Disclaimer: I am bad. I beat The Feared with this build despite me being bad. I have 2k hours in this game and this was the first time I ever touched Uber Elder. I have videos that showcase me being bad and the build being decent all things considered

Disclaimer no.2: I asked a bit ago how to improve my build. Didn't know Brittle was a thing.

Disclaimer no.3: I will explain how I did it, and how you can change it. This build is insanely versatile and I'm sure someone can do it better than I did. I have a good understanding of how it works, so I'll give you all the alternatives I can think of that actually have a chance.

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Welcome to my stupid ass idea I had a bit ago. I am a connoisseur of hit something once and sodding off, and went from big bleeds to big icy hits. Here are a few highlights and pros:

- Pretty much DOT immune. I have 1k health regen per second, almost 1k mana regen per second. I can tank 10 corrupted blood without too much hassle. I can tank a decent amount of poisons. I run flasks against those anyway, just to be safe. I really shouldn't to be honest with you.

- Good at clearing. I can stand near the pump in blight maps and be fine. It isn't the fastest clearing build around (unless you go with Lightning Warp, then it's good). With a skill press you clear the screen around you.

- Good at bossing. Again, I am bad. I beat the Feared. Sure, you will most likely die at least once or twice, either because you're better than me or because you weren't paying attention. Sure, you won't phase bosses instantly, but it's good enough to work as a single build per league, that's for sure.

- Tanky enough. You rarely get one shot. At most you get stunned and die from a two shot. Flat HP pool is around 8k. This is a kind of build that highlights quite well why you died (as you will see in my videos)

- Decently cheap to start with. You don't need that many items to get going.

- A decent ceiling item-wise. You can min-max quite a bit, up to a point.

- Easy to play. All you have to do is press a button and dash from time to time. No weird combos, no weird setups, nothing.

- No need to get expensive rings. For once, you can do fine with regular cheap rings and not spend a few Exalts on a curse ring.

- Good at farming invitations. Thanks to the massive AOE, you're certain that you will hit many bosses at the same time.

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Now, for the cons

- Cast time is insanely long even if I took measures against it. Indeed, all you have to do is press Q, but you have to time yourself properly. Otherwise, you will 100% be stuck in a bad spot and die.

- Stun prone. Being stunned is the worst feeling for this build possible. It hampers your damage greatly, while also putting your Frost Bombs on a CD. It's very easy to get stuck by being stunned. Also, it's very easy to die if you're stunned. You can be dumb like me, get stunned twice in 3 seconds, which isn't enough to heal back up thanks to degens.

- Can get overwhelmed. If many things crowd you, you cast and get stunned, there's a decent chance that you will die.

- Hard to play a decent amount of maps. CDR penalty makes the build feel awful. Aura effect can kill you early on. Ele weakness can lower your damage greatly.

- Some layouts are horrible to play. Cells as an example is horrendous. You will 100% miss the damn doors.

- Your PC might lag

- People won't play with you cuz you'll blind them/lag their PC

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Here's the POB: https://pastebin.com/9zZrNPbn

poe.ninja: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/pushkk/satidegerecoaiele?i=2&search=skill%3DFrost-Bomb

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Here are a few videos that showcase mapping, bossing (Hydra, Formed, Drox, Maven), and general survability/playstyle. Yes, I run ultrawide, you're missing out. Yes, the videos run like shit, I forgot to change OBS' settings.

- Hydra Map https://youtu.be/wtmOJQPxpmc

- Formed https://youtu.be/NDkiCzS9mrk

- Port Map + Drox https://youtu.be/QLb14g1ev1U

- Maven https://youtu.be/PK0XxIiuqwA

- 1.5 CD-ish Frost Bomb + Second Wind https://youtu.be/Ak-UoLxEsvY (you can 100% lower it to around 1.2 secs, even lower)

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How does this build work?

Simple. You goal is to get the highest Frost Bomb damage possible, while overlapping as many Bombs as you can. This build doesn't revolve around DPS, this build revolves around Average Hit and hitting as hard as you can when the time is right.

