https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/rdespair/characters

Character: WerPRLLWI



Concept: I wanted a low-life build to take advantage of the boosted armour/evasion from Champion that also didn't cost much since I don't have any premium tabs and don't have a store. Whispering Ice was a natural choice since all that Int you're getting to increase Ice Storm's power also doubles as ES% (which is harder to get as a duelist) and WI is pretty cheap these days (and you don't need to link it unless you're doing a Curse on Hit build). Other than Whispering Ice, I don't think I've spent more than 1-3 chaos on any of my equipment, and some of it is self-found. You can get a 5-slot WI for about 4-5 chaos (6-slots seem to go for around 20+ chaos); I lucked out and got a vaaled 6-slot one for 5c that just happened to have the colors I needed (low Int roll & it doesn't have block chance, but woo for cheap!).



You can obviously replace equipment as you go with more expensive pieces of equipment to make it powerful enough for lategame content, but so far, the build has been a lot of fun and quite capable of dealing with early challenges.



This build should be good in group play as you taunt, tank, and increase your allies' damage capabilities.



Since you have higher health & better defenses than a traditional CI WI build would have, stun isn't much of an issue (plus you have 20% increased stun threshold and some avoid stun interruption while casting). You're not stun immune, but you don't need to be. Chill & freeze isn't usually an issue (higher life, evasion), but definitely have an appropriate flask on-standby for instances when it is.



My current stats at LV65 with cheap, mediocre equipment:



Offense:

Ice Storm tooltip: 1.2k avg damage (0.51 cast time), 33% cold penetration, 3.48 duration

Elemental Overload (40% more damage)

Ascendancy: Intimidate (Enemies take 10% more damage)

Ascendancy: Taunted enemies take 20% more damage (haven't actually done merc lab yet, but soon)

Rallying Cry



Defenses:

Life: 698/2k

ES: 2619

Armour: 1963 (29%)

Evasion: 9767 (60%)

Resistances: 73%-75% on everything including Chaos

75.8 life regen

Can fortify

Enfeeble Aura

Blind

Vaal Discipline

Mind over Matter (for any non-dot chaos damage)



Links:

Whispering Ice: (Ice Storm) + Concentrated + Elemental Focus + Controlled Destruction + Spell Echo + Life Leech + Cold Penetration

4: Blade Vortex + Spell Echo + Blind + Life Leech (could add stuff like Inc. Duration if you get 5-6 links on your body armour)

4: Dominating Blow + Fortify + Accuracy/Faster Attacks + Culling Strike

4: Enfeeble + Blood Magic + Blasphemy, Grace (not linked)

4: Rallying Cry + Vaal Discipline + Duration, Discipline



Ascendancy:

First to Strike, Last to Fall -> Conquerer -> Worthy Foe -> Inspirational



Bandits:

Resists, Passive, Passive



Unique items:

Whispering Ice - Gives you a cold Fire Storm that leaves chilling ground and scales damage & duration with your Intelligence. Really nice in that all sockets are automatically linked to Ice Storm so you can get a 7-link attack spell for WAY cheaper than it would cost to buy even a bad 6-link weapon.

Lori's Lantern - Some elemental & chaos resist, some QoL (light radius & movement speed) & the all-valuable enemy hits are unlucky. This is most useful for lightning damage since there's such a wide range of possible damage.

Brute Force Solution Jewel - Turns Str passives into Int. Used as you get out of the Duelist area.

Broken Crown - A cheap way to help cap your chaos resist.



Possible more expensive uniques to pick up later:

The Vertex - A lot more ES than Broken Crown but you'll need to get more chaos resist in other slots.

Astramentis - Massive amounts of Int (and Str/Dex), but in the meantime, you can make do with a cheap rare amulet with decent Int on it.

Repentance - With tons of Int and a decent amount of Str, you should have the stats to use this. Just have to make up the resistances elsewhere.



Equipment priorities:

Resistance capping > ES > Intelligence > Armour > Life > Evasion. Generally, you want to get armour on your equipment since you can get evasion via Grace, but you can still use EV/ES and pure ES gear if that's what you can find/buy.



Basic playstyle:

Try to keep 2-6 stacks of Blade Vortex up in combat - it triggers & refreshes Elemental Overload (giving your Ice Storm 40% more damage) & inflicts blind & taunt on nearby enemies.



Stacking Ice Storm can result in massive damage as long as the enemy isn't running away.



Be careful of elemental reflect & lightning thorns.



Use Dominating Blow for the fortify & to steal rare enemies with useful auras. Alternatively, you could use Frenzy for fortify & a slight damage/speed boost, but Dominating Blow is more fun. Last edited by rdespair on Jul 14, 2016, 4:40:03 PM Last bumped on Nov 15, 2016, 8:28:16 AM