[2.0] Ten Link Arctic Breath

Ten Link Arctic Breath: A Build Guide



Overview

  • This is a cold, self-casting, non-crit, staff spell build.
  • It has been planned with Standard in mind. Taking this build into Hardcore is VERY dangerous as-is, especially with the amount of currency required. For a similar HC build, check out this thread: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1377054
  • The concept is centered around using uniques that give extra "psuedo" links to my main skill.
  • If you enjoy an extremely flashy, fast casting, spell build with some old-school "Shotgunning", this build may be for you.
  • The build is very expensive as-is and requires a lot of start-up funds. If you are looking for a budget or low-cost build, this may not be for you.





Disclaimer

  • This build was created because I ran into some good RNG and had currency to burn.
  • For the currency spent, this is probably not *the* most damage or survivability you could achieve, nor was it created to be.
  • The build is supposed to be fun and flashy while still being able to smash end-game content in a Standard league.





The Concept

Spoiler


This build uses two uniques in order to get what I would call a "psuedo ten link". This is nothing new or revolutionary and I'm sure it has been done before, but I figured I'd explain how/why I'm using these particular uniques.

The first:



A Pledge of Hands gives linked gems level 30 spell echo, so a 6L Pledge = a 7L.

The second:



Asenath's Gentle Touch gives all your attacks and spells a level 1 Temp Chains when they hit. Through corruption, it can also give a lvl 10-12 Elemental Weakness on hit as well. Considering you normally need to link "Curse on Hit" along with two curse gems to your skill to achieve this, you could perhaps consider this an extra three links.

So, all together, that is basically a TEN LINK skill.

Now, looking at the other stats on the these two items, you can assume a build that uses these items will be an elemental spell build. Apart from that, you can really do anything with this combo.

I choose to use Arctic Breath.

So why Arctic Breath?

The strongest reason is the most simple one: it creates chilled ground. Since I already slow everything with Temp Chains, also chilling everything is a great, natural skill to pair.

Apart from that, the skill can actually still "shotgun" post-2.0 changes. Because it is also an AoE on top of being a projectile, even though the individual projectiles do not explode when hitting the same target, the explosions from each projectile can over-lap and damage everything multiple times. The tricky part is getting them to all explode - but this can be done in a few ways. If you want to know more, I'll explain further below.

Post-2.0 Shotgunning


For all these examples, I'm going to assume Arctic Breath is tied to GMP and nothing else.

Now, normally if you shoot at a single target, out of your five projectiles only one will explode when it hits the target and the other four will just keep going. If you can somehow make all five explode, though, the AoE effect of all five can over-lap and hit that single target five times.

Here is how you can do this:

  • Shoot into a dense pack of mobs. If there are five targets close by, each one will be hit by a single projectile, but all the AoE effects will over-lap and everything will be hit multiple times.
  • Shoot at terrain. If your projectiles hit any sort of terrain (walls, rocks, strongboxes, etc.) they will explode on contact. If something is standing next to this terrain when you do this, it will take damage from multiple explosions.
  • Create your own "terrain". If you use the skill Ice Wall it creates a solid wall of ice. If you then shoot at this ice, it will explode on the wall. You can place this wall behind enemies to have multiple explosions hit single targets.




So what about damage?

First off, since this is a "ten link" build, let's look at what links I run:

Arctic Breath + Faster Casting + GMP + Concentrated Effect + Hypothermia + Cold Penetration (+ Spell Echo + "Curse on Hit" + Temp Chains + Elemental Weakness)

I focused on creating strong, pure cold damage explosions with good "more" multipliers and as little "less" multiplier as possible. For some explanations on why I'm not running certain other supports, check below.

