





Overview (POB)

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Welcome to my Cast on Crit - Ice Nova build guide.

The concept and idea of this build is nothing new, but i wanted to give it my touch by writing a clean and easy to read guide.



The build itself is very straight forward, but some things can go wrong if you don't know what you are doing. Starting from the leveling process to end game and min-maxing, i will cover most things that you would want to know. Don't be afraid to ask questions, im looking into this thread at least once a day.



End-Game

3M+ DPS

5k+ Life

50-75% Dodge / Spell Dodge

Uber Elder & Shaper viable



Path Of Building Link









Showcase

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Pros & Cons

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Pros

Incredible single target DPS even with low investment

Almost max dodge and stun immune thanks to cyclone

Super fast clear and overall speed while mapping

Very smooth transition into the main build

Overall cheap gear except for a few parts



Cons

Might get to laggy for some people

You still have to get in melee range to crit

Dealing with APS for CoC timers can be annoying

Glass cannon build without much investment into defenses







Skill Trees

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[3.10] Orb of Storms (1) Skill Tree





[3.10] Orb of Storms (2) Skill Tree





[3.10] Orb of Storms (3) Skill Tree





[3.10] Orb of Storms (4) Skill Tree





[3.10] Ice Nova (1) Skill Tree





[3.10] Ice Nova (2) Skill Tree





[3.10] Ice Nova (3) Skill Tree









Ascendancy

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(1) Opportunistic

Pretty much permanent 20% Movement speed and 20% more damage to almost all bosses for the rest of the game. Taking this as your first node not only guarantees a good leveling experience, its also great for end game.



(2) Mistwalker

This node beats out any other as the secondary option in my opinion. Getting even more movement speed as early as possible on top of some decent defense is the best choice here. The speed feels amazing in maps and It will also help us reach the perfect APS for CoC later on.



(3) Unstable Infusion

Free Power Charge generation and +1 to maximum Charges is gonna provide you with easy crits from here on and sets up the base for the next point. Being able to keep up charges while fighting bosses is also extremely valuable for any crit build.



(3) Deadly Infusion

We get 2% base crit which is absurdly good and a decent amount of crit multiplier. Not much else to say here.







Pantheon

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(1) Soul Of Lunaris

If there is one thing Cyclone builds love its movement speed. The dodge chance is a nice bonus since we are stacking dodge with Acro and Phase Acro + Mistwalker anyway.



(2) Soul Of Shakari

Pretty good for general mapping. Not having to deal with poison and taking less chaos damage overall is better compared to any other minor pantheon.



(3) Soul Of Yugul

Only spec into this when you are doing Uber Elder or Shaper. If you get your Crit Chance high up, you can even run reflect maps with this and the Opportunistic Ascendancy node.







Bandits

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Kill all Bandits or help Alira

Always help Alira! Its very hard to beat her stats for a long time on any crit build. Feel free to take the Skill Points when you get to a very high level and have the jewels to min-max though.





Help Alira:

5 Mana Regenerated per second

+20% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

+15% to all Elemental Resistances

Kill all:

+2 Skill Points



How to change your Bandit Rewards









Equipment

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Gear

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Gear Guidance

The only items to make this build truly get going and work are Cospri's, Frozen Trail and a 14% CRS Belt. So focus on those parts while you are leveling as the rest doesn't matter as long as you get max resists and some life. You can use a Mark of the Shaper + Elder Ring combo or an Atziri's Promise instead of a Jade Flask for even more DPS later on.







Desired Stats

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Helmet

Life - Resistances - Dex/Int - Accuracy - Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance



Gloves

Life - Resistances - Accuracy - Dex/Int



Boots

Life - Movement Speed



Amulet

Life - Critical Strike Multiplier - Dex/Int - Resistances - Accuracy - Damage Penetration



Rings

Life - Resistances - Accuracy - Dex/Int - Channelling Skills have -3 to Total Mana Cost



Belt

Life - Resistances - 14% Cooldown Recovery Speed



Jewels

Critical Strike Multiplier - Resistances - Increased Maximum Life





Stat Guidance

This build doesn't require much and the special stats it does, don't take a lot to acquire. Everything can be easily crafted or obtained in trade Leagues.



(1) Damage

Use Frigid Fossils on a ilvl 85+ Redeemer base Helmet to get a good combination of Life/Resists and the -9% to Cold Resistance to nearby enemies.



