Cold Snap of Power Offering stacker

Offering and Power Charge stacking Cold Snap of Power Occultist PROS: Clears screens Freezes stuff it doesn't oneshot Reasonably high damage Uber Sirus on farm mode Not meta: required uniques should be cheap Who needs Mageblood anyway? Death Offering makes things spicy CONS: Requires advanced game knowledge to understand Requires believing in math and PoB calculations Reasonably squishy Automatic Offering triggering can get annoying when AFK in Hideout Death Offering can make things too spicy TL; DR: Offering tech and Power Charges make this build go zoom-zoom and boom-boom. No Mageblood required! ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== OFFERING STACKING- THEORY Bone Offering, Flesh Offering and Spirit Offering are skills that give a large amount of attack/spell block, attack/cast/movement speed and increased critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier. Normally, these skills can only affect minions, but The Queen's Hunger makes Offerings also affect the player. By default, only one Offering can affect targets at a given time, but Leash of Oblation has a line that specifies that "You can have an Offering of each type". This means it is possible to have all three Offerings active at the same time, granting the player all of their associated bonuses. This forms the core of the build and they are the two main components that allow this kind of interaction. While the core loop is enabled by an interaction between two specific uniques, there are synergistic effects to consider. First: Offering effect. Offerings are affected by increased Effect of Offerings, reaching up to 90% increased effect (1.9x multiplier: 20% from The Queen's Hunger, 20% from Minion Offense Mastery, 50% from Death Offering (Catarina Bloodline)). This supercharges the Offering effects, granting pseudo-Mageblood effects without actually having Mageblood. Because the uniques required for the core loop are very much not meta (as of 3.29), this makes everything cheaper. A fully functioning build with comparable power level to Mageblood builds can be assembled at a fraction of the cost. Second: corpse generation. Offering skills need corpses to trigger. If there are no corpses in area, then the Offering trigger sequence fails and Offerings drop off. Death Offering (Catarina Bloodline) gives a huge amount of Offering effect, but with the drawback that if ANY Offerings fall off, the character dies (in-game this is shown with the message: "X has committed suicide"). For this reason, the Offerings need to be continuously triggered, even when there are no corpses in the area. This is where the anoint Hollow Effigy (Prismatic-Crimson-Silver) comes in. This anoint makes Offering skills not require corpses, meaning the Offerings can trigger anywhere. Third: Offering duration. The base duration for Offering skills is 5 seconds. The Queen's Hunger triggers the same Offering every 15 seconds, therefore Offering duration must exceed 15 seconds. This is solved by taking various increased skill effect duration nodes on the passive tree and socketing in More Duration and Efficacy supports in The Queen's Hunger. Gem quality here matters for More Duration Support, as gem quality directly adds to duration. For Efficacy Support, only gem level matters- 21/0 is completely fine, with no improvement coming from 21/20. Because of this, More Duration Support should be socketed in a RED SOCKET, which adds even more gem quality. Finally, Impossible Escape- Magebane gives access to the increased skill effect duration nodes on the other side of the passive tree. Impossible Escape- Magebane should be cheap, as hardly any builds utilise that. This combination of uniques results in a massive spike of offensive and defensive power, enabling ANY archetype that can make a good use from critical strikes. POWER CHARGE STACKING- THEORY Spirit Offering grants a large amount of increased critical stike chance and critical strike multiplier, which should be used to its maximum effect. This means that any critical strike build- attack or spell- can make use of this combination. Power Charges innately grant 50% increased critical strike chance per Power Charge, with additional bonuses being accessible from the passive tree. A combination of maximum Power Charges and a supercharged Spirit Offering can functionally guarantee that every attack or spell crits. Optimal candidates for this kind of tech synergy would be able to quickly generate Power Charges via skill use and have high base crit strike chance. This description fits two particular skills- Cold Snap of Power and Flicker Strike of Power. Both utilise Power Charges to remove their cooldown, making them spammable. With a 100% chance to crit + 100% chance to generate a Power Charge on crit, they are completely self-sufficient. THEORIES COMBINED- COLD SNAP OF POWER 3.29 update buffed Cold Snap of Power, increasing the base chance to gain Power Charges on crit from 30% to 50%. Additional quality also gives it (1-20%) chance to gain a Power Charge on crit. Furthermore, it has a high base chance to crit (10%), which makes achieving 100% chance to crit easy. Cold Snap of Power deals damage in a targeted location in an AoE, easily scaled up by skill levels. Pact of Beidat, a new gem introduced in 3.29, works by empowering the next X spells cast, making AoE spells repeat in a spiral pattern. This gives Cold Snap of Power mass AoE and screenwide pack clearing capabilities with potential shotgunning capabilities on bosses, since the spiral repeats don't happen simultaneously with the actual cast (there is a small delay). Through Occultist Ascendancy Forbidden Power and passive skill tree notable Disciple of the Forbidden, Power Charges are quickly generated and kept at their maximum. Notes on Mana sustain- Build uses Mana to cast, which includes Offerings. Those Offerings are triggered at set times and if there is not enough Mana to trigger them, then it fails to refresh the Offering and it falls off, potentially causing character death. Because of this, the Mana regeneration must outpace spell costs and the occasional Offering trigger AT ALL TIMES. This is solved by Clarity and some increased Mana regeneration tattoos on the passive tree. Before allocating Death Offering, make sure the Mana regeneration can sustain everything! ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== GEM SETUP Main Skill: Cold Snap of Power- (Greater) Spell Echo- Power Charge on Crit- Inspiration- Increased Critical Damage- Concentrated Effect Concentrated Effect is a flex slot- it can be swapped out for anything else suitable. Note on Arcane Surge Support- Arcane Surge sims very well. It also apparently benefits from the increased durations from the passive tree. It is up nearly all the time while actively mapping (in conjunction with Arcane Capacitor from the skill tree), but it falls off during boss encounters and it is not up at those times, which causes significant DPS loss. Concentrated Effect gives a very similar power level as Arcane Surge Support, but is up consistently and the downside is mitigated with a Cluster Jewel. Body Armour: (Bone Offering/Flesh Offering/Spirit Offering)- More Duration (21/20)- Efficacy (21/0)- Hiveborn- Immortal Call (1/20)- CWDT (1/20). Frostbite (21/20) in Body Armour, but unlinked (Corruption: +2 to socketed Curse Gems) PoB for some reason doesn't sim Bone/Flesh/Spirit Offering correctly, therefore, under skills they are automatically enabled with their respective supports. The cannot be stated as socketed in gear, as this will apply gem quality from any blue sockets to them and skew the actual calculations (offering quality increases their effect). Immortal Call and CWDT loop benefits from all the increased durations, but doesn't break the actual trigger loop. Why? CWDT is a low level gem. A 1/20 CWDT supports skill gems requiring level 38 or lower, while Bone/Flesh/Spirit Offerings are specified to be level 20. Hiveborn Support triggers small minions constantly, which cover enemies in Frost, increasing their Cold damage taken. This is a bossing-focused gem, which can be ignored in the opening stages of a league. It is very cheap though and gives a respectable boost to damage. Hiveborn Support benefits from Efficacy/More Duration. Frostbite is socketed here, but in an unlinked slot. This is by design- in part due to the +2 to socketed Curse Gems corruption, but also because More Duration and Efficacy apply to the curse, skyrocketing Frostbite mana costs to the point where a mistimed curse application will leave no mana for an Offering refresh, which then won't trigger due to lack of mana, leading to character death through the failure condition on Death Offering (Offerings kill damageable targets when Offering duration expires). The unlinked slot can fit anything that does not require a specific support setup. Animate Guardian: Animate Guardian (21/20)- Guardian's Blessing (21/20)- Meat Shield (21/20)- Zealotry Basic gear setup: Gruthkul's Pelt- Legacy of Fury (50% increased effect of Scorch)- rare gloves (20-21% increased Life regeneration rate, flat Life regeneration and flat Life). The Animate Guardian tech gives access to a very powerful Zealotry aura. Guardian's Blessing buffs up Zealotry aura, but in exchange it applies a hefty Physical degeneration to the Animate Guardian. In order to run Animate Guardian effectively, this degeneration needs to be countered. Gruthkul's Pelt gives the Animate Guardian 10% of Life regenerated per second. The gloves boost this up to 12%. Meat Shield makes the Animate Guardian take less damage (from all sources, including the Phys degeneration). Legacy of Fury makes the Animate Guardian apply Scorch to enemies around it at a base magnitude of 10%. 50% increased effect of Scorch makes this jump up to 15% total. This leaves the Animate Guardian's Helmet and Weapon slots open. Options: Leer Cast into Crown of the Tyrant (with a Green socket) Dying Breath into Kingmaker (make sure to use NONCORRUPTED COMPONENTS if making this through vendor recipe) Note on Guardian survivability- this is not a minion build. The Animate Guardian WILL die. The gear isn't lost on death, but it will prevent resummoning in the same map, which also loses Zealotry for that map. Use at your own risk. Herald and Auras: Herald of Ice (21/x)- Discipline- Clarity (12/x)- Enlighten (3/x) Herald of Ice gives flat damage and some damage proliferation. Discipline gives flat Energy Shield. Clarity is important for Mana regeneration purposes. Enlighten level 3 helps to reduce reservations and increase total Mana pool. This gives more room for error. Misc: Pact of Beidat (20/20)- Frostblink- Mana-Infused Staff (21/x)- Precision (1/x) Pact of Beidat gives screen-clearing capabilies to Cold Snap of Power and significantly increases its damage. Mana-Infused Staff is an important gem. It reduces all Mana costs for spells and gives a 25% more multiplier for both attack and spell block chance. 21/x Mana Infused Staff with a 1.9x multiplier on Bone Offering caps out both attack and spell block at 75% each. Value in PoB is a bit misleading for spell block (PoB reports it as higher), but empirical observation in Hideout confirm both attack and spell block are capped. Bone Offering and Mana-Infused Staff form the main layer of defense. Frostblink is swappable with mobility skill of choice. Precision is used for the Watcher's Eye effect (Flask Charge on Crit while affected by Precision). It can be swapped out. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== GEAR SETUP Aside from the locked slots from Body Armour- The Queen's Hunger- and belt- Leash of Oblation- the equipment itself is rare items. No other uniques are strictly necessary and those utilised by the build- Taryn's Shiver and Replica Dragonfang's Flight- are there because they are very good options that can be acquired reasonably cheaply. Note: Life vs Chaos Inoculation- Leash of Oblation has Life rolls on it, as does The Queen's Hunger. There are also Life nodes within easy reach of the passive tree, so an argument can be made about going Life instead, but the gear used in this version of the build does not allocate for any Chaos resistance, which becomes an additional strain for suffixes. For initial early mapping and progression of the Atlas, this isn't a major concern, but a full Chaos Inoculation swap makes things easier in the endgame. The passive tree does allocate Purity of Flesh on the Templar side of the tree (increased Maximum Life, Energy Shield and some Chaos resistance), but it is used currently ONLY for the Energy Shield component. An allocated Life Mastery would give access to a Runegraft, but as of writing (3.29) there are no Runegrafts that would significantly enhance the build, as Runegraft of the Warp (Debuffs