Want a hipster leaguestart? Maybe Archmage Ice Nova Raider is what you want!

!DISCLAIMER! I have only played this build once. I make no claims that anything I say is the most optimal way to build and play this build. These are just my notes of what I think is good to know and think about if you are interested in playing this build. This is not a build bible. If you decide to play this build you will have to fill in some gaps when it comes to gearing and playing this build. ---:LEVELING:--- This is how I leveled this build in SSF. I used Caustic Arrow/Toxic Rain as my main damage skill and a Toxic Rain Ballista setup to increase my single target. It requires no twink gear (if you have access to some it would be dumb not to use it) and can respec into Ice Nova with only the respec points obtained through the campaign. Act 1: Defeat Hillock and pick up Caustic Arrow from the quest reward. Look for movement speed boots and/or a bow or piece of armor with G-G-G links if you find it at the vendor. Link Caustic Arrow with Pierce Support. As you are killing things and progressing through the acts keep an eye out for a bow or armor with G-G-G links. Defeat Hailrake for the Quicksilver Flask. Find your way into the submerged passage and pick up Dash and Puncture from the quest reward. If you still haven't found G-G-G, check the vendor. Your life and mana regen is dependant on your flasks, so always try and upgrade them. Make your way to the prison. Pick up Void Manipulation from Nessa. If you have the G-G-G you should link Void Manipulation with Caustic Arrow. If you haven't found G-G-G yet you should swap Pierce Support for Void Manipulation when you get to Brutus to boost your single target. If you have a puncture bleed and a caustic arrow puddle constantly on Brutus he should go down pretty easily. Get Withering Step as the reward for defeating Brutus. Use this skill next to any tough rare or boss that you want to deal more damage to. The wither stacks that it applies increases the damage that your Caustic Arrow deals. Ideally you also grab a movement skill while you're there. Blink Arrow is good because it doesn't share cooldown with Dash/Withering Step, but in terms of pure speed I think Smoke Mine is the strongest. I chose Blink Arrow because I don't want to manage cooldowns. I also pick up a mastery that decreases the cooldown of it. When you get to Merveil's Cavern you can get Toxic rain from Nessa. If you are planning to use Toxic Rain as your main skill you should buy a Mirage Archer Support gem and use it in place of Pierce Support. If you're gonna use Toxic Rain as your main skill you also want to buy another Toxic Rain gem and level it in a unused socket/weapon swap. You should have a G-G-G link at this point. Here are the 3-links you should use depending on what main skill you choose. Toxic Rain: Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Void Manipulation - or - Caustic Arrow: Caustic Arrow - Pierce - Void Manipulation You most likely wont have the sockets to 3-link both skills so chose one to focus on. They are both good and will both get you through the campaign. You can use the other skill to supplement your single target damage. If you are low on sockets or want to keep it simple you can drop your Puncture gem at this point or any point forward. Kill Merveil Act 2: Follow the story. There's nothing super important you can get after rescuing Helena. You could run Blood Rage if you want. If you want to reserve some of your mana Arctic Armor or Skitterbots are probably your best bet at this point. After bringing Maligaro's Spike to Silk you want to grab Vicious Projectile Support from him. Swap Pierce/Mirage Archer for Vicious Projectile on bosses or if you want more damage. Kill all Bandit's. On leaguestart you could consider helping Alira for the extra resists and mana regen. If you keep upgrading your gear and flasks you should be able to defeat Vaal Oversoul and get to Act 3. Act 3: At this point 4-links start dropping. Keep an eye out for 4-links with G-G-G-G and G-G-R-R. G-G-G-G is more important because that is where your main damage skill is going. If you find G-G-R-R keep it, we'll want it when we get to Act 4. If you find G-G-G-G put your main skill gems into and add Vicious Projectile to it. Here is how your main skill setup should look with a 4-link: Toxic Rain: Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectile - or - Caustic Arrow: Caustic Arrow - Pierce - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectile After finding Tolman you can get Grace from the quest rewards and purchase Despair from Clarissa. Grace makes us less likely to die and Despair increases the damage we deal. You can check Hargan for 4-links. We don't want gem that becomes available after killing Gravicius and we will skip Library. We will pick up our extra skill gems in Act 6. Even on a 3-link we should be able to defeat Dominus. Act 4: You