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

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Berylac#8499 wrote:

Is the pure cold sorceress build still viable? Just hit level 25 without any lightning / fire, but I felt that my gameplay hitting a wall.

people say "viable" as "yes you can do endgame with it" but damage on cold spells are trash at least, you NEED lean on wall/frostbomb and comet, so its 2 spells with cooldown(wall and bomb) and one with cast time(long one btw) coldsnap its not worth the payoff, but it is your main sorce of damage if you are using frostbolts.

but if you pick any other element, the spells there clear things easyer and faster, skill duration helps on eletrecuted, ignite and arcane surge(there is a node that if you crit you get it) it also help on freeze time but you will consume the freeze anyway so thats also bad.

so, in short, its more a meme than a build, we like it anyway, wanna have a good time clearing choose something else

Build update.

Current tree (lvl 88): https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/4d8oe0v2

I'm atm at that point where next upgrades are over few divines each, besides some gem quality.

1.2k life, 3.4-3.6k mana, cap res, good damage. Spent about 200-250 ex on the build since EA start (3d on the emerald ring when they costed 30ex each, 1d on body, rest on everything else).

Farming t15 maps, no problems. Boss difficulty +2 (need a couple of t16 maps to go higher). Atlas passive tree with Deadly Evolution and duplicate 1 rare. Went 87-88 deathless, got like 700k gold to test things.

I'm not avoiding Breach and Ritual on non-beyond maps now, unless there is a super tight spot.

- No change in skill gems. Got 20%e quality on Archmage, Comet, Blasphemy, and Temporal Chains. Don't have currency for the rest atm. 20% quality on Archmage is huge.

- Another passive tree revision due to mana cost.

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Casia#1093 wrote:

if you want to do some experimenting. check out "conservative casting", "mental toughness", "Deep trance" "price of freedom"

Yes. Pathed to Conservative Casting and anointed Mental Toughness (expensive piece of s...).

Helped a lot. FB cost went down from 770 to 512. Got 318 mana regen now, it feels way better.

- Invested in Curse Effect (Master of Hexes and Temporal Chains quality). It is my only layer of defense, so I had to make it better. Works like a charm. I rarely get hit and can easily run away (if there is some space).

- Removed Endless Blizzard and Inescapable Cold. Got way more damage from crit/flat damage increase. Less freeze build-up is extremely noticeable tho, I'm thinking of a way to get some more. Have to get back Inescapable Cold one way or another.
It is strong, but very costy. I'd probably just anointed, but Mental Toughness is way more important. I think, jewels are the best option here.

- Removed Forthcoming wheel. I found it useful only on Breaches and Rituals, but I spend not that much time there. Delirium is alright w/o it. Fast Forward does its job when needed.

- Optimized Critical and AoE nodes. Have to go for Roil again, and Monk crit nodes a very convenient. Flat increase damage on Crit is very strong.

- Started to use less Frost Walls. Oftenly, just run and roll through everything dropping Frost Bombs until they get CD. Like a trapper sabo from poe 1. FWs are still good vs projectiles and rares/bosses, obviously.

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Casia#1093 wrote:

if you HAVE a good ice staff, great.. but, I'm not going to build around it..

The magic of Freezing Shards is, it costs no mana, regardless of supports. Only Archmage mana price, which is less than mana regen.

I can always do damage with freezing shards, and they are strong enough - if paired with the Flame Wall they about about the same shotgun damage as Cold Snap).

The only alternative I keep in my mind - spark/arc offset with wand/shield or focus. Both of them are mechanically superior. Don't like fireball btw.

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darrk14#2684 wrote:

I'm running frostbolt+snakepit so that it explodes more often on enemies for more oomph, and running a CoF+cold snap setup which procs fairly often.

There was the question several pages ago about how to make frostbolt not to pierce. Well, this is the answer.

Not sure if this belongs here and feel free to ignore if it doesn't.

Casia found me in reddit and pointed me here and I can share some of my own findings/progress if anyone is interested.

My current variant of Frost Bomb/Wall Chrono is using Whisper of the Brotherhood to convert all of the cold damage to lightning and take advantage of the current busted scaling of Archmage. Electrocute is added to frostwalls for crowd control in place of freeze on rares/bosses (They just removed the damage tax on electrocute support so no lost damage other than a gem link)

Crit scaling is also used, as 10% to trigger Arcane Surge on crit is massive uptime with the multitude of hits and crit chance we have on all the skills.

I can link both a standard variant I used for my reddit video and a more tanky variant I'm currently using with Atziri's Disdain for both EB + ES.

Link to non-ES variant:
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/t14eq01i

Link to current ES variant:
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/e693x0vb

Atziri's Disdain is used to gain some solid baseline ES for extra hp that converts after EB. I suppose Everlasting Gaze could be used but it is infinitely more expensive and also blocks the excellent recoup mods that can roll on amulet. Haven't given it a go, though. Currently 1850 Life/1650 ES/2700 Mana with 37% of damage taken as mana before life (Mental Perseverance anoint) -- This also has room for 4-5 jewel slots if you want more Damage from Mana Before Life mods (4% is highest)

Ball Lightning is used for exposure, movement with Lightning Warp, and comboing to explode Frost Walls/Shocked Ground if you get overzealous/unlucky with Frost Bomb spamming/Time Snaps. Makes moving around the map and over ledges a breeze. More links can slap Execute alongside Mana Flare if you want.

