?

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ruikarikun1#3467 wrote:

Hello people.

What stats attribute you pick between nodes? Int or dex/str? I see strange images here, hard to understand what attribute nodes picked. (From level 1 beginning)

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DentedGem#1220 wrote:

Spoiler

Introduction
When the PoE2 reveal trailer came out, I fell in love with the idea of a Chronomancer. Through gameplay hours, I naturally arrived at this build. I think this is one of the most "fun" builds there is. I say it's "fun" because this build allows one to avoid almost all the pain points in this game. Let me list them:
- Normal mobs are too fast and get up in your space
- Mobs can circle block you to death
- The map is huge, and slowly fighting to clear areas is a pain

The Cold Chronomancer Solution
The Cold Chronomancer fixes all of the above. With Cold abilities, all non-fast mobs eat your dust. Fast-moving mobs can be blocked with ICE WALL. Additionally, TEMPORAL RIFT is a great utility spell - one of the few "movement" skills. I can easily speed through areas, and when stuck, just activate TEMPORAL RIFT to escape death.

For boss fights, this is a great utility spell. With some support gems, you can tank hits and come back unscathed. Even if you're not taking damage, with its low cooldown, you can use it to get mana back. I believe it gives invulnerability when activated, as I've used it to dodge boss attacks.

Trash Mob Clearing
Fighting trash is boring - I think it's the worst part of the game. Usually, this isn't bad in ARPGs, but this game has zero loot, so boss fights are the only interesting part for me. Enter CAST ON FREEZE + COMET: with an energy increase support gem plus one of the node of energy increase in the tree, a single freeze can summon a COMET. With the SPELL ECHO support gem, you can reliably one-shot all non-rare monsters.

My game plan against trash mobs is simply to freeze them with FREEZING SHARDS, triggering COMETS that clear the whole area. This lets me basically zone out until reaching boss areas.

Boss Fights
It's pretty "slow" - I have 2-5 minute boss fights compared to others who kill them in 1-2 minutes seconds. Boss fight speed depends on their size. Large bosses die quickly because of ICE WALL. Small bosses take longer as I can't reliably break ICE WALL. I have both the Icicle support gem and the Shattered Crystal passive skill point. The funny part is small bosses can be somewhat ignored due to ICE WALL - I just surround them at the edge of the boss arena with SPELL CASCADE support gem. It's hilarious watching them get stuck at the edge (excluding act bosses, they float through).

Damage comes from spamming FROST BLAST on cooldown, keeping distance with ICE WALL, then spamming COMET. Remove COMET from Cast on Freeze, as it's only semi-useful due to difficulty freezing bosses. I get about 5 freezes before killing them, but that's double the COMET damage when using it manually rather than Cast on Freeze.

The original build suggests using FREEZING SHARDS, but given the state of gear ("HAHAHA"), I can't upgrade my FREEZING SHARDS, so I'm stuck with a +3 cold spell staff from Act 3. Also, FREEZING SHARDS don't synergize well with ICE WALL.

Chronomancer Comments
Besides TEMPORAL RIFT, I've had mild success with Quicksand Hourglass. You can develop a rhythm:
ICE BLAST -> HYPOTHERMIA -> EYE OF WINTER x3 -> ICE WALL x4
This gets you the buff, then spam COMET. Usually manage 3 COMETS: first COMET+ICE BLAST causing freeze, then 2 COMETS during freeze. Rinse and repeat.

Ascendancy Tree Comments
For the other stuff in the ascendancy tree, I couldn't find much use. I was very hyped for TIME SNAP branch, but there's nothing in this build except for ICE WALLS (again, only useful during giant bosses). There are support gems that add cooldown for damage, but the point is counterintuitive - "I can't reliably cast this because it's slow, so let's trade on-the-spot damage for cooldown utility." The cooldown increase is 8 seconds for a measly 40% damage increase. And there are better support gems to choose, like Spell Echo, Arcane Tempo, Concentrated Effect. Might change when 6 linking.

As a Chronomancer with +8 second cooldowns, you can't reliably deal damage, and TIME SNAP has a 35-second cooldown. I can get all my ICE WALL charges in about 9 seconds. The only interaction is with FROST BOMB, which is a good DPS alternative since it was balanced with cooldown in mind. However, FROST BOMB is unreliable for bosses since they don't stay still, and the 0.8s cast time means having 4-10 FROST BOMBS at once takes forever. You might as well spam COMETS which are more reliable with short delay after casting and dodge roll capability. Imagine getting those lucky resets for 10 FROST BOMBS just to have the boss move away!

