Blade Vortex POE 3.28 League-Starter Build Guide - Mirage League Update

Chronic_Painless's Guide to League-Starting with Cold BV: Date/Time of Export: July 23 2026 - 12PM EST If you're reading this, please accept my apologies for spamming "Read the Notes Section" everywhere else in this POB, but also please trust me that history has shown it was all too necessary. -------------------------------------------- ------- THE BASIC OUTLINE --------- -------------------------------------------- (More Detailed Steps Below) Get through acts 1-5 however you like, I recommend following the first half of Havoc's Witch Leveling Guide: https://maxroll.gg/poe/build-guides/witch-leveling-build-guide I at least recommend rushing for the Minion Attack Speed bonuses from the tree to make Shield Charge a massive increase to your overall speed (replaceable when get the buff from Lightning Golem a little bit later on). At level 34, do the Labyrinth and get the "Liege of the Primordial" Ascendancy Add Flame/Stone/Lightning Golems for damage, AOE, survivability, and even faster shield charging. Link 1-3 of them to Culling Strike if you ever have a spare link. After completing the Twilight Strand and the Labyrinth, swap to Blade Vortex with 100% Physical to Cold Conversion via Hrimsorrow Gloves. With Respecialization being so cheap at this level, it won't matter if you deviate substantially from the tree for this build. For now, cast BV whenever your Unleash is at 3 seals, and then spam a couple of casts against beefier targets. Use Frostblink + Bonechill for both travel and a damage boost when needed. Get Vaal Blade Vortex ASAP Do the 2nd and 3rd Labyrinths as soon as you are out of the XP penalty and have them unlocked. Get the Shaper of Storm Ascendency first, then Bringer of Ruin adding Herald of Ash with the newly unreserved mana. This should get you to the end of the campaign easily, and you should be even be a little bit overleveled due to BV's constant damage output while running through the various zones. On entering maps, consider Respecializing to the "Bastion of Elements" Ascendency for increased survivability and Reflect immunity, or keep the "Shaper of Storms" Ascendency for more DPS. This choice will depend what you feel you're currently lacking due to your limited gear - Bad Weapon --> Shaper of Storms Bad Max Life --> Bastion of Elements Add Chaos Golem to negate the Resistance penalty. Invest Passive Points in Increased Freeze Duration to enable freezing even beefier enemies. Continue using Elemental Overload. This build will get you to at least Yellow Maps. At approximately Level 70, unspec from Elemental Overload and invest in critical strikes, specifically with the addition of Ice Golem, Assassin's Mark, and eventually Brittle Ground boots. Remove Chaos Golem to make room. Get a Cluster Jewel with the Blast-Freeze notable for a massive survivability/clear speed boost. Use Obliteration Wand to increase clear speed if you can still reliably freeze enemies while using it (gear/level dependent). This should easily level you into Red Maps, and with a 5-link and about 5-15 Chaos spent per gear slot, this build will easily kill non-Uber Pinnacle bosses and do the basic Maven's Invitations, creating a strong foundation for farming currency. Get whichever Ascendency you didn't take earlier (Bastion/Storms) from the Eternal Labyrinth. Get a Shield with high base Block Chance, then rearrange your Passive Tree to get some Spell Block Notables and enough Mana Reservation Efficiency to add Tempest Shield. Target inexpensive upgrades such as Corrupted Hrimsorrow, Cluster Jewels, Tattoos, Attack/Spell Block Jewels with Freeze Duration, etc. Or, If you want to play a more glass cannon style, your first major investment should be replacing Obliteration/Carcass Jack with a Crusader-Mod Explode Chest for better explosion scaling and a +Skills Weapon for better single target DPS. Either way, blast juicy maps until Headhunter. Eventually, stack +1 Spell/Physical Gem Levels to maximize damage, with a secondary focus on Power Charges, Aura Effect, and Critical Strike Multiplier. -------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- OVERALL KEYS TO THE BUILD ---------- -------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Damage output is highly contingent on maintaining 10 Active Blades, since BV scales exponentially with the number of blades you have out. The importance of this follows a bit of a bell curve as the build progresses: a. Not Important very early on, while Unleash Support is low level and still generating Seals too slowly, plus most monsters are weak enough to die to less than 10 blades anyway. b. Extremely Important as you get meaty part of the atlas, when taking down Pinnacle Bosses is a priority, and having reliable Freezes will make difficult maps much easier, c. Extremely Important as you start to progress through the juiced mapping stage, when doing as much damage as possible while being as fast as possible directly translates to profit/hr d. Not Important in the extreme late game, when your damage has scaled to the point where having less than 10 blades becomes more than enough to clear even highly juiced maps. 2. Maintaining 10 Active Blades is easy and comfortable if the following conditions are met: a. You have 4 Maximum Unleash Seals (creating 5 blades on a max seal cast) b. Your Skill Duration for BV is at least TWICE the time it takes to generate Maximum Seals, plus a small "Buffer" duration. I recommend at least a .5 second Buffer, even for experienced BV blasters. USE THIS EQUATION: Skill Duration >= 2 x (MaxSealTime + Buffer) For the Minimum recommended Buffer (.5 seconds): At level 20 Unleash: MaxSealTime = 4*(.71) = 2.84 Seconds Skill Duration >= 2*(2.84 + .5) Skill Duration >= 6.68 Seconds At level 5 Awakened Unleash MaxSealTime = 4*(.66) = 2.64 Seconds Skill Duration >= 2*(2.64 + .5) Skill Duration >= 6.28 Seconds c. You cast BV whenever you reach 4 Unleash seals, within your Buffer duration If this rhythm gets broken for whatever reason, adding 1-2 extra casts the next time you stop moving can easily get you back to 100% uptime on 10 blades. This principle is referred to as the "Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio" While it's possible to increase your seal generation speed instead of increasing skill duration to achieve the ratio, that would mean stopping to cast more often since you'll still need to cast twice per BV duration. 3. Until you can afford to tank up in traditional fashion (avoidance/mitigation), the best defence is a good freezefence. Increased Freeze Duration and Freeze Proliferation will enable you to freeze even extremely strong enemies with relatively low investment. a. X% Increased Freeze Duration is essentially "Freeze as though dealing X% more damage" Different sources of Increased Freeze Duration stack additively, but then that total acts as a "more" multiplier when calculating the final Freeze Duration that is applied to the enemy. b. When a Freeze Proliferates, it applies the FULL DURATION of the Freeze on the ORIGINAL TARGET to the Proliferate Target, and only keeps the Longest Duration Freeze if multiple Freezes are occuring at the same time. So, even the beefiest monster in a pack will always be frozen as though it was the weakest monster if you are taking advantage of Proliferation. This build starts out as a not-quite-glass cannon that largely relies on freezing and/or killing enemies before they can do anything to you, but can easily be made a lot tankier with a little investment into Block. 