(2) Sustain

Craft at least one -3 Mana mod on one of your Rings or Amulet. Going from 5 to 2 Mana cost makes a big difference for mana sustain and allows us to use Inspiration with infinite up-time.



(3) Build Enabler

For the 14% Cooldown Recovery Speed (very important craft) choose a good Shaper Belt base and spam Orb of Alterations til you hit any combination of Life/Resist/CRS. I recommend aiming for 70+ Life + 14% CRS, then Regal and hope for a Resist. Finish it with a 20% to X and X Resistances craft and now you got a pretty decent belt.



(4) Bonus

Getting the Damage Penetration mod on your Amulet on top of all the other stats you need is quite hard to be honest. Its more of a luxury stat if you can get it on top of the other stats, which you can get much easier.













Gem Setup

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Setup

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Weapon



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Weapon



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Chest



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Helmet



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Gloves



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Boots (Maps)



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Boots (Bosses)







In-Depth Explanation

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Weapon 1

Make sure to socket Frost Bolt before Ice Nova for the proper interaction. The Life Leech on top is huge for sustain since we don't really have other ways of healing up.



Weapon 2

Frost Bomb and Forstbite gives you an automatic -40% Cold Resist setup against bosses in your Off-Hand. Not having to stand still and cast these Skills is a big quality of life setup. The 30% more Damage from Vaal Righteous Fire provides good bursts on Shaper and Guardians.



Chest

I have seen many setups and ways people build their CoC Ice Nova characters and feel like this is the best overall setup. You can easily switch out Concentrated Effect for Increased Area of Effect depending on if you are mapping or bossing.



Helmet

Getting a level 3 Enlighten is essential if you want to run 2 Auras and a level 1-5 Precision (level 4 Enlighten allows us to use level 10 Precision). I went a step further and got the 15% reduced Hatred mana reservation enchant to have a bigger mana pool for Flame Dash spam and Ice Golem. You can also use Skitter Bots instead of Zealotry early on as they reserve less mana for a higher level precision if you are struggling with accuracy.



Gloves

Flame Dash is in my opinion the best movement skill in the game. If you really want to you can use Leap Slam or Whirling Blades with Fortify, but i went the glass cannon route and choose Arcane Surge over it (Don't level Arcane Surge over level 7). I reached a comfortable level where i don't care if i die in maps and bosses are no problem anyway. A good offense is the best defense as they say, especially in Softcore when there is no real penalty.



Boots (Maps)

Classic Herald of Ice setup with free Onslaught, Frenzy Charges and bonus damage for your main setup while mapping (also satisfying shatters). Deactivate Zealotry to run this setup.



Boots (Bosses)

Linking Vortex to Bonechill, Unbound Ailments and Hypothermia is a big damage buff for our main setup as enemies have their cold damage taken increased by chill effect. The base Chill effect of Vortex is 10%, we buff that by almost 100% with this gem setup, bringing it close to 20% chill effectiveness. Since the cast time of Vortex is instant, you can drop it while you keep spinning with Cyclone for a 20% more Damage boost.









Leveling

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The big Three

We can make use of one of the currently strongest leveling setups in the game until we switch to our main setup. You can easily reach maps in 4-5 hours depending on how fast you are at League starts. Im talking about Orb of Storms + Lightning Spire Trap + Wave of Conviction leveling. Transitioning into the main build is also very smooth since the Ice Nova Skill Tree is so similar to Orb of Storms.





Gem Progression

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Level 1-12

3L Frost Bomb - Added Cold - Onslaught

2L Explosive Trap - Added Lightning

2L Flame Dash - Arcane Surge

1L Dash



Level 13-22

3L Orb of Storms - Added Lightning - Onslaught

2L Wave of Conviction - Physical to Lightning

1L Herald of Ice

1L Herald of Thunder



Level 23-32

3L Orb of Storms - Elemental Proliferation - Ice Bite

3L Lightning Spire Trap - Controlled Destruction - Trap and Mine Damage

2L Herald of Ice - Onslaught



Level 33-40

4L Orb of Storms - Elemental Proliferation - Ice Bite - Increased Critical Strikes

4L Lightning Spire Trap - Added Lighting - Controlled Destruction - Trap and Mine Damage

1L Lightning Golem



Level 41-50

4L Orb of Storms - Elemental Proliferation - Ice Bite - Chain

3L Herald of Ice - Onslaught - Innervate

3L Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Conductivity

3L Wave of Conviction - Physical to Lightning - Faster Casting



Level 61-??