You could use it with ICE WALL - it has 4 charges, and TIME SNAP resets all of them, so you can get up to 8-16 walls. This obliterates giant bosses - I used this before getting COMET. The caveat is it has to be a big boss; small bosses make this useless.

TIME FREEZE spell initially seemed cool but kind of sucks - 59 seconds cooldown for a 3-second screen-wide 100% action slow. I only used it twice per fight. Three seconds is nice, but I'm playing a Cold Chronomancer - I get 3-second freezes every 10s minimum. I thought it would synergize with freeze, like TIME FREEZE -> COMET, where the freeze duration would pause for effectively 6 seconds of freezing. But the freeze just expires during TIME FREEZE, so for 60 seconds, you get barely anything useful.

For maps, it's even more useless against trash mobs. The trailer showed TIME FREEZE plus COMET, but with CAST ON FREEZE for instant COMET, why bother? It's useful against rare mobs, but at *59 seconds* cooldown, I meet the next rare mob in 20-30 seconds at my speed.

APEX OF THE MOMENT feels broken - I took it for fast mobs, but it doesn't seem to work. If it worked, I'd instantly pick this because the mobs are too fast!

The life recoup is questionable - theoretically getting 100% life recoup in 3 seconds sounds nice, but it gimps all damage, and getting max life is unreliable. Without damage nodes, you can't clear white mobs. Plus, TEMPORAL RIFT exists as a semi 100% Life, Mana, Shield recoup every 6 seconds with all the benefits mentioned earlier.

Future Plans
I'm planning on going for TEMPORAL RIFT (amazing utility), QUICK SAND HOURGLASS (decent DPS), and TIME SNAP tree (to enhance TEMPORAL RIFT - imagine having 5 rifts for endless tanking, plus beefing up ICE WALLS for giant monsters).

I feel this might get tuned (decrease in cold aliments?(Fire and Lightning doesn't seem fun.)) since GGG wants players doing skill combos, not speeding through everything. Before CAST ON FREEZE and COMET, I used FROSTBOLT -> ICE NOVA -> COLD SNAP. Though combo-worthy, it's not like the instant kill of FREEZING SHARDS -> CAST ON FREEZE -> COMET.

This build focuses on being super un-interactive - avoiding mobs, instant-killing fast and weak mobs, and running through maps. If you mess up, either freeze everyone or go back in time with TEMPORAL RIFT.

TL;DR
In conclusion, I am having fun blasting through everything and summoning comets everywhere.

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Latelistener#4120 wrote:

Has anyone test Exploit the Elements? Does it worth it for the ice build?

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Casia#1093 wrote:

we haven't discussed weapons swaps.

Also, I've not joined the cult of Comet.

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Spharcs#4495 wrote:

Playing a very similar build to this, I'm finding unbound encore to be over kill. I rarely run out of walls, and by the time ive reapplied orbs and curses, and used comet they are back. so ive switched to footprints for now. granted only in a1 cruel tho

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TrainwreckX#1101 wrote:

I'm doing the build and having a much better time than I was with lightning.

Still wondering a couple things:

1) What should I invest in for defense if ES sucks in this game? Armor? ES for Eldritch Battery is fine and all, but I don't really find that I'm running out of mana now that I have it. I do find that I die in 1 or 2 hits to basically anything.

2) How do people damage bosses with this build? Given the long freeze times and the one-off cold snap damage, it's taking forever.

3) Have we identified the synergies with Chronomancer yet? I picked Chrono because I was like "man a time mage sounds cool!" Then I was like "oh you don't get to do a lot of time stuff." I like rewinding to my after image. I don't have the ascendancies to get to time freeze and stuff. How do we think this will pair with cold mage now that we've had a few days with it?

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monik390#5560 wrote:

2) The build is struggling early against the bosses, esp if you are just starting. There are two major power spikes, but both of them are closer to the end of Act 3. Try to get Frost Wall asap (act 2). Ice Bomb and Frost Wall carries you before Cast on Freeze + Comet setup. Also, check some videos linked in the guide. I was running with the Freezing Shards + Flame Wall combo. Some people are just running with lightning spells, bc they do more damage early.

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DwaneDibbley#4615 wrote:

I cleared first 3 acts bosses with freezing shards and bomb without much strugle. Freezing shards are actualy strong AF if you keep buying highest tier from vendors and giving it dps support. Hug boss, roll around him so he dont leave bomb and shotgun him. It can freeze boss in single cast.