4. Golems are spectacular in the early part of a league, because the massive bonuses granted by their buffs aren't contingent upon gear at all, and they provide major utility as taunting tanks/meat shields. Simply getting the Liege of the Primordial Ascendency, the Golem Commander notable, and summoning a variety of Golems will provide a substantial boost to offense and defense no matter how well geared you are otherwise. Even with the nerfs to Liege of the Primordial in Patches 3.27 and 3.28, the sheer magnitude of the buff that Golems had received in patch 3.26 means they are still more than viable as a League-Start enabler. (Unnecessarily Long Justification): 3.26 essentially gave that single Ascendency the power scaling of about three-and-a-half Ascendencies, and now it has been dialed back to only about two-and-a-half Ascendencies worth of power (i.e. still pretty damn good). For example, 3.26 gave 20% Increased AOE baseline to the buff from Flame Golem AND upped the Increased Damage from 20% to 29% (actually from 80% to 87% with easily available passive tree + gem quality increased buff effect) With 100% Increased Buff Effect still on the Ascendency and 80% from Golem Commander cluster + 20% Quality, it was 60% increased AOE on nothing but GCPs of investment (and still 56% without any) That's as strong as Heart of Destruction in terms of raw AOE, and Golem uptime is close to 100% vs. the conditional nature of HoD PLUS Flame Golem was arguably comparable in damage during 3.26, because even though the buff only granted ~12% More Damage (more at lower levels), Flame Golem is fully generic and basically unconditional damage. And that's just ONE of FOUR Golems. Having that knocked down to 40% increased AOE and ~8% More Damage (more at lower levels) over the course of two Patches is an extremely gentle nerf. Prior to 3.26 Flame Golem was only ~10% More Damage, it gave no increased AOE, AND Golemancing required TWO Ascendencies... and even then they were still surprisingly effective for league-starting. 5. The progressive phases of the build are designed to be relatively strong at BOTH Bossing AND Mapping, and so there are certainly trade-offs that could be made in favor of one or the other if you have a specific goal. The balance currently being struck is meant to make mapping feel quick and easy, while also enabling you to handily defeat all invitations/pinnacle bosses as you naturally unlock them during the beginning of the league. 6. Vaal Blade Vortex is absolutely essential and serves many purposes: a. Gives you an option to do damage from range, which is extremely helpful for very dangerous mobs and League Content like Heists or the Forbidden Sanctum where the mobs are lying in wait. b. Two charges means a huge damage boost on bosses. c. Enhances clear speed generally as you can use it to take out stragglers or spread out enemies. d. Helps with League Content like Blight/Legion/Breach where it's good to be doing damage over a large area. 7. Shield Charge provides a massive boost to movement speed, and is definitely worth learning to use even if it seems difficult at first. Lightning Golem goes a long way towards making it feel better at lower gem levels. Keep your cursor at the edge of the screen to avoid making stationary attacks. 8. Block and Spell Block are the best option for tanking up. Getting to Max-Block requires little opportunity cost in terms of DPS Almost all of it comes from the passive tree, so it will be doable even in the extremely early stages of a League. As better items become more widely available, these passive points can be reclaimed. If Cord Belts (which can be Annointed) have gone core after Mirage League, then they are a must-buy. Annoints are easily the most efficient way (in both cost and opportunity cost) to get huge amounts of Block Chance, especially considering how far the best nodes are from the Witch starting location. 9. Increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments is a sneakily strong source of damage up to a certain point, since it is a triple dip of efficiency. It multiplies the Crit Chance from Brittle Ground, the Shock from Shaper of Storms, and ensures 30% Chills from your BV for Bonechill Support. In most cases, the chill from your BV will be stronger than the one from your Frostblink, and will therefore be used when Bonechill's effect is calculated. It does not matter if the skill Bonechill is supporting is actually doing the chilling, since enemies can also be "In Chilling Areas from Supported Skills" for it to work The strongest chill on a monster in a a Bone-Chilling Area will be used in the calculation, regardless of source. (Confirmed by GGG) The benefit of Increased Ailment Effect will be limited by the caps on the ailments themselves, which is 6% for Brittle Ground, 30% for Chill, and 50% for Shock. With just 100% Increased Ailment Effect and Shaper of Storms, all enemies will be maximally shocked by any hits you deal when the 25% minimum from the Ascendency gets doubled. 10. The Brine King Pantheon is the best Major Pantheon early in the league, mitigating stuns and providing essential freeze immunity that protects us against ailment reflect. Aberrath is the best Minor Pantheon because it provides huge ignite mitigation, enough that no further investment in that stat is needed. 11. Stacking a lot of +Skill Gem Levels is almost always the most efficient way to scale damage BV scales exponentially with more levels (up to Gem Level 30) 12. Blade Vortex gets +.1m Base Radius at Gem level 22 and again at Gem Level 29. This can be massive, especially with Flame Golem, Carcass Jack, Cluster Notables and/or other large sources of increased AOE. Keep this in mind especially when deciding to use Empower Support or not in high-end versions of the build 13. Heatshiver can be a fairly strong item for the build, even after the nerfs, but it's also possible to add it in TOO EARLY The most important thing for the build early on, is making sure that everything is freezing. Heatshiver will not help with this at all, since it only provides Fire Damage and minimal stats compared to a Rare Helm. Furthermore, killing frozen targets faster is really only impactful in a few situations such as Bossing or the Forbidden Sanctum, so don't be seduced by the boost to POB damage. Maximizing the benefits of Heatshiver also means focusing on certain stats while taking priority away from others. See this video for an even more detailed breakdown: https://youtu.be/uwZzUKZxBVY?si=GIhahUj857a1TfBF&t=331 14. Sceptres are preferable to wands for end-game loadouts, as they will enable more Tattoos due to their lower Intelligence Requirement, and their implicit will bolster the damage of both BV and Explosions. Spellbows are normally a very strong option as well, and have a very early power spike of damage 8-link helms are worth using despite relying on Concentrated