Cold DoT Trickster vs Simulacrum - Full Run + Thoughts | Path of Exile [3.29]

PoB: https://pobb.in/ATtXwBFqUICX

At this point, the build is worth 70 ( all Ubers PoB ) + 225 ( focused amulet ) + another 5 Divines to swap and change things around. It's probably in the realm of 300 Divines, but it could also be cheaper or more expensive. It depends on market price, mod tiers/rolls or if you decide to craft gear components.

For the first 12 waves, I decided to remove my amulet and play without it, then I put it back on for the last 3 waves. That wasn't a flex ( cope ), but I wanted to see how the ~70 Divines variant performs. It works just fine and I probably could have avoided death too, if I played a little bit more careful. It's in fact worse to play with no amulet than playing with the replica dragonfang from this PoB: https://pobb.in/XyzzfdxW3q3F

I also noticed that the clear was somewhat weird. Either that or I haven't done a Simulacrum in a while. I think it was the 80% - 100% deli kicking in plus something a bit obscure, which is Invention Support.

Invention Support rewards the user ONLY if the traps stay untriggered on the ground long enough. In a Simulacrum environment, these traps will not ramp up damage, since the arena is small and monsters literally assault the character. These traps will be stepped on instantly, so I think I basically played without a support gem the entire time.

Considering this interaction, I would recommend swapping Invention Support with Elemental Focus for Simulacrum. This way, the user will have consistent dps against mobs and bosses.

Taking into account all of the above, I think I could have completed the last 3 waves and pass the dps check with the ~70 Divines build variant. However, I would have spent more time trying to beat Kosis and Omniphobia, which is sketchy. User dodging and awareness is required, especially when Kosis gets 3 extra projectiles ( hardest Simulacrum mod imo, I'm glad I rolled it first try ).

At 21:52 I did some serious tanking. My character had 1 Ghost Dance stack when Kosis started dumping fireballs. Having 1 charge of Ghost Dance was bad, because I missed out on recovery. However, this is where Spellbreaker kicked in. My recharge started INSTANTLY and made me tank MULTIPLE overlapped fireballs, making it seem like I didn't even need Ghost Dance stacks after all. Those couple of seconds put Trickster's Spellbreaker in full display.

About crafting:

The first upgrade for this variant of Cold DoT should be the body armour, which is a necrotic armour base with the mod "Evasion Rating is Increased by Overcapped Cold Resistance". This is the key to evasion stacking and the key to unlock Trickster's real potential. Right now, Trickster isn't performing that well in the tank department, but dps is insane.

I decided to go for the amulet first, just because it's hard to find/non-existent on the market and self crafting it is a nightmare, considering splitting got removed from the game. Focused amulet bases are now x4 the price from Mirage League, which is around 160d per scoured amulet base.

Instead of recombining focused amulets, the old strategy could be better now. Get a focused amulet base, roll +1 to skill gems, try to harvest add the +1 cold, then reforge cold or elemental. There is a chance that the outcome will be either t1 cold resistance or any other t1 resistance mod ( or even % cold damage, which is ok ). It doesn't matter which type of resistance it is, because it can be harvest swapped to cold.

The even cheaper alternative would be to do the first 2 steps, then just craft cold resistance via crafting bench and call it a day.

Those are the 2 methods I know for crafting this amulet. I haven't done any brinehook/kishara's ducat crafts this league, so I'm unaware if those can be used here.