Other Links


  • Chain/Fork/Pierce: These can increase your clear speed against large packs and create even more projectiles to "shotgun" with. The problem, mostly, is that the first two really dig inti your base damage, making single target and freeze duration much weaker. Pierce, while not giving less damage, does not give you 100% pierce chance without extra invested - something I personally decided I didn't want to go for - and also takes up the slot of another gem that could give you more damage.
  • Cold 2 Fire: A very tempting link, as it splits your damage up between elements (can be good against certain mobs that resist a certain element), opens up the ability to run Avatar of Fire, and gives you other options for scaling damage. In the end, I decided I didn't want to give up the ability to get strong, long-lasting freezes with the extra effect of Temp Chains and Cold Pen.
  • Increased AoE: This can make your explosions much bigger, meaning it is easier to over-lap them and "shotgun". You can either run this instead of Conc Effect for maximum AoE, or alongside it to lessen the blow of Conc. Either way, in itself this gem does not increase your explosion damage, and to use it with Conc is two gems slots taken up between them. Personally, I find that with all the AoE on the tree, quality on Arctic Breath, and a Carcass Jack, you do not need this gem to shotgun well.
  • Added Cold/Chaos/Lightning: Of these, I would only think about using Cold, as the other two do not scale very well with the build. It is tempting to replace something that does not show on your tooltip, like Cold Pen or Hypothermia, with this one. But I do not think there is any gem in my current set-up that should be swapped out for this. It's just not enough damage compared to those other links.




The other big factor to this builds damage is the use of the jewel system. Because I wasn't looking at currency as a factor, I chose to heavily invest in jewel sockets and skip many of the traditional important damage nodes that I deemed too many points to path to. I was able to buy all 40%~ damage jewels to make this investment worth it. In total, I get EIGHT jewels - with only one of these being a non-damage, unique jewel.

Here is an example of one of my jewels:



That's 44% increased damage!

Since none of my jewels are over three travel points, taking 40% as my average damage from a jewel, this is around 13.3% damage a point for a three point jewel - and MUCH higher for the one or two point jewels.

So what about defense?

This build mainly uses four things to stay alive: Chill, Temp Chains, Mind over Matter and Fortify.

Anything I hit will automatically be chilled and cursed with temp chains. This combo gives the build a ton of "hidden" survivability. It does not make the hits hurt any less, but when nothing actually hits you, you might find you tend to stay alive ;) With proper positioning, you can take on some very scary things and live to tell the tale.

Because I use a Pledge of Hands, I have 100% increased mana. I use this to my advantage by turning mana into effective life with Mind over Matter. With high mana regen and 30% of all damage coming out of my mana first, big hits are a lot less scary feeling.

To further this, I also make use of the fact I wield a staff to get a safe-to-proc Fortify buff. With all the increased AoE on my tree and gear, I can use a Ground Slam tied to Inc AoE, Faster Attacks and Fortify to hit something at the edge of my screen to gain Fortify. Whenever facing a tough pack/ rare, reflect, or a boss, it's a great buff to pair with MoM to stay alive.

...

And that's the basics of the build! :)






Passive Tree

Spoiler


111 Point Tree:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwAA8pe31ghnm13bWZM6qJotqL0ne8OxkL6AGDwYVoMJ-eiCx0GHKPq3PriTg8z-ChzcPC3YvfJF6-6PGoNfNZI64acImuCFMv6Ppledro9G2CRFnU3j5YsabFH7m6E2xYVtU1L52-QiNunNFhhqHwLVgX7H1aYkqh8YeC8yNAQHJNjtPBZvfOWVBIPb6-RMs5o742pYB6-bVcZfKtAfl5Wf34KbEFg6WO_rUlPvfDwF7DgsnD1fl_TAZoV7bRkEs2ZUvYII9KIAVyvAVPAf_rNqQ7zqFbjIW5YynL4NHzwo

***Important: The Jewel just south of Mind of Matter contains an Int>Dex Unique Jewel to convert 60 Int into Dex for gear/gem requirements***

A taste of what you get:

  • 143% life
  • 52% increase aoe
  • 104% mana
  • 190% mana regen
  • 8 jewel sockets


Leveling


I did not keep track of how I put my points in as I leveled, mostly just getting whatever I felt I lacked as I leveld up, but here are some pointers:

  • If you've pre-bought jewels, focus on getting the ones close to Scion early on.
  • If you've pre-bought an ele weakness glove, aim to get the extra curse around level 25.
  • Make sure to get some life as you go and don't leave it till the end.
  • Aim for the two big AoE clusters as some of your first big goals. They make leveling much easier.
  • Once you are getting further into things, you can start looking at gettung enough mana regen to comfortably run Mind of Matter.
  • Leave off luxury things like the Scion AoE and extra curse effect till the VERY end.









Gear

Spoiler


Uniques...



  • Pledge of Hands: Required for the "ten link" factor. Gives a large damage boost and mana boost (that we can convert to defense through Mind over Matter). Very simple item.




