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

Dual curse is working great. Guess I'm joining the zone of control people.
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/gpcru0vr

this is zone of control, without hindered capabilities.


Magnified effect, and ritualistic curse work with Blasphemy.

So using hypothermia and temp chains atm.
passive hypothermia is a solid aoe damage increase, with no mana cost.
22% reduced elem resist. now, not a pure 22% damage increase, as it just adds into that 40% frostbomb exposure.

Temp chains is of course solid defense boost. and increases freeze duration.
heck of alot less poke taken. especially when surrounded.

Could also take enfeeble instead of hypo for even more defense.

both of these should help with Trials in case anyone is having issues. avoiding hits, and reducing damage taken.

Got 3 free skill slots atm. 4 with uncut ring.
lightning warp? comet? mana tempest? don't feel like I have the mana for mana tempest.


Edit: actually right as posting, tested out eye of winter again. think im going to swap now. didnt like it much while leveling.. but seems to be working now better. pierce+arcane surge+arcane tempo

better aoe coverage for delirum/etc. not great dps. but its ok.
crit weakness. this is a dps buff to walls/bombs/coldsnap.
also, I noticed the gain ground effect, does work on enemies ground effects.

"

Casia#1093 wrote:

Dual curse is working great. Guess I'm joining the zone of control people.
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/gpcru0vr

this is zone of control, without hindered capabilities.


Magnified effect, and ritualistic curse work with Blasphemy.

So using hypothermia and temp chains atm.
passive hypothermia is a solid aoe damage increase, with no mana cost.
22% reduced elem resist. now, not a pure 22% damage increase, as it just adds into that 40% frostbomb exposure.

Temp chains is of course solid defense boost. and increases freeze duration.
heck of alot less poke taken. especially when surrounded.

Could also take enfeeble instead of hypo for even more defense.

both of these should help with Trials in case anyone is having issues. avoiding hits, and reducing damage taken.

Got 3 free skill slots atm. 4 with uncut ring.
lightning warp? comet? mana tempest? don't feel like I have the mana for mana tempest.


Edit: actually right as posting, tested out eye of winter again. think im going to swap now. didnt like it much while leveling.. but seems to be working now better. pierce+arcane surge+arcane tempo

better aoe coverage for delirum/etc. not great dps. but its ok.
crit weakness. this is a dps buff to walls/bombs/coldsnap.
also, I noticed the gain ground effect, does work on enemies ground effects.

i've leaned into it where my temporal is at -46% and hindered at -24%, and at this point you can almost no longer be hit by regular attacks.

any extra aoe range is great for ranged poison crabs and the like, but mods scale off base (or something) so you don't get much out of them

temporal chains also extends the duration of time freeze. i think mine lasts like 7+ seconds (on normal mobs?), and is great for ritual or annoying rares

of course this is all meme build territory; but, it does sort of work
i'm only on ~t13 maps and it's 'viable'. i've even tried juiced t15 with a friend (poison pathfinder) who's further along and it's... abysmal by comparison, but it can clear

your best bet (without abandoning cold entirely) is probably closer to what monik (OP) is doing

"

darrk14#2684 wrote:

The main issues I'm running into now are defenses and mana sustain.

I only have recoup and cloak of flames for defense, and some PDR from armour, nothing else. For mana I'm still tinkering around inspiration and CoF+cold snap setup.

For mana, grab a jewel or two with 2% mana on kill and/or anoint Siphon on the amulet (few ex). Won't help on bosses, but for map clearing is good enough.

Can't say much about defense tho, I'm running different archtype.

Dropped a divine, so finally got my hands on Snakepit.

Yep. This is it for cold clear. Frostbolt forking w/o damage loss, forks explode on contact. Not good at 1v1, but in high density stuff its good enough.

Here is a demo of t15 map: https://youtu.be/ke5RP2eB1eQ

2 problems: can't see shit, and a bit addicting. I got dementia real quick and forgot how to use other skills but the flame wall.

