Ice Battle Mage (Cold Sorc)

[Ourfriend]

Hey Dru! Ive been loving the character so far, but im fairly new and have a few quick questions.
For midgame you you pick up "Warp armor" and "Nova charge", and seemingly drop "Vengeful Power" and "Hive", and then in the End Game section you drop the latter and pick up for former again. Do those skills just becoming irrelevant in late game?

Secondly, Ive only played 1 other character before that was the Wulf's Barb WW guide, and i basically dumped all my char stats into STR. Obviously due to the DEX and STR requirements for the grear on Mage, its a different can of worms, but my question is should i be getting all those stats needed for the Tier 4 versions of the Uniques just through plain character stats? or is it better to use Mystic orbs to achieve some of the stat requirements so i can dump more into Energy and VIT?

Also under the Midgame Gear section (where i am currently) under boots and gloves, you just have "Sacred crafted". Being a new player, i'm just curious about what type of stats i should be focusing on in these slots, and do the type of boots/gloves matter? (Also adding something like that in to the guide, like you have for Rings and Ammys would be a great help for newer players, such as myself.

and finally, under the Mystic Orbs in the End Game section, you have it all blank except for the Weapon slot. Is that just because its the same information as Midgame?

Thanks again for the great guide. its been a blast to play!

[Cah23]

Are Zann Esu's Stone jewels recommened to craft my Indigo with or should I craft jewels?

[loreth2021]

hello, would be really cool to have advice on best merc for mid game onwards;-)

because- either i stay with a3 merc and buy him T4 stuff, or wait for another better option, e.g. A5 tank.

[Cah23]

Warp nuke with Act 1 merc has been nice for me.

Any other suggestions on weapon swap, is shamanka worth it?

[Dru]

What do you think of going Nova Charge and investing points into dexterity for block? With the 50% added as energy bonus it seems to provide good value. Or is block generally not needed because it only works for attack damage?

- I agree 100% , and no ideally since you are wearing a shield you want block chance, so it works out perfect for mid game.

Hey Dru! Ive been loving the character so far, but im fairly new and have a few quick questions.
For midgame you you pick up "Warp armor" and "Nova charge", and seemingly drop "Vengeful Power" and "Hive", and then in the End Game section you drop the latter and pick up for former again. Do those skills just becoming irrelevant in late game?

Secondly, Ive only played 1 other character before that was the Wulf's Barb WW guide, and i basically dumped all my char stats into STR. Obviously due to the DEX and STR requirements for the grear on Mage, its a different can of worms, but my question is should i be getting all those stats needed for the Tier 4 versions of the Uniques just through plain character stats? or is it better to use Mystic orbs to achieve some of the stat requirements so i can dump more into Energy and VIT?

Also under the Midgame Gear section (where i am currently) under boots and gloves, you just have "Sacred crafted". Being a new player, i'm just curious about what type of stats i should be focusing on in these slots, and do the type of boots/gloves matter? (Also adding something like that in to the guide, like you have for Rings and Ammys would be a great help for newer players, such as myself.

and finally, under the Mystic Orbs in the End Game section, you have it all blank except for the Weapon slot. Is that just because its the same information as Midgame?

Thanks again for the great guide. its been a blast to play!

1) I dropped vengeful power in mid game section because it wasn't needed anymore. You need the defense from Warp Armor and once you get the zan esu set you gain like 30% physical resist , alongside the cold sorc passive that gives you 10% already, then you get a charm that gives you 5% physical resist. so in total you are at 45% physical resist, there is no use of another 20%. Not to mention you sort of regain some of the damage loss of sacrificing vengeful power for nova charge, since it converts 50% dexterity into energy! However, i chose vengeful power Late Game because you will be lacking the phyiscal resists without Zan Esu set, so you would need that extra 20%.

2) In my honest opinion i think it was easier to mystic orb the strength or dexterity requirements , then you can simply place soft points into what ever is remaining into str/dex. After that, you can dump everything into Energy.

3)When you are crafting your boots, you ideally want to look for a high cold spell damage / pierce / energy or (stats) / maybe poison length reduction / last and not least if you can get the proc celerity.