Effect Support, because this is an extreme late game item and by then you'll care more about the AOE of your Explosions than the AOE of your BV. 15. Eldritch Battery is an option, but has pros/cons/synnergies to consider: a. Best used when you can really get a lot from reserving ALL of your mana as opposed to having a little left over. This depends on what gear you have available, prices of mana reservation efficiency upgrades, opportunity costs of getting MRE from the Passive Tree, and how much benefit you'd get from whatever aura/herald is on the margin of the decision. b. Worst used when you're getting a lot of ES from something like a Carcass Jack and so it would hurt more to give up the defensive benefits of ES. c. Inspiration Support and Arcane Surge Support are almost always two of the BiS support skills for DPS, and neither one can be utilized with EB, since you will no longer be spending mana to trigger the buffs. BUT Inspiration is not going to have 100% uptime at 5 charges unless you can get your mana cost extremely low overall This is a lot harder to achieve than it used to be back when mana cost reduction flasks existed and getting down to 1 or 2 mana per cast was well within reach. I generally don't recommend using it. Arcane Surge with 100% uptime requires running TWO copies of the gem: One Max Level gem on BV itself for damage scaling, and One Level 1 gem on Frostblink to trigger the buff reliably (or getting another source like a Zealotry Watcher's Eye) This works because the damage bonus from the support gem is contingent only on you having the Arcane Surge buff, regardless of source. The buff itself only provides mana regeneration and cast speed, the scaling of which we can easily afford to ignore. 16. Blizzard Crowns are worse than a helmet WITHOUT ANY IMPLICIT in 99.9% of cases with this build. Do not be fooled. Delete the implicit from a prospective helm in POB and check if your damage goes up. ------------------------------------------------------- -------------- PLAYSTYLE TIPS ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------- 1. BV's greatest strength as a skill is its ability to output damage while you are moving, so it can have the survivability/mobility of a DOT build, despite being hit-based. With that in mind, only stop moving when you need to actually cast in order to maintain the 10 blade rhythm This is true whether you are mapping, bossing or whatever else. Moving targets are 1000x harder for POE monsters to kill, so make yourself into one as often as possible and let the knife do the work. 2. Frostblink is an engagement tool first, and an escape tool second. To do damage with BV, you have to get relatively close to your target. The worst and most dangerous place to be is near an aggroed monster, but not near enough for your blades to actually be hitting it. The safest place is of course outside of a monster's Aggro range, but the SECOND safest place is right up in the monster's face (especially when using Freeze as a layer of defense). This means you must prioritize your travel skills as a way to close the gap on Aggroed monsters. Get on top of them ASAP and let the knife do the work. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------ LAST THINGS BEFORE YOU START ------ ------------------------------------------------------------ Ignore Socket Colors in the "Items" section of this POB, and refer only to the "Skills" section or the notes below when determining which colors to target overall. This is left open because it doesn't matter where you put BV/travel/golems/auras in your boots/helm/gloves/weapons, as long as the skill and support links are correct. You don't even need to put Blade Vortex in your Chest until you have a 5-link. (And of course if you're using Mark of Submission the curse needs to actually be socketed in it... duh.) With the major Socket Color rework in patch 3.29, all Socket Color info below is much less crucial, but wasn't worth deleting since ideally you'd still want as many matches as possible. Skills that are conceptually groupable but don't need to be linked are labeled "Sock" instead of "Link" in their title e.g. "(4-Sock Golems GBRR) Ice/Flame/Stone/Light" Means there's no need for any of these to be linked to one another, just grouped so the skills section doesn't have a dozen single socket skills to click through when you want to play around with what a different golem/aura might offer. VS. "(3-Link Travel/Bonechill/ArcSurge BBB) Frostblink" Means Frostblink actually needs to be linked to the two supports to get the full utility from the skill. In extremely high budget POBs, there may be socket groups that must be in a certain gear slot, but they will be called out specifically, and none are inlcuded in this guide. Finally, please keep in mind that the gear in this guide is meant to be extremely reasonable, and it's more than likely you'll have better gear than what's shown at each phase of the build, especially with the Genesis Tree in play. I'd rather have a guide that outperforms expectations than one that makes promises it can't deliver on or contains implausible gear. ---------------------------------------------------- --------- STEP BY STEP GUIDE ----------- ---------------------------------------------------- ------ LEARNING FROM THE BEST ------- To get through acts 1-5, I highly recommend just following the first half of this guide: https://maxroll.gg/poe/build-guides/witch-leveling-build-guide I'm not gonna pretend like I know how to get through the campaign faster/more easily than the speedrunning kings It doesn't really matter how you get to Act 6, since respecialization is basically free at that level, and you can move dozens of points around if you need to Alternatively, there is this guide by Lazy Exile for a Wintertide Brand based A1-5: https://pobb.in/zVsxSd6tVQ_c I used to run a Stormblast Mines/Orb of Storms loadout in prior patches, and it will still work just fine: https://pobb.in/Vjlfr7jmtHzq The goal of this guide is to start playing Cold BV as soon as it is viable to do so. Though BV is available as early as level 12, it feels terrible without Unleash Support which requires level 38. I wait to swap until Act 6 because that's when all the support gems are purchasable (without needing to clear the Library). You can of course wait longer than this if you're cruising with the leveling guide, but I definitely don't recommend swapping any sooner. I also don't recommend trying to level a BV gem in your weapon swap, as the dex requirement will be a major annoyance. It's better to just wait and craft dex on the items you have when you're actually ready to run BV. You'll make up the gem XP quickly with the sheer amount of extra killing that BV does by having constant damage output while you move. Small deviations to set up for BV no matter which guide you follow: 1. Get the Liege of the Primordial Ascendency as soon as you are high enough level (34) to summon Golems. If you don't have enough gem slots for all three, prioritize them in this order: Lightning, Stone, Flame Lightning Golem is incredibly powerful for shield charging and also makes you have to stand still for less time in order to actually cast your BV, so it has the largest effect on overall speed. 