To do so, we need a few key items:

- Pledge of Hands

- Spell Echo

- Awakened Cascade

With Pledge of Hands we're casting 3 bombs instead of one, while with Spell Echo we're adding an extra bomb, resulting in 4 bombs. With Woke Cascade, we can easily overlap 2 bombs, with the possibility of overlapping 3 with careful positioning, or even 4/5 on bigger mobs (Kitava melts). We will stick with two bombs overlapping.

Consequently, we can detonate 8 bombs on top of a mob reliably, with 12 being a certain possibility if you can aim them and the mob isn't the size of an ant. A single bomb from my build, at the moment, hits Sirius for 760k dmg. That's 6mil dmg with a single spell cast. After that, we're chilling for a second and a half, then hitting Sirius again for 6mil dmg. Rinse and repeat until he dies. After all, most bosses have less than 100mil HP. You can hit higher numbers than that, or make the build insanely more playable. This build has been around for quite some time, I just, "revived it".

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So, how did I do it?

Well, two key items. The Interrogator (or a source of Brittle) and a pair of Forbidden Flesh and Flame.

With such meaty hits, you are 100% sure that you will max Brittle, consequently making a 100% crit chance trivial.

Now, we're using Forbidden Flesh and Flame to get Inquisitor's ascendancy Inevitable Judgement, that states the following:

- Critical Strikes ignore Enemy Monster Elemental Resistances

So, our crits will deal Sirius full damage, or any boss for that matter, 100% of the time. Consequently, we don't need any curses. We aren't penning anything. So, to scale this build all you have to do is make the hits as meaty as you can, because that ascendancy takes care of the rest.

Consequently, this build only works for Heirophant. Inquisitor looses too many bonuses from Heirophant.

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Questions and Answers for anyone who wants to partake, and who wants to do it differently. You can use this information to decide if my reasoning is good for your potential build or not, and change things accordingly.

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How do you get your hits as meaty as possible?

Again, they are a few variants of doing this thing, which I will explain. I'll explain how I did it (a.k.a the boring but reliable way) and how you can do it differently.

I got Archmage and Crit Multiplier and stacked a bunch of mana.

With this much mana, I can run The Agnostic for all the regen I need. Plus, fitting ES into the build is next to impossible.

By running Agnostic, I can also run Righteous Fire 100% of the time, getting even more damage in the process.

By not needing rings, I can run an Essence Worm and get even more damage/survivability from a free aura.

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How do you get insane amounts of mana regen to run Agnostic and RF? 2 ways:

- Mana Recovery Rate (a Watcher's Eye with that mod and a garbo mod is a few c, Tempered Mind is 1c, a Mana Recovery Rate belt is cheap, because you can get it synthetized and Chaos spam/Essence spam it until you get something decent)

- Synthetized amulet with "Recover 0.5% Mana per Second". This mod alone is cheap. Get one, and roll it yourself with "+1 to all Cold Skill Gems" with alts and regals. Try to get a res in the process. Afterwards, 3 crafted modifiers and get whatever you want. Much better than most things out there, while still being relatively cheap. It tramps Atziri's Foible by a lot (my build loses 73k average hit and 200 Mana Regen).

If you get these, and a bit of Mana Regeneration Rate from the tree, you will hit 300+ Mana Regen easily, while still having 1k health regen with RF turned on. Without RF, you can get away with fewer mana regen items.

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How do you get insane amounts of mana for Archmage?

- Replica Kaom's Heart. You don't need the sockets (run what, a beefy golem? Sigil of power? a war cry? nah, not worth it)

- Regular mana mods on items and intelligence. That's it. Without Kaom's but still having some mana items, you can get 3k mana easily.

- Cloak of Defiance would save you a passive point, but I don't see the point (hah). You will lose a fair bit of damage, while barely allowing you to run a better amulet (which honestly, you don't need anything fantastic for it). It still is on the table if you fancy it, but I'd advise against it. You gain a lot more from the Kaom's if you want to run MoM and Agnostic.

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Why do you run Dance of the Offered?

