[2.6] Popsicle Sticks - Over 60k freezing DPS! (3.0 WIP)

[2.6.0] Popsicle Sticks - Keeping it cool in Wraeclast

I was quite amazed at how much fun I had with this build as my league starter in Breach. If you are looking for a non-meta and fun build, click on the spoilers below and have fun checking out this build, thanks :)

Note: I have updated this build to meet the challenges for 2.6.0. Changes were made to the Skill trees for Level 60 (with 4 ascendancy points) and Level 90. Besides that, there isn't much changes that need to be made for now.



Build concept
Spoiler
Using Nuro's Harp unique bow to deal a shattering amount of Cold Damage through multiple Ranged Attack Totems firing Ice Shots AKA "Popsicle Sticks".

Build idea is to use things that most players don't use (causes it to be undervalued) and go anywhere near current meta builds. I know some will say a totemer is meta but please show me a recently famous ranged attack totem build.

Anyway, this build is cheap, fun, easy to get going and efficiently effective once its hits maps, so read on if this interest you, thanks : )


The Reason behind Scion and its Ascendancies
Spoiler
This build shines especially after the 2.5.0 patch notes that buffed Nuro's Harp to have an additional property "40% increased effect of Chilled Ground" and also the overall Totem buff with more life, resist and improved nodes in the passive skill tree. High cold penetration and Frostbite results in most enemies having zero to negative cold resist.

Scion is chosen as it has an easy reach between totem nodes and weapon elemental nodes that is key to helping this build scale its damage.

Deadeye is chosen first to grant an additional arrow (coupled with a corrupted +1 arrow quiver to get a total of 3 arrows, there is no need for LMP or GMP support), Farshot to compensate some of the damage lost due to Point Blank keystone and some free piercing chance never hurts.

Assassin is the second ascendancy for the primary reason of getting Maims on crits. As Nuro's Harp is a harbinger bow with good base crit, this build crits fairly often which causes most monsters to suffer Chill (-30% overall speed) & Maim (-30% movement speed) resulting is very slow moving monsters. The extra 1% and also more crit multiplier to full life monsters greatly increases freeze duration (if it crits) on first hit.

Slayer seems interesting for more damage against rares and bosses but offers nothing much else. Elementalist and Inquisitor gives a damage boost but not by much and can be easily obtained with a good rare jewel.


Pros & Cons

Spoiler
Pros
● Non-meta build - Nuro's Harp & Ranged Attack Totem?
● Freeze/Chill everything - coupled with Maim, nothing much can get to you
● Good damage and clear speed - about 60k - 70k DPS with 3 Popsicle Sticks at Point Blank.
● Destroy corpses (most) - screw Avian monsters
● Safe playstyle - totems do all the work & refer to 2nd point
● Atziri easy kills & no problem with most map mods
● Low Cost - uses cheap items that isn't part of meta builds (good league starter)

Cons
● Life build - Deal with it, ES meta is so distasteful
● Only around 5k life at most - some damage nodes can be swapped with life nodes if needed
● Not above 100k DPS - Sorry, the DPS can only get so high with this build
● Minimal Defensive layering - asides from the totems, you are quite squishy
● Not the fastest clear speed - this ain't no 30 second clearspeed build (average 5 minutes per map)


Build Enablers
Spoiler

Nuro's Harp Bow
A must for this build as there is nothing else that packs this much "ice" in a bow.


Skirmish Quiver
A must in my opinion as it let's the Scion have up to 3 Popsicle Sticks active at a time (not taking into account the Hierophant ascendancy for Scion). One can do without this quiver in place of a quiver with high Weapon Elemental Damage and Max Life, but after some testing, 2 totems lacks the clear speed and the lost of a potential 1/3 of total damage output is not worth it. End game would be to get a corrupted Skirmish with +1 Arrow.


The Pandemonius Amulet
This new unique item from Breach League is the finishing touch to this build which adds just the right amount of flavor. Having 100% chill means anything the Popsicle Sticks shoot at will get slowed, blinded and the subsequent shot will cut through 20% of its cold resist. On Standard, a good WED & Crit amulet will work quite well too.



Jewels that bring this build to the next level!
Spoiler

Static Electricity Unique Jewel place on the Jewel slot between Scion, Ranger and Duelist grants a crazy amount of flat Lightning Damage (up to 40 Lightning damage). Even though this build is mostly trying to do cold damage, there is only so much cold damage this game has to offer so Static Electricity provides a good source of Lightning Damage which scales very well with this build.

Omen on the Winds introduced in 2.6 gives an insane boost to this already great build. Increased damage against chilled (which is 100% for this build), bigger Ice shot cones and 100% (2 jewels) piercing is too good not to include in this build.

I would suggest running 2 of these jewels for always pierce and up to 40% increased damage. You can of course run one of these for up to 80% pierce (30% from Scion's Ranger ascendancy).

