Still freezin' - Static Orb/Ice Barrage cold sorcerer - Freezing T4 Julra and 600+ corruption bosses

Mage
1

Changelog

  • 16.01.2022 - Added some uncut content for demonstration
  • 12.01.2022 - Updated Quicklinks; Added 35s T4 Julra with 420% increased Health
  • 09.01.2022 - Updated the guide to use the set helmet Gaspar’s Insight. Added paragraphs to highlight differences when using it in patch 0.8.4. Could be nerfed/changed in upcoming patches.
  • 09.01.2022 - Added a short paragraph about the blessing choice in the Age of Winter timeline in the Blessing section.

Hello and welcome back, this is an update to my guide from 0.8.3 ([0.8.3d] Gotta freeze 'em all - 250+ corruption cold sorcerer) which got buffed a lot by the introduction of the Snowdrift unique boots and legendaries.

THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED AS A STARTER BUILD AS IT REQUIRES RARE UNIQUES TO WORK PROPERLY - I have not tested its viability for leveling or playing while obtaining all uniques. You probably should have at least Frostbite Shackles gloves or Snowdrift boots before starting this build.

I currently run this build at around 600 – 650 corruption killing most stuff easily. T4 Julra can be done easily with decent timing and good positioning in below 60s (two aoe explosions). This is with decent but far from optimized gear and two legendaries where one has only movement speed and the other 30% cold resistance.

Due to its cold nature this build quite differs from other common sorcerer builds as they rarely focus on cold. We use some less common skills as well as unusual specs for some others like teleport and flame ward. Furthermore I refuse to use FOCUS and thus this builds needs a decent amount of mana regeneration to work properly!

Since freeze chance is independent of hit damage the most important thing in a freeze build obviously is a high hit/attack rate. A high hit rate in addition goes well with ailments and in combination with freeze and cold frostbite is obviously our first choice as it also reduces enemies freeze avoidance chance. With the focus on hit rate and ailments the build goes a non-crit route and focuses mainly on cold/elemental damage (over time) alongside frostbite duration/effect/application to boost its damage further.

We will use an orbiting Static Orb and Ice Barrage as our main damage spells. Both provide a high hit rate and built-in frostbite application. While Static Orb is essential for smooth echoes, Ice Barrage enables fast killing of rares and bosses and pushes the amount of applied frostbite stacks heavily to increase our freeze chance.

Quicklinks

Gear and videos without Gaspar's Insight

General playstyle

Use static orb every 1 to 2s while moving around. Use Teleport and Flame Ward as often as required and keep them mostly on cooldown. Use Ice Barrage especially against bosses or to clear and freeze in front/behind you. While progressing through a high corruption monoliths it is great to fire behind you to kill the high health minions which follow and freeze them to get more ward and leech health. Depending on the situation shooting in front of you can be better. Snap Freeze is kept on cooldown as well to get the buffs. Try to hit high health rares/bosses to reduce their cold resistance.

Survivability loop

Freezing is our main source of survivability as a frozen enemy cannot hit. Each of these freezes grants us up to 23 health because of our gloves. If we use an elemental spell (all besides teleport) we convert 15% from our current health to ward as well. The damage dealt now leeches back health granting us high ward alongside full health. For echoes we can reach 4-6k ward this way if some enemies are around us like in beacon fights. Fighting the shard, where less freezes are applied, we still can reach around 1.5k ward through the relic. Adding Faith of the Frozen or Call of the Tundra can even give health on freeze.

Being most of the time on below maximum health we will use most potions on the ground directly giving higher health percentages and better ward generation since the converted health is based on current and not maximum health. Therefore the belt prefix which generates ward on potion use is quite useful in the build!

Tips
  • Not always fire your ice barrage in front of you. Especially with a lot of high hp targets shooting behind you can increase your survivability and clear a lot!
  • Mana management: While we go for high mana regeneration we still have to be carefully using skills
    • Use Ice Barrage preferably after Teleport to make it free
    • Don’t use static orb to often. The explosions when reaching maximum orbs add damage but are not required
    • Keep Flame Ward on cooldown: Use it mostly for mana sustain and ward generation!
  • Static orb can shatter on some obstacles like Gates or slopes.
    • Gates:
      Pre-cast Ice Barrage, klick the gate fast, teleport away, use snap freeze, built up static orbs again
    • Arena:
      Most are fine. If you get the one where you stand in the middle surrounded by obstacles you may consider to go to one of the sides.
    • Slopes:
      Use Ice Barrage to shoot in front you. Snap freeze smart and use some static orbs in-between.