2. Kill all the Bandits Having an extra skill point that you can easily move around is a major boon as you progress through the build, and the other bandit buffs are so trivial that in my opinion it's not worth losing the utility of the floating skill point. As you progress through the early acts, try to collect gear with the following links/sockets in preparation for the swap to BV: G-G-G-B for BV - Hypothermia - Cold Penetration - Unleash B-B-B for Frostblink - Bonechill - Arcane Surge R-G-G for Shield Charge - Momentum - Faster Attacks AND TWO GG Random Green Sockets for Herald of Ice and Hatred THREE RRR Random Red Sockets for Herald of Purity, Stone Golem and Flame Golem. THREE BBB Random Blue Sockets for Lightning Golem, Frostbite, Frost Bomb OPTIONALLY: G-X-X-X for Culling Strike and as many Golems as you can link to it. The type of Golem doesn't really matter, they all hit often enough that the culls will be noticeable even if only one is linked. Though this build requires a fairly high number of sockets due to the addition of the Golems, fortunately links are only required for BV and the two travel skills. ------ SWAP TO BV ------- Clear the Twilight Strand to unlock all basic gems at Lily. Ideally, buy Hrimsorrow Gloves (should be 1-5C). If you can't do this because of bad luck or you're playing SSF, stick with the baseline leveling guide until you can afford a pair, or skip ahead to the PINK section below.** If you were playing Havoc's Guide, unsocket these gems: 1. Armageddon Brand + Supports 2. Cremation + Supports 3. Flammability 4. Herald of Thunder/Summon Skitterbots/Anger 5. Desecrate Buy/Socket these gems: Act 6 - Cold Penetration, Hypothermia, Faster Attacks, Frost Bomb (FB is only useful for applying Exposure at this stage of progression, so buy it here because you want a Level 1 Gem for the low Mana Cost.) Act 1 - Blade Vortex Act 2 - Herald of Ice, Herald of Purity, Culling Strike Support Act 3 - Hatred, Frostbite Act 4 - Bonechill Be sure to AVOID incidentally linking your Heralds to Support Gems that will increase their reservation: a. Bonechill/Culling Strike on either Herald b. Faster Attacks/Momentum on Herald of Purity You can always safely put Hatred wherever Herald of Ice was, and Flame/Stone Golem in place of Herald of Purity. If you're having trouble with sockets/colors, the things to consider sacrificing to make room would be (in order of most saccable): 1. Arcane Surge 2. Culling Strike 3. Frost Bomb 4. Flame Golem 5. Momentum/Faster Attacks Anything else is going to hurt a lot more compared to these relatively "luxury" skills/supports. Use Respecialization to rearrange your Passive Tree, since the gold cost is extremely low at this point relative to the value of Orbs of Regret later on. OPTIONAL PRO TIP: Try to avoid socketing the golems/auras in your weapons so they don't despawn/toggle off if you swap back/forth. ***Benchcraft dex/resistances as needed. Make sure you have the Increased Skill Duration Mastery, but don't worry about a 4th seal and the Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio yet Low level Unleash Support won't have fast enough seal generation to make a 4th seal worthwhile, so the ratio math won't apply. You'll need at least level 15 Unleash to actually make use of the 4th seal and constantly cruise with 10 blades. For now, just cast whenever you are at 3 Seals, and spam a couple of extra casts against any beefier targets you need to take down. Get Vaal Blade Vortex ASAP, even before you can afford gem quality. I immediately use every vaal orb I get until I hit a Vaal BV or can buy one off of trade. For your 2nd Ascendancy, get Shaper of Storms, or Bastion of Elements, depending on whether you feel like you need damage or survivability This decision will depend on the gear you dropped during the campaign so far, i.e. if you dropped an excellent Weapon but have very little Maximum Life on your gear, consider getting Bastion of Elements. I would personally lean towards Shaper of Storms if the decision is close. Use the Brine King and Abberrath Pantheons for Stun and Ignite Mitigation. 60% Less Duration of ignites is more than enough mitigation, because if 40% of an ignite is enough to kill you, then the hit that applied the ignite probably would have one-shot you already. Get a Flask with Freeze Immunity before Act 9, as this is when Ailment Reflect typically starts to appear on mobs For your 3rd Ascendancy, get Bringer of Ruin and add Herald of Ash. Use any spare mana on a low-mid level Vitality. If you're starved for gem slots, get whichever of Shaper of Storms/Bastion of Elements you didn't take last time. This set-up will get you through the rest of the Campaign. Passive Point Priorities: 1. Ash, Frost, and Storm 2. Breath of Rime 3. Heart and Soul 4. Winter's Embrace This can be adjusted as needed if you find yourself lacking damage, life, or a particular attribute. Investing in Freeze Duration is very important, even though it won't affect POB damage, as it will let you freeze much beefier targets. Remember, 60% increased Freeze duration is essentially: "Freeze as though dealing 60% more damage." Early Gameplay Summary: a. Cast BV whenever you are at maximum Unleash Seals while running through Campaign zones b. On Bosses/tougher mobs, spam more BV casts to try to get to 10 blades c. Frostblink to close gaps and create "Chilling Areas" that apply the Bonechill debuff to enemies. d. Frostbite/Frostbomb will only be needed on very strong enemies like Pantheon or Act Bosses. ------ **IF HRIMSORROW ARE INACCESSIBLE ----- SKIP THIS SECTION, UNLESS YOU: A. Weren't fortunate enough to drop a few Chaos orbs in the early acts B. Are playing SSF C. Lack access to Hrimsorrow Gloves for whatever reason Unsocket these gems: 1. Armageddon Brand + Supports 2. Cremation + Supports 3. Flammability 4. Desecrate 5. Summon Skitterbots Buy these gems: Act 6 - Physical to Lightning Support, Shield Charge, Faster Attacks Support, Frost Bomb (only useful for applying Exposure at this stage of progression, so you want a Level 1 Gem for the low Mana Cost.) Act 1 - Blade Vortex Act 2 - Trinity Support, Herald of Ice, Herald of Purity, and Culling Strike Support Act 3 - Hatred, Elemental Weakness Act 4 - Bonechill Support (and Stone/Chaos/Flame golems if you have orbs of Chance, but you won't equip these yet) Get the Cold Mastery "Convert 40% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage" With this setup, your damage should be balanced enough to maintain full Trinity Resonance, but you may have to make small tweaks depending on your gear. Make sure to add "50" in the config for resonance in POB. Changes to Consider: 1. Swap Herald of Ice/Herald of Thunder/Herald of Purity 2. Move points around on the tree, out of or into lightning/cold nodes 3. Hatred outclasses Wrath immensely in overall DPS, so swap them only as a last resort The Trinity setup will actually work into red maps if necessary, but balancing your cold and lightning damage is a hassle, so you'll still want to pick up a pair of Hrimsorrow Gloves as soon as you can afford them or find a pair. In the meantime, go back and complete the section above, starting with "Benchcraft dex/resistances as