3.18 - Ice Trap Ascendant - A10 Pts+Labs - 3h47m04s

---Required Links--- Travel Setup As Soon As Possible: Leap Slam (R) - Faster Attacks (G) - Post 28 Lifetap (R) ** Can supplement Leap Slam with Frostblink (B) if you want some additional speed, but socket pressure will likely result in Frostblink being dropped Onslaught/Exposure Skill: Frostbomb (B) - Onslaught (G) - Any Reasonable Damage Support - Post 28 Lifetap (R) until then Any Reasonable Damage Support Pre-28 Primary Single Target Skills: Spark (B) - Pierce (G) - Any Reasonable Damage Support - Any Reasonable Damage Support OoS (B) - Any Reasonable Damage Support - Any Reasonable Damage Support Post-28: Ice Trap (G) - Lifetap (R) - Swift Assembly (G) - Any reasonable damage support with heavy preference towards Trap and Mine Damage (G) Vortex (B) - Arcane Surge (B) - Bonechill (B) if space is available Bear Trap (G) As Soon As Possible Reservations: Skitterbots (B) Ice Trap Transition Reservations: Vitality (R) Once Charisma and 15% Mana Reservation Efficiency: Grace (G) Curse: Frostbite (B) ---Flexible Links--- Reservations: Warbanner (R) early until 28 Herald of Thunder (B) / Herald of Ice (G) depending on sockets and what you took from A2 Fidelitas Quest until Grace or drop early if you need additional m ana pool Defiance Banner (R) or Arctic Armour (G) (will need to wait until Charisma, 15% Reservation Mastery, and 25% Grace Reservation Mastery) Golem: Use golem of choice Guard: Use steelskin (r) when possible. I personally prefer having a stone golem over steelskin later in game if I only have 1 red socket available ---Notable Pathing--- (1) Scion Spell Damage Pathing Towards Harrier (5pts - Lvl 6) (2) Harrier (1pt - Lvl 6) (3) Trickery via Intelligence Pathing NE Between Witch and Shadow (8pts - Lvl 12 w/ Dweller and Fairgraves Skill Pts) (4) Elemental Focus (2pts - Lvl 14) (5) Blood Siphon (2pts - Lvl 16) (6) Coordination (2pts - Lvl 17 w/ Way Forward Skill Pt) (7) Cold Hearted Calculation (2pts - Lvl 19) (8) Hired Killer w/ 50 Life Mastery (5pts - Lvl 24) (9) Expeditious Munitions w/ Recover 30 Life on Trap Trigger (5pts - Lvl 27 w/ Busts and Piety Kill Skill Pts) (10) Saboteur (2pts - Lvl 28 w/ Extra Pt from First Ascendancy via Trap and Mine Damage Small Node) (11) Snowforged w/ 15% Elemental Resistance Mastery (6pts - Lvl 33 w/ Deshret Skill Pt) (12) Written In Blood (4pts - Lvl 37) (13) Master Sapper w/ 5% Chance to Throw 4 Traps Mastery (7pts - Lvl 42 w/ Miasmeter and Torments Skill Pts) (14) Revenge of the Hunter (4pts - Lvl 44 w/ Tuokohama and Abberath Skill Pts) (15) Charisma w/ 15% Mana Reservation Efficiency Mastery (5pts - Lvl 48 w/ Ryslatha Skill Pt) (16) Grace Reservation Efficency Mastery on Revenge of the Hunter (1pt - Lvl 49) (17) Ghost Dance (4pts - Lvl 49 w/ Ralakesh, Gruthkul, and Kishara's Star Skill Pts and Extra Skill Pt from 2nd Ascendancy) (17) Clever Construction (4pts - Lvl 53) (18) Unstable Munitions w/ 50% Skitterbot Reservation Efficiency Mastery (2pts - Lvl 54 w/ Tolman Skill Pt) (19) 50% Skitterbot Reservation Efficiency Mastery on Clever Construction/Unstable Munitions Wheel (1pt - Lvl 54 w/ Gemling Legion Skill Pt) (19) Melding w/ Vitality Effiency Mastery (5pts - Lvl 57 w/ Yugul and Shakari Skill Pts) (20) Fill out Revenge of Hunter Wheel (2pts - Lvl 58 w/ Garukhan Skill Pt) (21) Leadership w/ 15 Aura Effect Mastery (4pts - Lvl 60 w/ Vilenta and Extra Skill Pt from 3rd Ascendancy) *Also viable to do 8% per aura/herald effecting, but I much prefer the juiced auras for better utility/defensiveness as offense really isn't issue anymore (22) High Explosives (2pts - Lvl 60 w/ Second Extra Ascendancy Skill Pt from 3rd Ascendancy and w/ respecing Elemental Small Damage Node Between Trickery and Elemental Focus) ** Note in run, I forgot to do this and instead just put the point in the small Trap Throw Speed node to immediate left of Saboteur ---Gem Acquisition--- Please note that due to currency contraints from run to run, you may not be able to always buy the gems as listed here exactly when they are listed. Likewise, due to color/link constraints, you might not be able to fit the gem into your gear when you buy it or use it period if proper colors/links do not become available at some point. Ranger Mule Hillock Reward: Take any green gem, mule over pierce (G), burning arrrow (G), and the green gem you took from Tarkleigh. Burning