Ball Lightning/LWarp is also fantastic if anyone struggles with the time stop phase of Sekhima boss, floor 4.

Rising Tempest can be slapped anywhere you want damage in a link as it is near perma-uptime for 24% more damage with both cold and lightning spells used.

Frost Walls have electrocute linked to them and can get very fast buildup on bosses or rares that can randomly survive.

I plugged Grim Feast in the ES build as it looks fantastic here. Current build can't use it without a +30 spirit roll somewhere. I left it regardless in the maxroll link. Blink is also used in weapon swap, but not really needed with Ball Lightning/LWarp. I just have it in for muscle memory practice in case I use it somewhere else (it's also fun to get lucky blink chains if your Now and Again procs).

Again, I know this is a Cold Chrono build forum, so feel free to remove this if the Archmage Lightning degeneracy is leaking over onto the fun of Chronomancer. I hope we get more avenues of scaling damage outside of it post-Christmas.

Credit to: Casia for tree node efficiency/insight and CarpenterForward8331 for making me revisit lightning conversion.

Build is still a work-in-progress.

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HammerToDaFace#0066 wrote:

Again, I know this is a Cold Chrono build forum, so feel free to remove this if the Archmage Lightning degeneracy is leaking over onto the fun of Chronomancer. I hope we get more avenues of scaling damage outside of it post-Christmas.

You are welcome here. Casia linked your reddit post several pages ago, I've yoinked an Echoing wheel from there, thanks.

If you still using Cold Skills - it's fine =)

Personally, I think we have to use Archmage anyway, be it full conversion or not.

I'll add your build to the guide. I saw it in action, it's decent for sure.

Just want to report my findings here

I've done a lot of experimenting with Blink - Cast on Dodge - Comet

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Casia#1093 wrote:

yeah lets see.

300 energy.

24% inc energy in Energize.
31% in Dynamsim.
40% impetus.
gem is 39-66%ish. level 14-23 gem.

Blink is 4.5 at 12, to 5m at 21-23.

So lets start at 14/14 gems.

134% increased energy combined at level 14, all passives.

4.6m x20= 92 base e. x134%= 215 energy. not enough.
5m blink would still only be 234

I use all of the above and a level 16 Blink, further energy comes from jewels
Comet triggers at 302 energy in a single blink for some reason and not 300, i use the following formula: if<distance blinked>*20*((<energy gain modifier>/100+1≥302 to check, in this case 215

Further added Barrier Invocation - Comet (spirit cost total:210 with max quality CoD)
500/(energy gain modifier/100+1)x5 = energy shield lost for 100% barrier invocation
Currently with 184% this will result in every 880 energy shield lost

500 max energy - 300 (comet trigger) will keep 200 energy leftover which will be added to the next charge which is 40%
Still testing the interaction with Energise

Having a lot of fun with this build, it can rain comets like crazy, still far from optimised and will continue to test stuff, just wanted to share

I can elaborate further if anyone is intersted

TLDR: it's possible to trigger Comet in a single Blink + Cast on Dodge

Wicked, thank you. I'm new to the forums and to reddit so forgive my lack of quotes and the walls of rambling text.

I wish I'd have found this thread sooner. I'm glad you solved the Painter's Servant ailment problem as I think my wand had gained as extra fire mods to help more than I was communicating or realizing. Flame wall is a great call and makes it infinitely more consistent.

The build I linked here is closer to: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1hhqllp/chronomancer_lightning_frost_bomb_t16_w_boss/

I think the one Casia linked was my lethargic first findings that could've been skipped if I'd have found this place first.

Both videos are without Atziri's/ES, though.

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HammerToDaFace#0066 wrote:

The build I linked here is closer to: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1hhqllp/chronomancer_lightning_frost_bomb_t16_w_boss/

I think the one Casia linked was my lethargic first findings that could've been skipped if I'd have found this place first.

Both videos are without Atziri's/ES, though.

I decided to keep links to both reddit threads. Some valuable things are here and there.

Put Electrolute support to frost bomb instead of Icicle. Pleasantly surprised, it can both freeze and electrolute, build-up is separate. Woah woah.

Thanks =)

Anybody tried Everlasting Gaze Amu already? Seems it has a broken interaction with Eldtrich Battery. Trying to buy one but its getting expensive fast.

Also, I'd like to verify if the slow magtitude nodes affect temporal chains? Again, when testing it doesn't seem to be affected by it. Hindered on the other hand gets the boost.

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Berylac#8499 wrote:

Is the pure cold sorceress build still viable? Just hit level 25 without any lightning / fire, but I felt that my gameplay hitting a wall.

No, it's not worth.
IF you have limited time, resources and wanna stick to your class playing* smoothly 2 - 3 buttons go spark or Goratha's fireball/frost.
You need a fast and reliable mapper for endgame and frost isn't one of them.

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monik390#5560 wrote:

I decided to keep links to both reddit threads. Some valuable things are here and there.

Put Electrolute support to frost bomb instead of Icicle. Pleasantly surprised, it can both freeze and electrolute, build-up is separate. Woah woah.

Thanks =)

[/quote]

Sure, sounds good!

And Electrocute on an Archmage Cold build actually sounds like maddeningly good CC. If they stagger enough on single target to where it's one massive chain of Freeze --> Elecrocute, that'd make bossing even that much safer and even easier setups for bombs and walls