PoE 3.25 | Cold Snap Of Power Archmage Hiero | League Starter | Build Showcase | Settlers of Kalguur

(Disclaimer - the majority of the PoB is based on Zizaran's latest Archmage Ice nova 3.25 PoB - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbu2hLKek18) * This PoB has various Passive Tree, Skill gems and Gear sets, make sure to follow them along with your progression. Use "Loadouts" at the top right for easier navigation. ------------------------------------------- Cold snap of Power ---------------------------------------------- This skill has high damage effectiveness (320%) and high base crit chance (10%), but has a draw back of a 3 sec cooldown. We can bypass that cooldown by Expanding ("Eatting") 1 power charge. *Note: Minimum power charges cannot be "eatten" since they were not actually "Gained", they just passively exist. To do that, we'll need a reliable way to generate power charges (More Info below - "When to switch to Cold snap of Power?"), and make Cold snap of Power hit more than once in 1 skill press, since 1 hit generates and immediately consumes 1 power charge, preventing us from reaching our maximum amount of charges. We do that by linking it with Spell Echo support gem to make it hit twice in 1 skill press, so it'll generate 2 power charges in 1 hit (Depending if you have enough crit chance), creating a positive generation of charges. ------------------------------------------------- Leveling ---------------------------------------------------- * 1-12: Rolling Magma * 12-68: Arc * At level 38 we switch to Archmage, we invest into reduced mana cost with Inspiration and nodes on the passive tree, along with increasing our mana pool with passive tree nodes and gear. (And don't forget to buy the skills gems listed in the Skill gems leveling section in your off hand / free gear slots) * Gear: Look for 4 link Energy Shield base armors for easier coloring. Stats to look for on gear: Armor - Life, Mana, Resistances, and Movespeed(On boots). Weapon - Lightning damage to spells, Spell damage, Maximum mana, Cast speed Jewellery - Life, Mana, Mana Regen, Resistances, Dexterity Optional Uniques: Unique Weapons: Lifesprig, Axiom Perpetuum, Storm Prison Unique Helmets: Goldrim Unique Gloves: Lochtonial Caress Unique Boots: Wanderlust Unique Body Armour: Tabula Rasa (Priority) Unique Rings: Praxis, Kikazaru, Perandus Signet Unique Amulets: Atziri's Foible (Priority), Stone of Lazhwar, Tear of Purity * Mana Issues: Shouldn't have any, but if you do, can use a Mana Flask, stay on a 4link, or look for jewellery with %Increased Mana Regeneration. ---------------------------------------------- Ascendancy ------------------------------------------------- * Heirophant * Normal Lab (Lv.32) - Divine Guidance in preperation for our switch into Archmage support. Mericless Lab (Lv. 55) - Sanctuary of Thought for extra Energy Shield and reduced cost of skills Cruel Lab (lv.68) - Conviction of Power for free 4 Power and 4 Endurance Charges in preperation for investment into Crits and some defense. Uber Lab (Lv.75) - Arcane Blessing for more damage. -------------------------------- When to switch to Cold snap of Power? ---------------------------- It's quite tricky, but the main requirements are: * Cold snap of Power skill gem with 20% quality (for 50% chance to gain a power charge on crit) You can either buy one if you're playing in Trade league, or buy a regular Cold Snap gem from NPC and do Cruel Lab on repeat untill you get the "Transform normal gem into a transfigured version of the same gem" option in the final room font (Should be around 10 runs on average) And you also need it at 20% Quality, which can be done aswell in Cruel labs in the final room font. * Lv.16+ Power Charge on Crit support gem (another 50% chance to gain a power charge on crit, for a total of 100%) * High Critical Strike Chance (At least 60-70% with Cold snap of Power while equipped with Increased Critical Strikes and the 5 minimum power charges from Conviction of Power ascendancy node and Disciple of the Forbidden on the Passive tree. * At least 2 extra Power Charges (Ontop of the 5 minimum ones) from the Passive Tree / Gear / Amulet annoint (Infused), so that Cold snap of Power has some room to manuever "Expanding" charges. * A 6 link rare body armour, prefferably an Energy Shield base for easier coloring (Need 5 Blue 1 Red at the beginning and 6 Blue later on), or a Tabula Rasa. ---------------------- My Cold snap of Power occasionally goes on Cooldown ------------------ Make sure you meet all the requirements in the previous section first. * If it happens during mapping, make sure you have as close to 100% crit chance with Cold snap of Power in the Character info window as possible (while at maximum power charges). Extra sources of crit: - Diamond Flask, can also roll it with Increased critical strike chance during flask effect mod. - Make sure Cold snap of Power is linked to Increased Critical Strikes Support (Can switch to Increased Critical Damage after you get 2 Void Batteries) - Have 7+ maximum Power Charges. - High Critical strike chance for spells on your Wands (60%+) and try to get Void Battery unique wands as soon as possible. - Use Diamond Ring bases (Up to 30% crit chance implicit). - Summon Ice Golem skill gem, keep it's level as high as your Dexterity allows. - Searing Exarch (Embers) implicit on Helmet (Critical strike chance for spells). * If you're having a hard time getting Cold snap of Power rolling at the start of maps or in boss fights, do the following: Get a 3 link of Storm Brand + Increased Critical Strikes + Power charge on Crit (prefferably with 20% quality), and drop it on a pack of mobs/boss to make it start generating charges (After max charges are reached, Cold snap of Power should be fine on it's own, and if not - refer to the start of this section for increasing your critical strike chance). * Make sure you're not using an additional regular Cold Snap on a CWDT setup or something for frenzy charge generation, the normal and transfigured versions share a cooldown. * Make sure you're not spamming the skill on no enemies, since it wastes power charges. -------------------------- Elemental Ailment Immunity & 100% Spell Suppression -------------- * We use Purity of Elements as an aura for Elemental Ailment Immunity untill the following are met: - We reach 100% spell suppression using our gear (Evasion/ES base Helmet, Body armour, Gloves and Boots with spell suppression as detailed in the gear section) - We crafted a pair of Boots with at least 50% Chance to avoid elemental ailments. *How to craft: - Get an Evasion/ES base pair of boots with a 10%+ fractured Spell suppression mod. - Use a Deafening Essence of Loathing on it for 31%+ Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments mod, use 1 if poor and craft whatever you can, or use a bunch untill a combination of any of the following - Life/Mana/Movespeed/any Resistance. - Use Eldritch Ichors on the boots to roll a Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments implicit, the tier of Ichor to use should depend on the roll of the Deafening Essence of Loathing that you got on the boots: Less Eldritch Ichors (15-17%) if rolled 35-33% with the Deafening Essence of Loathing. Greater Eldritch Ichors (18-20% if rolled 31-32% with the Deafening Essence of Loathing. Use Blessed Orbs if needed to reroll the value of the Eldritch Implicit to reach a combined total of 50% Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments. - We bought/got an Ancestral Vision unique jewel and a free jewel socket to complete the remaining 50% Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments. * After we became ailment immune using Ancestral Vision and 50% Ailment Avoidance Boots, we can replace Purity of Elements with Wrath. * Another way to do it is with the unique jewel Stormshroud, and a pair of boots with 60-100% chance to avoid being shocked. It's a similar proccess to the one with Ancestral Vision, but we use a Deafening Essences of Torment (56-60% Chance to avoid being shocked) instead on a pair of boots with fractured 10%+ spell suppression, and either a Searing Exarch implicit (Grand Eldritch Embers and above for 40%+ Chance to avoid being shocked) or a rare Jewel with 40-44% Chance to avoid being shocked (Depending on the Deafening Essence of Torment roll), or a combinaton of the two if Grand Eldritch Embers are too expensive, can use Lesser ones for 30-35% boots implicit and get the remaining on a rare Jewel. ---------------------------------------------- Stun Resistance ----------------------------------------- * Having any amount of Energy Shield grants us 50% chance to Ignore stuns. * We craft 50% chance to avoid being stunned on a flask. *Note: Ignore and Avoid do not stack! which means these 2 together do not grant us Stun immunity * We grab an Energy Shield Mastery for "50% of your Energy Shield is added to your Stun Threshold", since we have a pretty high ES pool. * If you're still getting stunned more than it feels comfortable, grab the Soul of the Brine King pantheon. ----------------------------------------- Replacing the Life Flask ------------------------------------- When you get a regular Jewel or Abyss Jewel with a "Corrupted blood cannot be inflicted on you" corrupted implicit AND you reach 3.5k+ life, 3k+ ES, 7k+ Mana with 1.2k+ Mana regen per sec and Instant Leech (Leech Mastery) You can replace the Life Flask with any other flask you like, I chose Granite Flask for more resistance to Physical damage from hits. You should have enough sustain/recovery to not need a life flask. ---------------------------------------- Life & Energy Shield Leech ---------------------------------- We get Life leech on Gloves as an Eldritch Implicit (Eater of Worlds Ichors) We get Energy Shield leech on the passive tree from the Light Eater cluster. ---------------------------------- Mana Recovery Rate * IMPORTANT * --------------------------- In order to have a fast regeneration of our mana, we need a couple sources of %Increased Mana Recovery Rate We get it from 2 sources: - On a Shaper/Redeemer Belt (prefferably Stygian Vise base) by spamming Lucent Fossils on it, aim for a 12% T1 roll (Becomes 14% with Fertile Catalysts) - With an Eldritch Implicit (Eater of Worlds Ichors) on a Body Armour, the higher tier the better. This is crucial for having high mana recovery because Increased Mana Recovery Rate acts as a Multiplier for all sources of non-instant mana recovery (Regeneration, Recoup, Flasks etc,). ----------------------------------------------------- FAQ ------------------------------------------------- * Can league start? yup, Campaign and Budget versions included in this PoB * SSF friendly? Budget version is, Endgame version is not due to a bunch of Unique items (You can use the endgame version as a template and build it into endgame your own way) * HC friendly? I don't play HC, but probably not, it's not super tanky, you can randomly die. * Mageblood PoB? not yet, I don't guarantee that I'll make one in the future.