needed" *** ------ EARLY ATLAS (Objective: Obliteration) ------ Equip the Silver Flask from the A10 Quest if you haven't already Continue using Frost Bomb as a source of Exposure and Frostblink to apply Bonechill. Start working towards Caster Mastery on the passive tree. Add Culling Strike Support to 3/4 of your Golems in one of your 4-link setups if you haven't already. Add Steelskin for emergency defense. I highly recommend NOT using CWDT for this, since unlike Molten Shell, Steelskin has to be leveled up to be effective and a correspondingly high level CWDT will not trigger easily enough. When you get a 5-link, use Arcane Surge as the 5th link until the next phase of the build, BUT only if you also have a gem slot available for a level 1 Arcane Surge on your Frostblink to reliably trigger the buff. Otherwise, use Cruetly or Added Cold Damage. Upgrade the Brine King Pantheon ASAP to get Freeze Immunity Try to run a flask with a freeze immunity mod in the meantime, as mobs that reflect ailments will freeze you for a long time without it. Once you feel confident that everything is freezing, swap to an Obliteration Wand to increase clearspeed, but be prepared that your single target damage will be reduced. A good rule of thumb here is that if you can freeze map bosses without worrying about bonechill, then you can afford to swap (but will also probably need to be a little more dilligent about bonechill) This will get you well into Yellow/Early Red Maps. ------ MIDDLE ATLAS (Critical Strikes) ------- At around level 70-75, you should have enough passive points to get to the Whispers of Doom Notable, enabling the addition of Assassin's Mark. You can free up even more points by exiting the Witch starting location via the intelligence nodes instead of the ones that give negligible spell damage (as shown on the trees), but I wouldn't recommend doing that prior to this point. Spec out of Elemental Overload and the Minion Damage/Attack Speed Nodes. Always use Assassin's Mark on Bosses, and use it periodically while mapping (slightly more than once every 10 seconds) in order to generate Power Charges reliably. Change up your support gems, probably dropping Added Cold Damage, and/or Hypothermia/Cold Penetration in favor of Increased Critical Strikes and Increased Critical Damage. Check POB because the damage output is often very close either way, and individual results may vary depending on gear. If you're struggling with Cold-Resistant Rare Monsters in particular, definitely keep using Cold Penetration support. Add Ice Golem, dropping Chaos. You should be able to have a little bit of Chaos res from gear at this point. Stone Golem's taunts and Life Regen are absolutely essential. Flame Golem's AOE is too good to lose, and the damage bonus is quite effective Lightning Golem's Attack/Cast Speed buff is crucial for traveling, and the Mana Regen from just the Golem alone makes sustain a non-issue while spamming travel skills along with your BV rhythm. Add Zealotry via Guardian's Blessing on your Lightning Golem This will likely require an Unset Ring for Frost Bomb or one of your other Golems, at least if you want to keep using Arcane Surge. Use the Zealotry Blessing as a temporary steroid to be activated against beefy targets, don't spam it. Though the Lightning Golem is crucial for travel speed, it can safely be sacrificed for the DPS boost during more stationary combat. Use whatever surplus unreserved mana you have on an appropriately leveled Precision or Vitality aura. Alternatively, you can also consider linking Herald of Ice to a support gem like Added Cold Damage or Increased Critical Strikes. This can increase your clear speed substantially if you find that basic Herald of Ice isn't enough. Get a Mark of Submission Unset Ring Automating the application of your Curse makes self-casting Assassin's Mark much more comfortable. Mark of Submission is the best way to do this cheaply, because Inflicting a maximum level Curse vs. the Level 1 you'd get from an Influenced Ring Mod or Glove Corruption makes a huge difference in DPS, especially vs. monsters that have lots of base resistance. Plus, don't sleep on the benefit of maximum Quality Frostbite/Elemental Weakness with their 20% Increased Freeze/Ailment Duration. Elemental weakness provides comparable damage while using Herald of Ash, but will be a little bit less effective in terms of ensuring reliable Freezes. For an early Annoint, consider Elemental Focus for the extremely high cost/benefit ratio until you're ready to go for Block. ----- ATLAS COMPLETION (Cluster Jewels and Block) ----- The next phase of the progression is all about using Blast-Freeze and Block as layers of defense to make completing corrupted red maps as smooth as possible. When you do the Uber Lab, get either Bastion of Elements or Shaper of Storms, whichever you didn't choose last time. Passive Point Priorities from level 75 to level 90: 1. Cluster Jewel Socket (See "Cluster Jewel with Blast-Freeze" below) 2. Doom Cast/Annihilation Getting your crit chance to a reliable level is important, and you'll want drop Increased Critical Strikes as soon as possible to make room for higher impact supports. The Critical Mastery that increases Ailment Effect is very powerful if you're not already hitting maximum Shocks, but POB doesn't account for it properly so add "50% increased effect of shock" to the custom configs to make it work. Remember, you don't need over 100% increased shock effect because it's a multiplier on the guaranteed 25% Shock we get from Shaper of Storms. 3. Sovereignty Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency is always useful thanks to the value of even low-mid level Precision and/or Vitality. Eventually, you'll use this to add Tempest Shield when the other components giving Block/Spell Block start coming online. 4. Sanctuary/Safeguard Once you have these, you're ready to swap for a high Block Chance shield, add Tempest Shield, and get the best Attack Block Chance annoint you can afford. Gearing Priorities: 1. Cluster Jewel with Blast-Freeze This is one of the biggest upgrades in the entire build, providing significant defense via freeze proliferation and more clear for Herald of Ice explosions. Blast-Freeze can be found on Large Cluster Jewels with Increased Cold Damage and Medium Cluster Jewels with Increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments. Other good notables on the Large Cluster would be Doryani's Lesson, Blanketed Snow, Widespread Destruction, or Prismatic Heart. On the Medium Cluster, try to get Astonishing Affliction as a second notable. 2. High Block Chance Shield When you'll actually want to buy or craft one of these depends entirely on how fast you're leveling vs. making currency, since it won't be impactful without the passive points to back it up, but early investment in Block is worthless without it. Aim for at least 45% Block Chance, ideally on a base that can also roll Increased Spell Criticial Strike Chance, since that stat is very valuable at this stage. If experimental base types are available/affordable, then I'd recommend Scorch over Brittle, since Brittle is too valuable to leave to chance. 