Gem Link: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Omen_on_the_Winds

Suggested Jewel Placement





Passive Skill Tree, Keystones & Bandits
Spoiler

Keystones
Spoiler

● Ancestral Bond (Only taken at level 68) is key to hit 3 Popsicle Sticks.
● Point Blank (Only taken at level 68) provides 50% damage if the enemy is in front of the Popsicle Sticks which kinda means always as you will be dropping it in the enemies faces, force feeding them some tasty Popsicle.


Bandits
Spoiler

Normal : Help Oak (+40 Life)
Cruel : Help Kraityn (+8% attack speed)
Merciless : Kill all (mercilessly kill all to get +1 Passive point)


Passive Skill Tree (Level 60) (4 Ascendancy Points)


Passive Skill Tree (Level 90) (8 Ascendancy Points)



My Gear Setup & Recommendations
Spoiler

My Current Gear
Spoiler



Recommended gear setup & Stats on gear to look out for
Spoiler

Helmet : Lab Enchantment for "40% Increased Ice Shot Damage". Life, Ele Resist & Accuracy

Body Armour : 5 to 6 link. Armour & Evasion or Pure Evasion is preferred for easy slot coloring. Life & Ele Resist

Gloves : Gripped Glove: Attack Speed (>10%), Cold Damage to Attacks (as high as you can go), Life & Accuracy (Ele Resist if possible)

Boots : Movement Speed, Life, Ele Resist & preferred "% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently" Enchantment

Belt : Weapon Ele Damage, Life, Ele Resist

Main Hand : Nuro's Harp

Off Hand : Skirmish - End goal would be a corrupted Skirmish with +1 Arrow

Ring #1 : Weapon Ele Damage, Life, Cold Damage to Attacks, % Cold Damage, Ele Resist

Ring #2 : Weapon Ele Damage, Life, Cold Damage to Attacks, % Cold Damage, Ele Resist

Amulet : The Pandemonius or Life, Weapon Ele Damage, Crit Multi/Chance (if Standard League)

Jewels (unique) : Static Electricity, Mantra of Flames

Jewels (rare) : Cold Damage, Totem Damage & Projectile Damage (cost ~5c) or Cold Damage, Projectile Damage & % Life (cost ~10c)


Flask
Spoiler

My Current Flasks:


Recommended: Instant Life Flask x2, Atziri's Promise, Granite/Basalt Flask and Quicksilver.
Note: Anti Bleed, Anti Freeze and Anti Curse on any of the non-unique flask.


Skill Gems & Links
Spoiler

Main Skill
Ice Shot + Ranged Attack Totem + Added Cold Damage + Hypothermia + Weapon Elemental Damage + Faster Attacks

Movement
Blink Arrow + Faster Attack

Golem
Ice Golem + Fortify + Culling Strike(Optional)

Heralds
Herald of Thunder / Herald of Ice + Hypothermia

Aura
Clarity + Enlighten(Optional/Not required)

Curses
Split Arrow + Curse on Hit + Chain + Frostbite

Defenses
Cast when damage taken + Immortal Call + Vortex

Extra (vaal)
Vaal Summon Skeletons or Vaal Haste

*Untested: Frost Bomb + Faster Casting (+ Inc. Area + Inc. Duration)
I have yet to test this build with Frost Bombs but it should be quite effective to help reducing boss cold resist significantly.


Leveling Guide
Spoiler

Leveling up as a split shot archer (bow + quiver) seems to be quite efficient from what I went through as I breezed through normal and cruel while only slowing down during merciless due to general gearing problems (not wanting to upgrade my gear until I hit level 68 for Nuro's Harp)

Normal Mode
Spoiler
Use Split Shot, get your hands on a Doomfletch and you should get through Normal in no time. Make sure to get a Lioneye's Paw too for the fire damage and movement speed. For everything else, level as you would normally as an archer.


Cruel Mode
Spoiler
Time to upgrade to a decent level appropriate bow with elemental damage or get a Doomfletch Prism. Make sure to keep your life at least around 2000s and with acceptable resistance, you should level smoothly into Merciless.


Merciless Mode
Spoiler
Doomfletch Prism remains as it can carry you all the way to level 68 when you transition into Nuro's Harp and Ancestral Bond. Try to get your hands on a Lioneye's Vision at level 59 as it would grant you some sort of a free 5link for a low price. I used a 4 link Lioneye's Vision all the way until I got a 6link body armor. Your goal would be to get as much life and elemental resist on your rare gear as all the uniques used does not provide any life and barely any resist.



Videos
Spoiler

Sorry for the funky video quality as I recorded it on 2k resolution on my outdated 280x GPU (using a 4k monitor) and also the mouse position is off, need to find out why.

Normal Atziri run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrdwpsvNwyg

Tier 9 Rare Promenade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_pEZcfesTY

Will upload higher tier once I reach there.