That aside, went down on mana bc had to downgrade boots to fix resistance loss from swapping to Snakepit.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

"

darrk14#2684 wrote:

The main issues I'm running into now are defenses and mana sustain.

I only have recoup and cloak of flames for defense, and some PDR from armour, nothing else. For mana I'm still tinkering around inspiration and CoF+cold snap setup.

For mana, grab a jewel or two with 2% mana on kill and/or anoint Siphon on the amulet (few ex). Won't help on bosses, but for map clearing is good enough.

Can't say much about defense tho, I'm running different archtype.

Dropped a divine, so finally got my hands on Snakepit.

Yep. This is it for cold clear. Frostbolt forking w/o damage loss, forks explode on contact. Not good at 1v1, but in high density stuff its good enough.

Here is a demo of t15 map: https://youtu.be/ke5RP2eB1eQ

2 problems: can't see shit, and a bit addicting. I got dementia real quick and forgot how to use other skills but the flame wall.

That aside, went down on mana bc had to downgrade boots to fix resistance loss from swapping to Snakepit.

Actual valid point on can't see shit lmao. I think I'm getting snow blindness from all the proj on my screen. I need my MTX skill effects lol.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

"

darrk14#2684 wrote:

The main issues I'm running into now are defenses and mana sustain.

I only have recoup and cloak of flames for defense, and some PDR from armour, nothing else. For mana I'm still tinkering around inspiration and CoF+cold snap setup.

For mana, grab a jewel or two with 2% mana on kill and/or anoint Siphon on the amulet (few ex). Won't help on bosses, but for map clearing is good enough.

Can't say much about defense tho, I'm running different archtype.

Dropped a divine, so finally got my hands on Snakepit.

Yep. This is it for cold clear. Frostbolt forking w/o damage loss, forks explode on contact. Not good at 1v1, but in high density stuff its good enough.

Here is a demo of t15 map: https://youtu.be/ke5RP2eB1eQ

2 problems: can't see shit, and a bit addicting. I got dementia real quick and forgot how to use other skills but the flame wall.

That aside, went down on mana bc had to downgrade boots to fix resistance loss from swapping to Snakepit.

still should be good 1v1. throw down a wall. shotgun the frost bolts into it. bolts explode. shot gun. blow up the wall, which also shotguns.

amusingly, yeah. I can come up with 100% ways to make cold etc viable.. none really benefit chronomancer in any way.

eye of winter, flame wall, shocking ground. crit, ball lighting, lit warp, etc..
everything comes down to. yeah, but stormweaver does the same thing, better.

even the grenades idea. oh, theres +1 cd, 45% cdr, and 77% general cdr down in the merc area. so merc, ranger, war cold all do the grenades better. that raw CDR is way better then chronomancer 33% chance, and even timesnap.

the aoe slow aura. hinder/tempchains/chill all cap slow without it. idk why you guy use it honestly.

temp rift sure.. I guess. esp the idea for mana refund. but thats something gear can fix. 4k life, 6k es, and 4-5kmana mom also kind of makes it.. meh.
same with the recoup. you can get over 100% mana/life recoup on gear.. so, only the 4s recoup is special. which.. isn't that special with ES/atziris disdain making you immortal.
half of the class features become mute, as gear out paces them. this is backwards. gear should make the features more effective..

I'm struggling to justify chronomancer. you'd almost be better to take the frostbolt/snakepit+walls, dump the CD passives and get the faster cast one. and just be wholly worse then "you have arcane surge", "1% inc effect per 15 max mana", "+20% exposure", "two chills, up to 35%".

I think the best we can do with our CD stuff is go massive screen clearing aoe. big aoe, spell cascade on frost bomb.
ideally proliferation would help. we can convert to fire, and make use of various ignite proliferation maybe.
prolif, or massive aoe is the only way to make CD stuff all that viable.


The mana thing is hitting everyone for sure. all builds have mana issues. its a change in how spell mana costs scale in poe2.