General stat priority

While gearing we have a set of rules we should follow to maximize the efficiency of the build:

  • Prioritize Mana regeneration on every slot possible. Aim for 18+ regeneration and -3 to mana cost wand/staff. Try to get 20+ mana regeneration.
  • Try to maximize resistances; elemental only need one all elemental suffix while others require more investment
  • Get a source for these affixes for higher survivability:
    Crit Avoidance (T5) > Frailty (any tier) > Slow (weapon)
  • When possible prioritize offensive stats in this order:
    Chance to apply frostbite on hit with cold skills > Freeze Rate per stack of chill > increased Frostbite effect > Elemental Damage over Time > Freeze Rate Multiplier + Cold Resistance > Cold Damage > Damage Over Time > Elemental Damage > Cold Resistance > Intelligence > Dexterity
With Gaspar's Insight (patch 0.8.4) When using Gaspar's Insight we will neglect frostbite effect on Gear and replace it by Freeze Rate Multiplier whereever possible. We already cannot get it on the helmet as it is a set item anymore. On our Chest we now want to have Frostbite on cold hit alongside Level to Ice Barrage + Freeze Rate Multiplier. Using Gaspar's the Freeze Rate Multiplier alone already gives more Frostbite Effect than the Frostbite Effect affix (comapring T7 affixes) and in addition we gain up to 4 points for Ice Barrage which can increase our single target damage significantly them into Cryogenesis.

Due to the high amount of Freeze Rate Multiplier Elemental Damage over Time on rings and amulet is still a higher dps increase than freeze rate multiplier itself.

The basic non-exalted gear in the planner provided under Quicklinks shows one possible distribution.

Gear

The build planer provided at the top show only one solution how to place the desired affixes. In the following I will provide an order for optimal affixes on each item. We try to get the best damage affixes while getting 20+ mana regeneration to make our mana sustain easier while wielding a -3 spell mana cost wand or staff. Two T5 mana regeneration prefixes are a minimum to make the build feel good. In my opinion belt and ring/amulet are the best items to get them. If mana regeneration is lower you should try using the Ball Lightning talent for Static Orb to reduce the mana cost significantly but reducing duration and damage also since we lose the orb explosions and tendrils. We also need one T5 critical strike avoidance suffix alongside the blessing. I would prefer helmet, belt or boots for this. it is also possible to get two low tier sealed crit avoidance affixes or a legendary T5 affix on gloves/boots.

Item and stat priority per slot

When using Gaspar’s Insight (patch 0.8.4) look up the notes in the previous section.

  • Amulet: Bone Amulet or Sapphire Amulet
    • Source for Mana Regeneration
    • Further prefix priority: Elemental Damage over Time > Cold Damage > Cold Penetration > Damage over Time > Elemental Damage
    • Suffix priority: Frailty > Resistances > Cold Resistance
  • Ring: Ivory Ring or Sapphire Ring
    • Source for Mana Regeneration and Critical Strike Avoidance
    • Further prefix priority: Elemental Damage over time > Cold Damage > Freeze Rate Multiplier/Cold Resistance > Damage over Time > Elemental Damage > Intelligence
    • Further suffix priority: Resistances > Cold Resistance > Health
  • Belt: Any base (higher armour is better)
    • Source for Mana Regeneration and Critical Strike Avoidance
    • A sealed Ailment removal prefix can be awesome!
    • Further prefix priority: Elemental Damage over time > Ward gain on Potion use > Cold Damage > Freeze Rate Multiplier
    • Further suffix priority: Health Hybrid > Resistances > Health > Cold Resistance
  • Helmet: Any base (higher armour or ward retention is better)
    • Source for Critical Strike Avoidance
    • Prefix Priority: Frostbite on Cold Hit > Freeze Rate per stack of Chill or Frostbite Effect > Level of Static Orb > Cold Damage over Time > Intelligence
    • Further suffix Priority: % Health > Resistances > Flat Armour > Health > Cold Resistance
  • Body: Any base (higher armour or ward retention is better)
    • Prefix Priority: Frostbite on Cold Hit > Freeze Rate per stack of Chill or Frostbite Effect > Level of Ice Barrage > Cold Damage over Time > Intelligence
    • Further suffix Priority: % Health > Resistances > Flat Armour > Health > Cold Resistance
  • Catalyst: Any base
    • Prefix priority: Cold Damage > Elemental Damage > Damage over Time
    • Suffix priority: Freeze Rate Multiplier > Elemental Resistance > Resistances > Cold Resistance
  • Wand: Crystal or Dragonhorn Wand
    • Prefix priority: Elemental Damage over Time > Cold Damage > Damage over Time > Elemental Damage
    • Suffix priority: Freeze Rate Multiplier > Chance to Slow on Hit > Chance to Blind on hit > Chance to Shock on Hit
    • It is also possible to go for a Staff. In this case you should use the Temple Staff base as it combines -3 mana cost and mana regeneration!

