Critique / Advice Welcome: Ghost Reaver, CI, Vaal Pact Saboteur

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I'm thinking to either go Ice Arrow or Frost Blades. Looking for tips, suggestions, or any glaring weaknesses in the tree itself.

Planning on using:
-Vaal Grace (for the active, maybe Discipline for the actual aura)
-Herald of Ice
-Hrimmsorrow for more phys -> cold conversion
-Arctic Armor (if I have the mana)
-CWDT + End Cry + Duration (obviously)
-Orbs of Storms (maybe Frost Bomb) + Curse on Hit + Frostbite + Power Charge on Crit
-Ice Golem + Culling + Pierce
-stacking flat phys and elemental dmg, cold dmg bonuses, life leech, flat and % ES, attack speed, crit chance/multi

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. I look forward to the help and insight you guys can give!

*Edit: Someone pointed out that the gem has enough conversion that I won't need Hrimmsorrow.
**Edit 2: CWDT + Warcry = Derp
Considering Frost Bomb in place of Orb of Storms

CWDT does not work with Warcries. Warcries don't have the spell or cast gem tags so they will not be triggered by CWDT. Back then Enduring Cry had the spell tag, but it was removed around 2.0 if memory serves. It got swapped to a Warcry gem.

Also, it difficult to really judge and critique a build when it doesn't have a specific direction. Your build looks like it is using a Shadow/Saboteur but a Saboteur is more geared towards traps yet you want to use Ice Arrow or Frost Blades. You're better off using an Assassin or Trickster.

Energy shield builds are quite costly. If you have the correct energy shield gear though, then be my guest. Just, starting off, going CI and energy shield is usually difficult. You definitely need to run Discipline if you're playing energy shield.

I just kind of personally feel that this build has no real direction and is going all over the place. Not trying to sound mean or anything but if it is your first build, then it is understandable. There are a lot of questionable choices that make this build really inefficient. Such as going Saboteur with Ice Arrow or Frost Blades. Granted, I have a Saboteur that is a Melee build, but it is quite optimized and abuses the Saboteur's ascendancy.

Your Ice Golem for example doesn't need Pierce to be linked to it. That is quite a waste since you're not a summoner build and having its weak attacks pierce doesn't really do much. You can set more utility with it instead. Culling Strike is an obvious choice, but if you ran double curse, you could even have it curse on hit as well for even more DPS.

Like I said, not trying to sound mean or anything, but it honestly just feels like this build is a bit of a mess. For a build, you usually want a clear cut direction and goal. I just don't really see it here but I'm happy to help.

I appreciate the response. You don't have to apologize for offering the criticism I was asking for. :)

I forgot they nerfed CWDT this way. Thanks for pointing that out.

I mostly wanted Sabo for the immunities and to take advantage of the Blind both offensively and defensively since I was planning to go CI.

As far as direction of the build, I just haven't fully weighed the pros and cons of Ice Arrow vs Frost Blades, but figure either could fit the other goals of the build. Frost Blades will probably do more damage and let me use a shield (with reduced effectiveness thanks to Phase/Acro), but the bow will let me clear trash faster and safer, however, I've always struggled to get good single target dmg with a bow, so bosses will be a pain in the ass.

It's not my first build, but it's also not my best one. Traditionally I've stuck to the Strength side of the tree outside of the occasional witch, because health stacking and melee is just so much simpler and easier to pull off. This build is an attempt to get away from the "Path of Max Life" meta and try something different, but my lack of experience on this side obviously shows.

Ice Golem only had pierce because he's not there for damage anyway, but to proc culling more, so his projectile attack piercing would facility this slightly better. Honestly, I don't feel there's a lot else to do with the golem and Orb of Storms is much more reliable for cursing, but I might change that to Frost Bomb to stack the debuff, though.

You stated repeatedly that you're not sure where the build is going, and I agree that's an issue in the build, but I'm open to suggestions on how/where to narrow it some for more effectiveness now that I've explained a little more about why I'm trying to make it work. I'm not concerned about it being harder to gear than health builds, though. The point is to play something different.