Meanwhile, t16 (monster lvl 82) clear with the boss (difficulty +3): https://youtu.be/t60Y063IZZA

Idk, good enough.

Casia, you are a bit underestimating Apex of the Moment. It is way better than you think. The same goes for the Chronomancer overall. You still didn't make it powerful enough. I get you are in SSF, and it is extremely hard to make Chrono good alone. It took me 2 weeks with the collective brainstorming and trading viable to make it "good enough". And my build is still quite far from being "decent".

I tried a big bad frost bomb. Looks fun, but the CD makes it unreliable against the endless stream of monsters. For this Frostbolt setup, I just bought a Snakepit ring and that's it. For frost bomb, linking magnify/spell cascade/spell echo isn't enough. Have to get some more AoE for the screen cleaning and reducing effect time to the ground with all downsides. And it still will have a CD issue.

And no, frostbolt alone is not good vs bosses. Stormweaver isn't as good as Chrono in utilizing CD spells. It is a spamming monster, not CD user. And while the game is about mapping 99% of the time, it is absolutely true that Lightning Stormweaver is just better than Cold Chrono overall. Even in spamming frostballs or shards, it's stronger, yes. As you said before, we all knew this.

But... how many Cold Stormweavers have you seen? What is the point of running Cold Stormweaver when it just scales better with lightning? And lightning skills are just easier to use?

Why do we even play Chronomancer when Stormweaver is just better in the 99% of the game overall?

Because we wanted to play Cold Chrono.

In the video, it was the first time I was using this setup on bosses and rituals, and I didn't utilize it properly. The bossfight after the 1st comet was not as good as it could have been bc I panicked a little. Yes, I noticed I got CDs and pressed time snap in about the right moment, but I definitely could done things better there. And those rituals. I didn't record the last one where I did everything right - spamming frostbolts and frost walls.

F, double post =(

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

Meanwhile, t16 (monster lvl 82) clear with the boss (difficulty +3): https://youtu.be/t60Y063IZZA

Idk, good enough.

In your last video, how are the skill stones arranged with the ring?

"

Ralquar#7908 wrote:

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

Meanwhile, t16 (monster lvl 82) clear with the boss (difficulty +3): https://youtu.be/t60Y063IZZA

Idk, good enough.

In your last video, how are the skill stones arranged with the ring?

Sigil of Power: ...
Frostball: Wildshards - Supercritical - Arcane Tempo - Scattershot.
Time Snap: Ingenuity.
Blasphemy: Temporal Chains - Magnified Effect - Ritualistic Curse.
Frost Bomb: Second Wind - Spell Echo - Considered Casting - Cold Mastery
Flame Wall: Fortress - Persistence.
Mana Tempest: Murderous Intent - Inspiration - Premeditation.
Comet: Elemental Focus - Hourglass - Inevitable Critical (Spell Echo vs bosses) - Concentrated Effect.
Frost Wall: Deep Freeze - Glaciation - Spell Cascade - Electrolute.
Archmage: Lightning Mastery.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

Meanwhile, t16 (monster lvl 82) clear with the boss (difficulty +3): https://youtu.be/t60Y063IZZA

Idk, good enough.

Casia, you are a bit underestimating Apex of the Moment. It is way better than you think. The same goes for the Chronomancer overall. You still didn't make it powerful enough. I get you are in SSF, and it is extremely hard to make Chrono good alone. It took me 2 weeks with the collective brainstorming and trading viable to make it "good enough". And my build is still quite far from being "decent".

But... how many Cold Stormweavers have you seen? What is the point of running Cold Stormweaver when it just scales better with lightning? And lightning skills are just easier to use?

Why do we even play Chronomancer when Stormweaver is just better in the 99% of the game overall?

