Updated for Patch 3.21
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes | |||
May 17, 2023 -Build created |
|||
Build overview | |||
Tags: [CASTER] [ELEMENTAL] [ENERGY SHIELD] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
|
Boss DPS: AoE: |
|
Icestorm is a peculiar Skill, accessible only by equipping The Whispering Ice Staff. The Skill is a simple one, very similar to Firestorm, but instead of Fire, it deals Cold Damage. Another property of it is that it deals more base Cold Damage and has increased duration the more Intelligence you have, making it exceptionally good on an Intelligence-stacking build. As you can only have up to five of these Icestorms active at any time, you don't really need to invest in Cast Speed, as it's quite easy to reach this limit - with 2000 Intelligence, which is not that hard to reach, one Icestorm will last 3 seconds. Another upside of this Skill, besides its high base damage, is the ability to support it with six Support Gems that don't have to be even linked. Icestorm, however, is not very good at clearing. It has a short delay, and if you want to get the most out of it, you probably want to link it with Concentrated Effect Support which would lower your AoE. It can be fixed with Oriath's End Flask or Gem-swapping.
For a Spell-casting Intelligence-stacking Character, it's best to select one from the upper part of the Skill Tree. We've picked Trickster because of its defenses. If you can pick Trickster, it's recommended to do so. While Casting Icestorm you have to take into account the aforementioned delay that will leave you exposed to damage, and much like in the case of Poison, it takes a while to extract all the possible damage - you have to spend 2 to 3 seconds standing still to get the 5 Icestorms, and in our case, to reach 4 Intensify stacks. With Escape Artists you will have a lot of extra ES and Evasion. Usually, Armour is the only weak point of Tricksters, but with the enormous bonus to ES from over 2k of Intelligence, that won't be an issue. The 10k of Energy Shield will protect you from being one-shotted, while Soul Drinker and Polymath will ensure you're always on full Energy Shield - even long after you stop dealing damage you'll still be Leeching ES. Heartstopper is another addition to make the character even more durable. The mediocre Block Chance, Spell Suppression Chance, and Chaos Inoculation make it an extremely tanky build.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
Cast Icestorm ahead of you to kill enemies. While fighting bosses try to remain stationary to get the Intensify stacks quicker. Link Vortex and Frosblink with Bonechill to create powerful Chilling areas that will increase your damage. For Auras use Discipline, Purity of Elements, Clarity, and Hatred. For a Guard Spell - Immortal Call linked to a Cast when Damage Taken Support Gem. With six Power Charges and Anathema Ring, you can inflict up to 6 Curses. Assassin's Mark is the best Mark. for Hex Curses select Frostbite, Elemental Weakness, and Enfeeble for durability or Punishment for DPS. If you want to apply one more Curse use Temporal Chains. The best way to apply these Curses all at once is via Arcanist Brand, Bane, or Ball Lightning with Hextouch.
|
|
PROS |
|
CONS |
|
To level up efficiently, use our Shadow/Saboteur leveling guide. Leveling up with Traps is good, but as a Trickster, you can quite literally use any other Skill. Traps are usually very accessible for Shadows as you can grab a lot of nodes for this type of playstyle from your Skill Tree. To transition into Icestorm you will need a gear with a lot of Intelligence already. The Staff itself requires Level 33, but we don't recommend equipping it so early. Buy Cheap Items with tons of Intelligence already first.
