This build will be the META! - Winter Orb Elementalist Build Guide [PoE 3.29]

> Leveling < Early leveling on this build is a little experimental, Freezing Pulse got buffed, Rolling Magma got nerfed, so we use Freezing Pulse until level 28. If Freezing Pulse doesn't get additional projectiles early on you might want to socket Multiple Projectiles Support in it(which should be easy to try now all gems can go in all sockets). Try it and see what you like the feel of the most, remember that Freezing Pulse doesn't shotgun though, so this would be purely for clearspeed. Something similar goes for Winter Orb: try out Multiple Projectiles Support and Greater Multiple Projectiles Support(after level 38), if you like it: keep it. Winter Orb DOES shotgun, so multiple projectiles can actually increase your damage. Always try to shoot projectiles through Flame Wall while leveling for a bit of extra damage. When you don't have a Lightning Golem yet you want to run Faster Casting in your main links to make Winter Orb somewhat playable, after Lightning Golem you can drop it if you want. > What about the Bitter Frost keystone? < Definitely pick this up, it's just not in Path of Building yet as of writing this. It might not stack with Bonechill, in that case just drop Bonechill since having permanent uptime through the Keystone is much more comfy! > Ascendancy choices < 1. Legion of the Primordial - No Brainer 2. Mastermind of Discord - Good damage through Frost Bomb's exposure early on, and generic exposure later 3. Heart of Destruction - Damage AND clearspeed 4. Here it gets complicated: 4.1: By default the guide recommends Bastion of Elements, this gives you good tankyness early on, and is recommended for Hardcore until you have a cluster setup 4.2: Later on, we swap to Shaper of Storms. This gives you a decent damage boost and enables the "Stormrider" notable from your Large Cluster Jewel. If you're on softcore you can definitely just pick Shaper of Storms early on and completely ignore Bastion of Elements. > Greater Multiple Projectiles support or not? < Until you have other sources of projectiles, like Mystic Refractor or Dying Sun you likely want to run Greater Multiple Projectiles, having only 3 projectiles can feel kind of bad. There might be a breakpoint at some higher level of Winter Orb that adds +3 projectiles, if that's the case you can drop the gem altogether. > My single target is really low :( < This build is mostly made to farm maps so you can get currency to transition into a build that deals actually nice single target. You should be able to get all 4 watchstones on this build with relative ease, but killing Ubers or farming bosses quickly is going to be hard. If you want single target you can look into transitioning to Power Charge stacking versions of this build or versions that use Creeping Frost for single target. > Why not Occultist? < Occultist's new Unhallowed Rite node might seem tempting for Winter Orb, but having to channel for 5 seconds before it's ramped up fully, as well as DOUBLING your mana cost is rough. Even ignoring that node, Occultist can be great for a more expensive version of this build that stacks power charges, it's just worse early on which is why this guide is for Elementalist. > Focused Channeling Support? < Focused Channeling support is weird, it doesn't show up on your tooltip, and it requires some ramping which is annoying. There is some evidence however that as long as you keep any Winter Orb stacks active that the buff persists. This might be a bug however, so this guide didn't put it in by default. Feel free to try it out and see if you like the damage increase. > What golems do I use? < Flame Golem, Lightning Golem and Stone Golem are pretty much mandatory, your 4th golem is a choice between: - Stone Golem of Safeguarding: great for tankyness! - Ice Golem: can solve crit chance early on. - Chaos Golem: can solve chaos resist early on. > Cast Speed < The #1 mistake you can make is underestimating cast speed. High Cast Speed means you spend less time casting while mapping since you ramp up a lot faster, it's basically what makes the build feel good. Get at least 1 Moonstone Ring(which has a 10% increased Cast Speed implicit) and try to get a cast speed explicit on it as well. Profane Wand also beats out any other wand because of the Cast Speed implicit. If you have a lot of Cast Speed you can even consider replacing Shield Charge - Faster Attacks with Frostblink of Wintery Blast - Faster Casting. > What's Forbidden Rite doing in the links? < When you have the Enduring Composure small cluster jewel you can use Forbidden Rite to force a self-hit, starting your Endurance Charge generation before getting hit by an enemy. This is very useful when fighting a boss like the Shaper, which ideally doesn't hit you at all. > Which gems do I prioritize the socket color quality bonus for? < Winter Orb is the most important one. After that: - Increased Critical Damage Support - Your golems - Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Immortal Call - Frostblink - Herald of Ice