Because we wanted to play Cold Chrono.

idk, man. I watch the vid and 99% of what I see is not using chronomancer ascendancies at all. the few times you do, is due to intentionally limiting ourselves to CD based stuff, and being forced to.

yeah, we are trying to make it work. and, now looking at final products, I'm saying, its woefully lacking. its actually worse then I thought starting out. to make it work, we have to ignore all the chronomancer ascendancy stuff, and just use other stuff. much of what I thought might be useful is trivialized by gear, or other skills/passives. every solution I come up with, is basically, do something eles.

the question is, how much is Chronomancer enabling builds, versus everything else. and that what I'm saying. like the swapping to dual curse for mana, wasn't really a Chronomancer thing. its a spellcaster thing in poe2. I understand that, and thats not related to what I'm talking about.

EB, mom, damage taken from mana, zone of control, hinder. archmage, mana tempest, exposure, all the power we are talking about is not in Chronomancer, and has nothing to do with it. you could be a base sorceress and perform pretty much exactly the same.

The future and balance.

the future. the obvious is traps. Traps should work like Walls, with charges. wall's are the most effective chronomancer skill due to the charges. bombs kindof with second wind, but are constantly a deadspot as we run out. (I've often considered moving ingenuity to bomb directly.) both have delays in damage. traps will also have delays. but with multiple kinds of traps, and charges, traps in the future aught to be a good choice... as long as Saboteur doesn't completely outclass chronomancer for traps as well.
Flail/druid spells? maybe. no way to tell.


Balance
6% CDR nodes are too weak. should be 10% each.

"now and again" should be 50% in the current state of the game. maybe when there are more charge based skills 33% will be enough.
seeing the 77% cdr in merc area shook me. what even is that? one of the core aspects of the ascendancy is better supported on the other side of the tree.

"unbound encore"(timesnap) is ok.

"footprints in the sand"(temp rift) is ok. it is a buff.

"ultimate command"(time freeze) is terrible. it is not a buff. this needs to enable something. "enemies can not block or dodge, "enemies take 50% increased damage from hits", "enemies take 50% more damage over time" something. time freeze has a CD, and a duration. time freeze should swap locations with another skill that is a buff.. also, if its in the "quicksand hourglass" location, it would pair into the CD much better.

those two 10% increased buff duration nodes. temp rift is technically a buff. time freeze isn't. Also, not sure if those 10% nodes are strong enough. no one has ever mentioned them.

"quicksand hourglass" pendulum faster cast. terrible. just worse then stormeavers arcane surge. super unreliable, and no mana to pay for it. I would recommend COMPLETELY changing this skill.
Chronomancer is lacking two major "TIME" based features. Damage over time. and Skill effect duration. swap this laction with ultimate command.
make it a buff active skill. and a choice, like pathfinders flasks. Skill one, 30% increased skill effect duration/12% reduced skill cost. skill two, 30% reduced skill effect duration/+1 to cd.

obviously the faster cast node would also need to change. probably to +15% skill effect duration for time freeze.

"circular heartbeat" bad. totally replaceable with gear. lets make it actually circular. "10% of mana spent is Recouped as life. 20% of damage taken is Recouped as mana" (10% might sound high, but really isn't.. even a 700 mana archmage frost bomb is only 70 hp over 8s default.)

"rapid river" good as is.

10% debuffs expire faster nodes are good as is. they reduced damage over time taken, and get you out of other chills/shock//freeze, very good actually.

"apex of the moment". personally I am very unimpressed. people couldnt even tell if it was doing anything for the longest time. no icon, no skill doesnt help. temp chains scales against rares/uniques. does apex? or is it always 20%?(+ mods) is it an aura? its Slow itself that scales on rares/uniques. so yes, it to should be weaker on bosses.
everyone that uses it, uses it with temp chains and hinder... how much is IT doing? I don't have a good suggestion for what it should be doing. I would probably be more ok with it, if it was a gateway for a stronger ability.

6% increase slow mag node. by itself its pretty weak. but adds into other outside nodes fine I suppose.

-
if frost walls counted as valid "frozen" targets, that would be something.
if frostbomb was an "ice crystal" that could be popped faster with direct hits, that also would be something.
All the +cooldown supports CD's are too large. if hourglass was +2second CD, or maybe even 3s. we would be cooking.