on you expire 30% faster/Buffs on you expire 30% slower) does not interact with Offering duration (sidenote- Temporal Chains also does not interact with Offering duration). Weapon- Taryn's Shiver +4 to all Cold Spell Skill Gems, a good roll on cold damage, a good roll on cast speed and Bitter Frost (which saves a point on the passive tree). A good corruption is also reasonably easy to find, therefore a pseudo-7-link is an option. A +6 rare staff with increased spell/cold damage and increased cast speed outperforms a double corrupted pseudo-7-link Taryn's Shiver at the super late game. Amulet- Replica Dragonfang's Flight +3 to all Cold Snap Gems, some attributes, some elemental resistances, reduced attribute requirements and a little bit of Mana Reservation Efficiency. It's a good choice until the super late game, where +2 (or +4) amulets come into play. This will be useful throughout the build and it is a very good candidate for the first Hollow Effigy anoint. The reduced attribute requirements for equipment and gems are surprisingly useful, as there are few sources of +x to attributes in the build. Helmet- rare Eater/Exarch influenced Energy Shield Helmet Implicits: Increased Damage per Power Charge (Exarch), Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency (Eater) Prefixes: Energy Shield rolls (x% increased, + to Energy Shield) Suffixes: T2 or higher resistances Notes: The helmet used in the build has Aspect of the Brine King, which is a reservation skill (baseline 25%) that increases the effect of Chill and makes damage penetrate Cold Resistance against Chilled enemies (see Configuration- Endgame). Aspect of the Brine King comes from Allflame Crafting (crafting mechanic of 3.29) using Brinehook's Ducat. It accounts for an approximately 5% increase in total damage and takes up a suffix slot. Mana reserved is simulated as Herald of Thunder under Skills tab; as Bitter Frost disables non-Cold damage, this does not skew the damage calculations. Exarch's Increased Damage per Power Charge and Increased Cast Speed are similar in power in terms of final damage. Eater's Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency can be swapped out for Increased Spell Damage or Damage Penetrates Cold Resistance. Both of those are also similar in terms of final damage. Gloves- rare Eater/Exarch influenced Energy Shield Gloves Implicits: Unnerve (Exarch), Cold Exposure on hit (Eater) Prefixes: Energy Shield rolls (x% increased, + to Energy Shield) Suffixes: T2 or higher resistances Notes: Gloves can get Incursion Cold resistance, which also has (30-50%) increased damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies. If possible, this should be used, as this is a significant and direct upgrade. Requires crafting knowledge to craft properly (this is mostly a Recombinator craft). Boots- rare Eater/Exarch influenced Energy Shield Boots Implciits: Increased Action Speed (Exarch), Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate (Eater) Prefixes: Energy Shield rolls (x% increased, + to Energy Shield), x% increased Movement Speed Suffixes: T2 or higher resistances Notes: if a veiled increased Movement Speed modifier is chosen, 100% chance to Avoid being Chilled is redundant, as Occultist ascendancy already covers this (Frigid Wake). Increased Action Speed Exarch implicit is very powerful and directly increases damage. Meanwhile, the options for boots Eater gives are less applicable; chance to avoid Elemental Ailments can be useful, but there are no other sources of Elemental Ailment avoidance that this build accounts for. The maximum amount of Elemental Ailment avoidance that can come from the boots is 35% from Essence suffix + 32% Eater perfect implicit, leaving 33% from somewhere else (The Queen's Hunger can roll that modifier, but it conflicts with Offering effect). Body Armour- The Queen's Hunger Locked in, as it is required for the Offering loop. One of the veiled affixes needs to be 20% increased effect of Offerings, as it directly scales both offensive and defensive powers of all the Offerings. The other veiled affix is more flexible. A good roll of +x to Strength and Dexterity makes meeting attribute requirements much easier. Candidate for (double) corruption, as the veiled (!) item is reasonably cheap. Unveil the affixes yourself and go for a double corruption. Good generic corruptions are: x% increased damage, +x% to all elemental resistances, +x% to max elemental resistances, x% increased Energy Shield, +x to socketed Curse gems (socket in Frostbite). As a special note, +x to socketed Duration gems DOES affect More Duration and Efficacy support, removing the need for those to be 21/20 and 21/x, respectively. Belt- Leash of Oblation Locked in, as it is required for the Offering loop. After Chaos Inoculation, only the +x to all attributes is relevant to the build. Getting a +20 roll is easy and cheap, can be increased with Intrinsic Catalysts (or Tainted Catalysts, but those are usually more expensive). Excellent candidate for a double corruption. The belt is cheap, the corruption outcomes are mostly all useful and they replace the unused Life implicit with a much powerful effect. A standout corruption is 12-15% Increased Skill Effect Duration. This directly works with Offering durations and can free up a valuable skill point on the passive tree. Other useful corruptions include x% increased cast speed/critical strike multiplier/critical strike chance/movement speed during any flask effect, or x% increased attributes if those are a problem. Rings- rare Rings- Diamond/any resistance implicit ring base Prefixes: +x to Energy Shield, any Evasion prefix. Suffixes: T2 or higher resistances Notes: generic resistance rings. The combination of Energy Shield and Evasion explicit modifiers allows for Evasion and Energy Shield Mastery (20% increased Maximum Energy Shield if both Equipped Rings have Evasion Modifiers, 40% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate if Equipped Amulet has an Evasion Modifier). The amulet part is not relevant, as Energy Shield recharge is disabled through Ghost Reaver keystone on the passive tree. If open Prefix- non-channelling skills have -x to Mana cost is a generic good modifier that helps with mana sustain. If open Suffix- +1 to minimum Frenzy Charges. The build cannot gain Frenzy Charges innately (because of Inner Conviction: Militant Faith- Dominus), so any +1 minimum Frenzy Charges, up to 3, represents a very powerful damage boost. Later options for rings- Dusk Ring in the Right ring slot gives 15% Increased Skill Effect Duration. A combination of Dusk Ring and a Leash of Oblation with Increased Skill Effect Duration can make Impossible Escape- Magebane redundant, which frees up a Jewel socket on the passive tree. Dusk Rings come mirrored by default and are expensive (10+ divs), craftable versions require vendoring 5 mirrored variants. Other options include Heist ring bases (Cogwork ring etc). Flasks: Stormblood Topaz Flask (3.29) (see note under Forbidden Flesh/Flame) All damage from Critical Strikes can apply Lightning Ailments during flask effect- mimics Elementalist's Shaper of Storms during flask effect. The damage output of the build is high enough to get a 65% Shock on Uber bosses (tested and confirmed in 3.29). 