Bandits:
Kill all three bandits and be rewarded with two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
29 Points Passive Tree
Allocate Maximum Life, Trap, and Elemental Damage nodes
67 Points Passive Tree
After allocating Polymath try to get some extra masteries that will enhance your damage and resource regeneration
Final Skill Tree:
110 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
118 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Solaris: 6% additional Physical Damage Reduction while there is only one nearby Enemy; 20% chance to take 50% less Area Damage from Hits
Minor God: Soul of Tukohama: 3% additional Physical Damage Reduction per second you've been stationary, up to a maximum of 9%
[DPS] Rolling Magma setup socketed in The Whispering Ice Staff |
|
![]() |
Icestorm - Icestorm is a skill that comes with The Whispering Ice Staff. All the Support Gems in it don't have to be linked. |
![]() |
Inspiration Support - Lowers Mana Cost, increases Crit Chance, and Elemental Damage. All of these qualities are important. |
![]() |
Energy Leech Support - For a Trickster with Soul Drinker it's very useful. It not only increases Energy Shield Leech but also grants more Damage while Leeching, so pretty much always. |
![]() |
Intensify Support - Grants more Area of Effect with initial casts after moving or using mobility Skill, but while standing still, it lowers AoE (which increases Damage against single targets) and grants more Damage. Be sure to pick up the Caster Mastery for +1 to Maximum Intensify. |
![]() |
Concentrated Effect Support - Smaller Area of Effect makes the single Projecitles more likely to hit a small target, which is good. It also grants more Damage. |
![]() |
Cold Penetration Support - Cold Damage penetrates a big chunk of Cold Resistance. |
![]() |
Power Charge on Critical Support - Has a Chance to grant Power Charges on Hit and provides more Damage per such charge. |
[UTILITY] Bonechill setup | |
![]() |
Frostblink - A mobility Spell that leaves Chilled Ground at the initial and terminal place of blink. |
![]() |
Vortex - Use it as your movement key. It leaves a Chilled Ground because it's not always optimal to use your only high-cooldown mobility skill to do so. |
![]() |
Bonechill Support - Chilled Ground makes enemies standing on it Chilled, increasing Cold Damage they take equal to the effect of Chill caused by linked Skills. Use the Divergent version if you can. |
![]() |
Arcane Surge Support - Use a low-level Arcane Surge Support for an Arcane Surge buff that gets you more Mana Regeneration Rate and Cast Speed. |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
![]() |
Discipline - Grants additional Energy Shield and increases Energy Shield Recharge Rate. |
![]() |
Hatred - It's only used for more Cold Damage. |
![]() |
Purity of Elements - It will be hard to get enough Elemental Resistances. Use it for the additional immunity to all Elemental Ailments. |
![]() |
Enlighten Support - Linked Skills Reserve less Mana. |
[UTILITY] Clarity | |
![]() |
Clarity - With over 2k of Intelligence, Clarity will reserve a relatively small portion of your Mana Pool while still being very useful, as Mana Regeneration may be an issue in this build. |
[UTILITY] Curses setup | |
![]() |
Frostbite - Lowers Cold Resistance of the affected enemy which in turn increases your Cold Damage. |
![]() |
Elemental Weakness - Lowers all types of Elemental Resistances, Cold Resistance included. |
![]() |
Enfeeble - Use it to lower the Accuracy Rating and damage of the enemy. ![]() |
![]() |
Ball Lightning - It hits very rapidly, making it able to apply all the linked Curses even if Hextouch allows you to do so only once per Hit. Keep it at level 1. |
![]() |
Hextouch Support - Hex Curses will be applied on Hit with linked Spell. |
[UTILITY] Immortal Call setup | |
![]() |
Immortal Call - Use a low-level Immortal Call. It makes you take less Elemental and Physical Damage for a short while. |
![]() |
Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call will be activated after taking a certain amount of damage. Keep it at a low level too. |
[UTILITY] Assassin's Mark setup | |
![]() |
Assassin's Mark - Hits against enemies Cursed with Assassin's Mark have a much higher Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier. |
![]() |
Arcanist Brand - You can apply Assassin's Mark manually, but it's easier to do so with Arcanist Brand. It's optional, you may want to utilize this Gem Socket for something more useful. |
[UTILITY] Frost Shield | |
![]() |
Frost Shield - It drains your Energy Shield which is insignificant with Soul Drinker and Energy Leech Support. In turn, it creates a dome that reduces damage taken while inside of it. It also significantly boosts your Spell Critical Strike Chance. |
|
