This is quite literally the league I've been asking for a while.

A strike skills league.

Who cares if melee gets rekt in Sanctums?

All strikes got Melee Splash on the passive tree.

That being said I've decided to do a brief write up on a league starter that has served me pretty well since day 1.

So why Glacial Hammer?

Because Heatshiver exists.

This one unique provides 130% more damage (cold gained as fire) and allows for trinity use only when one condition is met. That the enemy being attacked is frozen.

We can achieve 100% easily from passives on the skill tree, hypothermia and/or ice bite, gear such as Tasalio's Sign and a Labyrinth Enchant.

Would it be possible to get 100% chance to freeze from crits? Yes. But its far too expensive and inaccessible for it to be reliable early. The best way is to scale non-crit and eventually decide if you want to make a jump to a crit build.

So I will provide you three simple POBs, from level 24, level 55, any my current level 96. With each watered down POB (except the level 96 one) you can observe clearly that this build scales damage very easily only minimal investment (especially with day 5 league prices for cheap uniques).

What a cheap start, is this fair?

Level 22:https://pobb.in/GRk9Q7TGyqE0

You just hit Tribal Fury melee splash and + 1 strike targets along with Resolute technique. Hooray for not needing to be accurate.

Buy two brightbeaks at 1 alc each, 2 Tasalio's signs at 1 chaos each and 1 Heatshiver at 1 chaos.

You're slapping for 3k dps at level 22 on frozen targets on a 3 link with onslaught support. Because all these items also give resistances you're also almost res capped.

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Easy leveling

Level 52:https://pobb.in/tHVfWl_XoPi8

You now make your last weapon upgrade (you're using this weapon forever, trust me).

You pick up a Frostbreath for 1 chaos, look for one with 14% attack speed roll and a Painseeker glove for 1 chaos, look for one with Inflict non-Damaging Ailments as though dealing 185% more Damage.(or more)

You're at 30k dps on a 4 link. More than enough to carry you through the acts.

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Week 1 progress

Level 95:

https://pobb.in/Ta77xFtlCiwt

You've now ascended into Glacial Godhood, when you're in Sanctums Guards take a brief look at you before you leap slam into their faces and perma freeze them into oblivion. Not like it matters because at that DPS they die in 3 hits.

Deadly bladedancer is frozen mid cleave, his terrified eyes watch as you slowly bludgeon his frozen limbs to a pulpy goop with a weapon you've had on you since Act 7.

Brief write up into late game scaling:

You'll be relying on alot of very cheap interactions to scale the character. Painseekers will carry you through endgame till you decide on extra strike gloves for better clear (expensive though).

For example: Your trusty Heatshiver will never leave you until you decide to swap it out for one with a better lab enchant.

Because you're going to keep using Frostbreath, the best and ideal way to scale the damage is in the form of abyss jewels. As these jewels got a huge buff (you can get shock and bleed avoid on them) you can also effectively with very little effort get damage along with full ailment and bleed avoid. Not to mention loads of good 5 modded ones drop all the time from abyss. They are also stupid cheap because who else wants flat cold damage for maces and scepters? Lmao

Tasalio's Sign is ridiculously strong and will never see you drop them till you find a well rolled Mark of the Elder and Shaper ring.

Yoke of Suffering synergizes very well with Painseeker, not only will you be getting long duration freezes on target with non crits, but if you do apply that 45% chance to shock, it will be huge (40-50% most times).

Chains of Emancipation (another cheap unique btw). Gives you instant rage on flask, near permanent Berserk uptime and Curse immunity. What more do you want?

For body armor you just need a 6 link, period. It can be a rare with resistances on it.

Stormshroud made sense when it was 20 c at the time I bought it, you'll be fine with freeze pantheon and just shock avoid jewels.

Watcher's eye with flat cold damage with Hatred is possibly the most expensive purchase you may have to make.

3 notable clusters are a luxury. I got by with 2 notable clusters (make sure Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight are in the first 5 points on the way to getting the 2 sockets).

Eventually you'll do the same but with a blast-freeze cluster for more QOL.

So for a build this cheap what do you get?

Ailment immunity, bleed immunity, stun immune, curse immune. Ridiculous mobility (insane movement speed btw). Decent EHP and DPS with pretty straightforward scaling. You freeze almost everything, it itself being a pretty insane EHP layer.

Ask away if you've got questions. Don't worry about someone competing with you for the gear. There's only 5 of us on POE ninja.

Edit:

I've swapped out level 95 POB for something more realistic (before my new Jank setup). It should be a little easier on the eyes.