can pick up a Golem after defeating Voll if you have the sockets for it. After defeating both Kaom and Daresso we grab Withering Touch as the quest reward. We also purchase a Multiple Totem Support gem from Petarus and Vanja. We then go back to Act 1 and purchase a Ballista Totem Support gem. If you have a piece of gear with G-G-R-R you want to put these support gems and a Toxic Rain gem into it. Here's how it will look: Toxic Rain Ballista: Toxic Rain - Withering Touch - Ballista Totem Support - Multiple Totems Whenever you are facing a boss or tough mobs you want to dop a few of these ballista totems to supplement your damage. They will apply wither stacks and deal damage on their own. After defeating Kaom and Daresso you should also do normal lab if you haven't. Pick up the Rapid Assault node in the Raider tree. If you have both 4-links by now you should easily be able to complete the act. If not you might struggle a bit. Act 5: Once you get both 4-links going you should be set for the rest of the campaign. Cap your resists and keep your flasks up to date. Pick up a Jade Flask after completing "The Key to Freedom" quest. Act 6: Complete the quest "Fallen from Grace" in order to unlock all skill gems from Lily, we will purchase a decent amount of them. We will purchase one of these gems: Ice Nova, Archmage Support, Trinity Support, Frostbolt, Arcane Surge Support, and Arcane Cloak. Go back to Act 1-2 and try to find two wands with 3 blue sockets each. Put the gems into the wands then put the wands in your weapon swap. These are the main supports we need when we swap later which means that we want levels on them. If you have sockets to spare you can pick up a Decoy Totem gem and a Determination gem. Act 7: Pick up a Granite Flask from "The Silver Locket" quest if you haven't found one yet. We will use one when we get to late game. Around this point is probably when you should start checking if gear could be useful for when we swap to Archmage Ice Nova. Gear with life, mana, and resists is interesting and could be stored for later. Weapons with any combination of high mana, spell damage, elemental damage, or flat added cold/lightning damage to spells are also worth keeping. Keep an eye out for any 4-link B-B-B-B, that is what we need for our Ice Nova when we swap. Act 8-9: If you have both 4-links you shouldn't struggle here. Keep your resists capped and your life plus mana flasks up to date. Complete the Cruel Labyrinth whenever you feel like it. Take Quartz Infusion in the Raider tree. Act 10: Now is when we really need to start to plan how we swap. You should go back and complete all the quests that give respec points (check "https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Passive_skill" if you are unsure which quests give them). We also want to make sure that our gear has the sockets that we need for our skills. Here is a check list of what I consider the bare minimum of skills and links you want to be able to fit: Ice Nova: Ice Nova - Archmage - Spell Echo - Trinity Frostbolt: Frostbolt - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Trinity Elemental Weakness: Elemental Weakness Arcane Cloak: Arcane Cloak - Arcane Surge Grace/Determination: Grace/Determination - Eternal Blessing (If you have the strength requirement to use a leveled Determination use it, otherwise use Grace) Movement Skill: Frostblink/Flame Dash You will have to purchase a good amount of these gems from Lily in Act 6 or Act 10 if you've defeated Kitava. Complete Merciless Labyrinth before swapping. Take Avatar of the Veil in the Raider Tree. The automatic exposure is one of the things that enables this build. You want a Divine or Eternal Mana Flask. Ideally rolled with x% increased charges used x% increased amount recovered. You really want to have poison and bleed removal on your flasks. Running 2 life flasks and not taking Agnostic is totally fine when you're just starting maps. If you are able to cap your resists after swapping and have the sockets to fit your gems you are ready to kill Kitava and then swap. If you need more resists you can take the Elemental Mastery that gives +15% ele resist on the skill tree, or spend 2 skill points to grab the Frost Walker notable in the witch's starting zone. If you don't think you have everything in order there is no shame in farming a while. You could even map a bit without swapping. After swapping you will still have some clusters of life nodes that we will have to spend orb of regrets on as we progress, but you should be good to go in T1-5 maps. You should also keep upgrading your gear to fit more and more of the gems in the skill tab here into your own setup. ---:GEARING:--- Stage 1: You should now be mapping and gaining some currency. Your first goal should be to get the currency to buy Atziri's Foible and Cloak of Defiance. Based on how much they have costed on leaguestart in 3.16 and 3.17 you should be able to get