[3.3] Ice Pop 99% Cold Conversion Vaal Double Strike

IMPORTANT


This is where I'd put my Watcher's Eye with 34% physical to cold conversion mod if I had one. It's very essential that you do not go over 34% because you need that 1% physical damage on in order to proc bleed on your enemies to get the bonus flat physical damage from Vaal Double Strike. Still, It's a luxury item so I do not have it yet and it should not affect your DPS by much. Having this simply allows us to run physical reflect maps with ease.



Has a very good synergy with our Taste of Hate flask and finding a decent helmet will be relatively cheap. But if you can get a VDS enchant with double damage instead then I would probably pick that over physcial damage taken converted to cold.



Most important part of the build. I would aim for 1.8 or higher attack speed and above 260 PDPS on the sword. Grabbed this sword for 5c at the start of the league and super corrupted it myself. The critical strike chance is what determines the price of the sword. I would probably start at 6% base for a starter sword because once you get to 7/8 base crit on a sword the price will spike which kinda ruins the purpose of a budget build.



Always aim for 35% or more cold damage because we have so much cold penetration from our build. Endurance charge on crit is also very nice to have but not mandatory but I will still highly recommend it because ranged snipers mobs from incursions. Pairing the endurance charges with immortal call means that you should never die from incursion snipes unless you have incredible low reaction times.



Very standard items. I just try to get life/resists/intelligence and flat phys if possible. Very cheap since you don't have to rely on accuracy like most melee builds. Will most likely replace very later on with steel rings and maybe mark of the shaper if possible.



More of a luxury item really but the price has lowered quite a bit since Abyss league for some reason. If you can't afford this yet then getting an amulet with at least 15 flat physical and 70+ life will do just fine. You can also aim for % life from incursion mods as well as those should be in abundance.



Essential incursion mod for our build that allows us to reach 99% (I'll explain why 99% later on). I would prioritize attack speed over flat phys on the gloves.



Since we already have an immense amount of physical damage reduction from our build, having spell dodge is very nice. You don't have to get movement speed since you're leap slamming around anyways but it's a quality of life boost for picking up items. I was pretty poor when I picked this up but I would probably find a pair with more resists to alleviate the need for it on the rings.



Since your clear speed isn't so good I thought that flasks mod would be pretty nice to have. Not exactly sure if they're worth it over going full resistance + life though cause i'm not noticing too much of a difference.



Found a clean 6 link with a strength base for easy coloring for 20c. Took me a few alts to get Fire resis + Life and I was good to go. Loreweave will probably be the "best" chest once your rich and want more DPS. But I find it pretty unnecessary with how good VDS is and it kinda the maximum resistances does not go well with our taste of hate. I'd rather 6link one of the new incursion chests with 130+ Life and 10% max HP with good resistances over Loreweave.



These flasks are mandatory except for taste of hate. Curse/Freeze/Bleed Immunity is required for mapping or else you'll roll over and die. Life flask should be used immediately after popping adrenaline to get the instant heal. You should always have your curse immunity mod on your basalt flask so you can replace it with taste of hate whenever curses aren't a problem while other mods will always be mandatory.

Chest 6-link 4R2G
Bossing:


Mapping:


4-link 3R1G


4-link 2R2B


To pop adrenaline. Blood Magic needs to be at least level 18 in order to activate blasphemy since a level 1 blood magic would use too much health.

4-link 2G1R1B
When Bossing:


When Mapping:


I do not use hatred when mapping because you won't have enough mana after using a buffed herald of Ice. Remove herald of Ice and put it in the 3G setep when bossing to avoid extra mana costs.

3-link 3G


3-link 2B1B


Honestly the lightning golem doesn't do much and I only used it when I leveling because your attack speed feels like ass back then. I would probably make it 3R instead and put in an increased duration support instead.

Champion is one of the more obvious and FOTM pick. Makes you very tanky and gives the highest DPS output for a melee character. My current build is obviously built around for champion but other ascendancies can be an option.

For slayer, since you don't need the blood magic blasphemy combo anymore, you can easily switch into kaom's root instead and be immune to stun and freezing. Ideal for running uber elder. I usually get rid of health pots all together when running slayer and spec into vaal pact and maybe run a sin's rebirth instead. Since you won't be needing freeze immunity anymore I would put curse immunity onto the diamond flask and have taste of hate replace basalt flask permanently. Obviously you would need accuracy now so accessories will be a lot more expensive.

I can't say much for gladiator cause I was never interested in the block mechanic.