Forum Guide Covers: PoB Import
| Main Build Mechanics
| Playstyle Preview
| Class and Ascendancy Choices
| Scaling Damage and Defense
| Videos
Path of Building Covers: PoB Setup & Configuration
| 3.19 Updates
| Wintertide Brand Mechanics
| Flask Suffixes
| Punishment Curse and DPS Estimation
Path of Building (PoB)
Reminder: this forum guide contains critical build information that the PoB builds upon. Please fully read the forum guide before moving on to Path of Building.
https://pastebin.com/uZGZfWcV
Useful Third-Party Links
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Path of Building allows you to import the pastebin link above and simulate your entire build in a sandbox environment.
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Craft of Exile is a great tool for looking up item mods and "practice" crafting items.
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PoEDB is a powerful database of everything PoE, from modifiers to league mechanics.
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The PoE Wiki is a great place to gain a broader knowledge about many PoE topics.
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The Trade Site lets you trade almost anything in PoE, whether items or currency.
Main Build Mechanics
Cold Damage: PoE has "ailments" associated with each damage type. Cold Damage can
chill and
freeze, which are
non-damaging Ailments that slow or completely stop enemy action speed respectively.
Damage over Time: DoT builds have high "DPS uptime". They often deal damage while moving, making them especially effective at surviving tough situations.
Energy Shield (ES): As you acquire endgame equipment starting in Acts 9 and 10, you'll begin stacking ES instead of Life. ES functions as an extra health pool on top of your life total. It recharges but is bypassed by Chaos damage unless Shavronne's Wrappings is equipped.
Armour: Armour mitigates physical damage from
hits, solving an important defensive need. Endgame equipment will prioritize both Armour and ES.
Evasion (SSF only): The SSF version uses Evasion in conjunction with the Ghost Dance keystone below to achieve an extra layer of defense and recovery. The Evasion gives a chance to avoid attacks and with one or two evasion items you can gain a minor amount of Spell Suppression, which halves incoming spell damage.
Curses: We combine two curses that lower enemy resistances (Frostbite and Elemental Weakness) with increased curse effect from our ascendancy to dramatically increase our single target damage.
Passive Masteries
Passive Masteries are a new type of skill point introduced in patch 3.16. Masteries provide niche build benefits in locations across the passive skill tree.
To select a Mastery skill, you must first allocate a Notable skill in the same cluster. In the Path of Building passive trees, take note of any allocated Masteries as these provide many benefits including a Brand Mastery that grants the main "clearspeed" mechanic of the build. Masteries can be visually identified by the bright circles in the center of skill point clusters.
Keystone Passives
Keystones are skills on the passive skill tree. Most keystones alter a game mechanic and have both a benefit and downside. We use the following Keystones:
Chaos Inoculation (CI): CI is taken in the endgame (Act 10 or in maps) after stacking enough Energy Shield to safely replace your Life total. CI sets your Life to 1, but grants immunity to all Chaos Damage.
Pain Attunement: With Shavronne's Wrappings equipped you can remove CI and take Pain Attunement. While 50+% of your life is reserved, it massively boosts your damage.
Zealot's Oath: ZO applies Life Regeneration to ES instead, giving more sustain to CI builds.
Glancing Blows: GB doubles your block chance but causes you to take some blocked damage. This is playable only in combination with "on block" recovery effects.
Divine Shield: This keystone grants ES Regeneration based on the hit damage prevented by your Armour, but requires Armour stacking to avoid its downside.
Runebinder: Runebinder allows a third Wintertide Brand to be attached to an enemy.
Ghost Dance (SSF only): As long as your Evasion is higher than your ES total, Ghost Dance recovers Energy Shield when you get hit, in an amount similar to the ES-on-kill from the Soul Thief notable.
Class and Ascendancy, Progression, and Playstyle
Class and Ascendancy: The Witch is an excellent caster and the Occultist complements and buffs many build aspects including Cold Damage, Energy Shield, and Curses.
Progression: We level as a generic life-based spellcaster with a high degree of flexibility in early skill gem choices and Cold DoT transition timing.
On reaching maps/endgame, we'll acquire appropriate equipment (See
Build Mechanics above and
Endgame below) and use our free refund points and/or Orbs of Regret to reallocate skill points to the endgame Chaos Inoculation build.
Players can transition to the most powerful build version after acquiring a Shavronne's Wrappings, ES recovery on block (see
Shields in the
Endgame section below), and changing Chaos Inoculation to Pain Attunement. There are many ways to upgrade the endgame build and many items are not mandatory, giving experienced players leeway for preference.
Playstyle: Wintertide Brand (WTB) is a fantastic clearing skill once you reach a Brand Mastery, allowing it to auto-jump to new enemies. Non-boss gameplay will mostly be just casting WTB and using Brand Recall to keep clearing.
For bosses, WTB pairs with Vortex and utility gems like Frost Bomb and Bane (for applying curses) to both reduce boss danger and boosting our damage.
Scaling Damage and Defenses
Below are some simple ways to scale the build's damage and defenses. This is not a complete or thorough list; it's a broad overview to assist in decisions for item crafting/trading.
Damage : Here are some of the simplest ways in which you can scale up the build's damage:
❄️ Skill gem levels (Mainly Cold DoT skills and their support gems)
❄️ Spell damage
❄️ Cold Damage
❄️ Cold Damage over Time Multiplier
❄️ Damage over Time
❄️ Damage over Time Multiplier
❄️ Brand Damage
Defense : Here are some of the simplest ways in which you can scale up the build's defenses:
❄️ Energy Shield
❄️ ES Recovery on Block and/or Kill
❄️ ES Regeneration
❄️ ES Recharge Rate and/or Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge
❄️ +% Maximum Elemental Resistance(s)
❄️ Chaos Resistance (For Low-Life Pain Attunement version)
❄️ Elemental Flasks (Ruby / Sapphire / Topaz)
❄️ Chill Effect
❄️ Armour
❄️ Block Chance
❄️ Ailment Immunity (Ignite, Shock, Poison, Bleed, etc)
❄️ Higher Damage
Mistakes To Avoid : Here are some commonly misunderstood modifiers or skill gem aspects that don't actually scale a Cold DoT build:
❄️ "Adds # to # Cold Damage" (Only works for attacks unless followed by "to Spells")
❄️ Increases to Life if you've taken Chaos Inoculation
❄️ Chaos Resistance (ONLY if you've taken Chaos Inoculation)
❄️ Ailment Damage or Increased Effect of Damaging Ailments
❄️ Damage (or Cold Damage) with Hits
❄️ Area Damage and/or Concentrated Effect for Wintertide Brand
Videos
(Hopefully) Coming Soon