- Free Agnostic and perma onslaught. The cast time from onslaught is so much needed to make this build playable. Without those, the cast time would be too long. 45% increased MS, 20% Cast Time, some Mana, a bit of Res, a free skill point, with the ability to find one that's corrupted and has an implicit is massive.

- IMO Omeyocan isn't worth it at all. Dance is much better.

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How do you make this thing playable and not stand ages in-between casts?

- Cooldown Recovery Rate. There are 5 major reliable sources. Belt (craftable), Boots (some influence), helm enchant (roll it yourself using essences), abyss jewels, and Phantasmal Frost Bomb. With the enchant, a crafted belt, and Phantasmal Frost Bomb, I can get 1.5 secs CD which imho is fine.

- Secondly, cast time is insanely important, even if you don't get a direct benefit from it. You will stand still for a shorter period of time, and sitting still too much is dying.

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Why do you run Less Duration if it lowers your DPS?

- Playability's sake. I don't want to spend 5 years by the time the bomb pops.

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Why aren't you running Indigon if you have 800 mana regen?

- I tried it. For some odd reason, it doesn't work. On my first spell cast it deals normal damage, but on my 2nd spell cast it deals significantly lower damage. I don't think I am integer overloading the game. Cosnequently, I have no damn clue.

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Why are you running Glancing Blows?

- The build has so much regen that Glancing Blows has almost no palpable downside. You're giving away the chance that you will block a killing blow every so often for the ability to tank for a bit in crowded spaces thanks to insane regen. A blocked hit will regen back up. Plus, Glancing Blows gives us a good chunk of Mana Regen.

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Why are you running Purity of Fire?

- The aura used in Essence Worm is versatile. I prefer Purity of Fire for phys protection (via conversion), more regen (Righteous Fire deals less damage), and me not needing to spec into Fire Resistance on my gear. You can run Purity of Elements, Zealotry, or Hatred with just as much, if not more success.

- Also, you could run Mark of Submission and slot Enfeeble or Temporal Chains. This increases the survability directly via Enfeeble (even less damage taken, on top of the guaranteed Sapped from Archmage) or indirectly by allowing you to dodge shots easier via Temp Chains. We have a free curse after all.

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Why aren't you running Arcane Cloak?

- I find its cost to be too much for the damage.

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You said that there are more variants to this build. What are they?

There are two (maybe 3 or even 4), in fact, whilst doing it slightly differently:

1. Instead of lowering the duration, increase the duration. Frost Bomb states that it does 4% more damage per 0.1 increased duration. With the nodes around Scion and an Increased Duration Support, you can get a lot of free damage at the cost of playability. To counteract the missed playability, you cast them like a timer bomb. Place them somewhere and sod off, knowing that they will eventually blow up. By doing so you can cover the arena/a map in bombs that will blow periodically and deal massive damage. Plus, it makes your build safer, by not having to aim. All you have to do is kite bosses/mobs in your bombs. You can reach decent damage by doing it this way
2. Instead of a Replica Kaom's Heart, run a Replica Shroud of the Lightless, and change Dance of the Offered with regular CDR boots. Get your CDR and Cast Time as low as possible via Abyss Jewels. Afterwards, swap a damage gem for a Second Wind one (whichever alt quality you prefer). Your cast time is so long that, by the time your 4 repeats are casted, your CDR will almost pass. By having an additional cast, you will be 100% able to DPS mobs down using Frost Bomb.
3. Farm added damage. Frost Bomb got changed in 3.17, jumping from 210% effectiveness of added damage to 310%. You could forego crit multi and just go for flat added damage, making the build a bit cheaper but quite stronger via Awakened Cold Damage. Bear in mind, please, that mods stating "adds X to Y Cold Damage to Chilled or Frozen enemies" doesn't work thanks to The Interrogator.
4. Go for Cloak of Defiance, and go low life, getting Pain Attunement in the process. Change a bunch of mana regen to life regen and run Zealot's Oath while going for a bit of ES too. You can reach around 60% damage taken from mana before life, get some auras on your lifepool, and stuff's easy as pie.