Arrow and the green gem you took will be used for lightning wands at lvl 8 via making topaz rings with iron ring x green gem Scion Hillock Reward: Take any gem from Tarkleigh Buy Spark (B) from Nessa Hailrake/Submerged Reward: Take lesser poison (G) from Hailrake Quest Reward At Nessa Buy Orb of Storms (B) from Nessa Take Frostbomb (B) from Tarkleigh for Submerged Reward 1 Take Frostblink (B) from Tarkeligh for Submerged Reward 2 Buy Flame Wall (B) Buy War Banner (R) ** You might not have all the wisdoms to buy supplemental skills from Nessa, I would buy them Orb of Storms -> Flame Wall -> War Banner in order when I can returning to town Lower Prison Enter Reward: Take Added Lightning (B) Brutus Kill Reward: Take Leap Slam (R) Merveil's Caverns Enter Reward: Take whatever gem. Typically, I will take a Blue gem here to 20 cold crafts to have a gem to use in sapphire ring Fidelitas/Baleful Gem Reward: Take Herald of Thunder (B) Buy Skitterbots (B) from Yeena Weaver Kill Reward: Take Faster Attacks (G) Buy Trap and Mine Damage (G) if you have extra alteration (ie >2 alteraions... you don't buy if you only have 2 alterations as you need them for sceptre crafts at 20), if not wait until after you get Ice Trap at 28 Way Forward Skill Point Act 1 Retrun: Buy Steelskin (R) Buy Swift Assembly (G) Buy Bear Trap (G) Buy Life Trap (R)... save for after getting Ice Trap if you don't have spare transmutes... I will typically try to put Ice Trap, Leap Slam, and Frostbomb on Lifetap Buy Vitality (R)... can be saved until Ice Trap transition if you don't have spare transmutes ** Due to how many transmutes this buy can entail, often its better to wait until transition to Ice Trap to get Vitality and Lifetaps. Although depending on your reservation situation, getting a lower level vitality can be helpful Clarissa/Tolman Quest Reward: Take Frostbite (B) Gravicius Quest Reward: Reward doesnt matter, but do this quest so you get access to 28 gems at Clarissa Buy Ice Trap (G) (Transition to Ice Trap/Preparation to Use Ice Trap at 28): Buy Trap and Mine Damage (G) from A2 if you don't already have Buy Life Tap (R) from A1 if you don't already have for Ice Trap Buy Vitality (R) from A1 Open Mines Quest: Take Golem of Choice. Here, I take Stone Golem (R) as its the most useful golem option. Chaos Golem (B) or Flame Golem (R) are decent options as well. Open Belly Quest: Buy Bonechill (B) Lily in A6 Quest: Buy Grace (G) [Please note that Scion doesn't get this in A3 and I forgot and had to go back and do Lily in like Mid-A7 or something] Other: Buy Defiance Banner (R) or Arctic Armour (G) depending on your reservation preference for a defense reservation in addition to Grace ---Bandit Choice--- Alira or Kill All. Alira provides the most QoL through its resistance bonus, mana regen, and crit multiplier. While this build does not heavily invest into crit, it probably would heading into maps. The mana regen is nice even though this build uses a lot of 3x Lifetraps, it is still nice for when you need to curse/vortex. Moreover, the resistances provide super high QoL. Kill All is a good option to get some extra points that you can invest in some damage nodes, but managing resistances speed running campaign can be a bit obnoxious without Alira resistances. I would recommend Alira over Kill All for speed leveling purposes, especially if you are trying to do the run deathless. ---Pantheons--- Major: Brine King Minor: Tukohama or Ryslatha, I typically prefer Tukohama ---Pre-Ice Trap Setup--- There are two major setups you can use for leveling from 1 to 28. Either Spark or Stormblast Mine will work. I prefer Spark as it allows some more flexibility in case you get massive socket pressure, its better for supplemental clear, and you can use it to proc Arcane Surge once you start Leap Slamming. Stormblast will be better for single target though, but on balance the time loss on single target does not outweigh QoL for spark for me. It should also be noted that the stormblast setup will transition easier in terms of gemlinks to ice trap as there is some overlap on desired supports such as Swift Assembly and Trap and Mine Damage ---Ice Trap Transition--- The transition to Ice Trap can involve a lot of gems. You need to make sure you have Bear Trap (G), Swift Assembly (G), Trap and Mine Damage (G), Vitality (R), and Multiple Lifetaps (R). I would priortize getting