  • Asenath's Gentle Touch: Required for the "ten link" factor. Hard to get a hold of and can run expensive in temp leagues, but worth it for the punch this low level glove packs. Free dual cursing, synergy with chilled ground, and huge damage boost through the free penetration. The stats on the glove are not T1, but mana, life and int are all great to have.




  • Carcass Jack: Not required, but a nice treat to have. Extra AoE is very important when running Conc Effect and no Inc AoE as it helps over-lap those explosions. A bit of damage, some resists, and a decent life roll make this an over-all good item.




  • Doryani's Invitation (Cold): Not required, and does not add much more than a good rare. You basically sacrifice a good life roll for 0.2% cold leech and some freeze change with flasks up. For Standard, I'd say it's a fine sacrifice to make.




  • Careful Planning: This jewel convents 60 int on my tree into dex - as well as giving up to 24 dex itself. This is the easiest way I found to get the dex required for the build. It is not required, but making up the 80+ dex needed can be rather tricky.


For rares...

  • Amulet: Corruption can be useful here. If you can, aim for either a corrupted 0.2% cold leech or +1 curse (you can drop 5 points if you get that). Other than that, just look for the usual. High life, resists, stuff like spell damage and cast speed are nice luxury stats. If you can, try and grab Mana regen.
  • Ring x2: Look for the usual stats, but also high mana regen and/or mana rolls to help with MoM. Spell damage and cast speed are nice luxury stats, again.
  • Helmet: The usual stats, mana/int are nice.
  • Boot: The usual stats, a good movespeed roll is essential, mana/int are nice.


For bases, you can either double-down on getting more ES to pair with the ES from Carcass (a little effective life can go a long way) or try to get high armor to pair with the roll on your Dory belt (a little phys reduction can go a long way, too).

For jewels...

Here are all the jewels I am using for example:



The stats you are looking for are as follows:

  • Increased Spell Damage While Wearing a Staff (up to 16%)
  • Increased Cold Damage (up to 16%)
  • Increased Are Damage (up to 12%)
  • Increased Projectile Damage (up to 12%)
  • Increased Spell Damage (up to 12%)
  • Increased Damage (up to 10%)


You can also get different types of Cast Speed rolls. These are probably comparable to a single damage roll - maybe better - but I decided to go flat damage as it was easier to find and I had a large amount of good cast speed already.

Defensive stats are also a good bonus (life, mana, resists, etc.) but I'd look for three damage rolls before worrying about anything else.






Skills

Spoiler


Pledge of Hands
Arctic Breath (+ Spell Echo) + GMP + Conc Effect + Hypothermia + Cold Pen + Faster Casting

* My main set-up. Quality is great on GMP and Faster Casting to give an extra 20% cast speed total between the two. It's a mana intense set-up, but so worth it for the sick deeps. In case of a 5L, I'd drop Faster Casting.

5/6L (Chest)
CWDT (lvl 5) + Arctic Breath (lvl 8) + GMP + Added Cold + Mana Leech [+ Life Leech / Blind / Fork]

* This set-up is meant to help apply chill + your on-hit curses to anything that chunks you down *(often something behind you that would not otherwise be hit by your line of fire) while also giving you back a bit of mana that you lose from Mind over Matter. Added Cold makes up for the low base damage of the un-leveled skill. If you have a 6L, I'd add in some utility or maybe a second spell? It's up to you. Personally, I run Clarity in my extra, un-linked socket.

4L
Ground Slam + Faster Attacks + Inc AoE + Fortify

* This lets you get a fast, safe fortify buff up. It should hit the edge of the screen and not have too much wind-up with a leveled faster attacks.

4L
Herald of Ice + Mana Leech + Cast When Stunned + Ice Nova

* This is a nifty little 4L that gives two ways to get some mana back. Your Herald procs give a nice, consistent amount of mana gain, and when you are getting stunned by something like a charge rhoa, it makes sure to curse them via Ice Nova and give you a bit of mana back, too. The mana is important when dealing with Mind of Matter!

4L
Ice Wall + Flame Dash + Faster Casting [+ Portal / Clarity]

* This 4L is basically all my "spare change". I had a BBBB corrupted Asenath's so this is what I came up with. Clarity should be somewhere else if possible (an extra socket in a 5L/6S chest is great for this) as Faster Casting causes it to reserve extra mana. A fast dash and frost wall is a great thing, though, and these give some extra buttons to push and fill out the build's utility.