65% Shock requires a Lightning Mastery (+15% to Maximum Effect of Shock). Automatically used when a Rare/Unique enemy is hit, as normal mobs don't need this level of overkill. Notes: there are two Stormblood flasks- Topaz Flask and Sapphire Flask. Stormblood Sapphire Flask does nothing for the build. The Wise Oak Bismuth Flask During Effect, Damage Penetrates (5-8)% Resistance of each Element for which your Uncapped Elemental Resistance is highest- requires Cold resistance to be consistently highest, or at least, equal to other resistances during effect. In practice, this means that Cold resistance needs to be at least 40% above Lightning resistance at all times, which may require downgrading Lightning resistances. Use Horticrafting Bench's Fire-Cold-Lightning swaps to "divine" the resistance rolls creatively. Automatically used when a Rare/Unique enemy is hit. Bottled Faith Sulphur Flask Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies- go for a 10% roll and look for the longest duration. Automatically used when a Rare/Unique enemy is hit. Silver Flask- Onslaught Prefix: x% chance to gain a flask charge on critical strike Suffix: x% increased critical strike chance during effect Used when charges reach full. Quicksilver Flask- Movement speed Prefix: x% chance to gain a flask charge on critical strike Suffix: x% increased movement speed during effect Used when charges reach full. The suffixes for the utility flasks are interchangeable. Jewels: Impossible Escape- Magebane Required to reach the Increased Skill Effect Duration nodes on the other side of the Scion start. This version of Impossible Escape is hardly ever used, this should be very cheap (20-40 chaos) and enables correct functionality of the build. Militant Faith- Dominus Dominus gives Inner Conviction, giving 3% more Spell Damage per Power Charge, but disabling the generation of Frenzy Charges. There are three potential slot positions- Templar jewel socket (50 Devotion), Shadow jewel socket (45 Devotion) or socket between Witch and Templar starts (105 Devotion, but hits a +10 Strength small node). Devotion passives: Mana cost efficiency > Mana regeneration per second; Area damage = Elemental damage > increased effect of non-curse auras. All Elemental resistances can also be useful by making suffixes easier. Sidenote- the Witch jewel socket is not optimal. Why? Answer is Bitter Frost. Taryn's Shiver gives Bitter Frost, but once upgraded out of Taryn's Shiver, the build still wants that keystone. Witch jewel socket also has more jewel seeds which replace the allocated notables in radius, which makes the potential selection of suitable jewel seeds lower. Witch jewel socket gives 90 Devotion. Watcher's Eye Non-channeling skills have -x to Mana Cost while affected by Clarity is the main thing to look out for. Build uses the following auras: Zealotry, Clarity, Discipline, (Precision). Use any synergistic additional effects for those auras. Effects that apply to Energy Shield Recharge are useless due to Ghost Reaver. Forbidden Flesh/Forbidden Flame combination, listed (in order of power/preference) Offensive: Heart of Destruction > Mastermind of Discord > Shaper of Storms > Commander of Darkness Defensive: Bastion of Elements > Vile Bastion Heart of Destruction empowers unique enemy damage while giving increased area of effect for pack clearing. Shaper of Storms gives permanent Stormblood Topaz Flask effect, enabling to swap in a third utility flask of choice. Mastermind of Discord makes exposure applied via Eater Glove Implicit very powerful (-36-41% to enemy Cold resistance). Commander of Darkness gives a mix of generic offensive and defensive options with generic damage, some cast speed and elemental resistances. Bastion of Elements gives elemental reflect immunity and additional defense vs elemental damage. Vile Bastion boosts Energy Shield values, with the main value coming from Energy Shield increased by Spell Block chance. Note: if 3.30 does not have access to Stormblood Topaz Flask, then Shaper of Storms > Heart of Destruction > Mastermind of Discord Cluster Jewel Cluster Jewel slot has multiple options. Area Damage Medium Cluster Jewel with Titanic Swings and Vast Power gives Area of Effect and Area Damage while being reasonably cheap and counteracting the downside of Concentrated Effect Support. Other good options are Critical Chance Medium Cluster with Pressure Points and Basics of Pain/Skullbreaker; Damage while you have a Herald Medium Cluster with Endbringer and Agent of Destruction. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== OTHER NOTES; PANTHEON; BANDITS; MAP MODS Pact of Beidat and Afflictions Pact of Beidat gives an Affliction on use; among those is Unholy Urn (-20% to all resistances). Resistance calculations need to take this into account and overcap all resistances by 20% before starting to add on temporary effects from Wise Oak and Stormblood Flasks. Other Afflictions include (but not limited to) 100% reduced Critical Strike Chance (irrelevant at max Power Charges) and 50% reduced Defences (noticeable as Energy Shield drops, but temporary). Pantheon: Arakaali and Abberath/Yugul/Ralakesh Brine King is not needed due to Occultist ascendancy (Frigid Wake). Main selling points for Arakaali are reduced Damage taken from Damage over Time effects and Debuffs expire 20% faster. Abberath for countering Burning Ground. Yugul and Elemental Mastery- prevent reflected Elemental damage at Ash, Frost and Storm for elemental reflect immunity. Ralakesh for mitigating bleed and Corrupted Blood. Bandits- kill all. Alira is also an option if Elemental resistances are a problem at the very-very early stages (but they shouldn't be). (Book of Reform: Eramir (=kill all) is 20 Orbs of Regret and Onyx Amulet, sell to any vendor). Regex for maps: "!