Cold Chronomancer Megathread. Fully updated.

Small update.

- Added maxroll build with gear/trees: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/goe840v6

- Won't be doing maxroll guide.

- Switched to CI w/ Everlasting Gaze. Got 2k ES and 4k mana. Had to remove CoF.

- Got more rarity, about 100%. Dropped Snakepit. Frostbolt feels like ugh w/o it fr.

- Acceleration instead of Glaciation in Frostbolt.

Honestly, don't like this switch at all. Mostly bc of dropped Snakepit and CoF. Playing w/o it feels like loosing massive QoL. CoF still added some punch and clear. W/o Snakepit, frostballs are bad vs Frost Wall too.

So, yeah, I got ES and some more mana, but it feels worse to play overall now. I won't add this version to maxroll builder, at least for now. Not having fun with it.

chobi0ne, I was considering using Ele Conflux, but after a second thought put that idea off. Extra fire damage is weaker than you think, bc it scales from the base damage, not from Archmage, which is the last instance of scaling. I noticed Archmage works well only with Three Dragons helmet, which I consider using now. Spark demo shows it clearly, lightning damage with Three Dragons is just too good in freezing. Way better than cold w/ Archmage.

So, your %of extra fire is extremely low in comparison to lightning and cold.

When Ele Conflux is turning Fire, it's a missed opportunity almost.

This is my current damage distribution (w/ 21% extra fire and w/o Climate Change):



25% Cold
70.5% Lightning
4.5% Fire.

So... 19/20% Conflux is juggling between 3%, 18%, and 49% more damage in my case above. (and I have 0 fire damage on my main weapon set now).

On a second thought, you are running non-crit build, overwise i'd just suggested CoC.

In this case, yes, Conflux is ok to use.

Hello

Casia do you have recorded any video of your build gameplay? :)

"

chobi0ne#5028 wrote:

"

Casia#1093 wrote:

243 spirit scepter? haha. good god man.

nice.

Id probably run cast on dodge instead of conflux.

Oh, no, on maxroll.gg that's just max possible rolls. I didn't bother actually specifying my real stats.

Before I changed to scepter I had tight spirit from chest (+55) and amulet (+40). So now all I had to get is some mediocre scepter with somewhat useful stats to get to 384 spirit (100+100+60+60+54+10) Got one pretty cheap:


It's possible to get by with less spirit, just remove Blink. Or you can use Blink with different weapon set. Or you can get rid of Blasphemy if you can afford it defense-wise.

I will experiment with more things later, for sure. Conflux is just something that gives raw damage and, frankly, there is plenty of damage even on maps with +50% resistances and +70% or something monster life, they still die pretty fast.
Even with +90% ailment threshold they get frozen and die fast. Although just in case I always carry Glaciation support gem in my bag to replace Acceleration in Frostbolt.
Not gonna lie, it would be nice to get something defensive instead of Conflux. Some additional layer of protection.

oh haha. I assumed, you picked out the key core stats you used.

"

Kenshi2263#8330 wrote:

Hello

Casia do you have recorded any video of your build gameplay? :)

no sorry. I used to have obs on my old machine, never shifted it over. should look into that at some point.

I am in t7 maps now. ssf as noted, so I go a bit slower. also do tons of experimenting/respecing instead of straight farming/progression.

And in general, I don't have much to add that monik, chobiOne, etc haven't said in theirs.

my build atm is mess, due to gearing. and thats one of the main takeaways I have moving into endgame. Gear is going to determine your build. Got some good crit wands/necks? consider crit/coc, etc. got high ES gear, consider CI, or EB.
Im kindof split between them atm, due to not having enough of any one to be solid at it. like 28% crit, 750 es in my normal gear, 1100 in my es gear.. 750es would NOT be enough es to swap to EB to fuel 5l/6l, archmage, 40+ damage taken from mana, etc. while 1100es would be closer to enough to do EB, its not enough for MoM, nor would I have enough life under that to just do EB with 40% damage taken from mana.

like this whole discussion on spirit. how much spirit on your gear is almost going to determine your build. if you have a great ES/resist chest, with no spirit. it might brick your CoC, CoF, energy build. so requires you to do something else.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

This is my current damage distribution (w/ 21% extra fire and w/o Climate Change):



25% Cold
70.5% Lightning
4.5% Fire.

So... 19/20% Conflux is juggling between 3%, 18%, and 49% more damage in my case above. (and I have 0 fire damage on my main weapon set now).

On a second thought, you are running non-crit build, overwise i'd just suggested CoC.

In this case, yes, Conflux is ok to use.

Yeah, when Conflux procs fire it's bad. But I couldn't think of better alternative yet, so I need to improve weakest part of it.
My distribution looks like this with "Gain 29% of Damage as Extra Fire Damage", with Archmage, but without Conflux and without any other buffs:

If we isolate it, then Climate Change should add 25% of Cold Damage as Extra Fire Damage against Frozen enemies. By isolating, I mean that we don't calculate any other conditional damage boosts right now.
So Fire Damage against frozen target should be: 8234 + (47626*0.25) = 20140.5
And new Total Damage: 126825.5

In this case distribution should be like this:
Fire: 15.8%
Cold: 37.6%
Lightning: 46.6%
Which is, actually, ridiculous, considering I'm running a cold build. And just with a single buff, my top damage is lightning... Archmage ftw.