This is a Modular build
Spoiler

I think this build is fairly adjustable to fit other playstyles. Some options that I can think of or have tested.

Multi Curse
Frostbite, Elemental Weakness and Temporal Chains would increase freeze time and cause enemies to have high negative cold resist. Just swap in a Windscream or Doedre's Damning and adjust stats on other gear accordingly, but overall life would surely drop.

Voltaxic/Windripper
Not taking Fangs of Frost on passive tree and changing the bow to another high elemental damage bow means that it can also be turned into a Voltaxic Totemer or MF Windripper Totemer.

Hardcore(most definitely hardcore viable)
If a 6link Nuro's Harp is available, a Kaom's Heart can be swapped in and taking more life nodes (Purity of Flesh wheel, Golem's Blood wheel), easily bringing this totem build well over 6k life.


Misc.
Spoiler

● Always drop Popsicle ahead of where you plan to go, let them do all the work and stay at a safe distance
● Safe to do practically any map mod - Just drop Heralds and Clarity if Blood Magic, bring Mana flask if no mana regen mod, ignores reflect mods as Popsicle will die for you
● Effective Popsicle placement is key to survival with this build as it has less than 5k life. Even with this little life, I have only died once since I started mapping
● Always make sure Popsicle are between the enemy and you while you keep on running around dodging and collecting loot
● Hold Shift when summoning Popsicle to avoid walking too near to the enemy and possibly getting killed. Popsicle summoning range isn't that great


2.6.0 Changes for Legacy League
Spoiler

With the changes to the passive tree, especially near the Ranger side which saw a lot of Weapon Elemental Damage (WED) nodes being added, the overall damage outcome of this build should increase significantly in 2.6.0.

I will make adjustments as the league goes but so far, the changes to the tree and new unique changes, this build will definitely shine and go far into red maps.


Thanks for checking out my build and hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to leave your comments or questions and I will get to it when I can : )
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
Editado por útlima vez por 174nana en 26 jul. 2017 4:56:17
Reflotado por última vez en 16 ago. 2017 23:20:19
Gonna try this buiild looks fun thanks :)
When do you get access to the second totem?
"
toneyg65 escribió:
When do you get access to the second totem?


What I did was equip a Skirmish right before I attempted Cruel Lab at the end of Act 4, Cruel.

With 2 totems you can easily coast your way to level 68 where you take Ancestral Bond.

You can take Ancestral Bond earlier or wear Skirmish (by level 19), but clearing things and leveling up on your own seems much faster with a decent bow and quiver imo.

Hope that helps :)
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
Editado por útlima vez por 174nana en 17 dic. 2016 22:13:16
passive skill tree lv40 should be lv50?
If you don't mind a total noob asking a dumb question, why take the bow skill point passives with ancestral bond? Does it give the crit chance to the totems when socketed into the bow or give damage to those skeletons? Your gear setup doesn't even have the totem gems socketed into the bow. I thought maybe just for leveling but you have them in your final tree.

Insight into what I don't understand would be great as I started this build and can't seem to justify the bow passives to myself.

Thanks!
Salty
"Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is." -Peter Baelish
"
c80176 escribió:
passive skill tree lv40 should be lv50?


Thanks for pointing that out, I have changed it to level 50 tree :)
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
"
SaltyRamen escribió:
If you don't mind a total noob asking a dumb question, why take the bow skill point passives with ancestral bond? Does it give the crit chance to the totems when socketed into the bow or give damage to those skeletons? Your gear setup doesn't even have the totem gems socketed into the bow. I thought maybe just for leveling but you have them in your final tree.

Insight into what I don't understand would be great as I started this build and can't seem to justify the bow passives to myself.

Thanks!
Salty


All questions are a good question, have no fear.

Totems are an extension of the player with all passives and stats that affect the player, affecting the totem too. Only the totem passives and stats will affect the totem alone and not the player.

Gems can be socketed in any gear to grant the player the ability to use that skill as long as the player meets the requirements to use the skill granted by the gem.

Bow passives taken early on helps greatly with leveling as this build should level as an archer all the way up to level 68. Only then should the build move into Ancestral Bond, triple Popsicle maker.

Hope it helps and keep the questions coming :)
[3.7]Chaos Agnostic - CRAZY Life & Mana Sustain!!!:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2590042

[S1E8]Hideout of the week, Mausoleum of Bones: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1088469
So spec out of the bow passives after bond? I guess im just not understanding beyond leveling because you have you bow crit in your final level 90 passive tree which seems to me to be doing your character no good. Could it not be improved by savinng respec points for something else after bond? Do the bow passives provide anything after you take ancestral bond?
"Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is." -Peter Baelish
Editado por útlima vez por SaltyRamen en 22 dic. 2016 14:03:51
I believe that since Ice Shot is listed as a Bow ability, passives will apply.
Editado por útlima vez por ReyZero en 22 dic. 2016 16:22:57

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