While maxing damage, health and mana regeneration we should aim for at least one suffix of physical/poison and void resistance to get the these to a good level. Necrotic Resistance is already fine when using a Bone Amulet and an Ivory Ring. It should be noted that these resistances are only getting important at higher corruption levels. I played with 0 non-elemental resistances until around 220 in patch 0.8.3 but at this point the shade could get really nasty but works if fight is well practiced. The resistance suffixes on body armour are the highest thus we prefer (for non-exalted) to get poison and/or void resistance on body armour. Since physical resistance already is non-zero thanks to a Bone Amulet a suffix on any other item is sufficient. Keep in mind to also get a critical strike avoidance suffix.

Sealed affixes

Try to seal affixes which allow to fix your resistances and/or give high damage/utility even on lower tiers. To maximize Glyph of Despair efficiency you should maximize other stats before and after this try to seal a lower tier affix. Examples are:

  • Slow on Hit or Blind on Hit on Wands
  • Frailty or Cold Penetration on Amulet. Higher tiers are better but even low tiers are good!
  • Ailment removal on flask use on Belt
  • Crit Avoidance on one or two items to gain >25 crit avoidance to combine with the Blessing
  • +1 Level of Ice Barrage on Chest (requires a lot of forging potential to be maximize the other stats after sealing)
  • Cooldown Recovery/Cold Damage over Time/+1 Level of Static Orb on Helmet

And possible some others I forgot. Non-elemental resistances are also often really good seal targets as an item with a T5 resistance and another with a sealed affix most of the time will cap your resistance. Elemental resistances can be capped with talents and one all elemental resistance affix (e.g. on catalyst).

Freeze Rate per stack of Chill vs. Frostbite Effect

When using Gaspar’s Insight (patch 0.8.4) we will drop both stats and focus on Freeze Rate Multiplier!

While frostbite effect boosts damage contrary to Freeze Rate per stack of Chill the freeze rate adds way more freeze potential to the build. Considering a setup with 400% increased frostbite effect (2k freeze rate multiplier and conversion from boots) and a good rolled Oceareon (600% Freeze Rate with three stacks of chill) we can compare the effect of T5 prefixes on body armour:

  • 60% additional increased frostbite effect:
    560 / 500 = 1.12 → 12 more damage and freeze potential
  • 258 Freeze Rate with three stacks of chill
    958 / 700 = 1.37 → 37% more freeze potential but no additional damage

While it is a matter of preference I would highly suggest to get at the freeze rate affix at least on one item.

Uniques and Legendaries

The build relays quite heavily on two uniques which enable its viability in high empowered monoliths and three more to boost it further:

  • Frostbite Shackles:
    These gloves give a high frostbite chance, frostbite duration, freeze rate multiplier, ward on freeze and ward retention per cold resistance. All these stat get utilized in the build to either increase the our freeze chance, damage or survivability. It is a REQUIREMENT and should be acquired first. Target-farmable in Blood, Frost and Death.
  • Twisted Heart:
    This relic allows us to convert health to ward enabling the utilization of life leech in a build with a high level of ward somewhere between 1.5k and 6k depending on the situation. Utilizing life leech we most of the time have a full 1.5k health pool as well. It furthermore ensures to have ward in the beginning of echoes and grants +1 level to 4 of our 5 spells. It is REQUIRED and should be acquired second or third. Target farmable in Reign of Dragons.
  • Snowdrift:
    Newly added boots. Boosts our damage and freeze potential significantly. With 2000 Freeze Rate Multiplier we also obtain 400% increased frostbite effect which was nearly impossible before. It is RECOMMENDED and should be one of the first uniques to be acquired. Can be target-farmed on boot-nodes in the Spirits of Fire timeline.
  • Oceareon:
    Without any other source of ‘Freeze Rate per stack of chill’ this ring effectively gives a 7x more multiplier for our freeze chance as long as we constantly apply three stacks of chill. It on its own grants chill chance which in combination with our high attack rate guarantees a high uptime. It is RECOMMENDED but not target-farmable. A second one can be useful in for high corruption as it will again give a huge multiplier for our freeze chance. Although the second one only provides a multiplier of 2 instead of 6.
  • Throne of Ambition:
    This unique idol gives us up to 400% increased cold damage and 400% increased armour when hitting a unique every 4s. This gives some additional required damage and survivability for boss fights. The increased armour will push us to around 70% damage reduction from armour. It is RECOMMENDED and should be the last unique to target farm in the Stolen Lance.
  • Gaspar’s Insight (patch 0.8.4):
    As of patch 0.8.4 the unique affix on this helmet will increase our Freeze Rate Multiplier by a multiplicative factor of up to 2.85. This increases frostbite effect as well by up to 2.85x (due to snowdrifts affix) and thus increases our damage by up to 2.85x. In addition it reduces the freeze avoidance of enemies further and increases our freeze potential. It is highly RECOMMENDED and can be target farmed in the The Last Ruin timeline. It is the rare boss drop and can be acquired even on the non-empowered the version. It should be target farmed after you aquired the Snowdrift boots since the combination it multiplies our damage significantly. In general it should be the second or third unique to target-farm.
  • Faith of the Frozen (patch 0.8.4):
    When using **Gaspar’s Insight’ this item is superior to a catalyst. Especially with +1LP on it. All Resistances and/or flat health are great stats for an LP version.
Other useful uniques
  • Frozen Ire:
    Decent starter weapon which provides more freeze chance in echoes due to its tundra nova proc. It does not improve boss freeze chance because the nova procs around the target. With a high LP roll it could replace a wand in the BiS setup. In general it has the disadvantage to not lower the mana cost of spells as well as not being able to roll elemental damage over time which is the best damage prefix we can obtain.
  • Faith of the Frozen:
    Can boost survivability further as it adds life gain on freeze. I prefer a Catalyst over this without LP. With LP and All Resistance I would definitely use this item over a catalyst. Great synergy when using *Gaspar’s Insight (patch 0.8.4).
  • Aurora’s Time Glass:
    Can add some survivability and ward/life regeneration as it can be triggered by the health/ward conversion on your own. Mana regeneration would be great but LP ones are probably ultra rare.
  • Mourningfrost:
    Good starter Boots which can double our Freeze Rate due to their rare affix which provides increased instead of added Freeze Rate Multiplier. Do not stack dexterity! Snowdrift are just way superior!
  • Call of the Tundra:
    With > 2LP and combined with our desired prefixes this item would probably ramp our survivability even further. The additional Health and Health gain on Freeze will boost survivability a lot. Very very unlikely to obtain. As of patch 0.8.4 we will never use it as **Gaspar’s Insight’ is just superior.
Legendaries

