Vaal Ice Nova Chieftain - post mortem

#Build showcase

• part 1:
  https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/t89xxr/cold_to_fire_replica_cold_iron_point_chieftain/
• level 89 gameplay:
  https://clips.twitch.tv/BlatantBlindingAppleHassanChop-Z8Ej1u52NPAmU3iO

#Level 95 PoB
https://pastebin.com/kCeRLAWS

#Preface So I had a few days to play around with the build I posted 5 days ago. I got to level 95 very quickly (for my pace)! After a bunch of tree changes and item upgrades I wanted to give a quick summary. All gear except for uniques and jewels I either found or crafted

#Pros

• smooth mapping - For some hipster garbage the mapping is actually very smooth. Vaal ice nova is fun to use and the overlaps on the explosions means you effective dps will offscreen oneshot huge packs with ease. The build actually got better the more juicing I put into maps because of this (larger packs closer together) and influence packs essentially "extend" your range. Example: https://clips.twitch.tv/SplendidFairDadSoonerLater-3N6rMFtxbVwZ5NDX
• very cheap to get started - as mentioned in my previous post, 2x replica cold iron points + skin of the lord is in total probably about 30c at this point and will carry the bulk of your damage once you have 100% conversion.
• budget tanky - The build relies on 4 defense mechanics all of which are not unreasonable to achieve (IMO). High base health, high regen, high armor and high recovery. Regen is easy to get from the tree and from chieftain ascendency. I also have Enduring Cry bound to left click for constant healing and endurance charge generation as I run. Armor we get from determination and recovery we get from Cannabalistic Rite and the "Recover 2% of life when you ignite a non-ignited enemy" Fire Mastery. I ended up dropping my health potion because I was capping life constantly through recovery + regen.
• interesting scaling options - because you're 100% cold to fire you can use +%cold damage the same way you would use +%fire damage to scale both hit and ignite on an ignite build. This means that rarely used uniques like Berek's pass and Izaro's Turmoil have big value to you. As mentioned in the initial thread, you can also drop AoF and use "non-chaos as extra chaos" or "elemental as extra chaos" affixes to double dip as they will apply to each stage e.g. %5 extra becomes %5 extra fire AND %5 extra cold. This can become a triple effect if you use something with base phys damage like Glacial Cascade or Hydrosphere (phys>cold>fire).
• flexible spell options - without having to reroll you can easily switch to any other cold spell that does flat damage. There's very little in the way of spell specific scaling. I was considering trying to switch to divergent frostblink for bossing as the base damage is much much higher.

#Cons

• bossing is a joke - the damage is TERRIBLE. Regular T15 and T16 mobs are trivial but even map bosses take at least a minute or two to kill. I didn't record it but the exarch took at least 5-10 minutes. This is build is not fit for bossing no matter how much copium I inhale. If you have any suggestions on how I can push the damage further without kneecapping survivability please.. I'm desperate
• dual wielding in the maurader tree is pain - the amount of benefits you can get from it are extremely few and far between. Efficiently scaling block is just not really possible. Shields are far far superior in this area of the tree IMO.
• chieftain overall seems weak - probably going to get flamed for this one but so many of the ascendency points are either just weak or awkward. Valako, Storm's Embrace requires you to lose endurance charges to gain a damage boost so we're running immortal call. This weird back and forth between more tanky and less tanky though is not something I'm a fan of. Compared to some other class ascendencies this boost doesn't even seem that good for its requirement. Tasaliom, Cleansing Water is... almost good. For a whole class based around fire damage and fire resistance it's really strange that you don't have a single +max fire res node. This node actually makes you weaker because unless you're doing something really strange on maurader, running endurance charges + armor will easily cap out your phys reduction at 90%. So now you're converting phys from a 90% reduction to 75%. In the best possible case where your Fire Res is juiced to max 90% this affix comes out.. even. Really odd Edit: see clarification

#Conclusion/TL;DR
Build fun and cheap! Mapping good. Bossing.. very bad. Chieftain weak. All in all, pleasantly surprised. Thanks for reading :)