3.18 - Cold Dot Occultist - A10 Pts+Labs - 3h40m14s

Cold DoT Occultist run using Vortex, Creeping Frost, and Cold Snap to A10 with all skill points and story labs in 3h40m14s. There was one death to the toxic archnemeis modifier in A9 as I failed to maneuver around a terrain object in time and got killed due to the obstacle, visibility issues, and a delayed reaction to the danger. Cold DoT has a very smooth power curve through the campaign and is quite comfortable in the damage department. One downside is that Cold DoT uses more buttons than a lot of other speed leveling builds I've done. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the duration on the Cold DoT skills are somewhat long, making it more than it would appear at outset as well as allowing for decent DPS still in forced movement scenarios. Cold DoT can also be played on Elementalist without significant change to tree except ascendancy choice and ascendancy point allocation. I was happy with the run, but feel that the time could have been much better than it was as I was somewhat slower due to run execution compared to what I do with other builds (like a 8-10 minute difference without much additional effort).

PoBs: Gear/Tree At End of Run: https://pobb.in/CTKGpM2jPaA0 PoB with Some Leveling Notes, Leveling Trees, and Gem Acquisition: https://pobb.in/_aySuwehr9Me

Vendor Regex Used: Act 1 until Level 23: b-.|.-b|nn
Level 24 and Beyond (Four Links/Four Sockets): "sockets: .-.-.|([rgbw][ -.]){3}"

Some Questions and Answers: When do I swap to full Cold DoT? Once I get vortex, I will change my setup to also include cold snap. Thus at that point there will be creeping frost, vortex, and cold snap allowing the Cold Dotting to begin in earnest. Until 28, the build is mostly hit based using frostbomb and creeping frost shotgunning, so you will want Lvl 20 crafts.

When do I swap frostbomb from being primarily a DPS/Onslaught Skill to Utility? Typically, I will wait till I have a 4L for creeping frost and a 4L for vortex

When do I drop onslaught? I will usually drop it after I start using shield charge (or leap slam if you opt to use sceptres) in A6 and have precision allocated. By late A7, when you have spiritual command allocated, you should not have onslaught in anymore.

How to transition this to maps? I would look to see what Michibird the PoE resident Cold DoT god would do, but fair warning he typically plays Elementalist Cold DoT as of late. You can find his PoE account and just look at some of his characters gears/trees to get an idea

Why not wintertide brand? Wintertide brand is a great Cold Dot skill but has less synergy with how this tree initially paths. Wintertide brand also requires more micromanagement of rotation due to brand duration issues. As a result, creeping frost was opted for instead as it fits more nicely into the vortex/cold snap package with how the tree pathed.

Table of Contents: 0:00 - Act 1 23:03 - Act 2 43:15 - Act 3 and Normal Lab 1:14:03 - Act 4 1:35:02 - Act 5 1:53:02 - Act 6 2:15:12 - Act 7 and Cruel Lab 2:40:59 - Act 8 3:02:15 - Act 9 3:21:32 - Act 10 and Merciless Lab