We mostly use rare boss uniques. These can be target farmed but are very rare and will rarely be acquired with legendary potential. Do not plan your build around additional stats but improve/change your gear when obtaining them. Here are some stat priorities for affixes we would like to have on our legendaries:

  • Gloves (very unlikely!):
    Hybrid Health > Crit Avoidance > Frailty > Freeze Rate Multiplier + Cold Resistance > Damage Over Time > Cold Resistance > Intelligence > Cast Speed > Dexterity
  • Boots:
    Movement speed > Hybrid health > Crit Avoidance > Cold Resistance > Intelligence > Vitality > Dexterity
  • Relic (very unlikely!):
    Mana Regeneration > Elemental Damage over Time > Frailty > Freeze Rate Multiplier + Cold Resistance > Cold Damage > Damage Over Time > Cold Resistance > Health > Intelligence > Dexterity
  • Ring (very very unlikely!)
    Mana Regeneration > Elemental Damage over Time > Crit Avoidance > Freeze Rate Multiplier + Cold Resistance > Cold Damage > Damage Over Time > Cold Resistance > Intelligence > Dexterity
  • Optional uniques:
    • Shield (very unlikely!):
      All Resistances > Block Chance > Flat Armour > Reduced damage taken on block > Increased Armour > Health > Cold Resistance > Health Gained on Block
    • Sceptre (unlikely!):
      Spell Damage and Reduced Mana Cost (required because of mana cost reduction, tier 1 or tier 6+) > Chance to slow on hit > Freeze Rate Multiplier > Cold Damage > Damage Over Time > Elemental Damage

For 1 LP items I would recommend focusing on the important affixes for gearing, i.e., mana regeneration, frailty and crit avoidance followed by health (especially hybrid health). I would also only ever consider obtaining the farmable uniques and not the ring. My recommendations would be to try to target Crit Avoidance on gloves, Frailty on relic and Movement speed on boots. Combined with other affixes from the priority lists above. If the shield will be used you should try to get all resistance first.

Idols

Since we get a big chunk of frostbite effect by using the Snowdrift boots we swap our idol setup compared to the old guide to focus on frostbite duration instead. Duration does not scale the dps but it scales the amount of stacks for longer lasting fights increasing the freeze chance and overall damage by a lot since we have only a few sources. With 2k Freeze Rate Multiplier (giving 400% increased frostbite effect) one 25% increased frostbite idol would only yield 5% more damage but getting 30% increased duration (having around 40% from the gloves only) gives 21% more stacks on the target and thus up to 21% more damage in an everlasting fights.

  • 4 Grand Glass Idols
    • Prefix: Frostbite Duration
    • Suffix: Cold Damage over Time
  • 1 Adorned Arcane Idol
    • Prefix: Chance to apply frostbite on hit with cold skills
    • Suffix: Health or Cold Resistance
  • Throne of the Ambition
With Gaspar's Insight (patch 0.8.4)

When using Gaspar’s Insight we lose some source of Frostbite on Cold hit on the helmet slot but gain a big chunk of frostbite effect. This increases the freeze potential for bosses highyl thus we remove some duration from our affixes to increase the ‘burst’ potential. Frostbite Duration would still be the highest potentially damage increase in infinte fights but as shown in the videos the fights are already to short to make a big use of it.