\d+ e|m resistances$|r, f|ur$|from$|ills$|t reg|s def" This regex also takes into account Nightmare and Originator map modifiers. This is the default regex to use for standard mapping. Stricter regex: "!\d+ e|to mo|er at|m resistances$|id el|r, f|' at|ur$|from$|ills$|t reg|s def" Stricter regex adds in monster attack/cast/movement speed, monster crit strike chance/crit multiplier, impale on hit and chance to avoid elemental ailments, relevant for Herald of Ice Freeze explosions. Consider using this if dying to mobs during lvl 100 push becomes problematic. Mods that this CANNOT run: No regen and no Leech. Leech is used for sustaining Energy Shield, Mana regen is for casting spells. Both recovery options are needed. Mods that this can, but does not want to run: reduced Block, steal Charges on Hit, -x% to all maximum resistances, reduced effect of non-curse auras from skills, Elemental Thorns. Reduced Block directly negates Bone Offering, which is the major defensive layering for the build, steal Charges on Hit makes maintaining Power Charges (and consequently, casting Cold Snap of Power and having capped critical strike chance) very difficult. -x% to maximum resistances and reduced effect of auras is generically bad. Elemental Thorns can be dangerous and is therefore included. If Yugul and an additional source of prevent reflected Elemental damage is taken (Elemental Mastery at Ash, Frost and Storm) OR Forbidden Flame/Forbidden Flesh with Bastion of Elements, then Elemental Thorns can be safely ignored. Nightmare/Originator maps only: Players have x% less defences. Energy Shield is counted as a defence, so that modifier directly impacts total Energy Shield value. It doesn't brick the map, but it makes things considerably more dangerous. Mods that this surprisingly can run- buffs expire faster. Offerings are not counted as buffs (in this sense of the term), and for the same reasons as Runegraft of the Warp and Temporal Chains are not affecting Offering duration, buffs expire x% faster map modifier does not affect Offering duration. This is confirmed with running a map in 3.29 with this mod and no Offerings expired prematurely. Loop was sustained in that map. Less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield- with Leech Mastery- 5% of Leech is instant- this is nullified. Instant Leech bypasses this map modifier completely. There is a little bit of Energy Shield Regeneration happening passively through Energy Shield Mastery, but it is a small effect. Less Cooldown Recovery Rate- The Queen's Hunger triggers Offerings every 5 seconds in sequence. Offerings by themselves do not have a cooldown. Less Cooldown Recovery Rate does not break the Offering loop in any way, but it does make Cold Snap of Power, Frostblink and Pact of Beidat cooldowns slower. It is annoying, but not build breaking. Eater vs Exarch- the modifiers on Exarch altars are more forgiving than those on Eater altars in maps. Realistically, the only modifier to really watch out for is -x% to Fire Resist/-x% to Chaos Resist. The Chaos resist part is irrelevant due to Chaos Inoculation, but it is unlikely that Fire Resistance is high enough to ignore that altar downside. Eater altars further introduce antisynergy with Power Charges (-x% to crit strike multiplier per Power Charge, which deeply cuts into damage output) and non-damaging ailments are reflected back to you. Chill and Freeze aren't an issue because of Frigid Wake, but a 65% Shock can prove lethal. Ultimately, this is at the discretion of the player. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== LEVELING The core loop is dependent on The Queen's Hunger (req lvl 68) and Leash of Oblation (req lvl 49) combination and Hollow Effigy anoint. This means that this cannot be used as a leveling build effectively. Furthermore, Taryn's Shiver (req lvl 64) also requires a functionally end-of-campaign level to equip, so leveling with this build is not a recommended option. Instead of trying to cap critical strike chance and get Cold Snap of Power immediately (a transfigured gem), it makes more sense to level with a separate skill that feels comfortable in campaign and can work in the opening stages of maps until The Queen's Hunger, Leash of Oblation, Taryn's Shiver and Hollow Effigy become available. Wintertide Brand is a brand skill that deals Cold damage over time (DoT). On expiration or detachment, it makes a Cold DoT area centered around the monster it detaches from. This is the primary skill starting from level 12 until the swap into Cold Snap of Power is completed. This setup was tested in a fresh SSF environment, simulating campaign progression in a league start scenario. Check the relevant loadouts for milestones in leveling progress. Key points early on are Runebinder and Brand Mastery next to Runesmith, which facilitate for the pack clearing capabilities on Wintertide Brand. There is a swap over to Chaos Inoculation at around level 70. A Replica Allelopathy with Efficacy, Controlled Destruction, Hypothermia and Inspiration should provide enough damage to progress further and start accumulating items and currency to start swapping over to Cold Snap of Power. Campaign weapon is kept as a staff for reason- Mana-Infused Staff reduces Mana costs and gives a multiplier to attack and spell block. After level 40, there are significant investments to block nodes for staves, which forms the defensive layering for the leveling sections as well. Mana-Infused Staff is also used later on. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== GEAR PROGRESSION For initial gear, gems etc, check Loadout: Swap into Cold Snap. The basic requirements are listed there, as well as decently cheap gear to assemble before making the swap. The swap can be made without Militant Faith- Dominus; however, that Militant Faith is used throughout the build and represents a significant increase in power. The initial gem setup includes 5-link Cold Snap of Power, with Increased Critical Strikes Support. The main idea of this inclusion, as well as some other choices made on the skill tree, is to overcompensate in reaching 100% chance to crit to enable full functionality and self-sufficiency of Cold Snap of Power sooner. This overcompensation however means that damage-wise, it's a 4-link and once it is not needed anymore, it is replaced with Inspiration Support and some nodes on the passive tree are allocated elsewhere. Pact of Beidat is functionally a build enabling gem, since that is what allows to clear screens at a time, making it a high priority gem. Going into Midgame gear, the power increase comes in conjunction of a lot of things. The biggest singular increase in power is upgrading into a decently powerful Taryn's Shiver and 6-linking Cold Snap of Power and adding in Concentrated Effect Support. Concentrated Effect reduces the AoE capabilities of the build, but this is counteracted with adding in an Area Damage Medium Cluster with Titanic Swings/Vast Power. Another bit of noticeable power increase comes from Eater/Exarch implicits on gear. Gloves enable Unnerve effects and give a consistent source of Cold Exposure; Boots increase Action speed and Helmet gives increased damage per Power Charge. These implicits are simulated with their weakest available forms. Due to the amount of +10 to Intelligence travel nodes, the excess can be Tattooed. A full functional Curse immunity can be achieved by tattooing Hinekora Deathwarden (6% reduced effect of Curses) x17 for a total of 102% reduced effect of Curses. Furthermore, a few Hinekora Shaman (8% increased Mana Regeneration rate, x3) are thrown in to boost Mana regeneration rates for Clarity. Going from Midgame to Endgame loadouts gives the inclusion of Animate Guardian setup (expensive version, see above at Gem Setup), swap from Spell Echo Support to Greater Spell Echo Support, a pseudo-7-link Taryn's Shiver, Bottled Faith, importantly Stormblood with passive tree adjustments for 65% Shock and a Forbidden Flesh/Forbidden Flame combination, which gives Heart of Destruction. Cheapest and highest priority is Greater Spell Echo Support, as this is available all the time and provides the largest increase in power relative to cost, followed by a pseudo-7-link Taryn's Shiver. Stormblood, expensive Animate Guardian setup and Forbidden Flesh/Forbidden Flame (Heart of Destruction) are each gigantic increases in overall damage, but also expensive and used mostly in single target situations, like bossing. A full Endgame setup is capable of doing Uber bosses, with 65% Shock on Ubers confirmed during 3.29 (Uber Sirus). Tested Ubers are Uber Sirus, Uber Maven, Uber Uber Elder, Uber Incarnations (all three), Uber Cortex and Uber Exarch. Uber Eater and Uber Shaper are not tested, but they should also be doable. The most difficult fights were Uber Uber Elder and Uber Exarch, former because Shaper's Ball projectiles hurt a lot, the latter because I'm bad at Exarch's "Fires of a Thousand Suns" phase. While a full Endgame setup can already deal with all content in the game, it's not it's "final form". The damage can still be pushed further. Upgrades become very expensive, requiring advanced crafting knowledge AND luck to craft. The key components from upgrading into the Ultimate Endgame loadout are a rare +6 staff in place of Taryn's Shiver, a rare Dusk Ring for the 15% Increased Skill Effect Duration implicit with a Leash of Oblation with (12-15)% Increased Skill Effect Duration corruption, crafting the Incursion Cold Resistance rare gloves and a second rare Ring with a damage implicit other than Increased Global Crit Strike Chance. Dusk Ring in the right Ring slot (in PoB: Ring 2 slot) and Leash of Oblation with a minimum 12% Increased Skill Effect Duration corruption will make Impossible Escape- Magebane finally redundant, which frees up a jewel slot on the passive tree. A good rare Jewel with synergistic effects and a set of two usable corruptions would be optimal; in the loadout, it is a Cold Damage, Area Damage and Mana Cost Efficiency with Corrupted Blood immunity and Elemental Resistance Penetration (Minion Damage on this particular jewel is a dead stat). Absolute Minmax is the final form of this iteration of the build, producing over 180M damage per second on regular pinnacle bosses and almost 55M on Uber bosses. Primary changes are the inclusion of a rare +4 amulet with +90% crit strike multiplier and two large Cluster Jewels with Blanketed Snow/Prismatic Heart/Widespread Destruction. The main targets here are the extra available jewel sockets and Blanketed Snow/Prismatic Heart. Widespread Destruction is not allocated on either Cluster Jewel, but it is necessary for the location requirements of the other two. Ash, Frost and Storm, Arcane Potency and the previous Titanic Swings/Vast Power Cluster Jewel are culled from this setup to gain the required passive points. A double corrupted Eye of Malice replaces the previous rare Energy Shield Helmet, with a +1 to maximum Power Charges implicit. Eye of Malice further reduces enemy resistances by means of amplifying Frostbite curse: Nearby enemies have 50% increased Fire and Cold resistances also applies to negative resistances, applying a 1.5x multiplier on the total negative resistance. Sources of negative Cold resistance are Animate Guardian setup (Crown of the Tyrant: -10% and Legacy of Fury: -15% via Scorch), Void Beacon ascendancy (-20%), Exposure via Gloves (-13%) and Frostbite (-48%), which totals to -106% to enemy Cold resistance. Pinnacle Bosses have a 50% Cold resist; after applying the -106%, they are left with -56% Cold resistance, to which Eye of Malice now applies. 1.5 x -56% = -84%. The removal of Replica Dragonfang's Flight means that missing attributes need to be allocated via suffixes. This strains the rare pieces even further and for this reason, The Wise Oak is removed from the setup, as balancing resistances to keep it in effect becomes difficult. This is replaced with Wine of the Prophet, which can give a collection of various buffs, but those can change so rapidly that simulating them is functionally meaningless. Another option is Oriath's End, but that functions only at 1/3 effectiveness, due to Bitter Frost making Fire or Lightning explosions deal no damage. They are either QoL or vanity options, not upgrades that are strictly necessary. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== Power Charge generation is mostly through Cold Snap of Power. Secondary sources of Power Charge generation are Disciple of the Forbidden (giving 8% chance to gain a Power Charge on kill) and Forbidden Power (every 200 Mana spent gives a Power Charge). Before triggering a boss fight, charge up Power Charges (if not at maximum already) by spamming Frostbite. Take care not to run out of Mana, else you risk missing an Offering refresh trigger, which kills the character. To avoid accidental deaths due to lack of Mana, spam/hold down Frostbite (in Hideout) and check for Mana regeneration. If Mana regeneration does NOT surpass Mana costs of Frostbite spam, then some Mana needs to be kept available at all times for the Offering trigger (check the exact cost from own PoB or character screen ingame). The first 15 seconds of any map are the most dangerous. During this time, the Offerings just start to trigger, Power Charges and Spirit Offering are not up, meaning character is likely NOT crit capped. On occasion in smaller packs, it is possible that it doesn't crit and a Power Charge isn't generated. This happens from time to time, play it safe and wait out Cold Snap of Power's cooldown. Pact of Beidat is to be used on cooldown. Screen-wise pack clearing capabilities and spiral pattern repeats both aid in generation of Power Charges. Quality up Pact of Beidat quickly, as it gives more empowered spells per cast. Despite a 75/75 attack/spell block, this build is not meant to tank full packs. The only viable recovery option is instant leech. Smart and cautious playstyle is needed to reach level 100. After allocating Death Offering, but before going into maps, test out the duration for the Offerings in Hideout without Chaos Inoculation. If any of the Offerings expire, the failure condition will kick in, removing all but 1 Life, but in Hideout, this will not kill the character. In maps or campaign areas, if this occurs, then the character WILL die and this needs to be fixed before proceeding further. The minimum requirements for a stable Offering loop, listed below, should be met before allocating Death Offering. Minimum requirements for a stable Offering loop: 21/20 More Duration Support (20/20 is not tested and cutting it uncomfortably close)- socketed into The Queen's Hunger 21/x Efficacy Support (20/x is also not tested and also uncomfortably close)- socketed into The Queen's Hunger Allocated Enduring Bond Allocated Potency of Will and its two preceding small Skill Duration nodes Allocated Duration Mastery- 10% more Skill Effect Duration (from Potency of Will) Impossible Escape- Magebane and allocated Exceptional Performance and the two preceding small Skill Duration nodes. These are disconnected from the main passive tree. Any +x to all Spell Skill Gems from any sources need to be subtracted from the Automatic Offerings link under Skills tab. This is because PoB doesn't recognise the line "Trigger Level 20 Bone Offering, Flesh Offering, Spirit Offering every 5 seconds in sequence", which is one of the most important effects in this entire build. Therefore they need to be accounted for manually, but they cannot be shows as socketed in anything as the gem colours increase the individual Offering effects through quality. Under Loadout: Ultimate Endgame- Configuration tab, there is a custom modifier counteracting this inaccuracy- meaning the reported damage of 128M for this entire loadout is correct. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== SUGGESTED CONTENT This section is purely subjective, but meant as a way to target some content in order to make certain elements of the build easier/cheaper/faster to acquire. Breach Genesis Tree or Kingsmarch Crop shipments to Moti Aro (Corn, Pumpkin and Orgourd) for base Energy Shield gear. Incursion- T3 Locus of Corruption (double corruptions for Leash of Oblation and The Queen's Hunger. Quality them beforehand!) Incursion- T3 Crucible of Flame, targetting glove bases with Incursion resistance modifier. Betrayal- Catarina bossfight (one completion required for Catarina Bloodline), targetting The Queen's Hunger. Harvest- all flavours of Lifeforce are useful for resistance swaps to very precisely "divine" a specific resistance roll within its range. Due to The Wise Oak, sometimes a lower resistance roll can be better than a higher roll. Legion- Domain of Endless Conflict, targetting Militant Faith jewels (randomly dropped by Cardinal Sanctus Vox, general of Templar Legion). ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== TROUBLESHOOTING Some main issues I encountered either from my own experience, doing some research on the community wiki or a friend testing out the same build. Problem: I open a map and quickly and randomly die! Solution: Check the Offering durations. Each Offering MUST have a duration of 15+ seconds with Death Offering allocated to be usable. Check minimum requirements for a stable Offering loop (see above). Problem: The Offering loop is stable, but I still randomly die! Solution: Check Mana costs of Offerings and overall Mana regeneration. Offerings can fail to trigger due to insufficient Mana. See above on how to fix Mana problems. Problem: I didn't generate a Power Charge on my first pack of mobs and Cold Snap of Power is now on cooldown! Solution: The baseline crit strike chance without Power Charges and Spirit Offering is around 35% (according to Loadout: Midgame, under Calcs tab, Calculation mode: Unbuffed). This means that sometimes it doesn't crit, so the Power Charge is not generated. The 100% crit chance is designed to be balanced around having 7 Power Charges and Spirit Offering, so missing some initial crits is normal. Just wait out the cooldown, don't rush into packs and try again next cast. Note- Minimum Power Charges (like the one from Disciple of the Forbidden) cannot be spent. Problem: I cannot generate ANY Power Charges and I am in the middle of Expedition monsters! Solution: Check the remnant modifiers. IMMUNE to crits does not allow for generation of Power Charges by critting. Note- Crit Resistant or Unaffected by Crits are fine (those are rare monster modifiers). Critical Hit does trigger vs them and Power Charges are generated. Problem: I need Power Charges before a boss fight! Solution: Spam Frostbite. Every 200 Mana spent gives a Power Charge through Forbidden Power ascendancy. Problem: How do I get reflect immunity? Solution: Elemental Mastery- Prevent +60% of Reflected Elemental Damage with Yugul minor pantheon. Use when needed. Problem: But I want to play Elementalist! Solution: Absolutely. Elementalist gives immediate access