Level 90 Hybrid Wintertide Brand Occultist^3.25

Notes

Remaining To Do List For Me: 
- Update trees and custom configs as PoB is updated
- Sections/Explanations to update in written guide:
	- Golems
	- WTB mechanics
	- More merc info in PoB and written guide


League start with me at https://www.twitch.tv/shakcentral

3.26 Update Summary

Pre-PoB-Update Passive Tree Info (VERY IMPORTANT; MUST READ INFO BELOW)
PoB has not been updated yet with the 3.26 passive tree changes.
The custom config has modifiers to represent the new passive skills you'll take, but most of the trees are short a few points since there's nothing to allocate yet. They are as follows:
Acts 7&8 and 9&10 trees: 4 passives short; to be allocated into the new Harsh Lessons Cluster and the +1 Cold Skills mastery
	For the Act 9&10 tree, respec 3 points from Storm Weaver into Arcane Sanctuary
Lvl 85 & 95 trees: 5 passives short; to be allocated into the new Harsh Lessons Cluster, +1 Cold Skills mastery, and +1 Cold DoT Multi per overcapped Cold Res mastery. 

Elementalist, spellslinger, and hardcore variants
There are very likely great versions of this build that fit into all 3 of the categories above, but due to time restraints I will not be working on them (at least pre-launch). I'm likely to try an Elementalist version mid-league.

Runegrafts
I haven't included any Runegrats in this PoB, but I'm very interested in the Runegraft of the Fortress if Hypothermia can be replaced (maybe with mid-lvl Arcane Surge?). You'll only have to deal with Str requirements at that point and could gain a lot of Armour and ES.

Replica Allelopathy
Great option for early and even mid-tier mapping if you can get one early enough in the league. In the later endgame, you can't scale the lvl 25 skill from the gloves, so it's better to remove them and use a rare glove with stats and damage implicits.

Animate Guardian and/or Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion 
No

Mercenary Thoughts
The build was designed to function both offensively and defensively without needing mercenaries. Because of this, we can just use the best mercenary we can find.
The best quality of life options we could find for a mercenary would be either automated cursing or Purity of Ice for the new Cold mastery, but there are a lot of generically helpful options. I'll be updating with more specific mercenary info ASAP

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Ascendancy Order
Void Beacon > Frigid Wake > Vile Bastion > Unholy Authority
3.26 Change: Vile Bastion will now give a flat +100 ES regen instead of +40 and scaling, and it gives Meximum ES equal to your spell block %.

Bandits
Personal preference. You can always change it later via vendor recipe. The only reward I wouldn't recommend is helping Oak, and I'll likely choose either Resistances or Movement Speed early and respec in maps

When to switch to Cold DoT
-Switching to Wintertide + Creeping Frost at lvl 12 is doable but single target will likely feel bad and we can't get the Brand reattach mastery until lvl 15-16
-Safest switch is after killing Gravicius when you can get 4 links, Vortex, and make the switch off Rolling Magma all at once. Also recommended because A3 Piety fight is bugged and she doesn't take DoT effects.
Don't forget you can use gold to respec in town now!
When you do respec to Cold DoT, be sure to remove Fire Walker & the 5 points from the Breath of Flames cluster and take Frost Walker and the Brand Equity + Brand reattach mastery skill points

Lvling Gems Pre-Switch
Rolling Magma + Ele Prolif + Combustion (Lower Prison)
Holy Flame Totem + Summon Phantasm + Infused Channeling or any other damage support (Added Fire/Cold/Lightning or something else)
Flame Wall - Place your walls so the HFTotem and Rolling Magma projectiles travel through it to gain damage
Frostblink + lvl 1 Arcane Surge - Replace Frostblink with Flame Dash (Quest reward) after Brutus
Clarity + Vitality (Buy after Brutus)
- If you're not swapping to Cold DoT at lvl 12, you should also use Herald of Ash at lvl 16 and/or Anger at 24 until you swap

Gems to buy and level for Cold DoT swap (Cost in parentheses)
Lvl 4: Frost Bomb (Wisdom scroll)
Lvl 8: 2x Efficacy (1 Transmute each)
Lvl 12: Wintertide Brand (Transmute)
Lvl 16: Brand Recall (Alteration), Cold Snap (Quest reward or Alteration if you took a Herald) - Can run Vaal side areas looking for Vaal Cold Snap
Lvl 18: Elemental Focus, 2x Controlled Destruction (1 Alteration each)
Lvl 24: Malevolence, Elemental Weakness (Alteration), Frostbite (Quest reward or an Alteration if you took Anger)
Lvl 28: Vortex (Chance Orb)
We don't need to run Library. Hypothermia is not needed until we have a 6th link
To get currency for gems, sell unidentified blue/yellow items for Transmute shards, sell them identified for Alteration shards

Cold DoT Lvling Gems - The links below are the main links you want to run. Other gems for endgame setup can be leveled in offhand or worked in as desired
Wintertide Brand + Efficacy + Controlled Destruction + any of Ele Focus, Hypothermia, or Bonechill
Cold Snap + Efficacy + Controlled Destruction + any of Ele Focus, Hypothermia, or Bonechill (Only run Bonechill on 1 4-link)
Flame Dash + Arcane Surge
Frostbite, Frost Bomb, Brand Recall
Clarity, Malevolence, Vitality (if you can fit it)

SSF Wand - ilvl 2 Driftwood Wand (Get in Act 1 Coast zone)
Spam Essence of Woe until you get +1 cold spells, then craft damage over time or other damage mod.

Ailments - Immune to Freeze and Chill via Frigid Wake ascendancy, immune to Shock via Tempest Shield, and ignites have 80% reduced duration from Abberath pantheon & new Harsh Lessons notable

2nd Curse - You gain a ton of damage from an extra curse. Looking into having Mercenaries curse for you in 3.26, but for now you should use Flame Dash + Hextouch to apply your main curse,
 and once you find or buy Profane Proxy you can have your Skitterbots apply the second curse.

Regexs - Copy and paste these into vendor search bars to highlight wanted items
Act 1 - Highlights RRB, BBB, and BBR sockets, movement speed boots, and wands with +1 fire and/or fire dot multi
b-b-b|r-[rb]-b|b-[rb]-r|r-b-r|b-r-b|nne|Flam|Earn

Act 2 onward - Highlights BBB, BBBB, movement speed boots, and wands with +1 cold and/or cold dot multi
ts:.+(\S*b){4}|b-b-b|nne|rint|singe|Incl