Intelligence is your priority. Try to accumulate over 2000 of it. Intelligence stat is a Suffix, making it harder to get the necessary Dexterity and Elemental Resistances, that's why it's recommended to use Purity of Elements Skill and pick Dexterity from the Skill Tree. You won't need Maximum Life or Chaos Resistance, it's a Chaos Inoculation Build. A lot of Energy Shield comes from Intelligence, but as in most gear pieces it comes in the form of a Prefix, try to get some of it too. Evasion Rating is equally important. Spell Suppression is yet another defensive layer, much harder to acquire because it's a Suffix, so you may not want to bother with it at all. To increase Damage look for Critical Strike modifiers - there's not much else, besides Intelligence of course. There are two core unique items - The Whispering Ice and Anathema Ring. Other Uniques are much less important and can be replaced with Rare Items if needed - especially if you need more Resistances or Attributes.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 300 Energy Shield 8% increased Intelligence 30 Intelligence Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills Spell Suppression Chance Attributes |
|
Helmet enchantments: Discipline has 45% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency Hatred has 30% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency Purity of Elements has 30% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency 15% increased Frostbite Curse Effect Frost Shield has +1 Cooldown Use Frostblink Enchantments |
|
![]() |
|
+18% Chance to Block Attack Damage while wielding a Staff +1 to Level of Socketed Support Gems Grants Level 1 Icestorm Skill Plays Whispering Ice sound on killing a rare Monster (Hidden) (14-18)% increased Intelligence (8-12)% increased Cast Speed 1% increased Spell Damage per 10 Intelligence |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 350 Energy Shield 1500 Evasion Rating 50 Intelligence 6% increased Attributes (crafted) Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Spell Suppression Chance |
|
![]() |
|
(100-150)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield (30-40)% increased Stun and Block Recovery (50-80)% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills (30-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate while moving Your Movement Speed is 150% of its base value |
|
![]() |
|
+(20-30) to Dexterity +(20-30) to Intelligence (80-100)% increased Evasion Rating +(100-150) to maximum Energy Shield 30% increased Movement Speed Enemies Cannot Leech Life From you |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 50 Intelligence +60% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Strength and Dexterity Spell Suppression Chance increased Global Critical Strike Chance Energy Shield |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 18% increased Intelligence 60 Intelligence +70% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased Damage Strength and Dexterity |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 12% increased Intelligence 60 Intelligence Optional affixes: Global Critical Strike modifiers increased Area Damage Elemental Resistances increased Attributes 1% increased Damage per 15 Intelligence |
|
![]() |
|
+(10-16) to all Attributes +(80-100) to all Attributes -4 Physical Damage taken from Attack Hits |
|
![]() |
|
<Two random talisman implicit modifiers> Implicit Modifier magnitudes are doubled |
|
Recommended Anointments: Tranquility Charisma Counterweight |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 7% increased Intelligence 60 Intelligence Optional affixes: Increased mana Regeneration Rate Elemental Resistances Attributes |
|
![]() |
|
+(15-25) to maximum Energy Shield +(30-40) to Intelligence (10-15)% increased Cast Speed (10-20)% chance to gain a Power Charge when you Cast a Curse Spell Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges |
|
![]() |
|
Recommended affixes: Intelligence Attributes Elemental Resistances Critical Strike Chance Critical Strike Multiplier |
|
![]() |
|
Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Cold to the Core 1 Added Passive Skill is Blanketed Snow |
|
![]() |
|
This Jewel's Socket has 25% increased effect per Allocated Passive Skill between it and your Class' starting location <Two random modifiers> |
|
![]() |
|
+(16-24) to Intelligence Strength from Passives in Radius is Transformed to Intelligence |
|
![]() |
|
+(16-24) to Intelligence Dexterity from Passives in Radius is Transformed to Intelligence |
|
![]() |
|
Adds Nature's Patience | |
![]() ![]() |
|
Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifiers on Forbidden Flesh Allocates <Random Ascendancy Notable> if you have the matching modifiers on Forbidden Flame |
|
![]() |
|
(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
|
![]() |
|
40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Effect |
|
![]() |
|
+35% to Chaos Resistance Gain (5-8)% of Elemental Damage as Extra Chaos Damage during effect 2% of Chaos Damage Leeched as Life during Effect Gain (5-8)% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage during effect |
|
![]() |
|
+35% to all Elemental Resistances (20-40)% increased Charge Recovery Enemies you Kill during Effect have a (20-30)% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Damage of a Random Element |
|
Other suggested Flasks:
|
|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.