to Shaper of Storms as well. Both are similar in terms of damage, with Occultist being higher (As per Loadout: Endgame), but this means giving up a secondary way to generate Power Charges, like spamming Frostbite before a boss fight. Note- in case of Elementalist, allocate Mastermind of Discord, Heart of Destruction and Shaper of Storms. FF/FF combinations are Frigid Wake > Void Beacon > Forbidden Power. ==================================================================================================================================================================================================== AFTERWORD: ON THE ORIGINS OF THE BUILD (Optional reading) My first actual functioning build that I took to endgame decently enough was a homebrewed Raise Zombie Necromancer with the Baron and Mon'tregul's Grasp. This was in 3.5 Betrayal, where my main source of making currency was trying to get Chayula Breachstones and use It That Fled's breachstone upgrade bench in a Syndicate Safehouse, as well as running Cameria for his Sulphite Scarabs. I also really like minions: why should I do anything if I can have an army of zombies do it for me? At that time, I considered Offerings to simply be buffs to the minions. Sure, Mistress of Sacrifice made Offerings affect you, but at 50% efficiency. 3.9 introduced Leash of Oblation, but I was too engrossed in playing a Facebreaker Cyclone build to even give minions any real thought, because Sirus looked at me and my zombies and, well, we collectively fell over. So while I enjoy minions, I had other ideas for builds I wanted to play with. When Bloodline Ascendancies were introduced in 3.27 Keepers, I remember looking over the patch notes and all the new toys to play around with. I saw Catarina Bloodline and with it, Death Offering. I was immediately interested- my preferred builds tend to use, shall we say, 6-portal defences: I paid for them, so I'm going to use them. By this point I had gained enough knowledge under my PoE belt to understand that something could be done with Offerings through the new Bloodline, Leash and Queen's Hunger's automatic triggers. However, at that point, my experiments in theorycrafting had yielded only the main stable configuration for the loop. I had figured out the main engine, but none of the actual damage scalings. In 3.27 I went with Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder and in 3.28 Forged Frostbearers Necromancer, neither of which used Offerings to buff me directly. My idea remained unrealised- up to now. 3.29 introduced some changes to the skill gems. Cold skill gems got their base crit strike chance increased. For the 3.29 league start, I went with Shockwave Totem for Sanctum- partly because I had never "properly" done totems, partly because I wanted to actually do Sanctum properly in the early game, just to see if I would like it. About one week in, I mentioned to my friends on Discord that the idea of Offering stacking was still on my mind, but I didn't have a proper build for it. I knew the core, since the core hadn't changed, but nothing else. And with their aggressive encouragement, I started compiling a preliminary PoB for this build. There were two main issues. The first was with the skill itself. It needed to be something with good AoE coverage to facilitate general mapping, high enough crit chance to make good use of the crit stats given by Spirit Offering and nodes within easy reach on the top side of the tree, since a part of the build is hard-allocating Enduring Bond for the duration and the Mastery for Offering effect. Second was the actual damage scalings. It needs some good base sources of increased damage, which is usually a gear problem. The breakthrough moment was when my friend asked "What about Taryn's Shiver?". At that point, I had no idea what that even was. I had never seen Taryn's Shiver at all- or, if I had, it was just such a forgettable drop that I had to look it up on the community wiki. It fit perfectly- skill levels for cold stuff, a big chunk of cold damage, cast speed, a new synergistic keystone and, importantly, a unique that looked to be well within the budget range of the 30something Divines that I had. I plugged it into the PoB and everything clicked. I needed a skill that deals cold damage now, but I wasn't feeling inspired by the regular selection of cold spells- Freezing Pulse, Ice Nova, Ice Spear, Eye of Winter. Damage over time spells don't usually make use of crit chance or crit multi, so cold DoT was out. Cold Snap of Power made everything fall into place. Something that does AoE- check. Something that has an innate high crit strike chance- check. And spells usually scale well with levels. On top of this, this gem generates- and uses- Power Charges to bypass its own cooldown, so crit is actually a necessary stat for it. It was like understanding how this particular puzzle could be solved. After an evening of working with PoB, I assembled the gear required for this on the following day. A new character was quickly rolled and boosted through the campaign. I equipped the gear, checked the calculations, opened a T1 map and entered. I was hoping the character would function in that map. It did more than that. It thrived in that map, blasting packs with absurd ease, fuelled by maxed-out Power Charges and the dangerous Offering engine behind it. This build became my main build for the 3.29 Allflame league, leaving the starter Shockwave Totem build collecting dust. Throughout the league, I tested various aspects of the build, identified key weaknesses and did my best to min-max it into a viable endgame build that is competitive with other build options. I take particular pride that- to my knowledge- this is one of the very few build guides that focuses on Offering stacking, instead of having Mageblood. I'm not denying the power of Mageblood (far from it), but I'm hoping that my labour of love in compiling this build can help elevate Offering stacking into the broader PoE community's consciousness. Shoutout to my friends, who helped me devise the actual damage scalings of this build. You know who you are and you are AWESOME. I hope you will give it a go at some point and enjoy playing this build as much as I did. ====================================================================================================================================================================================================