By the above argumentation we swap two Grand Glass Idols for one additional *Adorned Arcane Idol with ‘Chance to apply frostbite on hit with cold skills’. Since we most likely use the Faith of the Frozen unique shiled without All Resistance (LP) we ideally want to have fire ‘resistance’ as the suffix. The remaining two small slots are best filled with Small Lagonian Idols with ‘Ward Retention’ and ‘Lightning Resistance’. If a shield with All Resistance is used the suffixes can be replaced by health or cold resistance (for ward retention).

Skills

Static Orb

Our bread and butter skill. Makes echoes smooth as we damage and freezes everything around us and provides good damage for bosses.

Details
  • Biting Force:
    Required cold conversion
  • Orbital Fulmination and Scatter Blast:
    Makes static orb orbiting and generating more hits through small orbs.
  • Static Orb:
    Permanent 25% damage reduction.
  • Shocking Conduit:
    Spent all spare points here. Since shock chance is converted into frostbite chance it increases damage and freeze chance.

Ice Barrage

Our single target damage and rare/boss freezer.

Details
  • Nailed Shot and Hypothermia:
    Turning Ice Barrage into a frostbite machine!
  • Challenge the Elements:
    Higher hit rates gives more frostbite stacks.
  • Intensifying cold and Frigid Down:
    Big Freeze Rate Multiplier source and Frost Nova trigger to get more hits/stacks at enemy around the main target(s).
  • Looming Frost:
    Spent spare points here. Most other nodes are for pathing but this is a more multiplier for frostbite stacks as well and thus increases our damage a lot.

With Gaspar’s Insight (patch 0.8.4) we try to use a Chest with ‘+ Level to Ice Barrage’. These additional points are dropped into Cryogenesis.

Snap Freeze

Provider of CC, Cold Resistance and armour as well as Cold penetration through resistance stealing.

Details
  • Silver Armour and Sap Warmth:
    Boosts base armour, cold resistance and thus ward retention. It is also reducing enemies cold resistance by 25%. Sap Warmth currently seem to only grant cold resistance once and not multiple times for hiting more enemies.
  • Blast Freeze and Snow Flurry:
    Together with the Recollection talent it reduces the cooldown to 3.5s allowing to get permanent buff uptime. All these sources of cooldown reduction are multiplicative and not additive.
  • Frostbite:
    Spare point.

Flame Ward

Talents are spent different to usual builds. Some damage reduction, 250% damage boost and source of mana recovery.

Details
  • Warmth:
    Great source of Mana regeneration!
  • Frost Ward and Infusion:
    Converting to cold and granting a 250% damage increase on use.

Teleport

Movement skill. Providing cold resistance/armour, big chunk of freeze rate multiplier and stun immunity as well as a free cast to make mana management easier. Cooldown <= 5.6s and should be cast at least every 8s.

Details
  • Time Dilation and Tunnel Finder:
    Together with the Recollection talent reducing the cd to 5.6s while buffing the buff uptime to 8s.
  • Frigid Departure and Crystaline Passage:
    Increasing the global Freeze Rate Multiplier and granting armour and cold resistance.
  • Rock Phase:
    Permanent stun immunity!

Passives

Nothing fancy. Grabbing most sources of Cold/Elemental Damage, mana regeneration and ward retention as well as some additional freeze rate multiplier. Additional cast speed makes the playstyle more smooth.

  • Mage:
    Skill Arcanist, Mage Flurry and Warden first. Spent only 20 points in the mage tree early on and fit in more points later. Reactive Ward and Silver Rune work especially great when you do not have a source of health gain on freeze as we trigger it reliable. Rune of Winter and Ice and Fire are decent damage talents!
  • Spellblade:
    Elemental Affinity provides some resistance and elemental damage which can be useful and should be skilled when necessary depending on your equipment.
  • Sorcerer:
    Prioritize as you like while picking all sources of mana regeneration available. Freeze Rate Multiplier is not as important early on as we get a good multiplier from the skills already. Some more notes:
    • Getting to the leech/penetration of Chill the Bone is important.
    • At least one point in Arcane Avalanche can be good for survivability.
    • 1 point in Arcane Insight is enough for sustaining the buff.
    • Recollection improves snap freeze and teleport availability.
    • Elemental Ascendance provides resistance alongside some damage.

