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Vaal Ice Nova Chieftain - post mortem



3.17 Archnemesis

Chieftain

6.63K164.35K1.24M

(61)


Ghastly Eye JewelWatcher's EyeHypnotic Eye JewelCrimson JewelReplica Cold Iron PointReplica Cold Iron PointSkin of the LordsLacquered HelmetDragonscale GauntletsVermillion RingVermillion RingAshes of the StarsShagreen BootsStygian Vise
Soul CatcherQuicksilver FlaskJade FlaskLion's RoarCinderswallow Urn

#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 :)

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Life

6634

Mana

9

Energy Shield

65

DPS

1M

Effective Hit Pool

164.35K

Chaos Res

13

Fire Res

80

Cold Res

79

Lightning Res

79

Armour

20K

Evasion

2K

Block

26 | 10

Crit Chance

10%

Crit Multi

170%

Rage

0

Strength

609

Intelligence

168

Dexterity

109

Ward

0

Item Quantity

0%

Item Rarity

6%

Movement Speed

27%

Valako, Storm's Embrace
Valako, Storm's Embrace
Hinekora, Death's Fury
Hinekora, Death's Fury
Ramako, Sun's Light
Ramako, Sun's Light
Tasalio, Cleansing Water
Tasalio, Cleansing Water
Iron Will
Iron Will
Avatar of Fire
Avatar of Fire
Call to Arms
Call to Arms
Agility
Agility
Amplify
Amplify
Ancestral Knowledge
Ancestral Knowledge
Arsonist
Arsonist
Barbarism
Barbarism
Bloodless
Bloodless
Born to Fight
Born to Fight
Cannibalistic Rite
Cannibalistic Rite
Combat Stamina
Combat Stamina
Constitution
Constitution
Dark Arts
Dark Arts
Devotion
Devotion
Discipline and Training
Discipline and Training
Expertise
Expertise
Explosive Impact
Explosive Impact
Heart of the Warrior
Heart of the Warrior
Hearty
Hearty
Holy Dominion
Holy Dominion
Holy Fire
Holy Fire
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Light of Divinity
Light of Divinity
Prismatic Skin
Prismatic Skin
Purity of Flesh
Purity of Flesh
Retribution
Retribution
Soul of Steel
Soul of Steel
Sovereignty
Sovereignty
Warrior's Blood
Warrior's Blood
View full passive skill tree

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alexgophermix

Divinia collected this build from this reddit post.

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