Now, with Fire Conflux, new Total Damage should be:
(20140.5 * 1.7) + 47626 + 59059 = 140923.85

With Cold Conflux, I'm not sure if it will be like this:
20140.5 + (47626 * 1.7) + 59059 = 160163.7
Or like this (25% from higher cold damage as extra fire damage):
(8234 + (47626 * 1.7)*0.25) + (47626 * 1.7) + 59059 = 168498.25

With Lightning Conflux:
20140.5 + 47626 + (59059 * 1.7) = 168166.6

Anyway, I tried CoF Comet instead. I moved Impetus and Energy Retention from my CoF Frost Wall to CoF Comet, and it's pretty solid, it procs every 1-2 packs. Frost Wall still procs a lot, even without Impetus and Energy Retention. In fact, it looks like Frost Wall procs as much as it used to and when Comet procs and lands - there is nothing for it to hit most of the time...

"

chobi0ne#5028 wrote:

My distribution looks like this with "Gain 29% of Damage as Extra Fire Damage", with Archmage, but without Conflux and without any other buffs:

If we isolate it, then Climate Change should add 25% of Cold Damage as Extra Fire Damage against Frozen enemies. By isolating, I mean that we don't calculate any other conditional damage boosts right now.
So Fire Damage against frozen target should be: 8234 + (47626*0.25) = 20140.5
And new Total Damage: 126825.5

There is a strange thing here. Don't you find 8k extra damage to be a bit...small? Considering the fact this is "29% of Damage" wording. 29% damage of...what?

If we are talking about tooltip damage, it seems to apply to base damage separately from "x% increased y damage" =)

It is not multiplicative like "more" but additive like "increased" to base damage before all multipliers.

So it's not 47626*0.25 but (8234/0.29)*0.25 = 7098.

Anyway, Climate Change opportunity cost doesn't make it appealing.

The best way to freeze with scaled archmage is actually to use the Three Dragons helmet. You won't even need Freeze build-up stat because lightning damage is just that strong on scaled Archmage.

Hello thanks to all effort here, the thread has been great help for me. Ive been using inspiration from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em1XBky1pxM and monik's build.

Using flameblast to break frostwalls, its been very fun. Im still working towards t15 but im having no issues with damage or survivablity.

I decided to swap off CoC. I don't have the gear for it.

I do think, EoW, CoC+frostwall/comet is probably the best endgame version of this. the CoC is just going to scale up with gear extremely well.


back to CDR/reduced skill duration frost bomb.
Damage taken from mana. and some ES buffer.


-
I did confirm the Apex of the moment via stopwatch.
zombie. apex+24% increased effect.
10 hits in 30 seconds
Zombie. nothing.
13 hits in 30 seconds.

"

z46#6821 wrote:

Hello thanks to all effort here, the thread has been great help for me. Ive been using inspiration from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em1XBky1pxM and monik's build.

Using flameblast to break frostwalls, its been very fun. Im still working towards t15 but im having no issues with damage or survivablity.

You are welcome. I tried flameblast very early, but dropped it later. Video looks good.

"

Casia#1093 wrote:

I decided to swap off CoC. I don't have the gear for it.

I do think, EoW, CoC+frostwall/comet is probably the best endgame version of this. the CoC is just going to scale up with gear extremely well.


back to CDR/reduced skill duration frost bomb.
Damage taken from mana. and some ES buffer.


-
I did confirm the Apex of the moment via stopwatch.
zombie. apex+24% increased effect.
10 hits in 30 seconds
Zombie. nothing.
13 hits in 30 seconds.

Told you it works like a charm. Stopwatch proof wasn't necessary for me tho, I did it for other ppl.

Agreed about CoC, honestly.

I don't see any reason for manual Comet casting anymore. CoC-Comet does a better job even w/o any damage supports.
By the time I prepare a proper SoP+MT+Comet which will do massive damage only on crit, I can do the same damage way faster just spamming frost walls for CoC not relying on big Comet crit.

So, I'll just remove manual comet for smth else (EoW probably since I'm up to swap my malice sceptre for purity of lightning - need res to cover snakepit) and free the best damaging supports from it.

So, running rarity gear w/o Snakepit feels like crap on Frostbolt. Three dragons doesn't make me shock, so I lose dps using it despite BS freezing.
Spark+Three Dragons... Honestly, feels weak. Fast for sure, but It absolutely require good damage scaling to make it absolutely superior.
I found Acceleration on Frostbolt + Snakepit just better than spark for me bc of frost walls.

So, about to fit Concentration on Frostbolt.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

I found Acceleration on Frostbolt + Snakepit just better than spark for me bc of frost walls.

Couldn't agree more. It's sick. I played way too long without both (no Snakepit and no Acceleration). After trying both yesterday it was a game changer, just like +% mana on kill in my case. I don't worry about mana costs at all anymore.

To be honest, I'm clearing T16+2 pretty fast now, breaches, deliriums and rituals are not a problem anymore. Most of the time my defensives don't even matter that much because everything dies so fast or gets frozen and stays frozen (unlike before, when I played with CoF Cold Snap).
However, bossing is a bit slow. It's doable, and I don't die to mechanics if I get hit, it just takes a bit more time to kill bosses. I'm only 6/10 on map boss atlas tree, there is still one more +1 boss difficulty which I don't have.

I can see why crit build with CoC is better than CoF though, because it works on bosses more often.