6L Orb of Storms - Ice Bite - Chain - Increased Critical Strikes - Hypothermia - Added Lightning





Final Setup

6L Orb of Storms - Increased Critical Strikes - Hypothermia - Chain - Added Lightning Damage - Faster Casting

4L Lightning Spire Trap - Added Lighting - Controlled Destruction - Trap and Mine Damage

4L Wave of Conviction - Faster Casting - Physical to Lightning - Controlled Destruction

4L Herald of Ice - Ice Bite - Onslaught - Innervate

3L Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Conductivity

1L Flame Dash - Arcane Surge - Lightning Golem



Check out the Pastebin in the Overview section for the leveling trees







Gem Sources

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"Breaking Some Eggs" (Act 1)





"Mercy Mission" (Act 1)





"The Caged Brute" (Act 1)





"Intruders in Black" (Act 2)





"Sharp and Cruel" (Act 2)





"The Root of the Problem" (Act 2)





"Sever the Right Hand" (Act 3)





"Lost in Love" - (Act 3)





"A Fixture of Fate" (Act 3)





"Breaking the Seal" (Act 4)





"The Eternal Nightmare" (Act 4)







Gear

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Gear Guidance

First off i want to say that you don't need this type of leveling gear at all to have a good experience, but it does of course make things a lot easier. You can pretty much use these items all the way through all 10 acts if you do decide to use them though.



A pair of Axioms is always the best option for leveling with Spells. Switch Ungil's Harmony for Marylene's Fallacy once you have at least 40%+ Crit Chance with the penalty or feel like you would benefit more from the Crit Multiplier. I would recommend Add Cold/Lighting Damage to Spells Jewels for the Abyss Belt.



Definitely use at least two Quicksilver Flasks until you start using the other utility Flasks. You can drop the second Quicksilver once you get your Diamond and Granite Flask going. Keep using a Life Flask and the moment you stop having Mana issues replace the Mana Flask with a Jade Flask.











FAQ

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When should i switch from Orb Of Storms to CoC?

You can make the switch at around 80-85 if you have the required gear. But in Leagues just keep playing Orb Of Storms til 90 and get each part along the way.



What is the perfect attack speed for CoC trigger timers?

Without 14% cooldown recovery speed from a belt or boots, you should aim for just under 6.6 APS and with the 14% try to aim for just under 7.5 APS. Two Cospris with 27% total attack speed (13% and 14% for example) and Mistwalker, you end up at exactly 7.49 APS. My tree has only one attack speed node (5%) and make sure you don't roll it on your gear or jewels.



Why not get more APS with a higher Cooldown Recovery value for more Spell triggers?

Getting to that kind of attack speed without really investing into it on the tree/jewels or gear is kinda annoying when you consider you have to reach a specific APS number. Its a bit to much to handle while you have to get life, resists and accuracy etc on gear. Getting to the perfect 7.49 APS mark without heavy investment into attack speed just feels great and allows you to focus on other things.



Isn't Onslaught and Frenzy Charges bad since it breaks our perfect 7.49 APS value?

We only care about APS breakpoints while we are actually doing content that requires consistent DPS. While mapping, you want to speed through packs and just spin once to pop them with Herald of Ice.



Which node should i anoint on my Amulet?

You can go to Sister Cassia and put in your amulet + 3 Oils to get a specific Node on the Tree. I recommend Weathered Hunter for some very easy accuracy rating, resists and much needed dexterity to use Cospri's. Its hands down the best node to get for this type of build until you get those stats sorted.



I seem to miss a lot of hits/crits sometimes, why is that?

Sometimes you desync while playing in predictive (this happens to any character or build). You can either decide to play with lockstep if you have a very good connection/ping or bind the "/oos" command to your mouse/keyboard. The command basically forces a resync on your character.







Changelog & Updates

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October 15, 2019 - Added new "Showcase" videos. Updated the Gem Setup section.

- Added new "Showcase" videos. Updated the Gem Setup section. March 18, 2020 - Updated the POB link and Gear section.

Last edited by Raikudou on Mar 18, 2020, 9:13:24 AM Last bumped on Sep 3, 2020, 2:00:09 PM