Blessings

  • The Black Sun:
    Spell Damage leeched as Health. REQUIRED as a source of leech together with the Chill to the Bone passive. Although it is not working for ailments it provides additional leech to sustain our HP under the ward protection.
  • Ending the Storm:
    Freeze Rate Multiplier. Boosts our Freeze chance a little and nothing really better is available.
  • Reign of Dragons:
    Critical Strike Avoidance. Common choice to get Crit Avoidance if paired with one T5 Crit avoidance suffix. If two T6 Crit Avoidance on gear are available this can be replaced by all resistance or poison resistance as you like.
  • Age of Winter:
    Many good choices but Frostbite on Hit is probably the best as it boosts our damage and freeze chance.
  • Spirits of Fire:
    Flat Armour. Good source of damage reduction since we get 400% increased armour from our unique idol against bosses.
Age of Winter: Frostbite Chance vs. Cold shred Wearing **Gaspar's Insight** and decent gear with 1 or 2 frostbite on cold hit idols we end up with probably less than 400% frostbite chance on cold hit. Our main skills add 150% resp. 200% frostbite chance as well. Let's assume we have a total of 600% frostbite chance without blessing.

Thus, getting the frostbite blessing is getting us from 600% to 700%. The result is

700 / 600 = 1.167 → 16.7% more frostbite stacks

Enemies in LE most of the time have 0% resistances and only rarely get some resistance from modifiers (most of the time the all resistance monolith modifier). Cold Shred gives us up to 40% penetration against bosses (neglecting the shred against trash since it very rarely matters). In addition, we get 25% penetration from Snap Freeze and 15% from the tree. This resuslts in

1.8 / 1.4 = 1.29 → 29% more damage

Now it is matter of preference: Frostbite stacks not only provide more damage but also more freeze and thus more survivability while cold shred only gives more damage against high live and long living targets. For the build guide I decided to go with the more well-rounded variation which does a little less damage.

It’s always possible to swap to cold shred if pure damage is prefered.

Concluding words

I hope you enjoy the freezing playstyle as much as I do. Feel free to ask any questions.

Thank you to reddit user u/Amirax remembered me of the Gaspar’s Insight set helmet which has a super rare affix only also available on the Mourningfrost boots. It is a ‘x% increased freeze rate multiplier’ in difference to the usual ‘+x% freeze rate multiplier’ (note the missing ‘+’). As of patch 0.8.4 this makes it an essential up to 2.85x more multiplier for freeze rate multiplier as well as frostbite effect!!! It doubles my tooltip dps and due to the double dipping and freeze equation it will increase our freeze potential by more than 3x. It also has decent stats on it for the build with the only disadvantage of low armour and now health. It also cannot have Legendary Potential since it is a set item.

If requested I may do a proper video guide as well but I personally prefer written guides by a lot.

7 Likes
2

Nice… No need for a build video - this is much more comprehensive… The actual play videos are impressive - there is nothing nicer than watching Orobyss and Julra getting their arses handed to them.

Been wondering what to do with a Sorceror character I have had messing about… and I think I have the prerequisite uniques to give it a bash…

3

Great to hear that you also prefer a comprehensive written guide :slight_smile: In my opinion the advantage is most often that it is much easier to look up specific things. Also updating is much more easy.

Feel free to give your feedback on how you like the playstyle. You definitely have to get used to it and to learn how to manage your mana. But it is so much better than using focus and standing still :smiley:

Also it still has a decent potential with legendaries (if I ever get the uniques with LP again) and better crafted items.

4

:wink: No problem…

Playstyle… Thats probably going to be the real test of this build… but at first glance it doesnt seem as bad as some other metas I have seen…

“Still has decent potential”… for what! you are already handling 450-550 corruption bosses & t4 Julra… I think you have won… you can sit back and wait for more / harder content… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

5

I just love min/maxing and I think I can reach 1.8k health and still more freeze chance/damage.
The build play style gets easier with more mana regeneration. Try to get this up first. 20+ feels far better than less espeically when you go for my final static orb setup.

6

Reddit user u/Amirax remembered me of the Gaspar’s Insight set helmet which has a super rare affix only also available on the Mourningfrost boots. It is a ‘x% increased freeze rate multiplier’ in difference to the usual ‘+x% freeze rate multiplier’ (note the missing ‘+’).

This makes it an essential up to 2.85x more multiplier for freeze rate multiplier as well as frostbite effect!!! It double my tooltip dps and due to the double dipping and freeze equation it will increase our freeze potential by more than 3x. It also has decent stats on it for the build with the only disadvantage of low armour and now health. It also cannot have Legendary Potential since it is a set item.

See yourself: [Last Epoch 0.8.4f] Gotta freeze 'em all - Gaspar's Insight + Snowdrift - T4 Julra showcase - YouTube

7

Thanks for the detailed guide, definitely one to try once I have the required gear. Freeze builds have recently become my favourite to play.

I’m levelling a Spirit Thorns Druid using the Snowdrift boots and Ocearon ring, that is similar in concept to your build. He is not geared yet and is nearing Empowered mono’s but freezes everything, including bosses 50% of the time. Spirit Thorns, Maelstrom, Thorn Totems and Ice Thorns all proc off of holding down the right mouse button-a fun one button build. A legendary Frozen Ire sceptre also works really well, as the Tidal wave procs often and is great at clearing mobs. I’m also using a Frozen eyes of Formosus amulet, as that gives even more freeze rate per stack of chill, and also gives my summon Spriggan a chunk of freeze chance too.

