23 months ago

Ascendancy ThumbnailLevel 95 Hybrid Vortex Trickster3.19

Life: 5,210143%
ES: 3,14175%
Mana: 88
eHP: 113,545
Resistances: 77%/77%/77%/57%
Evade: 78%
Supp: 100%
Evasion: 30,847
DPS: 2,681,279
Hit Rate: 1.01
Config: Pinnacle, Frenzy
Bandit: Kill All
Pantheon: Soul of Solaris, Soul of Garukhan

Gear

Opal WandSupreme Spiked ShieldHubris CircletSadist GarbMurder MittsFugitive BootsAmber AmuletAmethyst RingAmethyst RingCrystal Belt
Divine Life FlaskQuartz FlaskQuicksilver FlaskJade FlaskSulphur Flask
Cobalt Jewel

Gems

Grace
Malevolence
Arctic Armour
Vortex
Creeping Frost
Lifetap
Controlled Destruction
Elemental Focus
Cruelty
Vaal Cold Snap
Bonechill
Controlled Destruction
Cruelty
Arcanist Brand
Frostbite
Elemental Weakness
Frost Bomb
Shield Charge
Faster Attacks
Flame Dash
Arcane Surge
Cast when Damage Taken
Immortal Call
Lifetap

Tree Preview

Ghost DanceGhost Dance
Wicked WardWicked Ward
Caster MasteryCaster Mastery
  • 1% increased Spell Damage per 16 Intelligence
Cold MasteryCold Mastery
  • Curses on Enemies in your Chilling Areas have 15% increased Effect
  • Cold Exposure you inflict applies an extra -5% to Cold Resistance
Curse MasteryCurse Mastery
  • Enemies you Curse are Hindered, with 15% reduced Movement Speed
Damage Over Time MasteryDamage Over Time Mastery
  • 10% less Damage Taken from Damage over Time
Elemental MasteryElemental Mastery
  • 40% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments
Energy Shield MasteryEnergy Shield Mastery
  • Gain 3% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield
Evasion MasteryEvasion Mastery
  • Grace has 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
Evasion and Energy Shield MasteryEvasion and Energy Shield Mastery
  • +1 to Energy Shield per 8 Evasion on Boots
Life MasteryLife Mastery
  • 10% increased maximum Life
  • 10% reduced Life Recovery rate
  • +50 to maximum Life
Reservation MasteryReservation Mastery
  • 8% increased Damage for each of your Aura or Herald Skills affecting you
  • Auras from your Skills have 10% increased Effect on you
Resistance and Ailment Protection MasteryResistance and Ailment Protection Mastery
  • Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you
  • 20% chance to Avoid being Stunned
Spell Suppression MasterySpell Suppression Mastery
  • Prevent +3% of Suppressed Spell Damage

Notes

> FAQ <
Why does the PoB say this is a 3.19 tree?
Because when this PoB was made PoB wasn't updated to the 3.20 tree yet. The only change is in the Whispers of Doom wheel, make sure to pick up the curse cast speed there in 3.20!

Can I take the +12% suppress mastery instead of the one in the guide for easier suppress cap?
Nope! You want to use a Hubris Circlet, which has no evasion, so the mastery won't work. You could technically craft evasion on there, but if you have an open prefix you want to craft Physical Damage Taken as Fire instead.

Why is there a deactivated Hypothermia in a lot of the link setups?
On some bosses(especially Ubers) your Cruelty might not get enough effect, watch your Cruelty effect and if it's less than 30% just use Hypothermia for those bosses instead.

Why don't you take the "One Step Ahead" ascendancy node?
One Step Ahead is not that great for this build. We can get action speed from Exarch influence on our boots, which doesn't stack with that node.
Also we can run Arctic Armour and we don't really have good alternatives, so we don't need it for freeze immunity either. That would just give us chill immunity, which we can almost fully get from flasks.

Can I just use one main skill instead of 2?
You can, but it'll cut into your damage a lot. Using just Vortex while clearing will be fine, but when bossing I'd really recommend to put Creeping Frost in there too.

> LEVELING <
If you like a long format video of the whole leveling process with everything explained, check out Zizaran's video where he levels this exact build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PVPqUH7I0

We level with cold skills all the way from level 1, transitioning into cold DoT at level 12.
The main way to level Cold DoT is to just stack as many DoTs as possible, and try to be as efficient with your links as possible. This means you might want to put 2 skills in the same 4L, sharing supports.
Don't be afraid to make slight deviations on the support gems used in this guide, since it all depends on what items you find with what colors, and if you have the alterations to buy the supports to begin with.

> PHYSICAL MITIGATION <
Veteran players will see that the physical mitigation is the weakness of this build, we don't run Determination, how can we possibly survive?!?!
There's several reasons why:
First of all: we build physical mitigation by getting minimum endurance charges and physical damage taken as elemental. We also run Arctic Armour for a little bit of extra mitigation when you stand still.
Secondly: we're Trickster, which has really good spell mitigation, this means that physical spells can pretty much never kill us.
And at last: we have a lot of evasion, once we have enough mitigation we won't get one shot, and because of our evasion we'll never get hit twice in a row. Trickster has great recovery so by the time the next hit comes in we'll be on full hp again!