3. Boots with a Brittle Ground implicit Buy some or try to add a Brittle Ground implicit to your boots with Eldritch Embers It's relatively easy to apply this to enemies when needed, as the normal way you'll want to do damage while avoiding hits is by running tight circles around beefy foes. Scorched/Sapped Ground are useful, but nowhere near as strong as Brittle while the build isn't overcapped in Crit Chance yet. 4. Amulet worth Annointing Annoints are one of the best ways for a Witch to get a large amount of Block Chance, and thankfully the best ones don't require any Gold Oil, but it's still a good idea to spend a little extra for a decent amulet that you can keep for a while. Annoint As the Mountain (Back, Black, Opalescent) 4a. Cord Belt for a second Annoint I don't know if these will exist or if they will be affordable, but assumiung they do and they only cost a few chaos for mid iLvL base, they are a must-have. Use Essence of Sorrow (whatever tier you can afford to spam 10-15 of), to get some much needed Dexterity that you wouldn't be able to craft on a Belt without Essences. Annoint either Testudo (Clear, Sepia, Black) for the most raw Block Chance or Aggressive Bastion (Verdant, Violet, Black) for Endurance Charges on Kill. 5. Jewels with Increased Freeze Duration These jewels are (historically) criminally underrated by the overall market, making them very nice and relatively cheap upgrades you can go for while getting some max life and rounding out attributes/resistances/mana reserves. 6. Some form of Life Leech - I didn't put these in any particular order since the one you pick is mostly an economic decision: a. Amulet with Corrupt Implicit or Shaper/Redeemer Explicit b. Ring with Synth Implicit or Delve Explicit c. Helm with Corrupt Implicit d. Doryani's Invitation Belt e. Large Cluster Jewels with Doryani's Lesson f. Atziri's Promise Flask (fine for mapping, but unreliable vs. Bosses) g. Vitality Watchers 7. Taste of Hate/Cinderswallow Flask These are the two best damage boosting Flasks, especially if the Cinderswallow has the "Enemies Ignited by You During Effect Have Malediction" mod. 8. Cluster Jewel with Heraldry These can be hard to find in the first day or two of the league, but eventually become common. Don't worry about a second notable if it's much more expensive. Purposeful Harbinger is the only one that provides significant benefits compared to the others, and the Heraldry/PH combo tends to be extremely rare/expensive. This synergizes extremely well with either Mastermind of Discord or the Elemental Mastery that guarantees at least 18% Exposure, but those two non-Heraldry effects do not stack with each other. 9. Corrupt/Vestigial Hrimsorrows For corruptions: Try to find a pair with Spell Critical Strike Chance, Maximum Life, or +Gem Levels. Avoid Curse-on-Hit until much higher budget levels, the Level 1 Elemental Weakness won't be worthwhile compared to a Level 20 Curse from a Mark of Submission, so you need an excellent ring taking its place to justify removing it. For Vestigial: I'll update this when the data is scraped. Carcass Jack is just a suggestion, but is certainly a very strong item for the build with the AOE it provides. A corrupted 6-link is a strong alternative to a 5-llink Carcass Jack. When you get a 6-link, try to add Arcane Surge Support if you haven't yet, but again only if you can also run a level 1 support on your Frostblink. Otherwise, add whichever of these four: (Hypothermia, Critical Strike Damage, Cold Penetration, Cruelty) you're not using yet. Consider targetting a rare Unset Ring to relieve socket pressure. This build should be strong enough to kill End Game Bosses and farm Alch+Go T16 Maps, even without the 6-link. Most pieces of gear should cost between 5-15c, with maybe a couple requiring a divine to purchase, but anything more expensive than that should have you looking for a more cost-effective alternative and/or spending a little more elsewhere instead. WARNING: If this is your first time playing the build, you may find that after absolutely cruising through all content up to this point, doing juiced high tier maps can sometimes feel a little difficult by comparison. The key to making the build feel good at this stage is to avoid certain map mods that make it more difficult (or even impossible) to freeze enemies, as we are relying on freeze as our primary defensive layer until we can get to better Block Chance. I use the following criteria/system when deciding if a scouring orb is needed: 1. Monsters Action Speed Cannot be Reduced Below Base Value 2. Monsters Take Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes // Monsters Gain Elemental Resistance // Monsters Have More Life 3. Monsters Have a Chance to Suppress Spell Damage // Monsters Have a Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments 4. Reduced Curse/Aura Effect // Cannot Inflict Exposure // Hexproof Always reroll #1, as it is basically as bad as reflect for a build that can't handle reflect One mod from #2 in isolation is ok, but a combo is much more deadly since they can be multiplicative to a monster's EHP #3 are not the worst, but are dangerous when combined with one or two others on the list I count two mods from #4 to be the same as one from #2 Players Cannot Regenerate Life, Mana, or Energy Shield can be doable with either an Enduring Mana Flask or Eldritch Battery, plus a source of Life Leech, but otherwise should be rerolled. Finally, don't blindly click Eldritch Altars. The ones that give enemies resistances and spell suppression are huge eHP buffs far more dangerous than any map mod Reflecting ailments is also very dangerous until you have a fully fleshed out Brine King Pantheon and Tempest Shield. -------- INVERTING THE RULES (10-15 Div Budget) -------- Invert The Rules Support is one of the first multi-divine items worth targetting, assuming it is approximately as expensive as it was when it was first introduced in patch 3.28 The goal with this Support is to get your chance to treat Enemy Resistance as Inverted to be about 50%, thus making Enemy Resistance effectively 0, regardless of what it was initially. This has several benefits: 1. No longer need to invest in any resistance manipulation like Exposure or Curses, but can still benefit from Penetration 2. Ensures damage against even extremely high resistance enemies 3. Gives consistent output with the 50/50 proc chance, but utilizes that variance to get stronger Shock/Chill/Freeze since the high damage procs will overwrite the effects of the low damage non-procs. Key Changes for Invert the Rules: 1. Drop Heraldry Cluster 2. Swap Elemental Mastery from "Exposure applies at least -18%" to "Hits have 15% chance to treat Enemy Monster Elemental Resistance Values as Inverted" 3. Drop Mark of Submission and Elemental Weakness Replace this with either a Circle of Ambition or a Circle of Guilt Best explicit is Herald of Purity Buff Effect Ice/Ash Buff Effect and Increased Phys/Fire/Cold Damage are often comparable, consult POB There will be breakpoints with Buff Effect that depend on how much you have from other sources, so always check POB before splurging on a slightly higher % ring that may be doing literally nothing for you. 4. Drop Whispers of Doom, and move points from Doom Cast and Written in Blood into