This is my freeze when stood in town, not sure how it goes with three stacks of chill.

I hadn’t thought of using the Frostbite Shackles gloves, need to get a pair of those ASAP.

8

Sounds great. I would expect the freeze rates to go down fast in higher monoliths since Maelstrom’s hit frequency as a DoT cannot be changed. And with more life you need more hits to get decent freeze chances. But let me know how it works. How far are you progressed?

That is a decent value. Have similar values when I used teleport in the past 8s so more or less always.

About ‘Freeze Rate Per Stack of Chill’:
This does not interact with your Freeze Rate Multiplier at all. It only increases your freeze chance. The formula for freezes is:

‘freeze rate’ x ‘freeze rate multiplier’ / (health + ward + ‘freeze avoidance’)

‘Freeze Rate Per Stack of Chill’ is an increase to your ‘freeze rate’ and thus multiplies the value provided by your skill for your freeze chance. It will not alter your damage. This means that a perfect oceareon (200 per stack) will multiply the skills freeze rate and thus your freeze chance by a factor of 7. Adding the amulet will add 3 x 80%:

(1. + 6. + 2.4) / (1. + 6.) = 1.34

Meaning, that the amulet only gives you an additional 34% more multiplier for your freeze chance. While the ring iteself already gives you a 600% more multiplier. It may not be worth it for you but could be good for your spriggian.

About ‘Increased Freeze Rate Multiplier’:
This stat is provided by Gaspar’s Insight as well as Mourningfrost. We can not make use of the Mourningfrost boots obviously. The helmet can provide up to 185% increased Freeze Rate Multiplier yielding up to 2.85 more freeze rate multiplier as it is the only source of this modifier.

Therefore it gives you 2.85 more freeze rate multiplier and due to the boots 2.85 more frostbite effect. In addition it double dips on your freeze potential:

‘freeze rate’ x ‘freeze rate multiplier’ / (health + ward + ‘freeze avoidance’)

Both bold factors are scaled by the 2.85 since frostbite effect scales the provided freeze avoidance reduction of frostbite as well. Depending on the value of health minions have (sadly I don’t have any values) this is a substantial increase to your freeze potential which can be way greater than 2.85.

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I’m level 84 at the moment, running the 90 mono’s. Basically 90% of my damage is from Spirt Thorns and Frostbite(+Tidal Wave proc from sceptre). Maelstrom gives almost perma frenzy and haste and a chance to chill/freeze but I don’t think it does much DPS. A Thorn Totem on hit idol gives 3-4 totems up all the time that freeze/chill and return mana/rage when unsummoned or killed. Ice Thorns proc when I’m hit and give me a buff to cold damage and freeze multi. Summon Spriggan has an aura that gives adaptive spell, healing and freeze multi. The other spells/totems are mainly just for freeze chance and utility.

I didn’t know this, thanks for the info.

yeah, I can see that it is maybe not the best for me. It does give my Spriggan and 4 totems a big boost for cold damage and freeze multi, which helps.

I put Gasper’s helmet on yesterday and was shocked by the increase, definitely the best mod for these freeze builds:)

Thanks again for the help. I’m useless at maths and you made it a lot easier to understand.

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You can export a basic loot filter based on the build - its a feature on Dammits Build Planner… open the build above and look for the button next to skills/passives…

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Gotta say, I liked your build in its original state (pre-0.8.4). Now, 0.8.4. made it absolutely monstrous with Snowdrifts, as you’ve shown in your original post.

But the interaction with Gaspar’s helmet is just fucking broken.
I’m pretty sure EHG just missed it and I think it should be hotfixed. I mean, I played a little bit in a build planner and reached 10k Freeze Multi with it. That’s x20 Frostbite Effect. Which is just nuts.

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Yeah, especially since the build now triple dips on freeze rate multiplier: Damage with frostbite effect, and freeze potential with freeze rate multiplier AND frostbite effect.

Will see what happens. I’m now close to 700 corruption and defenses can sometimes get a little tricky. Have to improve my head with a focus on defense a little more.

Before the helmet I started to get trouble a little earlier. But more survivability will help both variations.

14

Well, it’s always triple-dipped, so to say. And I think it’s fair for a well-put build with serious gear investment to reach 400-500 corruption.
What’s not fair is having 5000-6000% EXTRA freeze multi from a single item :sweat_smile: It honestly just looks like an oversight from the older patches.

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By the way, did you consider dropping Frigid Doom and Intensifying Cold and putting those 4 points into Cryogenesis? It’s x1.8 “more” damage for all Ice Barrage damage, including Frostbite ticks, after all.

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I think the same but to be fair this crazy freeze rate increase was in the game for a while and we also have this modifier on the Mourningfrost boots. I considered them pre 0.8.4 for the build as well but they only provided more freeze rate multiplier. What makes this stat just crazy is the additional ‘conversion’ to frostbite effect.