Lifetap on Ice Trap -> Leap Slam -> Frostbomb Typically, I will wait until getting Ice Trap to buy a lot of these gems as I should have the extra currency for it. ---Sustaining Ice Trap Cost--- So traps are super expensive mana wise, so we use Lifetap. In order to maintain our HP, we first want to make sure we have vitality and the 30 life on trap trigger mastery. From there while clearing zones the Recover 2% Life on Kill from Hired Killer will help sustain, while on single target we will use health flasks as needed. Finally, once we get second lab, life sustain should be pretty easy as we'll have 10% life regen from the sabo ascendant point. ---Muling--- Muling is highly recommended for the extra currency and chance a good links for the run. The best mule to use if you're planning on using spark is ranger for pierce as Spark - Pierce is the best caster setup for clearing mudflats. If you want to use Stormblast mine, I would recommend muling a shadow for Chance to Poison Support. You can also choose not to mule, but you will be tighter on currency. If you choose not to mule, I would take splitting steel from Tarkleigh and use that to clear Mudflats/Hailrake. ---Wands vs Sceptres vs Rune Daggers--- This build uses leap slam, so do not pick up wands from first vendors. Instead look for sceptres. If you want to whirling blades instead, you can use rune daggers but you won't be able to easily do 8 crafts on them as rune daggers do not become available until Lvl 10, so you would need to use wands until 20 crafting on rune daggers. You can use flame dash all the way through if you want with wands, but it will be slower than leap slam or whirling. You can also shield charge, but Scion does not get shield charge until Lily or Library ---Flat Ele Crafts--- Try for First Lvl 8 Sceptre Craft Pre-Brutus (Magic Sceptre + Normal Resist Ring + 1 Orb of Alteration) with preference for using a topaz ring... at this point only sapphire ring will be available from vendor or drops (Lvl 8) Try for 2nd Lvl 8 Sceptre Craft before Merveil, ie after returning to turn in Fairgraves skill point (Magic Sceptre + Normal Resist Ring + 1 orb of alteration... at this point sapphire and topaz rings will be available from vendor or drops (Lvl 12) Double craft at Lvl 20 (Magic Sceptre + Rare Resist Ring + 1 Orb of Alteration) with heavy, heavy preference towards double sapphire/cold craft, but using another rare resist ring is fine if you do not have second rare sapphire. ---Onslaught--- Onslaught was used throughout the entirety of run via frostbomb. I do not transition off using onslaught on frostbomb as not much attack speed is gained on tree to justify transitioning off. ---Movement Skills--- You will use frost blink into leap slam at level 10. You can keep frostblink around with leap slam for the leap slam-frostblink movement tech, but it is not required if you don't want to extra overhead of using two movement skills. Moreover, there is a lot of socket pressure in this build, so you might end up not having space for frostblink. ---Exposure Source--- Frost Bomb will be used to apply exposure. Because we also use frostbomb for onslaught, it does not make much sense to use hydrosphere as the exposure source. ---Bonechill Source--- You can put Bonechill on Vortex or Skitterbots. I would only put it on Skitterbots if you don't have a 3B for Vortex or your mana pool cannot sustain a 3L vortex. ---Arcane Surge Source--- Because leap slam is used a source for arcane surge will be needed instead of Flame Dash. The best option is Vortex which will provide some additional damage, chill, and can further amplify damage via Bonechill. You want to make sure that your arcane surge will only be leveled such that every 2 casts of Vortex will proc arcane surge to ensure 100% uptime. ---Guard Source--- This build uses steelskin as its guard source. However, it should be noted that socket pressure will end up resulting in steelskin probably being dropped at some point. I will typically use steelskin from about 18 to 28 on left click until I have vortex. ---Library, Lily, Both or None--- I would recommend doing Lily. You need to do one of Lily or Library as you need to get Grace and Scion does not get without Lily or Library. Library is not really worth the time investment on scion as other than 50% defensive auras, Scion gets pretty much everything this build needs.