4) No problem, still updating the guide as I go. Currently reworking skill trees so it has a more efficient feel when playing it. Then I have to finish the Uber Videos, still got like 9-10 more to go .

Are Zann Esu's Stone jewels recommened to craft my Indigo with or should I craft jewels?

- Honestly, I prefer Zan Esu for endgame rifting 100%, But if you can afford zan esu jewels at the moment; you can just go head and make one with crafted jewels inside, til you can replace it.

hello, would be really cool to have advice on best merc for mid game onwards;-)

because- either i stay with a3 merc and buy him T4 stuff, or wait for another better option, e.g. A5 tank.

- I am reworking Merc Section today. I believe Act 2 Shapeshifter is best in slot right now.

Warp nuke with Act 1 merc has been nice for me.

Any other suggestions on weapon swap, is shamanka worth it?

- shamanka is definitely worth it if you dont have an act 2 or act 5 mercenary giving you the buff. Just make sure it has a high roll on bloodlust anywhere from like +12 or +16.


* sorry for the late response, still sickish.

[Austin]

I'm confused how energy actually increases damage, I'm at 1400 currently and when I stat into it my damage does not increase per stat. Is there set breakpoints before it adds any damage on the sheet? It seems to me that %cold damage is more valuable than energy.


Also does Glacial torrent function off of ias breakpoint or cast speed? If ias, how do we go about hitting the breakpoint (Can you include which breakpoints we are hitting).

[Dru]

I'm confused how energy actually increases damage, I'm at 1400 currently and when I stat into it my damage does not increase per stat. Is there set breakpoints before it adds any damage on the sheet? It seems to me that %cold damage is more valuable than energy.


Also does Glacial torrent function off of ias breakpoint or cast speed? If ias, how do we go about hitting the breakpoint (Can you include which breakpoints we are hitting).

energy increases your ISPD , TOTAL damage. you would need more Spell Focus to amplify the damage you get from energy. However, there is a like you said a set breakpoint which is why i mentioned not to go over like 2000 energy , because anymore points than that youd be getting only a small portion of damage. After 2000 energy you would probably need like 2100 energy then like 3500 energy then 4500 energy to notice any difference. Now, for cold spell damage, this will increase the spells damage directly rather than boosting it from a source like Energy. so feel free to stack as much as possible, but i think last season there was a cap at 400% going over that was pointless or hard to achieve, this season has changed alot so i assume maybe 300-350% would be decent enough!

Glacial torrent functions off as IAS breakpoint, I forgot to update this part of the guide, but i did include the breakpoints for orb IAS %. you can go head and place IAS % mystic orbs on the Orb rather than FCR %

[Austin]

Thank you very much, appreciate that. I think I need to learn more how ISPD functions to get an adequate grasp of energy vs %spell damage.

[Siosilvar]

Energy breakpoints from 1k to 3k:

%	Energy	to next %
89	1022	38
90	1060	40
91	1100	43
92	1143	44
93	1187	47
94	1234	49
95	1283	53
96	1336	55
97	1391	59
98	1450	63
99	1513	67
100	1580	72
101	1652	77
102	1729	83
103	1812	88
104	1900	96
105	1996	104
106	2100	114
107	2214	123
108	2337	135
109	2472	148
110	2620	165
111	2785	182
112	2967	204

Add 1 percentage point to this per 10 Spell Focus.

[Pashu]

I'm actually super confused about Covens and Masteries, till 145 they're different, then different skills by 145. Could you please clarify that in the guide? The Ice Elementals regardless if 5 or 10, die in single AoE on tougher Ubers anyway, don't see how could they be useful at all vs. say 20% DR one since it works with Cold tree anyway. The choice is between Specialization / 20% DR / Chemistry, can't decide which one to pick honestly. As for Covens, can't understand picking Hive over Nova Charge since it additionally gives you %dex as Energy allowing you for higher dmg potential.

Also Raven Familiar : 1 Point when in previous sections it's advised to level it up to 12 for additional +3 skills? Something doesn't add up here either.

Don't get me wrong, i'm loving the build, but i think we all could use a little clarification over these matters.