I’m always thinking about how to improve the build. But I’m not sure about dropping frigid doom. Beside Frigid Doom Ice Barrage is mostly for bossing and the build already does great at bossing. Maybe when using Frozen Ire it is a decent skill swap.

Currently I consider to get a Chest with ‘frobstbite on hit’ and ‘+ Ice Barrage/Freeze Rate Multiplier’. This would allow skilling the more multiplier as well. Frostbite effect does not have a big value on chest anymore on its own, it goes up to 120 at T7 which at 6k freeze rate multiplier is only 10% more damage. Ice Barrage provides up to +4 levels → 80% more damage for frostbite stacks from ice barrage as well as 260% freeze rate multiplier (x2.8 / 10 * 2 = 140% frostbite effect).
You could alss go for the ward on hit talent. With pierce this should provide amazing additional sustain for trash.

The freeze rate per stack of chill probably is worse at least if you already have a well rolled oceareon.

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I’ve been using this build for several days, although i don’t have enough mana regen so i use focus for now.
I have a question, why choose frosbite chance on hit blessing instead of cold resist shred?

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That is a good question :wink: Frostbite Chance is worse damage-wise but better all around.

If you were Gaspa’s Insight and have decent gear and 1 or 2 frostbite on cold hit idols you end up with probably less than 400% frostbite chance on cold hit. Your main skills add 150% resp. 200% frostbite chance. Let’s assume you have a total of 600% frostbite chance without blessing.

Thus, getting the frostbite blessing is getting you from 600% to 700%. The result is

700 / 600 = 1.167 → 16.7% more frostbite stacks

Cold Shred gives us 40% pen against bosses (I’m neglecting the shred against trash since it very rarely matters). We also get 25% penetration from Snap Freeze and 15% from the tree. The result would be

1.8 / 1.4 = 1.29 → 29% more damage

Now it is matter of preference: Frostbite stacks not only provide more damage but also more freeze and thus more survivability while cold shred only gives more damage against high live and long living targets. For the build I decided to better go with the well-rounded variation which does a little less damage.

It’s always possible to swap this if to cold resistance if you prefer pure damage.

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19

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.

First of all:
10% penetration is not necessarily the same as multiplicative 10% damage. I’ll explain later.

Second:
The blessing doesn’t give Cold Pen, like amulet affix or a passive from Sorc tree. It gives a chance to apply “Shred Cold Resistance” ailment. Which itself applies negative cold res (same like Snap Freeze) and STACKS to 20 (and with ice barrage you should be able to maintain 20 stacks quite easily on bosses)

AFAIK, resistances can be dropped into negatives, so, now, the actual damage increase depends on the initial cold resistance of the target:

  • If base cold res of the target is 0%, then yes, you can treat Cold Pen (or any pen) as yet another “More Damage” multiplicator. With 40% cold pen you do x1.4 more damage, with 140% pen you do x2.4 more damage (which is 71% more damage than without Cold Res Shred blessing).
  • But, assuming a target has 75% cold res, without penetration you only do x0.25 damage to it. With cold pen from Cold Snap and Passive you have 40% pen and now you do x0.65 damage to it. So, 40% pen actually results in 0.65/025 = x2.6 = 160% “more” damage! Which is fucking HUGE.
  • Now, with 20 stacks from Cold Res Shred you have additional -100 resist on the target. Now you have 140% pen! Compared to 40% you now do 1.65/0.65 = x2.53 = 153% “more” damage. Which, again, is fucking HUGE.

Honestly, I’m not sure how much base cold res monsters/bosses have. If it’s 0% for everyone, well… this is boring, I must say. I would easily believe that target dummy has 0 armor/res/whatever. But bosses — seems unlikely.

But what I’m absolutely certain of, is that x20 stacked Cold Res Shred is DEFINTIELY more than 29% damage boost. It’s noticeable even on target dummy, that it’s somewhere around x2 boost.

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Usually Bosses and monsters have 0% res and 0 armor as long as you dont give them some. by monolith modifiers. There are some rare exceptions that have res (the fire scorpions e.g.).

Pen, Res Shred and (in case of Lightning) Shock - are all “minus enemy res”.
So you add them up and they are one big multiplier.

20% Pen
Max Shred
→ -60% boss res

All monsters have generic “less damage taken” not only bosses - the poor dummy has 0%.
For lvl 100 mobs the number was like 91% less afair :wink:

(Number corrected… silly adding skill)

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No, it does work how he described it. 40 + 15 + 25 = 80% compared to just 40%.

Which is zero unless you’ve picked a mono node that gives all resist.

[quote[

  • But, assuming a target has 75% cold res,
    [/quote]
    They don’t.

Bosses have a generic % damage reduction that is unaffected by shred or anything similar, but they have zero resists, so shred is a more multiplier.