Other skills I don't run but maybe should


For this build, I've chosen to NOT run a...

  • Warcry/Charge Generation
  • Golem
  • Vaal Skill


...but all three of these types of skills could fit great into the build. I wanted a character who (more or less) just smashed stuff without the need to watch or maintain any buffs/charges. Drop some links (Cast when Stunned, Cast when Damage Taken, etc.) to fit in whatever one(s) you please!








Bandit Choices

Spoiler


  • Normal: Life
  • Cruel: Point -or- Cast Speed
  • Merciless: Point


Personally, I went Life/Point/Point, but you do have some options. The cast speed in Cruel is a good option, but either way I don't feel it makes a huge difference until you are dealing with level 100 min-max. I don't run charges with this build, personally, but if you fit them in then take an extra whatever-charge-type-you-want.






Extras


Notes on leveling


This build levels SUPER well. One of the easiest/fastest/safest leveling experiences I've had since 2.0. If you pre-buy good jewels and Asenath's w/ EleWeak, you will be living in luxury.

I switched to Arctic Breath + LMP as soon as I hit 28 and swapped to GMP at 38 when it was available. For other links, stuff like Added Cold and Hypothermia is great for leveling.

I used this staff till 68 when I could switch to Pledge:



The free Cold2Fire is great and makes cold resist mobs a lot easier while leveling.

Apart from that, I just used basic rares with some life and resists. Nothing fancy. The build plays very well with just a 4L till you get your Pledge.,



My Stats


Current level: 84

Offense

  • Arctic Breath (lvl 19 gems): 12,164 dps
  • (not counting area damage, conc effect, hypothermia, cold pen, ele weakness, or shotgunning)


Defense

  • Life: 4,187
  • Energy Shield: 591
  • Mana (un-reserved): 1,175
  • Mana Regen: 195.1 / sec




My Gear








Videos


Build Overview + 75 Dark Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5BrKbTNgA



My Other Builds


Current (2.0)

Spoiler


* [2.0] Hidden Potential Poison Arrow (100% magic gear!)
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1330650
* [2.0] Oro's Sacrifice Frenzied Frost Blades (feat. 10 Frenzy Charges)
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1363311



Out-dated (Pre 2.0)

Spoiler


* [1.3] The Green Tornado (10 Frenzy Charge, Crit Bow Frenzy Ranger)
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1184004
* [1.3] Purple Rain; a shockingly chaotic Voltaxic Rift build
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1096864
* [1.3] HybridFlicker (life+es w/ Incandescent Heart)
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1194915
* [1.3] POTCG DomBlow
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1119480



Editado por útlima vez por Yordle#4292 en 11 ago. 2015 16:09:18
Reflotado por última vez en 22 jul. 2016 23:34:36
Build overview has been uploaded! Check the video section for that. I run a 75 Dark Forest in it as an example of how the build plays.
I like cast when stunned+mana leech idea. Might give it a try. Btw, link you posted is not working.
"
dvs_m0rph escribió:
I like cast when stunned+mana leech idea. Might give it a try. Btw, link you posted is not working.


Yea, it's a great option for Mind over Matter!

What link isn't working, btw? I checked both the video link and passive tree link and they both work for me.
Really liking the build. Did a 5L pledge and crafted the gloves myself!

Great clear speed and I like the play style.
At 6.5k tooltip right now, gems are starting to get 19, so some room to improve. Managed to get 124IIR as well.

Thanks for taking the time
How to deal with reflection ?
Would love some more updates on this. I also would like to know how you deal with reflect. My way would be to swap to a consuming dark dagger and infernal mantle with the pyre ring, maintaining the use of arc breath. Sure, you lose your ten-link, but NO REFLECT. Have to remember that MOM won't work as well with half your mana gone.
Quoting Saltychipmunk:
...I look at the new act 5 boss where you have to hide behind the statues to survive the bullet hell and all I can think is... how the fuck are zombies going to survive that?

They don't know what hiding is... they don't know what dodging is... they are morons.
Nice Build. I wonder is there any cheaper gear for starting players?
I was thinking of something like this too... I hadn't noticed the fact 200% mana with pledge would help MoM so much!

Do you have an updated tree? Thoughts on what ascendancy classes to choose?
Please update this build I used it pre 2.3 and I love the build.....

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