Arcane Potency and Quick Recovery This frees up several passive points that can be used to start adding more and bigger Cluster Jewels. The goal of your next investments is to free up even more passives to enable even more Cluster Jewels. To replace passives with gear: 1. Mana Reservation Efficiency - a. Helm with Mana Reservation Efficiency Eldritch Implicit Consider using the Orb of Conflict method to save currency if the price is right (see the video pinned in the discord's Crafting Discussion channel for details) b. Jewels with Reservation Efficiency Explicit or Corrupt Implicit c. Increase your base mana (ideally with ring prefixes, since its hard to make good use of these at lower budget levels) d. Helm or Body Armour with an Essence of Loathing mod 2. Block Chance - a. Jewels with Block/Spell Block Explicits b. Replica Reckless Defense c. Small Cluster Jewel Try to get away with a 2-passive over a 3-passive, as the Notables are where the value is here. The best Notables are Vicious Guard for the Life Regen, or Rote Reinforcement for Endurance Charges, the latter is stronger on paper but fairly unreliable in practice so it can be a matter of preference. Technically this still takes passive points, but it is more efficient than pathing all the way down to Sanctuary. 3. Crit Chance - a. Spell Crit Suffixes on Weapon/Shield b. Diamond Flask/Flask Explicit This should enable you to spec out of Annihilation, Mana Mastery/Deep Thoughts, abd Shield Mastery/Sanctuary. Cluster Jewels to target: 1. Large Cluster Jewel with some combination of 2-3 of these Notables (in no particular order) - a. Doryani's Lesson b. Blast-Freeze c. Stormrider d. Blanketed Snow e. Sadist f. Widespread Destruction g. Primsatic Heart Just make sure to double-check the arrangement of the Notables if you have to settle for a 3-notable Jewel that has one that's not on the list. These can be either Cold Damage or Elemental Damage bases, as long as they have 8 passives. 2. AOE Medium Cluster Jewel with Towering Threat and one of the following - a. Magnifier b. Vast Power c. Assert Dominance 3. Damage While Affected by a Herald Medium Cluster Jewels with Purposeful Harbinger and one of the following - a. Empowered Envoy b. Endbringer c. Agent of Destruction (definitely the weakest of the three) Whatever combination you choose, it must absolutely include Blast-Freeze. Another upgrade to consider at this stage is Tatoos Replace as many Intelligence Nodes as you can afford to lose until you have as little unreserved mana as feels comfortable, probably around 90-100. Try to target a Sceptre as your weapon, since it will have a much lower Intelligence Requirement than a wand. Start with the top right section of the Tree, since those nodes will be present in almost all future possible loadouts For DPS, get Arohongui Shaman: Increased Effect of Herald Buffs on You For Tankiness, get Rongokurai Turtle: You Take Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes If you have spare Strength, consider Valako Shieldbearer: Attack Block Chance In this state, the build should be able to easily farm Juicy T16s, T16.5s, Logbooks, Blueprints, or pretty much anything else besides 100% Delirious Maps, Nightmare Maps, and the Uber Pinnacles. -------- WHAT DO NOW? ------- In older versions of the guide, this section would be about how to get ready to swap to an Occultist, but I don't think that's really viable anymore for several reasons: 1. Profane Bloom doesn't scale nearly as well as Physical Explosions from Crusader Chests. 2. We gain a considerable amount of Fire damage from Herald of Ash, especially now that we have tattoos in the core game for stacking Herald Buff Effect a. The Occultist does nothing to help this damage other than Forbidden Power's generic damage bonus. b. The Elementalist can add even more Herald Buff Effect, scale this Fire damage with Mastermind of Discord, and also has more possible generic damage bonuses from Shock, Convergence, and/or Golems 3. Nothing the Occultist provides defensively compares to Bastion of Elements unless you're fully investing into Energy Shield (probably not even then), and it also enables us to do Ele-Reflect maps. 4. Considering that Forbidden Power is so vastly superior to the rest of the Occultist nodes, it's much better to be an Elementalist with a Forbidden Flesh/Flame that gives Forbidden Power, than an Occultist who can only steal one Elementalist node. I believe the 10-15 Div Budget loadout will be easily strong enough to farm quickly for whatever high-investment direction makes the most sense for you as a player. I'm going to cut the step-by-step POB progression here for this guide, but also leave info about possible chase/interim targets below. I'll have more POBs to share as the league progresses. -------- THREE PATHS FORWARD ------- At this point, I'd recommend one of three paths: 1. Headhunter --> Mageblood No upgrade is going to feel as singularly impactful as a Headhunter, and I usually start saving for one after spending about 25C to 1 Div per gear slot, which is where this guide leaves off. Of course, nearly every build would love one, but BV does also get the benefit of all of the "Physical Damage as Extra __ Damage" mods that Elemental skills waste. Whether you stick with Headhunter long term or sell it to buy a Mageblood depends on a lot of factors, and there's lots more info/discussion on the Discord about this. 2. Svalinn Assuming Svalinn is still expensive even after Kingsmarch Ore has become the Shipping Resource for Currency in 3.28, saving for one will be a relatively large comitment. But even if its close to Headhunter in price, it's worth considering as the next step after the 10-15 Div Budget level because of the exponentially increasing value of Block Chance in terms of EHP. Getting back to Max Block after losing a lot of Base Block on the shield itself requires a few other potentially expensive components as well, see this video for more info: https://youtu.be/Hob5Y_9jBsk 3. Incremental Upgrades If you're not feeling like the build is strong enough to farm your preferred content just yet, there are still plenty of mid-range investment targets to go for before comitting to a Headhunter or Svalinn. Recommended Incremental Upgrades: Greater Unleash Support - This is a relatively new gem that just got buffed in patch 3.29, so it may be prohibitively expensive, but it is eventually necessary to replace the Caster Mastery and free up enough passives for a second Large Cluster Jewel. Explode Chest/Corrupt Weapon - Obliteration is adequate for decenctly juiced mapping, but true BV blasting relies on the synnergistic scaling of the spell itself and Physical Damage Explosions from a Crusader-mod Body Armour or Corrupt Weapon Implicit More information about Awakener's Orb options and crafting strategies for Body Armour is available on the Discord. Oriath's End Flask - A little less powerful than a straight physical exploision, because some of this build's scaling is specific to cold damage, but it is still noticeable in terms of the extra clearpseed it provides. Power Charge Stacking - 1. Forbidden Power from Forbidden Flesh/Flame 2. 