both for 25c or less. You should also aim for a 5-link. The cheapest option is to try and farm a set of "The Flora's Gift" div cards and craft the staff you get from it with Essences/Harvest. You can also buy a 5-link staff for pretty cheap and craft on that instead. You might have to upgrade some of your other gear in order to cap resists after equipping two uniques without any resists. I wouldn't spend more than 1-2c on any single upgrade at this point though. Stage 2: The next goal is to get a Pledge of Hands, and then 5-link it. Based on previous leagues this should cost you around 50-100c during the first weekend of the league. The price of the staff drops quickly though, so if you aren't having any issues clearing you could wait a couple of days. Your 5-link support gem is Intensify. You can also replace Spell Echo with a Hypothermia Support gem after you equip Pledge of Hands. This is probably when you want to start upgrading the rest of your gear in order to prepare for red maps. To do that we want to reach 100% spell suppression, good life and mana rolls, mana regen on our rings, and some chaos resist if we can fit it. Try and get a good Abyssal Belt. You can then socket it with a abyssal jewel like the one in the equipment tab to become elemental immune. Spending 20-30c on a piece of gear that fixes a lot of issues I think is justifiable at this point. Don't do it for every slot though. A good and cheap jewel is Clear Mind. Because they are so cheap you can also look at what corruptions are available. Corrupted Blood immunity would be best in slot, but is expensive. I went with Silence immunity. Anoint your Atziri's Foible to get the "Prodigal Perfection" notable. You could probably pick up a level 20 Vaal Ice Nova gem for pretty cheap. We don't need a level 21 Ice Nova because we get so much added damage from Archmage that going from level 20 to level 21 is a fairly minor damage increase. With a 5-link Pledge of Hands and solid gear in the rest of your slots you should be able to get to T16 maps. It wont be the fastest build out there, but it will be able to clear them. Stage 3: The biggest bang for your buck at this point is probably a 6-link Pledge of Hands and a Elemental Penetration Support gem. The gem costs around 2exalts and the staff costs around 3-6exalts depending on how far into the league you are. Together these items will increase your DPS by a lot. After that you probably want to get a Crown of the Inward Eye. The helmet is pretty cheap by itself, especially a couple of days after leaguestart, but if your helmet had any spell suppression or resists you might have to upgrade the rest of your gear to accomodate. Ice Nova damage is the better helmet enchant, but Elemental Weakness Curse Effect has comparable damage and is way cheaper. Invest in good accessories that you think are worth using Fertile Catalysts on. You can also use the catalysts on your Atziri's Foible. Get the "% chance to unnerve" Searing Exarch enchant on your gloves for 10% more damage. You have access to two 1 skill point jewel sockets. Fill them with something good. Stage 4: I don't know. This is about as far as I've taken the character. Partly why I'm sharing this build is that I want other people to take this build to the next level. At this point you can probably think about getting an Unnatural Instinct jewel. It gives a lot of good stats, but at around 10 exalt it is very costly. I was super lucky and found it myself, but if you have the currency to spare you should get it. ---:GAMEPLAY TIPS:--- Clearing: General clear isn't very complex. You cast Frostbolt in the direction of your enemies, then you cast Ice Nova on the frostbolts. Because the frostbolts keep pulsing the novas, you can often do one cast and then follow the frostbolts a bit. Arcane Cloak and Arcane Surge is automated by putting them on our left mouse button. You will have to keep your mana flask running because your mana is both your offense and your defense. Big packs of white mobs are easily (and satisfyingly) wiped out by a single Vaal Ice Nova cast. Make sure your Arcane Cloak buff is up before casting Vaal Ice Nova for extra oomph. Single Target: For single target we have two additional buffs to handle. We curse the enemy with Elemental Weakness, and we place down a Sigil of Power. My secret weapon for single target is Decoy Totem. It makes sure that tough rares/essence monsters/metamorphs/some map bosses stand still and stand a bit away. This allows us to stand still and build up our intensity stacks and cast uninterupted. For hard bosses I swap Culling Strike in my Fostbolt links for Slower Projectiles. I find that one Frostbolt cast followed by two Ice Nova casts gives me the best single target result. More Ice Nova casts often feel wasted because the frostbolts have traveled too far from the enemy. My mana regen is also not strong enough to sustain that many casts of Ice Nova in a row.