1-2x Medium Cluster Jewels with Vast Power and Towering Threat Notables 3. Militant Faith Timeless Jewel with High Templar Dominus Look for Aura Effect and Area/Elemental Damage per Devotion mods, and then use POB to check if it will ruin an important notable on the tree You can also use the tool provided by POB to find numbers that will work: just fill out your tree, check "Filter Nodes," then select "Total Devotion" in the "Search for Node" dropdown to find jewels that don't replace notables. Elemental Resistance per Devotion is also a solid option. 4. Shield with +1 Maximum Power Charge Synthesis Implicit Uniques to Target (in no partcular order, prices will vary) - 1. Circle of Ambition Best explicit is Herald of Purity Buff Effect Ice/Ash Buff Effect and Phys/Fire/Cold Increase are often comparable, consult POB There will be breakpoints with Buff Effect that depend on how much you have from other sources, so always check POB before splurging on a slightly higher % ring that may be doing literally nothing for you. Best implicit is +1 Maximum Power Charges, then Spell Damage per Power Charge or Crit Multi Other damage implicits are often close to comparable, consult POB 2. Bottled Faith/Cinderswallow One or the other, because with maximum Shocks and Bonechill in play already, the Increased Damage Taken debuffs have already hit pretty substantial diminishing returns 3. Replica Dragonfang's Flight/Ashes of the Stars Ashes is better for tankiness since it affects Defensive Auras and Golem Buff Effect as well, but RDF is almost definitely going to be more DPS due to the gem levels. 4. Watcher's Eye Best mods for pure DPS are: 1. Hatred Cold Pen 2. Zealotry Crit Pen 3. Zealotry Increased Damage taken on Consecrated Ground 4. Hatred Crit Chance (if not capped) Note: Hatred Crit Chance gives base crit to all of your damage output, which enables explody chests and herald of ice to crit, despite those having 0% base critical strike chance by default. If you care at all about exploding screens in juicy maps, this is basically a necessity. Other mods like Hatred Increased/Added Cold Damage are usually significantly worse, but it may depend on the rest of your gear. Zealotry with Gain Arcane Surge When You Create Consecrate Ground frees up a gem slot. Vitality Life Leech, Gain on Hit, and Recovery Rate are solid, even if only running a level 1 Vitality. Precision Crit Multi is very strong (and usually expensive), but don't get baited by Precision Flask Charge on Crit because its internal cooldown makes it basically unnoticeable. If you get enough MRE or decide that you'd rather put Hatred as your Steroid instead of Zealotry and run permanent Haste, Phasing is a really nice QOL option that makes applying Brittle Ground even easier since you can run straight through enemies. 5. Impossible Escape Jewel with Necromantic Aegis or Magebane Gets you access to almost all of the Skill Duration bonus you need to maintain the ideal Skill Duration :: Seal Generation Ratio without wasting travel points For the last bit needed, consider a Corrupt Belt Implicit or Annointing the OTHER Skill Duration Notable (Potency of Will/Exceptional Performance) 6. Double-Corrupt Hrimsorrows Spell critical strike chance +Level of Socketed Gems (for enlighten setup) Elemental Weakness on hit (situational, will always be worse than a curse from Mark of Submission so only good to make room for GG rings) 7. Corrupt Heatshiver +1 Maximum Power Charges 90% Cost and Reservation Multiplier See "Overall Keys to the Build #12" for more info 8. Forbidden Flesh/Flame The prices of these can vary dramatically, but there are many excellent choices (in no particular order) 1. Mistress of Sacrifice Gives a ton of highly sought Skill Duration, and with the Prismatic Oil Hollow Effigy Annoint, you can use Bone Offering and a crafted Trigger Mod on your Weapon to get tons of Block/Spell Block chance. Since the penalty to Effect of Offerings on You is "Reduced" it can easily be counteracted with sources of Increased Effect of Offerings. 2. Forbidden Power Almost certainly the best and most expensive option Big AOE, big damage, reliable Power Charge Generation (when not using Eldritch Battery) 3. Heart of Destruction Getting a FF/FF combo for your own Ascendency may seem silly, but the value of Mastermind of Discord is dramatically reduced by the existence of the Elemental Mastery that sets exposure to 18% minimum, since the effects do not stack. 4. Frigid Wake/Void Beacon Comparable in terms of DPS. Frigid Wake frees up your Major Pantheon. Void Beacon lets you use Tattoo of Treachery without stolen Zealotry's Consecrated Ground ruining your day on Bosses. Onslaught/Tailwind/Elusive boots - This is the best way to improve your movement speed (besides a Mageblood, of course) However, it means sacrificing Brittle Ground, which means you will definitely need to compensate for the lost Critical Strike Chance A Hatred Watcher's Eye, Shaper/Hunter Chest with +Spell Critical Strike Chance, or even a cheap/badly rolled 8-Link Helm is worth considering. Better Versions of Rare Guide Gear - The Rare gear in this guide is intentionally not great, so there's plenty of room for incremental improvement there. The best Eldritch Implicits to target are: Exarch Helm - Physical Damage to Spells, Frostbite/EW Effect, Damage Per Power Charge (Individual Results May Vary, Consult POB) Eater Helm - Mana Reservation Efficiency Exarch Chest - Increased Aura Effect Eater Chest - Physical Damage Taken as Fire/Light/Cold, Block/Spell Block. Exarch Gloves - Chance to Unnerve Enemy on Hit/Freeze Proliferation Eater Gloves - Phys to Cold Conversion (absolutely necessary if you replace Hrimsorrow) Exarch Boots - Brittle Ground Eater Boots - Phys as Extra Cold, Life Regeneration Rate ------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- POB CONFIGURATION TIPS ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------- POBs new Loadout Manager (Top Right) should handle most of these issues, but just in case: 1. Make sure to check "Enemy is Shocked" if you want to calculate the potential value of the Shaper of Storms ascendency, or it won't display the proper bonus. Don't worry about leaving this config checked even if you're not applying shocks, since it won't boost your damage unless you actually have a source of shock that applies above the minimum threshold. 2. Uncheck "Do you use Power Charges?" if you are looking at the pre-crit stages of the build or don't want to be bothered using Assassin's Mark while clearing maps as an Elementalist. 3. Check "Is Enemy on Consecrated Ground?" and "Are you on Consecrated Groud?" if you get a Bottled Faith or are running Zealotry 4. "Enemy is Chilled" should automatically be checked and stay that way, just in case. The chill effect is set to 30 to override the calculation being based on the chill from Vortex, which will almost always be overridden by your BV in practice. 5. Uncheck "Is Enemy on Brittle Ground?" if you don't have that Eldritch implicit yet. 6 You can play around with the "Seconds of Freeze on Enemy" configuration to see what your ailment threshold will be BEFORE you inflict the first freeze. 7. Add "50% Increased Effect of Shock" if you take the Crit Mastery since POB doesn't seem to account for it, regardless of 100% Crit Chance.